The next morning we stayed in bed for as long as possible, but eventually I knew I would have to go home and tend to my “children”.

I made it home just before noon and hurried inside my apartment to two resentful pets who for the last two nights had received the lesser of my attention, but the plan was to shower, get dressed, take Barney out for a run around the park and then come back home and spend the rest of the day with them while enjoying a spot of lazy Sunday baking.

The hot water did a good job, freshening me up and I desperately needed to wash my hair.

When I was finished, I switched off the water and slipped on my robe, hurrying out of the bathroom before I had fastened the waist band and into my room to get dressed.

I opened my bedside draw and fished around for a pair of underwear and a bra when I heard Barney’s collar jangling behind me.

“One more minute Barney boy, I’m just getting dressed.”

“Ro rurry-“

I screamed and spun around to where Justin as standing in my bedroom doorway with Barney held up in front of his face imitating a Scooby-Doo voice.

First I closed my robe and then clutched my hands tightly over my heart feeling it pound as I stood gasping for the air that fear had knocked out of me.

Justin lowered Barney to reveal his face as fear slowly began to give way to annoyance.

“How did you get in here,” I squealed securing the waistband around me as quickly as possible which now seemed unnecessary, given our activities of Friday night.

“You left your front door unlocked, you really need to be more careful, any psycho could have gotten in here,” he said coolly, dropping my dog on my bed and plunking down beside him.

I gave him a look.

“Well evidently a psycho did get in here.’

“Hey, hey, hey, don’t be like that.”

“You could have knocked.”

“’Course I could have, but then I wouldn’t have seen your naked, wet body.”

I sighed trying to appear un-phased and slipping on some underwear whilst trying to protect my modesty which oddly, I was now concerned with maintaining.

“Yeah…about that,” I began sitting at the foot of the bed as far away from him as possible.

“We don’t have to do the whole thing,” he assured me turning his head in my direction.

“Let’s just say we had a good time, leave it there and go back to where we were okay?” He said and it was music to my ears to hear him say that. Every now and then Justin was capable of being very considerate and understanding.

He held a hand out and we shook on it and I felt a lot better about it.

“So,” he sighed “what’s new?”

“Nothing much,” I shrugged standing from my bed and setting about getting dressed without exposing myself which wasn’t as easy a task as I thought.

“How was your date last night? Pretty good I guess, considering you didn't get home until midday today,” he said and I grinned.

“Yeah we had fun, Weezer was great,” I exclaimed raking through my closet until I found the dress I wanted to wear.

“Yeah I know Weezer is good, but how was your date? Is Andrew boyfriend material?”

“It’s Adrian and if you say it’s irrelevant, I’m going to punch you,” I grinned and shook my head.

Despite his obvious foibles Justin could be amazing sometimes too. He was genuinely interested in hearing about the goings on of me and my life and I sometimes felt like I was just talking to one of my girlfriends.

“You know, I think he is. He’s really sweet.”

“That’s good news Soph,” Justin replied distractedly.

I was too busy gushing about Adrian that I forgot all about the whole covering-up thing as I dropped my robe to put my dress on and because I didn’t see Justin’s head actually move, I wasn’t alerted to the fact that he was watching through my mirrored wardrobe.

I pretended not to notice and more importantly not to care busying myself instead by towel drying my hair when Barney proceed to catch the corner of my towel and start pulling.

“Hey, hey, hey give it back!” I exclaimed as he scampered out of my room and I was too lazy to chase him and decided my wet hair was good enough.

“So are you going to make cookies today or what? ‘cause if not there’s somewhere I have to be,” Justin asked opening my bedside drawers with his feet and sitting up to see what was inside.

“I was totally planning on baking today, but I don’t know if I wanna make cookies.”

I was unphased since there wasn’t really anything in there that could embarrass me.

He opened up body butters and smelled them and rubbed random hair products into his palms and worked them through his curly hair.

I sat back down on the bed and laid back staring at the ceiling, hearing him shuffle around inside my drawer.

