"He's drooling over you, just like you asked," Myrtle added.
"Drooling, without love, is just a bunch of spit," Joy murmured. The thought was a knife cutting at her heart, but she wouldn't tell him, wouldn't give him that kind of guilt to carry around. She might have lost her heart to him, but she wouldn't lose her pride as well.
"Drooling?" Gabriel asked.
Joy glared at the fairies. Gabriel was going to think she was nuts. "We don't love each other, and I don't think the, er, physical end of a relationship can be satisfying for either of us without it."
"Come on, Joy. You know you want to jump his bones," Blossom said.
"Blossom," the other two fairies gasped.
"What?" the yellow fairy asked innocently. "She does."
"There are reasons we should marry, but, like all marriages of convenience, there's no reason to force ourselves to become physical. It's business, pure and simple."
"That's it, Joy. Make the man admit he loves you first," Fern cheered.
"Force ourselves?" Gabriel took a step closer, an ominous look in his eyes.
Joy sidestepped, not wanting to touch him, knowing she wouldn't be able to say no again if they did. Gabriel's momentum carried him forward and since Joy had moved, he leaned into what should have been the window, but wasn't since it was still open. He slipped forward, his top half sprawling onto the porch roof.
"Gabriel!" she shouted, grabbing the waistband of his boxer shorts.
Slowly, he rose and pulled Joy's hand from his pants. "The next time you put your hand down there, I hope you're intending to take me for a fall, not save me from one."
)
