Windows on the World (OLD VERSION) [BEING REWRITTEN]

[¹¹] ʳᵃⁱⁿ

Phoebe opened a drawer and immediately realized she'd opened the wrong one when she saw it consisted of his unmentionables.

"Oops."

The next one was the right one. The T-shirts were so unsurprisingly folded into perfection, that she almost felt bad disrupting them.

"No way! You're a Jets guy?" Phoebe held open the T-shirt she'd picked for Walter to see.

"Would you have taken me for a Giants guy?"

"I wouldn't have taken you for a football guy. At all."

"Maybe it's because I prefer baseball."

"Yikes." She pretended to yawn.

"Or golf."

"Double yikes." Phoebe repeated the action before holding the item up high in her fist. "Well, I'm taking this one, since you don't care for football that much..."

"Actually-"

He wanted to explain that he only kept it for one reason, and it was one that meant a lot to him. But Phoebe was already walking into the en-suite to change.

She got rid of her top, her jeans-now darkened by the water on them-and even the socks on her feet, then changed into the gray Jets T-shirt and Walter's comfy tracksuit cotton shorts. The shorts in question fell down as soon as she had pulled them up. So Phoebe had to tie a pretty tight knot until the waistband was all scrunched up.

The mirror not only reflected how comically oversized those clothes looked on her, but the mess her hair had become.

Not wanting to snoop around, Phoebe decided to walk out the restroom to ask Walter for what she needed.

"Hey," she said while turning the corner. "you wouldn't happen to have a-"

Her words fell short as soon as she looked ahead.

The sight shouldn't have knocked her out like that. Phoebe liked to think that she was in control of that side of things. That she was not someone who was easily awed at a man's physique.

But Walter's torso as he finished taking off his white shirt might have proven her otherwise.

The muted, cold afternoon light coming in from in between the gaps of the venetian window blinds fell over him in stripes adapting to every shape of his smooth skin.

He was quite well defined. Phoebe didn't care for muscles, as long as a body was lean and healthy-looking, she saw little importance in anything else. And yet, he had them. At least more than she would have expected from such a busy forty-two year old man.

She couldn't believe she was staring at him that way. What little disdain could be left in her toward him, no doubt dissipated into oblivion right there.

In any case, his body wasn't even what caught her attention the most. It was the little gleam that emitted from the upper part of his chest as he turned in her direction which mesmerized her.

Soon she realized that it was coming from the Star of David hanging from a golden chain and falling over some blondish chest hair.

Was that the star she'd given him? It appeared so much more opulent than when she'd picked it in the store. Maybe simply seeing it on him gave it a different value.

"A what?" He appeared a little shaken that she'd caught him off-guard like that, but played it off by using a nonchalant tone.

"Hairdryer," she responded slowly and with a dry throat, still taken by the discovery.

"Yes," he also said with a raspy voice that he couldn't hide any longer. He cleared his throat before continuing. "yes, I do happen to have one. Bottom drawer of the gray cabinet."