The Friends Zone

by Tarrah Anders

  “Turkey, loud children, beer, football, and expanding pants.” He smiles as he pats his stomach. “Have you given more thought to my idea of promotion?” He then asks.

  “No. I like working with the kids, I don’t want to delegate. That’s not where my heart is.” I simply state looking my director in the eye.

  “You’re a gem Sterling. Let me know if you have any questions.” He says as he gets up. He hasn’t moved yet, but from the stack of folders still in his hand, it looks like he’s dreading going to the next desk to tell the other case worker about add on files.

  I start looking through the top file.

  Female. Age 9. Grade 4. A photo is attached, and she’s adorable. She is slightly awkward with freckles and a long neck. Her name is Tabitha. General facts scatter the page and the following page in regards to the child’s background. I briefly look over the full background information on the foster parents, which includes the parents financials, education, and parenting beliefs. I browsed through the marital history, their health information and official background checks. Everything looked cut and dry. I come to the page in regards to education background on Tabitha.

  There are general notes of un-involvement in the child’s school was troublesome. Education is an important factor, especially for foster kids, and when it’s lacking there should be additional meetings and house visits set up. There also should be a new case plan and on-going parent/teacher meetings. I’m looking through the remainder of the file and there’s no mention of steps of correction or add-ons for the case plan. I shake my mouse on my desk to wake up my computer and pull up the electronic version of the child’s file. I look into the case notes section and I’m starting to get angry as there are no updates in the educational regard. There is no new case plan, there is no major mention of how this child is failing fourth grade.

  I take a deep breath and put my hair up in a messy bun. I get comfortable in my chair and I grab the receiver and dial the contact number for the foster parents. I set up a meet and greet for the following day as I jot down notes on what I would like to discuss with the parents and also what I want to discuss with Tabitha. When I feel pleased with my plan of action, I pull up the second new file placed on my desk.

  I spend the majority of my day looking at the new files, arranging the files to my liking, then making appointments with the families as well as mocking up revised case plans where I see a need. I don’t want to deviate too much from the case plans that Mallory and the families already had set up to not stir up too much change. The final new file I decide that I’m going to bring home with me. Dane is mentioning that he will be working from home for a few days, so with the flexibility in my job, I’m pretty sure that I can swing the same.

  DANE

  There are folders upon folders stacked up on my dining room table, along with scattered papers, it looks organized but I honestly have no idea if it is. There are 2 laptops currently set up on the tables well, one of which is mine and the other is Sterling’s. Since we’re finishing up the last project on the restaurant in La Jolla, and also getting started on the newly acquired bid that Max landed a few weeks ago the workload for the office has increased and Max and I had to hire another body at my firm to assist with some of the back work. The new guy, Lukas is working out great so far, but that doesn’t mean right now that my work load as decreased yet. Max is doing most of the training with Lukas and I’m thankful for that. I’ve taken him to job sites and a few meetings here and there as well as had him mock up a few ideas, so far he’s catching on quickly.

  I’ve started taking my work home to spend more time with Sterling, even though we’re both working half of the time, it’s still time together and for that I’m thankful. Sometimes, she will be hunched over her laptop or rummaging through her notepad and I would be on my laptop drafting plans in CAD or replying to the numerous change emails that clog my inbox, however I will sometimes just stare at her. She’s caught me doing so a few times in which ended with both of us fucking on the couch like savages and laughing afterwards at our lack of determination to work.

  Other days we’ll both be in and out, while she has appointments with some of the newly acquired files she got and acquainting herself with the new kids and I’d be either at a site or meeting with Max in regards to one of the projects.

  Sterling is rubbing the bridge of her nose and sits back in the chair next to me. Her cell screen goes off and she absently checks the message. She scrunches her nose and then puts the phone back down.

  “Work? “ I ask.

  “No. Ryan.” She simply states.

  “What? Why is he texting.” I ask dropping the pencil I was holding.

