* * *
"He what?" exclaimed Anita, pausing her coffee in mid-stir.
Josie shrugged with a grin. "He said that I was too much of a distraction for him while he was trying to correct some papers, so I thought I'd wander off to the shops to see if I could find something to read." Anita laughed and finished stirring her coffee. Josie had agreed to go out, and had called Anita to meet her for a coffee. Eager to hear of the latest developments (now that Josie was no longer on Josie Cam these days), Anita had agreed to meet her in a flash. They had browsed though the shops together for a while, and then had settled into a caf� for a good chat.
"Josie, that boy has got it bad! Hang on," she said, looking at Josie appraisingly. "Just what were you doing that was a distraction?"
Josie widened her eyes a little as she spoke. "Nothing! I was just reading a book on the couch."
"Uh-huh. And what were you wearing?"
"Well .... Just my old denim cut-offs and a t-shirt."
"What!? Josie, it's a wonder the guy didn't have a heart attack!" Anita laughed. Cocking her head to one side in thought, she looked at Josie. She still couldn't get over how much her friend had changed over the last few months, from a mousy copy editor to the confident young woman that was sitting in front of her now. 'I guess that's what the love of a good man can do for you' she thought to herself, watching Josie as she smiled to herself.
Josie was thinking about what had happened at the apartment that morning. After another late breakfast, Sam had declared that he was going to mark some student papers. Josie had puttered around the apartment doing some cleaning, and then had settled onto one of the couches with a good book, as Sam started his paperwork sitting at the table at the other end of the room. As she read, she had gotten used to Sam's quiet chuckles at some of his student's efforts, and the steady sound of pages turning. Eventually however, she had become aware that the apartment was very quiet. Looking up, she saw Sam sitting at the table, but staring at her legs as she idly swung them over the arm of the couch. Their eyes had met, and that was that. One minute they had been at opposite ends of the room, and the next second their clothes were hanging off the table lamp. Afterward they'd looked at each other with startled expressions, as if to say "How did that happen?" Soon after, Sam felt the need to 'take a break' in between each paper, so that he could kiss Josie more and more thoroughly. When Josie finally drew his attention to the amount of work left to be done, he had panicked, until agreeing that Josie would give him some room to concentrate.
Josie looked at Anita's faraway expression as she sipped her coffee. She thought that her friend looked a little sad. For all her vivaciousness and rampant dating throughout the Chicago Sun Times (and the Chicago population in general), Josie knew that deep down Anita was longing for something more long term. Anita had confessed this to Josie during her assignment, admitting that the bond she had watched developing between Josie and Sam had made her realize that she was searching for 'that moment' as well.
Anita came back to herself with a small start. "Oh! Sorry about that Josie, I was miles away for a second."
"So I noticed," replied Josie with a smile. "Are you okay?"
Anita looked at Josie, and then looked down at the table, drawing patterns on the tabletop with her index finger as she tried to think of what to say. She was lonely, she realized, and a little scared, but did not want to bring Josie down from her happy mood. Josie watched her for a moment, then reached over to cover Anita's hand with her own.
"Anita? Come on, talk to me."
Anita blinked a few times, and then looked up at Josie with a tremulous smile. "Oh Josie," she sighed. "I just feel ... so alone sometimes, you know."
Josie nodded understandingly. "I know exactly what you mean. But what about Gus? I thought that something was developing there?"
Anita shrugged. "Oh I don't know. We had a couple of dates after THE ballgame, but it's really hard. I think I really care about the guy, but after all that he's seen me do in the office it's hard for me to convince him that I'm wanting to change."
Josie thought over this for a moment.
"Have you tried talking to him about it?"
Anita shrugged. "No, not really. He's kind of in denial at the moment. Besides," she added with a little smile. "You do remember that he's fired me again."
Josie grinned back. "Since when has that stopped you?"
Anita sat up a little straighter, looking thoughtful. "You know, you've got a point there. He's full of bluster at work, but then sticks his head in the sand when it comes to talking about us. If anyone's going to grab the bull's balls, then I guess it's going to have to be me..."
"Just make sure you know whose balls you're grabbing when you want to make your point though!" said Josie cheekily, then clapped her hand over her mouth. Anita's jaw dropped as she looked at Josie in amazement.
"Josie Geller! Did I just hear what I think I heard? Just what have you been up to this weekend, young lady?"
"Weeeeeellll ..." squirmed Josie.
Anita peered closely at her.
"Wait a minute. That smile ... that glow ... ohmygod! Josie Geller, you've had sex!" she exclaimed.
