Fly With Me // Bradley Bradshaw

Chapter Eight

The dreadful five o'clock alarm blares into the apartment, waking up Rooster and Sophie to their dismay. They try to ignore it, but with the insistent noise getting louder and more annoying by the second, it was becoming impossible. Rooster always had trouble waking up in the morning, so he had to have the most obnoxious alarm he could find.

"Bradley, turn off that damn alarm," she groggily says to the man.

He reaches over to the nightstand searching for the alarm and finally finds the snooze button. He uses his arm to pull her closer against his bare chest. The warmness of his body encompassed her own. There isn't a better feeling than this, but there is reality. Reality entails work, which is in two hours.

She sits up and pats his arm, "All right, we need to get up"

"No," he pulls her back down, "Just a few more minutes."

Sophie laughs, "We need to start getting ready." She looks down at his tired face. He's trying so hard to keep his eyes closed and get five more minutes of sleep. She always thought that he was cute in the mornings and she finds herself wanting to take him up on his offer more by the second.

He rolls over to hover over her body, causing her to let out a fit of giggles. He kisses her lips sweetly. "Wouldn't you rather stay like this," Rooster tries to persuade her.

"Yes, but duty calls." She kisses him one more time before getting out of bed and turning off the alarm so she doesn't have to hear the God-awful screeching again. She grabs her phone and sees a text from Maverick to everyone. Training at the Hard Deck today. Civilian clothes.

Her eyebrows scrunch in confusion as she shows the text to Rooster. "Weird," he says.

Sophie shrugs her shoulders. She grabs one of Rooster's t-shirts from his drawer and puts it on. "I have to get ready, so I'll see you later." She gives him a peck on the cheek once more before heading to her room down the hall.

"Tsk Tsk," she hears an annoyingly perky voice as she unlocks her door. "Sneaking back from Bradshaw's room. Scandalous." Rebound looks at her disheveled state, hair all over the place, and pulled into a sloppy bun. An oversized t-shirt that clearly isn't hers.

"Why are you always exactly where I don't want you to be?" She opens the door and he follows her in, uninvited. "Sure, come on in," Sophie sarcastically says to the man.

"What's got you so grumpy? You got laid last night; lighten up."

Sophie throws an orange sitting on her table at him, but his reflexes are quick and he catches it. Mark chuckles at the girl's antics, used to her randomly throwing things at him. "Just start some coffee while I get dressed," she says while giving the man one last glare.

She goes into her room and quickly pulls out a pair of Adidas shorts, a sports bra, and a Navy t-shirt and changes into them. She combs through her knotty hair before braiding it and putting her aviators on top of her head. She glances at a picture of her and Bradley she put on her mirror. They were at Pensacola Beach and his arms are wrapped around her as they smile giddily at each other.

She smiles at the picture. She missed their time together when they didn't have any worries in the world. It was the best two weeks, but she was also enjoying the now. Seeing each other every day and working together again. It was nice. They had gotten into a comfortable rhythm together in the past couple of days. It made her wonder what things would be like if they were stationed at the same base. A dangerous thought she quickly shook away.

When she finally comes out of the room, Rebound has poured them two cups of coffee. He puts two creams and one sugar in her cup, just the way she likes it. He offers her the mug; he knows that she needs her coffee in the morning. On the rare occasion that she didn't start her day out with the caffeine, she was a monster. It was one of the only times that Mark feared her. Her wrath was enough to scare anything away.