“Where’s the good stuff,” he asked and I knew what that he was referring to the drawer which would contain the things I wanted to keep hidden.

“I don’t have good stuff,” I sighed.

“Why not?”

“I don’t know,” I shrugged wondering now, why I didn’t have at least a vibrator.

“How long have you been single for?”

“I don’t know, two years,” I estimated.

“What?” He sounded surprised and turned my head to look at him.

“Yeah…maybe more…but who’s counting,” I sighed.

“Why has it been so long? Bad break up?”

No…I guess I have just been too caught up at work to think about dating…in fact the only reason I found Adrian is because he works with me,” I shrugged.

“Is he your supervisor?” Justin asked with a cheeky grin and I snickered and shook my head.

“No he works in a different department.”

“Hmmm,” Justin said distractedly, finding a pair of black, lace underwear in the next drawer.

“You should wear these to the office…better yet, you should have worn them on Friday,” he said flinging them around his finger and I laughed.

“Don’t be creepy,” I chuckled as he flicked them over to me and got me in the face with them and I grabbed them off and threw them over my bed only to find he now had one of my bras on his head.

I watched him examining my under garments and smiled a little at his boyish curiosity.

“Nice,” he nodded with approval holding up a purple pair of French knickers.

“Are you having fun?”

“More than you will ever know, now if you don’t mind, I’d like to be left alone with these,” he said bunching the purple panties in his hand and slipping another pair in his pocket.

“Leave my underwear alone!” I exclaimed sitting up and he teased me with them, moving them around so that I couldn’t grab them.

“Here, take them…just take them,” He said holding his hands up and then switching hands behind his back and pretty soon I was chasing him around my room.

“Give them”

“No,” he said mischievously holding them above him had and there was no way I was going to reach them.

Barney barked from the bed as we shuffled around the room and I leapt into the air trying to win back the panties as he switched them from hand to hand, when suddenly he caught my face with his elbow.

It didn’t hurt a bit, but I stopped suddenly and put on my best shocked face, covering my nose with both hands and Justin gasped.

“Shit, Sophie are you okay?”

“Ow, yeah, I’m fine…fuck that really hurt,” I lied, wincing as he brought his hands down staring at me concerned.

“Here let me have a look,” he said reaching out to me and I took the opportunity to reach out and pull my underwear from his grasp as quickly as possible.

“Yoink! Thank you, I’ll take those back,” I grinned very pleased with myself as he sighed and cocked his head as I stepped past him to put my belongings back into my drawer.

“You know one day I’m not going to believe you,” he warned losing interest in the underwear once he didn’t have them anymore and sat back down on my bed.

Justin wasn’t really there for any particular reason. He just seemed to be hanging around.

I didn’t mind, but it wasn’t like him just to sit around in my bedroom without suggesting a movie or to go to his place to cook dinner or something.

He played with Barney on my bed and I watched him and couldn’t help but smile.

He was a sweet guy underneath all of that bravado and sarcasm.

One thing Barney hated was having his tail touched and not knowing this, Justin unwittingly grabbed his tail playfully causing Barney to snap at him, catching his finger with his teeth.

“Ow!” Justin withdrew his hand reactively and Barney immediately sunk down onto his belly, knowing he had done something wrong.

“Barney!” I exclaimed but Justin quickly chimed in.

“No, no don’t get upset at him it was my fault,” he said examining his knuckle which was bleeding a little.

“Here let me get some band-aids,” I said hurrying out of the room.

“No there’s not enough blood to bother, don’t worry about it,” he said but by the time he’d finished his sentence I was already in the bathroom collecting my first aid kit.

“Forget it, look it’s fine,” he said holding his hand up and there was only a drop of blood, but I was squeezing Polysporin out of the tube like his finger had been severed.

“Seriously, I can’t wear band-aids, I have a show later tonight and I can’t wear band-aids when I play,” he said and I finally relented with a sigh.

