A/N: Guys, really I don't know what to say, your reviews...blew me away. I'm speechless; you're all very kind and generous. Didn't think any-one would take any notice of this. Going to finish this in a couple more chapters. After those reviews, I hope it lives up to your expectations...

Note about music. As far as I'm concerned "The End" play whatever music gets you going, but "All the things she said" sounds to me like a mix between The Doves "Firesuite" and Bjork's "All of Nothing." But really, whatever fuck-song you wanna put in there... you go for it.

The bed dips and rolls, and evens out again, the motion wakes me, and I come to slowly, I half open my eyes, and see Emily in the half shadow from the landing light, rummaging around in the drawers in her wardrobe. She's dressed only in bra and knickers, hair still damp.

"Morning" I croak.

She turns "Hey, sorry. Did I wake you?"

I stretch languorously, and shake my head yawning. "No, it's fine."

Emily goes back to looking for clothes. She must be able to feel me looking at her, as she looks my way over her shoulder. "Still a massive perv, then?"

"I've woken to worse sights." I laugh, and she makes a face.

"Oh yeah, M&S bra, and my grannies pants, very alluring." She's smiling, and as she throws on a thin pullover and plain skirt;"D'you want coffee, or you going to lay around in bed all day?"

I plump up the pillow, "This is a pretty comfy bed, Em, I might stay in here for a bit longer."

"Right." She looks at me for a moment. "Well, the vibrator's in the bedside cabinet, on your left if you get bored." To my open mouth she walks out of the bedroom, scrubbing at her hair with a towel.

"What..?" I roll over and pull the drawer open. "Jesus!"

I join her in the kitchen, and she pours me a coffee. She sips from hers, holding her cup in both hands and I can see the smile playing on her face. I take a couple of sips, can't help but grin lopsidedly at her.

"And you have the cheek to call me a massive perv."

She laughs, "Katie bought it." She pauses for a moment and frowns. "I've never used it!"

I nod sceptically "Right."

Emily laughs at me, "So..." She shrugs, "Really, what plans?"

"Beyond trying to get my card sorted, nothing, what is there to do round here?"

Emily looks doubtful. "The beach is nice..." she shrugs, "that's pretty much it really" She looks at her watch, "Shit, I've got to go."

I set down my cup, "What time will you be back?"

"About six-ish?"

I nod, "right I'll have supper ready, ok?"

She nods at me, and for a moment her face clouds, "You don't have to y'know?" I can't place the tone of her voice, but I shrug

"S'ok, I can cook as well, you won't die of food poisoning."

She smiles, and there's an awkward pause as we're both uncertain about how familiar we can be with each other after the failure of last night's kiss. She shakes her head, and striding over to me, pecks my cheek in an obviously overly friendly way. "I'll see you later, ok?"

OooooO

"Hello, Clive Goodman"

Clive is my lawyer, a massive white haired fiercely intelligent man. One of the first people that I'd employed to help me with me contract negotiations with the record label. He was recommended to me by our manager, and it was one of the smartest things I'd ever done, he handed out advice as both a lawyer and a friend, and over the years had become more like a surrogate father figure to me. He knew my business, both public and personal, and I trusted him implicitly.

"Clive, it's Naomi."

"Hmmmm," he pauses, "0191." He quotes, obviously reading the readout on his telephone, "The North East? Have you gone provincial on us?"

I chuckle, "I'm visiting a friend."

There's another longer pause and finally. "Doesn't the fragrant Ms Fitch reside up there these days? Hmmmm"

I laugh along with him."Nothing gets past you does it?" I come clean "I'm staying with her. "

"It's presumably why you engaged me all those years ago. " There's another pause, and for a moment the lawyerly mask drops as he adds. "Good, about bloody time you sorted that out, my girl."

"Clive!" I feign shock, and he has the good grace to pretend to be flustered. He regains his composure "As lovely as it is to chat, can I help you with anything in particular?"

"I've ...erm...Buggered up my Amex card, can you help me get a new one?"

"Oh course, I'll get one of the juniors onto it right away, in the mean time, do you need money?"

"Um, yes, but I don't have access to a bank account, I've got no ID either.

Clive laughs again, "Naomi, my dear, you are your own ID. "he pauses again obviously thinking, then."Does Ms Fitch have a bank account you could use; I could transfer some into that?"

Clive and I exchange some pleasantries after we've sorted out the cash issues, and I finally put the phone down to him, I wander back upstairs to get dressed, and checking through my pockets and bag come up with about twenty quid in notes and coins, enough I reckon for some ingredients. I go through the kitchen writing a shopping list, chuckling to myself at my new found domestication. I feel strangely content. Finally ready, shopping list in hand, I lock the door behind me, and looking out across the road set off for the beach.

I wander aimlessly for a while, and come to collection of rocks buried in the sand; perching on them I breathe deeply and look out to sea. I frown to myself, my mind goes back to last night, and I can't help but run through my mind Emily turning away from me as I tried to kiss her. I'm pretty certain that I was just too quick of the mark, and that Emily just wasn't ready for that sort of intimacy, but part of me is worried that she doesn't want that from me at all, and I can't help but feel slightly lost as I've pinned my hopes on rekindling some sort of feelings in her, and I've no real plans for if she tells me she's not interested.