"Shhhhh!" Josie flapped her hands at Anita, trying to make her be a little more quiet. As it was, two people on the next table looked a little startled, before resuming their conversation.
"Oh, Josie," said Anita. "Honey, I'm really pleased - things are obviously going well between you guys. How was it?"
"It was ...." Josie thought for a moment, lost in her private thoughts " .... Perfect." She sighed happily and looked at Anita, who looked touched by Josie's response.
"That's wonderful! Oh I'm so glad for you." Anita was looking really happy now, her dimples showing as she beamed at her friend. "But wait a minute" she frowned briefly. "Have you guys sorted out the protection side of things?"
Josie threw her head back and laughed. "It didn't take you long to get to the technicalities did it?"
Anita tried to look haughty. "Well, since I'm a public speaker on the subject ..." making them both laugh.
"Yeah ... and now no banana is in danger!" replied Josie with a giggle. "It's okay Anita, I went on the Pill a couple of weeks ago, but we ... uh ... used other protection on the first time though."
Anita looked impressed. "That's a bit of foresight then. Does Sam know?"
"He does now, we talked about it this morning. I wanted to tell him last night, but I didn't want to blurt it out before, because .. I just didn't want it to look like I was ready to jump into sex because it was suddenly okay. I always told myself that I wouldn't have sex until I felt absolutely certain that it was the right time."
Anita nodded slowly. "Well ... all I can say is that I wish I'd known you when I was in school. Losing it in the back of a car on Prom Night really isn't something to be all that proud of."
Josie looked at Anita fondly. "Things will work out for you Anita, I just know it."
* * *
Sam threw down his pen with a relieved sigh and began to stack up the papers that he had finally finished marking. He looked at his watch and shook his head. It was 4 o'clock...the weekend was nearly over. He rested his elbows on the table and rested his chin on his hands as his thoughts drifted inexorably to Josie. He couldn't get over the way she made him feel whenever she was near. And this afternoon ...! He shook his head in amazement.
After a leisurely breakfast, they had washed up and Sam had settled at the living room table to begin wading through his students' final papers for the year. Josie had continued to putter around the apartment, and then had settled herself on one of the couches with a book. As he worked, the only sounds he heard were the rustle of turning pages, and his own occasional chuckle at his student's efforts. Sam reveled in the companionable silence. Lara had always felt the need for chatter, always rushing to fill any silence with whatever noise she could. With Josie, he often found that they drifted into moments when not a word was spoken, where they were both simply content to be together in each other's presence. Sam had been working for about an hour when he thought he caught a whiff of something in the air. Gradually he realized he could smell ... peach blossom. He had smiled to himself as he realized it was Josie's perfume. He had turned his attention back to the papers he was reading, but the scent continued to tug at his senses.
He had eventually stopped reading, and looked across the room at Josie. She was sprawled on one of the couches, her legs swinging idly over the armrest as she read. Sam had sat and watched her for a while. From time to time she would be completely still as the book captured her full attention, then she would gently begin to kick her legs again. Sam watched her legs and felt his mouth go dry. Her skin was a smooth creamy ivory, and all he wanted to do was run his hands over her bare skin and ... He had raised his eyes to hers, and found that she was watching him. Without breaking eye contact he had gotten up and walked towards her ...
Afterwards, as they lay in each others' arms on the living room floor, Josie had spoken hesitantly. "Sam, I don't want to insult you by sounding as though you've had quite a history with women, but it would be silly to pretend that I know more than I do. But what I want to ask is, is this...usual? Does it ever stop? The wanting you? Even I've just left you, I want you so much my chest feels tight and my fingers ache with wanting to touch you again. What it is between us, when I touch you and we make love. Is it always like that between a man and a woman?"
In spite of her stumbling, Sam knew exactly what she meant. "No, it isn't usual. This is...different." He reached out and touched her lower lip, barely brushing the edge. "When you're in my arms it's as though I'm holding a living flame." His touch grew firmer, outlining her lips and caressing the line of her jaw. "There's a heat between us, and all I want to do is throw myself into it and be consumed."
As he spoke, Sam had felt something within him finally relax. He had never spoken like this to any woman, and he knew that what he had said was the utter truth. He could speak his heart to Josie, and knew that hers would answer in kind. It was as if he couldn't get enough of her, and it wasn't just sexual. To be with her gave him such joy and peace, it was as if sometimes he felt like shouting with happiness, and curling up and drifting into a peaceful sleep all at once. He wanted to continually touch and caress her to reassure himself that he wasn't imagining things; that she really was there with him.
