"So, make me understand this…" Addy says slowly, rolling the words around her tongue as she mulls over a thought in her head. "You hate attention but you're having a huge department store open especially for you at this time of night?"

Well, yeah, if she puts it that was it does sound kind of self-contradictory. I swear there's a good explanation.

"It's not exactly low key, I know, but if you'd ever tried to go shopping with him in the middle of the day you'd see it's the lesser evil." Rachael explains as she critically eyes up the goods on display. You can tell she's unimpressed, her nose wrinkles up a little. "If you're not being interrupted for autographs every five seconds you're being filmed on people's phones. At least this way we get some peace and quiet and nobody's recording our conversations."

This seems to satisfy Addy, because she gives a quick nod and says "fair enough" before her own nose scrunches up in distaste. "Eww, why would you?"

I look over her shoulder and see the necklace she's talking about. It is pretty hideous; it's a gem encrusted flower pendant of different colours. I expect those are all excellent gem specimens, hence the price tag, but really it's a waste of precious stones to me. It's butt ugly.

"More money than taste?" I offer.

"You'd have to be." She gives a little shudder as though it physically offends her, and I chuckle.

Hopefully this trip won't be too long; I'm buying something for Mom as a gift and figured I'd take advantage of having two sets of female eyes. Addy's surprisingly adept at it - of course she doesn't know Mom's taste but Rachael does and once set on the right track, she's pointed out some nice stuff. Now if only I weren't so damn indecisive, we could leave and get on our way to dinner.

"Besides, the other thing about Justin and these places is the worst thing he can do is go to the jewellery counter," Trace says with an evil grin. "They'll think he's buying a rock for somebody."

"Oh fuck don't." It's my turn to give a shiver of repulsion. Marriage is a beautiful thing and all but it scares the living shit out of me - and that would be even if I was with somebody I loved. The crap where I'm engaged to every girl I take on one date is stupid; if I'd really proposed every time the press said I had then I'd make Julia Roberts in The Runaway Bride pale in comparison. "They'd think I'd proposed to Alicia Faketits."

"You call her that too?" Even before she's taken another breath Addy's clapped a hand over her mouth and flushed pink. Trace is laughing his head off; clearly she didn't mean to speak that thought aloud.

"Yep," I say through barely suppressed chuckles. "You know I had like one picture taken with her and they thought that meant we were a couple. But she really is fake tits - I brushed up against one by accident and it was unnaturally firm."

"Accidentally on purpose, he means," Rachael says with a very nasal snort while tapping her finger on the glass over the top of a pretty cool looking studded cross with black stones in it. My mom's kind of a rock chick at heart, and this is nice enough that you could wear it with a bunch of stuff but still has a bit of edge to it. I'll keep that one in mind, unless she'd like earrings better… "He and Trace were debating her tits all the way over there in the car and I still maintain he was just trying to win the argument."

"It's not Trace's fault he ain't seen enough naked women to know the difference."

Justin?" Addy leans towards me with an evil grin. "You do realise that you totally backhanded yourself, right?"

"What?" I'm confused.

"Because while trying to insult Trace's prowess you just suggested you're enough of a slut to have seen enough breasts to compare."

God damn her, Trace is now doubled up pointing and laughing at me. Rachael let out a guffaw and is hiding her mouth behind her hand. If I didn't think she'd hit me, I'd have a great comeback about having definitely seen Addy's breasts; those were definitely natural. You can always tell because natural breasts have a little more droop to them and don't look so symmetrical. Fuck, I do sound like I'm a pervert who's been comparing too many boobs.

"Well, I'm pretty sure a lot of those *NSYNC groupies were too young to have tits yet."

"That's it," I fume. I can take a little joking about being a slut but not a statutory rapist, thank you very God damn much. I've always been about girls my own age or older, was never one for younger women. "You two jokers can go over there until I'm done. Assholes."

I don't care if that sounded like I'm a diva who thinks I can order them around. They're on particularly irritating form tonight and I think it's Addy's influence. She's always used sarcasm and irony as her ass backward form of affection in the time that I've known her, and once you get used to it just being the way a person is you can either take it or leave it. Kind of like if you date somebody who doesn't really say 'I love you' a lot but you get the message in other ways - I learn to take things the way people mean them rather than the way they might come off at first. Rach and Trace are not that way, however, they've just picked up on the fact that I'll let Addy do it and taken it as their excuse to follow suit. And it's a hell of a lot less cute on their lame asses.

Actually, Addy has kind of got away with murder this evening. She was supremely late, which usually annoys the shit out of me, she's been (as she puts it) 'ripping the piss' out of me for the last hour or so, and she has ganged up against me with Rachael and Trace far too readily. I'm starting to regret letting her anywhere near Rachael, in particular; but I was so damn pleased to see her looking more like Addy a la Adora that I'm letting her off the hook.

