Brian’s POV
How could I have even thought this would work? She send me out, just like that and worst… I didn’t even fight, I just left. Left her for grabs for that asshole boss of hers. I was fuming with anger as I made my way down to the ground floor. You should think a lawyer is more wise than to make a move on a married woman, didn’t he understand that I could make the divorce a living hell for Amy if I wanted to?

What the hell was I even thinking? Wanting to give her a fighting divorce? At this point I couldn’t give her a divorce, not a fighting one, not a quiet one. Larry wouldn’t let me.

I stared at my reflection in the steel of the elevator doors, and sighed, seeing her had done some weird things with my insides, weird things with my head and even more weird things with my heart. I didn’t want to admit it, but she was still deep under my skin, if I wanted it or not.
I really wanted to be mad at her because of everything I thought I should be mad about, but somehow… I couldn’t anymore, not with her staring back at me like that, not with feeling her in my arms again, not with that mouth so close to mine. So close to be easily kissed. What the hell was I supposed to do now?

As soon as I exited the elevator I came across the next problem. Dozens of photographers were swarming the entrance of the building and there was no way for me to get away from them quickly, seeing Matt had taken the car with him. “Fuck!” I muttered under my breath. I quickly backed away around the corner, finding the cafeteria. Maybe I could hang out here for a bit, and then try with Amy again.

With a cup of coffee I settled in the corner of the room and watched people come and go. I had been hoping she wouldn’t have this kind of effect on me anymore. That our goodbye had closed everything off for us and that we could handle everything else like adults… like strangers… but no such thing. It was weird to experience me being mad at her, only made me want her more.

My phone buzzed. My heart jumped a little when I saw it was Amy, did she change her mind?
“Hello?”
“Brian… Please.. You have to help me” The panic in her voice made the hairs in my back standup. Was she in danger? Was that asshole boss of hers trying to force her- “They are everywhere! Everywhere! How do you live with it?”
For a second I was confused, but then I thought about all the people in front of the building, of the warnings Larry told us about.
“Shit Amy… Did you leave the building?”
“Yes” Her voice was still full of panic and fear “Where are you, we need to talk” She tried to regain her confidence, but she was failing.
“I’m still at your office building, I saw all of them and thought it would be better to sit it out. Can you come and pick me up?”
“I guess… are they still there or did they all follow me?”

I got up and took a peek to where I had seen all the paparazzi earlier. Amy was right, they all did follow her, there was no one to be seen anymore.
“All empty”
“Good, I’ll be there in 2 minutes” with that she hung up and I made my way to the entrance.

She didn’t lie, within 2 minutes a car stopped in front of me, and the door flew open “Get in”
As soon as I sat down, Amy started rambling.
“I didn’t ask for this. I never wanted this. I never should have married you. I can’t handle this. I’m just normal, plain Amy, from Phoenix Arizona, I just-”
Her hands were shaking on the wheel and I saw her lip trembling.
“Amy… Honey… please park the car, you can’t drive like this” I put my hand over hers, hoping that I could calm her a bit and not piss her off even more. She slowed down a little, but she didn’t stop.
“But where Brian? They are everywhere; they are probably at my house right now”

I thought about that for a minute, I needed to get her safe, and her driving the car in this condition was definitely not safe. Maybe it wasn’t that bad, maybe I could get her into the building without too many troubles.
“Drive to your apartment, we will find a way”

The rest of the drive to her building was silent, Amy’s hands were still shaking and her teeth dug into her bottom lip. I knew this was not the time, but her needing me gave me a warm feeling inside. I wanted to hold those hands, I wanted to bite that lip myself.

Arriving at Amy’s apartment building, I realized I couldn’t have been more wrong. It was bad, it was definitely bad. There were so many people outside, I couldn’t even see the entrance anymore.
“Can we go in through the back?”
Amy shook her head while she parked her car a little in the back. Luckily no one had noticed us yet. I could pull my hood over my eyes and wear the sunglasses, but Amy was all exposed. Shit, shit, shit, this was going to end bad anyway. As long as we made it in. I quickly thought, we would need someone to open the door so we could rush in. When we got inside we would be safe, at least for now. Think Haner, think! I grabbed my phone and dialed the number I had only saved this afternoon.

“Hello, this is Brian, from this afternoon”
The old lady babbled in my ear, if I had found Amy, and that she was hoping we would call, if I was the one with the dimples
“I need a big favor” As I told her the plan, Amy’s face got more and more horrified, glaring at all the people outside. I ended the call and turned to Amy, taking her hands in mine.

