Ducking her head, Brenna ran out from Kate’s apartment building to the parking lot. It had been drizzling all day but now it was pouring rain and the short time it took her to get to the car was long enough to soak her.

She pushed the bags of clothes that Kate had bought for Justin into the backseat and then got into the front seat and closed the door with a slam. She sighed and leaned her head against the headrest, closing her eyes.

Her day had been a little hectic. She had woken up late for her appointment at the bank and had rushed to get ready. When she had gone to start her car, it had made a grinding noise and that was it. Justin had let her take one of his cars and she had been trying to get used to driving it all day. The entire day had seemed to go behind schedule and it had completely stressed her out. It was nine o’clock and now that she had picked up the clothes from Kate, she was ready to go home and relax.

She had just pulled out of the parking lot when her cell phone rang. Reaching into her purse, she pulled it out.

“Hello?”

“Hey. You left the receipt for one of those shirts here,” Kate’s voice came over the line.

Brenna wrinkled her nose. “Ugh…I’ll get it later. I don’t want to turn around. Just one?”

“Yeah. It must have fallen out from the bag. It’s not that important but I thought you might wonder where it was.”

“Yeah, I would have. Thanks.”

“How are the roads?”

“Not good. Everyone’s going really slow.”

“Well I’ll let you get off the phone so you can concentrate on driving.”

“Okay. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Sure. Bye.”

“Bye.” Brenna slipped her phone back into her purse and then looked back at the road. By time she was nearing Justin’s house, she was tired of driving behind overly cautious people and just wanted to get home. The street she was on was now empty except for one car behind her and she increased her speed as well as put her windshield wipers to a higher level as the rain fell harder.

She was so distracted by the rain that she almost missed the turn onto Justin’s street. She hit her brakes and jerked the steering wheel to the left to make the turn.

Time seemed to stop as the car tried to turn but ended up skidding across the wet pavement. A small scream escaped her and she shut her eyes tightly as the car hit something solid and came to an abrupt stop. She jerked forward against her seatbelt and then back again as the car stopped, leaving the only sound the rain hitting the roof.

Her breath was coming out in short gasps as she opened her eyes and saw that she had hit a tree and the car was up over the curb. She sat there for a minute, trying to steady her heart rate.

Gulping in a breath, she undid her seatbelt and slowly got out of the car. The rain soaked her as she walked to the front of the car. She squeezed her eyes shut as she saw that the tree trunk had crunched the hood of the car up. A bit of glass was near the tire, from what she assumed was the headlight.

“Are you alright?”

She turned and saw an older man coming towards her. She hadn’t even noticed him stopping his car. She pushed her wet hair away form her face. “I-I’m okay,” she said, her voice shaking a bit.

“I saw you skid,” he said, coming to the front of the car. “You really hit this tree. You’re sure you’re alright?”

She nodded slowly. “Just a little shook up. Do you think the car’s okay to drive?”

“Do you live near here?”

She nodded.

“The engine’s still running. I’m sure you can. Would you like me to follow you there?”

“No, that’s okay,” she said softly. “I’m okay. I can get there.”

The man pulled out his wallet and handed her a card. “My phone number’s on there. Just in case you need anything.”

She took it from him and put it in her pocket. “Thank you.” She got back into her car as he ran back to his.

Her hands were shaking as she put the car into reverse and backed the car back onto the street. The breath she let out as she began the drive up the street resulted in a sob and she felt tears begin to fall as reality set in. This wasn’t even her car and she had just gotten into an accident. What was Justin going to say when he saw his car?

The road blurred in front of her as her tears kept felling and she desperately tried to control them, knowing she was just going to get into another accident if she didn’t.

She let herself really cry once she had parked the car in the garage and turned off the engine. She sat there for a minute before wiping her eyes and getting out of the car. She went into the house.

“Justin?” she called out, her voice shaking.

“Yeah,” she heard him yell. She heard footsteps and a minute later he appeared in the hallway. He immediately took in her form.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, coming over to her.

