*James*

It's well after two in the morning before the elevator doors open.

"I knew you wouldn't last long up there." I flash Julia a smile and swivel in my chair a little, relieved she finally came down to hang out with me. She takes her seat next to me behind the front desk like she never left L.A.

She's very quiet.

"What's going on in the little head of yours?" I ask, concerned now.

"I think I have more of a problem than I thought." Julia looks down and fidgets with the rings on her fingers. She's anxious and not making eye contact with me. "I've taken so many pills for so long that they aren't working anymore."

Shit.

This has become a problem.

I nod sympathetically and put a hand on her knee. "We're gonna get you through this, ok?"

"I'm just so tired. I'm so fricken tired."

She's really struggling. How many pills is she talking about here?  How often is she taking this to the point that the dose isn't working anymore?

"I know, babe. But you gotta stop taking that shit. You're too dependent, and now look, the pills aren't doing what they used to. How many refills do you have left?"

"That's just it. I'm getting low. I'm scared of what's gonna happen. I've been taking them for a while. More and more every day to get through." She admits.

Shit. This has become a bigger problem than I originally thought.

"I know, sweetie. You're gonna have to go through some sort of detox."

"It scares the shit out of me."

"It's not gonna be fun. But you won't be alone." I nod, trying to understand her .... but I don't. I'm not an addict. I may never fully understand.

"I just need sleep." She leans over and crosses her arms on the table next to the computer and rests her head on them. I rub her back to try to soothe her a little.

"Why don't you close your eyes while you're down here with me? Maybe you'll get a little rest? I'll wake you up if someone comes."

"Mmmm, maybe." It doesn't take Julia long to fall asleep down here, which is also very concerning. I have no idea how many pills are in her system.

*****

It's been hours. Julia needs to wake up and move from behind the front desk before the morning shift comes in. Overnight. Fine. No one cares. No one is around, and no one wants to take my shift, so I'll never get fired. But morning. Mornings get busy. She can't be back here. But I'm having a hard time waking her.

"Hey, sleeping beauty. C'mon. Let's get you up to your room."

"Mmmm. No. I'm too tired." She doesn't lift her head or open her eyes... "One more minute."

"No, really, Julia. The morning shift lady just pulled in. You can't be behind the front desk. C'mon, babe. We gotta go."  I pull her up and grab my coat and phone.

"Walk to the elevator. I'll be there right after I clock out." I walk her from behind the front desk, just in time. The doors open, and the morning receptionist comes in. I watch Julia slowly make her way to the elevators while shooting the shit with Devin, one of the morning workers, like I always do. It would be suspicious if I didn't.

Usually, after my shift, I head to the kitchen and chat with Al, and I'm already breaking that routine today by not showing up.  I walk over to where Julia is standing, barely awake, and shake my head at her. By the way she is leaning against the wall and barely awake, I know she took WAY too many pills. WAY too many.

"All set. That was too close, though." I press the elevator button, and Julia leans her head on me now.

"I think the extra pill DID kick in a little." She fucking stumbles into the elevator.

"Gee, you think?" I respond sarcastically. "You can barely stand." I'm SO not amused by Julia's drugged demeanor.

"Mmmm." She starts to fall asleep on me again.

"Jesus. C'mon Julia." The doors open, and I guide her to her room, unlocking the door and helping her inside. I literally have to walk her to the bed and sit her down. I kneel down to untie her sneakers and she falls back on to the mattress and stares up and the ceiling. She's friggen high.

"I think I took one too many." She sits up a little and watches me struggle with a knot in her lace. 

"You're so high right now, aren't you?" I glare at her.

"Maybe..."

"Yeah. This isn't happening again." I say sternly while taking her shoes off. I stand up and furrow my brows at her.

"I'm sorry. I didn't think - " She stops and sits up straight now" I can't help it." She admits and finally makes eye contact with me.

I sigh. She really can't help it and I'm being an ass.

