When she saw the doorknob turn she lit the lighter and held it up and began a bohemian-type dance in the darkness of Elliot’s bedroom area. She heard him laughing, his real out-loud laugh. She turned and smiled, “Hey man,” she said throwing a peace sign. He shook his head and took flippers leash off. He walked slowly over to her and took the joint out of her mouth and took a hit.

“Like it?” she asked gesturing to herself. He nodded and grabbed her around the middle with one hand and pulled her to him. She continued dancing against him and he handed her the joint. She took a hit and said, “come on, you’re not dancing with me.”

“You’re doing good enough for both of us,” he said.

She spun around and pushed her hips into him as she moved, she felt his hardness through his sweatpants the more she moved. He gripped her hips and let her hold the joint for him when it was his turn to hit it. After a while of this, his hands started gripping tighter and he let out little sounds. She walked over to the bed leaving him standing there frustrated. She put the joint out in the ashtray and motioned for him to come over to her. When he got there she pushed him down on the edge of the bed. He sat there biting his lip as she told him to scoot back some. He did as he was told and she straddled him. She ran her hands through his hair and pulled it gently as she gave him a little lap dance. The tug on his hair set him off and he groaned. He didn’t even bother taking her clothes off, he just moved part of the boxer briefs she was wearing, which were too big on her, over and pulled his sweats down enough to get himself free. She giggled a little as she rode him.

“What?” he whispered.

“You could have waited so I could get undressed,” she said.

“No, no I couldn’t,” he panted against her neck. He stood up picking her up with him and turned around and laid her down on the bed, “take your clothes off,” he commanded.

She did and he took his off and got on top of her.

“I love you, baby,” he gasped as they started having sex again.

“I love you,” she said.

“Is it okay if I go harder?” he asked.

She giggled, “yes please.”

He did, and she had to tell him harder over and over until it was how she wanted it, she was screaming cuss words she never said, and scratching his back till he bled. Elliot trembled and tried to keep himself from moaning too loud because she knew he thought it would trigger her. But at this moment she didn’t think her mind could focus on anything except how good he felt. She came so hard that her tightness around him made him unable to move. He tried to cuss but couldn’t even talk so he let out a whimper and bit his lip as his eyes rolled back. She waited for the waves of ecstasy to finish as she let out little cries of pleasure, Elliot collapsed on her and sucked in sharp breathes trying to handle her.

“I’m still coming,” he whispered. All she could do was moan a response because she was too. She grabbed his ass as the final wave took her and her legs shook around him. She tightened a little more and Elliot shoved his face in the bed beside her to muffle himself yelling, “fuuuck, oh fuck.”

Finally, her grip relaxed and they lay there for a moment, “damn,” she whispered.

“The fuck was that?” Elliot asked.

“I don’t know, I’ve never done that before, it was like I couldn’t stop having orgasms,” she said trying to catch her breath, “they just kept coming, wave after wave.”

Elliot rolled over on his back and blinked, “damn, come here.” He leaned over her and put his hand on her neck, rubbing her chin with his thumb. He kissed her deeply then whispered, “I love you so much.”

“I love you,” she whispered. She closed her eyes and moaned softly.

“You alright?” he laughed.

“About half,” she said, smiling, “I still can’t move, what did you do to me, Alderson?”

“Me? What about you? I was stuck, I didn’t know that was even possible,” he said.

“Did it hurt?” she opened her eyes concerned.

“Nah, it was…” he blew out a deep sigh then shook his head and grinned, laying back down. He looked over at her, “this is beyond needing a cigarette, like the next level,” he said.

She laughed, “what do you need if not a cigarette?”

“Nothing, just you.”

“Aww baby, I would kiss you if I could move any part of my body,” she said.

He got up and kissed her then stood up and held out his hands to her. She reluctantly raised up and grabbed his hands and he pulled her all the way up easily.

“You’re very strong for a nerd,” she said. She had to place her hands on his chest to steady herself, her legs felt like rubber bands.

“I got you,” he said holding her around her waist until she recovered, then he said, “I hope I didn’t hurt you.”

