Teddy fidgeted on the bed as he woke, confused. He had company over, but he was alone on the room.
He rubs the sleepiness away from his eyes and checks the alarm clock on his bedside table. 3:54 AM of a Tuesday. Sunrise was a good few hours away from New York City.
His body was plagued with that pleasant ache typical of the muscles who were ready to wallow in a night's sleep or, as was his case, weren't quite willing to part with a warm bed. Be as it may, his mind would not rest if he didn't go out and check on his companion, so off he went.
His room was much tidier than what he had slept on. His clothes were arranged cleverly at the armchair, and the dishes he swore he would take to the kitchen vanished. Pleased with the situation, he covered his nude body with a used pair of boxers and walked through the door.
The apartment in which Teddy lived was diminutive, as were most pieces of real estate in New York, but he had no roommates, something he couldn't help but feel terribly delighted about. From the bedroom, there was a short hallway that connected it to the bathroom and the conjoined kitchen and living room ahead.
Like he half expected, Emily was in the kitchen, concocting something on the oven.
"What're you doing?" He asked, frightening slightly the redhead.
"Teddy!" She exclaims. "I'm making some hot cocoa. Would you care for some?"
"Hot cocoa? At four in the morning?" He scoffed, with a teasing grin. "C'mon, let's go back to bed."
As he said that, he noted that the young woman was fully dressed, using the same working attire she did when she knocked on his door earlier that night. A pair of boots, black pantyhose that covered her legs, otherwise exposed by the palm-above-the-knees skirt and button-up shirt.
Emily had graduated from Hartfeld on the prior Spring, and promptly found employment at a publishing house in Manhattan. Not the most glamorous of jobs, mind you, but she was happy and on the right track to a grand career as a romance editor.
"I'm not sleepy." The redhead dismissed. "Nathan passed by the office this morning."
The mention of the fair-haired man perked Teddy's attention. "What he wanted?"
"He needs a date for some charity ball this weekend, so he asked if I didn't want to join him." She answered.
The brunet briefly wondered if the other guy didn't have a cousin to accompany him like every other single man in the world. Notwithstanding, Nathan despised the pedestrianism of being like every other man in the world.
"What did you tell him?" He preferred to ask.
"I said I'd check my schedule." She informed him, with a hint of a shrug. "You're performing on Saturday, right?"
He nodded, sleepy. A small, but suffocating, silence followed. "Teddy? What are we doing?"
He walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her waist, pressing her back against his chest. "You're making hot cocoa, and I'm trying to convince you to have sex." He furthered his point by kissing her exposed neck.
She wheels around and nudges him away with both her hands. "No, Teddy, I mean this. Us. Our relationship."
Relationship might be the only way to put it nicely. The two of them had been on a sex-based, non-exclusive relationship for five years now. They were going on at it ever since their friend in common, the author James Ashton, had introduced them on her Freshman-year Summer.
Their encounters were casual, not to say rare, during her college years, as he lived in New York and she was all the way over in Connecticut. But ever since she moved to the city, they would come together at least once a week, often even more.
"What do you mean?" He asked, confused, as he takes a seat at a stool on the isle.
Evading his question, she continues: "My friends say that I'm crazy. That you're a waste of my time. Even James is having some trouble finding something nice to say about you lately."
"He's jealous." He accused, still good-humoredly.
"Be serious, Teddy." The woman chastises.
"I mean it, Emily." He raised his amber-colored eyes to hers and bore a neutral expression. "People talk. They always talked, and I have a reputation. When we started this," He preferred the use of the pronoun, something Emily has noticed he frequently does. "You knew that it would happen. That just how it is."
She sighed. "I knew. I know. But now…" She trailed off, taking the time to pour the cocoa on a mug and gathers her thoughts. "I know who you are, Teddy. You love to bounce from bed to bed. You love the thrill of the conquest. You love to be bad. But I always thought you'd be good to me."
"And I've always been." He defended.
"And you've always been." She agreed. "Until this weekend."
He smiled, half of sheepishness, half of that kind of amusement one has when a forecast comes true. "So, he told you."
"Yes, Zack confessed he had sex with you. He cried and implored my forgiveness. I said there was nothing to be forgiven, naturally, and I meant it. My only disappointment is that you didn't deign to tell me yourself." She shrugged. "I never begrudged you for going after another person and am not starting now. I just hoped you would respect me enough to lay off my friends."
If he was being candid to himself, he knew Zack would cave in quickly, he even preferred him for that exact same reason. If he wanted secrecy, he might have chosen the blonde. He enjoyed testing his limits too much.
"Now what?" Teddy dared to ask. "You're breaking up with me?"
"No." She responded, simple. "You see, Teddy, I like you. I really do. Somewhere in my heart I nurtured the hope that we would eventually move from… whatever we have… to something real. It was wrong of me to pin you with those expectancies, and for that I'm sorry.
"From now on, I'm seeing our relationship like it is. You're a waiting room in my life, Teddy. A person who I amuse myself with while the real thing doesn't strut along."
Emily then finishes her tirade with: "Do you have anything to tell me?"
Despite her tirade, Teddy knew Emily had no intention of abandoning him. She would never do. His 'bad behavior', as she puts it, excites her too much, just as her pleasant demeanor soothes him. Besides, for an overall doormat like her, defying expectations by dating someone seen as unworthy might be even cathartic.
However, he won't risk mentioning it out loud, so Teddy shook his head with the negative.
"I should go home." She grumbled, picked up her purse and walked over to the door.
As she was leaving, the man calls her name: "Emily?"
"Yes?" She turns to face him.
"Just be good to me." He said and let her go.