"I know you can't." I pull the covers back so she can climb into her bed and sleep this shit off. "I'm gonna have to babysit you to make sure you're fine aren't?"

"No." She's already starting to slur her speech and fall asleep.

*****

"Do you know how many pills she took?" Nate is pissed.

I didn't have his cell phone number so hard to resort to Paul getting the message to him. Maybe Nate will know what to do. Julia is out of it and I'm starting to get concerned now.

"She didn't tell me. She only said she thinks she took one too many." I say. We both stand in Julia's hotel room, watching her sleep. Both are concerned about why she hasn't woken up yet. It's 3pm. She fell asleep in the lobby around 2:30am and was she was barely awake when I helped her to her room at the end of my shift. That was around 7am. She's been sleeping since.

"So, you've been here that entire time??" Nate raises his eyebrows at me. Of course I'd stay, why would he even question that?

"I didn't want to leave. What if she got sick or something? I don't know, man, it didn't feel right to leave. She was really out of it. Like fucking high off it. I fell asleep myself for a few hours but thought she'd be awake by now."

Nate nods. We both know we are far from friends but when it comes to Julia, we will do whatever it takes to make sure she's ok.  Even if it has to be standing in this room together worried while watching her sleep off the pills.

"We have our work cut out for us with her, don't we?" Hollan walks past me and sits on the small sofa. I slide a chair next to Julia's bed and sit in it while we wait.

"One good thing is she told me she has no more refills. So eventually she's gonna run out of pills and have no choice but to stop."

" I'm gonna give you my number. I know we are enemies here, but this is for her safety. She's not well and unfortunately we are going to have to work as a team to get her back on her feet." Nate jots down his number on one of the Marriott pads of paper, lean over and hand it to me. "If this happens again, don't go through Paul, just call me directly. We both know Paul doesn't like dealing with shit that's not in his job description."

"Unfortunately, we may have to see each other often if she keeps this up." I rub my face and sigh tiredly.

Both of us sit in the room, scrolling through our phones for what feels like forever.

"If you want to head out and sleep for a while before your shift, I can stay with her." He can tell I'm beyond exhausted. I also have Maggie at home. She's fine, but I don't like leaving here for long periods of time if I don't have to.

"I do have to feed and take my dog out before work. I'll come back up before I clock in." I stand up and walk over to Nate.

"Hey, thanks for coming here. Sorry I had to bother you. She just scares the shit out of me sometimes." I admit and put my hand out. Nate shakes it even though he seems surprised I'm being somewhat cordial to him. It's the decent thing to do.

"You and me both." I reply.

****

*Trisha*

Nate texted me to reschedule shit but doesn't have an excuse to why. He ignores my calls too. I HATE when he gets like this ... acting shady which means ten to one, I bet has something to do with Julia. I knew this would happen. She consumes his world when he's around her. It would be fine if he was a fucking normal person, but he is not. He's Nate Hollan. And has a busy schedule that he can't keep rescheduling.

Sooo now I'm free for a while.

[James the receptionist, what are you up to??]

[Why, you bored? Hollan doesn't keep you busy with his busy schedule? Haha! I just finished walking my dog. Gonna hang at home for a while before my shift later.]

[ Yep. I AM bored. And the fucker had me reschedule a bunch of stuff and didn't tell me why.  So now I sit here with nothing to do. Want grab lunch?]

 I really like hanging out with James and I don't have friends here. Hard to make friends when you're in this line of work. So meeting James was actually a blessing in disguise. We don't talk about anything big, which is actually nice. And he's not a fan of Nate's so he isn't bombarding me with Nate Hollan questions.

 If anything, I don't think he likes Nate at all.

*****

*James*

I'm exhausted but do need to eat before work. I meet up with Trish at the Food Truck District. I like hanging with her. She might seem high maintenance to some people, but I think she puts on an act because she's Hollan's personal assistant. I don't think Julia and Trisha are very friendly to each other though, so I never bring up anything Julia related.

