Violet aimlessly flicked through the channels. There was no point; she may as well just go to bed. It was, after all, better to be lonely and well-rested than lonely and tired. Her mind kept running away to Cooper and his mystery woman. Although she promised herself she wouldn't think about it. But then again, she was never really that good at any sort of boundaries at all. She just really wanted to know if this would be the end of them. Because she could see it happening. They would slowly hang out less and less until he went home to Mystery Woman every night and they only saw each other at the morning meetings. God, how did this happen? How did she wind up to dependant on a sex-addicted paediatrician? Granted he was very reliable, and fun, and he always listened to her whine...
A sharp knock brought her back to her empty living room, and she got up and opened the door without checking who it was. Because at that moment, anyone would have been excellent company.
"Cooper?" She asked incredulously, almost not believing it was him.
He grinned, "You ordered one large double cheese the works with not onions and the legendary works of Matt Damon?"
"What about..." She asked, shaking her head in confusion, but still letting him in.
"She, uh, had to work late." He smiled weakly and she had this funny feeling he was lying. But he was there and she couldn't bring herself to care about anything else.
PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
The credits of the first movie were rolling and the pizza was mostly gone, as was the wine she had opened. Violet lay her head on his shoulder and his arm had wound itself around her waist. It felt nice and she thought how she wouldn't mind sitting like this more often. In fact, it would be the perfect way to fall asleep every night – She froze. Did she just think that? He must have felt her tense up because he lifted her chin with his finger.
"You okay?"
"Perfect." She smiled. And it was true. And that was what scared her.
When he got up to put in the other DVD, she felt bare. She hugged her knees until he came back.
He fell asleep before her and she just stared at him for a while. She could go upstairs, to bed. Or she could just stay here... next to him. She softly tapped him on the shoulder and when he didn't stir, she lightly pressed her lips against his cheek. She lay her head on his shoulder and stared at the flickering screen until she fell asleep.
Tomorrow they would wake up, and act normal because it wasn't like they hadn't fallen asleep together a million times before. But that evening, he would probably have plans. And they wouldn't be with her. And though she wants Cooper to be happy, because he is her friend and they care about each other... well, she'd rather he were happy with her.
PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
His breath hitched when she kissed him on the cheek, although he didn't think she noticed. He wasn't about to tell her how amazing comfortable and right it felt to be there, half-lying on the couch with her. His conversation with Charlotte kept replaying in his mind. How disbelieving she had sounded when he told her he had to forego the dirty sex that night. Not that the dirty sex wasn't good. It was great. It just wasn't with Violet. And that was the problem with Trixie and Laurie and Sexy123. None of them were Violet. He wondered how long he'd be in love with his best friend. But then she lay her head on his shoulder and he realised that it would probably never let up.
