The car ride back to LA was mostly silent.  Justin glanced over at Rylee from time to time, watching her sleep soundly in the seat next to him.  He smiled at her open mouth and the small snores that were coming from her direction.  He thought she looked adorable when she was sleeping.

The weekend had been amazing for the both of them.  Rylee had let go and relaxed for the first time since everything had happened, and Justin found himself falling even harder.  He was worried that going back to everything in LA might put a strain back on their relationship, but he was trying very hard not to think about all of that at the moment.  He just wanted to enjoy being with such a beautiful woman.

Justin was concerned about their living situation, because he didn’t think that he and Rylee were really ready for things to be that serious yet, but he certainly couldn’t ask her to leave when she had no other place to stay.  As much as he hated to admit it, Trace had a point about all of the time they would be spending together.

Not only were they dating and now living together, but Justin was still her boss, and if anything happened to go wrong between them it would probably affect their work and he didn’t want that to happen.

His plan was to help her look for something that she could afford without putting any pressure on her to leave.

She made a noise next to him, and he turned his head to see her hooded eyelids and a sleepy face.

“Hey you,” He reached over to rub her thigh before turning his attention back to the road ahead of him.

“How long was I out for?”  She sat up and stretched as best she could, her shirt riding up across her stomach.

“Just about the whole ride.  We’re only a few minutes away from home.”  He laughed when she grinned sheepishly at him.

“I told you that car rides make me sleepy.”

“It’s OK, Ry, it gave me some time to think.”

“Time to think?  Think about what?”  She shifted in the seat so she was turned in his direction.  A worried look settled on her face and he tried his best to give her a reassuring smile.

“About you.”  He licked his lips before grinning even wider.  “About how cute your snoring is.”

Rylee’s face instantly turned pink and she swatted at his arm.  “I don’t snore.”

The laugh that came out of Justin’s mouth made Rylee’s face grow even darker with embarrassment.

“Baby, you snore.”  He reached over and picked up her left hand, bringing her fingers to his lips.  “But I don’t mind, like I said, I think it’s cute.”

“What else were you thinking about?”  She pulled their hands down so they were resting on the console between them.  Her eyes inspected their intertwined fingers and the contrast made her smile a little.  Her hands were tiny; long and skinny fingers and small hands.  His were smooth but much more rugged that her own.  His skin was darker too and it made her look even paler that usual.  But there was a sort of strength in his hands that made her feel safe, even if they were just sitting together in the car.

“I was just thinking.  Nothing bad, I promise.”  He turned to smile at her and he hoped that she couldn’t see the lie in his eyes.  He wasn’t usually one to keep things from someone, but he knew that telling his worries to Rylee would only make her upset, and she didn’t need the stress.

“I’m going to start looking for an apartment tomorrow.  I was hoping you’d let me out of the studio early so I could check some places out in the afternoon.”

Justin’s eyes shifted to meet hers.  He nodded his head, giving her hand a small squeeze.

“Sure, you can have as much time as you need.  But there’s no rush, Rylee.  You’re always welcome to stay at my house.”

“But you’re worried that it’s going to put a strain on things.”  The look that Justin sent her way almost made her smile.  “It’s not hard to figure out, Justin.  It’s written on your face.  It’s OK, though, I worry about that too.  I really like you and I would hate for something like this to ruin things before they really have a chance to go somewhere.”

The smile that crossed his face was genuine and relieved.

“I don’t want to rush you, Ry.  Not at all, OK?”  He kissed her fingers again.  “I’m glad that you understand my concerns, though, that makes me feel better.”

“You can always tell me what you’re thinking Justin.  Chances are that I can usually tell anyway, I’ve always been really good at reading people.  Don’t think that you’re going to hurt me if you have something to tell me.  It hurts worse when I know you’re hiding something from me.”

Justin pulled the car into his driveway and shut off the engine before turning in his seat to capture Rylee’s lips in a deep kiss.  He pulled back and stared into her eyes before saying what had been on his mind the entire weekend.

“I love you, Rylee Jean.” 

Her eyes widened and she sat back a little, the shock clearly written on her face.

“I wasn’t sure until this weekend.  I knew that I had been falling for you, but watching you this weekend made it real for me, and I just can’t hold it in anymore.”  He watched her face for any signs other than shock, but it was hard to read her thoughts.

“I…”  She took a deep breath, closing her eyes and tilting her head back against the window behind her.  “I’m falling, Justin, I am.  I have been for a while now, but I’m too scared to think about being there yet.”  Her blue eyes opened to meet his and she was glad to see a soft smile on his face.  “I’m sorry.”

“No, no.  Don’t apologize, really.”  He leaned in to kiss her again, this time much more softly.  “You don’t have to say another word about it, OK?”  He smiled again when she nodded.  “Lets get inside and I’ll order something for dinner.”

