I splashed cold water on my face and let it drip off over the sink for a moment before grabbing a towel. I wiped my face dry and looked at myself in the mirror. What am I doing? I thought as I stared into my own eyes. Suddenly I felt really vulnerable and exposed and uncomfortable being in only my underwear. I didn't want to walk back out out of the bathroom without covering up, but my clothes were in the bedroom on the other side of the door scattered on the floor somewhere.
I looked around his bathroom and found one of his T-shirts on top of a laundry hamper. It didn't look or smell dirty, so I put it on and walked out. If it was only a little bit longer it could pass as a dress on me. Mark was in the bed watching me start towards him.
"Hang on, stop." He said gently.
I did and looked down at myself, fearing something was wrong. "What?"
He sat up all the way now and cringed. He brought his hands up to his face. "I LOVE seeing you in nothing but one of my shirts. Like, I love it way too much."
I smiled and went over to sit on the bed next to him. "This is wrong," I said.
He shook his head with an evil tight lipped smile. "Honestly I've never felt like this before. Like I do right this second. I don't know how to stop thinking about you. And wanting you. All the time."
Even though I loved hearing him say that, any smile I had quickly faded from my face. "Well, you have to stop. We have to stop."
He stuck out his bottom lip in a pout. "Whyyy," he whined.
"Because it's wrong to sleep with people who aren't our significant others."
When Mark had asked me to show him the art pieces in the hospital, it didn't stay as innocent as that. As soon as we got back into my office, we had sex. He came over to my place a couple of days later. A week after that and I was at his place. I didn't know what I was thinking. Or what he was thinking. Or what I expected to happen now. I felt like shit about it. But I loved Mark.
"Mark?" A voice called out. I froze. "Are you in your room?" I relaxed a little when I realized it was his mom.
"Yeah, Mom! Eliza's here. We'll be out in a minute!"
I heard her rustling around in the kitchen and smelled food. Mark explained that some family was in town and he had told his mom and a cousin to bring dinner over so they could visit and catch up. Unfortunately, he had got distracted (mostly my fault) and lost track of time.
"There's plenty of food, join us Eliza!" his mom yelled back.
Mark got out of bed and collected his and my clothes off of the floor. He handed mine to me and we got dressed. I knew my hair was messed up and my face was red. "Your mom and your cousin are going to think I'm a slut!" I hissed.
He smiled, "My mom loves you. And Cheryl has no place to judge. I don't think you have anything to worry about." He finished dressing and looked at me, gesturing to my face. "I'll give you a minute." He walked out to the kitchen as I went back into the bathroom, wiping some makeup off of my face that had smeared. I tried to run my fingers through my hair to tame it, but it was still a little bit noticeable.
I could hear Mark greeting his mom and cousin and hear how happy they were to see him. I smiled to myself. I had always loved being around his parents. I was embarrassed to meet his cousin like this, but if she was anything like the rest of his family then she would make me feel welcome.
After I had gotten myself together as much as possible, I went out into the kitchen. As soon as Mark looked over to me, Kathleen came over and immediately wrapped me up in a huge, tight hug. She pulled away and looked at me with her hands on my shoulders.
"You look great, Eliza, it's so good to see you again!"
"You too, thank you."
I looked over towards Cheryl, who was seated at the kitchen island. "Oh, sorry, Eliza, this is my cousin Cheryl. Cheryl, this is Eliza." I noticed he didn't call me his friend or his girlfriend or anything except my name. "She brought baked ziti."
"It smells delicious."
She smiled and stood up to walk over to me. She extended her hand for me to shake. "Hey Eliza, nice to meet you."
I instantly felt at ease. "Nice to meet you too."
I saw her eyes go up to my hair and she looked at me sort of skeptically. "I'm sorry if we intruded on you guys. If you were...busy doing something," she gave Mark a sideways glance and tried to suppress a smile. She knew. My face got hot with embarrassment immediately.
Mark knew what she meant too and cleared his throat. Thankfully, Kathleen saved the day. "Are you hungry, sweetheart? Are you going to stay and eat?"
"Oh, I don't want to take away from your family time." I tried looking to Mark for an answer, but he was busy putting plates and glasses on the table.
"You're not," Cheryl smiled as she led me over to the table to sit down with me.
We hit it off right away and couldn't stop talking. I noticed Mark kept looking over at us and smiling, watching me interact with his family. We all sat and ate and went through a couple of bottles of some wine I had never heard of. Eventually Mark and his mom stopped drinking and went into the living room to watch something on TV. Cheryl and I went out onto the patio to drink some more.
She had more wine than I did throughout the night and it was easy to see that she was feeling pretty good, if not maybe even a little sloppy. When she asked me what I did for a living and I explained to her I had been an ER nurse for years before my recent promotion, she almost spit out the wine she had just sipped from her glass. Her eyes got huge.
"That's YOU!?"
I looked at her, confused. "Yeah...is that a bad thing?"
"No, no, no." She reached out and touched my arm reassuringly. "I'm sure Mark was just being stupid."
"What do you mean?'
"About the virgin thing."
My eyes almost popped out of my head. "What!?!"
She rolled her eyes. "That whole dumb bet thing he made with Aaron."
I shook my head. I had no idea what she was talking about. "Aaron...like that asshole sound guy Aaron?" She nodded. "What whole dumb bet thing?"
She laughed, not seeing that I was clearly not finding this funny. "No one thought in a million years that an innocent 'good girl' would get involved with Mark. I mean...he's Mark. Womanizing, reckless, wild, asshole Mark. Aaron bet him there was no way you'd stick around. Mark said he could get you out of your shell...like a whole good girl gone bad thing."
I closed my eyes and tried to take a deep breath. "And he told you - his family - about this?"
"No," she shook her head, "I heard it from one of our other cousins who heard it from Sean, I think. I think Aaron was running around telling everyone back when it happened."
I just stared at her. I couldn't believe what I had just heard. A wave of rage washed over me. I wanted to run straight to Mark and punch him in the face. If his mom hadn't been there, I probably would have.
Cheryl looked at me and slowly the smile fell from her face as she realized. "Oh," she sat up straight and tried to compose herself. "You didn't know. Did you?"
"No, I didn't."
"Shit. I'm sorry. I thought it was just some silly rumor that everyone joked about."
The patio door slid open and Mark popped his head out. "Mom's ready to head back to the hotel."
Cheryl stood up quickly and I followed her back inside. Kathleen hugged me goodbye and I told Cheryl it was nice to meet her. I was too pissed off and shaken up to hug her after what she just told me. I wasn't sure if I should take every word completely seriously or if some of it might have been drunken rambling.
As soon as the door closed after them, Mark smiled and asked me if I wanted a refill on my wine. I glared at him. I sat my empty glass down on the counter and crossed my arms. "What are you doing?" I demanded to know.
