Disclaimer: I don't own Grey's Anatomy, I just borrowed the name of the characters for entertaining, no intention to violate any copyrights.
Chapter 3
Arizona sat in the cafeteria poking at her salad. The morning went quickly when she was busy saving a 11 years old boy, but when it had finished, she was back to her thought.
Mark slid in the seat opposite of Arizona, an apple in hand and stared at her curiously. "You know, rumor has it that you finally went on a date with the ortho nurse yesterday out in public, what'd happened?"
Of course, Horizon became the new SGMW club house, one person saw something in there, it spread in the hospital as quick as a plague.
"She said it was her birthday and then asked me to celebrate with her last night, how could I say no?"
"You are screwed." Mark held up his apple prepared to take a bite, stopped when he saw vexation written all over her face. "Listen, can I ask you something?"
"Will you drop it if I say no?" Arizona put the fork down and then ran her hair with both hands.
"No. Tell me, do you like this chick? You stopped sleeping with the other nurses after her, pretty much like what had happened to me after Lexie, didn't mean to but you respected her too much that you don't feel like sleeping with someone else anymore." Mark stopped a moment, got no response from the blonde then he continued. "In the beginning, I fought it because of Derek, he made Lexie like a forbidden fruit. You are fighting the feeling too, what is holding you back, Robbins?"
Arizona frowned and bit her lips to a thin line, she wasn't expecting this from Mark, it really took her by surprise that Mark was going to talk about feeling with her during the daytime without any alcohol in their system.
Mark added "I know, to think about settle down with someone is scary, I knew it, I was there. But look at me now, I am happy."
"I told you, I stopped fooling around because of the advice from Miranda, I care about my reputation." Then looked down to her hands on the table, she whispered "I couldn't feel the butterflies."
Mark looked confused but waited for her to continue.
Scrunched up her face, organized the thought then she looked into Mark's eyes "With previous girlfriends, I always felt butterflies all over my stomach, with Colleen I don't feel anything. It was supposed to be a no string attached arrangement, we had good time but now it turned into those cheesy comedies that fuck buddies fell for each other and deeply in love happily ever after. The only difference is that this is a one-way street, she's getting clingy but I don't feel a thing for her! It bothers me because I am torn, maybe butterflies are over-rated, it's time for me to settle down, to have someone to love and love me back, and there she is, right there loving me and all I have to do is to try to love her. But we went on a date yesterday, Mark, it bored me to death because we have nothing in common, we had nothing to talk about."
"Come on, you are either in or out, you made yourself very clear that you don't want her."
"But…. What if she's the one? What if there has no other one for me out there?"
Mark put a hand on Arizona's shoulder offered a firm squeeze. "Oh my god, you are smarter than this Robbins! You know that nobody should put up with a second choice. So what? You take the woman that you have no feeling with, hoping for a miracle to happen that one day she grown into a fascinating companion that share the same interests with you?"
Arizona narrowed her eyes smile softly to Mark "Sometime I just can't believe you are this smart."
"Damn right I am." Mark gave her a signature smirk with a wink. "You can always hope people may change, but they also may never change. Take Yang and Hunt, they are getting a divorce, Lexie told me last night."
"Seriously?"
"Yang is moving out from Hunt, the two Greys are helping her packing right now."
"So she's moving to Meredith's?" Arizona took a sip of the soda, slightly happy to change the subject and picked up some gossip to distract her.
"Nope, she's moving to Torres's. I'll go over to help moving after my shift this afternoon, you come to help?"
"Huh?" Soda almost sprayed out of her mouth "How did that happen? They just met, weren't they?"
"Well, I wasn't there to witness it, but considering the circumstances, I am not surprise that Callie would take Yang in. So, you are coming or not?"
"Sure, count me in." Secretly, she was hoping to get the chance to know more about this new friend.
"Why are we here? To pick up the key?" Arizona looked confused when the cars stopped in front of the pub, but no one answered the question. Instead, Cristina picked up a small box and led the way to the side of the pub, opened a door and stepped in. In the meantime, Mark unloaded some boxes from the truck and then yelled toward the pub "Cal, we are here!" Then motioned the blonde to take one of the boxes and followed the Grey sisters.
Took the stairs to the second floor above the pub, there was a blue door to the loft. The wall inside the apartment was the same style concrete wall as the pub downstairs but even colder because the huge living room was nearly empty, just had 2 big armchairs in the middle of the living room, few boxes lying around on the floor, not even a television set in the room.
But on the left of the apartment, there was a fully equipped kitchen with shiny stainless steel cabinets and refrigerator stood neatly along the wall, fancy cooking appliances all over the place.
Cristina went over to the refrigerator to get herself a beer, nodded the direction of one of the door "I told the room in the left, just put the boxes of clothes in there." Then sat down on the armchair before pointed to the corner of the big and empty living room "and just leave the rest of boxes over there."