~*~

Rylee sat on the couch and grabbed her lap top, logging into her e-mail for the first time since she and Justin had left for their trip.  She had decided that the weekend was for fun and relaxation, and reading e-mail would have to wait.

Unfortunately, there were a lot of people that had decided that this weekend was the time to get a hold of her.

“Holy shit, I have twelve new e-mails.  That’s ridiculous.”  Normally a number like that wouldn’t be surprising to Rylee, but this was her school e-mail account and not many people sent her things to this address.

Scrolling down the page she noticed that there were five new e-mails from her university, and suddenly she became worried.  Opening the first one, she felt the blood drain from her face as she started to read.

Apparently her advisor had looked through her records and realized that there were classes she was missing in order to graduate at the end of her internship.  Rylee had been told that the internship was the only thing she had left to complete her graduate studies course, but her advisor found three more classes that were mandatory for her degree.

The next e-mail was from the Administration of the university and her latest loan hadn’t gone through and she was in danger of being removed from their programs if she didn’t pay the bill.  Rylee let out a grunt of frustration and slammed her hands down on the couch next to her.  The loan company had told her that everything was all set and the money would be sent to the school before the due date.  There shouldn’t have been any issues, but the school was saying they didn’t get the money and she wasn’t sure why.

The last e-mail, and the one that really put Rylee over the edge, was one from her former land lord saying that she owed for the past two months rent.  Christina had told the land lord that Rylee was going to pay, and he was giving her a week to come up with the money.

Rylee wasn’t strapped for cash at all, but that was because Christina’s uncle had been paying their apartment rent so Rylee was able to save her money to pay for other things.  She had paid for grad school through loans because she didn’t have enough cash to cover it all, and she figured she could save up enough to pay back the loans after she graduated.

Now she was without a job (because internships didn’t pay, at least not this one) and she was suddenly hit with two major bills that she only had enough money to pay for one.

“Fuck!”

“What’s the matter?”  Justin’s voice sounded from behind the couch she was sitting on and Rylee jumped in her seat.  “Ry, what’s wrong?”  He noted the tears that were running down her cheeks and he moved around the couch to sit next to her.  He took the lap top off of her legs and set it on the coffee table before taking her in his arms and stroking her hair.

“What’s the matter, Ry?”

She struggled to calm herself down, but it wasn’t easy.

“I…” a hiccup interrupted her sentence so she took a few more seconds to catch her breath.  Justin ran his hands up and down her back, hoping to help calm her down.

“I just got letters from the university and one from my land lord.  Apparently I can’t graduate at the end of the semester unless I take three more classes, which I don’t have time to do now, and I own the school for this semester’s tuition because my load didn’t go through.”

She stopped there and Justin sat back so he could see her face.

“What did the other one say?”

“That I own for the last two months rent because Christina is refusing to pay and she told the land lord that it was my responsibility.”

“That bitch.”  Justin’s own anger bubbled inside of him.  He couldn’t believe the lengths that Christina was going just to get back at Rylee.  It was childish and stupid.

“She said that she was going to make me pay it, I just didn’t really believe her at the time.  I guess she’s still really pissed at me.”  A fresh wave of tears came over her and she buried her head into Justin’s shoulder.  “What am I going to do?  I don’t have the money to pay for school and the rent, and now I can’t graduate because those classes that I need.  I’ll have to pay for those too, and it’s going to take me another semester to complete everything because it’s too late to take the classes now.”

Justin listened as she rambled on and he tried his best to comfort her about it all. 

“We’ll think of something, Ry.  OK?  I can give you money, or something, and then we can figure everything out from there.”

“No, I’m not taking money from you.  I don’t want to have that hanging over us too.”  She shook her head adamantly and sat back a ways from Justin.

“Why?  I want to help you and I’ve got the money.  You can look at it as a bonus from the studio or something, or you can look at it as a loan and you can pay me back later.”

“No, absolutely not.”  She was starting to get heated.  On top of the emotions that she was already experiencing, Rylee knew that a break down was headed her way if she didn’t calm down soon.  She stood from the couch and started to leave the room.

“Rylee…”  Justin’s voice stopped her in the doorway.

“I don’t want to fight about it, Justin.  I need some time to cool off, OK?  I’m really upset right now and I don’t want to say something I shouldn’t.  Give me some space and we’ll talk about it later.”

Justin slumped back onto the couch when he heard the front door slam.  He ran his hands over his head and down his face, letting out a sigh of frustration.

“Shit.”

More stress that neither of them needed, and now she couldn’t talk to him because all he was doing was upsetting her.  So much for a relaxing weekend.