The morning after, Kim was still trembling with desire. She was at work, and her mind scattered. She needed to blast the music to block out any thoughts. It was a good thing the store was closed so she could focus on the hundred things she needed to get done.

Monica stuck with her in the back and laughed at Kim's movements. Kim worked methodically, taking one flower at a time, stripping it, cutting it and theh placing it into the vase, One flower, one type at a time. "Oh my gosh," she said stopping Kim's hands. "Is that a hickey?"

Kim slapped the side of her neck, "I uhm....I got burned."

"By someone's mouth? Who gave that to you?"

Flashes of the night before flew her mind. His lips teasing her skin, lifting her up on his hips, throwing her shirt off her body just to get the little bit closer.

"Hello! Business is needed!" Ejay and Rayver laughed, walking into the back room to the blaring music and the working women.

Ejay grabbed the remote and turned off the music. "What are you gals doing?"

"Trying to figure out who mauled Kim's neck."

Kim rolled her eyes and contunued doing her job.

Rayver brought his hands to her chin and moved it to get a better look. "Coming from the doctor, that is definitely a hickey. And wow, did he latch on."

"Someone got lucky last night."

"No one got lucky last night, boys. Almost, but not entirely."

"We missed you and Gerald last night."

Kim looked at Ejay startled at the sound of his name. Monica looked at Kim and noticed that lovestruck look. "You had with Gerald!"

Her head snapped towards Monica, jaw dropped. "What?"

"I could totally tell. Rayver saying his name just now and you looking all guilty. Oh screams midnight tryst."

"I will repeat, I did not have with Gerald last night."

"Wow, I have to say, I am a little jealous. Ge is y."

The boys looked at Kim dumbfounded. "Gerald? As in our best friend Gerald?"

"Can everyone stop being so damn shocked. We're both attractive, single. Why wouldn't we hook up?"

"The same reason why we don't," Ejay said. "You're my sister."

"We're not related."

Ejay started laughing. "'Chong is going to kill you both, you know that right?"

When Kim got home that night, she popped open a bottle of wine and called Erich over. "How much do you hate me?" Were her first words when Erich arrived.

"I don't hate you. Gerald's not on my good books, but..." She lifted a strand of Kim's hair off her shoulder. "And now he's deeper in the dog house."

"'Rich, it just happened. I didn't want to feel this way. I didn't want him to kiss me that night. I don't this to be confusing. It is what it is. And we didn't sleep together. I already told Ejay and Rayver who are probably telling the rest of the boys as we speak."

"Kim, you could have any guy, yet you choose him."

"I didn't choose Gerald. This is as much of a surprise to me as it is to you. I didn't ask for any of this. I just can't help but think you hate me."

Erich pulled Kim into a hug. "I could never hate you. We are the original tandem, we are sisters. Gerald on the other hand..."

"'Chong is going to kill Gerald, isn't he?"

"When he finds out, definitely."

In bed that night, Kim was still going over it in her mind. Lips on lips, body on body. How much she wanted to be drenched with all Gerald could give her.

She woke up panting after dreaming of the continuation of the night before, almost as if they did satisfy both their hungers. Kim turned to look at the clock beside her, 3:26am. Kim took a deep breath, and thought this was ridiculous. If she wanted to talk to him, she should just talk to him. They had midnight talks before.

So she grabbed her cell phone and opened up a new text message to Gerald. Can't sleep. Still thinking. Are you? She clicked on the send button before she could talk herself out of it.

Gerald was still working late at his desk in his home office. Rayver, Ejay and Matt all came over to congratulate him on branding Kim. They shared a few laughs at his expense, and all supported him in this new adventure. After they left, it was already evening and Gerald decided to go for a run.

The entire day was wasted, he thought, on thinking about a night that didn't happen. He was lecturing himself about what he did wrong that night, and over and over again embarassment drowned his soul. He couldn't believe he threw Kim off the bed.

By the time he got home, it was 8:30, and he needed to complete a sketch for a client before their meeting the next day. That was pretty much the only thing that kept his mind off of something beautiful and tempting. It took him almost every fiber in his body to not walk out his front door, break all speeding records just to finish what they started almost twenty-four hours before.

Six hours of working and still going at it. Gerald had his heater blasting through the vents causing him to strip down to a wife beater and a his running shorts.

He was sweating, but he kept himself hyrdrated with the three-litre bottle of water by his work table and awake from his constant brewing off coffee. It was half past three in the morning; and since it was just approaching winter in the big city the sun wasn't out yet.