I opened the door and some redhead I assume is Lily answered. She went white (and given how pale she is it seems like a special feat that she could go any paler), called for Addy, and left me waiting by their door for the next ten minutes while she rushed off somewhere. Finally I had to wander up the stairs myself to try and hurry her up - I know Addy says Lily's dad is some mega bucks man or something, but I'll bet their apartment's a million, easy. For two young females it seems like a lot of space, but it's a nice place and very homey, lots of warm reds and browns everywhere.

It took me a few doors to find Addy's room, but finally I got an answer to my knock, opened the door and could have kissed the floor when I saw her. The hair was loose and wavy, the make up a little heavier than last summer but still pretty low key, and she was in the kind of little sundress she used to wear when we'd go out to dinner. Finally she looked like the girl I met last year again, and that made me pathetically happy. This whole big city fashion thing doesn't suit her, she looks so much better when she's in more casual stuff.

I also had to refrain from sniffing her when I gave her a hug. I wasn't being creepy, it's just she was wearing a scent that seemed very familiar but I couldn't place it. The smell wasn't strong enough, but in order to get a proper sniff I'd have had to put my face in her neck and that would cause boundary issues. I had to leave it, but it's going to bug the crap out of me until I remember what it is. I could just ask her, but that means admitting I smelled her. Whatever, it was a good smell and she looked good, like the girl I knew, and because of that I've been extraordinarily lenient with her making so much fun of me.

Okay, that's it, I'm getting that cross. Now, before I change my mind.

***

"I will never get used to LA's idea of organic." Addy is pushing her fork around her plate with the look of somebody who's not overly impressed with what she's had put in front of her.

"Snooty British lady looking down on we stupid colonials." Trace pokes his tongue out at her.

"Nah. If you'd tasted the food where she's from you'd understand," I clarify on her behalf. To be fair to the restaurant though, I had the same thing as Addy and it's a good two or three levels below the standard of their other dishes. We eat here a lot and this is the worst thing I've tasted here - and even then it's edible, just not really that good though. It had no chance when being compared to the standards of fresh caught fish and oranges freshly picked from the tree. Man, I really miss the food. More than I missed Addy, if I'm honest.

"I'm so going to have to check this place out, J was raving about it when he got back," Rachael says as she forks up some more of her risotto. It's goat cheese and roasted vegetables and it looks way better than the gloop passing for salmon mousse on my plate. I wonder how much of it I can eat under the guise of 'just trying some' before she works out what I'm doing?

"It has the most amazing beaches," Addy tells her as she picks up her wine and takes a sip. "The surf's good, they do have some of the tourist trappings but that's all the other side of the island from where I live. We have this great local market that does some great glass stuff, and the food's all grown locally. I don't know what their secret is but even their salads taste great instead of being the stuff you eat because you feel fat and guilty."

"Yeah, because you're so fat," I say sarcastically as I struggle to pinch very much of it on her hip at all. I can't see beneath her dress, but I think most of what I got was skin anyway. She is pretty skinny. "But yeah, Addy's house is right on the beachfront, the view is fantastic and she has this amazing little sun deck on the roof."

She shifts in her chair next to me, her lips slightly tugging at her expression. There's a wryness in her eyes that confuses me until I remember us having sneaky sex on the rooftop. I'd forgotten about that - mostly because there's no way in hell I could ever repeat such shenanigans on the continental US. There'd be pictures everywhere before you could say 'stalkerazzi.' It's a shame I'd forgotten about that actually, the other day I was asked about the most random place I've had sex and I struggled for an answer. A rooftop would have worked great for that.

"Spent a lot of time there, did we?" Trace gives a surreptitious waggle of his eyebrows, but if he's trying to embarrass anyone he's failed.

"Yep," I respond, matter of fact. "Her brother's surfboard at my disposal, gorgeous sunset views, pretty girl running around making me food… I'd be stupid not to."

"Doesn't that say it all, the attraction is that some eye candy makes good food," Rachael jokes.

"And great conversation," I add in her defence. "But yeah, really fuckin' awesome food. I still dream about that lemon chicken."

It's interesting to me that Addy's been nothing less than relaxed and comfortable with me and my friends this evening… until right this second when last summer started being discussed. She's turned into a fidget all of a sudden, twirling her fork and playing with her napkin. You might mistake it for boredom, if you didn't catch the awkward look on her face. This isn't somebody who's zoned out; this is somebody all too aware of what's being discussed. That's interesting to me, because throughout the whole time she was always much more emotionally detached than me. I wasn't exactly emotional myself, I was still happy to walk away at the end of the summer with no violins, strings attached or heartbreak, but she was even cooler about the whole thing than I was.

I liked that. I liked the fact that there was zero pressure or expectation. It was what it was and we didn't have to make anything bigger out of it. It wasn't some star crossed love affair; it was two people who meshed well together feeling an attraction and acting on it without all the drama. It had to end and it did, without sad goodbyes, recriminations or tears. In that respect it may have been the healthiest relationship I've ever had, despite its brevity.

