...and we're back.
Since it took me a while, I thought it was better to put some kind of end to it, so this is the final chapter of 'Stood Up'.
Please enjoy.
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Tim announced himself as he entered the apartment. Becky had left the door ajar after buzzing him into the building. The living room was empty. As he deposited his overnight bag and the snacks he had brought for date night on the table, his girlfriend's voice emanated from one of the bedrooms off the hallway.
"Tim, tell Ronny she looks sexy."
Tim took a deep breath. When walking into the apartment, he was often swept up in whatever conversation or situation was currently unfolding, without the slightest hint of what was going on. Of course, that evening he did know what the big deal was. It was Ronny's first date with Stephen Jones. The preparation for which, Becky had naturally taken full control of.
"Ronny, you look sexy," Tim called in their general direction as he strolled towards the bedrooms, preparing to climb over a mountain of clothes and makeup just to get to them.
"No. Look at her and tell her," Becky retorted.
Tim laughed to himself about how redundant that was. He had never once looked at Ronny and found her unattractive. Even while he was trying not to think about it. She might not be full-on 'sexy' all the time, but he couldn't imagine her trying to be sexy and failing.
From his previous relationships, Tim had learned caution when asked by a girlfriend about the attractiveness of other women. When it came to a girlfriend's friends, the trick was to hint subtly that he found them hideous to look at, while also being polite about it on the surface.
Part of him was still waiting for the other shoe to drop with Becky and Ronny. One day his girlfriend would ask him to tell her oldest and best friend that she was sexy, and when he casually obliged, that would suddenly be the end of it. Becky wasn't like that though. She was open and honest. Sometimes maybe a little too cavalier about such things, but she wasn't trying to trap him.
Then there was that one night they had all been together. There was no point denying he was attracted to Ronny after that. A few months later with no repeats of the experience, it wasn't a regular topic of conversation, but none of them was trying to pretend it hadn't happened.
All that said, the only reason Becky needed Tim to tell Ronny she was sexy, was that Becky had said it herself so many times over the years, it had lost all meaning.
Tim leaned into the doorway of Ronny's room. The pile of clothes on the floor wasn't as big an obstacle as he had imagined. The two women were not physically similar enough to swap clothes, or else Becky would have emptied the contents of her wardrobes for the occasion. Lucky for Ronny.
Becky sat cross-legged on the end of Ronny's bed, with an elbow on one knee and her chin resting on her hand. Her long blonde hair was tucked behind both ears. She wore jeans and a white sweater. Casually dressed for a night in, she still looked great to Tim who was only wearing jeans and a T-shirt himself. She did look a little out of place surrounded by Ronny's discarded date clothes: blouses and dresses that hadn't made the cut, and more intimate garments Tim was trying to ignore. She smiled at him when he walked in.
Across the room, Ronny was turning on the spot in front of a floor-length mirror, trying to appraise her own reflection from various angles. She was wearing a flowy white blouse with long sleeves and a low neckline. She had high-waisted black trousers that fit snuggly at the top and widened out around her ankles. Tim knew there was a name for the style but couldn't remember it. Ronny's dark hair, which was usually tied back, hung perfectly arranged around her shoulders in loose curls.
She did indeed look quite sexy.
"Hello, Timothy," said Becky as he crossed to sit next to her on the bed.
"Hello, Rebecca," he replied with a chuckle.
Ronny fixed them with a look that threatened to harm anyone who dared to call her 'Veronica'.
Tim wrapped his arms around Becky and kissed her on the cheek. She murmured appreciatively as she turned her face to his.
"Get a room," said Ronny quickly as they kissed. "Specifically, not my room."
"Maybe you should join us," Becky retorted without fully removing her mouth from Tim's. "It would save you having to decide what to wear to go out."
"Stop it," Tim and Ronny chided in unison, without missing a beat.
"Aw, see, that's not fair. How am I supposed to not get turned on when you two gang up on me like that?"
Tim rolled his eyes, and Ronny returned her attention to her reflection.
"No fun," Becky muttered. "Don't worry, Babe. I can wait for Tim's full attention after you go out. After all, he's only trying to distract me because he doesn't want to do what I asked him."
"You didn't ask. You instructed," Tim corrected.
"Exactly," she replied with mock indignation, "what's the point of being your girlfriend if you're not going to do what I say? Now, look at Ronny and tell her she looks sexy."
Ronny ignored them. She started to fold items of clothing and put them away. She held the occasional garment in front of herself, checking it in the mirror, still considering options. Tim watched her thoughtfully for a few moments while Becky stared impatiently at the side of his head.
Tim said, "maybe it's more important for Ronny to feel sexy, than to be told she looks sexy."
Ronny seemed to be checking out her own behind in the mirror as she bent to put a folded yellow blouse into a bottom drawer.
"If you tell her she looks sexy, then maybe it'll be easier for her to convince herself," Becky suggested.
Ronny held a floral dress between herself and the mirror before hanging it in her wardrobe.
Tim tried to imagine how Ronny might actually be feeling based on what he had come to know about her. If spending a night in her bed had not been enough to convince her he thought she was sexy, then telling her now would not make a difference. Even directly following her break-up from an unsatisfying relationship, that one night with Tim and Becky should have been enough to restore her trust that other people found her attractive. More likely her appearance was not her biggest concern going into her date with Stephen Jones. A date she had kept finding ways to put off over the last few weeks, despite Stephen's apparent enthusiasm for it.
"I think how Ronny feels about herself in her mind matters more than how I feel about her..."
"...in your pants?" Becky interjected. "Where your dick used to be?"
"Rude!" Tim replied, and nudged his girlfriend. "You shouldn't be encouraging me to think sexy thoughts about your friend if you're also going to be mean to me."
Becky grabbed something off the clothes pile and threw it over her shoulder at Tim. He caught it. It was one of Ronny's bras. Tim considered a snarky follow-up about how he knew without looking at it that it wasn't one of Becky's, but instead placed it on top of another pile without comment.
