Between Our Sheets | Falice

12/ Let The Guilt Go

"Are we terrible parents?" Alice questions as she lays beside FP, her head on his chest, his arms wrapped around her.

"No," he sighs. "we're just... putting ourselves first."

"I feel like an awful parent."

"You're not, Al." He promises, stroking her arms.

"I'm fucking my daughter's boyfriend's dad, I'm the prime example of an awful parent."

"You don't give yourself enough credit, yes maybe this isn't exactly the definition of good parenting but everything else? You're perfect. You provide for her, support her, love her. You're a good mom, Al, you're just doing something for yourself for once and feeling guilty about it."

"But-"

He shushes her with a kiss. "No buts."

She rolls her eyes and kisses him again, smiling against his lips. "We can't get too caught up, you have to leave soon." She warns him as he nibbles on the side of her neck.

"Yes, ma'am."

She directs his lips back to her own and gives him a soft kiss. "Do you want some coffee?"

"Yeah, that sounds nice." He kisses her again and rolls away from her so she can get up and out of bed.

_____

"So," She starts, handing him a mug. "Tell me about yourself."

"What do you want to know?"

"Anything. I mean I know the basics, you work at the diner, you have 2 kids, your name is Forsythe Pendleton. I want to know more though, if I'm going to be sleeping with you I at least want to know a bit more about you."

He smirks. "Isn't the point of a friend's with benefits relationship that you don't know much about each other? Purely sex."

"Well the key word there is friends, we're friends too, at least, in my mind we are."

"Mine too." He sets his cup down and thinks. "Well, I grew up in Greendale, my whole life was there, all of my family and friends. It's where I met my ex. Moved to Toledo with her and had the munchkins, I worked at a construction place out there, would build houses and sheds and shit. Wasn't the most glamorous life but it paid the bills. I always wanted to be a professional football player though, that was always the dream."

"So why didn't that happen?" She quizzes.

"Broke my wrist junior year, never quite healed properly, or never good enough for me to play the way I did before, so I had to give it up. Sucked too because I was a-shooing for a scholarship."

"I'm sorry."

"It's alright, I'm over it."

She offers him a sad smile. "How'd you break your wrist?"

He sighs. "That's a long story."

"You don't have to tell me if it's too painful, I can tell it's not exactly a happy memory."

"I will someday but just... we're having a good time, I don't want to talk about it right now."

"That's okay, we don't have to." She smiles at him and strokes her fingertips across his wrist.

"What about you? Tell me more about yourself, was journalism always the dream?"

"Always. All throughout high school I was working on the school paper, got a scholarship to Yale, got my degree and now here I am; owning the town paper."

"A scholarship to Yale? Must be pretty damn smart."

"Guess so. Had some good recommendation letters too."

"I'm not really one to read the paper that much but now that I know who's behind those articles, I think I just might start."

She smiles at him and leans over to give him a kiss, laughing when he tugs on her hand to bring her closer.