3 GUYS, A GIRL, AND A ROSE
Chapter Thirty-Nine

The feeling of needing to vomit woke Christina up. She felt completely disgusted and rolled out of the bed. Running to the bathroom, she quickly lifted up the toilet seat and began to throw up. She grabbed toilet paper and wiped her mouth, then dropped it into the toilet and flushed it. Closing the toilet seat cover, she leaned against the bathroom wall.

Tommy popped into the bathroom and saw her with her head down. He sat down next to her with his legs spread out on the floor.

"You feeling okay?" he asked. Christina looked at him, her dark eyes looking sad.

"A little sick, but better. I hate vomiting."

"You should have done that last night. You would have felt a whole lot better."

Christina looked down at herself, realizing that she had no pants on. She was still just in her underwear and a tank top.

"Oh, God! I have no pants on." Tommy laughed. "Ah! Don't look at me. I have to run and get pants on."

"Don't worry. I already saw you." I almost saw more than enough, Tommy thought.

"Still, it's weird," she said, standing up. Christina looked in the mirror and gasped.

"You still look beautiful," Tommy said, making Christina blush. "Wash your face. You'll feel better with a splash of water."

"I think I need to shower. Then I'll feel better. I barely even remember last night."

"Don't worry about it," he said, as they both exited into the hall.

"I'm gonna shower," she said.

"Good idea."

Christina went inside her room, closing the door behind her. Her head was pounding and her stomach churned. Not a thing occurred to her head as to what had happened last night.

Grabbing her towel, she went back to the bathroom. She took her clothes off and jumped in. While taking a shower, she realized that Tommy had sounded a little bit strange. However, she couldn't figure it out. Lately, there seemed to be a lot of things going on with Tommy whenever he was with her. Christina didn't have a clue as to what it was. He was especially weird when they went bowling. She just couldn't put her finger on it. All the clues that he was in love with her were out there, but she couldn't see them.

*****

Images of last night played in Tommy's head. There Christina was, trying to seduce him in her drunken state, but he refused. It wasn't the way to do it. He wanted everything to be special and just perfect with her. He highly doubted anything would ever happen between them, though.

To him, she was the impossible because she was so beautiful. He could literally say she was breathtaking. Every time she laughed, spoke, and smiled, it made him feel like she was his oxygen that he needed to live by. When she was sad, it broke his heart. It broke him even more when she cried, especially when it came to Jack. Her spirit completely captivated him.

When he first saw her at Underground, he could have sworn she was an angel. It was as if she lit up the entire room. There was no one else he saw. When Fabrizio introduced them, her name was stuck in his head. He couldn't wait for the next night, when he would see her at the pub.

That night he had flirted with her a bit. Then, he realized her flirtation with Jack. It was in her eyes that he saw she liked Jack a whole lot. As the months went by, Tommy could see their love for each other. That is, until Jack met Rose. It pissed Tommy off. There Christina was, the most amazing, beautiful girl he had ever known, being tossed away as if she were garbage by Jack, the man she was in love with and broke her heart.

Even though he was with Rose, she still had chosen to remain close to him. Jack may have hurt her, but she still loved him and considered him to be her best friend. This all bothered Tommy for the simple fact that he was jealous, but Jack's relationship with Rose had brought Christina and Tommy closer together. It gave him a chance to be with her, but he was certain it would never happen that a relationship could come out of it.

He wondered what would have happened if he had let her seduce him. What would have happened after they had slept with each other?

His thoughts broke away from himself when Christina entered the living room in her towel, still dripping wet. He felt himself getting sweaty, with impure thoughts in his head.

"That felt so refreshing!" Christina said, taking the towel off her head and using it to dry her hair. Her hair looked a little curly after she dried it with the towel.

"Uh-huh!" Tommy was speechless.

"What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing. You just come in here in a towel and you thought it was weird letting me see you in your underwear." Christina let out a small laugh.

"Well, now it isn't. Since you've seen me in my underwear, you might as well see me in my towel."

"You have to work today?" he asked, moving his eyes away from her. It made him quite nervous to see her in just a towel. He took his lighter out from his pocket and began to play with it, pretending to be drawn to the fire.

"Yeah, but I am gonna call in sick. Too fucking tired to go. I don't feel so well."