She laughed then said, “I’m fine, just shaken up… in a good way.” She was able to make it to the bathroom by herself to clean up a bit and she hoped he was getting dressed because she couldn’t go another round for a while. When she came out Elliot was at his computer in his black sweatpants and a black tank top. She had to do a double-take because she didn’t know he owned any shirt without sleeves. It was clean and well-fitted enough to look more ‘hot guy at the gym’ than ‘redneck beating his wife’. Elliot might have been a nerd, but he knew what worked on his body. Or maybe he didn’t care and his body made everything look good on its own. He didn’t turn around to look at her so she put on the shirt he had given her and put the boxer briefs back on. She took a guess and said, “I’m decent.” He turned around and said, “it helps but only a little.”

“What are you doing over there?” she asked.

“Darlene texted me, I was in the news again.”

Her heart stopped, what had he done? “What for?” she asked trying to sound casual.

“Same thing, they just found more stuff at the plant, incriminating White Rose more, they just mentioned me because I stopped her.”

“So, you’re not in trouble?”

“Nah, I just want to see what they say about the dark army, keep an eye on things.”

“Oh well that’s a relief,” she said.

“Do you worry about me?” he asked sounding surprised.

“Of course, I do Elliot, I love you if you…” she stopped and tried to swallow the lump in her throat.

He spun around, “Hey, I’m okay, come here,” he said patting his leg. She walked over and sat on his lap and he spun the chair back around. She put her arms around his shoulders and leaned her head against his. He went back to looking at the screen, reading some articles. She read along to some of them, she hadn’t even looked the event up because she knew the basics and knew the details were probably horrifying. She couldn’t bear to think of her sweet boyfriend who liked fruity pebbles being held in a nuclear plant by some lunatic and her cult following as it went Chernobyl around them. The next article he clicked showed a picture of the site after the explosion of the machine. Then some more pictures, Raine watched them as he scrolled. Then one came up of Elliot right after the blast, on a stretcher unconscious and bloody. She made a noise that was a whimper mixed with a groan and looked away. He quickly scrolled away from the picture and stopped to rub her arm. She buried her face in his neck and started crying softly, she knew he was fine but she couldn’t help it.

“I didn’t know that picture existed, I’m sorry,” he said.

“Don’t be, I know you’re fine, it’s just hard to see that,” she said wiping her eyes. She held his face with both hands and rubbed his hair above his ears slowly as if she was comforting the wounds that she knew weren’t there anymore. He leaned his forehead into hers and closed his eyes. He whispered, “kiss me.” She gave him a little kiss and he opened his eyes, for some reason being this close and him looking so directly into her eyes was jarring. It felt like he was looking into her instead of at her. She didn’t back away though, she looked back at him trying to see inside of him the way it seemed he was doing to her. Everything else seemed to melt away and she started to feel better. He was here, and he was better than he’d been in almost his entire life. He kissed her softly and said, “go to bed baby, I’ll be there in a minute, I don’t want you looking at this stuff.”

She just nodded and got up and went over to her side of the bed and curled up under the covers. She was almost asleep when Elliot turned off the lights and came to bed.

“You asleep?” he whispered.

She turned around and snuggled up to him and put her head on his chest, “no.”

“You sound sleepy.”

“I don’t want to sleep.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t want this night to end.”

He squeezed her shoulder, “you’ll have fun tomorrow, at Papi’s.”

“I know but I have to leave you,” she said.

“You want to take my hoodie?” he asked.

“Oh, I couldn’t do that, you might need it,” she said, not referring to the weather.

He didn’t say anything, so she knew he was apprehensive about giving it up. She said, “you offering, is the sweetest thing ever, so thank you, but you keep it.”

“I’d give you anything,” he said.

“I know but I wouldn’t take everything,” she said hoping he got that she meant so much more than what she said. She wanted to give him things too but she didn’t have anything to give.

“I have your tee shirt, and Sam,” she said, “you don’t have anything of mine here.”

“Yes I do,” he said.

“What?” she asked. He put his hand on her chest and part of her wanted to joke about her boobs but she knew he was serious so she said, “oh yeah, you have that for sure.”

“And you have mine,” he said.

“See this is what I want forever, I don’t want things to get bad.”

“Why would things get bad?” he asked.

“I just get scared because you seem too good to be true.”

“You think I’m hiding something?” he asked.

“No, not at all…I just get scared you’ll wake up and realize you’re too good for me.”

