Chapter 4

Ray stood at the window, pushing the blinds aside. He stared at the white blanket of snow. It had stopped snowing several hours before, but the streets were still deserted. Ray hadn't seen a single car or person pass. Then again, with five feet of snow, the roads and sidewalks were impassable. He probably wouldn't see anything or anyone except a snowplow for a long time.

"What a mess," Ray grumbled.

"At least it stopped," Neela replied, poking her head out of the kitchen.

Ray looked over at her as she disappeared back into the kitchen.

"What are you making anyway?" He asked.

"It's a surprise!" She called back.

Let's hope it's at least something edible, Ray thought, thinking back to the last time Neela tried to cook something. The kitchen ended up looking like a volcano erupted and the food tasted like molten lava. But, then again, even if it does taste like lava, nothing can ruin this day.

He looked back out the window and sighed contently, thinking about the day. After Lindsey left, he and Neela had spent another two hours playing monopoly. Even though their game still wasn't finished, Neela was near bankrupt so they had called it quits. The game, though, was still set up on the living room table.

Afterwards, Neela had said that she wanted to catch up on reading some medical journals so she retreated to her room. Disappointed, Ray went to his own room to work on a song that had been floating around his head. He may not have been in the band anymore, but that didn't stop him from writing music. And he seemed to be more inspired since Neela had moved in than he ever had before.

After more than an hour, Ray's muses had run dry, and he sauntered by her bedroom door to see what she was up to. He laughed out loud when he saw that she was reading a romance novel with a Fabio look alike on the cover. He grabbed the book from her hands and began reading one of the love scenes out loud in a deep voice. As Ray began to read how the man in the story began to tenderly rub the woman's feet as he simultaneously took off her stockings, Neela managed to snatch it away from him. She threw the book in the drawer of her bedside table and explained that she was only reading it because someone had lent it to her and she was tired of reading things that required her to think. Ray laughed even harder at her. Inside, though, he was thinking about how Neela would react if he started rubbing her feet to seduce her. He was also thinking, or maybe he wished, that, instead of reading the romance novel, they were acting out the scenes in the romance novel together. Suddenly, he was much more interested in continuing to read the scene, but he would never admit that to her.

After it began to get dark, and neither of them wanted to waste the flashlight batteries or candles reading, they spent another three hours simply sitting on the couch and talking. That was perhaps Neela's favorite activity that they did together. She loved just talking to him. She loved the way his voice sounded. She loved that they could talk for hours about anything at all and have an amazing time. She loved just being with him.

Over the three hours, they talked about everything two people could possibly talk about. For the first time, Ray told her about his childhood and what had brought him to Chicago. He talked about how it hurt him to leave his band, but that it was the best decision he had ever made. He nearly added that one of the reasons he chose to stay was because of her, but he caught himself before he revealed that very important fact to her.

Neela had shared how it felt to leave her family behind to come to America. Ray even wiped a tear from her eye as she spoke about how she hadn't seen her parents in years and how she missed them desperately. As his thumb brushed slowly and lightly over her cheek, it left an invisible streak of heat almost as if he had burned her. But it was most definitely a good kind of burn.

They also, of course, spent a good part of the three hours talking about the ER. They discussed the latest gossip and shared some of their most memorable patients with each other. They even made a bet as to who, out of the newest interns, would be the first to throw up in the middle of a trauma. And, for nearly half an hour, they discussed the finer points of playing mini-golf, an activity that neither of them knew the other one liked.

Finally, at the end of the three hours, Neela's stomach began to grumble loudly. They both laughed and Ray looked down at his watch. It was just past eight. He hadn't realized how much time had gone by.

Time certainly passes quickly when you're preoccupied with staring at a beautiful woman and hanging on her every word, he thought to himself.

Neela had then gone into the kitchen to find something that they could eat without having electricity. Unfortunately, their dinners were mostly limited to what could be made in the microwave and she definitely was not the best cook anyway, so she didn't have high hopes for their meal. She was so hungry, though, that it didn't matter.

Staring out the window, Ray crossed his arms over his chest to try to keep himself just a little be warmer. Both he and Neela were absolutely freezing, but he wouldn't have traded the day for anything, not even heat. Just talking with her had been an amazing experience. He had never met a woman he could talk to so easily. And he had never shared half the things he told her with any other person before.

Ray heard her walk out of the kitchen. He turned from the window to look at her and almost laughed. With all of the layers she had on, and the blanket that she still had around her shoulders, she looked to be about ten times her real size. She was also wearing a pair of bright blue, fuzzy mittens and a matching hat.

