Teamwork

After the way things went the last time, Julia is a little nervous to go to Mike and Tom's apartment again. Mike had invited her over and she honestly has no idea what to expect. She doesn't know if Tom will be there or if Mike will have kicked him out for the night. She hasn't talked to Tom since they left her apartment Sunday morning after that awkward encounter with her mother but that doesn't really mean anything as far as tonight is concerned.

She begins to second guess her wardrobe choice in the elevator; she'd gone for comfortable and warm rather than sexy and now she's wondering if she should have put a lot a little more effort into getting ready for tonight. Simple blue jeans and comfy shirt now seem a little too frumpy; all she'd done in the makeup department was put on a little powder and some cherry chapstick; her light brown waves are pulled back into a low ponytail. By the time the elevator dings, signifying that she's reached their floor, she's kind of panicking and cursing herself for it. She yanks the elastic out of her hair and ruffles it a little with her fingers as she walks over to their apartment, and after taking a deep breath, she knocks gently on the door.

It swings open less than five seconds later, revealing Mike dressed similarly in blue jeans and a black tee shirt with an easy smile on his face. "Hey, Julia," he greets, grabbing a gray hoodie off of the hook by the door. "You hungry?"

"I could eat," she shrugs as he tugs the hoodie on over his head.

He pats his pockets to make sure he's got his keys and wallet. "Good. I know a good place right down the street."

She turns to head back to the elevator and he's right on her heels, stepping on behind her and pressing the button for the lobby. They walk to the Italian restaurant in comfortable silence and are seated immediately at a small table by the window. Their waitress is young and pretty with long blonde hair that she flicks over her shoulder flirtatiously as Mike orders a beer for himself, but he he doesn't spend any extra time looking at her or flirting back and she walks back to the kitchen disheartened while he turns his attention back to Julia, not having noticed a thing.

"So, you like baseball?" he asks, nodding to her shirt.

Julia looks down at the Washington logo plastered across her chest before she returns her gaze to him and shrugs. "I was never like a huge fan but my ex boyfriend played so I did get into it a little bit."

"Your ex? Did he play for your college?"

"Uh, no," she laughs awkwardly. "The Nats."

Mike's eyes widen. "Your ex boyfriend played for the Nationals? Seriously? Who is he?"

"His name's Bryce."

"You dated Bryce Har-...." Mike cuts himself off when he sees the waitress returning to their table with their drinks, but once she's gone again, he's right back into it. "Why'd you break up?"

Julia wonders why he even cares about this at all because she's pretty sure she doesn't want to know about his exes. She's too much the jealous type even though Mike's technically not even anything to her. She'd have no right to be but that wouldn't stop her from being jealous of the girls who used to date him.

"We were friends first and we tried dating for about six months but it just didn't work out. We're definitely better just being friends."

"You're still friends with him then?"

She nods, picking up her glass to take a sip of water. "We don't get to see each other a whole lot during their season because they're gone so much but I go to as many home games as I can and we hang out some during the off season."

"And that's not weird?"

"Not really," she shrugs. "Since we were friends first, we kind of just went right back to that after we broke up. It did get awkward the first time he introduced me to a new girl he was seeing but, I don't know, I guess I got used to it after awhile and it's fine now."

"So are you friends with all your ex boyfriends?"

She laughs. "No, Bryce is the only one. Though in all fairness, he's one of only three ex boyfriends total."

"Three? In your whole life? How is that possible?"

"Well, I dated him for six months last year. My sophomore year of college I started dating a guy and we were together for over a year. And before that, I dated this guy from my University 101 class for like three or four months. That's all," she shrugs. "I didn't date in high school."

"Why the hell not?"

Julia takes another sip of her water. "My mom got pregnant when she was sixteen. I was always terrified about that happening to me too so I didn't even try to touch a guy until halfway through my first semester of college."

"Fuck, I couldn't have done that. It would've been torture for me."

"It wasn't that bad, I didn't know what I was missing then. Besides, the guys in my high school were a bunch of douchebags anyway."

Mike chuckles. "Guess that made it a little easier."

"Much."

There's a beat or two of silence where Julia isn't sure if she should reciprocate and ask him about his former girlfriends. She would really rather not hear about them, positive they're all beautiful models or something, but her politeness wins out and she ends up asking just to keep the awkwardness from lingering.

"So what about you? Are you friends with any of your exes?"

"Hell no," he says, shaking his head. "I don't think I've ever even had a relationship that ended on good terms."

"Why not?"

Mike tips back his beer before he answers. "Always typical shit, I guess. 'You're gone too much, You love hockey more than me, I slept with your best friend while you were on a road trip'."

Julia winces. "Ouch."

"Should've seen it coming, I guess."

"What? Mike, no. You shouldn't have to expect that. That was just a bunch of shitty girls. You're a fucking hockey player. They should've known what they were signing up for."

"Do you?"

"Am I....signing up?"

He shrugs his shoulders but he's smiling a little. "That something you might be interested in?"

"Maybe," she says with a laugh to mask her sudden nerves.

Luckily, their food comes out so they're distracted by their plates for a few minutes. When the conversation does start back up, it's a completely different topic and a much more comfortable one. They both talk about their weeks, Julia with her busy week at school and Mike with his week packed full of hockey games that ended in two losses and two wins. After Mike pays the check, much to his insistence, they leave the restaurant and walk back to his building, stopping to get frozen yogurt on the way.