I choose something lighter than tacos today. A salad with grilled chicken from a healthier food truck. Trisha swipes Nate's card before I can even get my wallet out of my back pocket, and smirks at me.

"What? It's a business luncheon."

I shake my head and laugh a little. She goes right for the tacos and orders her grub as I find a free table. It's nice out but I leave Maggie at home. I tired her out with our long walk already and I'm not entirely sure if Trisha even likes animals or not.

"You look tired, James the Receptionist." Trisha takes a huge bite of her taco and everything drops out. She isn't shy with food that's for sure. I like that.  She wipes her mouth with her napkin and studies me for a second before taking a big sip from the straw of her drink. "Exciting night at the Marriott?"

"Something like that." I sigh, inhaling my salad.

"I'm not keeping you from sleeping before your shift, am I??"

"Not at all. I don't usually go to bed for another hour. And I can't pass up a free lunch on Hollan." I joke and get a laugh out of Trisha in return. If that guy only knew how many lunches and coffees he has paid of mine... 

"Do you like your job?" Trisha wants to know more about me. We are just friends, she knows that. I think... But we really don't know a ton about each other other than we like to hang when we can. And she kicks my ass at running.

"It pays the bills. You like your job?"

"It's all I know, really. I started working with Nate when I was 19."

I raise my eyebrows while taking a huge bite of salad. "19! Wow. I didn't know that."

"Yeppp. He was 16 ... maybe getting ready to turn 17 at the time. They all needed someone to whip them into reality and wouldn't listen to anyone but me. So, when things got busier for them, their managers decided they all needed a personal assistant. Someone to make sure they are where they are supposed to be at the right time, make sure they're eating well and staying outta trouble. Pretty much be their mother since none of them had access to their own with that lifestyle. I was assigned to Nate." She talks nonchalantly about a job that I imagine is pretty damn stressful.

"I can only imagine how hard your job must be. I sure as hell wouldn't be able to do it." I admit. Nor would I want a stressful job like that. I try to keep things as easy as possible in my life. That type of job sounds like hell.

"Eh. It's Nate. He's my best friend now."

"But working for him?"

"Well," Trisha laughs a little. "That's another story. Sonofabitch doesn't make things easy. Like today, rescheduling shit and not showing up for shit. But all celebrities are high maintenance. He treats me well. You should hear some of the horror stories other assistants have to deal with. I couldn't imagine being an assistant to one of the Kardashians... or Ariana Grande. I've heard stories. Nate is a good guy."

And he probably is. Doesn't mean I can't hate the fact he found an interest in Julia. I could be so much more to her if he didn't get in the way. I don't tell Trisha any of this. I don't really know what she does and doesn't know. If she really is Nate's best friend, then I imagine he would tell her everything like me and Julia did with each other. Then again, Julia went weeks without returning my texts or calls once in Boston.

My phone goes off on the table, saving me from saying anything stupid to Trisha. I pick it up and read the text. 

"Shit" I say out loud while reading it. Paul needs me to go in to work a little early tonight to meet him and check someone in on the 4th floor. "Looks like I have to go to work a little early tonight."

"I'll let you go sleep. I should probably get back to working on next week's schedule anyways. Hey. Thanks for meeting up with me. I like you company. You keep things simple." Trisha smiles at me. She has a great smile. But I'm still hung up on Julia. 

"I'm all about keeping life simple." I chuckle a little and throw out our trash for the both of us. "Thanks for lunch...... again." I nod and just like that we go our separate ways. I think Trish likes simple. Sounds like she could use more of that in her life.

*****

Once at the Marriot, I wait for Paul to come by to tell what to do next. Cheryl is still working the front desk or a little while longer. After clocking in, I see Julia near the coffee stand. She's awake. And she's fine. Thank God. She spills her coffee all over the place like always and I have to laugh. I head over to her as she's grabbing napkins to clean up her mess.