"So, what are you gonna do tonight?"

"I'm gonna stay in. I'll probably hang out with Fabri. I haven't seen him. Hey, maybe you can come!"

"I can't. I'm covering for someone at work tonight."

Christina pouted. "Aw! I wish you weren‘t. So, are you gonna go home now?"

"Yeah," he said, putting his shoes on. "I need to take a shower." He put his hat on and stood up.

"Oh, well. I have to go to the Laundromat. Jack should be up. It's a quarter to two right now on a Monday, so it's close to laundry time."

"Laundry time?" Tommy asked.

"Yeah! Every Monday, Jack and I do our laundry together. We haven't done it in a while because of you know what."

"Oh," Tommy said, trying to not look at her. "Well, I'll let you get dressed."

Christina walked over to him and gave him a hug. Tommy wrapped his arms around her. He couldn't believe he was this close to her being almost naked. They hugged each other for a few seconds, him being able to catch the scent of her wet hair. When they let go, Christina smiled at him and patted his cheek. He grabbed her hand and held it tightly, not wanting to let go.

"I'll talk to you later, Chris!" he said. He felt like telling her he was in love with her, but it couldn't come out. Christina followed him as he went to the door. He opened it and turned to kiss her cheek.

"Bye," Christina said. Tommy smiled and walked to the elevator. He heard her close the door.

When it came, he got in and closed his eyes. All that remained was Christina. He wanted to tell her more than anything how he felt, but he just didn't know how or when.

*****

Waking up next to Rose brought a smile to Jack's face. Her arms were wrapped around him and her hair fell in her face. It had been an amazing night for them both.

Now it was almost two o'clock. They were sitting on the couch watching TV while they held each other. It was very hot New York weather, but they still stayed close despite the fact that they were sweating.

"I could stay like this all day," Rose said.

"You're telling me. I think we will stay like this all day. Of course, we're gonna have to do other things, too."

Rose began to blush. "If you're saying what I think you are saying, it's a deal."

Jack smiled and brought his head closer to hers. He kissed her and heard her moans escape from her mouth. They pulled away from each other when the phone rang. He got up to go look at the caller ID, where he saw Christina's number. As soon as he saw her name, he picked the phone up.

"Hey, babe!" Jack said.

"Hey, Jack! You know what today is?" Christina said on the other end.

"Yeah. It's Monday. Why?"

"Exactly. It is Monday, which is why you gather all your dirty laundry and bring it to the Laundromat! It's almost laundry time!"

"Do we have to?"

"Yes, we do. I can imagine you have a dirty load. Plus, we haven't done this in a while. So you have to!" Christina said.

"All right. Give me ten minutes! I have a bunch of clothes that should be cleaned."

"I thought so!" Christina said. Jack laughed. "So, I'll see you in a bit!"

"It's a plan!"

"Okie dokie! Bye, Jack!"

"Bye, Chris!" He heard her hang up on the other end and he placed the phone back in the receiver.

He went up behind the couch and placed his hands over Rose's eyes. "Guess who?"

"Is it Leonardo DiCaprio?" Rose teased.

Jack took his hands off her eyes. "Hey!"

"I'm joking!" Rose laughed and turned to face Jack.

"You better be!" Jack laughed back. Rose gave him a quick kiss. "So, you have any dirty clothes? I have to go to the Laundromat with Chris. Monday's our laundry day."

"You do your own laundry?"

"Sort of. She helps me. I have a whole bunch of dirty clothes. I haven't done my laundry in a long time!"

Rose laughed. "Well, I have some dirty clothes."

"Well, give them to me. I'll wash them. Besides, I need to get there now. Chris doesn't like tardiness. Would you care to join us?"

"I'll be fine here. I wanna get to know your apartment better!"

"All right, then. Do as you please! Let's get all the dirty clothes together!" Jack said.

Rose got up from the couch and followed him to the bedroom. She watched as Jack pulled his laundry bag from his closet. It was already full of clothes.

"That bag looks already full," Rose said, laughing.

"Yeah, I know. That's why I have back-up bags." Jack pulled out an empty green laundry bag from his closet.

"Isn't it gonna be a lot to carry?"

