“Oooh, what are you eating?” Kate asked as she came into the house.

“Ginger beef,” Brenna replied, closing the door behind her friend.

“Is Justin here?”

“No, he’s at the studio still. I didn’t feel like cooking anything so I ordered in. There’s extra if you want it.”

“Sure.” Kate followed her to the kitchen. “So I have a big favor to ask you.”

Brenan grabbed another pair of chopsticks and handed them to Kate. “What?”

“Drew’s coming to LA for a few days next week and he wants to go for lunch with me and Tyler. And it’ll be really awkward if it’s just the three of us since I haven’t talked to Tyler since we bumped into him. So do you think you and Justin if he wants could come with me?”

“Um…okay. If you want.”

“I mean, you’d have to get Justin to agree to it but I bet you could convince him.”

“Why would I need to convince him?”

Kate made a face. “Drew and Justin don’t always get along.”

“Why?”

“Has Justin really never mentioned anything to do with Drew?”

“You’re the only one who’s ever mentioned him.”

“It’s kind of complicated. They just don’t get along great. But it’s just lunch. Just try and get Justin to agree.”

“I’ll try.”

Kate stayed for a couple hours before leaving to go home. Brenna cleaned up the kitchen and then went upstairs to her bedroom. She was washing her face when she heard the front door slam shut and footsteps on the stairs. A moment later, Justin appeared in the bedroom doorway.

“Hey.”

“Hi.” She leaned down to splash some water on her face and when she raised her head, Justin handed her a face towel. “Thanks,” she said as she took it from him and patted her face dry.

“So we finally finished the song,” Justin said, leaning against the doorframe. “That’s probably one of the longest times it’s ever taken to get a song done. I have a copy if you want to listen to it later.”

“Sure.”

“What did you do for supper?”

“I ordered some Chinese food. I got extra but Kate came over for a bit and ate the rest of it.”

He shrugged. “I ate at the studio. Kate was here?”

“Just for a couple hours. She left like twenty minutes ago.” Reaching into the medicine cabinet, Brenna grabbed some lotion and began to rub it into her face. “She wants us to go to lunch with her next week.”

“Okay.”

“But, um, she said that it was also with Drew and Tyler.”

Justin’s facial expression changed. “I thought that Drew was in Chicago or something.”

“She said he’s visiting for a couple days.”

“And since when do Kate and Tyler hang out?”

“They don’t and that’s why she wants us to come with her. She thinks it’ll be awkward if it’s just her, Drew, and Tyler.”

He sighed. “Fine. Whatever. I’ll go.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “So Kate told you about Drew then.”

“She told me that Drew and I dated for a few months when I first moved here.” She looked over at Justin. “And that apparently you don’t like him.”

“Nope,” Justin said simply. “That’s all she told you?”

“Yeah.” She bit her bottom lip. “So…why don’t you like him?”

“I don’t really want to talk about it, Brenna,” he said, straightening and shoving his hands in the front pockets of his jeans.

She turned to him. “But we can go for the lunch?”

He sighed. “Yeah, we can go.” He turned to go back into the bedroom and she followed him.

“Can I hear the song?” she asked.

Justin’s face seemed to brighten a bit. “Yeah.” He went over to the stereo in the room and put a cd in. Brenna sat down on the edge of the bed as the song started playing. Halfway through the song, Justin climbed on the bed, kneeling behind her. She jumped when she felt his hands on her shoulders.

“Relax,” he chuckled, giving her shoulders a squeeze. “You’re so tense.”

She felt butterflies in her stomach as Justin’s hands deftly massaged her shoulders. He really had amazing hands and it felt so good. She could feel herself becoming more relaxed as his thumbs moved in circles at the base of her neck.

“So? What do you think?”

She opened her eyes. “What?”

“About the song.”

She realized the song had ended. “Oh, it’s good. I really like it.”

“Cool. In a couple weeks we’ll release it for radio.”

She leaned back slightly, more into his body. His hands moved from her shoulders to slide down her arms to where her hands were resting in her lap. She turned her head to look at him.

“So you don’t have to go into the studio tomorrow?”

“Nope.” One of his hands moved up to her face to cup her cheek and he leaned his face in to kiss her. The kiss was kept innocent but it was enough to cause the butterflies to return. When he pulled back, she couldn’t stop herself from leaning in again. Justin didn’t deny her and he shifted closer to her as they kissed again.

