Waking up at last

    Bright sunlight bathed her face, making her wince in pain. Too bright, too early. Candice rolled over, away from the hot glare, on the old couch. Once she was facing away from the light, her eyes snapped open and panic gripped her roiling guts. She patted herself down under the old, hand crochetted afgan. Candice was minutely relieved to find her pants were on as were her underwear, bra and socks. She also made note that there was no tell-tale tenderness between her legs. She hadn't had sex, consensual or otherwise, last night.
    She was, however, laying on a very old, very comfortable couch under an equally old burgundy afgan. She also had no idea where she was or how she had gotten there. Candice pulled the blanket over her head and rolled back over to try and survey the room through the holes. Almost on cue, a skinny young man shuffled into the room. His longish hair was rumpled from sleep. He had on large fluffy slippers that looked like giant furry blue monster-muppet feet, a threadbare Aquaman t-shirt and rumpled, baggy pink boxer shorts.

Mopping

    The Coke machine was dripping quietly in the corner while she mopped. It always seemed so still during cleanup after a long, loud Saturday night. Even though it was colder than normal for the second week in December, the bar had been packed to capacity. Tony, the bouncer, was sitting in the corner opposite the dripping soda station texting his girlfriend. How a guy who was only 5'6" could throw down like he did always amazed her, even with those strong shoulders he wasn't the biggest guy. Tony was like a tall Italian Wolverine. He'd had to work hard tonight, so he was relaxing while she finished her closing duties. If he had been manning the door or she hadn't been on mop duty, they might have stopped him from coming inside.
    "Hey beautiful." Her head whipped around so quickly at the warm, deep voice that her neck cramped up. He was just standing there, half leaning on the bar as if it were the most natural thing in the world. His jeans and t-shirt were dark blue and soft looking. His open coat looked warm and so did his satisfied but questioning half smirk that always reminded her of a puppy asking for permission to kiss her face.  James... She dropped the mop.
    Alice had to remind herself to breathe. She also had to resist the urge to jump into his arms and kiss him. Her body wanted to, pretty desperately, but her brain was still in a shaky sort of control. She had a death grip on her apron, just in case her resolve slipped. She could almost smell his cologne. The mop was still on the floor. Tony finally looked up.
    "This guy bothering you, doll face?" She bit back a bitter laugh and shook her head towards him. Alice shoved her shaking hands into her back pockets and forced what she hoped looked like a reassuring smile to the man quickly going into bouncer mode. As satisfying as it would be, watching Tony throw him bodily into the alley, he didn't deserve that. At least not yet.
    "Nah, I'm alright." He was already half out of his booth and at the reassurance and fake smile he slid back to where he'd been sitting. James took the reassurance to Tony as a sign that it was all clear to move towards her. Suddenly panicked, she stepped back quickly, narrowly missing tripping over the giant yellow mop bucket as it wheeled away. This time Tony was up and standing next to her. If her hands had been out, instead of in her pockets she probably wouldn't have stumbled and almost fell.
    "Something ain't right here, sweetness." Tony put himself between the former couple and held out his hands. He pointed to James. "State your business buddy." Tony wasn't a big guy, but he carried himself in such a way that people knew he meant business.
    "I'm not here for any funny business, I just wanted to say hi and let Alice here know I'm going to be in town for a while." This made sense to Tony, and Alice's reaction aside, he looked like a decent sort of dude. Clean cut, well spoken and wearing good clothes at least, which in his experience tended to mean that he was alright. He shrugged and pointed to Alice and spoke to James again.
    "I ain't going anywhere and I'm driving Alice here home unless her boyfriend comes and gets her. So don't think you're gonna get anywhere with her. Alice is a good girl. A nice girl. She doesn't need or want guys coming around here and trying to scare her..." Tony poked James' chest for emphasis. "...and if I find out that you're being a creep to this good girl, I'm going to take it real personal. Ya dig?" If it had been any other short guy trying to intimidate a tall guy, it would have probably been funny. But there was a reason Tony was such a great bouncer and it didn't have much to do with his vocabulary. James looked understandably shaken and took a couple steps back toward the door.
    "Right." He looked from Tony to Alice and back to Tony. "Okay, I'll leave." Back to Alice. "I'm going to be in town for a while, and if you're available, I'd like to take you out for coffee." Back to Tony, with his hands up in a calming gesture. "Just to talk. I know her from Denver. We were... friends." He swallowed hard in the pause and walked backwards toward the door, hands still up. Alice turned to Tony.
     "Its okay Tony. I got this..." She walked over to the bar and grabbed a napkin and a pen. Her hands weren't shaking anymore, but she was still a bit uneasy about what she was doing. Had to be done, though, or she would be kicking herself for the rest of her life. Walking back to James, she held out the napkin and looked him straight in the eye.
    "I'm off on Monday after two... I have class till then. Give me a call Sunday and we'll figure out where to meet. Just coffee." James opened his mouth to say something else but Alice cut him off. "You better go, before I change my mind." He pressed his lips together, looked down and nodded. With his head still down, but a smile stealing onto his face, he turned to the door. He was almost there before he turned back quickly.
     "Nice to meet you, Tony. Alice, I'll talk to you later." And with that, James was out the door and walking down the street almost as suddenly as he had appeared. It was lucky that Tony was standing close by Alice because as soon as James was out of sight through the windows, her legs collapsed under her. She would have hit the floor hard if Tony had not caught her. In the background, the Coke machine continued to drip and Tony's phone vibrated with a new text message alert.

