R. Mathewson - Perfection

The gift was thoughtful and sweet and something that she truly wanted. No one had ever taken the time to buy her something special for absolutely no reason at all before and god help her, but she feared she was a little more than halfway in love with the big jerk.

"That's just what I need," she mumbled to herself as she pressed the cold wet paper towel to her eyes. It would just be her luck to fall in love with a man who would never see her as anything more than a convenience.

Unfortunately knowing there was never going to be anything more didn't stop her from doing something completely stupid like fall madly in love with him.

When this was all over she knew she would be broken and losing Trevor was going to hurt more than anything she'd ever experienced before, but right now she was pushing that rather depressing thought aside and focusing on the here and now. Right now she had a great job, a great apartment, and a great guy to spend time with as long as they kept it simple.

Although it was actually starting to hurt that he wanted to keep their relationship, well it really couldn't be called a relationship, secret she realized that in the end it might be for the best. When this was over she didn't want anyone to look at her with pity.

Hell bent on enjoying her new gift, spending a little more time with Trevor and hopefully getting answers to a few questions that kept her up late at night, Zoe forced all the depressing thoughts out of her head and left the bathroom and came to a skidding stop.

"You can't ban us over that!" Jason said, holding Cole, who was happily devouring a cookie, on his hip as he was being herded out the door by what appeared to be a manager and several very nervous employees. Granted, she'd be nervous too if she was responsible for coming between not just one Bradford male, but all of them from the looks of it.

Seriously, what the hell had they done?

She was only in the bathroom for five minutes, ten minutes tops. How was that enough time to get an entire family banned?

Trevor, glaring at several young men who were obviously Bradfords, gestured for her to walk over.

"Can you hold, Elizabeth?" Haley said before she could take so much as a step in the direction of the exit, startling her.

Zoe readied her arms automatically for the sleeping baby girl. She was so adorable and clearly favored the Bradford side with her coloring. She really was a pretty little girl.

"I can't believe she slept through all of that," Haley whispered, sounding a little freaked out. It was then that she noticed the woman was trembling.

"Haley, are you okay?" she asked, wondering just what the hell happened.

Haley forced one of her smiles, but it didn't quite meet her eyes. "Do you mind carrying her out for me?"

"Of course," Zoe answered, for the first time noticing the horrified expressions on the rest of the customers' faces as they watched all the Bradford men as they were herded out of the building.

Suddenly she wasn't so sure that she wanted to know what she'd missed.

This arrangement wasn't working for him any longer, he realized as he stepped over his boys fighting over that damn pretty pink princess chew toy. He hung up their leashes and headed up the stairs only to come to an abrupt halt when his sleep hazed mind remembered something.

Grunting at Toby and Max to keep it down, he walked into Zoe's kitchen. He yawned as he grabbed a glass, dropped some ice into the cup and filled it with ginger ale. As he was leaving he shot a glance at the clock stove and nearly groaned. It was nearly eight o'clock in the morning and if he didn't leave soon he'd probably miss out on the fresh baked muffins his aunts made every Thanksgiving morning, but he should be able to make it in time for the huge breakfast spread they put out.

If he didn't haul ass soon he wouldn't have the proper nourishment that helping prepare Thanksgiving dinner for his family required. He had about three hours of peeling, chopping, dicing, washing dishes, and at least one emergency run to the store for whatever ingredient the women of his family needed to complete the insanely delicious dinner they'd serve at one o'clock promptly, but first he wanted to check on Zoe and tell her that things just weren't working out for him anymore.

This wasn't her fault of course. She'd respected their arrangement and even followed the rules that they both set, but somewhere along the line it stopped working for him. This whole bullshit situation of having sex with a woman but not sleeping with her and having to sneak into her room first thing in the morning just so he could cuddle with her and admittedly have his very naughty way with her was just too much work.

Plus if he was going to be honest with himself he'd have to admit that he was sick of all the work that it required to keep his hands off of her in public. Every time he wanted to touch her, hold her hand, or kiss her he had to remind himself that it wasn't like that between them and hold back. Denying himself what he wanted wasn't fun and he was done doing it.

This whole thing was ridiculous, he thought as he stepped back over the playful pups and started up the stairs. They'd been together for months and he cared for her, genuinely cared for her. He couldn't actually remember caring about a woman before Zoe. Before her he only cared what being with a woman did for him, food, sex, and a beautiful woman on his arm, but with Zoe he'd have to get his own damn food or risk his own case of food poisoning, unless she made him a yummy sandwich, he'd die without sex with her, and he didn't give a flying fuck what anyone thought about her. He enjoyed being with her and if anyone had a problem with that they could fuck off.

He didn't think it would last once he put his new plan into effect, but then again he hadn't thought their little arrangement would last this long. He'd been wrong about that, but he was sure that once they arrangement turned into something a little more substantial the novelty of the whole thing would wear off quickly. No doubt his plan would take all the fun and excitement out of sneaking around, and he was pretty sure that's why it lasted this long, but he didn't really care. The sooner he told her the sooner he could put himself out his misery and just relax and enjoy being with her until it was time to end things.