“But I’m not, if anything it’s the opposite.”

“No, you’re so good, and I don’t just mean because you do good things for me, but because you do good, you are good.”

“You’re good too,” he said.

“I don’t feel like I am,” she said.

“You’re good because you always put everyone else ahead of yourself, you make Darlene happy and you’re a good influence on her, you take care of Papi and want what’s best for his legacy, and you are good because you make my life mean something, you make me glad I stayed in this world, you and Darlene… and flipper are my reasons for living… almost no one has made me laugh like you have before I met you I rarely laughed, I rarely had… fun, you brought me that, you’re a light that makes my life brighter.”

She got up and kissed him, and they ended up making love, it was so gentle and slow, the total opposite of the last time and somehow just as good. She was crying and so was he, they didn’t say anything until the end when he said, “I love you so much baby,” and she said, “I love you, Elliot.”

She fell asleep on him right after, neither of them had bothered to put clothes back on. About five hours later just before sunrise, he woke her up by kissing her neck, she must’ve rolled off of him during her sleep because she was on her back.

“Come here,” she whispered.

“I’m here,” he said.

“No, on top of me,” she said.

“You sure, are you even awake?”

“Awake enough,” she said. They both were half asleep, but they did it again until the sun started to come out. Then they both fell back to sleep. She woke up before him and watched him sleep for a while. Then when he didn’t wake up she decided to make coffee, she drank her coffee and looked at her phone. Elliot was still asleep so she went over to make sure he was okay. He seemed alright and looked happy so she let him be and went and took a quick shower and got ready. She came out to get dressed and after she got her dress on she heard him moving. He was reaching for her on her side of the bed but when he didn’t find her he got up in a panic and looked around. When he saw her, he relaxed, she smiled at him.

“You’re already up?” he asked.

“It’s ten-thirty,” she said.

“It’s early, come back to bed,” he said.

“I’m already dressed,” she said.

“Are you leaving now?” he asked.

“No,” she said, she walked over and sat down beside him on the bed, “I was planning to wake you up like yesterday but since you’re awake…” she started.

He laid back down and closed his eyes, “I’m asleep.”

She laughed, got undressed, and got back in bed, giving him what he wanted. They had sex and afterward, she said, “Okay, I need more coffee.”

He had his arm around her and when she tried to get up he squeezed her and said, “I have a better idea.”

“What’s that?” she asked.

“Neither of us leave this bed ever again.”

“Then how would we have sex on the couch? Or on the drier? Or the shower? Or with you bending me over the table?” she teased.

“I never bent you over the table,” he said.

“Yet,” she giggled.

He grinned and let her get up, she went to get some more coffee completely naked and he got out of bed completely naked.

He walked over to her and got so close she could feel him against her ass. He whispered almost pleading, “now?”

“Nope, I want you to think about it until the next time I’m here,” she said, turning and bumping him away playfully with her hip.

“She’s so mean,” he said under his breath but so she would hear him.

She sat at the table and drank her coffee and pretended she hadn’t heard him so he sat down across from her, “so we are just gonna walk around naked and not have sex?”

“I didn’t tell you not to get dressed,” she said.

“You’re such a tease,” he laughed.

“We just had sex, I think you’ll be alright,” she said winking. He got up and walked over behind her and leaned down and gave her a kiss on the cheek. Then he went and threw his sweatpants and tank top on.

“You’re not getting dressed?” he asked.

“Well we’ve been wearing clothes off-and-on all weekend, and it hasn’t slowed us down even a little bit, so how could this hurt?”

“But maybe it did slow us down, imagine how many times we’d have done it if we were naked all weekend,” he said.

She turned and raised an eyebrow at him, “now that sounds like a fun future experiment.”

He laughed and threw the shirt he gave her, at her. She put it on and then put on her panties. She packed her stuff up while Elliot rolled a joint.

“You roll better than me,” he said.

She took it from him and examined it, “you’re not bad, I just have more practice, I don’t think you realize how much I smoked in high school, I was that girl.”

“Stoner girl? That’s cute,” he said.

“I don’t know how I’m not burnt out, and I’m not immune at all, I can’t smoke a whole joint by myself, well I could and have and it was not okay.”

“What happened?” he said lighting the joint and taking a hit.

