A/N: Hello again everyone! I wasn't planning on updating until this weekend, but here we are! :P

Before we get started, I would like to thank everyone that read last chapter. I would also like to give a huge thank you to Side1ways, Guest, annabellex2, winterschild11, and RainbowDiamonds for reviewing!

I hope you all enjoy!

Four Months Later

"You're coming with me to Sammy's birthday party, right?" I held the phone between my shoulder and ear as I got out of the car, heading into work.

"Did you seriously call me this early to ask me that? We have, like, a freaking month before that thing." Kendall said in his hoarse morning voice.

"You told me to call and make sure you were up." I walked into my building. This wasn't the first time I'd called to make sure he was awake over the past few months. He was so not a morning person.

"I didn't get home till after two this morning, and I had to eat something because I was starving. I think I laid down at, like, three-thirty, maybe four. I don't know." He yawned in my ear, which made me yawn in return. "Why did I tell you to call me at the crack of dawn?"

"It's almost nine o'clock, Jalapeno. You need to get ready for work."

"But it's Monday. I don't work today."

"You were supposed to have off, but that private school called last minute because their photographer flaked out. You have to go in."

He groaned. "Why?" He whined in my ear, but I couldn't help but smile at him.

"Are you awake enough that you won't fall back asleep as soon as I hang up?" I walked onto the elevator.

"Yes."

"No, you're not. Wake up. I'm almost to my office."

He groaned.

"You're such a baby in the morning. Get your ass up."

"Make me."

I snorted. "Okay, I just walked in, I gotta go. Get up so Jett doesn't kick your ass for being late."

He groaned again. "I don't like you very much."

"You'll like me more after coffee. I'll talk to you later, okay?"

"Mm." He huffed. "Jay?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for calling."

"Anytime, Little Jalapeno."

He huffed out a laugh. "I'll talk to you later, Cupcake."

I smiled as I hung up the phone and set my bag on top of my desk.

"Was that your boy toy?"

"I jumped at the sound of Carlos' voice and turned to face him. "What?"

"You two sound like an old married couple." He leaned against the door frame and stared at me before holding out the coffee he got for me.

"What are you talking about?" I asked as I gratefully accepted the coffee.

Carlos rolled his eyes. "I don't get you two."

I sighed and leaned against the desk. "He's my friend, 'Los. What's so hard to get?" I sipped my coffee and pretended that this conversation wasn't getting to me. Kendall is my friend. End of discussion.

"You spend all of your time with him. When you're not with, you call and text, and there's no way you can deny that you're attracted to him."

"I think you're reading way too much into this. Is he attractive? Yes, obviously. Anyone with eyes can see that. That doesn't mean anything." I said before deciding to change the topic. "How's Amelia doing?"

Carlos smiled so big, it was like his whole body smiled with him. "She's doing great. You should come over for dinner this week. The kids would love to see you."

"Yeah, I haven't been around for a couple weeks. What night's good for you?"

"Maybe Wednesday. You wanna bring Kendall?"

I eyed him for a minute, then sighed before responding. "Only if you promise not to be weird and talk about this stupid couple theory you have about us."

For some reason that made him smirk. "Sure, that's fine."

I nodded. "Okay. I'll bring something for dessert."

"Cool. You ready for our meeting today?"

He and I were handling a campaign together that we'd been working on for weeks. The client was coming in today to finalize our ads. "Yeah, everything's set. You good on your end?"

"Yep." He grinned. "I'll see ya in a couple hours." He started to walk away.

"'Los?"

"Yeah?" He looked over his shoulder.

"Where's Logan? Is he okay?"

"Yep. He's staying home with Amelia today. He'll be in tomorrow 'cause Mom's watching her."

I nodded. "Alright, I'll see you later." He saluted me, then headed to his office.

I took my laptop out of my bag and got myself situated. It was weird not seeing Logan every weekday like I had for years. Once Amelia came into their lives, he started working from home several days a week, though Mrs. Garcia had decided to work part-time so she could stay with her granddaughter. I was really surprised when she made that decision, but she'd absolutely refused to let someone else watch Amelia. That little girl was beyond spoiled and so lucky to be loved as much as she was. She was such a sweet baby and so adorable.

I shook off my thoughts and settled in to get to work.

XxX

"Hey." Shane said as soon as I walked into my apartment.

"Hey. I'm surprised you're here tonight." I set my bag, wallet, and keys down, hung my suit jacket and toed off my shoes.

"Emily had rehearsal. You wanna order a pizza or something?"

I rolled my eyes at him as I loosened my tie. "You could just ask me to cook."

"What do you mean?"

"I know that you puposefully ask me that every time you're home before me so you don't feel bad about not cooking dinner. I'll make something. Don't worry about it."

Shane cringed a little and muttered, "I'm sorry."

I chuckled a little as I walked into the kitchen to get dinner started. "Do you work tomorrow?"

