"Oh fuck," he muttered, slowly realizing that the buzzing wasn't just in his head. He attempted to pry his eyes open, but it was proving to be difficult.
"What's going on?" Naomi's voice was groggy next to him.
"How quickly can you get some clothes on?" Matt opened his eyes, scanning over the stunning shape of her body next to him, stroking her cheek. She smiled, not opening her eyes.
"I don't wanna," she replied and he sighed. His phone was now buzzing along with his door and he needed to roll out of bed. Naomi would be pretty pissed if he didn't give her sufficient warning.
"Hon, I need to go get the door," he informed her, waiting for a reaction. There was none. "Naomi, do you hear me?"
"Uh-huh. Go get the door," her eyes remained closed.
"That's Seth." No reaction. Matt rolled out of bed, grabbing his boxers off the floor. "You know, Seth, our friend of twenty-plus years. The one who doesn't know that you sleep in my bed when you stay over?"
"I'm just gonna stay here." It wasn't registering with her at all. Shit. This isn't what he had planned to happen this morning. He pulled on his boxers and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.
He was supposed to set an alarm and of course, he totally forgot about it because it had been three weeks since he'd last seen Naomi and last night got kinda out of hand. She came over after Thanksgiving dinner at her parents' house and they didn't even make it into the bedroom on the first round. He lifted her up onto the stool at his kitchen island and had her right there, two minutes after she walked in. They did eventually make it into the bedroom, but there was very little sleep happening. And now it was Black Friday and one or more of their friends were figuratively knocking down his door because it has become a long-standing tradition to meet up for breakfast and, weather permitting basketball, on Black Friday.
"I called you like seventeen times, no shit," Seth greeted him when he opened the door. Adam and Schmidt stood right behind him. Matt held the door open for them to come inside. "Jon and Becky are on their way. 'Cause that's a thing now," Seth rolled his eyes. "But I had no idea what you wanted, so you're gonna deal with the Hungryman Platter I got you. And Naomi's MIA, so I shot blind on that one too. Is she even coming?" Seth set the take-out bags on Matt's kitchen counter, looking at him.
"Yeah," he nodded. "She'll be here."
"Matt's got a chick over," Adam announced, a shit-eating grin on his face. Matt swung around to look at his friend, suddenly noticing that Naomi's clothes were still scattered over his floor from last night. Shit. He scratched his head, bending down to pick up the evidence.
"Seriously? You hooked up with someone on Thanksgiving night?" Seth scrunched up his forehead. Matt didn't know what to say to him.
That night when he helped Naomi move, when she tried to convince him to stay, she said it was fine if the other guys knew about them. But they were all adults and it didn't seem appropriate to brag. They all saw each other, but not on any regular basis. Matt lived the closest to their hometown and Schmidt had stayed local too, but the rest were an hour or two away. Jon had only recently moved back to the east coast, after years of living in California, and was barely even in touch during that time. So somehow, months and seasons clicked by without anyone learning of their arrangement. The longer they went without telling their friends, the more difficult it had become to bring up.
"Give me just a minute," he raised a finger to them before taking Naomi's clothes back to the bedroom. The guys shook their heads, smirking. There may have been some commentary about how this was classic Matt.
He shut the door behind himself, looking for pants to pull on. Naomi seemed to have gone back to sleep. The covers were pulled up to her chin and her dark curls have fallen over her face. Matt pulled on a pair of jeans and grabbed a t-shirt from the dresser, sitting down on the bed next to Naomi while putting it on.
"Naomi, I really need you to wake up, hon." He stroked her hair, brushing the curls away from her face. "I need you, out there with me, so we can figure out what the fuck we're saying. You can't just hide in here all morning."
"What are we saying?" She opened one eye looking up at him.
"I don't know! Are we telling them like it is? Just out with it?" Both of her eyes were open now, looking at him in confusion. "Because they know I have someone back here and your clothes were all over the living room, so they are under the impression that I got laid last night."
"You got laid last night," she grinned.
"Yes, I did. Focus, hon." Her face sobered up a bit. She sighed.
"Ok, I'll put on some clothes and go out there." She pulled an arm out from under the covers and rubbed Matt's arm. "We'll just... do the truth thing, I guess. I don't have the mental capacity right now to come up with anything."