  “He’s been texting since Thanksgiving. Just random texts here and there. I haven’t responded to him, so I’m unsure why he’s still messaging.” She shrugs.

  I reach for her phone hesitantly. “Do you mind?” I ask. She pushes the phone closer to my reach. Sure enough, there’s dozens of messages declaring that he misses her, that he wants her to call, that he wants to call, that he needs to see her and the list can go on. What I do notice is it’s all one sided. Not that I had any doubts, but I mentally just high-fived myself in triumph over having the girl. I place the phone back on the table.

  “Why don’t you just tell him to stop?” I ask.

  “Because then that opens up the conversation to him. It gives him an ‘in’, and I don’t want him to have that.” She states.

  Again, I mentally high five myself.

  “I’d much rather change my number.” She says pulling off a piece of lint from her sweater.

  I smile to myself and we drop the subject. She resumes back to her work and I start working on my blueprint. We’ve taken another break to ravage each other again on the couch and then promptly started back to work. By the time we crawled into bed, it was past midnight and we were both too tired to take off our clothes. I kiss her goodnight and soon her breathing has evened out. With Sterling’s head on my chest, I lull myself into slumber.

  There’s a startling noise in my bedroom, it sounds like a cat crying, very loudly. I don’t have a cat. I mentally think to myself opening one eye. There’s movement on Sterling’s side of the bed and she hoarsely answers the phone. I peek at the alarm clock next to the lamp on my nightstand, the time reads 8:15am. I jolt awake at the same time she does as it would seem that we both slept through the alarm.

  This late night work is really getting to me. I usually rise before Sterling does.

  I look over at Sterling, she is mumbling something about getting ready into the phone as I’m starting to pull the covers off my side. I grab my phone and text Max that I overslept and will be in the office within the hour. Being the boss has it’s perks like that.

  I walk into the bathroom, itching my stomach and then I run my hand through my hair. I turn on the lights and reach into the shower to turn on the water. Sterling comes up behind me and pulls her arms through mine pulling me back against her. She kisses my shoulder as I peer over it looking at her. Her hair is matted on the side she was sleeping on and she has pillow creases above her eye. She’s just a beautiful first thing in the morning as any other time during the day.

  “Care to join?” I wink at her.

  “That’s exactly what I was thinking. I have an hour to spare before I have to be in the office.” She murmurs.

  “That wasn’t work calling asking where you were?” I ask turning in her arms.

  “No, well yes. That was one of the assistants who was asking me about the files I was working on yesterday. But she assured me I don’t have anything on my schedule until 10 or so.” She says standing on her tippy toes.

  The water warms up and I let her go in before me. Thankfully, my bathroom has an especially large shower. It was one of my first remodels when I bought this house. Dark grey tiles and silver accents, a double headed shower, with one as a rainfall from the ceiling and in the corner of the bathroom is a Jacuzzi tub, which has never been used. Why I ad
ded that, I assume I was just planning for the future at that point. In the past few months that Sterling and I have been an actual couple, this is our first shower together. I gather the loofah which I placed in this bathroom from the guest bathroom and pour some of her body soap on it. My hand languidly rubs alongside the loofah across her back, toward her front and around her hips. I try to pay special attention and make sure I don’t miss any spots, she turns around to face me and has my soap lathering up between her hands as she performs the same actions. We don’t speak, but our eyes are saying plenty. Sterling’s nipples go hard under my caress as her soapy hand dips towards my currently rock hard cock, patiently awaiting her touch. She briefly grazes over it with the tip of her fingertips and it jumps to the slight touch. Her eyes venture down to meet her hand and a slow smile spreads on her face. The water is now cleaning off all the suds on our bodies as we move under the stream. Sterling leans her head back to have the water cascade down her face. I take that invite to move to her neck. She gasps at the perusal of my lips down her neck to her collarbone, my hands are slowly making their way down her side. One of my hands is pressed against her lower back as the other goes to the centermost point of her body as if there’s a magnetic pull. My fingers tentatively rub from front to back of her slit, she lightly moans as the tip of my index finger gently pushes into her warmth. I’m not sure if it’s the shower water or her lubrication but she’s so incredibly wet that I can feel my cock twitching in excitement. I stroke her and tunnel my finger into her into her slowly, I add another finger to the measure and hook it once fully in and start to draw back. Sterling’s hips have started to move with my motions and soon she is riding my fingers with vigor. I pump my fingers not too fast, but not too slow either making work to remove them every few strokes to circle her clit. Her moans are getting louder and she clutches my showers tightly. I can feel her walls starting to clamp around my digits as she hisses out and her body moves faster on my palm. The back of my palm is rubbing against her clit as she fucks my hand so beautifully. I capture her mouth as her orgasm hits her swallowing her moans. My cock is straining, I could almost come just like this. She slows her hips as I slow my own movements. She opens her eyes and with a Cheshire smile on her face she licks her lips.