"Yeah, I have to be in at, like, six in the morning. It's the worst hours ever."

"Be grateful Dylan got you that job." I'd known Dylan since he was a kid, and he'd lived with me for a little while since he was having trouble at home with his family. So he did me a favor and got my little brother a job at The Chipped Mug since Dylan's boyfriend owned the place.

"Trust me, I am. I just hate waking up that early. I didn't even need to wake up this early for class."

"When school starts back up in September, you'll be all set, then."

"I worked with Stephanie today." He had a weird tone of voice when he said Dylan's friends name.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, she's… nice."

I popped my head out the kitchen door and stared at him. "You have a girlfriend."

His hazel eyes connected with mine. "All I said was that she's nice."

I pointed at him with the spoon in my hand. "Yeah, but I know you, and I know what that means."

"Dude, chill. I didn't mean anything by it."

"You're so full of shit. Why did you even bring her up?"

"Because we both know her."

"We both also know Dak and Kendall, but you didn't bring them up." I walked back into the kitchen.

"And Matty."

"What did you say?" I stopped walking, but didn't turn around.

"We both know Matty, right? Something happened between the two of you."

I took a deep breath. "Yeah, I know him. We…" I searched for the right words before continuing. "We're acquaintances." I cringed at that completely ridiculous statement. I'd seen the guy naked on more than one occasion, and we were friendly. But friends was kind of pushing it since we hadn't really talked in months since I haven't seen him.

"Right. 'Acquaintances.' I don't buy that for a minute."

I turned around and looked at him. "Okay, so we slept together a couple times and we…" I waved my arm around then shook my head. "I'm not telling you his business."

"Um, okay?" Shane said, giving me a weird look. "I don't even want to know. So whatcha cooking for dinner?"

I sighed and walked into the kitchen, relieved for the subject change. "Burgers."

"Sweet."

"Come in here and help."

I heard him sigh. "Fine."

I smiled at his less than enthusiastic response and got to work.

I tucked my phone in my pocket and sighed. I had off on a Friday night for once, which was a good thing. Or at least, it should be a good thing. Unfortunately, all I could think about was the fact that I was ready for some soft of… relationship or something.

Someone that would take me out on a date when I had the odd Friday off. Someone that would hold me, kiss me...among other things. I was tired of coming home to an empty apartment every night since Ethan was hardly ever there. And even on the off chance he was there, it wasn't like I could snuggle down with him, because gross, he was my brother.

What I really needed was a boyfriend. I was tired of going to bed alone. So, so tired of it. I hadn't been intimate with a guy in over seven months, maybe more? Ughhh.

Why can't I find a guy that wants to date me? A guy that's as nice as James, as much fun to be around. I need to find someone to date because this non-dating friendship thing with James is the best dating experience I've ever had. And we're not even dating!

I sighed out loud. Ugh. All I wanted to do was call James and see if he was free this weekend, but maybe I should try to find an actual date instead. I really need to get laid.

"Did you find a new guy or something?"

I turned to Dustin in surprise. "Huh? What're you talking about?"

He eyed me for a minute. "You're acting weird… or weirder than usual."

"I am not."

"Yes, you are. Do you realize that you've switched the backdrop out five times, only to come back to the same one I originally had up? And it looks like you're about to switch it again."

I looked at my hands and realized I was holding the edge of another backdrop, so I hastily dropped it, then looked at the one that was hanging… the same one we typically started with for baby portraits. I sighed and muttered, "Sorry."

Dustin shrugged. "It's fine. The client's late, anyway." He leaned back against the tall desk in the room. "Wanna talk about it?"

"Not really."

He crossed his arms over his chest and frowned. "You know I can listen without repeating what I hear."

I sighed again and plopped down in the middle of the floor. "I know. I just… ughhhh. I don't even know what to say."

"Is this about James?"

I snapped my wide-eyed gaze up to him. "What? What about James?" It was pathetic, but I still hadn't talked to Dak about James and me being friends, even though we'd been hanging out for months. It wasn't like I was ashamed of it or anything, I was just worried that Dak would be upset.

And I didn't know If I could handle having him mad at me because I sure as hell wasn't going to stop hanging out with James for him or anyone. James had easily become my favorite person in the world… and he still had no idea that Dak didn't know, which made me cringe every time I thought about it. I was being such an unfair dick to my friends.

Dustin rolled his eyes. "Seriously, Kendall, I'm not blind. I've seen you texting him a million times a day. Or that's who I assume you're texting, anyway."

I cringed. "Does Dak know?"

"I don't think so. But Tyler and I definitely noticed."

"Fuuuuck." I huffed. "Have you guys been spying on me?"

Dustin smirked. "No, dude, we heard you talking to him the other day when we walked into the break room. You said his name into the phone. It's the same James that Dak was with, isn't it?" Shit. He must've taken my silence as an affirmation because he shrugged. "We just figured that was who you've been glued to your phone for."