“Well I’d had a bad day, I’ll leave it at that, and I was so mad and upset so I just like rage smoked a big fat joint…I was in my dorm and I don’t know exactly what all happened but I got sort of arrested by campus security because I went to the café on campus and got like so much ice cream, I kept filling bowls and tried to carry it all home, I was covered in ice cream but like oh I forgot… I was in my underwear covered in ice cream, in the security office just like laughing my ass off, because the officer looked like some guy from a cartoon …I don’t know it was a disaster… that’s how I met my first musician friend, that group looked me up after that.”

Elliot was laughing and then he said, “so you were right?”

“About what?”

“When you said every time you humiliate yourself, it brings something good to your life, that’s how you met those friends,” he said.

She smiled because it was true and because Elliot remembered everything she said, she wasn’t used to many people doing that.

“Yea I guess I was,” she said.

“And the fun I’m going to have, knowing that story,” he said. She rolled her eyes at him and he said, “if I let you smoke this, you’re not going to get naked walking home?”

“Shut up,” she said taking it from him and taking a big hit.

After they smoked, she had to get dressed and leave. She fought back tears as she started to say goodbye, “I’m so embarrassed,” she said.

“Why?” he asked.

“I’m just leaving for the day and I feel like crying, that’s ridiculous,” she said.

“Aww come here baby,” he said, holding her and kissing her forehead.

His hugging her made her cry more, “oh my gosh, what is wrong with me?” she said wiping her eyes.

He held her head in his hands and kissed her tears and she said, “I love you.”

“Love you,” he said kissing her, “I can come over later for a little bit.”

She shook her head, “you don’t have to, I’ll be fine, maybe I’m just hormonal.”

“What if I want to?” he asked.

“That’s okay too,” she laughed, kissing him quickly. She said goodbye to flipper and Elliot walked her downstairs. Instead of kissing her goodbye, he kissed her hand as she walked away. She carried her giant purse and Sam down the street and when she was almost home she got a text, it was Elliot and all it said was: ‘miss you’. She smiled and sent back ‘me too’ before she went to get in her car. She put Sam in the passenger seat and put his seatbelt on just to make herself laugh. She took a quick picture of it and sent it to Elliot. He sent back ‘lol very responsible’. She didn’t reply because she didn’t want to seem needy. She started the car but got another text. It was Elliot.

E: text me when you head home, and I’ll come over if that’s okay, I miss you so much!

R: Okay, yes I want to see you ASAP

E: love you, have fun

R: love you

At least he had it as bad for her as she did him, she thought as she pulled out of the ally. She got to Papi’s and he was at the kitchen table making homemade pasta.

“Papi, you’re not supposed to be working.”

“This isn’t work, I need to have something to do with my time,” he grumbled. She sat down and started helping him shape the dough, something her dad had taught her when she was a toddler. Papi always had her do this when she was upset or nervous about something because he said the repetitiveness calmed the mind. It had always worked for her.

“Papi are you okay? You’re not doing this because you’re nervous about something are you?” she asked, and he hesitated which was a ‘yes’ from him. She waited because she knew it took a lot for him to open up.

“I’ve been talking to Anton from mulberry street, he says he’s about to go out of business,” he said. Papi always got nervous about the shop when there was bad news from mulberry street. Anton owned the most successful authentic Italian restaurant south of central park, he just liked to complain.

“Papi Anton’s business is thriving and the shop, it’s going great but it’s about to do better I presume,” she said.

“Why’s that?” he asked.

“We have a website!” she said excitedly.

“When do you have time to run a website? No, you do too much,” he said waving a hand at her.

“I didn’t put it up and I’m not running it… Elliot is,” she said hesitantly.

“This hero boyfriend?” he asked.

She blushed and smiled, “yea, he made the site for us and offered to run it.”

“How much is he charging?” Papi eyed her suspiciously.

“He isn’t, he wanted to do it… for me, for the community, and for himself, he thinks it’s fun,” she shrugged.

“Ha! Fun?” he shook his head and chuckled.

“I know, the internet is ruining everything,” she said.

“I didn’t say that people, people ruin things, good people use it for good, but bad people use it for the worst things imaginable,” he raised an eyebrow at her.