Gerald stretched his limbs and his neck muscles, only to recieve a jolt of reality from the pain. "Fine, you want sleep, you'll get sleep." He turned off his work light, brought his mug and bottle of water to the kitchen and walked up to his bedroom to take a shower. Ten minutes later, he changed into his night-wear which included him in sweat pants and nothing else and crawled into bed. He didn't have an early day tomorrow; the meeting starting around 4 in the afternoon, but without putting his alarm clock, it would mean he'd probably wake up ten minutes before and then risk losing his job. He grabbed his phone, set his alarm for 1 in the afternoon and saw that he had a text message sent fifteen minutes ago. He clicked on it and read the single line.

Was she kidding? Every thought that didn't revolve around her - particularly a her - was a struggle, which explained the six or seven hours of finishing up two rooms. Six hours on a regular day permitted him to finish a two-storey house. Everything he'd done the entire day took him twice as long as it should've because he was thinking.

No point in telling her that, he decided. So just how was he supposed to answer? He figured that since she sent that text message minutes before, she was losing as much sleep as he was and he smiled as he hit Reply.

I'm thinking you should come over tomorrow night wearing nothing but a trench coat. And maybe a back brace.

After clicking on send, he sat back intrigued by the idea and imagined - very vividly - what Kim would look like in a trench coat. And maybe high heels, he thought. Red heels. Really high red heels. And once he he'd loosened the belt of the coat ----.

The next thing he knew the sun was shining in his eyes and he felt a trickle of moisture fall from his mouth.

Kim stepped out of her bed and yawned. The lack of sleep would end up killing her, she thought. After college, he figured she needed at least eight hours of sleep to function well. Kim had four full hours that night. Damn Gerald for doing this to her. She grabbed her phone and checked the time. Great, she thought, it was barely nine in the morning and her work day would start in less than an hour. But the little envelope in the corner of the screen made her smile.

She clicked on it and snorted out a laugh.

"Trench coat and back brace. Good one. Let's see..." You'll need to choose between my back braces, she laughed. I guess I'll have to try them on with my collection of trench coats. I have a particular favourite one. It's black and has a shine so it always looks...wet.
"But tonight isn't good for me. I guess that gives us more time to think. She clicked send and laughed.

On Friday, Gerald caught himself staring at a picture of Kim on his desktop. It was a picture of the fourteen of them, but he zoomed in on Kim's face. She wasn't looking in the camera, but off to the side, probably at Erich who looked like she was laughing at something funny.

Kim's hair was pulled back into a high bun; it was messy but y. Her grin was from ear to ear, and she scrunched her nose in the most adorable way, he thought. He knew that smile was genuine. Her eyes were glistening with something hidden behind them, almost as if she kept a secret. It was familiar, because it's the same way he felt the first he kissed her.

Gerald wondered if she thought of him the same way as she did now. God knows he did. There was always something about her, from the very moment they met face to face.

She smelled like her work, just as she did two a week ago, something he grown accustomed to. Gerald even bought a couple of flowers, some sunflowers for his balcony, just to recapture her scent.

Her face was unique, he concluded, in the best possible way possible. Her eyes were the shape of almonds, nose small like a button and lips naturally plump. She was definitely blessed with beauty.

And to hold her in his arms again was what he was waiting for.

"Are you ready to lose your money, Anderson?"

Gerald jumped in his chair for the intrusion. He scrambled to pop open a window and hide his wallpaper, and was thankful it opened in time.

The men assembled like an army in his dining room, moving the orchids from the centre of the table and placing it ontop of the refrigerator. They took their seats and Enchong started handing out the cards.

Gerald cleared his throat and took his seat in between Rayver and Matt, directly across from Enchong. "Suit 'em up," he smiled.

"What were you just doing?" Enchong asked, finishing distributing the cards. "You look like you came off another universe."

"Nothing. I was just working on another sketch. You know how demanding work can be," he lied. Sure he was working, but we wasn't working on his job. He was trying to memorize every tiny detail of her face, Kim's face.

Enchong got up and handed out a beer to everyone from Gerald's fridge. "So I just spoke to Kim and she said something about you doing her."

Everyone at the table nearly spit out their beer. Especially Gerald who needed someone's assistance when he began choking on the cool liquid. "What?"

"On a new fridge and possibly adding onto the shop," he clarified, taking out a cigar and lighting it up. "You know, doing a job for her. What did you think I meant." And then he got his words. "Oh crap. That's disgusting boys. I already have to think about all you guys doing my friends, not you too Gerald. At least not I can go to sleep with that in mind."

