Disclaimer: Still no ownership on my part. It's unfortunate, I know.

A/N: First off – thank you to the people who reviewed my last, short, pathetic chapter. Fillers are never that great and I appreciate the people who still decided to review.

Secondly, I want to put this out there – up until (I think) the 15th chapter, everything's that's happened and anything coming up will occur over a period of 5 days. This story started on a Wednesday afternoon and the majority of the plot will end on a Sunday night. That doesn't mean the story will end right there – it's just I want you all to understand why everything seems like it's moving at a snail's pace. Problems like this in real life aren't solved in 5 days and neither are they in my story.

And with that I give you my 7th chapter – have fun reading. And as I ask always – please review.

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One ring. Two rings. Three rings. "Damnit, Ryan. Where are you?" Seth muttered as the fourth ring took over. Fifth ring. Suddenly a voice came over the phone.

"Hey -"

"Hey, Ryan, listen -"

" - It's Ryan. I'm not here right now but if you leave a message and a number I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks."

Fucking voicemail.

Beep. "Hey Ryan, it's Seth. I need to talk to you. Personal stuff. Also, we still on for dinner tonight? Where is it and what time? I need to let Summer know so call me when you get this. Bye."

Seth put his phone back down on his desk, sighing. The morning had not gone over too well. Between whatever it was that was going on with Summer and having to come up with a lousy excuse for his boss, his Friday was anything but triumphant. His boss, Mr. Gavey, thankfully had decided to take pity on him, but only this once stating that people are not given favors in this business. Regardless of the "favor," Seth still had to spend the entire weekend collecting more documents and research in order to be fully prepared for his rescheduled meeting with Mr. Gavey on Monday. And Mr. Gavey made it completely clear that if Seth wasn't fully prepared, he'd have no choice but to release him from the case and back to his original duties.

And there was no way Seth was getting anymore coffee orders from balding men with tinted yellow teeth.

Yet, he couldn't exactly push this whole Summer issue aside. He never understood why Summer had to act this way when he had so much on his plate. It's like she chose the time that was most inconvenient for Seth to decide to freak out on him. Didn't she realize he didn't have time to play the "guess-what's-going-on-in-my-mind" game when he had such an amazing opportunity that required almost all of his waking hours? He wasn't trying to ignore her, neither was he attempting to attract other girls – much to her allegations; he was just trying to get his work done so he'd have something impressive to put on his resume. And if his resume looked as impressive as he hoped it would by the end of his college career, he could easily get a very decent starting pay job, therefore being able to buy a house for both he and Summer right out of college, thus pleasing Summer.

In fact, this whole internship was essentially for her because all he thought about was his future with Summer. He wanted to make her happy and didn't want her to ever have to worry about anything. He wanted her to have it all. Anything she ever wanted, he wanted to be able to give to her.

How could she not see that everything he was doing in his life was for her and their future together?

Seth noticed the time and saw that his lunch hour had at last arrived. He picked up his keys and phone, sliding them into his pants pocket and picked up his briefcase.

"Hey! Seth!"

Seth whirled around to the woman's voice. "Hi, Sarah." Sarah was around his age, maybe a year or two older – he didn't know – with shoulder length dirty blonde hair with green eyes. She worked in the filing department as a full-time employee. He knew she was a student at the University of Southern California and her personality seemed much like the girl-next-door type, but beyond that he didn't know anything about her.

"You going to lunch?"

Seth nodded his head solemnly.

"What's going on?" Sarah questioned. "You seem like you just found out your grandma died or something." Sarah laughed as Seth sent her a sideways glance. "Oh God, your grandma didn't die, did she?"

Seth smiled and shook his head. "No, no. I'm just having a rough day. How are you?"

Sarah returned the smile. "I'm good. I'm heading to lunch. You wanna grab something down at the Café around the corner? You can lay all your shit on me, seeing as I'm not looking half as depressed as you are." Seth glared again. "Right. Sorry. Café?"

