*Trisha*

Today's the day Nate gets to go home. I should be happy, but I'm worried outta my mind. I think it's too soon. I also don't know if Nate is taking this as seriously as he should yet.

I'm back in work mode. Dressed to impress in a light pink skirt and grey button-down blouse tucked in. Hair straightened, and make-up is done to perfection.  There's so much to do.  There is so much to rebook for him, but here I am, sitting with Nate while we wait for the doctors to discharge him from the hospital. 

He seems anxious. Overly anxious. I look up from my phone and focus on my best friend.

"You good, Nate?" 

"Yeah." He slumps down a little and pinches the tension between his eyes. He's full of shit and lying. I can tell.

"You're not. What's the matter? You should be happy you get to break out of here WITH the doctor's permission this time." I tease, but it falls flat.

"I guess I just thought she'd pop in one last time." He looks away. "I don't know why I thought that. I'm the one who left her in the middle of the night. But not even a text? Nothing." 

Sonofabitch. He's still stressing over Julia.

Her flight home was yesterday.  I know I did something wrong, and I think Nate can tell by the way I shifted in my seat a little. He squints his eyes at me.

"What..."

"Don't be mad." I bite the inside of my cheek and bounce my knee a little.

"What did you do... Trisha..."

Shit.

"Ok, so..." I stall. "I may have told Julia not to come here." I close my eyes. Wait for it... wait for it......

"WHAT?!? Why the hell would you do that??"  Nate stands up and paces around the room, clearly pissed off at me. I knew he'd freak.

"Sweetie, listen to me." I stand up as well and get in his path, but he just bypasses me instead. "I knew it'd upset you. You'd fall apart. Your blood pressure would go through the roof. It's better this way. Nate, just let her go..."

"I can't believe you fucking did that. Trish. Christ." He glares at me. "Get out."

"Nate. C'mon..." 

"I'm so fucking serious right now, Trisha. Find something to do. GET OUT!" He points to the door.

I roll my eyes, grab my purse and phone and leave. Ugh.  He's gonna be so fucking most the rest of the day now, isn't he?

I stand in the waiting room, not exactly knowing what to do or where to go now. I still think I did the right thing. Prolonging the inevitable just makes things that much worse. His health is my main concern, and it's in jeopardy. He needs to heal.

*****

*James*

"I don't know what's going on. I've texted her every single day. Nothing." I rub the stubble on my face while sitting on the front step of Lindsay's house with her.

"I don't know, James. Maybe she wants to start fresh?" Lindsay sighs. I'm grateful to have remained friends with her even when things didn't work out romantically between us. I can talk about this shit with her, and she doesn't mind. 

"And just forget me all together??" I raise my eyebrows and frown at that thought.

She pats my arm a little while we watch Maggie chase... whatever the hell she thinks she's chasing.

"Our dog might be a little...stupid." Lindsay laughs. We still haven't figured out what she's chasing, but it's pretty amusing to watch. 

"I bet even Mags misses Julia." I mumble and watch Lindsay take a picture of the dog and send it to me when she sees how cute she is being.

I open the text and smile at the picture. "That's actually pretty cute." I haven't texted Julia yet today, so I decided to text her now and attach the pic Lindsay just took of Maggie.

[Hey sexy. Stop ignoring me. Answer back. Do it for Maggie]

I sigh, knowing she probably won't respond.  I see that she reads the messages, so I know she is still breathing. But that's about all I know.

"Maybe it just wasn't meant to be, ya know hun?" Lindsay tries to cheer me up, but I know she doesn't know what to say. The reality is, Linds was my last serious girlfriend and when we broke up , it was mutual. No hard feelings, obviously, if I'm sitting on her front porch sulking about another woman.

"Kinda not what I want to here, but thanks for that." I huff. Maggie gives up on the invisible thing she seemed interested in and joins us for attention. I scruff her belly like she wants but still can't get my mind off of Julia. "I mean...not even for the relationship aspect. It's like I was wiped right out of her mind even as a friend.  We talked to each other almost every single night.  Now... she won't even call me back."

I hear Lindsay sigh, and she rests her head on my arm. "I'm sorry. I hate seeing you like this. How can I cheer you up?" She lifts her head and nudges me. "Wanna fool around?" 

I half smile at her but shake my head and let out a sigh of my own. "Sorry, Linds. I'm not really in the mood."

"Holy crap, she REALLY messed you up, James!"

