I’m just getting out of my car when Trace stalks out of my house, slamming the front door behind him.

“Hey,” I say, shutting my car door. I take in the pissed off look on his face. “What’s up?”

“You know what Janice just said to me?” Trace asks me, his eyes dark with anger.

Oh no. Do I want to know what Janice said to him? “Uh, what?”

“She said I should think about losing some weight.”

Shit. “She probably-”

Trace cuts me off before I can go any further. “Forget it. I’m leaving.” He starts towards his car and reaches it before turning back to me. “She’s got a lot of nerve, Justin,” he says and then gets in and slams the door behind him.

I rub my temples with my fingers as he drives away and take a few deep breaths to clear my head before heading into the house.

“Janice?”

“Kitchen!”

I walk through the house to the kitchen. I stop in the doorway and lean my shoulder against the doorframe. Janice is sitting at the table, looking through a cookbook. She looks up at me and smiles.

“Hi.”

“What did you say to Trace?”

Her smile fades a notch and her eyes examine me. “From the look on your face I’d say he already told you.”

I fold my arms over my chest. “I want to hear you say it.”

She sighs and pushes back her chair. She doesn’t say anything as she stands and goes over to the sink to put her glass in. Finally, she turns to face me. “I said he could stand to lose ten pounds.”

“Why the hell would you say something like that?”

“Because I came in here and he’s pigging out on pizza and it’s eleven in the morning. Come on, Justin. He’s got a bit of a beer belly. I’m just looking out for his well being.”

Something’s telling me that’s not entirely true. “Give me a break, Janice. Trace is perfectly healthy and even if he wasn’t it’s not your place to tell him to lose weight. That was a rude and inconsiderate to say.”

A frown settles on her lips. “I wasn’t trying to be rude.”

“Yeah well I don’t think you were trying to be kind either.”

Her mouth goes from a frown to a pout and she walks over to me. “Don’t be mad at me, Justin,” she says. “I’m sorry.”

I don’t budge from my position as she slides her arms around my stomach. “You need to stop being rude to my friends. It’s really starting to piss me off.”

She laughs slightly. “Justin, it was one comment and I said I was sorry.”

“I want you to call Trace and tell him you’re sorry.”

I don’t miss the quick roll of her eyes. “Why? I’m sure he’s over it by now.”

“Call him.” I push her arms away from me. “Don’t bother talking to me until you do.”

She starts to protest but I’m already walking out of the kitchen. I don’t slow my pace until I’m upstairs in my bedroom. I lie down on my bed and put on my ipod. As music starts in my ear, I stare up at the ceiling.

Janice has this mean streak and although I’ve never directly experienced it, I know Trace and Laina have and that’s not cool with me. No one treats my friends like that, let alone my girlfriend. I’m not going to lose my friends because my girlfriend is a bitch to them.

I shut my eyes tightly. Lately I’m just not sure about the future of me and Janice. She’s exactly what I said I was looking for in a girlfriend but now that I have it, it’s kind of lost its appeal. She can be a little too high maintenance, even for me.

The bed dips under new weight and I open my eyes to see Janice. She moves into the middle of the bed where I am and curls against my side. I pull my headphones from my ears.

“Did you call Trace?” I ask.

She nods, one of her hands coming up to play with the hem of my shirt. “I told him I was sorry and I shouldn’t have said he needed to lose weight.”

I shut my eyes again. “Good.”

It’s silent for a moment and I feel her hand on the side of my face. I open my eyes again to look at her. She’s staring at me with sorrowful eyes.

“Don’t be mad at me, Justin.”

“You need to start thinking before you say things.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

I examine her eyes for a minute. I know I shouldn’t let it go too easily since she did offend my best friend but she does seem sorry and the slight quiver to her chin is starting to make me feel bad. After a minute I finally nod. “Okay.”

Her sad expression is replaced by a smile and she pulls herself up to lean over me. Her lips brush over mine and after a second I start to return her kiss. She said she was sorry and I’m going to leave it at that.

My shirt is pulled from my body before I know what’s happening and with half open eyes, I watch as she begins to kiss from my stomach to my chest. She pauses at my collarbone.

“I found a new recipe for vegetarian lasagna I’m going to make tonight,” she mumbles against my skin.

Shit, why are we talking about this now? “Uh huh,” I reply, trying to pull her back up to me.

