When Julie made it back to the Cosmopolitan offices later that afternoon, news of her earlier actions with Tim were buzzing around the office. Reactions ranged from complete surprise to insane jealously, though pretty much everyone wondered how Julie had managed to make it happen.

Not surprisingly, Daphne was waiting for her when she got to her desk. "Details," the brunette demanded seconds after Julie sat.

Julie sighed and leaned back into her chair. Instead of giving Daphne an explanation, she tossed the proofs from the shoot across the desk for her to inspect. The actions, after all, would speak louder than her words.

"Damn," was all Daphne could say after she flipped through them.

Julie clicked her tongue to the roof of her mouth. "Yep," she said.

"Are you going to show them to Kate?"

"She already has a copy," Julie whined. "Which explains how everyone in this room knows, I'm assuming."

"Actually, that new intern, Becca, called and told Christie, who blabbed to everyone else."

"That figures."

"What does?" Daphne asked.

"Becca was going on and on earlier about how hot Tim was. She's just jealous," explained Julie.

"Well, you can't exactly blame her. Look at the man," Daphne fanned herself to prove a point.

Julie chuckled, a bit of stress leaving her body. "True."

"Miss Taylor?" Kate's assistant, Emily, asked.

Julie cringed before standing. "Wish me luck," she said to Daphne before entering her editor's office.

"Would you like to explain?" Kate asked, gesturing to the photos of Tim and Julie from the shoot that were spread across her desk.

Julie bit her lip; a worthy explanation didn't come to mind. "He used to play for my dad," was the best thing she could come up with.

It wasn't good enough. "Excuse me?" Kate asked, confusion clear on her face.

"You know," Julie said, "football."

"Ah, I see. That doesn't tell me why you are taking advantage of him at one of our shoots."

"I wasn't taking advantage," Julie defended herself, "we're kind of, uh, dating. But we weren't before you gave me the assignment."

"I see," said Kate. She was fond of the phrase.

"Well, regardless, it's just the thing we like around here. Sex sells, you know. The feature will run in October, just in time for football season, with this photo." She pointed to the last image, where they were touching foreheads, both catching their breath; Tim was smirking and Julie was blushing, smiling shyly. Her lips were clearly swollen from the kissing, the look being shared between the duo giving away everything.

"Are you sure?" Julie asked, panicked. Her mother could not see this. Or her father. Shit.

"Positive," she said.

Julie just stared at her, unable to come up with an argument. She was pretty sure something along the lines of "my father will kill me and my mother will dispose of the body" wouldn't convince her to not use the photo. After all, Kate had never been witness to an Eric Taylor blow-up before.

"That's all," Kate spat, dismissing Julie with a flip of her wrist.

–

Tim headed home after he was finished at the shoot, running upstairs and changing into a pair of sweatpants and an old Panthers shirt as soon as he walked inside. Back downstairs, he collapsed onto the sofa and changed the channel to Sports Center. Julie had been right, it was nice to have furniture to sit on after a long day. Twisting open the bottle of beer he had gotten from the kitchen, his attention turned to the baseball game from earlier in the day that was being recapped.

He must have dozed off, because the next thing he knew it was almost seven and there was a furious knocking at his door. Slowly standing from his couch, he padded over and swung it open. Of course it wasn't locked.

"Jules," he drawled when he saw who was standing in front of him.

"Tim," she spat, brushing past him and heading straight for the kitchen.

"Can I get you something?" he half joked as he followed her.

"I just need a drink," she explained, twisting open a bottle of beer and chugging half of it in one gulp before stomping into the living room.

Tim wasn't really sure what to do, so he got another beer for himself and followed her.

"She's using it," Julie offered as an explanation as Tim entered the room.

Judging by the stomping and the tone of her voice, he figured that giving Julie some space would be the best option for his safety right now, so he sat on the chair opposite the sofa where she had settled.

"Who's using what?" Tim asked, leaning forward in the chair.

"Kate is, my boss. She's using the picture, our picture, the picture of us on the bleachers from earlier today," Julie rambled, the volume of her voice rising with every world.

Tim wasn't really sure what his reaction was, or what it was supposed to be, so he waited for Julie to continue.

"Does this not bother you at all?" she asked. "The fact that a nationally circulated magazine is going to be printing pictures of us where we are making out of have clearly just finished? It's the equivalent of having a press conference to say, 'Oh hey, by the way Tim Riggins and Julie Taylor are dating and couldn't keep their hands off of each other for twenty minutes for Tim to make it through a photo shoot.'"

"Well, that is kind of the truth," Tim said with a shrug.

Julie rolled her eyes and continued. "That's beside the point, Tim. My mother reads Cosmopolitan, I try to pretend that I don't know why, but she does regardless. That means she, and my father and the rest of Texas, hell the rest of the nation, are going to jump to conclusions about a relationship that we may or may not be in," she explained.

"Are you saying you don't want your parents to find out about us? Because that's what it's soundin' like," Tim said a few seconds after Julie continued her mini monologue.

"No, no of course not," Julie tried to assure him. "I just don't want them to find out about us in a magazine before I even really know what we are," she admitted.

"What we are?"

Julie nodded, her eyes pouting.

"Come here," Tim announced, sitting back into the chair and opening his arms.

Julie stood and slowly walked over to where he was, standing awkwardly in front of him.

"Sit," he said, gesturing to his lap. Still a bit unsure, Julie climbed into his waiting arms.

Once she was settled, Tim spoke. "I think it's pretty clear what we are, Jules," he said softly, his voice deeper than it had been earlier.

"It is?" Julie asked in a little voice, turning her head to meet his gaze.

He nodded. "Don't you know I'm crazy about you?" he asked, his fingers tracing little circles on her back.

"I guess."

"Well, I am. Which is why you're going to go to the homecoming game in Dillon with me in September," he paused, "as my girlfriend."

Julie's eyes widened. "You're girlfriend?"

"My girlfriend," Tim repeated himself, a smile breakout out on his face in reaction to the one forming on hers.

She giggled. "Tim Riggins, boyfriend," she whispered. Julie was surprised to hear those three words together, especially in relation to her. "It sounds so foreign."

"Get used to it," he said, pulling her closer to him before turning her head and depositing a kiss, full of promise and tenderness, on her lips. Unlike their previous kisses, it was slow and gentle, like they had all of the time in the world.

"How are you going to break it to my dad?" Julie asked when they broke away. She knew the question made her sound like an awkward teenager, but it wasn't like Tim and her family didn't have a past they needed to break past.

Tim chuckled. "Maybe I'll make an announcement at halftime," he joked. "Honestly, though, I'm more concerned about your mom."

"My mom?"

"Tami Taylor is a scary woman," he said, feigning fear in his voice.

Julie pondered this. "I guess she is kind of the boss in the Taylor household," she conceded.

"She is," Tim agreed.

"You really wanna go to Dillon?" Julie asked.

Tim nodded. "They're the only ones that matter, really."

Note: So...thoughts? Ready for Dillon? Let me know! I hope ya'll enjoyed this chapter :)