When he came to the top of the stairs he hesitated for a moment. He'd kept her up pretty late last night, or rather this morning, maybe he should just let her get some sleep and he'd talk to her when they both got back from their Thanksgiving plans. But that would mean he'd have to wait until well after six o'clock, the time he usually came home after his family ran out of food on Thanksgiving Day, to talk to her about his decision and he really didn't want to put it off, knowing how happy it would make her.

Besides, he didn't want to leave without seeing her. It was stupid, but he liked seeing her first thing in the morning when her hair was all messed up, her face was puffy and she grumbled rather violent promise to his manhood. She was so damn cute first thing in the morning.

He walked into her room and wasn't too surprised when he heard Toby's happy panting closing in behind him or when the large pup ran past him, wagging his tail happily as he raced towards Zoe's bed, but didn't jump on the bed. The pup had learned early on not to be close to Zoe when she first woke up. The woman was not a happy camper and poor Toby had been hit with a pillow or two as Zoe struggled to bury her head under her pillow and ignore their demands that she get up.

A few seconds later Max ran in, no less eager, but not yet quite half the size of Toby and raced to the bed, trying to jump on it and failing miserably as he whimpered, still sounding very much like a puppy, demanding Zoe wake up and cuddle with him. It was the same way the dogs had woken him up an hour ago. Of course Toby didn't hesitate waking him up with puppy licks since he'd snuck into his room with Max following right behind him around three this morning after Zoe had fallen asleep, and slept on the bed with him.

After he gave each puppy some attention they took their morning walk, ate a quick breakfast, and he took a shower while the puppies played tug of war with his boxers. Every few minutes he had to tell them to be quiet so that they wouldn't wake up their mommy. He really should be heading to his uncle's house, but he wanted to see her first even if it was only for a moment.

He knelt by the bed and smiled at how beautiful she looked. How in the hell had he ever been stupid enough to call her plain? She was easily more beautiful to him than any of the women he'd dated, he thought as he reached out with one finger and lightly tickled the tip of her nose.

Her little early morning growl, which was laced with a little whimper of annoyance, had him biting back a chuckle. He picked up a long strand of her beautiful brown hair and lightly, ever so lightly tickled the tip of her nose with it.

"Stop it," she muttered as she lazily reached out and slapped at the air, not even close to his face.

So of course he had to do it again. This time when she went to swat off his tickling attack he was forced to duck his head or get a weak slap in the face.

"Zoe, wake up," he said in a tauntingly upbeat voice, knowing it would drive her crazy.

"Go away," she mumbled. "I hate you."

"Because I'm waking you up?" he asked, smiling as he ducked another weak attack.

"Yes!" she snapped, clearly aggravated as she was every morning when he did this. Yet he just couldn't stop himself from doing it. It was just too damn fun.

He was just about to up his attack when she flopped over onto her back and shielded her eyes with her arm. Not even two seconds later her eyes were wide open, one hand was clamped tightly on her mouth and the other one was pressed against her stomach and was off the bed and running towards the bathroom, slamming the bathroom door behind her.

"Shit."

Running a frustrated hand through his hair, he placed the glass of ginger ale on the nightstand, away from the edge where the dogs could get it, and headed for the bathroom. He'd hoped she was getting better. The last two mornings she'd only complained about feeling slightly nauseous, but she hadn't been sick. At least he didn't think she'd gotten sick.

She hadn't told him if she had and both mornings he was so damn busy making her stay in bed for a little longer, grabbing her some toast and ginger ale, making his lunch and taking care of the dogs before he left that wasn't entirely sure, but he thought she'd been okay. When he stopped by the office later both days and asked her how she felt she'd assured him she felt great, but clearly that wasn't the case if she was getting sick again.

"Zoe?" he said, slowly opening the door. "Baby, are you okay?"

"Yes," she mumbled, grabbing a toothbrush and loading it with toothpaste.

"You've been sick for almost a week now, Zoe. Maybe I should take you to the emergency room," he said, already trying to figure out which hospital was closer and wondering if he could get his uncle or someone to watch the dogs in case they got stuck in the emergency room all day.

She stubbornly shook her head, spit and added more toothpaste to her toothbrush and started the process all over again. A few minutes later she finally finished.

"I'm fine, Trevor," she said, walking past him, pausing only to pet Toby and pick Max up. Cuddling the small dog, she climbed back onto the bed and pulled the comforter up. Toby waited until she was settled before jumping on the bed and settling next to her and Mr. Cuddles.

Forcing himself not to throw her over his shoulder and take her to the nearest hospital, mostly because she'd probably knee him in the balls again, he sat down near her hip and handed her the ginger ale. Eying him warily, probably because she knew what he was thinking, she took a small sip.

"Thank you," she said, placing the glass down and returning to petting Max.

"You need to see a doctor, Zoe," he said, brushing the hair out of her face as he leaned in to press a good morning kiss to her lips.

"I'm fine, Trevor. Besides I have an appointment early Monday afternoon," she said when he pulled away.

"That's four days away, Zoe. You need to see someone soon," he said, taking one of her hands into his.

Zoe rolled her eyes playfully, which he had to admit was a good sign and made him feel marginally better. "I'm not dying, Trevor. I just feel a little sick. By the time I have my appointment I'll probably be fine."