"So, you've been here a month now huh?" He said as he walked in after his rehearsal. "Yep, just mailed in my rent check. It's been an official full month here. It's been a bit of a wild ride so far." He gave her a high five and told her he knew she could make it work. They sat down to some leftover pizza and White Russians.
"Explain this arrangement we have come to again?" He smiled at her and leaned back into the couch. She was confused, then realized what he meant. "Oh, the Romantic Comedy Relationship Pact? It's simple really. We keep going like we are going, where it's leading. Keep it casual, friends with eventual benefits. And in April of 2017, if we are still speaking to each other, then we try a relationship."
"Got it...so all I have to do is get in a relationship before next April, cool." He said in mock seriousness, then grinned from ear to ear when he realized that he had pissed her off with the comment. She mock-punched him in the arm and he laughed and pulled her into a deep hug, shifting her body on top of his. They cuddled there comfortably, and he jokingly took off his hat and put it on her head. She turned the cap around so that the bill wouldn't come between them, and he smiled and said "You look way too good in my hat."
"Oh yeah?" She returned his smile with one of her own.
"Yeah. It's a problem." He retorted, his inflection clearly indicating that it was only a problem for his Irish Sausage. The full body hug lead to more couch cuddling and a brief make out session; the first time they had kissed in a month. They spent a lot of time fighting it, with their faces close together, forehead to forehead. The kisses were mostly romantic instead of the friendly birthday kisses and the lip-biting move-in day kisses. In that moment they really felt like a couple. She realized later it was only the second kiss they shared that they both didn't taste like their favorite beverage.
"You know, MG and SD were talking the other night about how they just want to be able to snuggle on the couch with someone and watch movies. I hope being FWB doesn't mean losing this right now." She said.
"Mmmm" He agreed, nuzzling into her neck.
As it turned out, it did.
After doing some googling for ground rules on Friends With Benefits, she found that they had already broken all the rules. Like, almost every single FWB rule. One of them was actually no cuddling!
Whoops.
They couldn't be Friends With Benefits. They needed a different arrangement.
She continued to research and found her way to this article, and her new personal hero. The author was smart, witty, and everything she wanted to be. The way she described "taking a lover" was the perfect set up. She liked almost all the rules, and started drafting her own directly after she was finished reading.
She became excited. She was going to be taking a lovah!
