Stories with Mark and/or Rachel (her roommates)

Abbie shared the top floor of a townhouse with two friends from college, Mark van Es and Rachel Nichols. To be clear from the outset, none of the three of them had any kind of romantic relationship together. Mark had a girlfriend elsewhere, Rachel also had a girlfriend (not the same girl), and Abbie was, to her dismay, usually single.

They all had separate bedrooms, all rather small, but not impossible for three young recent college graduates to tolerate. They shared one bathroom, but usually had a pretty good system for privacy and honoring each others needs.

Rachel Nichols was Abbie's best friend from college. They were randomly assigned as roommates back then, but remained close. Their energies were completely different from one another -- Abbie was bubbly, cheerful, and outgoing, whereas Rachel was serene, quiet, and often aloof. Abbie made friends with everyone she met, Rachel despised small talk. They were both extremely smart and well-educated women, appreciated the subtle details of the world, and above all else, respected each other.

Rachel Nichols

Rachel was brunette, tall, thin, with deep blue eyes that stood in contrast to her pale skin and dark hair. She worked in education, teaching English as a second language, mostly to students recently emigrated from Africa. While she liked the work, it wasn't quite her dream job (which would be to run an English and literature program at a small liberal arts college). Still, she was also taking classes on her own to work toward her master's degree, and the ESL work was a lucrative stopgap.

Rachel identified primarily as a lesbian, though every once in a blue moon had whispers of sexual attraction to men (though usually gay men, feminine men, or trans men). She sometimes liked to hear Abbie tell stories of her own dates (whether they were successful or not) just to hear some heterosexual stories through which she could fantasize. It was, most of the time, just a fantasy anyway. Rachel had a girlfriend named Claire, and while Claire was open minded enough to accept Rachel being an occasional flirt (and even an occasional fling), the relationship was over five years in the making. Five years, but Rachel still lived as a roommate to Abbie and Mark, and Claire still had her own place in another part of town. (Those stories are for another time, perhaps, as this is still the introductory chapters for stories about Abbie.)

Mark van Es was fairly conservative, though not so conservative that he didn't share an apartment with two women. He worked as a coder for a video game production company. He was quick witted, but also easily flustered and often embarrassed. Every once in a while, he'd find himself in a Three's Company kind of situation with Abbie and Rachel, and the two women would get a real kick out of making things as awkward as possible for Mark.

Mark van Es

Mark was in a fairly recent relationship with a woman named Charlotte, and while Charlotte was certain that Mark was the one for her, Mark didn't quite feel the same way. He stayed in the relationship hoping that he would become the man Charlotte wanted, but it hadn't happened yet.

The three of them had been friends since freshman year, had lived together for two years of college, and then this house for the past three. At some point, Mark would probably get married and leave, but Rachel and Abbie didn't seem to have any sense that they were going anywhere anytime soon.