"James!" I heard coming from the staircase. I knew I should have gotten Jamie up but I didn't really want to. Not yet. "James, Sadie Harrison is at the door!"

Suddenly, the desire not to wake Jamie up was replaced with shock and concern, and my eyes widened when I realized what had been said. Sadie was at the door? How long had we been asleep? All night, I noted, as I could see sunlight streaming in through the window and lighting the whole room up. The whole previous day came flashing back to me, and I groaned heavily. I'd slept the whole night on Jamie's couch? With Jamie? There was no way that anyone would believe that it was as innocent as it was, either. But...what really mattered was that Jamie and I knew...right? I lifted my head and looked over at Jamie, seeing him still sleeping and poked him in the side. "Jamie?"

With a groan and a stretch, Jamie's brown eyes opened and he looked at me. "Oh...um...hi, Aubrey. Oh. Oh man. Did we sleep all night?" he asked as he noted the sun streaming in through the window and squinted.

I chuckled and nodded a little. "And now your nana is calling from downstairs...Sadie's at the door..." I said, getting up and rifling through my bags for some clothes, though my hair looked like someone had run over it with a lawnmower, and I realized then that there was no way to cover this up.

Jamie laughed and shook his head. "Well isn't this great. I'm probably going to get lectured for preying on her friend who's new in town and God knows a Sadie Harrison lecture is about as fun as dental surgery..." he rolled his eyes.

I smirked at the comparison and shook my head no. "Jamie, I won't let her kill you, okay? You basically saved me from freezing to death, because she forgot to leave me keys, and you showed me a really, really good time, so she has no right to be mad," I stood and grabbed some of my bags. "And if I know Sadie, which I do, I can make her way less mad," I said, grabbing a piece of paper from the front of my bag and taking a second to write my cell number down, setting it on the table.

He smiled again and ran a hand through his mess of hair, straightening it out a little. "I save your life, you save mine?" he asked with a huge grin on his face.

I laughed and nodded in agreement. "Something like that. We can be like the modern day Superman and Wonder Woman. Only we're far better looking..." I shoved him with my shoulder and watched as he picked up a couple of my bags, too.

He laughed in response to my joke and nodded. "Well, we'll have to do this again sometime, though. Well, I mean, not the whole 'you almost freezing to death' part or the 'getting hit by slush courtesy of a speeding car' thing, but the rest of it..." he blushed. And God was it ever precious. "If you want to, anyway."

"Definitely," I told him, watching as his grin grew exponentially. "Maybe I can have you over to the Harrison's on a night when they're all at G Major."

He smirked. "So, basically, any night?"

"Yeah, basically..." I started down the stairs, him close behind. "I can, like, cook you dinner and we can rent a couple movies and relax..." I offered, watching as he nodded. I turned my head to where Sadie stood in the doorway, a suspicious look on her face, which I combated with a foreboding one. "Thanks for the stew last night, Nana Andrews..." I told her with a smile, putting my bags down to shake her hand.

She smiled back and nodded her head. "You're welcome here anytime, just like the Harrison girls, Aubrey," she took my hand and put her other hand on my upper arm.

"Thank you," I smiled, then looked over at Sadie. "Shall we? I'm dying to see what the inside of the Harrison house looks like..." I turned and looked at Jamie. "Call me anytime, Jamie. I left my cell number on the table upstairs..." I watched him nod and followed Sadie out the door, closing it behind me.

She gave me that same look again, and I rolled my eyes, listening to what she had to say. "I have to say, I didn't expect to find you in your pajamas at Jamie Andrews' house..." she said, breaking out into a smirk. "I have to know. Did you?"

I scoffed, though I hadn't expected any less from Sadie. "No. We didn't!" I said as I dragged my suitcase up the front walk to Sadie's house. "You didn't leave a key, so Jamie asked me over for supper and let me stay until you came home. We kind of hung out and talked. Just so happens we fell asleep watching a movie..." I smirked. I wouldn't tell her that I fell asleep leaned against him.

With a smirk still on her face, Sadie grabbed a key from her pocket. "I had this made for you yesterday, I just forgot about it, though I guess, for your sake, that's a good thing..." she winked. "However," she waited to open the door, turning and looking at me. "You have to...be really careful talking about this around Jude because...she gets really jealous when someone dates one of her exes..."

I raised an eyebrow and looked over at Jamie's house. "Even Jamie? I mean, he told me about their short lived not-even-relationships, and the way I see it, Jude...has no right to get mad, there..." I shrugged and watched Sadie nod. "Possessive, much?"

Sadie tilted her head and shrugged a shoulder. "Well, she and Jamie aren't on the best terms, so I mean, she might be upset that he'll talk to you and probably not her...though I don't entirely blame him for it," she told me as she opened the door. "Doesn't matter. Just be careful..."

"Where's Jude right now, anyway? I mean, does she know that I stayed at Jamie's?" I asked, looking around and noticing that there was no sign of Jude anywhere.

