AN: So this is another Merle/Andrea chapter as we continue with our story. A little more dynamic into their relationship…and a little more about our newcomer to Sweet Junction.
I hope you enjoy. I will try to get you a little something else up soon. Let me know what you think!
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It had been a very strange day for Andrea. The man, Philip, had come to the restaurant to eat only a half hour or so before closing time. They had, of course, accommodated him since Sweet Junction wasn't a place where you turned away patrons, not even if they showed up once you'd begun packing away the kitchen for the night.
He'd stayed, though, until Andrea was walking out of the restaurant, escorted by the Rhees, and he'd left just in front of her. He was waiting outside when she stepped out and fumbled in her purse for a cigarette to smoke while she waited for Merle to come by and pick her up.
"Nice little restaurant, don't you think?" He asked, standing as though he were going to smoke with Andrea, but never producing a cigarette from his pockets.
"It's alright," she responded. "If you like Korean food."
He had chuckled.
"I do like Korean food, don't you?" He asked.
"No," Andrea responded, "at least not anymore. It's a job."
The man chuckled at her and then stood there, looking around as though he were admiring some breathtaking view instead of the parking lot of a Korean restaurant stuck behind the nickel and dime store in Sweet Junction, Georgia. There wasn't much to look at unless you were an aficionado of people's worn down cars, broken asphalt, and rusty dumpsters.
"You work a lot around this town, don't you?" Philip asked. "Here, that quaint little bar…"
Andrea shrugged, taking a drag on her cigarette and scanning the area for any signs of Merle's impending arrival. He was already a little late and Andrea wished he'd have his ass in gear more often, especially if it was going to start getting cold, and even more so if she was going to be entertaining people like Philip on the side walk while she waited.
"You do what you have to do," Andrea said.
She wasn't on duty right now. She wasn't a waitress and she wasn't getting tipped for this conversation. She didn't have to be any sunnier than she wanted to be and right now she smelled like fried food and wanted to go home.
"Have a drink with me?" Philip asked. "My treat. You seem like you could use a little relaxation."
He smiled at her. It was the kind of smile that was very nice and very charming. It was the kind of smile that she'd normally be drawn to like a moth to a flame. The only thing was, though, was that there was something about him that just didn't set well with her. It was the kind of feeling that made her feel awkward just standing on the sidewalk with him while no one was around. It made her feel like things just couldn't go well for you if you were dumb enough to let him get you alone, or even more alone than she was at the moment.
Andrea nerviously lit another cigarette, trying to will her hands from shaking from the slight nervous feeling that she got from the man. Something about that smile of his made her almost want to throw up.
"I'm good," Andrea said. "Waiting on someone."
Philip nodded.
"Fine," he said, "then have dinner with me. You name the night. We'll go wherever you want. It doesn't have to be Korean. It doesn't even have to be in town."
Andrea eyed him. She would have scoffed at the absurdity that a man she didn't even know beyond her interactions with him at the Watering Hole wanted to have dinner with her, but she'd met Merle at the bar as well. That was, essentially, the place that had also begun the relationship with Daryl and Carol. The thought fleeted across Andrea's mind that maybe it wasn't a great idea to find your romantic interests at a place that had a higher cockroach population than probably all of New York City, but she quickly pulled her attention back to the man that was still smiling at her, having moved a little closer on the sidewalk.
Andrea shook her head.
"I can't," she said. "I'm kind of involved with someone."
Philip nodded his head a little.
"You're not wearing a ring," he said with a chuckle.
"Do you give rings to everyone you get involved with?" Andrea asked, raising an eyebrow. She glanced around again cursing Merle under her breath for his tardiness.
Philip smiled.
"I don't, but if she was worth it, I would," he responded. "You're sure I couldn't talk you into a drink or anything?"
Andrea shook her head.
"No, I'm good. My ride's going to be here any minute. It's the man I'm involved with," she added, hoping the mention of a man might make Philip dart back into whatever shadows he'd emerged from. "He's a bit of the jealous type too…" she threw in.
The truth was Andrea had no idea if Merle was the jealous type or not. She'd never really seen him in a situation to find out. She suspected he might have it somewhere inside him to be that way, but it would require him, for once and for all, admitting that he gave a damn and that would be a hard step for Merle Dixon to make.
Philip smiled again and shrugged.
"Well, I tried," he said. "I hate to see you standing out here all alone." He glanced around the parking lot. "It doesn't look like whoever you're involved with minds it so much though."
Philip turned and stepped off the sidewalk into the parking lot. He burrowed around in his pocket and came up with his keys. He held them in his hand, looking at them for a moment as though he'd never seen them before.
"I'm sure I'll see you around, Andrea," Philip said. "Maybe later we can get that dinner or that drink."
He walked off without waiting for a reply and Andrea watched as he walked along the edge of the parking lot and circled around the back of the building. He must have parked on the street on the other side.
A shudder ran through Andrea and she almost yelped when she finally saw Merle rolling into the parking lot in her car. She jogged out to meet him and crawled into the passenger seat as quickly as she could. She wanted to be mad at him for being late, but at the moment she was too relieved to be buckling herself into the car.