“You’re right Papi, and Elliot’s good people and this is a good thing,” she said taking out her phone and showing him the page. He couldn’t read the small writing, so she read it to him. Tears formed in his eyes as she read about his history, the history of the shop. His parents were Italian immigrants and his dad had taught him at home how to make Italian gourmet coffee, Papi grew up obsessed with baking pastries and making all sorts of new coffees, he learned French style and new American styles and blended them with his father’s recipes and put everything he owned into buying the old building to open the shop. It had been his life. The write-up mentioned some of the celebrities that frequented the shop and Elliot had found some quotes about the shop from some of them.

“Who wrote all this?” Papi asked her.

“Elliot,” she said.

“How does he know these things?” he asked.

“I told him a lot of it, and he did research on the internet,” she said.

“I didn’t even know old blue eyes said that about me,” Papi said, lip quivering.

“You are so special Papi, to a lot of people, and this site just shares that with the world to let them know it’s more than just coffee,” she said patting his arm. He dabbed his eyes with a handkerchief, and she showed him the pictures Elliot had posted, “he wanted me to look and see if you had any more pictures?”

“Yea boxes and boxes,” he said, “can he put them on there?”

“Yep, I’ll get them out when we get done and we can pick some out, I have some at my apartment too,” she said, she had stopped and got a manila envelope to put them in on the way to Papi’s so they wouldn’t get ruined.

“This Elliot seems like a fine, and smart young man, how old is he?” he asked.

“He’s thirty,” she said.

“Older than you,” Papi said raising his bushy black-grey eyebrows.

“Only four years,” she said.

“Well he seems fine, but you know I always say you can’t tell a thing about a man until you look into his eyes, you can see a person’s soul in their eyes, I’d like to meet this fella,” he said.

“I think you should, I was thinking about bringing him with me next week anyway, if that’s okay?” she said.

“He already agreed to this?” he asked.

“Yea, he’s a little shy around people but he wants to meet you… you know because he knows how important you are to me,” she said.

“That’s a good sign,” he said.

“Is it?” she asked.

“That Luke kid never wanted to know me, he knew I could see right through him, if a boy doesn’t want to meet the father figure in a girl’s life it means he’s up to no good,” Papi said shaking his finger at her.

“Well I would say that’s a little old-fashioned, but you were right about Luke and I think you are right about Elliot being the opposite, well he really is the opposite of Luke,” she said shrugging.

“That is a relief,” he said making her laugh. Raine got out all the boxes from the storage room that used to be her bedroom. It was still the way she left it except with a bunch of stuff piled on top of it. They looked through them at the table and laughed and Papi told stories about so many of them that they didn’t get halfway through before she looked at her phone and realized how late it was getting.

“I have to start cooking dinner, it’s getting late,” she said. Papi looked a little sad so she said, “I haven’t even scratched the surface, so I’ll probably have to come over a couple of times this week and do this again.”

Papi fought a smile and said, “I didn’t know it would take this long.”

“We aren’t in a hurry, I’ll take the ones we picked tonight, and we can just take our time looking through, then Sunday Elliot can help us, I think he wants to hear some stories about me as a kid.”

“Oh, I have so many of those,” he said.

“And I’m sure every one of them is humiliating,” she laughed.

“You were always a special child,” he said. She had gotten up and started cooking so she looked back at him and he was smiling, she couldn’t decide if it was a compliment or not, so she just shook her head and went back to cooking. Papi chuckled behind her, not knowing she heard him. She cleared the table and sat the boxes where he wouldn’t fall over them and they ate dinner and talked, Papi said he wasn’t feeling up to church but she knew he just wanted to spend more time with her. She stayed as late as she could let herself because they were having such a good time. When she finally got to her car she decided to call Elliot.

“Hello?” he said on the second ring. As soon as she heard his voice she burst into tears. “Hey, what’s wrong?” he said panicked.

“Nothing, I just got in my car, I’m fine,” she sobbed.

“Why you crying, baby?”

“Papi and I went through pictures, and it just… I hate leaving him, it’s so hard every time but tonight it’s worse, he didn’t want me to leave.”

“Can you drive like this? You want a cab?” he asked.

“No, I’m okay to drive, I cry when I drive all the time,” she said.

“Why?” he asked.

“I just think and talk to myself when I drive and I don’t know I’m weird,” she said.