Sadie chuckled and shook her head. "You lucked out, my friend," she said as she set my bags by the door. "I think she stayed at Tommy's last night," she backed up a couple steps and looked around. "And now, Aubrey, welcome home..."

I looked around at the modest front hall and the less-than-modest living room with a plasma TV and all the accessories, and from there I could see the kitchen and an open door leading to a bathroom. Sadie started talking about a grand tour, and leading me around the house, but I wasn't really even paying attention. All I could think of was that the great Jude Harrison would hate me if she found out that I'd spent an innocent night talking to her former lover and former best friend who she had no interest in whatsoever. So because of the great time I'd had yesterday, I'd placed myself in the midst of a war zone, if I was found out. The question here was, did I think Jamie was worth it.

And the answer was a resounding yes.

After showing me around the house, Sadie and I finally got to the guest room, which was to be my room, and started unpacking my clothes into the dresser. "So, tell me one thing."

I turned and looked at her, expecting a question about Jamie. "Tell you one thing? Okay. I'm deathly afraid of clowns to the point where my parents could never take me to the circus when I was little..." I said, noting the look that she was giving me. "Not enough?" I quipped. "Okay then...I was in a house fire when I was ten and a firefighter had to chop down a wall to get me out..."

"Really?" she raised an eyebrow and looked back to my bag, pulling out the formerly soaking wet jeans I'd been wearing the previous day. "What, exactly, happened at Jamie's?" she asked, holding them up and showing that a part of them were bleached from the salt on the ground.

I sighed at the fact that I'd have to buy a new pair of jeans, considering those had been my favorites. But that was probably the only bad thing to come out of that night, so I had no right to complain. "Well," I raised a shoulder in a shrug. "Like I said, I was mere seconds from becoming solid ice on the front porch, and Jamie hollered over from his front yard and asked me if I was a stalker. I said no, he invited me in, I met his nana, we ate supper, he showed me around his place, we went for a walk, watched a movie and fell asleep," I told her. "Nothing scandalous or anything."

"Scandal? Jamie? Ha, yeah, I didn't expect that anyway..." Sadie quipped. "Jamie is about as clean cut as the day is long..."

I grinned a little. A clean cut nice guy? Just what I needed to combat the sleazes and idiots that I dated in Iowa. Not that Jamie and I were going to date or anything...but if we did? I totally wouldn't object to it. I grabbed a couple of shirts from the bag, folded them and put them away. "Scandal free is good."

"Do you like him?" Sadie asked me, a smirk coming across her face as she pulled a skirt from my suitcase. "I'm borrowing this, by the way, it's perfect for work."

I smirked and nodded at her about the skirt...and about Jamie. "Yeah..." I bit my lip. "I mean, like, I don't know him well, but he made what was supposed to be a really, really bad night...into what was possibly the best night ever..." I smiled, thinking of the time we spent on the couch in his den, and how...good it felt to be nuzzled against him.

Continuing to dig through my things, Sadie's grin grew and her lips pursed a bit. "Never took you for the type to go for nerds," she paused, looking at the blouse that went with the skirt that she'd seen. "Borrowing this too. I'm so glad you're my size."

I smiled a bit more when she mentioned 'nerds,' and shrugged my shoulders. "Jamie's sweet. Trustworthy. I like that he...I don't know. I just like him. He's really, really nice. And gorgeous..."

Sadie stifled a laugh. "Cute?" she stared at me like I had two heads. "To each their own, I guess," she stuck her tongue out. "Like I said...just be careful about Jude."

"Be careful about Jude what?" I heard coming from the door.

Sadie and I both turned to see Jude standing there with a smile on her face, and I bit my lip, trying to think on my feet about something, but thankfully, Sadie had me covered. "When you say you can cook? She has to be careful because I seem to remember a certain blonde rock star giving me food poisoning and making me mess a week or so of work."

Jude scoffed a little and took a couple steps into the room. "She's never going to let me live that one down," she said, giving me an up and down look and extending her hand. "Jude Harrison," she introduced herself.

I smiled thankfully at Sadie, then looked over at Jude, extending my hand, too. "Aubrey McDermott. Nice to meet you. And don't worry, I give everyone's cooking a fair shot. I cook myself, so...yeah," I shrugged.

"So, you can alternate with Kwest!" Jude said excitedly, then looked at Sadie. "Speaking of, he's gonna be running late. And I'm not here long, I just wanted to drop in and meet my new roommate..." she said with a smile in my direction. "Tommy's picking me up and we're going to Vancouver for the week to this couples spa Darius recommended and I have to go pack..."

Sadie smirked. "Oh to be famous. All right. Well then go ahead and pack and come get us when you leave and we can walk you to the car and stuff..." she told Jude, who smiled and headed out of the room, toward her room.

Biting my lip, I smirked. A whole week with Jude out in Vancouver, half of a country's length away? Meaning I could as much time with Jamie as I wanted this week, without worry of repercussion. Sadie gave me a smirk, because it seemed she knew what I was thinking, and nodded her head. What a way to start my time in Toronto. Now all I needed was a job.