"What's wrong with ya sugah?" Merle drawled. "Look like ya done seen a damn ghost or somethin'."
Andrea realized she didn't know how to answer Merle's question. Any answer she gave was going to sound ridiculous and be considered, more than likely, one of those woman things that drove Merle insane. Really what could she say? A man who comes to town on business and drinks at the bar had dinner at the Korean restaurant and I thought it was strange? Most anyone who was going to have drinks at the bar was going to land at the Watering Hole, and there were so few places to eat in town that seeing someone's face over and over really shouldn't be strange. What should technically be strange was if you didn't see them over and over. She couldn't tell him that some man had smiled at her and asked her for to join him for dinner or a drink some time…that didn't sound like a very good reason to be trying to calm her breathing now either. Men asked her out a good bit, and they asked nearly every other single woman out a good bit. It was Sweet Junction. Pickings were slim and her reputation preceded her.
"Nothing," she said finally. "It was nothing."
Merle chuckled at her and drove them back to the apartment, both of them maintaining silence on the ride.
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Andrea ordered pizza and they ate as soon as it got there. Merle jumped in the shower before Andrea was done eating, since she preferred to think of a meal as something she should taste, while he ate his like someone would rip it right out of his hand if he didn't finish it before they got the chance, and he came back into the living, dropping on the couch and switching on the television just as she was putting the leftover pizza in a Ziploc bag.
They hadn't talked much since the ride home, and she still hadn't processed what she wanted to say to him. She had a thousand thoughts pinballing through her mind but she knew better than to approach Merle with any of them without thinking them through first.
Andrea stepped into the shower, leaving Merle to watch whatever was entertaining him. She scrubbed the watermelon shampoo through her hair, the image of Philip's creepy smile behind her eyelids every time she closed them.
Why was it always the creeps that came to Sweet Junction and latched on to her? She'd had more than her fair share of creepers come crawling out of the Watering Hole over the years and it drove her crazy. Sometimes she wondered if all the guys she thought were creeps were, sincerely, creepy or if she'd just begun to assume they were and she was projecting the image onto them. She supposed either could be a realistic explanation.
She hadn't thought Merle was creepy. He was too straightforward, albeit smarmy as hell, to be creepy. It was the ones that were nice to her that usually came across as creepy. Andrea lathered the loofa and scrubbed, wishing that the thing was like sandpaper and could take off a few layers of skin. It might make her feel a little cleaner if that were possible.
She wasn't used to men being nice to her. That was something that she just didn't have a lot of practice with. The only time men were nice to her was when they wanted something, and usually the niceness was only going to be short lived. She'd come to expect it and therefore distrusted their friendliness. They usually just wanted sex…in the back of their cars, in the back of her car, someone's house if they were really feeling friendly, but at the end of it all they were going to pull of their mask of kindness and let her see what they were really like. She didn't trust their kindness anymore, not at all.
That wasn't to say that she didn't believe there were good men out there, or that some men were just genuinely nice. She thought that Daryl was one of those men that was genuinely nice, and when he wasn't listening to his asshole brother he was able to remain that way for the sake of Carol. Tyreese seemed genuinely nice the time or two that she'd met him with Michonne. There were nice men out there, but they weren't the kind of men that ended up with Andrea.
By the time Andrea got out of the shower she'd talked herself down from being freaked out by Philip. He was probably a nice guy who was new to town. He didn't know Andrea and he didn't know her reputation. He'd seen her a few times at the Watering Hole, thought she was something more than she was, and then he'd coincidentally ended up eating at the Korean restaurant. That was it. Since she was a familiar face and he was new in town, he thought he'd chat with her a bit. He'd asked her out. That wasn't a crime, after all, was it? She'd just overreacted.
Andrea dried off quickly and was squeezing the water out of her hair when she came out the bathroom and walked around the living room. Merle was still watching television.
Merle turned and looked at her, a smirk covering his face.
"Weelll," he drawled out. "Look like somebody wants a taste a Merle for dessert," he said. He sat up a little on the couch.
Andrea sighed. She wasn't really against having sex at the moment, and she was already naked, but she was in a bit of a mood after the evening's events.
"Can I ask you something, Merle?" Andrea asked.
Merle pulled his shirt over his head and dropped it to the side of the couch where she'd have to collect everything up later.
"Come on over here, sugah an' ya can ask me whatever the fuck ya want," Merle said.
Andrea stepped over to the couch and tossed the damp towel she was holding over the back of it, sitting down in front of Merle who had sat up from his earlier lounging position. Merle's hands immediately went to her breasts. She closed her eyes a moment, but then pulled herself back together. She reached and caught his wrists.
"Hold on a second, OK?" She asked.
"Fuck ya want?" Merle asked, his eyes piercing into her. She knew he wasn't a fan of conversations, and he certainly wasn't a fan of conversations that delayed or interrupted sex altogether, but she wanted to talk about this.