This time the kiss was more intense and Brenna froze when she felt Justin’s tongue flicker across her lips. His hand caressing her cheek relaxed her though and she found herself giving into him and opening her mouth. He deepened the kiss and threaded his hand through her hair. She sighed into his mouth and leaned into him.

It became too much after a moment and she pulled her head away. She could feel that Justin was moving too fast; making one move too many. She knew he was used to being able to go a lot further, but for her, this was all new and she wanted to take it slow.

Her breathing was quick when she pulled her lips away from his and she could feel her cheeks going red. Justin’s hand slid from her hair and down to the mattress.

“Why are you blushing?” he asked softly.

She shrugged and turned her head to the side. They were both quiet for a minute.

“Were you getting ready for bed?” he finally asked.

“Yeah. I’m tired.”

“It’s so early though.”

“I didn’t sleep very well last night.”

“Okay.” He pulled back from her. “I’m gonna call Trace to make sure we’re still on for golfing tomorrow morning.”

She nodded and ran her hands over her pajama pants as Justin stood up. She watched him leave the room and then took a deep breath to calm her still turning stomach. Her eyes moved down as she rubbed her hand across her stomach and she stared at the small, but growing bump. Her mind wandered to what her life must have been like before the accident and how different things would have been if the accident had never happened.

With a sigh, Brenna let her hand drop to her lap. She sat there for another minute before slowly standing, turning off the light in the room, and getting into bed.

“We’re going to be late,” Brenna said, biting on her thumb nail as she stared out the car window.

“I’m going as fast as I can, Brenna. I can’t help that there’s traffic.”

“I know,” she sighed. “We should have left sooner.”

Justin didn’t say anything and she went back to looking out the window. The car was silent for a minute until Brenna’s cell phone began to ring. She reached into her purse and pulled it out.

“Hello?”

“Hey. Where are you guys?”

“Like five minutes away.”

“You’re late.”

Brenna smiled a bit at the obvious pout in Kate’s voice. “I know. We left the house late. We’ll be there as quick as we can.”

“Hurry. Drew and Tyler are here and it’s so awkward with just us three.”

“Are you with them right now?”

Kate laughed slightly. “I wouldn’t be saying it was awkward if they could hear. I told them I’d come to the front of the restaurant to see if you guys were here.”

“Tell her we’ll be two minutes,” Justin said, looking over at her.

“We’ll be-”

“Yeah, I heard him,” Kate cut her off. “Is he going to be civil with Drew?”

Brenna glanced over at Justin. “I don’t know. Maybe if I knew what had happened…”

“I’ll tell you later. Not now though. Okay. I’m going to go back to the table. We’re near the back.”

“Okay. We’ll find you guys.”

“See you in a bit.”

Brenna hung up her phone and placed it back in her purse. A moment later they were pulling into the parking lot of the restaurant they were eating at. Justin parked and they both got out of the car. He picked up her hand and intertwined her fingers with hers as they walked to the restaurant. She smiled over at him as they entered the front doors.

“She said they were in the back of the restaurant,” she said, once they were inside.

“Yeah, I see them.” Justin pulled her through the restaurant and she soon spotted Kate sitting at a table with two guys. She recognized Tyler from their previous brief encounter and she concluded that the other guy was Drew. He did look vaguely familiar, but she figured she had seen him in one of the photo albums she had looked through over the past couple months. She bit her lip as she stared at him. He was extremely good looking. Almost the epitome of tall, dark, and handsome.

All three stood up as she and Justin approached. Kate looked relieved and Tyler and Drew looked slightly apprehensive.

“Hey,” Kate greeted them. “You’re here.”

Brenna gave her a small smile, a little nervous. “Yeah. Finally.”

“So….um, Bren, you remember Tyler. And this is Drew obviously.”

Drew smiled. “Hey. It’s really good to see you again.”

She returned the smile, although it wasn’t genuine. “Hi.”

“It’s good to see you too, Justin,” Drew said, extending his hand towards Justin.

Justin gave Drew’s hand a short shake, never letting go of Brenna’s hand. “You too,” he said, his smile looking a little forced.

There was an awkward silence that was eventually broken by Tyler.

“So should we sit?”

Brenna followed everyone else and sat down at the table beside Justin. The conversation didn’t get off to an easy start but eventually it wasn’t so uncomfortable. Brenna listened intently to Tyler and Drew as they talked, eager to see if anything they said sparked any memories. As time progressed, she began to notice that Justin was hardly talking which was unusual for him. It was almost making her feel uncomfortable because she was so used to him being really involved in any conversation.

