Callie couldn't understand what was making that noise. She was only half awake, so it took her a while to register that someone was knocking on the door. She groaned, and threw off her comforter. She took her dressing gown and went to see who woke her up on a Saturday.
She looked through the side window and saw Mark's car on the drive way. At first she sighed, because she was tired, and wished Mark hadn't woken her up. Then she froze, because she remembered she wasn't alone in the house. Shit.
She thought about pretending not to be home, but that would only require her to explain herself later, and that was not something she wanted to do.
She unlocked the door, but held her position, not inviting Mark in.
"Good morning." He greeted her cheerfully.
"Morning" She offered back, a little less enthusiastically. She didn't move out of the way though.
"Are you going to let me in?" Mark wondered.
"Um, I'm not feeling well. I can call you later when I'm feeling better?!"
"Well, that's actually why I'm here. I ran into Alex, and he told me you had been home sick. Food poisoning?"
"Yeah." Callie didn't want to lie to Mark, but she didn't know what else to do.
"Look, I don't know who you think I am, but I can tell when you're lying. What's really going on?"
Callie looked down on her feet. "I didn't exactly lie, I just had to make up an excuse not to go in. I really did have a bad night, almost didn't sleep at all.
"That wasn't so hard, now was it?!" He walked towards Callie, forcing her to move, and let him in.
Mark went straight for the kitchen, and started making coffee. He then turned around to face Callie who was still standing up, looking towards her bedroom. Mark followed her gaze, then looked back at Callie. "Do you have company?!"
Callie turned her head facing Mark "No." The answer came a little too fast.
"Well, well. So the lack of sleep was actually a good thing, huh?!" He smirked.
"No I swear, nothing like that!" Callie tried to assure him, but she knew there was really no point. Once Mark had gotten an idea like that in his head she could never convince him otherwise. At least not for the next month or so.
"When do I get to meet her?" He asked.
Callie just sighed. Then she heard what she was dreading, Arizona was awake. She had probably woken up from Mark and Callie's interaction. Callie couldn't see her yet, but she heard her steps coming closer. Callie closed her eyes.
Arizona was about to great Callie, when she saw someone else moving around in the kitchen. Mark glanced at her. "Good morning!"
Arizona wasn't sure what was going on but figured being polite was the right thing to do so she wished him a good morning back, her voice not quite as hoarse today. She put up the collar of the bathrobe to hide the bruising to avoid any unwanted questions.
"I'm Mark. Nice to meet you." Mark was expecting Arizona to reply, but Callie hurriedly threw out an introduction.
"Mark, this is Arizona, an old friend from college. Arizona, Mark."
Arizona looked at Callie, her eyebrows raised in surprise. Callie gave her a stern look.
Arizona turned to face Mark. "Yeah, college."
"Old friends you say." Mark emphasized the word friends, and Callie knew exactly what he was insinuating.
"Room mates, I take it?" He added.
"Something like that" Arizona answered.
Callie was sure Arizona was only trying to help, but her vague answer would only make things worse.
Mark smirked at Arizona's reply. "Coffee?" He offered.
Arizona declined, but Callie said she would love some. They all sat down by the kitchen island, and an awkward silence ensued.
Mark couldn't help but smile at the two women in front of him: trying to avoid looking at him, and each other.
Mark decided he wanted to make this awkward moment last a bit longer for Callie. "So, Arizona, where are you from originally?"
Arizona looked up. "New Jersey, originally, but I've been all over the place really."
Callie realized that she didn't know much about Arizona yet. The other night she had been the one doing all the talking, so it was nice to hear Arizona reveal something about herself.
"Where do you live now then?" Mark continued.
She hesitated for a moment. "I am between jobs right now, which is why I decided to come see my old college friend Callie." Arizona looked at Callie and blinked.
Mark saw Callie smiling at Arizona, and he decided he had tortured her enough.
"Alright Arizona, nice meeting you, but I'm afraid I have to go. Callie, I'll talk to you later" He gave her a meaning look.
"Yeah, see you later." Callie watched as Mark walked out the door.
"OK, what was that about?!" Arizona asked as soon as Mark had shut the door.
Callie explained how Mark was her best friend, and that he only came to check up on her since someone from work had told him that she had been sick.
"Well, he seems nice enough. A bit strange though. Giving me those weird looks." Arizona shrugged.
Callie didn't want to explain why he had been giving her those looks. She wanted to spare Arizona, plus she didn't know how Arizona would react to Mark's innuendo.
They had breakfast together. The conversation that Mark had started earlier continued without him. Callie asked Arizona about her childhood home, and they exchange experiences from school, and of their families. Arizona's parents divorced when she was about ten years old, so she alternated between her father's house and her mother's flat. Arizona explained that her only brother had died when they were kids. Callie couldn't even begin to understand the pain that must have caused her. Even though she herself was an only child, she could understand losing someone you loved and were close to.