"Yeah, but it won't be so bad. We walk onto Neptune Avenue since it's not so long for us to walk. It's right between us. That way we don't have to go out of our way to do our laundry and do it together," Jack explained, throwing his clothes into the bag.

"Sounds like a good arrangement."

"It is. If I continued doing my laundry alone, all my clothes would be pink. I had to get Fabri to help me out before I met Chris. Fabri only has sisters, so that's how he knows. If he wasn't around, I'd have the old ladies at the Laundromat help me out." Rose laughed.

"I could imagine."

"That's all my clothes. Hand me yours." Rose picked her clothes up off the floor from the night before and threw them to Jack. Rose went to her duffel bag, where she kept all her dirty clothes from Philadelphia.

"That's all of them!" Rose said.

"They'll be clean, I can assure you. Christina will make your clothes whiter than before. She is a miracle worker!"

"Well, I put my trust in her hands."

"It's better off that way. Now, I should get going." Jack picked the bags up off the bed and went to the door.

"Are you sure you wanna stay here alone?" Jack asked.

"I'll be fine."

"All right. I'll be back in an hour or less," he said. Rose nodded her head. She opened the door for him, since his hands were full. "See you later." He gave her a quick kiss and left.

*****

Tommy didn't go home right away. Instead of going back to his apartment in Marine Park, he drove the opposite way to Bay Ridge, to Fabrizio's.

He went inside the apartment building and pressed Fabrizio's button. A few seconds later, he heard the buzz and went inside to the lobby and waited for the elevator. It took a while for it to come, but he didn't wait too long.

As soon as the elevator got to the second floor, Tommy left the elevator. He made his way to Fabrizio's door and knocked on it. He heard Fabrizio's footsteps coming to the door. The door clicked and opened. Fabrizio's hair was a mess when he opened the door.

"Hey, Tommy!" Fabrizio said, leaving the door open for him to come in. Tommy followed and closed the door behind him.

"Did you just wake up?" Tommy asked.

"Yeah. They gave me the day off. I got home at two last night." Fabrizio dropped himself on the couch and Tommy sat next to him. "So, what brings you here?"

"I just got back from Chris's. I slept over."

"Oh, really? What'd you guys do last night?" Fabrizio asked.

"You're not gonna fucking believe this. Last night I picked her up from work and we went to this bar on Flatbush. Now, of course, since I drive I can't drink. On the other hand, since the bar didn't bother to check for Chris's ID, she drank a whole lot. She was so fucking drunk when I took her home."

"Where'd you go?"

"Coughlin Brothers."

"Oh. Maybe they thought she looked twenty-one."

"Probably, but back to the story. She was so fucking drunk. The whole car ride, she was talking about Jack and Rose. Then we got to her apartment. Laughing her ass off, the guy across from her came out of his apartment just to say to keep it down. She cursed at him, so I pulled her into the apartment. She almost fell on the floor. I told her to go to bed, but she said no. She start asking me if I thought she was prettier than Rose. Of course, I said yes."

"Of course you would. You're in love with the girl." Tommy blushed.

"Anyway, she pushed me on the couch after that and said she'd be right back. The girl was so drunk she fell on the floor. I was gonna help her up but she got up right away and ran inside her room." Tommy stopped. "You got a cigarette, man?"

"Yeah." Fabrizio grabbed the cigarette box off the arm of the chair. He pulled a cigarette out and gave it to him. Tommy put the cigarette in his mouth and lit it. "So what happened next?"

"She comes in wearing just a tank top and underwear. She says 'I know you like looking at me'. I'm beginning to sweat. Then she pushes her breasts up. We all know how big they are already. This is even more unbelievable. She crawls on the floor toward me after I tell her to go get rest. She spreads my leg wide and tries to unbuckle my pants." Fabrizio's jaw dropped.

"What happened?"

"I stopped her!"

"What?"

"I stopped her. Why would I let her do anything?"

"Why would you not let her do anything?"

"That's not all, though."

"There's more?"

"Yeah. She was kinda pissed off. So she is standing up. I told her to go to bed again and she begins to smile, a weird one. Before I know it, she is trying to take her shirt off. It was all in slow motion."

"You saw her naked?"

"No. Just when I saw the bottom of her breasts, I stopped her."

"You almost saw Chris naked and you stopped her?"