“Well at least put some of this on so it doesn’t get infected, dogs are dirty they lick themselves all day long and -“

‘Really I would say that makes them lucky!”

“I knew you’d say something like that,” I said rubbing a cotton pad with antibiotic ointment on his finger.

“You’re making the biggest deal out of nothing, okay, okay that’s enough.”

I turned to Barney and shook my head at him with a sigh.

“Aw leave the poor thing alone,” he said pulling the sheepish Beagle into his arms, “you didn’t mean it, did you buddy, huh? See, Look he still loves me, we’re still friends” he said as Barney licked the side of his face.

“Yeeeah, that’s a good dog,” he cooed giving him one last pat before setting him back down on the bed and continuing to pat the length of his body steering clear this time of his tail.

We fell silent for a while but it wasn’t an uncomfortable quietness that we felt we needed to fill.

“By the way, if I haven’t already said so, I’m really happy for you that things are working out with Adrian…he seems a decent guy.” He said lying across my bed beside me and we lay facing each other.

I was lost for words for a moment.

I’d never heard him sound quite so sincere. Maybe even a little envious.

I smiled at him and softly pinched his side.

“Thanks Timberlake.”

We sat for a long time staring at each other until finally Justin couldn’t hold it any longer.

“You know what’s coming right?”

“Of course I do.”

“I have to ask.”

“Don’t”

“Come on I need to know-“

“No you don’t.”

“Sophie, honestly, it kept me up last night.”

“Then your priorities need some re-evaluating.”

“Just say “yes” or “no” come on”

“I’m not telling you who is better in bed!”

“If you don’t tell me then I’m just going to have to make the assumption that I’m the better lover and you’re not comfortable with admitting it since you’re now in a relationship.”

“Whatever gets you through the night,” I shrugged nonchalantly and he sighed.

Now, every time he stared at me with those light blue eyes with the fire behind them my heart quickened a little and I looked down at my hands.

“Either that or you don’t want to hurt my feelings.”

I collapsed onto my back with a sigh.

“Guilting me won’t work either.”

“Oh come on! What’s the big deal?”

“Justin, its like if I asked you if I was the best lover you’ve had out of all the women you’ve slept with.”

“Do you want to know, I’ll tell you! I don’t care.”

“Tell me then.”

“No you tell me first!”

“No.”

“Then I’m not telling you.”

“Fine,” I shrugged and we both fell silent for a while longer.

I wished he hadn’t said that he would tell me, because though I wasn’t naïve enough to be hopeful, I was now curious.

In fact it seemed so unlikely that I would have rated with him, that it didn’t even cross my mind.

“Top ten?” I asked quietly turning to look over at him.

He simply shrugged and smiled a little to himself.

“See you’re thinking about it now.”

“Yeah but I’m not going to lose sleep over it and besides, it’s not a fair comparison to make, your odds of having been the best lover I’ve ever had are a lot more favorable than mine. I’ve only slept with about five guys in whole life, you pull those kind of numbers on a weekend.”

“Okay, I’ll tell you if you were in my top five, if you tell me if I was in your top three,” he negotiated and after taking a second to do the math to make sure I wasn’t being conned, I agreed.

“Okay fine.”

“Okay…was I in your top three?” He asked with a nod.

“No,” I said almost instantly and watched his eyebrows shoot up.

“Whoa, okay,” he said simply doing his best not to show any disappointment.

“I’m just kidding, yeah you were in my top three,” I said figuring he’d been tormented enough and he sighed.

“What’d you have to go and do somethin’ like that for?”

“Because you would do it me, now my turn. Am I in your top five?” I asked excitedly like we were playing some kind of truth or dare game.

“Yes.” He nodded coolly and I was pleasantly surprised.

“Wow, seriously?”

“Don’t sound so surprised,” he grinned and seemed kind of…nervous…relieved…I couldn’t tell.

