Had that all just been a dream? The thought echoed through my head when I woke up to the sound of my alarm a few hours after drifting to sleep. I walked into the living room to confirm that it had indeed been real life. Raphael lay in the floor covered by a blanket. He was snoring loud enough to wake the dead. I noticed that Master Splinter was still in his spot on the couch, only he was awake and had a cup of tea in his hand.
"Good morning." I spoke to him.
"Good morning, Sarah." He nodded at me and I went into the kitchen to brew a pot of coffee.
Tori and Michelangelo soon joined me in the kitchen. Both were smiling ear to ear and laughing about something I was unaware of. The same bewilderment from last night passed through my mind. How does their sexual relationship work? Are they like other men? My mind was really running away with me.
Stop thinking about their genitalia, you freak. I internally scolded myself.
"What's up, Sarah?" Tori asked as she pulled some mugs down from the cabinets.
"Ah, you know. Getting ready to leave for the bar soon."
"Yeah, I think Clara and I will come hang out for a bit tonight."
I poured the rich dark liquid into three mugs.
"Thanks dudette." Michelangelo commented as he grabbed his mug and went to sit in the living room.
"Maybe you guys can catch a glimpse of Xander." I stated dreamily.
"Did you have a nice night with Raph?" Tori quickly changed the subject.
Feeling a little bewildered I simply replied, "Yes, it was really fun to hang out with him. He's a pretty cool guy."
Her smile was huge upon hearing me say that.
I quickly pulled her beside me and whispered in her ear, "Don't get any ideas though. He's a nice guy, but I highly doubt we'll be anything more than friends."
Her shoulders slumped somewhat at that and I felt a pang of guilt. I understand that they saw an opportunity to make the lonely brother unlonely when I came into their lives. In theory, it would be perfect. It's not like the poor dude can go out and pick up chicks or anything.
"Well, then, at least he'll have someone to talk to when his brothers are preoccupied with us." She finally spoke.
"Yeah, we actually have quite a bit in common. I'm definitely looking forward to hanging out with him more. Just as friends." I quickly emphasized.
She nodded and left my company to join Michelangelo in the living room. By this point Raphael was awake. Mostly because Mikey was pestering the shit out of him. It was pretty funny actually.
"Mornin'." He said as he came into the dining area with me.
"Morning…again." I laughed and he joined me. "Did you sleep ok? I'm sure the floor wasn't very comfortable."
"I've slept on worse." He grinned.
"Well, as much as I'd like to stand and chat. I have to get ready for work."
"Alright." He looked like he wanted to say something else but thought better of it.
But before I could make it all the way to the bathroom door he grabbed my shoulder. The look on his face was a little more apprehensive than before.
"You…uh…you think you'll be free tonight?" He asked as he nervously rubbed the back of his neck.
"I'm sure I will be. Why?"
"Uh…I dunno. The guys are always with their girls and I just thought that maybe we could watch a movie or somethin'."
"Sounds great. Maybe something with gore." I replied as I stepped into the bathroom.
A smile lit up his face.
"I'll talk to you later." I closed the door to the bathroom and proceeded to get ready for the day.
The restaurant was slammed when I arrived there. The other two bartenders that worked with me were both scrambling around trying to get drink orders filled so I jumped right into the madness. Hours flew by and it was all I could do to keep up with the amount of orders pushing in. I finished making three Jagerbombs before finally excusing myself to the restroom. I had been holding my pee for at least four hours.
Once I was completely relieved I made my way back to my station. That's when I noticed Xander sitting in the same bar stool he had sat in a couple nights prior. He smiled when he caught sight of me.
"I was beginning to think I'd never get a seat next to you in this mad house." He talked over the music.
"I was wondering if I would see you tonight." The stupid blush I couldn't hide was returning to my cheeks.
"I wouldn't miss it, Sarah."
The music changed from fast pace to a more slow, chill melody. The bar was finally starting to calm down as it neared the last call. Again I leaned against the wood grain so that I could refill his drink. He grabbed my wrist just as I was sitting the bottle down.
"Do you have a last name, Sarah?" My name rolled off his tongue in the most beautiful way.
"Morgan. My name is Sarah Morgan." I replied. "What about you mystery man?"
"Hawthorne." He said after he took a sip of his bourbon.
"Xander Hawthorne. You sound like a TV detective or something." I said with a small laugh.
"It's a family name. I'm a fifth generation of the name Xander Hawthorne."
"Wow, my mom just named me after a Fleetwood Mac song." I replied and we both laughed.
He was telling me all about his wealthy family in England and I was so enthralled in his story. His life almost sounded like a novel. His father and his grandfather ran a very successful business and he himself had been sent to America to run the branch here in New York.
"So, what kind of business is it?" I asked and refilled his glass.
"We make weapons." He replied. "It's not exactly glamorous, but my family has been designing and creating guns since the mid 1800's. We specialize in collector weapons. Most of our guns are too pretty to use." He snorted into his drink.
I laughed too. "Well, being from Louisiana, guns are something I'm familiar with."
"Oh good then, so this entire conversation hasn't bored you to tears."
"Of course not. I enjoy talking to you." I said as I moved in closer to him.
I was just staring into his smoky blue eyes when I heard someone next to me clear their throat. Whitley, Clara and Tori were all standing on the opposite side of Xander. I hadn't even noticed they were there.
"Oh, hey girls." I responded as I slowly backed away from Xander.
"Who's your friend?" Clara questioned.
"Xander Hawthorne." He replied and stuck out his tattooed hand to shake hers. "And who might you lovely ladies be?"
"My name is Clara and this is Whitley and Tori."
They both said hello but none of them shook his hand. I raised my eyebrow at them but they paid no attention to how rude they were being.
