The following morning, Amanda awoke to bright sunlight streaming through the window and scrunched her eyes tighter at the unwanted intrusion, but then realizing that it was no use, finally opened them. She let out a tiny gasp as it took a moment in her half-awake state to remember where she was. She smiled then as she turned to Lee's still-sleeping form beside her and it all came flooding back to her with vivid clarity. She'd finally gotten him to see her, really see her, and boy, had he ever. She slipped out of bed, fumbling for her discarded panties and pulled them on, then found one of his shirts that had been haphazardly flung over the chair in the corner and wrapped it around herself, doing up the buttons one by one as she recalled each moment of the night before.

She paused for a moment to gaze lovingly at his sleeping form and bent to lightly run her fingers through his fine hair. So much for his claim of being a light sleeper, she mused. To be fair, they had been up pretty late due to their activities of the night before. Her body gave a slight shudder as she recalled each detail in vivid color as she padded barefoot through the double doors leading to the living room. "Oh my gosh," she half-chuckled when she saw the mess they'd made of his apartment in their haste to be together. She bent to return the coffee table to its upright position and picked up the coffee cups. "Coffee," she nodded firmly as she picked up the remainder of the coffee service, piled it all onto the serving tray and carried it into his kitchen.

She was grateful that she'd been here enough times that she knew where everything was and couldn't help giggling a bit that just yesterday, she'd helped him prepare coffee for Joe, never knowing at the time what that would lead to. "Joe!" she stated with alarm as she realized that she'd never called home to let anyone know that she wouldn't be there. Her mother must think that she'd spent the night with Joe since she'd left the house with him.

She finished setting the coffee to brew and hurried back to the living room where the phone still lay on the floor off its cradle. She picked up the handset, wedging it against her shoulder and reached for the cradle, depressing the switch hook in attempt to get a dial tone since it had been off the hook for so long. Nothing. She looked at it strangely, pressed it again, still nothing. She was about to check to make sure they hadn't accidentally unplugged it from the wall when she heard the booming voice of her boss.

"Scarecrow? What the hell is going on? I've been trying to get you on the phone for an hour." Billy's voice questioned.

Amanda quickly slammed the handset down onto the cradle and began gathering up her discarded clothing. Hearing Billy's voice had been like a cold dose of reality. What had she been thinking last night in being so impulsive, throwing herself at Lee and inviting herself home with him? How would this affect their working relationship? What would happen if it got around the office that playboy Scarecrow had finally bedded the wholesome housewife? Then there was Francine...she'd eat something like this up with a spoon.

Having pulled her pants on and her shoes, she searched frantically for her bra. "Where the hell is it?" she muttered, blouse in hand. She jumped and let out a little squeal when she heard the phone ring. She halted in her search for her missing bra, hastily pulled Lee's shirt off, replacing it with her own blouse, snatched up her sweater and her purse that were left by the door and hurried out.

"Amanda?" Lee called blearily as he entered the room in search of her, having been awakened by the phone. Looking around and not seeing her, he called again, "Amanda?" He let out a deep sigh when he realized that he was alone in the apartment and hastened for the ringing phone, thinking it might be her. "Amanda," he said into the phone. "Oh, Billy, hi...wrong? No, nothing's wrong," he lied. "I...uh...I just thought you were Amanda." He sank down forlornly onto his sofa as he tried hard to listen to the reason for Billy's call as he thought about just how wrong everything was.

What had he done wrong? Had he scared her by telling her he loved her? Was it too soon? He thought she felt the same way, but as he reflected back on the prior evening's events, he didn't remember hearing her ever say the words, "I love you." Yes, she had said she'd wanted him for a long time. She'd pretty much made that fact obvious in her exuberance when they were making love. She wanted him, great, but so did a lot of women. Even though he only had eyes for her these days, that still didn't make him blind to the way women looked at him as if undressing him with their eyes.

"I've wanted this, wanted you," her words came back to haunt him. Was that all it was? Did she even see it as making love? It had seemed so when she'd pleaded with him to make love to her, but was that said that way just in the heat of the moment? If it wasn't, then why did she leave without so much as a goodbye?

"Yeah, Billy, give me an hour to shower and get dressed and I'll be right there," he told his boss when Billy had finished explaining to him what was going on. If Amanda had still been there with him, he'd have told Billy to find someone else, but now throwing himself into work was just what he needed to get his mind off of her.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

On her cab ride back to Dooley's to get her car and all the way back to Arlington, Amanda's thoughts were in a whirl. Last night had been...amazing, to say the least and hearing Lee tell her that he loved her was equally amazing. Now, though...now she had her doubts. Had he meant it? Had he just said it because he felt he had to since they'd been so intimate? How would he look at her now? She cringed a little as she remembered the state of his living room. They hadn't even properly closed the front door in their hurry to make it to his bedroom and she'd been so...so...brazen about what she wanted from him, more than she ever had been in her life.

What kind of woman would he think she was now? She couldn't help wondering what he must be thinking of her. With the way she'd behaved last night, she imagined it would be easy for him to think of her as just another one of his "black book" girls. She shook her head. "No," she argued with herself. He knew her well enough to know better than to think that about her...didn't he? She pondered going back to talk to him just to clear the air, but by the time she had that thought, she was already halfway across the Key Bridge and she knew she would need to face the music with her mother for not calling too. No, it was better to just go straight home, deal with her mother first, and call Lee later. That would give them some cooling-off time and give them both some time to think about where they should go from here. After all, her family hadn't even met him yet.

She pulled into her driveway and shut the engine off, taking a deep breath to steel herself for the interrogation she knew was going to come as soon as she came face to face with her mother. She just hoped that it was early enough that her mother wasn't up yet so she could put it off for just a little while longer. She crept in through the French doors, taking her shoes off as soon as she was inside, carrying them on the off chance that her mother was up, so as to make as little noise as possible. She had just reached the landing at the bottom of the staircase, breathing a sigh of relief that she had missed her mother.

"Hold it right there, Missy," Dotty's scolding voice sounded behind her making her jump just like the ringing of the phone at Lee's place had.

Busted, she grimaced and feeling much like she had when she was a teenager caught sneaking in late, turned to face her mother. "Mother, I can explain."