"Some things never change, huh, Miss Moretti." I say from behind her.

"Leave me alone." She teases, taking a sip of coffee so it doesn't spill more. " You're here early."

"Yeah." My voice lowers and I lean in a little more. "Paul needs me to get someone checked in to the 4th floor. Whenever that happens, I come in and get it set up."

"No one questions it? Cheryl?"

"No. They could care less. The just think I have no life and they're happy to leave early." I help Julia clean up her mess and throw the napkins in the trash.

"Who is it?"

"Ahh. That I can't tell you." Half the time I don't even know who it is. I just book the room under whatever Paul tells me.

"Anyways, I don't even know. They come in through a side door and Paul escorts them up. Most of the time I don't know and I'm ok with that. I rather not know any details. It never ends well." I admit and look Julia up and down sarcastically.

"Oh, shut up. You're glad I'm back. You'd be bored out of your mind without me."

"True. You ARE still my best friend. And pretty amazing in bed." I say low so no one can hear me. "Hey, You gonna hang down here for a while? We should talk."

"Yeah. I'm gonna sit over there and find a book."  Julia nods to the couch.

"Ok. I gotta go but I'll catch you in a bit." I see Paul come in through the doors and hurry to the front desk. I assign a room for him and then a few other people check in so I do that for Cheryl as well so she can leave early... which she does, and I don't blame her. She has teenagers at home to deal with.

Julia is off in her own world staring at me right now. Part of me wonders if it's because of the shit she took or Julia just being Julia.

"Like what you see, do you?" I snap her out of her trance, and she rolls her eyes at me. I finish typing at the computer for another minute and then when the Lobby is back to being dead, tick my head over for Julia to come sit with me.  She takes her spot behind the desk, and I sit down. Julia can tell I need to hash this shit out about last night and I'm serious by the way I don't swivel my chair like I usually do. I rest my elbows on my knees and clasp my hands together waiting for an explanation.

"Wanna tell me what happened last night?" I ask with concern.

" I just messed up."

"You really scared the shit outta me. And Nate...though it seems like he is more used to it than I am."

"It won't happen again." She tries to assure me, but it falls flat.

"I'm gonna worry now, Julia, it wasn't pretty. You weren't waking up. You think I WANTED to contact Nate? We're supposed to be Archenemies, remember? I didn't know what else to do. I was seriously thinking of calling 911 or something."

Julia's mood changes quickly and tears form in her eyes.

"I didn't mean for it to happen. I just needed sleep. Once the extra pill kicked in too hard, it was too late. I had no choice but to sleep it off."

" You really need to stop taking those damn pills." I take her hands.

"I know. I'm trying."

"Hey, tomorrow afternoon is another grief session. Come with me." I don't ask, I tell her.

"Yeah, I'll go. But I'm not talking!!" 

"I have tomorrow off. After the group, there's a local band playing at The Grave. Wanna go with me?"

"The Grave? That sounds.....morbid." She raises an eyebrow.  I laugh. Sometimes I forget she hasn't really ventured out much here in L.A. and hasn't a clue what I'm talking about. It would sound pretty morbid to someone who doesn't know what The Grave is.

"It's a local bar. On Friday and Saturday nights, they have live music. Some of the bands are shit but some are pretty good. The one tomorrow is country. I figured since your favorite song is a country song, you'd like em."

"Yeah, I'll join you. Sounds fun."

A date. I breathe out and flash a smile in relief that she said yes.

*****

*Trisha*

"What, so I'm her personal assistant too now?" He's got to be kidding me right now! Another morning where I have to wake Nate up because he missed a meeting. Fortunately it was just with me but that doesn't make me feel any better.  I swear sometimes I feel like Nate takes me for granted when the reality is, he'd be lost without me.

We were supposed to go over his itinerary for Austin, Texas next week. I had the whole meeting planned.

Once again, I have to break into his bedroom because he's fucking hungover. I knew he wouldn't take his health seriously. 