“No I’m honored, really that’s…that’s good for the ego,” I sighed drawing my own conclusion from his demeanor that I was in his top three. Easy.

“You want the truth?” He said suddenly staring down at his hands and his tone made me nervous so I tried to make a joke.

“I can’t handle the truth.”

“Seriously,” he said with no hint of anything left on his face but pure sincerity.

I stayed quiet and waited for him to continue, wondering what could possibly have made him so serious all of a sudden.

“The truth is that…you’re right at the top of that list,” he said finally and my breath caught in my throat.

“More than that actually it’s hard to imagine that anyone will be knocking you off that perch any time soon, I quite honestly haven’t stopped thinking about it,” he said and suddenly I couldn’t feel my extremities.

Blood rushed to my face and painted my cheeks seven shades of embarrassed, but I quickly reminded myself that it didn’t matter because it was just sex and we’d never be in love.

I re-gathered my thoughts and looked up at him smiling.

“It was a pretty crazy night,” I said quietly, finally allowing myself to freely recall the night fondly.

He smiled thoughtfully then and nodded in agreement.

After a moment I sighed and propped myself up on my elbows.

“Okay so…” I began with trepidation and then needed a moment to figure out if I was going to say it.

“I really, really, really like Adrian, and I can see myself with him and…all that,” I said searching for the words and then when I looked up Justin blinked lazily as he listened intently.

“And he’s a great lover, but…you’re definitely the best I’ve had…also,” I said nervously. “You’re probably used to hearing that,” I snickered.

“Yeah, but it’s not all that often that I’ve really cared to hear it…that and I can tell you’re being sincere and not just telling me what I want to hear,” he said it appreciatively and we smiled at each other.

His eyes were fixed on me and it was making me nervous especially given the topic of conversation and I felt conflicted between feeling the lust I felt for Justin and the guilt I’d feel for betraying Adrian’s trust if I let that lust get the better of me yet again and I knew by the way he was looking at me that Justin was certainly to try.

His hand lifted off the bed and rested on my face and my body responded immediately remembering his rough touch.

“I really like Adrian,” I said but it was like throwing a pebble at an elephant.

“I know,” he said simply, his tone telling me that there were oceans between knowing and caring.

When he started to lean in, I panicked.

I couldn’t do it again.

He was just a centimeter or two away from my lips when I drew my neck back.

“What are you doing?” I asked, which was a stupid question, but it seemed to fit when I said it.

Justin lowered his hand and backed away with a sigh and awkward expression.

“Sorry…I thought I saw a cataract, your…pupils are really cloudy.”

Some air came out of my mouth and it was supposed to be a laugh but it sounded like a whale expelling air out of its blowhole.

“Wanna make brownies!” I blurted suddenly with more enthusiasm than was necessary and Justin sighed and scratched his dark blond mane of hair.

“Sure,” he sighed and he was less thrilled about my response, but I was already up off the bed and out of my bedroom to catch his disappointed expression.

As I hurried into the kitchen I shook my hands out nervously and clenched my eyes trying to pull myself together before he caught up.

I was pulling things out of my pantry that clearly didn’t go into brownies and I knew he was standing right behind me.

“Stop freaking out,” he said calmly.

“I’m not freaking out.”

“Yeah you are.”

“Well, why do you think? I’ve known you for a year and a half, and now, now that I actually have found someone I am interested in, you wanna get into my shorts? Too bad, you snooze you lose.”

“Well we don’t exactly get to pick the timing do we?” He asked opening my fridge to inspect its contents.

“No, but we do get to pick our actions,” I replied putting away the tins of beans I had taken out of cupboard out of nervousness.

“Well,” he said nonchalantly “do what you think is right. I’m not going to stand in the way of your choices,” he said picking out a plum from the fruit drawer and shutting the fridge before heading towards the door.

“Where are you going?” I asked looking over my shoulder.

“Home.”

“What about the brownies?”

“I don’t feel like it,” he said simply as he disappeared out of the room and a moment later I heard my front door shut.