I lay on top of Hardin's chest to catch my breath. Both of our bare chests are moving slowly up and down in our postcoital bliss. It doesn't feel as foreign as I had believed it would, not at all. I was desperately missing being intimate with him; I know that making love so soon before anything has been determined may not have been the best idea but right now as his fingers trail up and down my spine it sure feels like it.

I can't get the image of his body underneath mine as he bucked his hips off the mattress to fill me completely. We have slept together many times but this time goes down as one of my favorites. It was so intense and sincere and full of want.. no, need for one another.

Hardin's temper got the best of him only a short while ago but as I stare up at him his eyes are closed and his lips are slightly upturned.

"I know you're staring at me, and I have to take a piss." He finally says and I can't help but giggle.

"Up you go." He says and lifts my body at my hips to lay me beside him.

Hardin's hands run through his hair and he pushes the loose fringe back to bare his forehead while he retrieves his clothing from the floor. He remains shirtless and disappears from the room, leaving me to get myself dressed. My eyes dart to Hardin's worn t-shirt on the floor and out of instinct I bend down to pick it up but then drop it again. I don't want to push it or make him angry so I should just stick to my own clothing for now.

It's nearly eight so I go ahead and pull on a pair of loose sweats and a plain t-shirt. The wreckage from Hardin's outburst covers the floor so I take it upon myself to begin putting everything back in it's place, the clothes from my drawers are my first task. Hardin enters the room as I'm zipping my suitcase full of novels.

"What are you doing?" He asks.

He holds a glass of water and a muffin in one of his large hands.

"Just straightening up." I say quietly.

I'm slightly nervous that we will slide back into fighting again so I'm unsure of how to behave.

"Okay.." He says, placing the glass and snack on the dresser before walking over to me.

"I'll help." He offers and picks up the broken chair from the floor.

We work in silence to get the room back to it's normal state.

Hardin grabs the suitcase and walks toward the closet with it in hand, nearly tripping over a decorative pillow from the bed.

I don't know if I should speak first but I'm not sure what to say, I know he's still angry but I keep catching his eyes on me so he must not be too angry.

"What's this?" He steps out from the closet holding a small bag and a medium sized box.

Oh no.

"Nothing." I hurry to my feet in an attempt to take the items from him.

"Are these for me?" He asks with a curious expression.

Hardin's POV.

"No." She lies and stands up on her toes to try to reach the box in my left hand, I lift it higher.

"The tag right here says my name." I point out and she looks down.

Why is she so embarrassed?

"I just.. well I got you a few things before but now they seem so silly, you don't have to open them."

"I want to." I tell her and sit down on the edge of the bed.

I really shouldn't have broken that hideous chair.

She sighs and keeps her position on the other side of the room as I pull at the taped edges of wrapping paper.

I'm slightly irritated by the amount of tape she used for this one box but I'll admit I'm a little ..excited. Not excited exactly, but happy. I can't remember the last time I received a birthday gift from anyone, even my mum. I made it a point at a young age to despise birthday's and I was such an asshole over whatever ridiculous gift my mum would buy me that she just stopped buying them before I was sixteen.

My father would send some shitty card with a check inside every year but I would get a kick out of burning the damn thing, I even took a piss on the one that arrived on my seventeenth birthday. When I finally get the box open there are multiple things inside, the first thing that catches my eye is an iPod.

Why the hell would she spend so much money on me?

Next is a tattered copy of Pride and Prejudice, when I bring it between my hands Tessa walks over and grabs it from me.

"This is stupid..just ignore this one." She says but obviously that's the last thing I'm going to do.

"Why? Give it back to me." I demand, holding my hand out.

When I stand to my feet she seems to remember that she obviously isn't going to win this battle so she places the book back in my hands. As I skim through the pages I notice bright yellow markings throughout the entire thing.

"You know how you told me about highlighting Tolstoy?" She asks, her cheeks as red as they've ever been.

"Yeah?"

"Well.. I sort of did that too." She admits and her eyes meet mine.

"Really?" I ask her and open to a page that's nearly covered in makings.