Grace

    How could a mere mortal compare to that? She didn't even have the decency to walk like a person. She glided through the hallways as if her feet didn't actually need to touch the ground. It was no wonder that she had the attention of any man she desired, the job that everyone in their field coveted and everything seemed to come so easily to her.
    Even Brett loved her. Jenny couldn't compete with someone like that, no one in their right mind could, really. There were plenty of girls who loved Brett, but Felicia wasn't one of them. It didn't stop Brett loving her, however.
    Jenny was too skinny. Her arms and legs were long and lean with the rest of her following along to create a dancers build. At 5'9", she was tall for a girl, but not as tall as Brett. He was 6'3". Felicia was curvy, presently slim and 5'7". Also, she was a goddess, so there was that.
   

James and the PI

     To say he wasn't happy about the news would be an understatement. James was beyond angry. Beyond upset. Beyond anything even remotely reasonable.
    The first few pictures could probably have  been justified or even explained away. But the second set were not so easily dismissed. This was not the news that he had wanted. He'd been glad that Mr Aron had found her; he had, after all, paid enough for the man's services.
    The first set were of a vaguely familiar blonde man and Alice, walking around San Francisco. They were behaving decidedly touristy, so he chalked it up to her showing him around town. In one of the pictures, however, he had a decidedly wicked look on his face and in the next picture she was ruffling his hair in a playful manner. Just because Mr Aron hadn't caught them kissing didn't mean they weren't.
   Then there was the matter of the second guy. They had spent a very long time together and there were more than a few scandalous pictures of them... Cavorting. It made his blood boil to think of this man's hands on his angel. His Alice.
   The PI hadn't caught them doing anything less innocent than making out on a blanket. Though they had disappeared for a time in the woods. Mr Aron had assumed they would be on the last boat, so he'd boarded without seeing them. As the ferry pulled away from Angel Island, he caught sight of them walking to another boat docked near the ferry. With his telephoto lense he was able to get a grainy shot of them getting on the boat.
   It was registered to a man named John Higgins, but the man with his hands all over her was named Benedict, Ben to his friends.

Bike or car?

More than friends

Looking back at the date, he couldn't see what he'd done wrong. As far as he could tell, she had been into him all evening. If they had stayed ten more minutes they would have closed down the restaurant.
   Alice had insisted that they walk down the warf for a while so that they could talk some more. It was a warm evening and she had even held his hand while they walked back to his truck.
    But that wasn't what had his heart pounding in his chest. The kiss. He had finally worked up the courage to kiss her. Being a fisherman and kind of a big guy, he'd always been a little afraid of coming across as being aggressive or using his strength and accidentally hurting someone.
    Not wanting to hurt her, he'd cupped her cheek gently and kissed the other side of her face. Pulling away afterward was gut wrenching. When she grabbed his face with both hands, he'd panicked at first, but her touch was intoxicating.
   Within seconds, they were moving against each other. Their hands and bodies moving by instinct. He wanted her so much, and now, finally, it seemed like she wanted him back.
   With her legs around his waist, he pushed her gently as he could against the door frame as she moaned softly into his mouth. It would have been impossible, at this point, for her not to know how aroused he was. That she had moaned, told him as much. Ben fumbled for the door handle until his sex addled brain figured out that they were leaning against it.
   Reluctantly letting her go, she kissed him again and openned the door. Before he realized what was happening, she had pushed him gently outside, thanked him for dinner and apologized about having to get up early. She also had looked like she had wanted to cry.
   He actually wanted to cry too, but for probably very different reasons. His erection pressed painfully hard against the fabric of his pants. He sat behind the wheel of his truck and hit the steering wheel repeatedly as hard as he could.
    What the hell had he done wrong? It was like high school all over again. Except then he'd been a football player and hadn't learned the virtues of playing it slow. Or, of preventing blue balls.
   With a heavy hearted sigh, he drove home to deal with the situation at hand. But he wasn't really mad. He just hoped that he hadn't somehow screwed it up with Alice.

Scott's duty

  Scott sat in the bagel shop below his apartment watching a guy outside pacing and talking on his cell phone. The guy was gesturing wildly and periodically stopping to look longingly at the bagel girl behind the counter.

  He knew how the guy felt. Scott had caught part of the conversation when he'd walked into the shop. Relationship on the rocks, and it was pretty obvious, to Scott at least, why that happened to be.

  He was in a similar situation, actually. Nora... He just couldn't figure out what to do. They couldn't get married, they'd only known each other for eight months.

   A baby... He knew that a baby needed a father, but he just wasn't that guy. He didn't know if he was relationship material, let alone marriage worthy. Any guy could make a baby, but it took a man to be a father. Was he man enough?

   He guessed it didn't matter, really. He should get a ring and do the right thing. Scott took a big bite of bagel as the cellphone guy hung up and came back inside. He sat down at his table and resumed eating his sandwich. From time to time, he looked up over his computer screen and gazed longingly at the bagel girl when she wasn't looking.

  What cellphone guy didn't see was the bagel girl smiling over at him when he wasn't looking. On the occasion that they were both there, this tended to be the scenery.

  Everyone wants something, Scott thought bitterly. If only she hadn't gotten pregnant. Nora was amazing. Smart, fun, funny and sexy as hell. She'd be an amazing wife, a great mother. But he wasn't good enough for her, really. She just deserved so much better than he could offer.