Chapter Three

"Can I have a cup of coffee?" Mark said, leaning in the door frame. "I'm all out."

"Come in," Callie sighed, but only in that what-are-we-going-to-do-with-you tone Mark seemed to earn from her on a daily basis. It was early and when she heard a knock on the door she knew it had to be him. Truth be told she was happy to see him – she'd had a rough couple of days.

Callie poured them each a mug from the still warm pot she'd made and they sat at the kitchen table together.

"Is Angie here?" he nodded towards her bedroom.

"Nah," Callie said. "We had a fight."

"Again? What's up?"

Callie looked over her shoulder, not sure that she really wanted to get into it right now. Arizona wasn't around but she might come in at any minute.

"Ultimatum time. She says that if I don't agree to move in with her that she wants to break it off. Says four years is too long to go without any serious commitment," Callie stared down into her coffee cup, stirring it dejectedly while she spoke.

"And you still don't want to?" he clarified, his eyebrows knitting together.

"Just not right now, that's all I'm saying," Callie said, frustrated. "If we fight this much now, imagine what it'll be like if we move in together. We need to work on stuff before we do that."

Mark held up his hands. "Hey. You know I'm behind you. But I don't get why you won't just end it. I mean – what's the point? You're not having any fun with her. You're not happy."

"I'm not just in it for fun. I love her," Callie pointed out.

Mark was looking at her, an expression of pity on his features. Did people not believe that she loved Angie? The thought made her feel so uncomfortable she didn't even want to let it in. Callie couldn't face examining her own feelings too much about this. She'd made a commitment, she was in a relationship, and as far as she was concerned it was that simple.

"I don't know why you think you're qualified to give relationship advice anyway. You and Lexie are so on-and-off it's ridiculous," Callie grumbled.

"Oh – hey, good morning," Arizona said, interrupting their conversation as she walked back in from the bathroom. She was slipping her shoes on, one hand holding her steady on the kitchen table.

"Hello," Mark greeted her.

Callie introduced them, watching as Arizona ran over to shake his hand.

"I've got to run to work but it was nice to meet you. I'll see you round the hospital I'm sure," Arizona said.

"For sure, see you round," Mark said, his eyes following her as she walked out. "Why didn't you tell me she was so hot? How much longer did you say she was staying?"

Callie ignored the first question. "I don't know, she's still looking for a place to live I guess."

"Well what about my place? I've got a spare room."

"Since when are you looking for a room mate?"

"I've always thought about it, just never gotten around to it."

Callie shrugged. "I'll talk to her. At least she wouldn't have to move far, right?"

Arizona was open to the idea, and Cristina had invited Mark over for dinner to talk about whether it would work.

"Well, I know I'll like the place if it's just like this one," Arizona said sweetly.

"Mark's okay. You'll just have to deal with a constant stream of women coming through the door. He's a slut," Cristina said bluntly.

"Cristina, . . ." Callie said feebly, although it wasn't like she could argue. It was true.

"Are you going to have dinner with us, Callie? Why don't you see if Angie can get away from work for an hour or two? It'd be fun for all of us to hang out," Cristina asked.

Callie flashed a quizzical look at Cristina. She had never known Cristina to make much of an effort for anyone aside from Meredith, and now here she was clearly trying to integrate Arizona into their friendship group. She knew it must be hard for Arizona to move to an entirely new city but surely she could look after herself.

"She's in surgery, but I'll stick around for dinner," Callie replied.

"Yay," Arizona said. "I'm cooking, once Mark sees what I can do in the kitchen he won't be able to turn me down."

Callie laughed to herself. Mark seemed pretty sold on the idea already. Like many decisions in his life, he seemed to have based it mainly on the way Arizona looked. Her eyes went over at Arizona, who had her hair in plaits and who was humming to herself as she pulled down pots and pans and busied herself in the kitchen. Objectively speaking Arizona was a very attractive woman. Callie's eyes roamed down Arizona's body. She'd already noticed her legs, but she had a nice ass too.

Callie looked away guiltily, telling herself there was no need to check out Arizona when Mark could do it all by himself.

Mark started hitting on Arizona as soon as he arrived for dinner. He'd bought a bunch of flowers and fussed over Arizona, saying he was sorry that he hadn't come over to introduce himself sooner and that he would have offered to show her around Seattle if they'd met earlier.

It continued when they sat down to dinner. He raved on and on about how good the food was, leaning in close to her. Callie sat back with a glass of wine watching the show. She got the sense that Arizona wasn't the least bit interested, which surprised her somewhat. When Mark turned on the charm even the smartest of women seemed to fall at his feet. Maybe Arizona was shrewd enough to know that if they were going to live with one another, it wasn't a good idea to have a thing.

When he put his hand on the back of Arizona's chair and she leaned away, Cristina shook her head.

"Mark, cut it out," Cristina said sharply.

He lifted his hands and held them up. "What, what?"

