It became a routine. For months, they dated: restaurants, movies, walks in parks… Everything they could do together, they did. And Annabeth was so happy. She might even be falling in love with the interesting, handsome smart man Percy was. After a month, Percy asked her to be her girlfriend. Of course, she said yes. They were the perfect couple, everyone agreed on that. At her work, the girls were going crazy about Mr. Jackson and Annie, which made her laugh a lot. Also, the sex was great, best sex she's ever had, and she knew she could never go back to regular, vanilla sex. Percy and her couldn't keep their hands off each other. She was always exhausted in the morning when she to wake up for work, and to her great distress, everybody knew why.

Until one day, she noticed a pool sketch on her colleague's desk.

"Hey, Ashley, why are you still on the pool? I thought Percy – I mean, Mr. Jackson – was satisfied!"

Ashley went red, then pale.

"Well, yeah, but… You know…" she stuttered, "I just wanted to try some stuff out… I don't think we did everything we could…"

"Oh yeah, I must agree on that! I don't know how Percy accepted our proposal, but anyway… "she shrugged. "Actually, he never talks about the pool, I wonder how the construction goes… I'll ask him tonight "she smiled.

Ashley nodded awkwardly and left quickly, but Annabeth didn't notice the awkwardness, because she was on her little cloud since she was with Percy.

One Wednesday, she went to lunch with her friends, and realized she forgot her purse at her desk. She excused herself and left the other girls. When she entered the office, she was quite surprised to hear voices coming from Meyer's office, as it was lunch time. She was even more surprised to recognize, as she came closer, the two voices. Percy was here? Why would he be here? He's not working with the firm anymore. But if it was for her, why wouldn't he text or call her? There was definitely something odd going on here, and Annabeth didn't like not knowing. She carefully walked to her boss's door and put her ear against it. She could barely hear the conversation

"No, I understand, Mr. Jackson, but how long...?"

"John, we went through that. As long as Annabeth is here, she mustn't know I still work with you. It would compromise our relationship and I do not want that. Am I clear?"

Annabeth thought about kicking the door down and punching the both of them. She thought about all the ways she could kill them and get away with it. She nearly destroyed the glass walls to murder them. But she managed to contain her anger, and just walked away. Except this time, she didn't mind making noise with her heels. She meant to.

Percy stopped mid conversation. He heard a noise. It was lunchtime, nobody was supposed to be here. It was probably just a stupid assistant who forgot her money, but he still wanted to be sure. He went to open the door, and, in the corridor, he saw Annabeth walking away. There was so much anger in those steps, it could only mean one thing: she knew. That also meant he was in big trouble. Damn it! He ran after her and grabbed her arm. When he crossed her eyes, he regretted everything he had done: she was going to kill him. To be fair, he intended to confess his stupid actions when the pool was done, but obviously, he had to play plan B.

"Blondie I finally find you! This stupid John didn't want me to disturb you, but I am so glad you're here! I wanted to take you on a… a lunch date! How great would that be, uh?"

Annabeth's eyes threw literal lightning bolts at him. He shuddered.

"No need, Jackson. I heard everything. Go away before I murder you with a stapler."

And she turned away. She was terrifying, and Percy was finding that so hot. He shook his head. Now was definitely not the time for that. Okay, plan C: confessing and hoping she could forgive.

"I screwed up! He screamed. I know I did! And honestly, I didn't mean to. I just wanted to be with you, Blondie!"

She turned around, still looking like and Ice Queen ready to freeze him on spot.

"There were other ways, Jackson. You could have waited for the pool to be done. That would have been reasonable. Actually, that's what anyone would have done. But no, you had to play with me. And take down everyone with you. All my colleagues are going to think I'm a fool. And maybe I am. After all, I fell for a fraud."

Her voice was so calm it broke Percy's heart. He didn't think this little lie would hurt her. He thought she would find it cute, it proved he was ready to do anything to be with her. And that was the case. That's when he realized something very important.

"Annabeth, you don't understand. I love you. I couldn't stay away from you. I couldn't be reasonable, because that's what love does to you. It makes you silly. You think it's all a joke to me? It's not. I didn't think you'd be mad because I thought it'd make you realize how much I care about you. How passionate I am."

Suddenly, little "aww"s brought him back to reality and he noticed Annabeth's friends at the door, watching them. He didn't even notice them, and he didn't care. They were witnesses. She couldn't murder him with witnesses around. He finally dared looking at her, and what he saw broke his heart even more.

Annabeth was crying. Not the ugly sobbing when you just got dumped, no. she was to classy for that. Tears were running down her cheeks, but her lips were still. She was gorgeous. Her chin was soaked, and her cheeks were red, but she didn't break.

"Do you even know what you're saying? What impact your words have on me? You can't just make a love declaration when you're in trouble because of yourself. That's not how a relationship works. A loving relationship is based on trust and communication" she said. "When you get that, we can talk."

And she left the office. Leaving him alone and stunned, in the middle of an expecting audience. He felt like a zebra in front of lions: he had to run away as fast as possible.

Annabeth was outraged. She knew the lie wasn't a big deal. Piper thought it was cute. But she couldn't bear the fact that her whole relationship, the first serious one she's ever had, was based on a stupid lie that made her look like a moron in front of her entire firm. It was simply unacceptable. She wasn't much of a romantic and she didn't care about the "meant to be". If he couldn't seduce her without lies, then he wasn't the one. And there was something else that bothered her. She hated lies. If he lied about that, who knew what else he lied about? His missing father? His friends? His childhood? The fact that he loved her? Everything? Maybe he had an affair? How could she know, she was obviously too naïve to date him?

She let herself fall on her couch, exhausted. She didn't take the bus because she needed to evacuate the anger energy, and now her feet hurt like hell. She was feeling very lost now that she was calmer. Did she just dump him? In front of everyone? Oh gods. Oh gods. Did he really love her? Did he mean it?

No Annabeth! You mustn't fall for another lie!

She could almost hear her mother screaming in her head. Not that Athena was good with men, since she was four times divorced, but sometimes, she wasn't wrong. Annabeth had to be careful. Plus she probably loved him too, and that was very dangerous.

After hours of thinking and worrying and crying, Annabeth finally fell asleep on her couch.

Okay, so he screwed up real bad. And for the first time, Percy felt bad about it. He went home and immediately went into his roommate's room.

"Jason?"

"Hmmm?" He was obviously working on some complicated equations, but Percy needed him.

"I did something stupid and I think I lost my soulmate, and it hurts." He whimpered.

Jason turned his chair and sighed.

"Okay. What have you done and do we need pizza?"

"Annabeth knows about the lie. She dumped me. I told her I loved her."

"Pizza it is." Jason said. "Come on buddy. We're going to talk about it and eat and watch Finding Nemo."

Percy only nodded, fighting back tears. Jason put his arm around his shoulders and managed to take him to the living room to order their dinner.

Tonight was the worse night ever for the both of them.