The Real Deal

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Harley woke up and looked around the big room that she was in. It took her an extra minute to remember just what had happened the night before and she groaned inwardly as it all came back to her.

"Oh great you big dope, you fell asleep while Mark was giving you a massage." Harley said smacking herself on the forehead. She got up and walked into the adjoining bathroom and splashed some cold water on her face and walked back into the room taking off the t-shirt she was wearing and replaced it with the dress she had wore the night before. She found her shoes on the floor beside the bed and picked them up along with her keys and cell phone, which Mark had placed on the nightstand beside the bed, and tip-toed her way down stairs to the kitchen.

It was only seven so she wasn't surprised that Mark wasn't up yet and she sure wasn't going to wake him to say good-bye, so she took the mini notepad that was on the fridge and decided to write Mark a note instead. She found a pen sitting in a cup on the counter and started to write.

"Mark, thank you for the wonderful evening and thank you for agreeing to help me with my mother. I think we should get together to formulate a game plan before she arrives so please give me a call (465-6879) when you have the time and we can have dinner or something.

XOXO,

Harley

P.S. You really do give the best massages."

Harley sat the note beside the coffee pot before calling a cab to pick her up. When she got home she took a long hot shower and as the water cascaded down her body her thoughts turned to Mark and the way he had touched her the night before. She pulled down the adjustable shower head and placed it between her thighs closing her eyes pretending that it was Mark's big strong hands caressing her there. Loud moans escaped Harley as the pressure from the shower head caused her to climax. When she had finished she opened her eyes and sighed.

"Very pathetic Harley, day dreaming about a man you will never have, so very pathetic." Harley sighed as she finished washing up before getting out of the shower and drying off. She threw on one of her many power suits and headed off to work. "Today is going to be a very long day." Harley said to herself as she pulled out of her driveway and started down the deserted street.


It was almost ten when Mark finally woke-up. He sat up in bed and stretched before sitting up and going to relieve himself. Then he remembered he had a guest. Mark wondered if Harley was up yet and after throwing on a pair of sweats he walked across the hall to check on her, but she wasn't there. Mark started downstairs and frowned when Harley was no where in sight. He walked into the kitchen and started a pot of coffee and that is when he saw the note that she had left him.

Mark had to smile at her little post script at the end. "I must really give great massages if I was able to relax you enough to put you to sleep." Mark said to himself as he sat the letter down. He was a little disappointed that Harley didn't hang around longer he would have really liked to have had a nice breakfast with her this morning, but he could always call her later and take her up on her dinner offer that night.


"Hello, Harley Cooper." Harley said answering the phone.

"What happened last night after I left?" Laurel asked excitedly.

"Good morning to you too Laurel." Harley said.

"Yeah, yeah good morning honey, now what happened?"

"What makes you think that anything happened?"

"Because you little missy did not get home until eight this morning, so either you spent the night at Marks or you spent the night with that cabbie that brought you home this morning." Laurel said.

"Alright, I did stay at Marks, but…" Harley was cut off when Laurel squealed in her ear.

"I knew it! You two are perfect for each other. So how was it? Is he huge?"

Harley just shook her head and laughed at her friend.

"Come on girl, I want details." Laurel said.

"Laurel, I stayed at Marks, but nothing went down between us."

"I don't understand, if nothing happened then why did you stay the whole night?" Laurel asked confused.

"After you and Shawn left Mark walked in and caught me massaging my aching feet. He offered to give me a massage and let me tell you that man can work magic with his hands, so much so that I fell asleep. Mark put me in his guestroom for the night and when I woke up this morning I caught a cab home."

"Girl if he can work magic with his hands imagine what he can do with the other parts of his body."

"Laurel you are so perverted." Harley said laughing. "So what happened with you and Shawn last night, did he work his magic on you?"

"A lady never tells…good thing I'm not a lady." Laurel said as both women laughed. "Shawn had me screaming for hours girl, that man is incredible in bed." Laurel admitted.

"So what are you two now? A couple? Friends with benefits? What?" Harley probed.

"We haven't talked about that, right now we are just "spartners"."

"What the hell is that?" Harley asked completely lost.

"Sex partners." Laurel said matter-of-factly.

"Laurel Hansen you are just too much, listen I have to get some work done, but I will stop by "Perfect Harmony" on my way home today."

"Sounds like a plan, see you in a couple hours."

"See ya." Harley said before hanging up.


Mark was working on one of his bikes when he head footsteps coming towards him. He looked up and see Shawn approaching with a huge grin on his face.

"What's got you so damn happy?" Mark asked wiping the grease off of his hands.

"So I hear you had a houseguest last night." Shawn said winking at Mark.

"Oh yeah and just where did you hear that?" Mark asked raising an eyebrow at his friend.

"Just a little birdie." Shawn said with a shrug.

"Maybe the little birdie that you left here with last night, hmm?"

"Maybe." Shawn shrugged.

"So I take it you were her little houseguest last night, but unlike Harley I have a feeling that you didn't sleep in the guest room." Mark said standing and walking into the house.

"Wait so you had Harley in your house all night and you slept in separate rooms?" Shawn asked shocked.

"That's exactly what I am telling you." Mark said.

"Did the deadman get shot down?"

"Hell no, she fell asleep, so I put her up in my guestroom."

"So when is she moving in here?" Shawn asked.

"Moving in?" Mark asked looking at Shawn like he had two heads.