Arizona looked at her in disbelief, but seeing Meredith didn't make a fuss about this, both Arizona and Lexie just simply shook their heads and following her out to get some more boxes up to the apartment.
When the three went back down on the street, there was Callie leaned against the truck talking to Mark. And when she saw the helpers, she punched Mark on the shoulder "Oh my gosh… Mark Sloan I can't believe you have those girls to life the heavy stuffs? Don't you have some poor interns to bully into doing this?"
"It was a long time ago! I promised Addie that I won't force the interns to get me coffee and dry cleaning or personal stuffs anymore, I kept my promise!"
Callie smirked at him and punched him again with lighter touch "Good for you! Leave the girls alone, Joe can help."
"Are you sure? I believe you guys must be busy in there, it's happy hours after all." Arizona said to Callie with a dimple smile.
"Oh she'll be fine, nothing she can't handle." Took the box from Lexie's hands, Mark yelled to the pub again "Joe! Come help! We have to unload these and then go back for another lot."
The three girls thanked Callie for keeping them away from the moving duty, both Greys decided to go up to the apartment to help unpacking, but Arizona had another idea.
"Hey Callie, as you released Joe out there, maybe you'll need some help inside, is there anything I can do?"
Callie couldn't help but chuckled, "Are you sure you can handle bartending, Dr. Robbins?"
"I don't know how to juggle the shaker, but capable enough to pour a beer." Arizona said with pride.
"OK, let's see what you get." Callie flashed a broad smile then followed Arizona entered the pub.
"Hey if goliath is coming to move the boxes, I may not be need in here, how about I go help in the bar as well…"
"Suck it Mark." Both women said simultaneously.
Arizona made friends easily, she and Mark became best friends after couple of surgeries together then they got closer and closer while realized they had similar personality and resemble point of view of most of the things. She approached Teddy when she found the new arrival GI Jane seemed like a lost puppy in the new environment without a friend to lean on. She voluntarily took Alex the underdog under her wings and now they had a great teacher/student relationship, sometime even liked sister/brother. Even the famous stone-cold Dr. Bailey was now her giggle sister in the hospital hallways.
Callie, on the other hand, didn't take initiative in making acquaintance, she was the kid in the back of the class. Things had changed when she got older, especially being a bartender meant she had to make small talks, but she was still the shyly insecure one who won't extend the olive branch instantly.
But with Arizona, they hit it off instantly.
Having the blonde behind the bar with her was like a blessing, not that had Joe beside her was hardship, the serious looking man was efficient and professional, but far from fun.
It was an amusement to watch Arizona laughed at her own clumsiness whenever she spilled the drinks or poured a glass of foam instead of a glass of beer, or even crashed into Callie a couple of times when they had to deliver drinks to the opposite side of the bar, well, Callie believed she did that on purpose, just to see the reaction from the Latina.
Callie found herself unable to get mad to those dimples, and the angelic laugher was deadly contagious, soon after they co-bartended the place, she found her face hurt from hanged the grin for too long. But she wasn't complaining.
Arizona was having the time of her life as well, she still kept traces of childishness inside her, tonight the bar was her playground, especially, there had an excellent playmate beside her. Each time she did something stupid, the partner in crime just flashed a mega-watt smile then offered her a helping hand, or sometime a playful smack on the head, or the hip, or the bottom.
"I wore heelys at work, the hospital is so big, it takes forever to run from place to place, with my wheels I could just easily slide along the hallway. I think you should have one in here, you know, you could skate from one side to the other…" Arizona tried to hold a sincere face to the brunette after handed a glass of beer to the guy sitting in far left of the bar, but she just couldn't wiped away the mischievousness shinning in her eyes.
"Right, that could save me like… 5 steps, thank you very much. By the way, you wore heelys in the hospital? Around sick people and oh my god, injured patients?" Callie dramatically raised her voice an octave and scrunched up the face, it was just so pleasurable to tease the blonde. "Don't you think they suffered enough? You had to make them worry to have you crash into them?"
"Rude! I am skilled, and my patients love it! It is cute!" A full force dimples smile displayed.
"I bet you are cute, stop putting umbrella in that scotch, it is a scotch, not a tequila sunrise!" She leaned over tried to take away the paper umbrella that Arizona just put into the glass. But the blonde blocked the glass with her whole body, "It's cute!" And then reached out to pick up a cherry.
"Scotch doesn't do cute, scotch is badass! And don't you dare to put that cherry into there, that's going to cost me 8 bucks!" Callie squealed and grabbed the cherry holding hand before she dropped it in the drink. Arizona pouted and then put the cherry into her own mouth instead, evilly glanced over the Latina behind, she placed the glass in front of Derek who ordered this drink and said "6 dollars."
