Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy, I just borrowed the name of the characters for entertaining, no intention to violate any copyrights.
A/N : Thank you all for the supports. I'm glad that you like this story. I have fun writing it, and I hope you also have fun reading it.
All mistakes are mine, sorry.
"Oh hey, Mark." Seeing who is there taking the empty stool next to me at Joe's bar, I greet my other best friend at work with a slightly disappointed tone.
"Hello to you too, Torres." He says sarcastically, no doubt that he picked up the disappointment in my voice. "Sorry that I'm not blonde, with dimples and have a vagina."
"Mark..." I roll my eyes at him. He just likes to take every chance he gets to taunt me. Thankfully, he has never done that in front of Arizona. "I'm happy to see you, I'm just expecting Arizona."
"Oh, dinner? Can I join you? Lexie blew me off for an appendectomy." He takes a sip of the scotch that just placed in front of him. "The new sushi place seems pretty good."
"No, we're not going for dinner. Arizona's parents arrive tomorrow. We have some preparations to do." I stir my rum and coke absentmindedly, keeping an eye on the front door, hoping to see the blonde head that was supposed to show up about half an hour ago.
"Oh, you're really doing it." He shifts in the stool, giving me his trademark annoying lopsided grin.
"What am I suppose to do? She already gave my name to her mother." I turn toward the bartop, trying to avoid his prying eyes.
"Come on, even so, you'd dye your hair blonde for her if blondie just told her parents that she's dating a blonde." Mark reaches out his hand, picking up a strand of my hair and twirling it with his fingers.
"No, I wouldn't." I slap his hand away and hiss at him.
"You totally would." He laughs and then pulls his stool closer to me, invading my personal space. "You know what? Maybe this is the chance for you to tell blondie about your crush on her."
"I don't have a crush on her." I keep my voice low. Mark has been my friend since my residency in the hospital. He gets me and he knows me. It didn't take him a lot of times to notice that I have a hot for a certain blonde Peds surgeon. But I don't need the rest of the people in the bar to know about that.
"Yeah, keep denying that. Every one can see the stupid look that you keep giving blondie." He gestures his hand around my face, and I slap it away once again.
"I don't have a stupid look." I mumble under my breath, can't even convince myself.
"I'm just saying, Torres. Act on it." Mark wraps an arm around my shoulder, punctuating each word with a squeeze of my arm. "Otherwise, soon she'll have a real girlfriend to show to her parents, and you're gonna stuck in the friend zone forever."
"Funny for you to say. What do you know about zones? I thought that you only know about bases?" I feel my lips curling into a smirk. The banters between us come easy, this is one of the reasons that we can be good friends for so long.
We chuckle together. Before he can give a return, both of us feel someone approaching us from behind.
"What are you guys talking about?" Arizona looks between Mark and me, and the gap between our bodies. Well, there's no gap. Mark is practically pressing his upper body against mine.
"Baseball." Mark drops the arm that was around me on his side, plastering on the lopsided smile that he knows Arizona hates.
The two of my best friends are like oil and water, that's something I really don't understand. Not that they hate each other, they work well and professional in the hospital, but it seems that Mark always has a way to piss off Arizona and Arizona doesn't seem so keen to be around Mark outside the OR.
I know that Arizona tolerates him because he is my friend, so from time to time I'd remind Mark to be nicer to her. I think it's time to have that talk with him again.
"Do you want to have a drink?" I ask her, putting on a beaming smile, making up for the jackass attitude that Mark is currently giving her.
"Nope, I'm driving. Maybe we can have a glass later when we get back to my place?" She smiles back to me, not looking at the man sitting next to me.
"Okay." I fish out a couple dollars from my pocket and put them on the counter. It should be enough to cover my drink. I wave goodbye to Mark and the jackass says after us.
"Have fun with your girlfriend. I'll see you tomorrow."
"You told him?" Arizona turns her face to me. Her eyes are like saucers.
"He's Mark." I shrug a shoulder. It's weak, I know. Quickly I take hold of a few of the big bags in her hands, trying to change the subject. "What are these?"
"These are going to your apartment." She gives me a sidelong glance and then stalks toward the door, with a few steps ahead of me. Shit, she's pissed.
