He had seen the movie. Riley smiled and nodded her head as he explained that it was his second favorite. What was the first? She wondered, and then forgot to wonder any more with the path his hand took into her hair.

Uh oh. He’d found a major weakness. One that guys so very often didn’t exploit. Leaning her head into his hand, Riley looked back, the familiar words of the movie playing in the background and nodded her head.

”Yeah. I like that the whole thing isn’t all mushy and feel good. It’s more realistic.”

"One can only take mushy for so long." He agreed.

Again, he sipped his cocoa. He turned back to the movie. And tried not to distract her too much as they watched.

Mushy and 'feel-good' were all well and good, sometimes. But realistic worked too. And realistically, you had to actually watch a movie to have watched a movie, all warm, with your woman. Crazy flaw. 'Damn loophole', in lawyerspeak.

Watching the movie made it get late.

Aurum agreed, and that’s what Riley liked about him. He didn’t need all the melodramatic declarations and mushy word play that some people seemed to require in order to be with someone. He just...wanted to be.

So. They were.

The movie played on, and Riley just stayed right where she was, content to sip good cocoa and watch.

The ending came, and Riley had to smile at the little girl. The bell was ringing, angels were getting wings all over the place. It was good stuff.

It was also late.

”Time flies I guess...like an angel that just got his wings...” Riley said with a sugar sweet smile.

God, Riley and her bad puns. 'Oh well', Aurum chuckled, shaking his head. It was kind of cute.

"Probably too late to drive you back to your place," he rationalized reasonably. "It isn't much fun driving over icy roads on a bike in the dark."

Oh whatever would they do?

He planted a kiss on Riley's forehead.

It was late...but it wasn’t that late. Heck, they’d been out much later on Halloween...

Aurum didn’t seem inclined to drive her home though, and Riley really was very comfortable. The kiss on the forehead wasn’t doing a lot to discourage her from sticking around a while longer either.

Was he asking her to spend the night? At his place? The concept was an interesting one, and one that Riley was surprised to find she didn't mind all that much. This was...kind of a big deal.

”Hmmm....” she said thoughtfully.

”And it would be awful cold on a bus...”

It had to be past 11.

Quietly, he noted. "I think all the buses are done for the night." And if they weren't. He didn't like the crowds on buses late at night. "And I couldn't let you go out in the cold."

"It's warm here." He noticed, glancing around in faux-surprise.

Busses done for the night? There were all night busses you could catch if you knew the right places to look, but Riley didn’t point that out. He was working hard to get her to stay, and he’d brought up the cold.

It was cold outside.

And...

”It is warm here.” she said.

”Well...” Riley said, a coy smile curving her lips.

”If you’ve got the space...and you don’t mind a free loader crashing here for the night....”

Words were great and all, but actions. Actions.

Aurum let a kiss on the lips say a whole lot more than the words 'It isn't free-loading if I want you.'

He wanted her to stay.

Okay. Yeah. I’ll stay. Riley responded in kind to Aurum’s invitation.

Actions were speaking loudly, and what other response could she give? It was cold outside. And Aurum didn’t want to drive her. And scary people rode the late night busses.

And...

And...and...

She wanted to stay. With him.

So, they stayed. And after a while, they even left the couch!

Their mugs stayed on the glass coffee table, resting on coasters, but they headed towards the bedroom. After all, it was quite late.

Aurum turned to look at Riley as he moved towards his chest of drawers. "Need something to sleep in?" He asked.

And eventually, they made it to Aurum's room and he offered her a shirt. To sleep in.

That coy smile. It made a swift return and articles of clothing started to hit the floor, one-by-one.

" To sleep in? Why would I need that?"

The carpet kind of hurt, really. The texture of it was rough. Against his jaw.

Dear Penthouse... God, I love this woman.

"You're absolutely right." He decided. "Let me join you."

With a grin, Aurum casually shut the bedroom door.

***

The phone rang by his ear. Loud, insistent. He swatted at it. Who left these things by their ears, anyways? The swatting didn't do anything for him. On the second sweep, his hand snagged the phone by the receiver, and brought it up to his mouth. "Hello...?" He trailed groggily.

He was in bed, with covers over his chest. Riley was next to him, possibly still sleeping. Although, with how the phone had been wailing, that seemed highly unlikely.

A female voice interrupted these thought processes on the other end. A familiar voice. A familiar female voice. "Ally!" She said. Ally. Like Alley. Practically like Prince Ali, from the Disney movie Aladdin. "Where are you? Why aren't you at work!?"

Hey Carpet. It's been a while. What? Six hours since I last felt your texture on my face?

"Viletta?!" Aurum sat up in shock.

Riley had been awake for a while when the phone started to ring, thinking about Christmas morning and all of the things that it meant.

Normally, she’d have been scrambling around quietly in her bare feet, gathering pieces of clothing and doing her best to get away without waking up the person in the bed. This morning, Christmas morning, Riley simply snuggled down deeper in the sheets and blankets, and maybe scooted a little closer to Aurum as he slept.

Last night had been...far less rushed than the elevator, and Riley smiled slightly at the fresh memory.

Then the phone rang.

And rang.

...and rang.

Aurum stirred and Riley shut her eyes, the better to let him think she was still sleeping. She could hear him, fishing around for the phone...then speaking.

Then. The name. The movement.

Riley froze. Why was she calling? On Christmas morning. The high school sweetheart. The perfect one that Ami had told her about.

Riley didn’t say anything, she just lay there, eyes open and watching Aurum to see what happened next.

"Heeeeey," Viletta said, and he could almost hear the mind-numbing smile over the phone. "Sup?"

"Why are you calling?"

"Same old Ally," she noted with a 'hmm'. "Straight to the point. Job, dude. Like I said. Where are you?"

"What job?" He blinked. I don't remember having any job with you. Aurum glanced over towards Riley. And remembered the state they were both in. "Hey... could you call back later? This really isn't a good time..."

"But, it's Christmas morning." Viletta pouted. "And you still haven't accepted your Christmas present. Why isn't it a good time...?" She trailed suspiciously.

Aurum didn't even hesitate in answering. "I'm kind of in bed with my girlfriend." He said.

"Aha. Sly dog. Gotcha. Well, I'll call you back, then. But the punchline to the whole joke I baited you with, which you totally didn't bite on to, was that I'm giving you a job offer. I'll get you details later. Merry Christmas! And be safe!"

"... Merry Christmas." And, Bye. He hung up.

God. Viletta. Always so chipper. She really knew how to throw him off his game. He recalled he used to eat that up.

Aurum spared another glance towards Riley. Somehow, he had a feeling that if she knew he'd just been on the phone with his ex-girlfriend, she'd flip. Women were like that. Even if there was absolutely nothing she had to worry about. It wasn't like she had any competition.

Hmm. Girlfriend.

Something in the back of her mind told Riley that the word ‘girlfriend’ was not what she needed to be focusing on. But it was what she was focusing on.

Was that what this was? Riley frowned as Aurum finished his conversation with his perfect little high school sweetheart.

Girlfriend. It was a word she hadn’t used, or had applied to her in a really long time. She supposed it made sense, what with the L-word getting thrown around and her spending the night like she belonged in his apartment. Still. The word rang odd in her ears, even if in context it made her feel slightly better about the whole situation.

The phone call ended with a ‘Merry Christmas’ and Aurum turned to look at her.

Test time, students.

”What was that all about?” Riley asked, stretching like a cat under the covers.

Aurum didn’t know that she knew who Viletta was. Would he admit it? Or something else?