“Amy, look at me. I have a plan, don’t worry, I will get you inside” She didn’t give any notice she heard me, so I brought her hands to my mouth and put a kiss on them. I hated to see her like this. Her eyes met mine and I finally seemed to have her attention. I quickly pulled the hoodie from my body and handed it to her.
“Here, put this on. Do you have sunglasses?” She nodded.
My phone buzzed, three times… Showtime.
“I’m going to hold you close and I’m gonna get you through. Just hold on, whatever you do, don’t look up, okay?” she nodded again. I took a deep sigh and got out of the car, closing the door as quiet as possible and walked around to open Amy’s.

As soon as I pulled her to my body and closed the door, all hell broke loose. The crowd waiting at the door turned to us, they started running, screaming, shooting pictures. It was exactly what I counted on, with them coming to us, Mrs. Robertson would be able to open the door for us. I hushed Amy through and as agreed on, Mrs. Robertson was waiting for us, closing the door, right in front of the unwanted people trying to get in.

All the elevator ride up, Amy held on to me and there was no way I would let her go. I thanked our help in scary days and waited for Amy to open up her apartment. She finally left my embrace as soon as we entered. With her walking away from me I had the chance to quickly look around. Her apartment wasn’t that big, but it was cozy. I could see Amy’s influence in it and it made me smile.

That smile faltered when Amy came back into view. She was clinging on to my sweatshirt, silent tears streaming over her face.
“Can-n you p-p-please hold me?” her whole body was shivering and she seemed completely lost. In a split second I had her in my arms, I encircled her completely, trying to hold her as close as possible. Larry was completely right, she didn’t deserve this.

“Shh, it will be okay, I promise” I let my arms go over her back. Her tears made my shirt wet, her breath sending a tickle to the skin that was shown through my V-neck. It felt so damn good to have her in my arms again.

For a long while, we just stood there. Amy’s shoulders slowly got to a steady position again and her sniffs were getting less and less. She relaxed in my arms and for just a bit, I allowed myself to dream myself back to when we were just Mr. and Mrs. Haner.

“What do I need to do now? I can’t handle this, Brian” Amy’s soft voice roused me from my thoughts and I looked down, finding her face, her eyes staring up at me, big question mark in them. I pushed a strand of hair behind her ear and stared into her deep pools.

Having Amy so close to me took every thought out of my mind and the words were hard to find, so I just used the ones I already said “It will be okay… really… I promise” and with that, I bend down, finding her mouth, waiting for me, allowing me to kiss her.

She immediately opened up to me and the dance of our tongues continued effortless as if we had never stopped. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her closer. This was how it should be, there was no other way, Amy and I… We were best together.

Sara’s POV
The feeling of Matt’s lips on mine was oh so familiar. It was like he had never stopped kissing me. And even though it as only a short meeting of lips, my heart was racing. My thumping heart made aware of the fact that I was far from over Matt. If I ever wanted a chance of getting over him, I couldn’t allow him to come closer to me, no matter how hard everything inside of me was screaming to just kiss him back and drag him to bed.

“So lunch, where do you want to go? I know a nice Mexican restaurant, but if you feel more like burgers I have a pretty good option for that too. I could show you my favorite lunch place if you would like? They have all kinds of stuff, so you wouldn’t need to chose.” Matt looked at me confused and then a sexy smirk came over his face.

“You’re babbling, are you nervous?” He took a step towards me, while I backed one up. I couldn’t let him get too close, there was no way I would be able to resist him if he would try anything.
“No! I’m not nervous, you are just not answering me on the food” I replied stubbornly. I turned around to find my purse and I heard Matt let out a chuckle behind me, a chuckle that send shivers down my spine… the good kind.

I couldn’t believe he was in my house, thanks to my fucking best friend. I couldn’t believe Amy just handed my address over to him, how could she?! She knew I was having a hard time forgetting about him and she just delivered him to my doorstep, I would have to kick some serious ass for that action. A few deep breaths made me regain at least a little of my calm before I turned around to face Matt again.

Who was closer than I had expected. Holy shit, that man. All the resistance I thought I could bring, would dissolve with a snap of his finger, and looking at the devious look in Matt’s eyes, he knew it.

“Are you ready to go?” I quickly moved passed him and took my car keys of the hook at the door, but Matt stopped me.
“You won’t need that, we’re taking my rental” the skin of Matt’s hand touching mine made my skin burn and I quickly pulled my hand away.
“O-okay”

The silence in the car was only broken by me giving directions of where we should go. Matt was focusing on the road and I had a hard time keeping my eyes of him. The thoughts about him hadn’t stopped yet, and the dreams were as vivid as ever. I really needed to get a grip on myself. I needed my head on straight. He talked about Amy and her having to come to Huntington with them and that he needed my help, but there was no way that I was handing my best friend over to Brian. There would be no arguments that could convince me to go with that little plan of them.