The rest of the guys kept their eyes on Gerald, to see his reaction he bet. But since this was a game of poker, he kept his poker face on. "I thought poker night was supposed to be about something other than work." He argued. "Now let's just hand over the money to me now because we all know I'm going to win." And the trash talk began.

Over at Kim's house, once again each woman had a glass of wine in each hand. It was already past ten and some of them were already buzzed. "Okay, we spoke about the kids, ed about the men and our jobs, so can we all now progress to something much more interesting right now? Like how Gerald is in bed?"

The women cheered and raised their glasses, except Kim. Even Erich who was very against this in the first place was toasting. "Well there's not much to tell since we haven't..."

"Yet," Maja concluded. They laughed.

"Fine, can we at least go around the room and discuss out feelings towards the matter. We're now over the initial shock and had a week's time to absorb the news of our friends shacking up. We'll start with me. Never in a million years did I ever imagine the two of you happening."

"I agree. Gerald is definitely not the typical guy Kim goes for."

"And what's the typical guy I go for?"

Beauty cleared . "Alright. Let's flashback to highschool. Kim had approximately three boyfriends - Carl, Michael and Nicholas. All three guys were the quiet type, they sat in the back of the class, attended chess club together, Nicholas did the debate club and Michael did the comicon."

"I think we can agree that high school doesn't count," said Kim.

Maja laughed, "Fine. Flashforward a few more years to college. Kim's first non-high school relationship with Angelo. Now he was a maniac!"

"I didn't lose it to Angelo."

"But you lost it to college boyfriend #2 - Christopher Mendez. Now he was hot!"

Erich laughed, "Just seeing the two of you together, we wondered how good he must've been."

"And when you came to us with the details," Shaina said. "You promised that no matter what happened, if you guys broke up or got married, you would never regret losing your ity to Christopher Mendez."

"I think you're losing the point of the conversation. What's so different?"

"Okay, those five guys plus the other fifteen men you went out with were future guys. Guys you'd always talk about getting married with. I remember planning your wedding to all those guys. But Gerald..."

"He's more of a...today type of person. You get it?"

"There's nothing wrong with living in the moment." Kim said.

"Until the moment's done and we need to move forward." Empress added. "Listen, the bottom line is that you have us. You have the guys too. No matter what. And if you decide that Gerald is the man of the hour, then we support you."

Erich grabbed her hand. "And if he's not. Then that's what we're here for."

"So since you're not having with Gerald. What is the current situation?" Mel asked.

"I think we're having vitrual ." Kim admitted.

"Virtual ?' Erich said, as if it was a new term to the whole world.

Kim smiled, "Well, we're still in the early stages of , so I'm not sure where this is going."

"I never had virtual ," Mel said. "And I thought me and Matt tried every version of . Virtual, no. I'm not sure I'd like it."

"Because it's a game," Kim topped off their glasses. "You might like a man to go to bed with, but might not want to play withhim."

"Well obviously she likes Ge well enough to play with him."

"Gerald's got a sense of fun, which is one of the things I find attractive about him." A devlish grin crept her lips. "We'll see how much he likes to play games.

When all the ladies left past midnight, Kim still felt a little buzz from the wine. She grabbed her cell phone and clicked on Gerald's name. So, I was thinking about the whole trench coat idea, and if we skip tomorrow's meeting with the gang maybe we could play a little. She sent.

Gerald was in his bedroom when he heard his phone chime. Now you're playing dirty. I like surprises. I especially like unwrapping them, so I look forward to helping you out of your coat. I like to take my time with surprises, build anticipation. So I'm going to unwrap you very, very slowly. Inch by inch. And when I have another text said. Obviously the message was too long to get across once. I'm going to want to take a good look. Before I touch. Inch by inch.

When Kim read it, her heart beat a little faster, and her breath came out a little ragged. "Oh my," she said.

Kim closed her eyes and imagined Gerald slipping her out of the wet black coat she didn't even own. In a room full of candles, music playing, low and hot.

Kim straightened her shoulder and took a deep breath. I like to play, and I don't mind getting a little dirty. Surprises are fun. And being the surprise can be even better. When I am, I like to unwrapped slowly. Fingertips patiently untying the bow, then hands carefully, folding back that wrapping to get what's waiting inside. And other times, I want those fingers, those hands to just rip through the barriers. Fast and greedy and maybe a little rough.

She clicked send and got all hot and bothered over a text message. Now if he was like this over virtual reality, she could picture herself having a when he was finished with her.

Her phone beeped and Kim looked at it for confirmation. Kim bit her lip from screaming of joy. I'm coming over at seven. I'll bring food and you just bring yourself. Trench coat or no trench coat. We waited for far too long.