"Yeah. Mostly this book though, you don't have to re-read or anything. I just thought.. I'm terrible at giving gifts, I really am."

She's not though, yeah the iPod is way too extravagant but this is perfect. I would love to see the words in her favorite novel that remind her of me. This is the best gift anyone could have possibly given me. These are the simple things, the things that give me hope that somehow we can make this work, the fact that both of us were doing the same thing when neither were aware.

"You're not." I tell her and sit back on the bed.

I tuck the novel under my leg to keep her from trying to take it from me again.

A low chuckle leaves my mouth when the final item from the box is revealed.

"What's this for?" I ask with a grin, holding up the leather binder.

"Your work, that thing you use is tearing at the seams and it's so unorganized. See this one has tabs for each week, or subject, you can decide." She smiles.

This gift is humorous because I always take note of the way she cringes when I shove papers into my old binder. I refuse to let her organize it for me despite her multiple attempts and I know that drives her insane.

"Thanks." I laugh.

"That one wasn't really a birthday gift, I got it a while ago and I was going to just toss your old one but I never found the chance." She admits with a laugh.

"That's because I kept it by my side, I knew what you were up to." I tease.

The small bag is left to open and once again I'm laughing at her choice.

"Kick-boxing" Are the first words I catch on the small ticket.

"It's a week's worth of kick boxing at the gym by our..your apartment." She smiles, clearly proud of her witty gift.

"And why do you think I'd be interested in kick-boxing?"

"You know why."

To let out some of my anger is the obvious reason she got this.

"I've never done it before."

"It could be fun." She says.

"Not as fun as kicking the shit out of someone without padding." I tell her and she frowns.

"I'm teasing, I'll think about it. How much did you pay for all of this?" I ask and grab the CD left in the bag.

An iPod, a CD, and kick boxing vouchers had to cost her a lot of money.

"Not a lot." She says but I know she's lying.

"Tess.."

"It's not a big deal, I didn't spend too much."

"You can return the iPod." I tell her.

"You don't like it?"

Nervousness is clear on her face.

"It's too much."

"No, it's not. I get paid pretty well at Vance and in case you forgot you haven't let me pay any bills since we moved in together. I have quite a bit of money."

I'm relieved to hear that she's doing well money wise but I don't want her spending it on me.

"My feelings will be hurt if you make me take it back."

"That's a low blow." I huff.

I hate when she uses her damn feeling against me.

"Well it's true. I even put some songs on there for you, well I tried but I think I figured it out." She takes the object from my hand and presses the power button.

"Landon has been showing me how to download music on my phone and it's really cool to be able to just listen to music whenever I want, I thought you'd like it too." She says.

I want to tell her that she's behind few years and I've already been doing this but she looks so excited to share this information with me that I can't bring myself to correct her.

"On your phone? That old thing?" I mock.

"It's only a few years old."

"You need a new phone, I'm surprised you were able to get anything to download on that piece of shit."

"I like my phone, not everyone needs an iPhone." She rolls her eyes.

"Yes, everyone does. That's why most of the country owns one."

"Not me."

"You need one. You should return the iPod and buy yourself an iPhone."

"Hardin.." She whines.

I'll buy her a damn IPhone myself.

"I'm sorry that I'm terrible at buying gifts for people." She frowns and stares at the highlighted novel peaking out from under my leg.

"I loved them, all of them. Especially this one." I tell her, pointing to the book.

My inner asshole wants to tease her for her contradiction of buying a CD and an iPod for me but I decide against it. I will enjoy hearing her hum along to this album, I'm assuming is the second album by The Fray. I'm sure she already knows each word to every song and she will be delighted to explain the meaning of each to me as we drive.

"Do you want to come home?" I say without thinking.

"What?" Her eyes widen.

"You should come home, don't you think?"

"I thought.. I thought were going to see what happens, take it slow."

I know she said that, hell I even offered it, but I don't know if I can do it any fucking longer.

"Fine." I grumble, sounding like a pissed off child.

I need to change the subject before my annoyance grows.

"Karen is pissed at me, I think." I tell her.

She walks over and sits cross legged next to me on the bed.

"I doubt that." She says.