“Well I wish I could be there, how is he other than wanting you to stay?”

“He seemed great, he was making homemade pasta when I got here because he was nervous about the shop, he’s so excited about the website, I read him the stuff you put on there and he cried,” she told him. Elliot didn’t say anything for a while so she said, “Elliot?”

“Yea, that’s so good,” he said, but she thought she heard a crack in his voice, he was about to cry himself. She smiled.

“I’m sorry I’m leaving so late, are you still coming over?” she asked.

“Yea I’m here now was talking to Darlene,” he said.

“Oh okay, I’ll be there soon,” she said.

“Be careful, love you.”

“Love you,” she said.

When she pulled into her parking spot she saw Elliot and Darlene setting on the picnic table smoking. She got out and got her stuff, Elliot walked over to see if she needed help. She handed him the envelope with the pictures and then she walked around to the other side to get Sam out of the passenger seat. Darlene laughed when she saw the seatbelt on the small toy elephant, “you’re so cheesy.”

“This is Sam, Elliot won him, it took him a really long time,” Raine laughed.

“Not that long,” Elliot scoffed.

Raine tilted her head with mock sympathy and said, “you guys smoking?”

“Not yet, we waited for you,” Darlene said.

“That’s my girl,” she said.

“Wife,” Darlene corrected.

“You know if Raine and I get married for real you can’t call her that anymore?” Elliot said.

Raine just blushed because it was way too soon to be talking about marriage, wasn’t it?

“Ugh, don’t tell me you guys are engaged already,” Darlene said.

“No, of course not,” Raine said laughing. Elliot looked at her and took a hard hit off his cigarette. Maybe she shouldn’t have said that so casually. He leaned against the wall and put his hood up. That was a bad sign, and Darlene picked up on it saying, “give me your shit and I’ll take it upstairs, so you two can be alone, you better not be doing it when I get back.”

Raine laughed and said, “shut up.”

When she went in, Elliot had his eyes closed, his hands in his hoodie pockets and he had leaned his head back on the wall. Raine walked over to him and stood in front of him, slipping her hands into his pockets and lacing her fingers in his.

He opened one eye just a little and looked down at her, “you feeling better?”

“Yea, hey I didn’t mean…” she started.

“Nah, don’t worry about it,” he interrupted.

“You cold?” she asked.

“No why?”

“You have your hood up,” she said.

He closed his eye again and sighed.

“Elliot, talk to me,” she said.

“I’m not, not talking to you.”

“Papi suggested meeting you before I even told him we had planned it,” she said trying to brighten his mood.

“Oh yea?” he said grinning a little.

“Yea, so you want to come?”

“I said I would,” he said.

She huffed, he was being stubborn.

“What?” he said looking down at her again through barely open eyes.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“I just… I don’t know if you think I should slow myself down.”

“Like how?”

“Like I know you said you don’t think about stuff, but I really do and maybe I shouldn’t… not if you don’t,” he said.

She knew the ‘stuff’ he was talking about was being married, so she said, “I think you and I just don’t think of the same thing when someone says that word, you think of it like that’s the thing that makes it real and for forever… to me it’s already real and for forever, with or without that word… but it scares me, not because of you I already told you what I would say if you asked, even if you asked me right now probably… but the idea of that in general, just brings up this image of being a Stepford wife to me.”

“I get that,” he said, relaxing a little, then he grinned, “if I asked you right now?”

“Maybe,” she blushed.

“Well,” he sighed, “that’s good because…” he paused giving her time to freak out, he shrugged and said, “it just is.”

She slapped his arm and then put her hand behind his neck, pulling herself up to kiss him. He took his hands out of his pockets and put them around her and he laughed as she kissed him.

“You’re an asshole, Elliot Alderson,” she whispered.

“And you’re stuck with me,” he said, grinning.

“Oh, is that so?” she said.

“Yeah, that word or not,” he said nibbling her lip. She smiled and they kissed until they heard Darlene open the door. Raine backed away and straightened her dress.

“We good?” Darlene asked.

“Yea,” Raine said.

“I’m sleeping here tonight,” Darlene said.

“Cool,” Raine said. They smoked and talked for a while, Darlene laid down on the top of the picnic table and Elliot sat on the seat with Raine sitting on his lap sideways. Darlene started singing ‘last dance with mary jane’ and Raine joined in. “Come on babe, sing with us,” Raine said.