"What's so funny?" She asked, noticing that he was trying to hide a smile.

"Nothing," he replied.

"No, what is it?"

He cracked a smile.

"You," he admitted.

"Me? Do I have something on my face or something?"

"No."

"Then what's so funny about me?"

"You look like a…"

"A what?"

"Monster," Ray finished.

Neela's jaw dropped open.

"A monster?"

"Cookie Monster to be more exact," he replied, laughing.

Neela took the hat off her head and threw it at him.

"You certainly know how to sweet talk a woman," she said, pretending to be angry.

Ray picked up the hat off the floor. It had missed him by a good foot.

I really need to work on my aim, she thought.

"Did I mention that I always found cookie monster to be incredibly cute?"

Cute? Did he just say I was cute? She wondered.

Where did that come from? He asked himself. Did I really just call her cute? I mean, yeah, she's cute…she's more than cute, but did I actually say it out loud? Wait…did I just compare her to a Sesame Street character? Yeah, Ray, that's the way to get her to know that you love her. Tell her she looks like a giant, blue monster. Good going.

Ray walked over to her and pulled the hat over her head. It fell so low that it covered her eyes.

And now she looks even cuter, his mind added.

"Well, Cookie Monster just made us some dinner," she said, pulling the hat up so she could at least see.

Okay, she thought, so maybe he just called me Cookie Monster, but he at least called me a cute Cookie Monster. That's got to count for something.

Neela walked back into the kitchen and Ray followed. There was a plate of turkey sandwiches on the kitchen table along with a large bag of regular potato chips. She had put out two beers and a candle in the center of the table. The candle, which was the only real light in the room, cast a flickering shadow over the table.

"Turkey sandwiches again?" He whined.

"Well, it's either that or we try to pry a can open and eat cold spaghetti o's," she stated. "Or we could start a fire in the middle of the living room with the coffee table and roast some hotdogs."

"If we had some hotdogs, I'd say that is a splendid idea."

They both sat at the table.

She passed him a sandwich.

At least turkey sandwiches are safe to eat, he thought, thinking about her cooking. There's not much she can do to screw them up.

"Thanks," he said.

She opened the bag of chips and set it back down on the table. She reached inside, grabbed a chip, and munched on it.

"So, how long do you think the electricity will be out?" She asked, knowing that he wouldn't know the answer, but she felt the need to say something.

"Let's hope it's back up before tomorrow morning. I'm more worried about the heat, though. This whole week is supposed to be below freezing temperatures. I mean, Mrs. Gill downstairs is nearly ninety."

"Do you know all of our neighbors?"

Ray shrugged. "I helped her carry her groceries in once," he explained, munching on his sandwich. "She gave me a quarter."

"Big spender," Neela remarked, chewing her own sandwich.

Ray smiled as he reached into the bag for a potato chip. Neela put her hand inside at the exact same moment. Their fingers lightly brushed against each other before they both took their hands out of the bag.

Neela could feel her face turning red and her stomach did what she could only describe as a flip.

He just touched you, she yelled at herself. It's not like he hasn't touched you before.

"It's getting really dark," he commented, somewhat stumbling over his words. "I'm going to get another candle."

He stood up, trying desperately to ignore the feeling that their simple touch had sparked in his body. He walked to the living room where they had put down all of their supplies and brought back one of the candles and some matches. He set the candle down on the table and lit it.

"Romance."

"What?" He stuttered, staring at her with wide eyes.

"You picked the romance candle."

"Did I?"

He hadn't noticed. Or had he? Did he pick that specific candle from the three that were on the kitchen table out of some subconscious yearning?

"You better not be getting any ideas," she flirted.

Okay, now I'm outwardly flirting, she thought. There's no way he can miss the fact that I'm flirting.

"I…I think I'm going to call it a night."

Or, maybe he can miss it, she thought. What was I thinking? Flirting with my best friend? There's no way he could have the same feelings for me that I have for him.

"I was up early trying to fix the heat and I'm supposed to go in for ten tomorrow morning, which means I'll have to be out there two hours early just to dig myself out…" he rambled.

"I'm…um…going in for eleven so I'll help you with the snow."

"Yeah, okay, goodnight."

"Goodnight."

Ray walked away, leaving his half eaten turkey sandwich and a very confused and sad Neela behind.

Author's Note: I have to admit that this was a tough one. I rewrote it quite a few times and I'm still unsure of it, but I just needed to post it before I rewrote it again. I apologize for how long it took me to update and it will probably be a while before I can write/post the next one, but I promise I'm working on it. I hope you enjoyed it!