"Ok," he leaned down and kissed her forehead. "I'm gonna go back out there. Don't leave me hanging for too long."
The guys were all eating when he went back out there. Seth sat at the counter, Schmidt and Adam were on the sofa with their containers of food. All eyes turned to him when he walked back into the room. Before he had to say anything, the doorbell buzzed again, saving him, and he went to the door to open it. Jon and Becky greeted him before making their way in. They started dating recently, after Jon moved back into the area. Their new relationship didn't receive too much criticism from the group, aside from the fact that Jon was now sleeping with Seth's little sister, which was a bit uncomfortable. But they were quite forthcoming with it from the start, there had been no secrets.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Naomi slip out of the bedroom, while everyone was talking to the new arrivals and sorting through the food in the bags to find their stuff. He just watched her for a moment, his heart rate spiking. She discreetly leaned against the far wall, her hands behind her back, her lower lip drawn in between her teeth. Her dark curls were pulled back in a messy bun at the back of her neck and she wore a pair of sweatpants and a tank top, the kind with the built-in shelf bra. Her feet were bare.
Matt scanned the room, to see if anyone noticed. Schmidt's head was cocked to the side, his eyes wide, switching between him and Naomi. He didn't say anything, but he was definitely on to them.
"Matt, are you gonna come get your food?" Seth called to him from the counter. "I've texted Naomi like half a dozen times and she hasn't gotten back to me yet. I got her chocolate chip pancakes. She used to like that, I hope she still does. Otherwise, I don't know. You guys gotta start answering your damn phones."
Matt walked over to the counter, taking the containers meant for him and Naomi, and walked them into the living room area. Jon and Becky had set themselves up at the counter with Seth and there was no more room there. He set the food down on the coffee table and nodded his head towards it, looking at Naomi.
"Come, sit. I'll get you coffee," he told her. She sucked in a breath before coming to sit on the floor in front of the coffee table.
Matt did another assessment of the room while walking into the kitchen. Everyone's eyes were on Naomi now. It was silent. Adam was grinning wide, Seth looked confused, Jon's expression matched Schmidt's, eyes flitting from Naomi to Matt and back. Becky sat with her mouth open and her eyes wide staring at Naomi.
"Wait, what happened here?" Jon spoke up.
"I think if I'm reading this correctly, Matt banged Naomi last night," Adam spoke up. Naomi's face flushed. Matt poured coffee into mugs.
"Seriously?" Seth looked up at him, brow furrowed. Matt just shrugged in response. "How the fuck did this happen?"
"Well, originally, there was a lot of alcohol involved and it was just a stupid thing that happened, but now it's..." She was looking at him, then shrugged one shoulder, "an arrangement I guess." He would have liked to use the word relationship at this point. It has become an entirely exclusive thing by now.
"An arrangement?" Schmidt jumped in. "Like friends with benefits? Like you are regularly sleeping together?" Naomi nodded.
"Since when?!" Seth's voice sounded demanding. Naomi fidgeted with her plastic fork, looking down at her pancakes.
"Coming up on two years now," Matt answered. There were gasps around the room and Adam guffawed loudly. It's been a year and nine months since he helped Naomi move out of Richard's house, since the night when they started making up their rules.
"You've been secretly screwing each other for nearly two years?!" Seth stood up from the stool, his eyes were saucers.
Matt brought the coffee to Naomi and sat down next to her on the floor, opening up his breakfast. Neither of them said anything in confirmation. They exchanged a quick look. They never really sat around, talking about the amount of time that they've been doing this. Or the fact that they've both completely stopped seeing other people in the past year. Instead, their visits had become so frequent that they sometimes spent several weekends in a row together. Last summer, when Naomi was off from work, he took off a week as well and they drove up to Cape Cod together, stayed at an inn across the road from the beach, ate a boatload of fresh seafood, and screwed like rabbits. It had been the best vacation of his life and almost every one of his co-workers commented afterward on how relaxed and happy he seemed upon his return.
Naomi still called it an arrangement and introduced him as her friend. But who needed labels, right? They had a good thing and what did it matter if she put the word 'boy' in front of the word 'friend' when referring to him?