“Nah, I’m good,” he said puffing his cigarette. She watched him as he blew smoke into the air and he saw her watching him and hid a grin. She giggled lightly, and he gave her a little spank and said, “be good.”

“It’s hard,” she said.

He raised an eyebrow and started to say something then shook his head, and instead looked at his phone and said, “I should probably head home, I have to be up early tomorrow.”

They stood and he said goodbye to Darlene and then he told Raine he’d text her when he got home.

“Okay,” Raine said touching his face as he kissed her goodbye.

He pulled his hood up over his head and walked away. She felt an ache in the center of her and let out a little whine.

“You have got it bad,” Darlene said, throwing her arm around Raine.

Raine sighed and said, “I am pathetic, he’s right there walking away, and I miss him, everything inside of me wants to run after him right now, that’s pathetic like I feel desperate and pathetic.”

“It would be pathetic if he didn’t feel the same way,” Darlene said.

“So, what is it called when we both feel this way?” she asked.

“It’s love, duh,” Darlene laughed.

“I guess I’ve never been in love before,” Raine said almost to herself.

“Come on Juliet,” Darlene said.

“No, that story ends badly,” she said.

“So, why’d you name the elephant Sam?” Darlene asked. Raine explained it to her as they walked up to her apartment. When they got in Darlene said, “So good news about your case.”

“Thank God, what happened?” Raine asked.

“Well I got Dom your medical records,” she said.

“How did… never mind, continue,” Raine said.

“Well they all look very incriminating, but we tracked down a nurse who was on duty when you lost your ovaries, and she remembered him very clearly bringing you in and yelling ‘I think I killed her’ repeatedly.”

“Wow,” Raine said.

“I know I can’t believe she remembered,” Darlene said.

“I can’t believe he cared if I died, I didn’t know who even took me to the hospital… because afterward, he kept telling me he wished I would have died.”

“Well maybe he didn’t want to go to jail for murder,” Darlene said.

“True, is that all?”

“Dom said the nurse wanted to go to the police and you said you didn’t remember what happened, so she didn’t think you’d press charges, she gave Dom an official statement and is willing to testify against him.”

Raine rolled her eyes and wiped a tear, “I didn’t remember at that time, it took weeks to dig that out of my subconscious, I guess I should have known.”

“Hey, it’s okay, we will get him now, we are so close, and what about the time you were in the hospital for malnourishment?” Darlene asked.

“Oh, he kept me locked in his basement for like two weeks… he fed me a little but not enough and I passed out, I think he thought I was dead then too,” Raine said.

Darlene let out a stream of cuss words, then said, “if we don’t get him, I’ll kill him myself.”

“No, now you sound like Elliot,” Raine said.

“Does he know any of this?” Darlene asked.

“I left out a lot so he wouldn’t have a reaction like… that,” she said.

“Good, don’t tell him, he doesn’t need to ever hear that,” Darlene said. Raine agreed then as if knowing he was being discussed Raine’s phone rang and it was Elliot.

“Hello?” she said.

“Hey baby,” he said.

“Hi,” Raine said sweetly, Darlene rolled her eyes and pretended to gag herself jokingly.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Talking to Darlene,” she said, “she’s making faces at me because we are too cute.”

“Tell her to shut up,” he said.

“Elliot said to stop,” Raine laughed.

“Tell him to suck my dick,” Darlene said.

Raine laughed and Elliot sighed, then he said, “anyway, I know I said I would text but I wanted to call instead, just to hear your voice.”

“Aww, I’m glad you did,” she said, flipping off Darlene who was making lewd gestures at her.

“Really?” he asked.

“Yes, of course, I felt physical pain when you left just from like, missing you, and that was before you even got out of the ally,” she said, then wondered if she’d said too much and asked, “is that pathetic?”

Elliot laughed, “no, but I’m sorry you felt that, maybe you can cuddle with Sam and feel close to me.”

“I am already,” she said.

He let out a little sexy laugh and she felt like melting into her mattress, then he said, “I can’t wait to see you tomorrow if you want I’ll probably be at work late but maybe you can come in and have lunch with me?”

“Oh, yea I get off at like three though so noon?” she asked.