"Sounds good. I've been dying for a lobster roll lately, anyway."

They walked out of the building and turned the corner towards the Café as Seth began his over-elaborate story of the past few days. If Ryan wasn't around to talk to, and Summer was refusing to open up, Seth looked to any other willing ear to listen to his incessant ramblings of his life. Sarah seemed nice, not hanging on his every word as many other women had been lately, and it was good to finally let it out.

What was not so good was that at the same time Seth and Sarah were turning the corner, Summer had appeared across the street, trying to make it to Seth's firm before he left so they could talk their issues through on their lunch hour. She had called his cell but he hadn't picked up, so she was walking at an extremely fast pace to catch him. Because as much as the fighting had been bothering Seth, it was starting to bother her ten times worse, making her stomach nauseous and her head spin.

After seeing Seth and Sarah walk into the Café, both smiling, Summer turned on her heels and began her trek back to her own office.

At any other time, Summer would have stomped right over there, staked her claim on Seth, and made sure he had lunch with her and not some other wannabe bimbo. But this time it was different. Because she and Seth weren't getting along lately. And she wasn't sure if Seth was still in love with her.

"Maybe it's about time to realize you've taken it as far as you two can go and that you both should just move on with the rest of your lives. Separately."

As Bethany's voice still rung loudly in her head, she picked up her pace; nearly running in her heels, back into the subway station, wiping away the tears that had now ruined her mascara and were spilling down her cheeks.

She couldn't stand by and watch while her boyfriend moved on without her.

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So it turned out that this Sarah chick was pretty cool. By the end of the lunch hour, Seth had not only spilled his guts and gotten, well… pretty fantastic feedback, but he learned her last name was Kennedy, she was originally from Atlanta, was also pursuing a degree in law, and had a long-term boyfriend of about two years living in San Francisco.

"That was a good lunch, Seth. We'll have to do it again when you and Summer are on better terms," Sarah said walking in the firm's doors in front of Seth.

"Why's that?" Seth asked, holding the door for her.

"Because then I might actually learn something about you besides the fact that you're in love with Summer Roberts and have been since forever. Not that that's not interesting – and I'm certainly glad to have been able to help you out – but I don't know anything about you. Besides the fact that you obviously like law or you wouldn't have stuck around this long being a coffee boy."

Seth grinned. "Hopefully it will be cleared up tonight. So lunch Monday? I'll let you in on the real life Seth Cohen. He's a pretty fascinating guy. Awfully charming too. I hear all the girls swooning as he passes by."

Sarah laughed whole-heartedly. "I'm sure they do. I'll talk to you later, Seth." Sarah walked off as Seth settled into his desk, suddenly hearing a beeping noise coming from his pants pocket. Seth took out his phone and noticed three missed calls and two new voicemails. "How did that happen?"

He decided to just go with the voicemails first and listened as Ryan's voice came through.

"Hey, it's me. Tonight – Caballero's – 6. I know it's not our usual Thai but Lana has been really craving Italian lately. Anyway, as for your other questions, personal or not, can they wait until tonight? I've got so much work to do; it's a mess. I'll see you then."

Seth shrugged knowing he shouldn't always bother Ryan with his problems. He had made other friends at school that he could always go talk to but for some reason he didn't really feel comfortable talking to them about Summer.

Probably because they all thought she was hott and always teased Seth for "nailing" her, asking if they could just borrow her for a night.

Yeah, he didn't exactly want to go to them for relationship advice. Sure, they were half-joking but it was still a little uncomfortable.

The next voicemail was from his mom. "Hey sweetie, it's mom. I know you're probably at work – even though I thought maybe you'd be at lunch right now so you could answer your phone – anyway, your father and I were wondering if you could come home Sunday. You probably have lots of work and everything but we would really like for you to come. Summer is welcome, of course; we haven't seen her in ages. Anyway, it's important so if you could please make a few hours open in your busy schedule we'd appreciate it. I love you, honey. Miss you. See you Sunday!"