  I ease my fingers out of her and kiss down her jaw.

  “Sterling?” I say as I kiss her shoulder.

  Still unable to fully form words, she mumbles; “Yeah?”

  “I want to fuck you baby. I want to fuck you with nothing in between us. Bare.” I whisper kissing my way down her neck again while circling her nipple.

  “I’m on the pill. I’m good.” She breathes. I mentally fist pump the air as I grab my cock. It’s still rock hard, ready for release as I run my hand up and down my shaft.

  I turn her to face the shower wall and as doing so, with my hand I put her legs into a comfortable stance. I slide my fingers through her folds again, as I bend at the knees and with one hand against the shower wall next to her body, the other hand is lining my cock with her entrance. I start to push in, and Sterling moans again. Her moans undue me completely and I thrust all the way to the hilt so I am seated my pelvis flush against her ass plunging in deep.

  “Oh fuck, that feels incredible.” I say dropping a kiss to the center of her back between her shoulder blades and I still, afraid to make any sudden movements as I adjust to the new sensations.

  “Dane, if you don’t start moving, I’m going to kill you!” She breathes out. I chuckle and I start a steady rhythm of my hips languidly pumping in speeds ranging all different paces. The feeling of no condom in between us is making it hard for me to not blow my load with each stroke. My hand falls around Sterling’s hip and finds her clit as my cock pumps in and out.

  “I’m not going to last much longer.” I voice through gritted teeth.

  “I’m right… I’m right…. There” She gasps as my finger swirls on her tight bud. My thrust are faster now as I’m chasing my release and as she screams, my hips are slamming into her, one time, no two times and I’ve gone over the edge. A sound that couldn’t have come from me echoes through the bathroom as I follow my release. I have a tight hold on Sterling as my hips are slowing. My pelvis is again flush against Sterling’s ass, but I’m still slowly pumping and twitching all in the same. I’ve returned to kissing her shoulder and I slowly pull out of her. She turns in my arms and with her thigh gently brushes my now semi-hard exhausted, yet very happy cock. It’s so sensitive that I jerk face slightly. She giggles and her arms circle my neck. I lean down to kiss her as the water washes over us. The water is now lukewarm and this shower, I have now deemed my favorite spot in this house.

  “I love you.” She whispers.

  “God, I love you so much.” I smile back brushing my lips against her cheek. “You realize that I’m throwing all those condoms away now.” I state smiling as I lean past her to shut off the water. She laughs but doesn’t say anything as I hand her the towel hanging next to the shower and she starts drying off.

  This is so simple, showering together, drying off together, being comfortable together like this. Who would have ever guess this could be so amazing.