“I meant I’d be working late as in all night, I’ll take a late lunch after you get off work,” he said, “that’s why I wanted to do that because there’s no way I’ll make it out in time to see you outside of work.”

“Oh okay, yeah that sounds fun,” she said, though she was a little nervous to be in such a corporate environment.

“Cool, I’ll text you the address and we can talk about details tomorrow,” he said, sounding almost professional.

She giggled a little, “yes sir.”

He laughed lightly again and a tingle went up her spine, Darlene was on her laptop trying to ignore her probably.

Elliot said, “I’ll let you go so you can get some sleep.”

She whimpered jokingly and said, “okay, I guess.”

“I miss you too, love you,”

“I love you,” she said.

He moaned and whispered, “Say it again.”

She giggled, “I love you.”

“One more time,” he said.

“Elliot,” she said.

“Okay, I’ll stop,” he said.

“I love you,” she said.

“Thank you,” he laughed, “love you, goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” she said, then hung up. She laid there smiling at her phone and Darlene turned around. Raine looked at her and then hugged her phone.

“Ugh, you guys are literally so cute it’s disgusting… like actually disgusting, you know that right?” Darlene asked.

Raine giggled, “you don’t understand, he’s a baby lamb and I love him.”

“Oh, that explains it,” Darlene rolled her eyes, but Raine could see that she was happy for both of them.

“What all did he say about this weekend?” Raine asked.

“Well he left off the details but said, you guys screwed like rabbits and mostly he kept going on and on about how in love with you he is, he seriously told me that he’s sure he’s going to marry you,” Darlene said.

“There’s no way Elliot used the phrase ‘screwed like rabbits’,” Raine said.

“No his exact words were, ‘stop asking me if I got laid yet, Darlene, we had sex at least once every hour and I fucked her until she couldn’t walk, does that answer your question’ and I said, gross and he said ‘that’s why you don’t ask your brother about his sex life’,” Darlene said shrugging. Raine started laughing and got up to change into Elliot’s shirt, Darlene started to comment but Raine said ‘don’t say a word’ and got back in bed and hugged her best friend.

“What was that for?” Darlene asked.

“Because I love you, and because you’ve done so much for me, we can talk about Dom and I’ll shut up about Elliot if you want, I know I’ve been talking about him too much,” Raine said.

“No, Dom and I haven’t had any cute conversations, just talking about the case, we’ve hooked up a few times but we don’t talk about us, besides you’ve been single since I’ve known you, I have talked your ear off about my relationships, it’s your turn, you deserve this happiness, so come on tell me everything,” Darlene said laying down and covering up like she was waiting for a bedtime story.

“Well first of all the whole ‘until I couldn’t walk’ thing is true, I was… I mean I know I shouldn’t tell you this but damn he’s so good, that’s all I’m going to say, but aside from that what did he say about getting married?” Raine asked.

“He was going on and on telling me things he loved about you, which by the way is everything apparently, and he just accidentally blurted out, ‘I will marry that girl someday' and I was like Elliot you’ve been dating a week and he insisted that he just ‘knew’ you were his soulmate,” Darlene shrugged.

“I think he’s right,” Raine said.

“You would marry him? Like soon?” Darlene asked.

“I would if he asked, you know how I feel about marriage but since I know Elliot wouldn’t want me to be some weird housewife and would let me just be me like I don’t care if we are married, I just want to be with him for the rest of my life and see him all the time,” Raine said.

“That’s what marriage is in the real world, you know outside the minds of disturbed misogynists like your ex, I mean most marriages do suck but I think the only real point is supposed to be to promise to be together forever,” Darlene said.

“I need to rewire my brain to stop thinking it’s what Luke always said it was, maybe Krista can help, but as far as Elliot being with me for the rest of my life, it wouldn’t suck,” she laughed, “I do think we need to be together for a while longer to really be sure, the only real problem is him finding out this whole Luke thing, once we get through this, things will be easier for me, I can’t marry him with this secret, I don’t even want him to ask me until he knows this because he knows I have this baggage but he might not want to be with someone who has this problem still in her life,” Raine said.

“I don’t think that will be a problem, I think he will be mad and hurt that we kept it from him but he’ll get over it, we did it for his own good,” Darlene said. They talked more about everything until they fell asleep.