A/N: WineMom Jess feels so strange to me. What do you all think of her?

Chapter Thirteen: Corkscrew

Christmas dinner was gloomy. Instead of the usual spread, they had roast chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, sauteed mushrooms and onions, and a pumpkin pie. Like everything about their new lifestyle, it was much too nice to justify grievance. It just didn't spark joy. There was no eggnog or wine this year, no company holiday party, no cookie exchanges with longtime friends from the neighborhood. Tony missed Mrs. Rosini's force feeding. He missed his dad.

The previous year, Angela had really come through for him by showing up to help clear his father's apartment. It was unexpected, the act of a much closer friend. Then they kept showing up for each other in a million different ways. He had trouble thinking of her as a boss, especially after she started treating Sam like a daughter. The sexual tension became more noticeable when Michael returned, and then after the reconciliation's failure, an event Tony would never forget: waking up in bed with Angela. It was all perfectly innocent. They had no idea it was a preview of things to come.

Now they woke up together every day, usually cuddled together as if there wasn't a yard of unused mattress available. He had never been with someone who smelled twice as good in the morning as they did fresh out of the shower. Maybe it was subjective, but for him, her natural scent hit his receptors just right. He had stopped being shy about his morning wood, his morning breath, everything. She seemed to accept him as-is, and it compelled him to show her more of himself. That may have been why he took off his shirt, and later his pants, in front of her, why he stood tumescent before her for a full five seconds. He wanted to be known.

Alright, he wanted to show off. Their practice kissing had escalated into more intimate acts, but they hadn't gotten to the really good stuff yet. He figured she needed a sneak peek at what some below-the-waist action could involve. His move had worked, sort of. He didn't mind Angela using him to climax, even if they were fully clothed. But it wasn't Angela. It was Jess, and his feelings for her were far more superficial. She was beautiful and kind, eager to carry her own weight, smart, and extremely sexy. Angela, on the other hand…she was everything. He could admit to himself now that he was in love with her. It hurt to see Jess be so free with Bobby and know that Angela couldn't be as vulnerable with him.

On Thursday, the depressed atmosphere continued. They were cordial and cooperative. The lull was typical of that dead week between Christmas and New Years. Everyone was impatient to begin their new routines. Mona spent the whole day with her new boyfriend, Ricky, and came home loaded down with shopping bags. The rest of the family had stayed away from the post-holiday sales. Jonathan didn't want anything material for his birthday. The thrill of turning another year older wasn't quite the same when you hadn't earned it. Sam had Natalie over for manicures and pedicures. Then they went next door where there were more entertainment options.

On Friday, Angela took Jonathan to meet Seth's lizards. While they played, Sheila offered Jess a glass of wine. "Sure, I could use one," she agreed, watching her new friend expertly wield the corkscrew.

"So, how are you all settling in?" Sheila asked, pouring nearly to the rim.

"Fine, so far. The house is good. Jen has a friend next door. My mom already has a new boyfriend." Angela took one sip, then another, trying to reduce her spill risk.

"Does your husband like it here? It's his job that you all moved for, right?" Sheila stuck the cork back in the bottle and put it back in the fridge.

"Bobby's adaptable. As long as it's good for the family, he won't complain."

"How did you find such a good guy, Jess?" she asked, eyeing the purple marks on her neck.

"We were just kids when we met," she said, holding onto a bit of honesty before doing a one-eighty. "It seemed inevitable that we'd end up together."

"That's great. I didn't meet Josh until I was in my forties and then it was five years before we got married. Seth was a complete surprise."

"Wow." Angela hadn't realized that Sheila was closer to her mother's age than her own.

"Are you two done having kids? It's not easy when you're older. I don't mean that you're older. I mean I was older," she stammered, not wanting to offend the other mom.

Angela put her hand over Sheila's. "It's alright. I didn't take it like that. There's nothing wrong with being older, anyway."

"You don't have to answer that question. It was too personal," she apologized.

"No, I don't mind the question. I just don't know the answer. We haven't really talked about it," she said, thinking of the unused bedroom. "Bobby and I…. Let's just say it's not a possibility right now," she said, looking up obliquely.