I didn't know that we're going to my place first, but I say nothing follow her across the street. Fortunately, her anger is short lived and by the time we reach the elevator, the tension on her face eases off and she's smile to me again.
"What are these for?" I ask her, gesturing the multiple bags that she brings with her.
"You'll see." She winks at me whilst passing through the front door after I opened it.
Putting the bags next to the couch, Arizona walks toward the entertainment center, picking up the framed photo that I put next to the television set. That is a photo that someone took for us in one of the hospital events. A few of our colleagues were in it too, but the focus was on Arizona and me, and we were smiling to each other. She has the same picture in her living room.
"We need to take some couple's pictures." She says to me whilst putting down the photo.
"You need a couple of pictures? Okay, you can get them from my photo albums." I arrive from the kitchen, handing her a bottle of water.
"No, Calliope. Couple's pictures." She corrects me with a smile. And she adds seeing that I'm totally at a loss. "Photos that have just the two of us. We need to put them in my house, and your apartment."
"Oh, okay." I just nod, scratching the back of my head. "But why my apartment too?"
"Calliope, my mother may ask to visit your home since we're not living together." She gives me a mischievous glance before passing by me to her bags. "Let's get to work. We still have to go to my house after we're done in here."
So, this morning during coffee Arizona told me that we have some preparations to do, I thought that she meant prepping me for questions that her parents may ask. Clearly I was wrong.
She tosses me a beige blanket telling me to cover it on my bright red couch, replacing the plain black cushions with the soft floral design ones that she has brought over. In the meantime, she is running around in my living room, putting bowl of potpourri on the coffee table, candles everywhere... she even has a bright orange vase to place on the breakfast bar. When she pulls out a framed picture of a sunrise over the horizon, I have to ask.
"What are you doing?"
"Adding some colors in your place. It's too harsh and… frowny in here." She stands on her tiptoes to hang the picture, and then takes a few steps back with a satisfied nod. She does have good taste. The soft yellow and blue tone picture goes well with the stony concrete wall.
"Frowny?" I stand next to her, casting a sly glance at her before reaching out to level the picture frame.
"I meant modern and… edgy." She tilts her head to the side, putting on an innocent smile batting her eyelashes at me.
"You've been here before. I haven't seen you complain about that." Hands on my hips, I answer her smile with a squint. And her smile widens, because she has commented about it, numerous times in exact.
"Yeah, now you're my girlfriend and this is supposed to be our place, I need it to be more... smiley." She grips my wrist with one hand and picks up a gym bag on the other, pulling me toward my room. "Now, bedroom."
"Seriously? You want to transfer my bedroom to an Easter basket too?" I chuckle behind her. I should have been scared of how big a deal that she's making it, but somehow, I don't mind.
"Nope, but you need to give me a drawer." Throwing the gym bag on my bed, she flops down next to it, kicking her legs enthusiastically.
"Why?" I stop by the door looking at her with amusement.
"Calliope, girlfriends who have sleepovers would have change of clothes in each other's place. Chop chop!" She claps her hands, and then waving a hand toward the cabinet. "Empty a drawer. Put my clothes in it and then pick up something to bring over to mine."
"Excuse me, I haven't had a chance to read the handbook of girlfriend sleepovers." I murmur under my breath, but make sure that it is loud enough for her to hear.
"Yeah, I'll lend you my copy later." Arizona leads further backward onto my bed, propping her body up by the arms behind her, giving me one of her complacent smile.
Biting the corner of my lip, I make a show to go over to my cabinet, pulling out the second drawer and quickly dump everything onto the smirking woman. She squeals and falls back onto the mattress burying in my clothes.
We are both laughing by now. She picks up one of the items and throws that on my face squarely that makes her laugh even harder. But her laugher stops when I arch an eyebrow, putting down the now empty drawer dramatically.
"No no no..." She must have known that what I'm gonna do - she claws backward trying to extend the distance between us, but I'm quicker. I charge at her. First I grip her leg stopping her from moving away, and then my hands fly to her hips starting to tickle her.
Arizona breaks into a burst of laughter, so am I. Her body writhes from side to side, trying to escape from my attack, and her hands grasp mine wanting to peel them off of her. But come on, I break bones for a living. Her girly hands wouldn't be able to fight mine.