"It's time to close up." Whitley smiled. "I'm ready to get out of here."
"Ok, give me two shakes and I'll be ready to go."
I turned to clean up the glasses and Xander reached across the bar to tap my back.
"Would it be possible for me to get your number?" His voice was smooth as silk.
"Yes…definitely." The ever so present blush making its way back to my cheeks.
I pulled out a pen and wrote my number on the back of a business card.
"I'll call you." He smiled.
"I look forward to it."
With that he was gone. Once I finished clearing the sink of glasses, I joined the girls by the exit.
"You gave him your number?" Whitley must have observed the exchange earlier.
"Yeah. I hope he calls me or texts me soon."
"You really like him, don't you?" She asked me as we made our way down the dark and busy sidewalk.
"I do. He's so charming and I can't believe he's interested in me. I don't think I've ever seen a man as attractive as he is."
"Looks aren't everything you know." Tori chimed in.
"Oh but it isn't just his looks, he has a great personality from what I can tell. I hope to learn more about him." My voice still holding the dreamy quality to it.
We arrived at the apartment and all four guys were still there. The only one missing was Master Splinter. I assume he was tired of hanging around all the young people for so long. Raphael looked extremely happy to see me. I hoped that he wasn't getting the wrong idea about us.
"Hey, Sarah." He said as he approached me.
"Hey Raph."
"So, I was wondering if you wanted to take a ride on my bike?" He was nervously rubbing the back of his neck again.
"I would actually really love that. Let me just grab a jacket."
I went to grab my jacket and when I came back into the living room he was wearing a leather jacket and holding two helmets. He handed me one.
"I'm going to go down the balcony. I'll meet you at the bottom on the side street beside the apartment." He said.
"Ok, I'll meet you down there."
Once down on the street I approached him standing beside his motorcycle. It was sleek black with shiny chrome fixtures.
"Niiiiice." I stated as I ran a finger over the cool metal.
"She's my pride and joy." He commented as he slid his helmet on.
I buckled mine on too and sat behind him on the bike. I wrapped my arms around his middle and he started up the engine. It roared to life and moments later the wind was whipping around me. I loved the feel of freedom as we sped through empty streets that I'm sure he was all too familiar with. It seemed he had every vacant section of the city memorized. We rode for a long time before we came to a stop next to the apartment building again.
"That was so much fun!" I couldn't stop smiling. He was smiling too.
"We should go to the den and hang out. The others aren't exactly fond of horror movies." He paused for a minute. "I mean, that's if you're still up for watchin' a movie."
"Yeah of course. I've been curious about where you guys live anyway. So, how do we get there?"
He pointed behind me and I glanced over my shoulder. The street ended with a dead end.
"What?"
"We gotta go down into the sewer." He replied.
"Uh…excuse me? The sewer?"
"Yes. Remember when Splinter told you he had to live in the sewers?" I nodded my head yes, "We still live there. But don't worry we have a great home. I think you'll be surprised. Whitley was the first time she came over."
"Ok…"
He lifted the lid to the sewer below and climbed down. I followed not long after.
"This is so gross." I commented.
"You get used to it." He was walking just a short ways ahead of me so I followed him.
We walked for a few minutes going down all sorts of different paths to get to the place the turtles called home. He stopped abruptly and I ran smack into his shell.
"This is it." He pulled a couple levers and the brick slid to the side, similar to a sliding door.
"Whoa." I commented.
He laughed at my amazement and we entered their home.
It really was incredible. I could have never imagined that such a place existed under the streets of New York. The space was huge. There looked to be just one large open room that I assumed they used as a living room. There were a bunch of squashy looking pieces of furniture all placed around an incredibly large television. A few arcade games stood beeping off to the corner. There were a couple of train cars off to the side.
"So did this used to be part of the subway or something?" I asked him.
"Yea. Hasn't been for quite some time though, as you can see." He laughed and I followed him to the kitchen.
He tossed me a beer.
"So, did you have a movie in mind?" I asked him as I took a swig of my beer.
"Not really, but we can go look at my collection if ya want." He replied.
"Yeah. Let's do that."
I followed Raphael to the back part of the den. Where I assumed his room was. He pushed open the door and we entered the room. It looked like a hurricane had passed through the small room.
"Don't mind the mess." He told me as we weaved through stuff on the floor to get to the shelf on the wall that held his movie collection.
I scanned the row of dvds and my eyes landed on The Evil Dead.
"This one. Definitely this one." I stated and pulled the movie off the shelf.
"Good choice." He remarked.
We settled onto the broken down couch and popped the flick in. Throughout the movie we laughed at how silly some of the gory scenes were. At some point during the movie he had scooted close to me and I just continued to pretend to not notice. I really wanted to avoid an awkward conversation tonight. I scooted just a little bit away from him and he seemed to get the message because he stopped trying to get close to me after that.
The movie ended and I was starting to feel pretty tired.
"Mind if I crash here on the couch for tonight? I really don't feel like walking back to the apartment tonight and I don't work tomorrow so there's really no point in it."
"Actually I was gonna suggest that to ya." Raphael said. "I'll just grab ya some blankets."
He left the room and I let out the breath I didn't realize I had been holding. It was blatantly obvious to me that he was interested in me. As much as I wanted to avoid the awkward friend zone conversation, I knew that it was inevitable. In the end I decided to wait and tell him in the morning. No sense in bringing it up tonight.
Raphael returned again with a couple blankets draped over his arm and a pillow in his hand.
"I hope this will be enough blankets."
"That should be fine." I responded.
I set up my bed on the couch and got under the blankets. He flipped off the light in the den.
"Night Raph."
"Night Sarah."