They had been enjoying the food for a while when Kate pushed back her chair.

“I’m going to the washroom,” she announced. She looked at Brenna and Brenna caught her look.

“Me too,” she said, standing up.

“Can you guys ever go by yourself?” Drew asked. “What the hell do you do in there?”

“Talk about you,” Kate replied, picking up her purse. “Come on, Bren.”

Brenna cast a small smile at the guys and then followed Kate across the restaurant to the bathroom.

“I actually do have to go,” Brenna said, going into one of the stalls. “You would not believe how much I’ve had to pee lately.”

Kate didn’t respond and when Brenna opened the stall door, she jumped when she found Kate on the other side of the door. “Why are you-”

“I think it’s time to stop the bullshit and actually let you in on the Drew thing.”

“Okay,” Brenna said, moving to the sink.

“Because it’s obvious Justin’s not having a good time out there and you should know what’s going on just so you don’t say anything that would make things uncomfortable.”

“Okay,” Brenna said again, turning on the water in the sink.

Kate leaned against the other sink. “Okay. Well you know you and Drew dated for a few months when you first moved here and then he broke up with you cause he thought you guys weren’t suited for each other. So then you and Justin started going out and you and Drew stayed friends.”

This was all what Brenna knew already. “Uh huh,” she said, rinsing the soap off her hands.

“Well that whole idea that you can’t stay friends after you break up with a guy? Turns out that’s true cause a month after you and Justin started going out, you were with Drew and he kissed you.”

Brenna winced a bit as she dried her hands.

“And later, you and Justin were having some issues and he found out and it caused a few extra problems between you guys. And ever since then, Justin hasn’t really been interested in being friendly with Drew.”

“But it’s been years since then, hasn’t it? And it’s still so tense?”

“Well…yeah. Cause it didn’t just end there.” Kate sighed and ran a hand through her hair. “You and Drew still stayed friends even though Justin never liked it. It probably wouldn’t have been so bad if it had just stayed at being friends.”

Brenna’s stomach sank. She may not have remembered her past, but she was sure she wouldn’t have ever cheated on Justin. She stared at Kate, waiting for her to continue.

“Drew dated occasionally once you guys broke up but there was never anything serious. And he began to talk to me about you all the time. He told me that he had never gotten over you and he still had pretty strong feelings for you. But you and Justin were happy together and I told him to drop it. But Drew’s a stubborn idiot and one day he comes over to your house and tells you that he’s in love with you.”

Brenna’s eyebrows drew together. “He did?”

Kate nodded. “And of course, Justin finds out and he, um, got in a bit of a fight with Drew.”

“A fight?”

“He went to the studio where Drew worked and punched him in the face.”

Brenna bit her lip. “Oh.”

“You got super mad when you found out and made Justin apologize. And Drew apologized for saying all of that to you. But Justin’s never gotten over it and to be perfectly honest, I’m pretty sure Drew’s never gotten over you.”

“And…me and Drew were still friends after that?”

“Yeah, kind of. It was awkward for a while but you guys still talked. That’s probably the one thing that you and Justin have ever been at odds about-Drew. Drew was one of your first friends in LA and you’ve always wanted to stay friends with him and Justin’s never liked him since Drew kissed you. It hasn’t been so bad lately because Drew’s in Chicago now.

“Is this all for real? This sounds like a soap opera or something.”

“Oh, it’s for real. It’s just a huge amount of drama.”

“Why didn’t you tell me before?”

“It’s just so complicated. I hate getting into it. It takes forever. And speaking of that, we’ve left them alone out there for way too long. We should go back.”

“I thought you had to go to the bathroom.”

Kate waved her off. “I’m fine. Come on.”

Brenna followed her out of the bathroom and through the restaurant. Their table was silent and all three men looked up as they neared. Now knowing the whole story, she saw Drew in a different light.

“Long bathroom break,” Drew commented.

Kate shrugged and sat. “So?”

Brenna slipped into her seat and Justin looked over at her.

“Is everything okay?” he asked quietly.

She nodded. Suddenly she felt bad that she dragged him out for lunch with someone he really didn’t like. She should have found out the whole story before coming to the restaurant. “I’m fine,” she said with a small smile. “Kate just wanted to gossip.”

He smiled, the first genuine smile she had seen since they had sat down. “Well that’s nothing new.”

She laughed softly and looked over at Kate, who was talking to Drew. “I guess not.”