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Alice was curled up on the couch, her legs tucked beneath her. She tended to mix her coffee with hot chocolate.

Rose stood beside her, her silk bathrobe barely closed with a sash. You'd think she would take her coffee black or something, but no. She said she wanted it to taste like melted ice cream, and she added enough milk and sugar to achieve that.

They were both watching me, identical expressions on wildly different faces.

I shrugged, feeling deliciously dirty in my clothes-from-last-night.

"So what… you played checkers all night?" snarked Rose.

"Charades!" Alice said.

"Taboo," Rose said, waggling her eyebrows.

"Twister," giggled Alice, setting her mostly full coffee mug down so she wouldn't spill it. Even Rose cracked up at that one.

Smiling, I crossed my legs primly. "Actually, he hit it so deep he put my ass to sleep."

Alice's jaw damn near hit the ground but Rose came right over, cackling gleefully and holding her hand up for a high five. "That's what I'm talking about."

It was crude, and I knew that, but it was true. And these were my girls. We always got silly like this; there had been many a "morning after" pow wow in our living room. Not that we were slutty. Okay, well… Alice could be a little too friendly, but none of us were nasty. We were just... college girls I guess.

Rose in particular loved a good sex story.

So I told them. With details. Alice liked hearing about brunch. Rose liked hearing about Edward sitting me on his face.

"You're so red right now," she remarked, smirking as she sipped her coffee.

"Yeah, well." I stood up. "I need a shower. No comments, please and thank you."

I ignored the Peanut Gallery as I made my way down the hall and to my room to toss my bag inside before heading to the bathroom.

It was impossible not to think about Edward. I wanted to see him again.

And again, and again.

I shivered, washing my body. I was definitely a little sore; it had been a while. I peered down, squinting in the steam, surprised to see tiny twin bruises high on my inner thighs.

Right where his hips would have hit.

Again and again.

Yawning, I stored my till in the back room safe and shut the door, pleased that I was done with that part of my shift. All I had to do for the next couple of hours was walk around the store, putting things away, bagging and being a slacker, basically.

Even though I preferred morning shifts because then I got the rest of the day off, I often took night shifts because of morning classes. I loved working at Whole Foods though. Between having access to the best food on the planet and the probably the coolest coworkers, I had it pretty good.

I was trying to decide what I wanted from the deli when my manager, Angela, sidled up.

"There's a really cute guy asking for you at customer service."

"Oh yeah?" My heart skipped a beat, hoping it was who I thought it was.

"Jeez, Bella. Who is he?" she continued as we walked back together.

Edward.

He gave me butterflies.

"Is that your boyfriend?"

And then, I realized, maybe yeah. Maybe he was. Maybe he wanted to be, like I wanted him to be.

"Maybe."

"Good for you, girl," she whispered, smiling politely as we approached the customer service desk where Edward was leaning casually.

He was in his work clothes. No hat tonight.

He half smiled, his eyes never leaving mine. "Hey."

"Hi," I said, unable to hide how glad I was to see him. It had only been two days, but I couldn't stop thinking about him. "What's up?"

"Nothing. I was on my way home so I thought I'd drop by. You off soon?"

"Not for another two hours," I said, regretful. "It is my lunch break though; want to join me?"

"Dinner break," he corrected me. "Yeah, what've they got?"

So we returned to the deli, to the hot case where all the cooked food was, and ordered a bunch of stuff. Then we took it outsde and sat at one of the tables.

We ate quietly for while. It seemed to be his way, our way. But it crackled between us, this knowing, this attraction, this feeling. It had been there, humming like a live wire, quiet and always on the verge of sparking, since the first night we'd walked to my house.

I cleared my throat after a time though, swallowing down a sip of juice. "I'm glad you came."

He nodded, smiling into his food. "Wanted to see you."

My heart leapt.

"You don't talk a lot," I remarked after a few seconds of silence.

His eyes were back on me then, and his eyes were such a light green and his pale stare so intense it made my stomach knot. "Sometimes there's not much to say. We talked a lot the first night though."

"The only night," I said, biting my lip.

"There's this night," he countered, his eyes crinkling just barely because he was smiling now. "And the night we walked home."

That was true.

"Yes." I took an extra big bite to give my mouth something to do besides gush and grin giddily.

Eventually the food was gone, even the chocolate cake we shared. He let me feed him, which surprised me. And delighted me.

"Can I see you later?" I asked, balling up the dirty napkins.

"I have to be up at 5."

"Oh. That sucks."

"It does, sometimes," he agreed. "I'm tired a lot. I nap a lot."

"I'd imagine."

We stood up and threw away our trash. A light rain began to fall, somewhat rare for the Bay.

"If you want to come over and sleep with me," he said, smirking. "I'll come back for you. And I do mean sleep."

I laughed, looking down. "Deal."

I kissed his cheek, but he held me so I couldn't walk away and then kissed my mouth.

He kissed me and left and that night, we did sleep together.

And sleep was all it was.

happy st patrick's day, lovelies.