"Nice save there by the way. With the 'old friend from college' excuse." Arizona wanted to change the subject.
"I don't know. I think I might have made matters worse." Callie said sheepishly.
"What do you mean?" Arizona didn't understand.
"Never mind." Callie went to the sink, and started filling it up with water.
Arizona didn't want to push it. "Hey, I think it's only fair if I do the dishes. I don't have a good excuse for not helping you anymore."
"You don't have to do that. You're my guest." Callie assured her.
"Well, I want to." Arizona walked up to Callie, and squeezed herself in between Callie and the counter.
Callie felt a whiff of the clean smell of soap off of Arizona's body. She would have liked to stand behind her while she did the dishes, but that would be very weird. So she backed away. She managed to get out a thank you, and then she went to get dressed.
She walked in and looked herself in the mirror. What are you doing? She is not even going to stick around, and she has, well, had, a boyfriend. Callie stepped into the shower and pulled the lever to cold.
When Arizona had finished the dishes, she started walking around in Callie's house. She went into the living room, and as she walked past the couch, she grazed her hand along the backrest. Her eyes looked around the room, and then rested on a small shelf cabinet right by the door leading out onto the patio to the side of the house. She walked up to it and saw that this was where Callie had her music collection.
Arizona saw that she had a CD-player, as well as a vinyl player. She started examining the CD spines. Some of them caught her eye more than others: Patsy Cline, Norah Jones, Madonna, Ani Difranco, Prince, Cat Stevens, Aerosmith, and Abba. Arizona smiled at the mix of artists in Callie's collection. She continued to the smaller stack of vinyls on the next shelf ,and among them she found artists like Carol King, Simon & Garfunkel, Dolly Parton, and Fleetwood Mac. She couldn't resist looking at the Fleetwood Mac album; her mother had always loved Stevie Nicks.
Arizona opened up the vinyl player, and put on the disc on the player, and tried to find the track she wanted to hear.
Callie was drying her hair with a towel when she thought she heard music somewhere in the distance. At first she thought she was imagining things, but then she stepped closer to the door, and confirmed that there was music playing. She put on her bathrobe, and stepped out into the hallway.
Callie stood looking into the living room. Arizona had her back to Callie; she was looking out through the door on the patio. The vinyl player was spinning a disc, that Callie knew was Rumours by Fleetwood Mac.
Tears had started falling down her cheeks when she walked through the hallway, and even though she wasn't aware, they were still falling when Arizona turned around.
Arizona's expression turned from calm, to worried when she saw the tears falling down Callie's face. She looked at the vinyl player, back at Callie, who was also looking at the player. Arizona walked up to the player and with a scratch, the music stopped.
Callie couldn't take her eyes of the player even though the music had stopped.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have touched anything without asking." Arizona took a few steps towards Callie. "Are you OK? Callie?"
Callie looked up. The tears had stopped falling, but her cheeks were wet, and her eyes slightly red.
Arizona couldn't do nothing when Callie was evidently in pain; a pain that she had caused. She went even closer, and stood face to face with Callie. Arizona dried of the wetness from the tears off of Callie's cheeks with her thumbs. Callie just looked at Arizona as she did this. Arizona pulled Callie's dark hair back, and put it behind her ears. They looked at each other without saying anything, then Arizona pulled Callie in for a hug.
Callie put her arms around Arizona, and they stood like that for what felt like forever.
Callie was the one who pulled back first. She could have stayed like that all day, but she knew she had to explain her behavior to Arizona. She didn't want to cause that tension between them again.
Arizona tried to get eye contact with Callie, hoping to be enlightened as to what had just happened. Callie tried to make a halfhearted joke to loosen the tension: "Again with the weird behavior."
Arizona didn't smile. It seemed she waited for an explanation.
"I'm sorry, it's not your fault, it's just... Some of those records belonged to my dad."
Arizona put her head slightly back, and gave out a little sigh. "Sorry about that." She said.
"No, like I said, it's not your fault. It's just that it's hard not to think of him when I hear certain songs."
Arizona led Callie over to the couch and sat down beside her, one hand on her shoulder, the other on Callie's right hand that was resting on her thigh.
"You know what the funny thing is?" Arizona offered.
Callie looked at her, and shook her head.
"I only chose that record because it reminded me of my mother."
Callie smiled. "That is kind of funny actually." Callie's giggling, turned into a full on laughter.
Arizona couldn't help it; she joined Callie, but had to stop right away because of the pain in her ribs. "Ouch!"
Callie stopped laughing, but still panted a little. "Oh, what happened."
"I think my ribs are bruised, and their not completely healed yet."
Callie put a hand on Arizona's shoulder. "Thank you Arizona."