NOTE-

This fic is a little unkind to Dillon in order to facilitate the Milo and Lulu romance. I do feel bad about that but the story had to be told this way to work.

I still like Dillon and the idea of Dilu but I am enchanted by Milo's sweetness too.

I have written eleven chapters of this. I am not sure if I will write more beyond the eleven chapters, that could be the end or just a new turning point for Milo and Lulu.

Even though the first half of the first chapter is Dilu this is a Milo and Lulu romance story all the way. Though it is very angst filled.

It is not a follow up to Road Trip, so Milo and Lulu have never kissed as the story starts.

Chapter One

MARCH 2007

It didn't really start off pretty. Lulu loving Dillon, that is. She thought he was IT. It for her, it forever. And the Spencer in her said that for it you need to fight. So Lulu got down and dirty, sunk to her lowest, and tried to get that boy's heart.

Lulu felt she had gotten close. But laying here now, naked in his bed, on a crisp March morning she wanted to be more than almost the one he wanted to spend his life with.

Dillon woke up, smiling. "You're still here?"

"I should have gone?" she asked, unsure.

"No, no. It's just the family can't know..." Dillon's voice trailed off.

She searched his eyes but, as usual, couldn't decipher what he was truly feeling.

They couldn't blame alcohol on why they fell into bed together last night. The moment before they kissed they were just hanging out in his room talking about her mother. Tears were in her eyes as she confessed her fears about losing her own mind one day, falling into a black hole where no one could ever reach her again.

Lulu had said, "I don't want to end up alone. I've been so damn lonely all my life already."

And then his lips met hers. Maybe it was pity or friendship but in a few seconds it became an unquenchable heat that overtook them both. The idea that he still wanted her, after all that happened with their baby that would never be born, it made her lose her breath, made her feel worthy for once.

But now Lulu couldn't help wondering if anything had changed for Dillon. Or if last night was just a vacation from his real life, from his real love, from Georgie.

She sat up in bed now, pulling the sheet over herself. "Was this a one time thing?"

Dillon grinned, then ran a hand up and under the sheet. "I wouldn't mind it happening again."

Her heart filled with hope. She couldn't help it. For so long, he had been the one she wanted to call her own.

Dillon started to pull her back down and into his embrace.

"Will you end things with Georgie?"

His eyes changed, going from lust to confusion. "I..um...you know.."

She pushed away as she waited for a better explanation.

He cleared his throat. "I hadn't thought about that yet."

Lulu nodded.

For a moment she simply thought about every moment she knew Dillon. In her mind she played the scenes like a movie, in black and white, the best kind of flick in Dillon's opinion.

She asked him, "Remember when we stood on that bridge out on Fuller Lane? That night last summer? When we still weren't sure about what to do about...do you remember that?"

"Sure. You wondered away from that party and I followed you."

Lulu cupped his face, loving that she could caress him, could look in his beautiful eyes. "Meet me there tonight at midnight. After you tell Georgie about us.."

He shot her a look that said, Don't do this.

Lulu swallowed, wanting to take her words back but knowing she needed this, " If you don't tell Georgie today and end it with her for good then we can't be... anything, Dillon. Ever again. I don't do second string for anyone."

She climbed out of bed and left him there, speechless.

XXXXXXX

That afternoon she worked her shift at Kelly's.

Around six pm, her face broke into a huge grin as Milo walked in. Every night he took his dinner there, always having the same thing, a bacon burger with cheese fries and coffee that Lulu would refill at least three times.

"Hey, stranger," she said joking "I haven't seen you in like..." she glanced at the clock on the wall "twenty three hours."

"Hello, Lulu." his words were formal, a little stiff.

But his face was as lit up as hers. And the tender way he said her name took her breath away.

He sat at the counter and she poured his drink.

Ever since Christmastime, when she was stuck at Greystone for a day as a near prisoner, Lulu and Milo had started to become friends. When he ate at Kelly's she would gab at him about her life.

He didn't say much, just smiled and tried to be there for her. Every once in a while he would say something that made the hurt she was feeling disappear, or made the confusion she had suddenly become clear. Lulu wasn't sure how he did this. All she knew was she had come to rely on him.

