''Wow you look bad.'' Katie eyed her roommate up and down as she walked into the kitchen, her heels clacking on the tiles of the floor.

''I know.'' Reid was leaning against the counter his left hand supporting the weight of his body while he rubbed the bridge of his nose with the free one.

''What happened?''

''Nothing.'' He turned around to watch her pick a few items out of the fridge and spread them over the kitchen table.

''Luke Snyder?'' She asked with a suggestive tone in her voice?

''What gives you that idea?''

''Well two things happened in your life lately. You got sued for malpractice and you fell for Luke Snyder. With the lawsuit off the table and you reinstated I'm guessing it's Luke then?''

''I didn't fall for him.'' Reid reached for the shelf behind him to grab two cups. He poured them both a coffee and sat down across Katie placing hers in front of her. The sunbeams radiating trough the window made him squint as he reached for the sugar.

Katie just kept staring at him for another few seconds until she finally went on with her inquisition.

''I already know that much so might as well tell me the rest.''

''There is nothing to tell.''

''Yeah I can see that.''

''The last few days were exhausting why can it not be just that?''

''I can tell the difference between emotionally and physically drained.''

God that woman was stubborn. He knew that Luke was related to her in some kind and made a note to find out whether it was by bloodline.

''So?'' She stopped making her sandwich and tilted her head to the left.

''It's not very spectacular. He stayed at my place in Dallas. We slept together a few times I thought it was going somewhere. But then he discovers he feles too guilty and calls it off. Now he's back together with Noah… Or not.''

Reid shrugged. ''Who knows?''

''May I?'' He pointed his knife towards the butter.

''You slept with him?''

Obviously Katie's start into the day had just become more interesting or at least that was what the inquisitive sparkling in her eyes said.

''Yeah; could we not talk about that now anymore please?''

The sun was hanging at the highest point of a clear blue sky mercilessly pouring it's sticky heat down onto the oldtown of Oakdale, warming the skin of scarcely dressed pedestrians. The scenery was completed by an old man playing some kind of musical instrument, obviously hoping to make money in spite of that terrible noise he was making.

Kids were screaming, their shrill voices drowned out by the yelling of their overstrained parents and through one of the back roads a motorcycle passed by, sounding like a bomb that would not stop exploding.

Reid rolled up the sleeves of his grey sweatshirt hoping to release some of the sticky heat that was building between his body and his clothes.

He lifted his fork and briefly closed his eyes pressing his thumb and index finger into his brow. Unfortunately with his sight shut his ears only zoomed in on the terrible blend of noise and so he opened them again only to see Luke standing in front of his table.

''May I?'' Luke dropped himself on the free chair.

''Why do you even ask?''

Reid made no effort to hide the fact that he would have liked him to leave.

''I would like to explain a few things to you.''

''You don't have to explain anything. We fucked a couple of time now we stopped. You made your point. I got it.''

Luke briefly seemed a bit taken aback by the unexpected choice of words but quickly got ready to talk again.

Reid shook his head to cut off the next attempt before it could get anywhere.

''Really Luke you don't have to explain yourself. I'm good.''

''But you're obviously pissed.''

''So?'' Reid pulled a face and looked directly at the younger man across the table.

''I hate to break it to you Luke but you will have to piss off one of us. Or what are you going to do now? Tell me what I want to hear. But then Noah is going to be mad at you and obviously you can't handle that either.''

''Why are you so hostile?''

''I'm not. I would just very much like to have my lunch in peace now. Please don't make me walk away and steal Al's plate.''

''Why don't you hear me out?''

''Because there is nothing you could say to explain the situation in a more effective and clear way than you already did. Ergo you came here to appease your conscience and I am not willing to give you a hand at that.''

Luke searched Reid's gaze, trying to find out whether insisting on the subject was going to get him somewhere but then quickly decided that he'd better postpone the matter.

With and annoyed sigh Reid reached for his fork again as he watched him get up and leave.

If there was anything he was used to than it was dealing with 3 hours of sleep a night. If necessary for a very long period of time but something about this tiredness was different. He wasn't looking forward to going to bed tonight, truth be told he didn't even particularly care.

Just like he did not really care about what was on TV right now. He tossed the remote control onto the coffee table and leaned back against the headrest of Katie's couch.

If only he didn't have that much free time. He knew that everything would be just fine if he could work around the clock but this unproductive sitting around with nothing to do he really cared about , it just made him crazy.

Work was the only thing that was stronger than this longing for Luke's body in his arms. That longing that kept nagging at his guts the minute he had nothing productive to do.

It kept flooding his his entire body, spreading from the pit of his stomach where it built every time he just remotely thought of him. In moments like this he could physically feel his absence and he could have kicked himself that he had allowed himself to even get there.

Luke wasn't here with him and instead of taking that as a fact and moving on like he always did his feelings seemed to be stuck somewhere in the past. In Dallas where they had shared those wonderful days. This was one good example of irrational and it pissed him off that he was giving it.

By now the longing had changed into a twitching and his stomach was almost hurting at the thought of how much he would like to make love to him now. Really make love to him and not just take his body for the heat of the moment. They had only done so little and there was so much more he wanted to do to him, do with him and watch his body react to it. He was not even close to having seen enough of his devotion and responsiveness. It killed him to think that the few days in Texas might remain all he would ever get.