Note: short chapter.

Bernard awoke the next day, snuggled up to something or someone. He grunted, confused, as he opened his eyes and looked at the person sleeping next to him. He jolted a bit to find that Fran, his best friend, was asleep next to him.

"Oh shit," he thought.

He felt down around his genitals and felt a condom, now fitting rather loosely on his now flaccid penis. He also felt his trousers still dangling near his feet so he yanked them back up to where they should be.

"That wasn't a dream, we had sex," his mind raced. He really hoped that she wasn't going to make a huge deal about it once she woke up, calling them horrible people and making him promise not to tell anyone. He had been down this road once before, on a New Year's Eve, shortly after they had reconnected. It hurt him a bit, even though he was far from ready at the time for a relationship, that she had reacted so harshly to them having sex. After all, they were close friends and Bernard did really care for her deep down.

He debated waking her up and asking her again if this was okay but his body felt so comfortable at the moment that he decided to continue snuggling her until she woke up. He could deal with her impending freak-out later; right now all he wanted was to be close to her.

A voice in the back of his head cursed him for feeling like this, but he knew now that he was definitely falling for her. And he knew that that was really going to be unpleasant.