"Something's different about you..." Milo said, marveling at the way she glowed even more than usual.

He couldn't take his eyes off her.

She leaned across the counter and whispered, "It happened. Me and Dillon. Or it could be happening is how I should put it, I guess. Can you believe it, Milo?"

There was a time Lulu thought Milo might ask her out. And she had tried to encourage him. But it never happened and they fell into a friendship.

One day Lulu spilled the whole story about her love for Dillon and now Milo was her sounding board for her feelings.

Most times she vowed to forget about the Quatermaine heir, but other times she just wanted Dillon to chose her. Maybe it was only to prove a point, that he would, that she was worth it. But Lulu desperately ached for Dillon to not be able to walk away from her so easily.

Milo blinked rapidly, trying in school his expression to not show how devastated he felt.

All he managed to choke out was, "Oh, yeah?

Lulu scooted around the counter and sat next to him.

"You would be proud of me. I told Dillon that the only way we can be together is if he ends things with Georgie by midnight. He's going to meet me at Fuller's bridge when it's done."

"You're sure this is what you want?"

Lulu studied him.

There was that look in his eye again, that one that made her think maybe Milo wanted to be with her. But Lulu put that off to wishful thinking on her part. If he wanted her he surely would had said so by now, she believed.

"I know Dillon and me were a disaster the first time around but..."

A shrill female voice interrupted Lulu, "You sure as hell were! But you would be with anyone. You're not the kind of girl a guy sticks with, not for more than one night."

They turned to see Maxie smirking at them.

"Vanilla latte." Maxie snapped her fingers. "Hop Hop, little Lulu."

Lulu glared at her but didn't' say a word.

Mike had warned both her and Georgie about making scenes at the diner. The last time Maxie snarked at her Lulu had shoved the blonde's face into a fresh apple pie and then Maxie threw a milkshake at Lulu.

When Lulu was in the kitchen making the latte Milo said to Maxie, "You're a first class bitch. You know that, right?"

Maxie's mouth dropped. "How dare you! Well I never..."

Milo raised his hand in a stopping motion. "Don't even finish that sentence. There isn't any low you can convince me you haven't sunk to. Leave Lulu alone. Or ..."

"Or?" Maxie challenged. "You know damn well who my father is. Don't mess with me!"

Milo leaned close to her and whispered, "Your daddy hasn't solved a mob murder in fifteen years. Don't you mess with me. Or Lulu."

Maxie paled. Then turned on her heel and stormed out.

Milo smiled, silently thinking Sonny for teaching him, by example, how to play the bad ass when needed.

Only with Lulu could he never find the right words to say what he felt.

She returned with a tray containing his dinner and the latte. "Where'd she go? Upstairs to stalk my brother?"

"No, Maxie decided that she wasn't thirsty after all. I don't think she'll be back in here for a while."

Lulu smiled, making his heart flip flop, "What did you do?"

"Me? What would I do?"

"Milo," she drug his name out. God, he loved when she did that. "You chased her off, didn't you? My protector. What would I ever do without a buddy like you?"

Buddy. The word was like cold water being thrown on him.

He concentrated on eating his food while Lulu worked. A while later, while she as clearing a table, Georgie and Dillon walked in, laughing and joking with each other.

Lulu watched them, for signs something had changed, but they looked as happy as ever.

Her heart sunk. She turned and her eyes connected with Milo. Silently, just through his look, he kept her steady, told her not to give up hope, to keep having faith in herself.

And because he was there, she didn't cry or cause a scene, instead she walked calmly back to the counter and started to wipe it down.

Dillon would tell Georgie soon. Last night had to mean something to him, the way she bared her soul, her body, her heart to him... she couldn't have done all that and still not be the one Dillon wanted.

"Some more coffee please?" Milo asked.

She thought he just loved the stuff, since he could drink so much of it at one time, but the truth was it was a good way to prolong his stay at the restaurant.

"For you, Milo, anything."

The sweet way she said the words, so simple yet they seemed to hold a deeper layer of meaning, made his heart expand, made him love her a little more today than yesterday.

And tomorrow, Milo knew, he would only love her more than today.

Coming up in next chapter- Lulu waits on the bridge and her future is changed.