“I got into an accident,” she said, a few more tears falling.

He paled a bit. “Are you okay?”

She nodded and wiped her tears away from her cheeks.

“What happened?”

“I tried to turn and the car slid and hit a tree.”

“You’re okay?” he asked again.

She nodded. “But the car…” her voice faltered out.

He put on his shoes. “Let’s see what it looks like.”

She followed him into the garage and he went over to the car. She felt tears begin to fall again as he examined the front of the car, rubbing the back of his neck slowly.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered after a minute. “I’ll pay for it.”

He turned back to her. “It’s not your fault, Bren. Don’t worry about it,” he said, coming over to hug her. She gratefully let him fold her into his arms, needing the comfort. He rubbed his hands over her back. “It’s not even that bad.”

“Yes it is,” she choked out.

“I’ve seen worse,” he replied. “I’ll take it in tomorrow and get it fixed.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It doesn’t matter. As long as you’re okay that’s all that matters. You didn’t hit your head or anything?”

She shook her head. “No.”

He pulled back and brought his hands up to her face to wipe away her tears. “Come on, let’s go inside.” He took her hand and she followed him inside the house. “Hey, why don’t you go have a bath or take a shower or something. I’ll call my car guy and see what he thinks.”

She slowly nodded. “Okay.”

He kissed the top of her head and then went to the kitchen. She went upstairs and into the bathroom. Stripping off her wet clothes, she stepped into the shower. She was cold from the rain but after standing under the hot water for five minutes, she had warmed up.

Once in her room, she put on her pajamas and then got into bed. It was only ten, but her crying had exhausted her. She curled onto her side and sighed as she closed her eyes.

She had only been laying there for a few minutes when there was a soft knock on her door. “Yeah?” she asked, rolling onto her back.

The door opened and Justin came in. He walked over to her bed and sat down on the edge of it.

“I called Ken and I’m going to bring the car into the shop tomorrow,” he said. “And he also said your car is done.”

“Okay.”

“Are you going to bed?”

She nodded.

His fingers lingered on her cheeks. “Want some company? I can sleep in here tonight.”

“Okay,” she whispered.

“Alright. I’m just gonna go change.” He leaned down and kissed her quickly and then got up. She watched him leave her room and then she turned back onto her side. A moment later she heard her door open again and then some cold air hit her as Justin lifted the blankets and crawled into bed behind her. He spooned his body behind her s and slid one arm around her stomach.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” he said, kissing her head.

“Me too.”

He sighed slightly and ran his fingers over her stomach. “I love you, Bren.”

She opened her eyes at his words and turned to her other side to face him. She looked at his face in the dark. “You do?”

“Mm hmm. I don’t know why it took me so long to tell you that.”

She smiled and moved her arms around him. “I love you too.”

He leaned forward and kissed her softly and then moved his head down to her neck, burying it there. She closed her eyes again, a warm feeling filling her. Even though her day had been horrible, it had just taken those three words from him to fill her with happiness.

“You just made my day so much better,” she said.

He pulled his head back and smiled. “Good,” he said, kissing her. He moved his lips just far enough away to mumble, “Always glad to be of service.”

“So why do you keep all these books anyways?” Brenna asked a week later as she put a couple psychology books into a box. “Can’t you sell them?”

“I could and I probably should but I wanted to keep them in case I ever go back to school and I need to brush up on it,” Drew said, dumping the contents of a drawer into a box.

“They’re pretty expensive, right?”

“Oh yeah. I should sell them and get some money back but I’m kind of a packrat.”

Brenna smiled as she looked around the room and surveyed the mess on the floor. “Yeah, I can tell.” She closed the flaps of the box and sealed it with some packing tape. “You know, most people take the opportunity to throw out a lot of their worthless stuff when they move.”

“I’m moving like two blocks away and I’ll have more space than I do now so I have more space to put all this stuff.”

“Until you get even more stuff and have to find a place for it.”

Drew smiled. “Whatever. I’m not getting rid of anything. I might need it one day.”