Then...to bring up  helping Julia on top of it all? I don't even WANT her here! It's not good for Nate. I sure as hell don't want to help her STAY here. 

"You think I have time to figure out her shit too?" I'm fuming.

"You'll make time." Nate sits up and rubs his head. "And quit yelling. You're not helping."

"Awww, I'm not helping the pretty millionaire with his fucking hangover? Grow a set already. Get in the shower and pull yourself together." I glare at him. I'm so fed up with this shit! I storm out of his bedroom and slam the door behind me. 

While grabbing the coffee out of the cabinet to make for him I see the unopened bottle of whiskey. You know what? I'm done. I'm done dealing with Nate and his hangovers.  I quickly grab the bottle and dump it all down the drain.

Then I start the coffee. 

I go back into Nate's room while he's in the shower to at least make his bed for him  and see another fucking bottle of whiskey on his night stand. Unbelievable. He's now waking up and drinking it first thing? 

Memories of shit I had to go through with Dave flood in and I lose my cool.  I march in to the bathroom and swing open the glass shower door.

"Are you for REAL??" I yell, making Naked Nate jump a mile.

 "What the hell, Trish!"

I stand at the entrance o his walk in shower, holding the door open and wave the bottle of whiskey in his face. He swats me away.

"Knock it off." He ignores me and grabs the soap, pretending I'm not here and pissed while washing his chest. Un-fucking-believable. 

"Is this what it's come down to Nate? Leaving this shit on your nightstand?? What...so it's the first thing you drink in the morning now?" I burst out, feeling tears start to sting my eyes. He's seriously going to ignore me? I open the bottle and pour the whiskey down the drain while staring at him.

"Stop! Go find something to do, Trisha!!" He turns away.

I put the bottle on the counter and pull his shoulder to force him to turn and face me. I'm now getting my clothes wet but I don't care. He's not taking shit seriously and it's concerning.

"Has it really gotten this bad?"  I ask, while holding in my tears the best I can. Nate  shrugs and looks away with a distraught face making it known it HAS gotten bad.

"Jesus."  I kick off my shoes and walk right in the shower not caring about my clothes or hair or anything. I wrap my arms around Nate once I see him starting to get emotional.

"I can't stop."  He admits and buries his face in my neck. Shit.

I hold him tight for a minute nd the back away. This is my best friend. And he's wasting his life away on fucking booze! I can't let this happen. I back away, completely soaked and  put my hands on the sides of his face, looking him dead in the eyes.

 "You're gonna stop, ok? You have to." I kiss his cheek like I always do.

"I tried."

"Try harder, Nate. Pull your shit together."

"I can't deal with this right now, ok?" He huffs.

"Too bad. I'm not dealing with another alcoholic!"  I push his chest hard but he doesn't budge, which pisses me off even more. "I mean it, you asshole! I can't do it again!!" I cry.

"I'm sorry. I'm trying. I'll pull it together. I promise."

She pushes my wet hair away from my forehead. "You have to, ok? I can't...."

"I know. I know, I'm sorry." Nate interrupts.

"I'll help you, ok?" I inhale sharply, trying to hold in my tears but it's no use. He can see I'm cleary crying now. God, all those memories of Dave. All the awful memories. Nate can tell that's what's going through my mind and tries to distract me. He pulls me into the water and kisses me hard, pushing my soaking wet skirt up to my hips. 

And I let him.

I always fucking let him.

My clothes are wet, my nylons are wet, everything is sopping wet but I don't care now. I need this distraction. Nate looks down at me and hardens instantly, then rips my favorite blouse open. All the buttons go flying everywhere as he slams me into the shower wall and links his arm under my thigh to hold me up.

"You're buying me a new top now..."  I shake my head and wrap my arms around me.

"Yes, Ma'am."

And there it is. I have sex with my Boss slash Best Friend in his shower. And then I agree to help him figure Julia's shit out

 I can't seem to say no to him lately.

*****