"Did Dak hear me?"

"No, he wasn't with us."

"Oh god, does Lucy know? She has the biggest mouth."

"She wasn't there. Why would it matter, anyway?"

I ran my hands over my face. "I just don't want people making a thing out of it."

"Wait, are you dating him?" Dustin's eyes went comically wide.

"No, no, no." I waved him off. "Nothing like that. I just… I don't know, it's weird."

"If you're not dating him, then what's so weird? Do you guys have some kind of secret friendship happening or something?"

I snorted, then cringed internally because that was exactly what I'd been doing. I'm the worst best friend ever. "No. It's just, he's Dak's ex, you know? And I don't want him to be upset or feel weird about me hanging out with him, I don't know."

Dustin stared at me for a long moment before slowly saying, "I still don't see the problem."

I flopped onto my back and stared at the ceiling. "Uggghhh."

"Talk to me, dweeb."

"You sure you want to hear about my guy problems?"

"I wouldn't ask if I didn't care."

I had never really discussed guy stuff with Mr. Straight As An Arrow Dustin, but if he was up for it, then maybe I could get this off my chest. "Fine, but you asked for it." I glanced at him, but didn't get up. "I've been hanging out with James, like, every weekend almost, and we've been texting every day for… months."

When I didn't say anything else, Dustin said, "I already know all that. Is that it?"

I looked at the ceiling. "Yes. No. I don't know. He's a great guy. I didn't used to think to think he was, but he's really sweet and nice and thoughful. And funny. He makes me laugh."

"So you like him."

"No. I don't know. Maybe? He's a great friend, so obviously I like him. And he's sexy as hell. It's just, I don't know if I really like him or if I just like him because I know I can't have him."

"Why can't you?"

I scrubbed my hands over my face. "For one thing, he's my friend and boss's ex and he broke his heart. And even if that wasn't the case, he doesn't do relationships or anything. He just does… sex. So now I'm just in this weird friendship thing with him, even though sometimes I think he might like me. Like-like me, but we're both ignoring it, and I feel like an ass because we're trying to be friends, but I can't stop thinking about…" I trailed off.

After a long pause, Dustin softly asked, "Why don't you talk to him about it?"

I looked at him. "That's the worst possible advice ever."

He crossed his arms over his chest. "It's typically what adults do in these situations because it works."

"Not if it'll scare him away. I like being friends with him. He's a great friend and we're having fun."

Dustin shrugged. "Are you okay with that?"

"Yeah. I mean, I guess. I mean, yeah, I think so."

Dustin huffed out a long-suffering sigh.

"You're the worst." I told him.

"Me? Why?" He chuckled.

"Because you convinced me to talk, and I don't feel any better. I think I actually feel worse."

"You're the one that won't listen to me."

"That's because your ideas suck. Would you want your girlfriend talking to you about this stuff?"

Dustin tilted his head, thinking. "Yeah, I would."

"Uggghhh." I whined. "The worst." I groaned and he laughed.

"What's the matter with you?"

My head snapped over to the doorway where Jett stood. I quickly sat up. "Nothing."

Jett eyed me. "Real believable." He rolled his eyes, then crossed his arms over his chest. "What wrong with you? Whose ass do I need to kick?"

"No one's. I swear. I'm just cranky today." I shot Dustin a warning glare, and he held up his hands defensively and shrugged a shoulder. I looked back at Jett. "You guys are doing the Saturday wedding, right? Do I get to bring someone with me on Sunday?"

"Actually, that's what I wanted to talk to you about. The Sunday wedding is a double shoot, so you can take whoever's available with you."

I nodded, then looked at Dustin. "Wanna shoot a wedding with me?"

"Sure, I can do Sunday."

"Great!" I said a little too loudly as I jumped up off the floor.

Jett and Dustin both eyed me, but neither said anything about my odd behavior. They began discussing the rest of the day's schedule, so I walked to the break room and sat down. I was being such an ass. I really needed to get over it and tell Dak. And Jett for that matter, considering he was going all overprotective on me, which was actually really sweet.

I appreciated it more than I'd ever admit out loud. I just really needed to come clean. Did I seriously plan on hiding my friendship with James for the rest of our lives? Not to mention the birthday party I was going to with James that Dak would no doubt be at.

I sighed out loud and banged my head on the table.

I am such a fucking idiot.

Done! So, we got a four month time jump with a little bit of Kames interaction, along with JamesxCarlos and KendallxDustin talks! As well as the reveal that Kendall STILL hasn't told Dak about him hanging out with James.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the chapter, as well as if you happened to have a favorite part/moment!

I've loved hearing your thoughts on this story so far, and I'm so glad that you're all enjoying it! :)

The next chapter will be up this weekend, which I'm really excited about and will be... emotional, to say the least.

Until then!

-Epically Obsessed