I Don't Hate You

Chapter 27: Including Life to Motherhood part 2

Addison met Mark in the lobby. He looked handsome and excited.

"Wow, Addie, you're smashing," he said, winking at her.

The only thing she'd done was changing her blouse from a more conservative one suitable for work to a red silky top. And freshen up her makeup and her hair of course. She had let her hair out so the curls bounced against her shoulders. She hadn't had much to work with, but at least she had a hairbrush and some hairspray.

"I really like your cardigan, Mark," Addison said, pinching the dark fabric between her thumb and her index finger.

"Thanks. It's new," he smiled.

It was a thin, V-necked cardigan with buttons and low pockets.

They began walking side by side to the bar. It was after all just across the street, but it felt nice to go there together anyway.

Stepping inside the door – which Mark held up for her almost like a gentlemen – they immediately saw Callie with her new fling.

"She's drinking wine," Addison frowned.

"Oh god, I can just picture Hahn being a woman who tries to change her partners. But... I can also imagine them doing other things," Mark smirked. "Ow!"

Addison had elbowed him in his side.

"That's going to bruise," he muttered.

"You want scotch?" she asked, ignoring his complaint.

He nodded.

They sat down by the bar. Addison ordered tequila. It felt like it filled up the missing space Meredith had created with her absence.

She swept down the Tequila shot as soon as Joe put it on the table. As she sucked on the lemon slice she cast a glance over her shoulder at Callie and Hahn.

"They look so weird together, don't they?" Addison asked Mark solemnly. "Another one, Joe. And a dry martini."

"Homophobic much?" Mark smiled and took another sip of his scotch.

Addison just rolled her eyes.

"And by the way, are you planning on getting totally smashed tonight?"

"No... I just... I need sex, Mark. And Callie gets it. Heck even Hahn seems to get it," she muttered and downed her second shot.

"Jealous much?"

"How come she gets it but I don't?"

"Your fiancée just gave birth to twins," Mark sighed. "You know what? Just stop whining and let's have fun tonight."

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay," he said and patted her on her back in a hard and manly way so the sound resonated through her lungs.

He then began searching through the bar like a hunter searches for pray.

"Well, if you get really drunk tonight I don't think Meredith is going to give it up," he said without stopping his search. He suddenly stopped at a sleek brunette – probably half his age – and smiled confidently. Without removing his eyes on her he said "I on the other hand, is going to get lucky tonight."

With those words said he downed the rest of his scotch and went to talk to the girl.

Addison sighed and turned away from them. She didn't feel like watching Mark put his charm on.

"I'm not going to sulk," she told herself. She could do this. She would do this.

She stood up with the dry martini glass in her hand and walked over to Callie and Hahn.

"Good evening, my ladies," she said, putting her own charm on.

"Dr. Montgomery," Hahn said politely.

"Oh, you don't need to-," Callie started telling Hahn, but changed her mind and looked at Addison as if she'd done something wrong.

Addison smiled. "You can call me by my first name, yes."

"Oh, okay," Hahn said. "Let's do this again," she said and stretched out her hand for Addison to shake, "Hi, I'm Erica."

"Pleased to meet you Erica. I'm Addison."

They smiled in a teeny bit strained way. There was some kind of tension in the air. No one said anything and everyone started to wriggle a bit nervously.

"Okay, so," Callie broke the silence, "it's great that you finally meet."

"We've met before," Erica said.

"Yeah but only as a boss and an employee," she retorted.

Addison frowned. She wondered if the situation got weird because of her being the Chief. She hadn't been in this situation before, but as Erica was newly employed at SGH she might feel like she couldn't totally relax in front of her boss. Maybe Addison shouldn't be drinking at a bar with her employees.

"It is okay to be," she searched for the right word, "casual, with me. Just because I'm the chief doesn't mean that I judge your work performance when we're at a bar during our free time."

Erica looked relieved, but not totally.

"So, how did you guys meet?" Addison asked to lighten up the mood.

"Uhm, we met at the hospital," Callie said, looking at Erica with glittering eyes. "She was doing a heart transplant and I just happened to spill coffee on her... And things just happened from there."

Erica nodded, but then quickly turned to Addison and said, "not that I wanted to transfer to Seattle Grace just because of Callie, it's truly a great hospital with a much better surgical wing than at Mercy West."

Addison had to use all her energy to not roll her eyes at the woman. At this moment, she hated being Chief. Normal coworkers had turned to be just like interns. Suck ups, just as Bailey would called them.