"Please... please... Calliope... I'm sorry... I'm sorry..." She begs for mercy between laughers and squeaks. Finally, I stop tickling her. Taking her wrists by my hands and hold them over her head, I give her a cocky smile.
And then, I choke in my breath silently.
In this position, Arizona's face is just inches from mine. I can feel her warm breaths on my face. And I can feel our bodies pressing into each other.
I have never been this close to her. Of course, we have hugged each other, touching each other on the hands or arms, sometimes she'd put her hand on my knee, and she'd wrap her arm around mine as we walk side by side... but this? Never.
I don't know what have got into me. I just know... if I dip my head a little further down, my lips would be touching hers... Her soft, glamorous, alluring lips...
"Calliope..." Her soft voice stirs my thought. Her intense blue eyes bore into mine and I can see the movement of her throat, apparently swallowing hard thinking to ask me to get off of her.
I fumble backward on my feet, forcing a few chuckles out of my mouth to cover up my embarrassment.
"See? You're making a mess in here." I pick up the empty drawer and place it next to her. "Put your things inside and I'm gonna clean up."
I turn my back to her picking up the clothes that have fallen on the floor during our scuffle, and I can hear her letting out a quiet sigh of relief. I curse myself in my head.
You have to control yourself, Torres. You're a pretend girlfriend, it's not real. You don't get to hold her this close.
We begin to work in a somewhat awkward silence, until Arizona sees what I have laid out preparing to bring to her house.
"Calliope, seriously?" She looks at me with a frown when I put the clothes in the bag and about to zip it up.
"What?" I raise my eyebrows at her. What have I done wrong?
"A T-shirt and a yoga pants?" Snatching the bag from my hands, she holds my sleeping clothes in her fist.
"Yeah, those are my pajamas." Actually, no. I wear a tank top and boy shorts in my bed, but I don't think that's appropriate to bring it over to my pretend girlfriend's home.
"You really haven't seen the handbook. You don't just put a set of PJ in your second home. You have change of clothes in there." She put on a sternly face, lecturing me like she has actually read such a handbook. "So what, you spend the night and then put on the same outfit the next morning?"
"I don't think that is nece... ssary..." My refutation halts mid sentence when she arches her eyebrows smirking at me. Fine, she's an expert, it seems. I throw up my hands. "What should I do then?"
"What are you gonna do without me, Calliope?" She gives me a playful eye rolling and goes to my cabinet.
She pulls out a couple of pants and tops from the third drawer, that she saw me just putting them in there. And then she opens my top drawer and hums...
"Really?" My eyes bulge when she reaches into my underwear drawer.
"My mom's staying with me for three weeks. Without a doubt that she'll do my laundry even if I told her not to. You don't want her opening the drawers and find out that you don't wear underwear, do you?" She says to me over her shoulder in a matter-of-fact tone and then turns back to what she was doing.
Before I can stop her, she picks up one of my red bras. The way she looks at it with her bottom lips between her teeth is making me kinda uneasy.
"Yeah, yeah, I like red and I like how they look on me. You don't have to stare at them like that." I quickly snatch the garment from her hand and shove it into the bag. I can feel the warmth on my face.
"Like what?" She looks between me and the bag with a puzzle look.
"Like it's absurd for me to put on a..." Sexy, was the word almost slipped out of my lips. "red bra."
I'm taller and thick than a lot of women but that doesn't really bother me. I'm a strong, confident woman who feels good about her size. Somehow, I become conscious when it comes to Arizona.
I've seen a few of the women that came to pick her up from the hospital for their dates. They were hot, gorgeous and slender, especially that foxy Italian who looked like a size 0 super model. That made me even more certain that she wouldn't be interested in a size 12 me.
"What are you talking about? I am thinking..." There she is, again swallowing hard like she's trying to find a way not to hurt my feelings. "... how good you look in the lace..."
"Yeah right." I rolled my eyes upward. How pathetic I am that she has to make a lie to make me feeling better? Nudging her toward my en suite bathroom, I tell her, "I'll pick out something. You go check if there's anything in the bathroom that you want to bring to your house."
She gives me a strange look before walking away.
A/N 2 : Okay, I hope this chapter answered one of the questions - why Callie's upset. She is not upset, she's insecure ;-)
Next, prepping Arizona's house. What do you want to see in there?