Robin can't sit next to Barney in the booth anymore. When she sits next to Barney bad things happen. Things like fingers slipping silently under the hem of her dress, sketching doodles across the skin of her thigh, higher and higher towards the hot core of her. Things like her reaching down for a dropped fork or knife only to gently squeeze the warm bulge between his legs with crafty, teasing fingers.
Bad things happen. Bad, secret things. Bad because she's been dating, and she's now supposed to be exclusive with Don. Bad because the secret is too much of a turn-on to resist.
Bad things happen every time she sits next to Barney. Every. Single. Time.
So when Don meets someone at the Bar, an old friend, and begins what looks like an extended conversation, the fact that she slides smoothly onto the bench next to Barney should bother her a lot more than it does. The guilt should flare up harder and more painfully than it does.
His hand on her thigh should shock and appal her more than it does.
Bad things happen, sometimes almost instantly, when she sits in the booth next to Barney.
Lily's talking to them, smilingly oblivious, while Barney's fingers creep beneath the lace of her panties and trace a line between her folds. Robin squeezes her thighs together, trapping him there, and she smiles as he swallows his scotch with a look of pained confusion.
Then he waggles his fingers. Bolts of pleasure flood through her. It's only the many months of practice that stop her screaming and yelling and throwing her head back in abandon like Meg Ryan in that movie.
He waggles his fingers and she coughs, waving Lily away as her friend looks on in concern.
Robin yanks herself from the booth, running to the restroom, almost breaking a heel in her desperation to get away, far away, from that smirk, those eyes, those fingers.
She stares into the mirror for a very long time, telling herself over and over that she'll never do that again, that it's still cheating, even if they don't have sex.
She wants Don now. Don, she tells herself. Don, her wonderful, kind-hearted, intelligent, romantic boyfriend who's taking her out to dinner tonight.
"Don!" She says, firmly, at her reflection.
Damn it, why does her reflection look like all she wants is to have sex with Barney?