"8!" Callie tilted her head looked closely face to face to Arizona with a playful stare. But that didn't scare the naughty child.
"6, since it has no cherry inside." Arizona just smirked back to Callie and offered a wink to Derek, who looked at both of them amusedly. Finally he put down a 10 dollar note on the counter "Keep the change."
"Oh thank you Derek." Beamed proudly, she put the change… umm… 4 bucks in her jeans pocket.
"Excuse me?" Callie looked at her with the stare again.
"What? I earned my tip." Arizona shrugged her shoulders and pretended she was busy wiping the counter top with a towel.
"You earned your 2 bucks, give me back my other 2!" She tried to grasp the perky blonde so that she could reach into the pocket to get the money "I can't believe you fancy surgeon would covet after these little profits from us little business." But the blonde just kept squirming, "I can't believe you charge 8 bucks for a drink without cherry!"
Everyone was laughing with their childlike grapple, but they were just having too much fun to even care about the rest of the people around.
"Wow, somebody, throw them some Jell-O!" Mark entered the pub in time to catch the show, immediately sat down next to Derek attempted to get the front row seat, but the women stopped the scuffle from the voice of Mark. Both panted a bit from laughing too hard, Callie wrapped her arm around Arizona's shoulder and asked "So how is the moving? All done?"
"Ya, all done, Joe's putting the trash in the back, then he'll come back here."
"Oh…" Arizona sounded a little disappointed because that meant her time with the brunette in this playground was over.
Neither did Callie was pleased, it had been a long time she laughed so freely, she hated it when it had to end. "Oh… thanks for helping out tonight, you are a better help than Mark or Cristina."
"Yeah, Jell-O wrestling always helps the business." Mark whispered to Derek, but it was not too quiet to be unnoticed by the 2 women in front of him, "Shut it Mark!" "Gross, Mark!"
As Joe returned to his position, Arizona ran around to the other side of the counter settled next to Mark.
"What can I get you?" Callie said, sent the blonde a wink.
"Manhattan, with extra cherries." It made both of the women and Derek burst out laughing, Mark just looked confused between them, "OK, does cherry mean something? Did someone share a cherry story?"
They just laughed harder as Arizona smacked Mark's head so hard that he almost banged on the counter top, "Grow up Mark, not everything has to be dirty."
"Fine, don't tell me, I'll get it out from Torres after she got drunk. So Derek, your wife wants me to tell you that she's not coming home tonight, she'll stay here to make sure Yang got settled."
Derek took another sip of his cherry-less scotch, smiled bitterly before slid down the stool, "After all, Yang's her person. Good evening, ladies." Then he turned around to depart.
"So, Meredith's staying upstairs, and Lexie decided that she should stay to help as well. I am not going home yet, care to drink with me?"
"Sure, I have a day off tomorrow." Arizona said as she pulled her phone from the bag to check for message, she was so occupied the whole night, didn't even think about her mobile at all. Unlocked the device, she found a couple of calls and several messages were missed, all came from the same sender.
"Something's wrong?" Mark asked when he saw the blonde looked at the phone with a frown.
"Colleen." Arizona answered with a pout, fingers were still working on the phone.
Callie asked as she placed the drink in front of the blonde "Your hot date from last night?"
"Ya!" Mark answered for her, with a huge naughty smile in the corner of his mouth. Arizona just rolled her eyes, continued to check the rest of the messages.
Callie gazed at Arizona for a few seconds, wanted to say something but decided to let it slide, turned her heels to the other side of the bar to serve another customers. Arizona finally finished the phone and looked up to Mark.
"Colleen waited outside the apartment building for me, on her birthday, damn it!"
"What? How did she know where do you live?"
"Apparently, some nurses followed you home before, and people knew we live across the hall, so 2 plus 2, she is or was there waiting for me." Arizona covered her face with her hands and silently groaned.
"What do you mean she is or was there?"
Looked at the phone again, Arizona answered "She called me about 3 hours ago, twice. Then couples…. Umm… actually nine messages telling me that she was there waiting for me, the last message was like an hour ago, she should be gone by now…. Shouldn't she?" Panic was sudden written all over her face.
"Well, she does seem clingy, so I won't be surprised if she is still there to try to 'surprise' you." Mark shrugged, took a sip of his scotch.
"What am I supposed to do, Mark?"
"Well, go over there to see if she's still there, it is… it was her birthday after all. If she's still there, break it up with her for god sakes, rip the bandage. If she was gone, come back to drink with me."
Arizona took a big gulp of her drink before slipped down from the stool, Mark gave her a firm pat on the shoulder "You can do this, be strong."
Looked over to Callie wanting to say goodbye before took off, seeing the brunette was leaning again the counter top talking to some guy with a smiling on her face, so she just patted Mark's shoulder in return, then walked toward the door.