I don't know where Maya is, since she went to find Julie, and Julie's standing in front of me right now.

"Sebastian." She smiled drunkenly at me. "Can you take me home?"

I walked up to her and looked around the bar. "Where's Maya?" I couldn't find her anywhere.

"Don't worry." She patted my chest. "She's in good hands, trust me." She took the keys out of her purse. "Have you been drinking? Because I've had a little."

Oh yes, a little. I smell that little from behind the door.

"Not yet." I took the keys from her hand and once again tried to find Maya with my eyes, but to no avail.

"I'm going to throw up." Julie snapped me out of my thoughts and I immediately started walking out with her.

Fortunately, nothing she didn't. I slowly put her in her car and entered her address into the navigation, which she dictated to me.

I hope Maya gets home safe. I left my phone on the table after I called Lucy, so I can't text her. I should have gone to her in the bar. But it is too late for that.

Julie was quiet the whole way, but I couldn't help but notice that she was sad.

I helped her into her apartment and sat her down on the couch. I walked into the smaller kitchen and poured cold water into her glass and found a pill.

I handed her both, for which she thanked me, and I sat down on the sofa, on her left hand.

"Are you okay?" I raised an eyebrow.

She snorted and shook her head. "I have a question since you're a guy."

"All right?" I looked at her confused.

"Why are you such idiots?"

"Sorry what?" I said surprised.

"What does a woman have to do for you to look at her as anything other than a toy? Are we really just there to warm your bed for a while before someone else replaces us?"

"Julie, what..."

"I mean, what am I doing wrong?" She cut me off. "Am I not skinny enough? Cute? Smart? Pretty?" She shook her head. "Am I asking too much if I want someone to be interested in me on a level other than just sex?" Tears welled up in her eyes.

"Julie, please don't cry." For today, seeing Maya cry was enough. I can't take this anymore.

I got up and sat next to her so I could hug her.

"And then there's Maya. I love her, she's my best friend, but I still have to compare myself to her. Everyone looks at her and I'm always the second choice. Why? What's wrong with me?" She looked up at me, her eyes full of tears.

"Julie, there's nothing wrong with you." I cupped her face in my hands and wiped the tears from her cheeks. "You're beautiful and smart. If guys can't see that, it's their fault, not yours."

"If you didn't know Maya or me and you saw us, you'd look at her, not me. You'd think she was beautiful and..."

"Who made you feel like the second option?" I cut her off. "You're every normal guy's dream. I'm sorry my gender is blind and mean, but that's not your fault. Little boys dump nice women, just because they're not grown yet. Maybe they'll never grow up, who knows? But you deserve someone, who will bring heaven to your feet."

"There are no such guys." She shook her head.

"Yes they exist, but they are rare. Like you." I wiped away more of her tears. "Don't cry over guys, ever. They don't deserve one of your tears."

"Thank you." She whispered and wrapped her arms around my chest and hugged me. I rested my chin on her head and ran my hand down her back.

"Of course, doll. Now...who should I beat up?" She laughed and pulled away.

"Maya is lucky to have you." She smiled. "You're like Raffaello. Hard on the surface but soft on the inside."

"All right." I laughed at her thoughts. "I'll help you to bed."

"Could you carry me?" She looked at me with puppy dog eyes.

"If you promise not to cry over men." I had enough crying women for a whole year.

"I promise." She smiled and held out her hands to me.

"Fine." I laughed and picked her up in my arms. She's even lighter than she looks. I started walking in the direction she told me.

"Thank you for taking care of me." She said as I put her to bed. "Nobody's ever done that for me. Except for Maya."

"Don't you dare settle for the bare minimum, doll. And if you need me to beat someone up, just call." I smiled and covered her.

"Okay." She laughed.

"Good night."

"Night." She yawned and closed her eyes.

I can't shake the fact that Julie is like Val to me. They are similar, nice, and beautiful.

*****

I felt good.

I don't know why, but I have such a nice feeling in my chest when I was coming back from Julie. She's sunshine.

I unlocked the door to Maya's apartment, hoping that she had already returned. If not, I'll take my cell phone and go get her.

As I opened the door and walked in, the door to Maya's room started to open.

I breathed a sigh of relief. She's home.

I was about to say something about Julie but stopped when it wasn't Maya who came out the door, but a guy.

A guy who was putting on a jacket.

And then I felt it. Not rage or anything like that.

Pain.

For some reason, I felt pain. Like someone was ripping out my insides.

"Um, hey." He nodded his head at me.

I snorted and shook my head before slipping past him. "You know where the fucking door is," I said with a clenched jaw and slammed the door to the room behind me.

What was I thinking? Of course, she sent Julie to me so she could sleep with someone.

But she could have had some decency and told me herself.

I was a fool to think that there was something between me and Maya.



Garret left sometime during the night. He woke me up with a kiss on my hair and said he had to go because he was leaving early in the morning.

I thanked him for not treating me differently after I told him I didn't want to have sex with him. He really is different from Raymond.

And after the conversation with Garret, I didn't feel like a whore. As someone who took advantage of him. There should be more Garrets in the world.

"Good morning." I smiled at Acker as I walked into the kitchen. He sat at the table with a bowl of cereal in front of him but said nothing. Weird.

I picked up a bowl and a spoon, and when I sat down at the table, Acker got up, chair scratching the floor, and went to his room his every step full of rage.

Who pissed in his cereal?

*****

I don't know what's wrong with Acker, but he's acting like a hurt child. I don't know what the problem is, but I don't have time to deal with it at the moment.

Julie wrote me a message: SOS I need coffee.