"Well yeah, I mean you two have to make this whole marriage thing look real when her mom shows up so I just thought you would move her in here so you can get to know each other's habits. I mean if Harley's mom is as bad as she and Laurel make her out to be then one hint that something isn't right could ruin everything, right?"

Mark thought for a minute. Shawn had a point, but would Harley go for it? Hell she wanted this to work more than anyone so Mark didn't see any reason for her to say "no" to him when he suggested it.

"I guess you do have a point; I will talk to Harley about this tonight." Mark said.

"Oh so the two of you are going out tonight are you?"

"I don't know yet, she left before I woke up this morning but I was gonna call her later and invite her to dinner."

"Good, Laurel say's that she doesn't get out much so maybe you can get her to loosen up some over the next few weeks."

"I would love to loosen her up." Mark didn't realize that he had said that out loud until he heard Shawn errupt with laughter.

"Don't let Laurel hear you talk about Harley like that. She is very protective of her friend and if she thought for one minute that all you wanted was to get Harley in bed she would kill you." Shawn said still laughing.

"That's not all that I am after I just wouldn't protest if things went that way during this whole charade." Mark said honestly.

"Well just make sure that you don't hurt her, seems like her family has done that enough already." Shawn said slapping his friend on the back. "Well I will get out of your hair, see ya later pal." Shawn said heading towards the door.

"Yeah later man I'll call you." Mark said as Shawn left.


Harley walked into "Perfect Harmony" and smiled. Laurel had the CD player dancing to Jewel's "Stronger Woman". She stopped when she saw Harley standing there.

"Hey honey, how long have you been standing there?"

"Just a minute. Must be a slow day." Harley said giggling.

"Had my last scheduled appointment about two hours ago, but decided to get some of my paper work done before heading home."

"Oh yeah looks like you are getting so much work done."

"Well I worked for a while but then I got bored." Laurel shrugged.

"I see, well what do you say you wrap things up and we go out and grab some dinner?"

"Can't Shawn is coming over tonight."

"Oh, well then I will just head on home and pop something in the microwave. You and Shawn have fun tonight." Harley said.

"Come over and join us." Laurel suggested.

"And be the third wheel, no way."

"You wouldn't…" Laurel started but Harley cut her off.

"I would so just have your evening with Shawn and we can hang out another night, alright? I am going to get going I have to go grocery shopping bye girl." Harley said hugging her friend before leaving.


Harley sat on the sofa with her Stouffer's personal lasagna plate and flipped on the TV. She was just about to dig into her meal when her cell rang.

"Hello?"

"Harley, hey it's Mark."

"Hey Mark." Harley said a little shocked to be hearing from him.

"What are you up to right now?"

Harley looked down at her lasagna and sighed.

"Nothing much actually."

"Good, have dinner with me tonight."

"Ummm…"

"Come on I need to talk to you and we both need to eat so we might as well kill two birds with one stone, right?"

"I guess."

"Good, what is you address I'll come and pick you up."

"1230 Redwood place."

"I will be there in twenty minutes." Mark said before hanging up.

Harley sat her untouched dinner on the table and got up from her spot on the couch. She walked to her bedroom and looked for something decent to wear. She pulled out a red sundress and a pair of black flats and quickly got dressed. She heard the doorbell ring as she was brushing out her hair. Setting her brush down she gave her self one more quick lookover.

"You will never win any beauty contest but I guess this will suffice for tonight." She sighed before going to the door.

Mark was standing there in a pair of Jeans and a white fitted tee that showed off his exquisite muscle definition.

"You ready to go?" Mark asked her.

"Uh Huh." Harley said as Mark put his hand on the small of her back and led her out of the house.

"So where are we going?" Harley asked simply to make conversation.

"No place fancy just this nice little café that I know."

"Sounds lovely." Harley said before gazing out the window.


"So you said that you wanted to talk to me about something." Harley said after she and Mark were seated.

"That can wait until after we eat." Mark said looking over the menu.

"I would really prefer you tell me now because if you are going to tell me that you have changed your mind about helping me I would rather know now so I can go home and hide under the bed for being such a loser." Harley said with a strained giggle.

"I didn't change my mind but this is about the plan."

"If you haven't changed your mind then what is it?" Harley asked confused.

"Well we are trying to make this as real as possible, right?"

"Yeah, I guess so, why?"

"I was talking to Shawn today and he got me thinking. We don't know nearly enough about each other to pull this off, so I think you should move in with me so that we can get comfortable around each other before your mom shows up and completely calls us on our bullshit marriage."

"You want me to move into your house?" Harley asked not sure that she had heard Mark correctly.

"Yeah that way we will get to know each other's mannerisms and learn what we do and don't like about each other. Make things feel more real between us and don't worry I don't expect you to sleep in my room with me, the guest room is all yours, until you mom gets here that is." Mark said taking a drink of his water.

He was all ready for Harley to come up with some excuse for why his idea wouldn't work but was pleasantly surprised when she looked up at him and smiled.

"I like where your head is at Mark. You're right my mother would see straight through us if we tried to pull this off without really knowing each other."

"Great, so Shawn and I will move your stuff into my place tomorrow." Mark said picking his menu back up. "That was easier than I thought." Mark thought to himself as he stole a quick peek over at Harley who was examining her menu.

"Mark?" Harley said.

"Yeah Darlin'?" Mark said laying his menu down so that he could look at Harley.

"Thank you." Harley said smiling sweetly at him.

"It's my pleasure Darlin' my absolute pleasure." Mark said as he reached over and too Harley's tiny hand in his large one giving it a little squeeze.