"Stop hitting on her. I invited you over to see if you would get along as room mates."

Arizona shifted in her chair awkwardly, and she glanced across at Callie as she put her fork down. Callie reached over and gently slapped Mark on the side of the head. Everyone laughed and the tension was broken.

"Alriiiight," Mark said, chastised. "Well I think we'd get along great. It's nice just having a perfect room mate fall into my lap."

The three women all groaned in unison at the suggestive way he said those words.

"Thank you. I think it'll be great, on the one condition that you don't hit on me ever again?" Arizona said, but it sounded like a command more than a question.

"Yeah, and you're not Arizona's type anyway. She's into the ladies," Cristina said.

Mark looked at Arizona in surprise. "Well why didn't somebody tell me? A beautiful lesbian moving into my apartment, hopefully bringing other beautiful lesbians with her. A man needs to enjoy such precious moments." Mark said.

"Give it a rest Mark," Callie said, avoiding looking at Arizona. Heat rushed to her face. She'd had absolutely no idea. She thought back over the past couple of weeks – had she ever said anything that showed how clueless she was? She hoped not.

"Who wants dessert?" Cristina asked. "Arizona baked. You'd better keep doing that when you move out, I want you bring me lots of cakes."

"I'm in. Arizona why don't you come over and have a look at the apartment, now that we've established we're on the same page?" Mark suggested.

"Great," Arizona agreed, throwing down her napkin. They left and Callie approached Cristina, who was slicing into the cake.

"You didn't tell me she was gay?" Callie loudly whispered to Cristina, who shrugged.

"I didn't think I had to. Can't you spot your own kind when you see them?"

"Not always!" Callie said. "It just didn't occur to me at all."

"How hetero-sexist of you," Cristina dead-panned.

"Well – I don't know. I assumed she was going through a divorce or something like that."

"She kind of is. Her partner of fifteen years had an affair on her. With her scrub nurse. They all worked at Hopkins and she was the last to know. She came out here to get away from all the scandal. You know, I could have told you all this if you asked," Cristina said.

"That's really sad," Callie said. She could only imagine what it must have been like to have all the gossip at work. All that drama, everyone probably staring at her and whispering behind her back. It had been obvious that Arizona had been having personal problems, but she'd never really thought to ask Cristina about what had happened. She supposed she had kind of had her head up in the clouds recently.

"Yeah. I knew her girlfriend. She went to school with us, and she was the last person I imagined taking up with a nurse, who was on the younger side too. Arizona and Karen were one of those couples who looked like they had it all together," Cristina said.

Their conversation was interrupted when they heard Mark and Arizona's voices in the hall.

"What did you think?" Callie asked Arizona. She met Arizona's eye nonchalantly. It was weird, like in the space of five minutes Arizona had become a completely different person. She was no longer the straight divorcee Callie had been imagining in her head.

"It's a done deal. I'm going to move in as soon as he clears out the spare room."

"It'll just take me a couple of days," Mark added. "I've been using it as a dumping ground for all my stuff."

"Is that okay with you guys?" Arizona said.

"For sure," Cristina said, while Callie agreed at the same time.

"Great, thanks!" Arizona exclaimed, taking the plate with cake and ice cream Cristina had put together.

Callie watched as Arizona cut out a spoon full of dessert, and then she cut her eyes away quickly. She'd always noticed how attractive Arizona was - but she had grown out of crushes on straight women a long time ago so she'd deliberately not given it much thought.

On the day that she moved across the hall, Callie helped Arizona drag her suitcases across. Mark wasn't home but he'd given the go-ahead in the morning and left her with a key. Arizona had knocked on her bedroom door to let her know that she was going and Callie had offered to help her take her things over.

"Oh no, it's okay," Arizona had quickly replied. "I don't have much here."

"No, really, it's fine," Callie insisted. She'd almost walked into a suitcase that was lying on the floor as she spoke, and she smiled awkwardly at Arizona. "Where's the rest of your stuff anyway? Are you still getting it shipped over?" Callie asked as she lifted the case.

"Yeah. A few boxes. But I left most of it. I've bought a new bed and a dresser and stuff, it's getting delivered in the next few days. Mark has a spare mattress for me in the meantime."

"Good, good," Callie said. It made sense to her that having such a nasty break-up would make you want to leave a lot of your life behind.

"Well thanks again for letting me stay. I'm sure I'll see you guys more than a little bit," Arizona said. "You all seem really tight."

Callie nodded. She hesitated, knowing Arizona was probably waiting for her to go home. Now that Arizona was leaving – something she'd been waiting to happen – she felt bad about the way she'd acted. She hadn't really cared about what might be going on for her and hadn't wanted to know.

The thought crossed her mind that she could invite Arizona back for breakfast, but Arizona was probably wanting to settle in to her new place. Callie forced a smile. "Alright, well uh . . . don't be a stranger," she said, backing out of the apartment and seeing Arizona's answering grin in her mind long after she'd left.