"It's true. You should have heard the attitude she gave me when I called your cake shit."

Fuck, why did I just say that.

"Oh." She looks away.

"I'm sorry."

I really need to work on this thinking before speaking thing.

"It was a...lovely cake." I pull her chin between my fingers to force her to look at me.

"It was, I just saw it today so it looked a little..like shit." There's really no other way to say it.

"Well I'll never bake you one again." Her voice is full of sarcasm.

"Yes you will."

"Nope. You don't appreciate the hours I spent in the kitchen."

"Karen made it and you know it." I laugh.

"So, I helped." She grins.

"You obviously decorated it."

"Shut up." She leans into my shoulder and I wrap my arm around her back.

It feels so good to just hold her this way, I have missed her so much.

"Are we back to how we were the night of the date?" She looks up at me.

"I don't know.." She fucking kissed Zed while I was miserable at my mum's.

"You believe me that I didn't stand you up, right?" I ask her, she nods.

"You believe me that I'm sorry for kissing.."

"Don't. I don't want to talk about that." If I hear the words I'll fucking snap.

"You remember what you promised though?" She is pushing it.

"Yes." I roll my eyes.

I remember right now but that doesn't mean it won't slip my mind while I pound his head against the wall.

"Can I talk to you about something else then?" She timidly questions.

"Depends what it is."

"Seattle."

"No, I don't want to talk about Seattle or Zed."

"But." She tries again.

"No, Tessa. My mind and temper need to recover for a little while. Okay?"

"Okay." She sighs and stares at the wall.

I mimic her and fall back onto the mattress with a sigh.

"I'm going to talk to Landon." Her voice is shaky, like she's nervous or something.

"Alone?"

"Yes, alone." She's off the bed within seconds and I sit up.

"Wait." I call and she turns to face me.

"I'm sorry for some of the shit I said, not all of it, but some of it was fucked up." I attempt to apopgize.

"I know you were just hurt."

"Still, I'm sorry for it."

"Me too." She half smiles but it seems artificial.

Before I can ask her what's bothering her she exits the room and I pick up the ratty book she gifted me. She has read this copy one too many times, the binding is loose, and the is torn in the upper right corner.

"He's in his room, asleep I think." Tessa's voice pulls me from the third highlighted sentence.

"Either that or he heard you moaning my name and he's wanking."

"Oh my god! Don't say that!" The horrified expression on her face is beyond amusing.

The thought of him actually doing that isn't though, I would break both his hands if he got off to her. Why am I thinking about this shit anyway?

She picks up the glass of water I brought from downstairs and finishes it off.

"Your dad and Karen weren't in their room were they?" She asks me.

"No, otherwise it may have been awkward to dig through their drawers don't you think?"

I stand from the bed and grab my shirt from the floor.

"What are you doing?" She asks.

"Getting dressed, it's getting late."

"Stay?" Her eyes burn into mine and I couldn't tell her no even if I wanted to.

"You're sure?"

She nods and I smile at her.

"Here then." I hand her my shirt, hoping she will take it and wear it.

Tessa's POV.

I greedily grab the t-shirt from his hands and bring it to my chest. He watches me as I change but stays silent. It's confusing, it always is, but now especially. I'm not sure who holds the upper hand right now. Earlier I was upset with him that he stood me up on his birthday but now I'm pretty convinced he had nothing to do with that so I'm back where I was days ago when he so sweetly took me ice-skating.

It's him who is upset with me now over my indiscretion but I can barely tell through the smiles and sarcastic humor he keeps throwing at me. Maybe his anger is overpowered by the fact that he missed me and he's happy that I'm no longer upset with him? I don't know the reasoning but I know better than to question it. I do wish he would have let me talk about Seattle. How will he react? I don't even want to tell him but I know that I have to. Will he be happy for me? I don't think so, actually I know he won't be.

"Come here." He coaxes me onto his chest as he lays back on the bed.

His hand finds the remote to the television on the wall and he flicks through channel after channel before pausing on some sort of history documentary.

"How was it seeing your mom?" I ask him a few minutes later.

He doesn't respond and when I look up at his face, he is fast asleep.