*****

*Trisha*

It's been six days since Julia left.  I've been hanging out with James a little more. Mostly kicking is ass in our daily runs, and mostly because Nate is giving me the silent treatment for what I've done. He has a big meeting tomorrow with Richard, who has partnered with his lawyers and NBC to figure out shit, so he's on edge today.

I am still running Nate's errands for him even though he's not giving me the time of day. He's still paying me. I carry up two bags of groceries and see him on the couch, flipping through channels on the TV. He doesn't budge to help me. Whatever. Jerk.

"You still ignoring me?" I set the bags on the counter and look over at Nate, who is sulking.

"Yep. Still ignoring you." 

I huff and put the food away myself. "Did you take your meds this morning?" 

"Still ignoring you. But yes."

I annoyingly plop down right where Nate is laying so he can't see the TV.

"Move outta the way."

"No." I reply stubbornly.

"I'll push you the fuck off this couch. Don't test me." He nudges me.

"Did you check your blood pressure today?"

He finally puts the remote down and has no choice but to look up at me. "I can't figure out how to do it." Nate admit and he knows I can do it from having to take care of my mom.

"I figured." I brush a lock of hair away from his forehead, but he flinches and back away, furrowing his brows at me. "I ordered you a digital one off Amazon. It will be here tomorrow. It will be easier." I lean over him to reach the blood pressure monitor from the side table next to his head, letting the cuff hit him in the face.

"Knock it off, I'm trying to watch TV." He swats the cuff away and picks up the remote again.  When he holds the remote, I notice his hand trembles uncontrollably... 

Shit.

I hold his hand, and he lets me, dropping the remote in the process.

"Hey. It will get easier, ok? Everything's gonna get better."  I study his face, and he glances up at me and nods while swallowing hard to suppress his emotions.  I wrap my arms around him and give him a hug and he gives in and hugs me back. I comb through his hair. I feel awful for him. His life wasn't supposed to be like this.

He sits up and hugs me a little tighter to let me know he's no longer mad at me before standing up. "I'm gonna head to the studio for a while."

"Aren't there still reporters there??" This is NOT a good idea.

"Right." Nate shrugs but leaves anyways.

Stubborn ass.

****

*James*

I have about twenty minutes before my shift but came to the hotel early. Why? I don't know. I also don't know why I'm on the 4th floor. I glance at Paul who is on duty for someone else and sitting on a chair. He just rolls his eyes at me as I stand in front of Julia's door.

I pull out my key and unlock Julia's door, surprised when I see I'm not alone. 

There's Nate Hollan, sitting on the floor holding Julia's clothes, visually upset. He's holding her green sweater. God, she lived in that thing. I'm surprised she left it behind. Unless she did it on purpose. The room smells like her vanilla scented perfume and my chest feels heavy with emotion now.

"What are you doing here?" He asks as I close the door behind me. His voice is raspy, and his eyes are swollen from crying. We are in the same boat, feeling the same thing.

"The same thing you're doing, I guess." I walk over and put my hand out to Nate. He takes it and stands up and I pat his shoulder.

"We're pathetic, mate." Nate declares with a smirk, and I agree.

"Have you heard from her at all?" I sit on her bed and look around the room, taking it all in. She's really gone. This is it. How the hell do I move on? I can't.

"No, you??"

"Nope. She won't answer my calls or texts." I wipe my face in frustration and shake my head while watching Nate pick up the clothes off the ground. He holds the sweater tight, and we walk out of Julia's room together.

Paul raises his eyebrows at these two pathetic men in love with the same girl.

*****

*Trisha*

It's been a full two weeks.  Nate has been using me to cope with shit. And I've been letting him. Not in hopes that we will somehow miraculously be together, we both know that's not happening. But the sex is good, and I love Nate. I want to see him happy. Even though this doesn't make him happy it's helping. It's sure making me happy, I can admit to that much. We've done this before and have been fine after. I have no doubt this time around will be the same.

"Trish, get up." Nate nudges me but I roll over and try to ignore him. Last night we "used" each other for a very long time. I'm tired and sore and just want to sleep.

He tries to wake me up again.

"What's going on? It's too fucking early, Playboy." I grumble into the pillow, barely awake.

"No, I mean it. Get up. I need you to book me the next flight to Boston." He nudges me again a little harder this time. I sit up confused and pull the sheet up over my naked chest. His eyes are glued to his phone.

"I need to bring her home. She's not well over there. She's meant to be here."  He talks so fast I can barely comprehend what he's trying to say. "Julia. She's not ok."