Julia sheds her jacket and shoes at the door and Mike does the same before they settle on the huge, comfy sofa with their desserts. He props his legs up on the ottoman in front of them and she props hers up on his while he scrolls through the television guide to find something suitable to watch. Finding nothing satisfactory, he breaks out the netflix account that he and Tom share, handing the remote control over to her.

"Here, you pick."

"Are you sure you wanna give me that power?"

"As long as you don't make me watch some chick flick."

"Says the guy who has Legally Blonde in his 'recently watched'!" she points out, highly amused.

Mike laughs, shrugging. "It's a good movie."

"Obviously," she agrees. "And what we're about to watch is good too so get ready."

"I'm ready," he says. "Just don't make me regret giving up control of my tv."

She sticks her tongue out at him before she puts on Bob's Burgers and a look of uncertainty comes over his face while she is instantly entertained. They eat their frozen yogurt as they watch and once they're finished, Mike takes their empty cups and sets them aside so that he can pull her into him, sliding his arm around her shoulders. She sinks into his side, immediately comfortable and warm against the soft fabric of his black tee shirt with solid muscle underneath. He rests his cheek against her temple but the stubble along his jaw is scratchy on her skin and she tilts her head up to look at him.

"So, uh, what exactly is this?" she asks, gently brushing her fingertips over the minimal scruff along his jaw.

He grins, rubbing his hand over his chin. "It's November. No shaving."

"You have to do this all month?"

"Yep. Mine won't get much worse than this though since I suck at growing facial hair. But Tom's is so bad. He's starting to get one of those patchy thirteen year old kid mustaches."

"Oh God, don't say that. That puts horrible images in my head."

Mike laughs. "It's pretty gross."

"I can't handle that," she says with a chuckle before gently grabbing his face with one hand. "This, I can deal with."

"Yeah?" He grins at her as he ducks his head down to press his lips to hers. She reacts immediately, her hand slipping down to his solid chest and grabbing a fistful of his tee shirt to pull him closer. His hands move too, one winding into her wavy hair as he cradles the back of her head and the other to squeeze her hip before running down her thigh. He hikes her leg up over his so that she's straddling his lap then works his way under the bottom hem of her shirt, resting his palms against her warm skin and digging his fingertips in a little. She moans softly at the twinge of pain and grinds her hips down in retaliation, causing him to let out a grunt of approval before he grabs the back of her neck and kisses her forcefully.

The sound of a key in the lock of the front door causes them to freeze and they both look over the back of the sofa at the door as it opens and Tom slips inside, shutting it softly behind him. He doesn't see them until he turns to walk toward his bedroom.

"Shit, sorry. I didn't know you guys would be out here."

Julia's distracted by his pathetic excuse for a mustache and she breaks out into laughter, burying her face in Mike's shoulder to muffle the sound. Tom looks at his roommate in confusion, but Mike's still too turned on by her shifting on his lap to find anything amusing. After a moment, she finally lifts her head to look back at Tom again.

"What is that on your face?!"

Tom pouts as he walks over to flop down on the sofa next to them, making sure to leave a few feet of space. "You're mean."

Julia shifts again, causing an involuntary groan to leave Mike's lips, and she presses a quick kiss of apology to his cheek before she moves off of him completely to sit in the empty space between the two boys. "Please tell me it's at least gonna get better than this. Like it's just gross until it fully comes in."

He shakes his head. "This is pretty much as good as it gets."

"See, you should be glad you can't grow facial hair then," she says, turning back to look at Mike. She reaches up to stroke her fingertips along his jaw. "This is fine."

Her face is too close to his and she smells too good and he's still too horny so Mike kisses her again, not even caring that Tom is sitting right there. After all, it's Tom's own fault since he decided to come in and cock block Mike just when things were starting to heat up. Julia kisses him back but only for a few moments before she pulls away.

"Do I get one too?" Tom asks innocently from her other side.

She just shoots him an amused look and shakes her head. "I can't kiss you while you have that thing on your face."

"Hey, that's not fair!" he whines. "The whole team does it. The whole league does it. I can't exactly control how bad it is, you know."

"Aww, you poor thing," she coos, leaning over to peck his cheek but he grabs her before she can move and kisses her. Despite what she'd said, she kisses him back for a moment, but when she finally does pull away, she smacks his chest. "You're an ass."

Tom just grins and shrugs nonchalantly because he got what he wanted. Instead of him retiring to his room to leave them alone, he just sinks further down into the sofa and Julia moves back into Mike's side where she'd been before, letting him wrap his arms around her body. They watch a few more episodes with Tom eventually ending up stretched out with his head resting on Julia's lap. She's got one hand tangled in his shaggy hair and the other on Mike's thigh, gradually moving upwards from his knee. She gets dangerously close but then she just stops, resting her hand so very close to where he wants it. He finally just grabs her hand and puts it there but she keeps her eyes on the television straight ahead and smiles.

"Alright," she says, patting Tom's shoulder. "We're going to bed."

"But it's not even midnight yet," he protests, sitting up.

Julia uses the opportunity to stand and she reaches out a hand to Mike, who is more than eager to take her up on it. "Night, Willy," is all he says as he grabs Julia's hips and steers her toward his bedroom down the hall. Once they're inside with the door shut behind them, he spins her around and backs her against the door. "You trying to torture me?"

"Maybe a little," she smirks before pressing her hand against his chest and she pushes him backwards until his legs hit the mattress, causing him to flop down onto it. "You deserve at least a blowjob after being cockblocked like that."

He returns her smirk and lays back, folding his hands behind his head. "Well then, by all means....."