* * *
Josie looked at her watch. It was 4 o'clock. Anita had left about an hour ago, full of resolve to go and see Gus. Josie smiled to herself as she imagined the look on Gus's face when Anita bailed him up to have a 'heart to heart'. She sighed to herself as she looked around the bookstore she was standing in. Usually bookstores held her completely enthralled, but right now all she could think about was getting home to Sam. Home to Sam. She hugged the thought to herself as she stared unseeingly at the books in front of her.
"Josie! I thought it was you," exclaimed a voice behind her.
Turning around, Josie saw Joanna standing there with a big smile on her face.
"Joanna! Fancy seeing you here; is Jon with you?"
"No, he's picking up some things from the hardware shop, so I thought I'd grab the chance to come to the mall and do some browsing. What're you up to?"
Josie shrugged with a smile. "Oh, pretty much the same thing. Sam had a lot of marking to do, so I thought I'd give him some peace quiet. I was thinking of heading home just now, actually."
"After that browsing, I don't need to ask why you're shooting off to see Sam then...." Joanna giggled at Josie's look of confusion, and then pointed over her shoulder at the shelf of books. Josie turned around to look, and blushed scarlet as she realized that she had been daydreaming in the Lifestyle section. She had been standing right in front of a large book titled "The Joy of Sex". She clapped her hands to her flaming cheeks as she heard Joanna giggle even harder, turning back slowly to face her.
"Oooooh my god, I was off on another planet just then, I didn't know I was staring straight at those!"
"I thought you might have been - you had that faraway look on your face, but the smile was a dead giveaway - you were thinking about Sam, right?"
"Yes, I was!" said Josie, amazed. "You could read me that easily?"
"No, but you have the same look on your face that Sam always does these days, so that narrows the field more than a little! Say, do you want to get a coffee or something?"
Josie looked at her watch again, then looked regretfully at Joanna. "Do you mind if I give you a rain check on that one? I'd love to stay, but I was thinking of..."
"... getting home to Sam," finished Joanna with a broad smile. "Sure, we can do it some other time. I'll walk with you to the front of the mall though, if you're going now."
Josie nodded, and they started to head towards the end of the Mall where Josie had parked.
"Jo, I hope you don't think that I'm keeping Sam away from you and Jon. I mean, I know that he decided to board with you to save a bit on rent, and to give you a hand, but these days he's been spending every night at my place, so..."
Joanna shook her head wonderingly at Josie. "Did you think we'd resent seeing one of our best friends so happy? Not at all! Besides, Sam's still helping when he can, anyway. After that bitch Lara - sorry Josie, but she really was - everyone Sam knows was ready to greet you with open arms!"
"Really?" said Josie shyly.
Joanna nodded decisively. "Yes, really. Oh sure, Sam used to say that Lara was different when they met at college, but every time I saw her she was never anything but a bossy snob!"
Josie couldn't help but laugh at Joanna's indignant tone. "Oh, she can't have been that bad. After all, she and Sam were together for quite a while."
Joanna looked at Josie and relented a little. "Well okay, I'll grant you that she must have been human once upon a time for Sam to put up with her for as long as he did. We didn't even know you were on the scene when he broke up with her."
Josie smiled wryly. "Well, that part was kind of messed up for a while there."
"You can say that again! The day Sam came over to tell us he'd be moving in, he was an absolute mess! He told us the whole story, and we just didn't know what to think. We were so relieved that he'd ended it with Lara, but then he'd fallen in a big hole when he heard that you were an undercover reporter."
Josie's blue eyes darkened with remembered pain. "It was so awful ... I don't think I'll ever forget the look on his face." She looked at Joanna who was looking at her sympathetically. "I really thought that I'd lost him forever."
The two girls walked in silence for a moment, then Joanna chuckled. "You should have seen Jon when he came across your story in the paper. He must have read it about three times before he'd let me have a look. We both jumped on the phone and called Sam, but his phone had already been disconnected. We were frantically trying to get hold of him, and ended up racing over to his apartment to haul him off to the game." Joanna grinned, her brown eyes sparkling as she remembered the incident. "Just as we pulled up outside Sam's we saw him come tearing down the front stairs, leap into his car and drive off. We figured that he'd seen the story, but he was certainly cutting it a bit fine!"
Josie laughed. "You could say that, but he came for me, and that's all that matters now."