"How would you feel if some man asked me out?" She asked.
Merle chuckled. He leaned past where she was still holding his wrists and caught her nipple in his mouth, biting down on it hard enough to make her cry out.
At first when she'd let Merle in on the secret that she liked sex almost as much as he did, but that many times she liked it a lot rougher than he apparently thought she would or even should, he'd seemed almost a little put off by it. He didn't seem to care for the things she asked him to do and he seemed to really not understand that unless she used the word "blueberry" then nothing was off limits and a little bit of pain was a good thing. He'd adjusted to it, though, with time, and now he used it against her, knowing that as soon as he went straight to biting she was almost as distracted as he was.
Andrea shifted around and put her feet against his chest, still holding his wrists and pushed him back enough that he couldn't reach her nipples any more.
Merle frowned at her, but he didn't fight his position. He looked at her more like he was trying to figure out what his next move was instead of like he was genuinely annoyed by the fact that she was holding him in this position and trying to have some kind of a conversation with him.
"I don't give a fuck if some asshole asked ya out," Merle said finally. "Fuckers ask ya out all tha damn time down there at tha bar an' if I was gonna get my damn pecker caught in my zipper every fuckin' time it happened I reckon we wouldn't be tangled up like this right now."
Andrea nodded a little.
"What if I said I'd go out with him?" Andrea asked, raising her eyebrow up. Merle tried to move to bite at her leg and she pushed back harder with her feet.
"Ya got some asshole ya lookin' at, sugah?" Merle asked. "Some fuck ya'd rather have?"
Andrea shook her head.
"Didn't say that," she said. "Asked what the fuck ya'd think if I said that I did."
Merle yanked his wrists loose from her hands then and sat back.
"Reckon ya can decide who tha fuck ya go out with," Merle said. "I ain't got no damn chains 'round ya fuckin' neck. Go fuck tha whole damn town if ya wanna."
His change in voice let Andrea knew that his shackles were raised. Andrea crawled across the couch then, almost sitting in his lap. She ran her hands over his chest and kissed his jaw, nibbling at the skin there. It was enough to send a chill through him and bring him back around to her for a moment. Merle reached around and Andrea felt him tugging at her hair. She nipped him in response.
"Didn't say I wanted to fuck anybody else, Merle," she said. "I just want you to tell me if you'd give a shit if I did."
Merle yanked her hair back and his tongue traced up her throat and snaked around to her ear where he bit down on her earlobe a moment before bringing his tong back down its path. He pushed over onto the couch and got up, shedding himself from his shorts and boxers and standing over her a minute.
"If ya so damn stupid that ya'd wanna fuck any damn body else when ya got me here, then I reckon I'd have ta let'cha dumb ass do what tha hell ya was gonna do," he said.
As soon as Merle's hands caught Andrea around the waist and flipped her, she knew that the conversation was over. He was on top of her and inside her before she could even form another thought, already working out his frustration of the day. She scrambled a little, catching the back of the couch to dig her fingers into it and changing the angle on him. One of his hands went around her throat while the other pinched and pulled at her most sensitive areas, reducing her a hoarsely screaming puddle by the time she came and he followed after, falling against her a moment later.
She panted against the back of the couch, swallowing hard and trying to regain herself. Merle bit the back of her shoulder a moment, his tongue trailing over the bite afterwards.
"Don't go fuckin' other people, Andrea," Merle said. "Yer a fuckin' freak an' they might not like it much as ole Merle does. Once ya find a fuck that's good for ya, ya best ta stick with it."
Merle stood up and slapped her ass as she shifted around to crawl off the couch. He walked to the refrigerator and came out with a soda, cracking open the can and standing there drinking it while he looked at her and absentmindedly scratched his ass cheek. Andrea slid down and rested her head on the arm of the sofa a moment, watching him.
"But you would care if I did," she said.
Merle took another swig of the drink and regarded her watching him from the couch. He chuckled a little.
"Ya tryin' ta start this feelin' shit an' I fuckin' told ya it ain't gonna happen," Merle said. "Ya know which side ya fuckin' bread is buttered on but I ain't 'bout ta drool all over ya like ya some bitch in heat. I ain't some kinda pussy."
Andrea nodded her head and sat up. She got up then, sure that her knees weren't going to betray her and walked over to him. She leaned up, kissing him, their tongues locked in battle for a moment, his mouth cool and sweet from the soda.
"I don't want you to be a pussy," Andrea said when she pulled away. "Just because you can admit that you know what you like doesn't make you less of a man. It just makes you someone who's found something they think they'd like to hold onto and doesn't want to see someone else take it away just because they're not afraid to admit they'd like to take it out for a test drive."
Merle chuckled at her.
"Not much of a damn test drive," he growled. "Far as I heard 'round these parts ya don't make it outta parkin' lots too damn often, darlin'."
Andrea nodded her head a little, forcing a little of a smile onto her face.
"Don't believe everything you hear in Sweet Junction," she said. She headed toward the bedroom, leaving him in the kitchen to finish his soda in the warm afterglow.