So, of course, I immediately went to the cafe and from there straight to her. I didn't bother to tell Acker where I was going since he heard me and saw me leave. So much for the fact that he keeps following my ass.

"Yes, I am your savior, I know." I smiled at Julie as she opened the door for me and handed her a cup.

"Thank you, Maya." She tried to smile. She took the cup of coffee from my hand and let me into her apartment.

"So now that you're sober..." I sat down on her couch. "What happened?"

"What are you talking about?" She sat down next to me and I put my coffee on the table and sat cross-legged on the couch.

"You drank a lot yesterday. Don't try to pretend nothing happened. I can see right through you." I pointed my finger at her.

"It was stupid." She looked at her hands. "I was stupid." She exhaled heavily. "I slept with someone and when I woke up he was gone."

"Son of a bitch." I frowned and moved closer to her so I could hug and comfort her. "I'm sorry, Julie."

"What's worse is, that it was his apartment we slept in. He left me there and I had to walk home at seven in the morning. I felt like a..."

"Don't you dare finish that sentence, Julie Sanders." I cut her off and pulled away. "It's not your fault he can't see what an amazing woman you are. Don't settle for someone who doesn't even deserve to look at you."

"That's sweet, but he left for a reason, you can't change that. I was naive to think we could be something more." She stood up and started walking around her living room. "I mean, look at me." She pointed to herself. "He probably likes women with full-body tattoos like you or blondes. I don't know what I was thinking."

She was throwing her arms around and I could see that she was no longer sad, but was becoming irritated and cranky.

"The fact that I hadn't seen him with any women was already a sign, but no, I had to ignore it. Good job Julie, really." She snorted. "What was going through my mind?"

"Okay, Julie..." I stood up to calm her down because she was starting to scare me.

"I should've stopped it the moment he even touched me for Christ's sake. It's not even ethical, after all, he is my boss and..."

I stopped dead in my tracks at her last sentence. "Julie!" I yelled at her as she continued her babbling. "You slept with Eddie?"

A look of horror suddenly appeared on her face. Her hands flew to her mouth and her eyes nearly popped out of her head.

"Oh, my God." With each word, I took a step back until I bumped into my couch and fell onto it. "You slept with Eddie."

She bit her lip so hard that I was waiting for it to start bleeding.

I've been trying to process this information, but I don't think it's going to be easy.

"Fuck. How could I have missed it?" I shook my head. "Did you go on a date with him?" She nodded slowly. "Okay, you better start at the beginning because I'm so incredibly lost right now."

"I'm sorry, I should have told you." She closed her eyes guiltily. "I didn't know how you would react to that since you like Eddie."

"But I don't like him that way. I would never sleep with him." That sounds like a lie, but it's not.

Yes, Eddie is hot and cute, but that's where it ends. I wouldn't sleep with my own boss because it would cause unnecessary trouble and I'm pretty sure he doesn't see me as someone he wants to sleep with. And I don't even mind, just watching him play is enough of a consolation prize.

"Well, that doesn't matter anymore. It's obvious that there's nothing between us. It was just sex for him." She walked over to me and sat next to me.

"Was it at least good?" I looked at her.

"Mmm." I couldn't help but notice the blush that rose to her cheeks.

"So Eddie...nice, sexy, smart, gentlemanly Eddie, he dumped you after you slept together," I said it out loud, but I still can't believe it. "Why would he do that?"

"Do I look like I know?" She shrugged. "Maybe he realized he slept with his employee. Oh my god, what if he fires me?" She looked at me with fear. "It doesn't matter, I have to leave, I can't see him every day at work."

"Oh don't you dare quit." I pointed at her with a finger. "You go, I'll go and I quite like it there, so you stand up and face him. You won't be like him. He left you and you're going to make him regret it for the rest of his life." A small smile was starting to form on her face. "And if he says anything bad, you tell me right away and I'll take the bat out of him. I don't care that he's my only source of income."

"Oh, God." She laughed and ran her hands over her face. "What did I do to deserve you." She threw herself around my neck and hugged me tightly. "Thank you."

"That's what I'm here for." We pulled away.

"But I'll save you the trouble, Sebastian said he would beat up anyone who..." She stopped. "Oh no. What's that face for?" She pointed to my face. "What happened between you and Sebastian?"

I didn't even know I was making a face.

"Talk." She nodded.

"No, we were talking about you..."

"Yes, we were talking, past tense. Now we're talking about you. What happened?"

"Oh god, why do you have to know me so well?" I threw myself on the couch and looked at the ceiling. "Something happened in San Jose. Not what you think." I said before she could open her mouth. "We almost kissed, but then we were interrupted and didn't go back to it. On the way back, we had a serious conversation and..." I breathed out heavily. "I told him about Christian."

"What? Maya, that's amazing!" She looked at my face. "Or not."

"He promised me we wouldn't talk about it again and he kept it. He didn't try to get anything more out of me than I told him and he didn't even look at me differently."

"But?" She raised an eyebrow.

"I wanted to get him out of my system, so I thought if I slept with Garrett..."

"You'd forget about Sebastian." She finished for me.

"Exactly. But when we got to my room and he kissed me, there was nothing. No butterflies in my stomach, no dizziness, no weak knees." I sat up and looked at her desperately. "And all I could think about was Acker."

"Not that I want to sound mean, but how is that a problem?" She asked cautiously.

"Because that idiot has been ignoring me all morning and treating me like I don't exist." I slowly raised my shoulders. "I feel stupid."

"You have got to be kidding me." Julie smiled. Why is she smiling? "This. Is. Amazing." She covered her mouth.

"Uhm, thanks, are you really happy that he's ignoring me?" I frowned.

"No." She hit me on the shoulder. "Maya, you definitely like him."

I what now?