"Not easy to hate, hunh?" Addison grinned, raising an eyebrow. She stood in the hall outside of the OR, waiting for Derek. As usual, the blonde intern she'd been trying so hard to avoid had just shown up at Addison's inconvenience. She leaned against the wall, one hand in her lab coat pocket. Meredith's blow-up at Derek yesterday had been the talk of the hospital. The nurses could never be trusted to stay quiet about juicy hospital gossip. Meredith had scolded Derek for not giving her space. He had a wife, and he needed to stop stringing her along. Addison, whose problem was that Derek gave her too much space, envied the intern a little.
"So you heard?" Meredith mumbled, avoiding eye contact. Addison was everywhere, it seemed. Meredith just wanted to move on with her life, but these days, Seattle Grace felt like a very small hospital.
"No, it was kind of nice to hear, actually. It's good to know I'm not the only one that's frustrated with him."
Meredith pulled off her scrub cap and took her hair out of its tight knot. Addison could smell her lavender shampoo. She knew this scent well, because Derek's sheets still smelled of it.
"Well, he's your husband," Mer retorted.
"Yeah." Addison looked down at her running shoes. "You're not easy to hate either, you know."
Meredith smiled weakly, and headed down the hall away from the OR. Her blonde waves bounced behind her, and Addison watched them until they disappeared.
…
After a long day packed with surgeries, Addison was ready to go home. Well, she was ready to go to Derek's trailer. She didn't yet consider this her home. She hoped it was temporary. She stepped into the elevator and watched the numbers flick from 5 to 4. The elevator doors opened on the 4th floor and Meredith joined Addison in the small space. It began to feel even smaller.
"Long day?" Addie asked Meredith, who looked tense.
"Ha, yeah."
"Me too." They were silent for a few moments until Addison spoke up again. "This is probably totally weird, and you can feel free to say no, but would you want to get a drink with me?"
Meredith stayed silent.
"I know, I know. So weird. The last thing you want to do is get a drink with your ex's secret wife. But I could really use someone to talk to, and in a weird way, I consider us friends."
"Okay," Meredith caved, "One drink."
"Okay." Addison couldn't help but smile.
"I'll meet you at Joe's in an hour."
…
Meredith spotted Addison's flaming red hair from across the bar, and made her way over to an empty bar stool beside her. She ordered her regular from Joe, who knew her all too well at this point, and she smiled vaguely at Addison.
"This is a little weird, right?" Addison asked, after a moment of silence.
"Yeah, a little." Meredith took a sip of her drink.
"It's weird for us to be friends. You slept with my husband."
"You're married to my ex-boyfriend."
"Let's just not talk about Derek."
"Good idea. I'm so tired of everyone talking about Derek."
Addison ran her finger along the rim of her glass, searching her brain for something conversational to say. "Any good surgeries today?"
The two women made small talk about work for a while, both feeling very weird but faking smiles. Meredith talked about the appy she had observed, and Addison gushed about the tiny preemie she had saved today.
After a while, one drink turned into two, and two turned into three. Neither realized how much they had needed to blow off some steam until they were passionately discussing the rush of surgery, now a little tipsy.
"Derek forgot about me, you know," Addison said slowly, changing the subject to one they'd promised not to discuss. She couldn't help it, she felt like she needed to defend herself to Meredith. She probably didn't think too highly of Addison at this point, and Addison hated it when she knew someone didn't like her.
"Addison-"
"No, hear me out. He forgot about me, and that's why I cheated. Because Mark saw me, you know? He told me I was beautiful and he laughed at my jokes and he saw me in a way that Derek never did."
Meredith nodded, and finished the last of her third drink.
"Derek saw you, though, didn't he?" Addison asked tentatively.
Meredith sighed. "I thought so. But he didn't tell me he had a wife. So how well could he really have seen me?"
"He didn't tell you about me because he had already forgotten me." Addison felt her eyes sting. Drunk Addison always turned into weepy Addison. She knew her fourth drink had been a bad idea. "How could he forget about me?"
Joe brought Meredith another drink and she took a long swig. "Yeah, how could anyone forget you? You've got the whole tall and leggy and the soft hair thing going for you. Plus, you're a brilliant baby surgeon."
"Yeah!" Addison agreed, her voice slightly too loud. "I'm hot!"
"You are!" Mer agreed. It was the alcohol talking, she assured herself.
"I guess Derek has a type." Addison locked eyes with Meredith as she said it, but Meredith quickly looked away.
"I should get home. It's late," she said softly, regretting her words immediately. Did she just hit on Meredith Grey? She felt so stupid.
"Um, I'll walk you out," Meredith replied, looking kind of hopeful. Her expression softened again. Addison's heart did a somersault.
Joe called Addison a cab and made Meredith promise that she would sleep at the hospital tonight instead of driving home. Mer slipped on her jacket and followed Addison out to the curb to wait for her taxi.
Addison folded her hands and looked down at her scarlet heels, which were killing her feet. "So, look, I'm sorry if I...what I said…" she couldn't quite find the right words. Addison Montgomery always knew what to say. Yet somehow this stupid, pretty blonde woman had caused her to be at a loss for words.
Before she could finish trying to apologize for flirting with her husband's ex-mistress, Meredith was kissing her.
They pulled away, and both women's faces turned bright red. Addison bit her lip to hide her smile.
"I, um…" again, Addison Montgomery was speechless. Her cab appeared at the curb, saving her from trying to come up with the words she knew she wouldn't find. "I have to go, but I…"
"I'll see you tomorrow," Meredith said calmly. She smiled a smile that Addison had never seen before, and then she took off towards the hospital. She turned to look back at Addison as she walked, still smiling.
As Addison got into the back of her taxi, he face warm from all the alcohol and the blushing, she realized she had no idea what any of this meant. All she knew was that she hadn't felt this good in a long time.