My wondering about Matt and the reason he was here to visit me, made me unaware of the fact that we had been seated in the restaurant and that he had slipped in next to me.
“Hell no. You sit there” I pointed at the seat opposite of me and gave his shoulder a push, a pointless gesture trying to create some distance between us.
“Why? I’m pretty good here” he leaned back and put his arm over the back behind me.
“Matt, please” my request was more of a plead and my voice came out a little squeaky. Disappointment flooded his eyes before he got up and moved in opposite of me, staring right at me.

Maybe this wasn’t the best idea either.
“What did you do when you disappeared on me just now? Right after Slimy left?”
A blush came over my face. I didn’t want to tell him I screamed into my pillow out of frustration of the situation. There was no way I was going to tell him. But the look on his face told me he wasn’t going to let it go either.
“I needed a moment for myself” Matt nodded at my answer and silence found us again.

Get your head out of the gutter, Sara!

Matt’s hands tried to find mine over the table “Sara, I… I really m-“
“No. Keep it in, don’t say it, Matt. We agreed. Two weeks. That was it. So tell me about why you broke that promise”

He sighed and let his hands run over his face and then through his hair.
“Brian and I came here to get Amy. Our manager wants to meet her, discuss some things with her, so she needs to be back in Huntington tomorrow morning.”
“There is no way she is going to come with you guys, Brian has been a total ass with her. And if she is stupid enough to fall for his sweet talk, there is no way I’m going to let her come back with you.”
“I don’t really think that is your decision to make” Matt snapped and I looked t him, one brow raised.

He held up his hands in defense “okay, okay, I’m going to be straight with you, because I really think our best friends need our help. Brian has been a pain in my ass ever since we left the Bahamas”
“He was a pain in the ass long before that” I muttered, receiving a killing look from Matt. I motioned him to continue
“I don’t know exactly what happened between them, but Amy hurt Brian. She made sure there was no doubt about it that she wanted to divorce Brian.

I felt anger boil up inside of me, he could be hot as hell, but he definitely couldn’t talk about my best friend like that.
“Amy wouldn’t hurt a fly! Brian is the man whoring asshole! How can you blame sweet, kind Amy?” I huffed out.

The food had arrived at the meantime and I started shoveling everything in, trying to eat as soon as possible. The sooner we were done here, the sooner we could leave.

“Maybe you don’t know your best friend as well as you think! Sweet, Kind Amy had the divorce all planned out. She told Brian she would go quietly, but then she started to make arrangements herself. Did you know about that?”

I looked at him confused. That didn’t sound like Amy at all.

“Before you start defending Amy again, Brian overheard her calling with her boss. Telling him he shouldn’t treat it differently now it was about her. That he shouldn’t make any special arrangements”
“Wait a minute..” the wheels were turning wildly in my head, was this all a misunderstanding? “When did Brian hear that conversation?”
“The morning we left the Bahamas. There was no misunderstanding there, Sara. Face it, there are sides to that woman you don’t know about”

Everything else that Matt said went completely passed me. I was thinking about what Amy had told me, about the case James would give her. The divorce. The chance she would get. The Amy I knew so well. She would have asked James all the things that Matt was accusing her of now.

“She wasn’t arranging the divorce.”
“Sara, come on, face the facts”
“Shut up. Let me explain. Amy talked to James about her first solo case. That was why he called her the last morning. Her first solo case, how coincidental, is going to be a divorce.”

I leaned back in my seat, crossed my arms and looked at Matt with my best “I told you so”- face.
“Ha! Never ever tell me I don’t know my best friend!”

The waitress came to bring the check and Matt still didn’t say anything. He threw his creditcard on the table, but I shoved it back to him. I had let him pay when we were on our holiday, but this was my hometown, this was my turf. I was going to pay this fucking lunch.
I put the money in and got up, completely ignoring Matt’s protests.

It was a shame we came in one car, I didn’t want to be around him for one more second. I survived this, I survived him coming to my home, but now it had to be done. Now I had to start the forgetting.

I had made it outside of the restaurant, two steps to be precise, when I felt Matt’s large hand engulf mine. He pulled me to his body and pushed us both against the wall around the corner. His face was probably too close to mine, his body was definitely too close.

“Tell me you don’t feel it Sara, tell me, and I will walk away. Just like that. But I need you to say it out loud, because your eyes tell me everything I want to hear.”

Notes

My oh my those men.... and the girls, well, they have no defenses huh?

Thank you all so much for reading and leaving such beautiful comments! You guys are the best! <3