Andrea and Tex

x

"You seem rather worse for the wear, Red."

Andrea barely contained a groan as the pounding in her head grew louder. She bent forward in her chair, head buried in her hands as she tried to understand what she had been thinking last night. Of course, the answer was that she hadn't been thinking. This was Kara's fault, for not cutting them off at an appropriate moment. "Unless you come bearing motrin, go away."

To her surprise, a hand appeared in her line of sight, two tiny white pills tucked in Tex's palm. Then she heard the sound of a glass being set on the table. "As it happens..."

Despite the fact that the pills were covered in lint, Andrea took them without question. She did wipe them off before popping them in her mouth, washing them down with the glass of water that Tex provided, but her head hurt too much to think about where Tex might have acquired the things given that Rachel practically required a court order to hand them over. Task accomplished, Andrea returned to her prior position, waiting for the pills to do their magic and for the roiling in her stomach to cease.

She wasn't sure how long she sat before the drumming in her head eased enough for her to sit upright — and realize that Tex was still there. He was sitting across the table, drinking a mug of coffee. She scowled at him. "You better have more of that."

"Not a morning person, I see," Tex replied, before sliding a second mug across the table.

Andrea ignored him as she took her first sip, then her second. Finally, she opened her eyes. "Where's Kat?"

"She went to see the Lynch girls," Tex replied. When Andrea didn't comment, he continued. "Chris said it was only fair after I kept them all entertained overnight so he and Justine could have alone time. The girls made me paint my toes. Want to see?"

"God no," Andrea replied, the very idea of looking at feet right now making her stomach flip in a distinctly unpleasant way.

Tex chuckled. "So, I take it that you ladies had a good evening while I was stuck supervising three teenage girls?"

Andrea was about to respond with a firm go away when the agreement of last night floated through her mind. While Andrea's first instinct was to pretend that she was too drunk to remember and blame Kara for encouraging the drinking, she wasn't going to lie to herself and pretend that this was the first time she thought about having sex again. Bill and Lily's deaths still felt far too fresh to consider anything serious, but there were moments now when she missed having physical human interaction. The last time she had sex was with Bill, before the Nathan James left for the Arctic a year and a half ago, and the idea of going another fifty years without sex was depressing.

Which just left the who part of the equation.

Tex might not be her usual type but, after all that they had been through, Andrea knew that she could trust him not to carry a grudge if she changed her mind midway through or burst into tears or even called him by the wrong name. The fact that he looked nothing like Bill was kind of a plus, now that she was thinking about it. Besides, like she told Kara, there was definitely something appealing in those pants.

Andrea narrowed her eyes at Tex, studying the slight grin that was curling the corners of his mouth as she sipped her coffee. The man wasn't that hard to read once you got to know him and the way he was looking at her right now was ... different than usual. As though she wasn't the only one considering what sex would be like between them. "Who told you?"

Tex chuckled, swiping his phone and turning it around for Andrea to see a thread labeled Connecticut, who she assumed was Danny.

Last night must have been a hell of a party. Red's asleep on the kitchen table.

You should see the bottles. Took me thirty minutes to clean the kitchen. But there are benefits. ;)

The cock blocker slept late?

Yup. They made some resolution last night to have lots of sex.

With each other?

Nah, with guys. Think you might have a shot.

With KFG?

With Andrea, you idiot. Gotta go. CG time.

Andrea sat back, taking another gulp of coffee. "Does Kara know that you know Curious George is code for sex?"

Tex laughed. "Everyone knows that Curious George is code for sex. Not that those two are the least bit discrete." He paused. "Assuming that you were planning to keep that resolution, I'm here to offer my services. I stand ready and willing."

Andrea snorted, then found herself laughing. "You know there's a fifty percent chance that I'm going to up and puke on you in the middle of things."

"Better than my odds for the last couple of years," Tex replied, without an ounce of self-consciousness. "The cock blocking stage apparently continues through the teenage years. Kat's worse than my mother."

"You understand that this is no strings, fun with no expectations. Right?" Andrea asked, not really expecting Tex to object but wanting to make sure they were on the same page.

Tex leaned forward, elbows on the table. "Red, you could tell me that you planned to have Slattery to fire my ass tomorrow and I still wouldn't say no. Before or after."

Chuckling, Andrea shook her head. Then she added, to be crystal clear. "I mean it, Tex. There will be no dinners or coffees or Netflix and chill or whatever nonsense Danny and Kara get up to. This is just sex, when we're both in the mood, and it goes no further than that. Oh, and you will not tell anyone. Not even Kat. Especially not Kat."

"Green's going to guess," Tex pointed out.

Recognizing that Tex was right, Andrea amended. "We will not tell anyone who doesn't specifically ask. And by specifically, I mean ask you if you are having sex with me, not just if you are having sex. Plus, you'll tell Green to keep his mouth shut. Am I clear?"

"Cross my heart and hope to die," Tex replied solemnly, before ruining it by adding. "But not until after I get a little bit of that action you're promising here."

Laughing, Andrea stood, thankful that her stomach and head were both feeling better. "Then we better get going. Kat will be back in an hour and I'm older than Kara. Eighteen minutes of Curious George is no longer enough to get me going."

Behind her, Tex slapped her ass. "Just one more question."

Andrea looked over, raising an eyebrow.

Tex grinned. "Socks on or off?"