"You mean you're not getting it on?" Sheila asked in horror. "Forgive me, but when we saw you at the Christmas service, it seemed like you were anxious to get home and tear each other's clothes off."

Angela sputtered and spat wine across the countertop. "I'm so sorry!" she yelped, jumping to her feet and grabbing a paper towel from the dispenser. She continued to apologize as she wiped up the mess.

Sheila got up and pulled a bottle of surface disinfectant from under the sink, forcing Angela to sit back down before making an additional pass with another paper towel. "It's nothing to be ashamed of. He's a hunk, Jess. And he's your husband. There's clearly something still going on between the two of you," she said, gesturing toward her own neck until Angela covered her hickeys in panic. "So who isn't following through?"

"I don't know. Both of us, maybe? It was a big move. They say that's one of the most stressful things you can go through," she said, passing along one of Agent Miller's bits of trivia.

"Well, nothing beats a little natural stress relief," Sheila said, raising her eyebrows. "Go out on a date. Do something you used to do before the kids came along. And then let him have his way with you."

Angela blushed, thinking about the way she'd been brought to orgasm on Christmas Eve. It took the edge off entirely, and she'd floated for hours afterward. Christmas Day was another story. Physically, it was incredible. But her confession to Tony about Bobby afterward had really screwed everything up between them. Maybe she shouldn't have told him. She couldn't even articulate why it felt so wrong.

"I wish we could go out, but we're flat broke right now. Until we bring in a couple of paychecks, the only thing on our social calendar is taking Chris out to the pizza parlor on Monday for his birthday."

"Oh, why don't we meet you there? Seth adores Chris, and it seems like the feeling is mutual."

"That would be wonderful." The two women continued to chat for the next hour while the boys ran around talking about reptiles and boogers.

When Angela pulled into the driveway at home, Tony was standing in Danny's open garage listening to the man brag about his powerful, but rarely used, woodworking tools. Jonathan unbuckled himself and got out of the car as quickly as possible, running next door. "Dad, Dad, I got to hold two geckos and a skink!" Tony squatted down just outside and caught the boy as he hurled his body forward, tossing him easily onto one shoulder.

Angela followed her son. "Hey honey," she said, greeting Tony with a peck on the lips. "Hi Danny. I hope you're not persuading Bobby to buy any expensive tools. We don't have that much space in our garage."

Tony let Jonathan down and hugged Angela around the waist. He knew she would submit to more affection in front of other people. "I wouldn't let him, Jess," he said. "Not worth ending up in the doghouse." Fittingly, he was making his cocker spaniel eyes at her.

"If you say so," she said, with a sly smile. "Did you want to help me with dinner?"

"Sure, baby." He turned, holding onto her waist with one arm, and shook Danny's hand. "Good seeing you, man." Jonathan ran ahead into their house while Tony walked with Angela, letting his hand fall to her hip and giving it a squeeze. He knew Danny found Jess attractive and would be watching them walk away. He had to mark his territory.

After Angela's chat with Sheila, she was hyper aware of the seemingly ordinary little touches and glances that occurred while she and Tony made dinner together. Bobby's possessiveness and his affectionate relationship with their son did nothing to tame the fire building in her. She tried to focus on cutting vegetables, but he came up behind her, and she had to put down the knife for fear of slicing off her own arm.

He wrapped a hand around her bicep and said, in a low voice, "I missed you today." In the shower that morning, he had come up with a new tactic: avoid using her name at home. They were all pretty fluent in their cover identities by now. He hoped she would unconsciously follow suit and stop calling him Bobby when they weren't in front of an audience.

"I'd like to go out with you this weekend, if you can think of something that doesn't cost too much," she said to the cutting board. It was a surprise, and he wondered what she and Sheila had discussed.

"Just the two of us?" he clarified, putting his other hand on her hip.

"Yeah, when Mom is home to watch the kids," she said.

"She has a date tomorrow night. How about Sunday? We can take the pickup and go stargazing."

Her breath caught as he dug his fingers into her hip and thumbed across the flesh of her rear. "Yeah, ok."

Mona and Sam sat on the couch watching the pair in the kitchen be entirely unproductive. Neither of them understood why they would go from flirty to heated to barely speaking, but it appeared that the chill of Christmas night had departed.