Well, that was a rather odd voicemail. Not only had his mother invited him to come home, but she also appeared to have thought she received a reply from his voicemailing system due to her last remark.

Guess he was going to Newport on Sunday. Yes, just what he needed. At least he knew in Newport there wouldn't be any distractions around to keep him from getting his immense amount of work done.

Seth checked the other missed call. It was from Summer. There was no voicemail so he decided to give her a call to let her know about tonight's plans. She answered on the third ring.

"Hello?"

"Hey Sum, it's me. I talked to Ryan and -"

Summer cut him off, "I know. I called him a little while ago."

"Oh. Alright. Well, I saw you called. Did you want anything?"

"No. It was nothing," Summer waved her hand in the air, forgetting Seth couldn't see it. She decided not to tell Seth about her sudden trip to his office an hour earlier, figuring it would probably probe more questions than she wanted right now.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, positive. Listen, I won't be home after work tonight. I'm going to have to meet you guys at the restaurant."

"Why?" Seth questioned.

"Because. I have stuff to do."

"Summer…"

"Oh my God, Seth, give it up. I'll see you tonight. Bye."

Summer hung up without listening to his response and sighed loudly, getting an eyebrow raise from Chad, who was walking towards her desk.

"What's with all the sighing lately, girly?" Chad asked as Summer leaned her head back, resting it on the back of her chair.

"Seth and I aren't working anymore."

"Summy, we talked about this…"

Summer shook her head, which was still firmly placed on the back of her chair, "No, like, I really mean it. He can't even say he loves me anymore."

Chad smiled, "Well, if you're talking about right there then you have to admit you didn't really give him a chance to."

"No, not just now. But, like, ever."

"I thought you said he said it the other day and you freaked on him saying he always says that when he's in trouble."

"Well, he does!" Summer's head shot up. "He always says it when he knows I'm mad!"

Chad shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe that's why he's not saying it then. He doesn't want you to get mad."

"Oh my God! Whose side are you on!" Summer shouted as heads turned around the small office in her and Chad's direction. Chad grabbed Summer's arm, pulled her up, and walked her off into the closed-off hallway.

"Calm down. I'm just trying to point the stuff you might be missing. I don't want you to ruin your perfect relationship because of insecurities that you need to get over."

"But what Bethany said -"

Chad put his hand to her mouth. "Don't. Paris Hilton-wannabe was just trying to get a rise out of you. You know that. Why are you falling for her crap?"

"It's not crap," Summer shooed Chad's hand away. "I went over to try and have lunch with Cohen, you know, so we could try and talk things out, and I saw him walking off around the corner smiling with this other slut."

Chad stood with his arms crossed. "So now he can't even have friends of the opposite sex?"

"No! I mean, yes, he can, but that's not what I meant. I just don't think he's happy with me anymore. That he's just staying with me out of convenience." Summer's eyes began to water. "I don't want us to be that couple. I want him to love me."

Chad uncrossed his arms and wrapped them around Summer's shoulders as she cried. "Shhh… it will work out. Shhh, don't cry, Summy. I'm not good with tears."

Summer stifled a laugh and stood back. "Think I can go to your place after work for two hours? I told Seth I wasn't going home before we go to the restaurant with Ryan and Lana tonight. I told him I'd meet them there. Which, I totally don't want to even go to because I look like crap now and because Ryan and Lana have suddenly become the mini-Kirsten and Sandy couple." Summer waved her hand through the air absentmindedly as she spoke.

"Umm, sure," Chad smiled hesitantly as he threw his arm over Summer's shoulders, walking them back to their office, "But, Summy?" Summer looked up at Chad through her remaining tears, "Who's Kirsten and Sandy?"

Summer laughed and hugged Chad from the side. It was nice to have someone around to talk to.