Joanna cocked her head as she looked at Josie. "Jon and I were talking about you guys when you left our place last night. We both agreed that we don't think we've seen Sam look so happy in years. We knew that things weren't good with Lara, but he's such a softie he used to go along to get along, if you know what I mean." Josie nodded, and Joanna continued. "We didn't want to nag at him about it though, because he was unhappy enough and we didn't want to add to that. Since you two have gotten together though, it's like he's got a whole new life."
"He's not the only one to feel like that," said Josie with feeling.
By now the girls had reached the entrance doors to the Mall. Josie looked out through the glass doors, then back at Joanna. "Well, this is where I leave you." Impulsively she threw her arms around Joanna and gave her a hug. "It was so nice to see you again ... and thanks for what you've said. It really means a lot to me."
Joanna hugged her back. "Nothing less than the truth kiddo! We're all pleased to have you in our lives now - you can consider yourself adopted by the group."
Josie laughed. "High praise indeed...."
"Absolutely! Now you'd better go, but maybe the four of us could catch up for dinner sometime this week? Tell Sam he's not to worry about not spending too much time at our place. He's still helping Jon with the renovations, and that's the main thing. We've got plenty of room, so it's not like his gear is cluttering the place up, okay?"
"Okay" dimpled Josie. "I'll tell him that. - bye!" She brushed a quick kiss on Joanna's cheek, and headed out of the Mall towards her car with a light-hearted step. Joanna's firm seal of approval meant a lot to her, and she was pleased that she got along with Sam's friends as well as she did.
As she drove back to her apartment, she grinned at the thought of Sam racing through traffic to get to her at the ballgame. He had confessed later that he had practically abandoned his car in the parking lot and raced down the stairs to her without even stopping to consider his fear of heights. She shivered briefly as she remembered the feeling of desolation that had swept over her with the five minute countdown had ended, and the incredible sight of Sam running towards her, never taking his eyes off hers as he jogged towards her and swept her into the first, most incredible kiss of her life.
Josie parked outside her apartment, and hurried up the stairs with her key in hand. Before she could unlock the door, Sam opened it. She had enough time to see a broad smile on his face before he drew her inside and pulled her close to wrap his arms around her. She felt him sigh deeply as he pulled her closer still and rested his cheek on her blond curls. She wrapped her arms around him and snuggled closer. They stood there for a long moment, basking in each other's closeness, breathing in each other's scent. Finally Sam released her with a slight smile and looked down at her.
"Uh ... sorry about hauling you inside like that. I'd just been sitting here thinking about you ... and missing you. When I heard your car pull up outside I guess I got a little eager." He reached up and, as was now his habit, tucked a stray curl behind her ear.
Josie's eyes sparkled. "The feeling is entirely mutual - why did you think I was running up the steps when you opened the door?"
Sam laughed. "You're amazing, Josie Geller."
Josie smiled broadly at that. "You're pretty amazing yourself, Mr. Coulson. Did you get all your correcting done?" she asked as they both strolled towards one of the couches and sat down to snuggle against each other.
"Yes ... once I managed to recover from the lack of distractions around the place."
Josie giggled. "I ran into Joanna at the Mall. She and Jon want us to have dinner at their place sometime, oh, and she said that you're not to worry about not sleeping there much these days."
Sam raised an eyebrow. "Seems to me that I'm not sleeping much here either ..." Josie giggled and blushed a little.
"This is all going to take some getting used to."
"What is?"
Josie sat up and began to play with a button on Sam's shirt, staring fixedly at it as she spoke. "It's just that ... I'd been alone for so long. I've never had anyone to talk to like this before." She raised her head to look at Sam. "I've never had this closeness before ... this ... intimacy. It's all so amazing. And it's all the little things too, like watching you shave ... talking about our days at work ... seeing your watch on the bedside table. It's such a precious thing to be able to turn to someone and say "I love you' and meant it with all your heart."
"Yes," Sam said, barely audible. "To say that." He reached up and drew his hand gently down her temple, her ear, cheek and jaw. His hand went to the nape of her neck, and he cupped her face between his hands, love glowing strong in his green eyes. "I love you so much, Josie."
Josie felt as if Sam's touch and whispered words were filling her veins with fire. She closed her eyes and felt the warming touch move from cheek to temple, ear and neck, then shuddered as his hands dropped to her waist and drew her close. Their lips met in the gentlest of kisses, lingering softly, then became harder, warmer. Josie's mouth opened under Sam's gentle assault, and she shivered as his hands slid down the length of her back ...
* * *