“I really don’t think you’re ever gonna need the entire collection of Hardy Boy books,” she said, pulling a stack of the books from his bookshelf.

“Shut up,” he laughed. “Those were my favorite books when I was a kid.”

“Which was what-fifteen years ago?”

He rolled his eyes. “Why are you here again?”

She smiled brightly. “Because no one else will help you pack?”

“Oh yeah.” He sat at his desk and flipped through a stack of papers. “Hey, I was meaning to ask you how that golf thing went with Justin.”

“Really good. He went on Saturday. He had a really good time.”

“Cool. That was a good idea for a present.”

“Yeah but now I have to think up something for his birthday. It’s in like two weeks.”

“Can’t help you there. I’m no good at thinking up presents. I usually stick to gift certificates.”

“I can’t do that. That’s too boring.”

“Yep.” Drew dumped the papers in a box. “So you have no PA stuff to do today?”

“Nope. There’s not a lot going on right now. Justin’s going to start recording for a new album sometime in February and so right now he wanted some time off.” She sealed another box and then filling another. The next hour was spent packing and before long, everything was in boxes. Getting up from the floor, she sat on his bed.

“Ugh, I forgot how much packing can take out of you,” she said, laying on her back and staring up at the ceiling.

Drew sat down on the bed as well. “Yeah, I hate moving. And unpacking. It always takes me months to actually get everything unpacked.”

“Me too. But you know that.”

He laughed. “Yeah. I remember helping you do all that unpacking that one day. That took forever.”

“And I’m not even a packrat. Just think of how much longer it’s going to take you to unpack.”

He groaned and laid beside her. “Well you have to help me cause I helped you unpack.”

“Oh joy. That sounds like a fun day.”

He smiled. “Oh it will be. A full day of unpacking all my crap.”

She closed her eyes. “Perfect.”

“I’ll make Kate and Tyler help this time. It’ll be fun.”

“Mm hmm.”

“Thanks for helping me today though. It was fun hanging out again. It feels like forever since we’ve hung out.”

“Yeah.”

“Maybe it’s just cause we used to be together all the time.”

“Probably.”

“I remember how me and you and Kate and Tyler used to have those movie night. Those were a lot of fun.”

“Yeah.” She smiled at the memory. She was about to suggest that they all do that again when she felt a pair of lips gently press against hers. Her eyes snapped open in shock and she jerked her head back into the mattress. Drew immediately pulled back.

Brenna scrambled into a sitting position. “What are you doing?” she whispered.

“Shit, Bren. I’m so sorry.”

She stared at him and didn’t say anything.

“I’m so sorry,” he repeated. “I was just remembering old times and I wasn’t thinking.”

She slowly stood up. “I should go.”

“Please don’t hate me, Bren. I’m so sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”

She picked up her bag. “It’s okay,” she said softly. “I should still go though. It’s getting close to five.”

Drew followed her to the front door and neither said anything as she slipped on her shoes.

“I’m really sorry,” he said again as she opened the door.

“It’s okay,” she repeated. “I’ll talk to you later.”

“Bye, Bren.”

She left his apartment complex and got into her car. Resting her head on the steering wheel, she shut her eyes. What had just happened? She had thought things between her and Drew were purely on a friendship level.

Justin suddenly popped into her mind and she swallowed hard. She had to tell him but how? She knew he would freak out and be mad.

“You’ve really made things complicated, Drew,” she moaned as she lifted her head and started her car.

The drive back to Justin’s house felt long as she tried to sort out everything in her head. She was relieved when she found Justin’s car not in the garage, still needing more time to figure out everything.

She went into the kitchen and found a message on the answering machine from her mother asking her to call.

Good, she though as she picked up the phone and dialed the number to her house in Shelby Forest. I could use some advice right about now.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Mom.”

“Oh good, Brenna. I’ve been waiting for you to call. I was just about to try your cell phone.”

“I’m glad you called. I have to ask you about something.”

“Before you do, Sweetie, I need to tell you something.”

“Okay.”

“Maybe you should be sitting down…”