I rub my eyes and sigh at Nate. This is NOT a good idea. It's been weeks. He needs to just let Julia go already.

"She's gonna break your heart, Nate."

"I don't fucking care. This isn't about me, now. This is about her."

"Wow. You're starting to grow up, aren't you?" I tease and ruffle up his hair.

"Fuck you." He mumbles.

"You've been doing that for two weeks now." I snap back and get a pillow thrown at me while he gets out of bed, also naked. "Ugh. You're gonna regret this. Let me grab my laptop and I'll book you a flight."  I give in and Nate grabs my face and kisses my forehead hard. I can't believe I'm doing this for him.

"Thank you." He hands me my laptop off the table, and I start researching flights.

"How soon do you want this to happen?" I ask while scrolling through the flight options.

"As soon as possible, Trish. This is urgent."

"I mean, there's a flight at 8am." We both look at the time, it's 7am. "Think you can get there on time?" Before I even book the flight, Nate is rushing to get dressed and calling his driver at the same time. Within fifteen minutes he's gone. 

I lay in his empty bed and turn to his pillow. "Guess this is over." I say out loud.

*****

*James*

It's been two full weeks. Julia never answered my texts or calls. I still text her every single frigging day. I don't even know why anymore. I haven't even seen that much of Trisha this week. I think her and Hollan have something going on. I don't know. I've been spending my time with my sisters, helping them out with mom when I can. 

Today was a good day and I'm relieved because I never know what I'm going to get when I walk into ma's house.

"What's the matter, Jamie. You look so sad." My mom says. We're sitting in the sunroom, and I rested my head on her shoulder with my eyes closed. This time I just happened to close my eyes. I didn't do it on purpose or anything. But mom knew it was me and wrapped her arms around me. 

The girls are making dinner and extra meals for me to bring home for the week before I head off to work.

"I am a little sad, ma." I grumble.

"Joe doesn't mean to, hunny. He's not well." 

I sigh and my sisters all stop what they're doing.

"Ma. Joe is gone. You never have to worry about him again." Gwen corrects her. "That's not why this dope is sad. His girlfriend broke up with him and skipped town." She says with no emotion.

"Thanks for the reminder, Gwen." I sigh and sit up, still making sure not to look at mom. "I'll be fine, Mom.  Nothing you have to worry about." I kiss the side of her head and stand up. I have to get ready for work.

"James, you never slept before your shift. This isn't healthy." Ashley says.

"I know everyone's concerned but I'm fine."

"Well here. You have enough grub to get you through the week." Ash stacks up Tupperware on top of Tupperware of all sorts of meals for me. She knows my fridge is bare a lot of the times.

"Thanks guys. This is a huge help." I put all the food in a bag and kiss the top of Ashley's head before leaving.

Tonight is gonna be a long shift.

*****

The lobby is dead. I keep busy by cleaning around the coffee bar and refilling the napkin holder.

The hotel doors automatically open and I'm not at the front desk.

"I'll be right with you." I don't bother turning around. I know I'm in a funk. I just don't know how to get out of it yet. I will. Just not yet.

"James."

I hear the familiar voice and it's like I'm in the middle of a snow globe of emotions and someone just shook it. I stand up straight but don't turn around.

"Julia..."

Is she really here?

The pile of napkins in his hand fall to the ground. 

I turn around, and there she is. Standing in the middle of the Marriott Hotel lobby with her luggage. With her luggage... She has luggage.

She walks over to me and stands in front of me.

"I'm here to check in to my room."  

I snap out of my frozen stature and lift Julia up in a hug, maybe too tight, but she doesn't seem to mind. I let out a breath. It's like I haven't been breathing since the moment she left me, and now I can inhale again.

"I missed you. God, I missed you so much." I bury my face in her neck, not willing to let her go yet. "I've been texting and calling you every fucking day. How did... Why did you come back?"

"Nate came for me and brought me back."

Nate. Of course. Julia isn't here for me. She's here for Nate.

"Oh..." I put her down and take a step back, letting my smile fade.

"No. Not like that."

"You're confusing me, Julia...."

"I know. I'm confusing myself." She sighs.

"I'm with nobody right now. I'm here for myself." She steps forward and takes both of my hands into hers. "I'm not here for Nate. I'm not here to choose anyone. I'm here for me, and I need to work on getting myself better. But I can't do it alone and could really use a friend in the process."

"I could really use my best friend. And his dog."

*****