Her lips trail from my shoulder to my neck. “I was thinking of going shopping before I make it though. Will you come with me?”

“Yeah, fine, whatever,” I say, desperate to end the conversation and finish what she started.

She begins to say something but before much can come out of her mouth, I cover it with mine and flip us over so I’m on top. She smiles up at me and loops her arms around my neck.

“Does this mean I’m forgiven?” she asks.

I lower my head to her neck and begin to kiss her soft skin. “Yep,” I mumble, hoping this will be the end of the talking for a while.

* * *

“Hey, man. Where you at?”

There’s a pause on the other end of the line before Trace responds. “Laina’s.”

“I’m gonna come over.”

“Janice with you?”

“No. I’ll be there in a few minutes.” Not giving him a chance to protest, I hang up the phone and drop it on my lap. Knowing him, he’s probably still a bit pissed with the whole Janice thing and may not want anything to do with me or her for at least a couple days. He’s gonna have to suck it up though. I’m bored and want to hang out.

I’m careful to grab all my stuff and set my car alarm when I park outside Laina’s apartment building. She lives in one of the sketchiest parts of LA and I’m always paranoid leaving my car there. I know she doesn’t make a lot of money, but she could probably afford to live in a slightly safer neighborhood. I couldn’t believe it when she first brought me to this place and showed me how she has six deadlock bolts on her door but only locks three so if someone were to try and break in, they wouldn’t know which were locked and which weren’t. Needless to say, when we were together, I almost always made sure we stayed at my house and not here.

Her apartment was actually the breaking point for our relationship. One day I told her I wanted to buy her a condo so she would be out of this neighborhood. The next day she called me and told me it would probably be best if we broke up and after a long talk I agreed with her. She hated depending on other people and I like having people depend on me. It was bound for disaster and it was best to just end it before things got nasty. It was the healthiest breakup I’ve ever had.

The apartment door isn’t even locked when I test the door and I shake my head as I open it. It’s like she doesn’t even value her safety.

I make sure to lock the door behind me and then step out of my shoes. I only have to take a few steps through the tiny apartment until I’m in the living room where the TV is playing.

Trace and Laina are laying on opposite sides of the ratty couch, their legs tangled in the middle and neither look away from the TV when I enter the room. The best greeting I get is from Horace, Laina’s boxer, whose tail thumps on the ground when he sees me. I squat down to pet him, cringing a bit at the stink coming from him. Laina really needs to get him in a bath.

“What are you guys watching?” I ask, sitting on the only other available spot, a large floral beanbag chair. My knees are practically touching my chin and I shift a bit, trying to get somewhat comfortable.

“It’s a weight loss show,” Trace says. “Laina and I both figure we could stand to lose some weight.”

He’s being good natured about it so I play along. “That’s what I hear.”

Laina gestures to the TV. “We’re just getting some tips to start us off.”

I shake my head a bit. “She did actually call and apologize, right? She didn’t just tell me that?”

“Oh, she called,” Trace says. “Said she was sorry and thought I’d like the advice.”

“I have yet to meet a person who wants to hear any advice involving their weight,” Laina says, stretching her arms over her head. “I guess when you’re a size zero you don’t get that though.”

I don’t comment. The issue of weight is not something I want to get into. I’ve had enough drama for the day. “What are you actually watching?”

“Animal planet,” Laina says. “Horace wanted to watch it.”

My eyes move to the dog, who has taken particular interest in me since I’m practically sitting on the floor. “He doesn’t seem interested.”

“That’s because it’s on commercials. Just wait until the segment about the pigeons comes on.”

I shift in the beanbag chair again. “Uh huh.”

“So where is she?” Trace asks, his eyes on the TV.

“Shopping. I was supposed to go but it didn’t sound too appealing.”

“Doesn’t she ever work? It’s four on a Wednesday afternoon.”

“She quit.”

Trace’s eyes move to me at those words. “She quit,” he repeats.

“Yeah. She quit her job at the real estate agency because she wants to pursue a career in interior design.” I don’t miss the look Laina and Trace share. “What?”

“Does she know anything about interior design?” Trace finally asks.

“How the hell would I know? It’s what she wants to do so she’s going to do it.” I’m sick of talking about Janice so I turn the conversation around on them. “Speaking of it being four on a Wednesday afternoon, why aren’t you at work, Lainey?”