"Yeah."

"What'd you do that for?" Fabrizio yelled at him.

"Because after that she started complaining about Jack. The only reason she tried to seduce me is because of her jealousy towards Jack."

"I guess you're right, then. Better to have stopped her than have jealousy sex."

"It's better to not have sex with someone who doesn't see you in that way when they are drunk. I wouldn't wanna take advantage of her."

"Yeah, that's true. I wouldn't have done it, either."

"Yeah, and she fell asleep. I put her to bed. I decided to stay over. I woke up to find her in the bathroom. She threw up. She doesn't remember anything. I didn't tell her. Hopefully she won't know. The poor thing would be embarrassed. So don't tell her!"

"I won't. She probably remembers something, though. You don't forget everything when you are drunk, you know."

"I know. I'm sure she remembers something. Let's just hope not the seduction parts."

*****

Jack walked into the Laundromat to see Christina sitting on top of a washing machine. She was reading a magazine. As soon as she saw Jack, she hopped off the washing machine to hug Jack.

"Hey, babe!" Jack said. "I'm late, aren't I?"

"Yeah. Ten minutes late. Looks like you brought a hefty load there!" she said, referring to the two full laundry bags.

"I sure do."

"Let's see what you got!" Jack dumped his load onto the machine.

"These clothes look weeks old dirty. When was the last time you washed your clothes?" Christina asked.

"Weeks ago!"

"Hmm, and now you have more clothes. Grab me two laundry carts so we can separate clothes." Jack brought her the laundry carts and placed them next to their machine. "White clothes in the first cart. Dark clothes in the second. We'll put the others somewhere else."

"You're the boss."

Christina only had one bag with her. She first took Jack's clothes and put them in the basket and saw a white bra mixed with his shirt.

"Uh-huh! Jack! Where's your boobs?" Christina joked, holding the bra up by its straps.

"Oh, that's Rose's."

"Why would you have Rose's bra?"

"She is spending the week with me. Remember she came home last night? I don't know if you would mind, but we told her driver to tell her mother she was spending the week with you."

"With me?" Christina gave him a funny look.

"If we told her driver to tell her mom she was staying with me, she'd have a heart attack. The woman doesn't like me."

"How could anyone not like you?" Christina pinched his cheeks.

"That I do not know."

"Well, I can tell by this bra that Rose has good taste. One thing we have in common is that we both like Victoria's Secret," Christina said. We're both in love with you, as well. That’s another thing we have in common, she felt like saying. "This bra is a size too small for me. 36C. That's a good size!" Christina said, causing Jack to laugh.

"We all know your size, Chris!"

"I don't think they look like a D."

"Ha ha! Keep saying that to yourself!"

"Off the subject of breasts, we're here to do our laundry. I think we'll need another cart."

"I'll go get one!" Jack ran off to go find another cart.

Christina continued separating the clothes. There was some of Rose's clothes mixed in there. Seeing them made Christina feel queasy. She tried her best to cover up her jealousy. Not likely that someone would wash the clothes of the girl who is dating the guy you are in love with.

"Lucky! I had to fight with some guy for this! I told him I had my hands on it first!" Jack said when he got back with a cart.

"We'll put the other clothes in here."

"This is a sexy looking thing!" Jack picked up one of Christina's bras.

"Victoria’s Secret has a fine line of bras," Christina said. "That's my lucky bra!"

"A lucky bra?"

"Yeah. I wore that one when I first met you. See? That was luck by the bra!"

"Some luck!" Jack laughed.

"I found myself wearing just this after I threw up today," Christina said, holding up the underwear and shirt.

"Threw up?"

"Yeah. I got so wasted last night. Tommy and I went somewhere on Flatbush. They didn't check my ID, so…oh, well!"

"Are you feeling all right?"

"I'm fine. I don't really remember much of last night!"

"Some things are best forgotten when you're drunk. One night Fabri and I were drunk. The next morning I found myself with a pink feather boa around my neck and a bra on my face."

"What were you doing with that?"

"Like I said, it was best I didn't remember."

This made Christina want to know what happened last night. Tommy said not to worry, so she didn't. Now it was killing her to know.

"Well, let's just finish our laundry," she said.

Chapter Forty
Stories