"I'm just going to go be the Chief in that corner," Addison said tiredly, pointing nowhere in particular.

"No, Addie," Callie said and took her hand.

"You two enjoy yourselves," Addison said, smiling as pleasantly as she could at them and walked over to the bar and sat down there.

She only had time to take a sip of her drink when she heard a female voice talking to her.

"Is this seat taken?" the woman asked pointing at the seat just next to her. It wasn't like it was the only seat available. The bar wasn't that full yet.

The woman was blond, younger than Addison but probably not younger than Meredith. She was pretty, but unknown to Addison and she couldn't figure how she could possibly even get the idea that Addison would be into the ladies. It wasn't like she'd changed her style or anything. And if she was from here, and knew people from the hospital, it wouldn't be strange for her to make this assumption – except that she would know about her relationship with Meredith.

"Ehm, sure."

Addison exchanged a perplex look with the bartender, Joe.

"So, are you being a third wheel tonight?" the blond woman asked, smiling charmingly at her and nodding toward Callie and Erica's direction.

Addison laughed.

"So it seems," she said.

"Huh," the blond one said and smiled. She then asked Joe to make her a pink panther. Whatever that was.

Addison scrutinized her curiously. "Did you assume I'm a... because of...?" Addison asked, frowning and motioning toward the lovebirds.

"Oh," the woman said, looking disappointed.

Addison suddenly regretted what she'd said, partly out of pride but mainly because of curiosity. She wanted to learn why and she didn't want to make the wrong moves in this foreign environment.

"I'm sorry?" Addison said, feeling confused and dumb.

"No, it's just that I'm not interested in bi-curious women," she said lifting an eyebrow at Addison.

Addison stared at her with her mouth open, trying to collect herself to just ask why, but she just kept staring at her, looking more dumb than ever, while the woman fumbled through her purse and put some money on the counter.

"Keep the change," she told Joe who just put down her Pink Panther – which seemed to be a slightly thick, pink pastel colored drink.

"Why would you assume that?" Addison asked, putting all her pride aside.

She was just about to rise from the bar stool when Addison posed her question and turned to her again. Pursing her lips and giving her a look that almost resembled disdain.

"It's not something I can explain, but I saw it on you when you talked to your friends over there, and that you didn't agree with her new girlfriend. A straight woman wouldn't look jealously at them."

"Jealous?"

"But I seemed to have been wrong,"

"Well..."

"Goodnight," she said, nodding at her and then leaving.

Joe smirked at her. Addison looked back at him, wondering what just had happened.

"I think you just got dissed," he laughed.

"But, what, I don't even..."

"Tell you what, I'll make you a Margarita, on the house."

"Thanks," Addison mumbled.

Mark came and sat down at the seat the woman had been sitting on.

"She blew me off," he complained. "Joe, can I get a glass of your finest whiskey please?"

"Sure."

"Why, what happened?" Addison asked him.

"She said she had a family emergency, whatever that means," he grumbled.

"She looked a bit young for you," Addison noted.

"Hey, did I ask for your opinion?"

"Sorry. If you don't mind me asking... What happened with Izzie?"

"Uh... I caught her with Alex a week ago or so..."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," she said and looked anxiously at him.

"Yeah...," he mumbled.

"Well," she started off, not being able to push her smirk down. "At least now you know how that feels."

"Yeah, he's a man of my kind," he said, taking a sip of his drink, not getting what she meant or ignoring it.

Addison rolled her eyes.

"Oh, Mark, come on."

"I saw you talking to someone. Who was that?"

"I don't know, someone hitting on me."

Mark whistled.

"I don't think you have changed that much at all. Your hair's the same, you dress the same. Do you suddenly come across as a lesbian?"

Addison laughed. "I wouldn't know. But apparently not enough because she decided she wasn't interested after I've only uttered two sentences."

"Well," Mark shrugged, "why would you care anyway? You've got Meredith."

"I know! It's just that... It's nice to feel wanted, and it hurt my pride a little. I wanted at least to have the chance to say that I'm unavailable."

"You women. You're a strange breed," Mark grumbled, shaking his head slowly from side to side. "Actually, we are both a part of a new even stranger breed," he said.

"What's that?"

"We are parents, Addison," he said solemnly and stared off blankly into Joe's shelves, taking a huge sip of his scotch.

"I'm sure you have been a long time already Mark. I wonder how many Sloans there are out there already."

"Impossible, I always use pro-"

"-Mark, do we even have to go there? Mister I assumed she was on the pill."