And now I can sit here next to her, openly acknowledging the past and without feeling sore about it or ill at ease. I'm just surprised she isn't so comfortable with it.

Then, as if I imagined it entirely, she's recovered from the blip and giving a faux modest smile. "Thank you, thank you, yes I am awesome."

"So LA had to be kind of a culture shock then," Trace comments as he picks up a fry and chomps on it. Typical Trace, we bring him to a fancy restaurant and he orders steak while telling them not to bother with the béarnaise sauce and to give him ketchup and fries instead of sautéed potatoes or whatever suitable fancier thing came with them. Addy looked bemused, Rachael got that 'why do we take him anywhere' expression. Hell, I say let the man eat what he wants. If you give a crap what he's eating you probably need to remove the stick from your snooty ass.

"Understatement," Addy replies sardonically while spearing a green bean. Her arm brushes up against me as she does so and I get another whiff of that damn smell. Until I identify it, it will bug the crap out of me. I need to engineer a situation where I won't look weird for asking. "It's been crazy."

"Yeah, I remember when I got to Adora it was weird at night that I couldn't hear traffic or anything. I guess you had it the opposite way."

She nods emphatically at my comment. "Oh yeah, it was about two weeks before I got a decent night's sleep. But we had a pretty Spanish lifestyle over there, siestas and late dinners and all that. You guys keep to such a different schedule and you're all so much busier, pace wise it was kind of like going from the Dumbo kiddie ride to Space Mountain. And now I'm in an office job I realise how much I took school holidays for granted."

"Gee, I like the sound of this place, when can we go?" Trace says. I think he's about ninety percent joking.

"Well you're welcome at my house any time, so long as I can kick Antonio out."

"Oh, Antonio's there with Mike now?" I ask, curious.

She shakes her head. "Mike got that job in England, though it got a lot less fun for him since the credit crunch. Dante has his room."

"Oh, cool," I say. Rachael and Trace already have that blank uninterested expression that people get when they have no idea who you're talking about. It's not often I see that expression on either of them, since we pretty much have the exact same circle of friends.

Their boredom becomes evident once they get up and leave, uninterested in Addy filling me in on what I've missed in Adora for the past year. To give them their dues they managed about ten minutes, but then they saw somebody and took the excuse to make an exit for a while. I'm not too bothered about it; I'm drawn into Addy's tales of life back on the beach. She's not telling me anything all that exciting, it's just small talk, but I like picturing myself back on the beach and witnessing these events with her. If it wasn't obvious enough, I have a huge affection for Adora.

"But hey, that's nothing compared to all this." She waves a hand, indicating the restaurant. "Pop star. Our little island pales in comparison."

I can't help the grimace that crosses my face. "Yeah. You remember me telling you I was on Adora in the first place because my life sucked?"

"You mean that was true?" She says it almost idly, but it discomfits me a lot and I bristle. I'm kind of offended.

"Why wouldn't it be?"

She gives me a pointed look. "You have previous when it comes to lying."

"What?" That made no grammatical sense.

"British for saying you've done it before."

"Yeah, but that was all really minor stuff because I didn't want to be famous for a while," I dismiss that notion. "I might have changed the gift wrap but the package was still the same. Everything I told you was true, except that I made it into a banking analogy."

"Really…" She trails off into thought.

"What?" I wave a hand in front of her distant eyes, still a little annoyed. Even looking like she did last summer doesn't get her off the hook here.

"No, it's just… after I found out you lied, it really changed my perception of last summer and the time we spent together." Her fingers dig into her hair and scratch the scalp at the back of her head awkwardly.

"Hence why you were so pissed at me." "Yep. But… I don't know. I don't know what to make of it I suppose." Her shoulders shrug a little, and incongruously the thought pops into my head that she's less tan than she used to be. Clearly she spends too much time inside at her desk, because California's still pretty sunny.

"If it helps, I still view last summer as a very refreshing and mentally reinvigorating break from my life where I spent a good time with a great girl who didn't hang around me because I'm like, oh my God, Justin Timberlake." I mimic some of my zanier fans in falsetto and I get a small smirk for it. "It's refreshing for me to have something not be made five times bigger than it has to be just because I'm me. I get kind of nauseous with that after a while."

"Well…" She's still hesitating a little. "I guess it does explain a lot more about why you were so stressed. I mean, I'm fucking stressed living at this pace and I don't have people pointing cameras up my arse while I do it."

"Really?"

"Yeah. The pace is so hectic and my job's so insanely busy that I don't get two minutes in the day to think. I'm just not used to it yet, it really was a culture shock."

"So, you're not enjoying LA?" I ask with a sip of my water.

Again she pauses, before finally shaking her head. "Honestly, I don't know."

She doesn't know it, but I've just officially made it my duty to change that answer into a definite 'yes.' I just need to come up with some really cool things for us to do that won't cross professional boundaries while William Rast is working with Elena Suarez and won't get Addy into the papers as that girl I just spent all that money on at the jewellery counter.