The Man Next Door

Chapter 9

Three months later…

Three months. It had been three months since she had kissed Derek Shepherd. Every time she saw him all she could think about was his skilled tongue. Down her throat. This essentially made it three months worth of torture because she couldn't act on these thoughts. The few weeks following the filming of the elevator kiss were awkward between them. Awkward silences, exchanges in the hallways backstage and run-in's in their front yards. However, both determined to not lose each other and their friendship, they eventually went back to being their normal selves, deciding to never speak of the feelings that surfaced during that moment. They were back to being 'Best friends'. At least on the outside. But on the inside, neither of them had the courage to tell each other what they really felt...

Three months ago, after the kiss…

Derek returned Meredith's small smile his way before turning his back to her and quickly walking outside. They had kissed…and it had been good. Too good. He couldn't begin to explain how good it felt having her in his arms, her body pressed strongly up against his, molding to him like clay, or two pieces in a puzzle. But he shouldn't be feeling these things for her. He should be thinking about his wife, that was what a true husband was supposed to do. But he couldn't get those green eyes out of his vision and her lavender scent out of his nose. His pants were still tight from the short exchange. He had heard lots of male actors would have this problem but he didn't think it would be this bad. It had been a while since he had a hard on line this, his wife was hardly ever home anymore. Sighing, he quickly headed to his trailer to take a cold shower. And try as he did, he couldn't seem to get thoughts of Meredith out of his head. He had always had fun with her, always harmlessly flirting, but nothing more. But this had opened his eyes. He was now seeing her in a whole new light. Was he falling for Meredith Grey?

One month later…

It had been about a month after the kiss and things were still a little awkward between Meredith and Derek. Though they still spoke to each other at work, the flirting had lessoned from little to none some days. And there were always awkward moments when they saw each other for the first time in the morning. It was as if, they both wanted to tell the other of their forbidden feelings but decided against it at the last minute. Derek couldn't handle it. He was lonely with his wife out of the country promoting her new make up line in Australia and with the long hours he was forced to leave Tallulah with a nanny most nights. He was exhausted! And he didn't need a strain in his relationship with his costar on top of it. So, he decided to break the ice and organize a 'Day of Fun' together.

"Hey, Meredith wait up for a minute," he called her as she was travelling back to her trailer after finishing filming for the week.

"What is it?" she asked confused. She needed to get home to get to her daily ritual of drowning her thoughts of him with tequila.

"I was just wondering if you were doing anything tomorrow?" he asked, a bit puffed from running to catch up with her.

"Why?"

"Well, things have been a little rough between us and I wanted to fix it. I miss us," he said sadly, looking into her eyes to try and find a hit that she knew what he was talking about. That she felt the say way too.

"Oh..I…" Meredith hesitated. She had no idea what to say. She had convinced herself that he didn't feel anything towards her. Maybe she had been wrong.

"I just…I just don't want to lose this friendship we have Meredith. You are my best friend and we haven't been there for each other for the past month."

'Oh' she thought, 'he's talking about our friendship, I thought…well…doesn't matter what I thought'. Sighing she looked down to her feet, unable to think clearly when he was looking at her like that. Like someone he loved. She suddenly felt a surge of frustration. His words were saying on thing but then his eyes were saying another. Deciding to ignore the silent message of his eyes, she responded with a firm tone, "Look. I get what you mean, we haven't been talking much but I actually need to get home to Finn so what did you have in mind? Make it quick"