She doesn’t lift her head from here its laying on the couch armrest. “One of the kids I’m working with got his court date moved up to today so it got canceled.”

“So you get the rest of the day off?” I ask. “Sweet deal.”

She nods and turns her attention back to the TV. I sigh and stretch my legs out in front of me. At my movement Horace gets up and comes over to me, pushing his face in my lap. I cringe a bit and push him.

“Horace, get off me,” I say. “You stink.”

Laina throws a pillow at me and turns on the couch to look in my direction. “Be nice. He smells like flowers.”

“I don’t know what kind of flowers you’re getting, Lainey, but he does NOT smell like flowers. You need to hose him down or something.”

She watches me for a second and then smiles. “He only smells cause he threw up this morning and then ate it.”

I jerk my hand away his face. “Shit!” I say and struggle to get out of the bean bag chair. After a few unsuccessful attempts, I’m up and I leave a laughing Trace and Laina and go to the bathroom to wash my hands.

“He got his stench on my shirt!” I say, coming out of the bathroom. “I can still smell it all over me.”

Laina stretches out her legs. “Oh come on.”

“Seriously! It’s disgusting. Do you have something I can change into?”

She stares at me for a second before nodding. “Yeah. I still have some of your old shirts here.” She jumps up from the couch. “Come on.”

I follow her into her bedroom and sit down on the edge of her bed. I watch as she opens her bottom dresser drawer and starts to rifle through it.

“Whatcha doing keeping some of my clothes, Lainey?” I ask. “Keeping them around so on the lonely nights you can wrap yourself in them and pretend I’m here with you?”

She doesn’t look back at me but I know she’s rolling her eyes. “Exactly that, J-star.” She straightens and tosses me a t shit I’ve been looking everywhere for. “Here.”

“Thanks.” I get up and pull off my shirt. I throw it to her, hitting her in the chin. “Be a doll and wash that for me, would you?”

She gives me a scathing look and kicks it back towards me. “You sure know how to charm a woman, don’t you, Justin.”

I shrug and shake out the shirt. “Hey, I got you, didn’t I?”

“Briefly.”

“I wouldn’t call eleven months brief,” I reply.

She shakes her head. “Those are some nice scratches there.”

My head jerks down and some embarrassment spreads through me when I see a couple scratches on my upper chest that Janice left. I don’t know why but I really don’t want her to know about my sex life. “Stop staring at my body, Lainey,” I say, covering up any embarrassment with an easy tone. “I know I’m irresistible but try to control yourself.”

She rolls her eyes and leans down to pick up my dirty shirt. “Do you actually need me to wash this?”

I laugh and take it from her. “I was kidding. Just give me a plastic bag to put it in so it doesn’t infect my car.”

“Insulting the smell of my dog is no way to get on my good side,” she says, turning to walk out her door. I catch up to her and throw my arm around her shoulders.

“I’ve never been on your bad side, Lainey. Who are you kidding.”

She opens her mouth to respond but is cut off by my phone ringing. I drop my arm from her shoulders and dig in my pocket for my cell. When I see Janice’s name on the caller ID, I put a bit of distance between Laina and I.

“Hey.”

“Hi. I’m done buying everything and I took a cab to my house. When do you want me come over and make dinner?”

I stifle a sigh. The last thing I want to be eating tonight is vegetarian lasagna. Especially after I heard Trace and Laina talking about ordering Mexican. “Uh…I think I’m gonna pass out on that tonight.”

“Why?”

Ugh, her voice is whiney. I hate whininess. “Because I’m with Trace and I want to hang out with him. We spent all afternoon together.”

“You said you wanted the lasagna though.”

I’m pretty sure I never said that but I don’t want to sit here and argue about it. “Tomorrow.”

There’s a long pause and then a sigh. “Fine.”

“Great. Talk to you later.”

“Bye.”

When I end the call, I look up to find both Trace and Laina staring at me.

“So invited yourself to dinner, did you?” Laina asks with a raised eyebrow.

“Vegetarian lasagna,” I say in response. “I can’t do it. Don’t make me suffer through vegetarian lasagna.”

Her face softens into a smile. “I’m not that cruel. But you’re buying.”

I smile throw her my wallet. “Order away.”