  STERLING

  Betsy and I sit facing another in a booth at a new restaurant that opened up close to the courthouse downtown where she works. It’s one week to Christmas and we are discussing our Christmas plans. Dane and I are staying home and planning to not leave the house. If I have any say in it, we won’t leave the bedroom, but apparently my boyfriend will want to eat, so I settled for the whole house. Last weekend, Dane asked me if I would move in with him. While it maybe took me 1 minute to tell him yes, it took another 5 minutes for me to figure out what I was going to do with my house. I owned it, it was the first grown up thing I did once I got my masters of social work. Should I rent it out, or should I sell it? The hesitant part of me thought to just rent it in case something didn’t pan out with Dane and myself. However, I knew deep down that was a silly way to think so I started to search for a realtor the next day.

  I’ve slowly migrated most of my belonging to cohabitate with Dane’s anyways in the past month or so as his workload increased with a new huge project and my caseload did as well as 3 new files were added to my caseload when a case manager quit to move out of state. We did what we could to see another, even if it meant to work alongside another.

  “Have you heard anything from Candace?” I ask.

  “Nope, I don’t expect to hear from her until she comes back home.” Betsy shrugs.

  My purse sitting next to me vibrates and I pull up my purse and search for my phone, smiling as I hope it’s Dane. When I pull out my phone and see that it’s not Dane, and my smile falters.

  Ryan: Hey there.

  I roll my eyes. He’s been relentless. He texts twice a week, random messages, and hasn’t gotten the hint yet. Which is funny, because I haven’t replied to a single message. I place the phone back in my purse and take a sip of my water.

  A minute later, I hear: “Ut oh.” As Betsy sits up straight staring past my shoulder.

  I follow her gaze as Ryan walks in the front door.

  “Geez, does he have a GPS on my phone?” I whisper. “He just texted me again.” I duck down a little hoping he doesn’t see us.

  “He texts you?” She whispers back.

  “Yeah, randomly. Ever since around Thanksgiving, it’s been weird. I haven’t replied to any of them either. I don’t get it, why is he here?”

  “Maybe it s a huge coincidence and he’s just here to simply eat. It looks like he’s looking for someone, maybe he’s meeting someone. Maybe he has a date.” She hopes as she watches him.

  My phone vibrates again. “Shit, is he on his phone at all?” I ask.

  “No, wait…yes! It looks like it’s a call though.” She whispers.

  I don’t have a good feeling about this situation and I whisper to Betsy “Text Dane and Max and tell them to get over here.” I pull out my phone and sure enough, I have one missed
call; RYAN my screen reads. This isn’t a coincidence.

  “They’re on their way. And Ryan spotted me, shit, he’s walking over here.”

  I practically stomp my feet in anger under the table. Betsy and I start randomly talking about something as I feel a hand on my shoulder.

  I’m afraid to look up but I do anyways.

  “Sterling. I’m so glad to see you.” He says with a leering smile. I visibly shudder and I hope he felt it before I shook his slimy hand off my shoulder.

  “How did you know I was here?” I ask coldly.

  “I have my methods.” He states without offering up any further information.

  “Ryan, you better go. You don’t want to be here when the guys get here.” Betsy says in warning.

  Ryan still hasn’t acknowledged her as his eyes are trained on me. I look up at him suddenly just in awe that I ever thought that I had feelings, even love for this guy.

  “Ryan, what do you want?” I rudely ask pushing his hand away when it came back to my shoulder.

  “I want you back.” He spouts. “Have you been getting my messages?”

  “That’s nice Ryan, but I don’t want you back. In fact, I’m far from wanting you back. As you know, I’ve moved on with my life and I probably should have done that a lot sooner.” I explain through grit teeth.

  “You don’t mean that. C’mon, I made a mistake. I shouldn’t have broken up with you.” He pleads.

  “I’m glad you did. Now if you would excuse us, we’re waiting for …”

  “US!” I hear behind Ryan and as he turns at the disruption, I see a fist flying at his face.

  Betsy and I gasp as Ryan flies back onto our table, spilling our drinks. I see Max and Dane behind him, and Dane is pulling Ryan up by his collar.

  “Gentlemen! Gentlemen! Please take this outside or I will call the police!” The hostess calls running towards the scene.