"Bollocks" I startle some seagulls into flight.

I'm confused; she pulls me to her bed and sleeps naked with me, but then in the morning was at best just friendly.

"Fucks sake Naomi, "I address myself sternly."Just fucking go with it."

OooooO

I look around the small living room, and even if I say so myself I think I've done pretty well, dinner cooking, kitchen tidy, wine chilling, all it needs now is some company, and polite conversation, I laugh to myself, and flick through her CDs to find something laid back. As I'm looking I hear the lock turn, and Emily comes in. I call out before turning around.

"Evening Dear, how was your day?" the joke dies in my throat as I see the look of surprise on her face, as she looks around her house, she recovers and smiles thinly at me.

"Hey."

I look everywhere but at her, as she clearly wants to say something, and I'm tense. Suddenly she lets out a breath, and collapsing like a balloon says "I've had a shit day, sorry."

I breathe again, "Nothing a glass of wine won't sort out?"

She nods at me, "yeah, that'd be great, thanks."

We make small talk as we eat my meal, she makes all the right noises and tells me it's nice, but there's clearly something on her mind, and the atmosphere's tense again. Finally I take a deep breath and put my fork on the plate.

"What's on your mind, Emily?"

She looks at me for a bit, and her eyes narrow she swallows her mouthful carefully and takes a sip of wine before answering as if steadying herself "There's ten grand in my bank account, Naomi."

"Ah, right, that was me. Sorry, I was going to say, I wanted some cash before my new card got here..." I trail off as I notice she's shaking her head at me.

"I spent all afternoon trying to figure out where it had come from, I thought the bank had made a cock up, they eventually told me where it was from, and I realised it was you. Where did you get my bank details from Naomi?" she's obviously mad with me, I tread carefully. I wave at the kitchen. "I found a statement..." I make a face of apology at her, as she looks incredulously at me.

"You looked through my stuff?"

"I didn't think you'd mind, sorry."

"You didn't think..." she stops and sighs. "Sounds familiar."

I push my plate away and cross my arms. "What?"

"You, not thinking. "She mirrors my actions and looks away from me, her mouth set.

"D'you want me to go?" I ask quietly.

"No..." she slumps, "I'm confused Naomi, I don't know if I can... "She hesitates. "If I can trust you, and the first thing you do is look through my personal stuff."

"You still don't trust me, do you?" I'm angry all of a sudden, I feel betrayed.

"D'you blame me?" she stands and her anger flares again suddenly, "The last time I spoke to you, you were in bed with the fucking driver." She moves away from the table and stands in the lounge her back to me. I see her shoulders heaving.

I stand myself, "This is about Jasmine?" I sound surprised.

She turns on me, whipping around, and she's clearly barely containing herself, tears have started to fall down her face "No it's not about fucking Jasmine," she lets out a half snorted laugh at the double meaning, she pauses and then with finality says "It's about Sara."

"Sara?" I'm confused.

"Did you fuck her Naomi?" she almost shouts at me, and suddenly it becomes horribly clear to me, as I realise that we're about to have the fight that Emily wanted to have all those years ago, but of course couldn't, because I was never there...

I take a deep breath and realise that I'm going to have be very careful. I decide that honesty is the best policy and I'm unable to look at her as I begin. "Yes, I did." I stop as I hear her snort a "Ha" and I can hear the soft noises of Emily trying hard not to cry too obviously.

I move over to where she's standing and place a hand on her shoulder, she flinches, and tries to shake it off, but I grip her gently. "I did fuck her, " I begin gently, "on a beach in Greece, about two years ago, long after you'd left, she was curious I think, and I was there. It was the one and only time, OK?" I take a breath, "I can't believe you thought I was seeing her behind your back. That you think I'd do that to you again."

Emily turns to me, and the tears are running fast and she has ugly strings of goop at the corners of her mouth as she sniffs snot and wipes her nose, "D'you know how many time we made love in the last three months of our relationship?"

I close my eyes, and realise that Emily needs to do this, and that if I'm to build any sort of trust with her, then tonight, I need to let her do it. I shake my head, "No."

"Twice". She spits at me, and I'm horribly aware of what's coming next as I remember being oh so proud of the photo I showed her yesterday as she takes a shuddering breath and says," And the last fucking time ended up on the cover of that fucking album of yours."

I nod, I can't say anything that will take the hurt away, and instead turn her around, and pull her into a hug, she resists at first pushing away feebly, but then relents, and sobbing hugely, falls into my embrace. I feel her wet face against my tee-shirt as her shoulders heave and she moans into me. "You left me there, in that fucking windmill; I wanted us to be together, and you just left me to be with them, I didn't care about the music or the band, or anything." She sobs, and her voice goes quite as she finally says "I just wanted you, I just wanted us."

I close my eyes, and let the small woman in my arms cry her heart out.