Ditto.

He placed crate of glasses by the sink. His mind swirling with ten new questions after another. What the fuck did ditto mean? Granted he didn't know what he'd been expecting that night, but Troy knew better than to press her. Things were going too damned great and he didn't want to do anything to rock the boat. He couldn't risk it.

Instead he'd just have to… adjust.

Ditto.

Troy took a drink order and kept moving he had too. Anything to get his mind off this adjusting crap. He was Troy Freaking Bolton, he made decisions, and everyone else fell in line. Now he suddenly standing here trying to interpret the meaning of Ditto.

Nevertheless, to be more accommodating, because he was such a sweet person and had no ulterior motive hidden in his selfish little heart, he hadn't slept in his own room for a full night all week. He spent every night that she asked, with her.

To his own mortification, he'd even waited with bated breath every evening to see if she'd invited him to stay. She was always happy to share her bed, just not always for the whole night. It made him wonder about her hotline. If anything he had said that night would make a difference.

Troy hadn't actually seen the headset in question. It use to always be on her night stand, only lately it had gone missing. Reason told him that he shouldn't care about what she did, or even who she did it with for that matter. He knew that she merely talked guys through phone sex, he'd see here do it and knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she hadn't gotten one iota of sexual gratification from that conversation with Sam. She been folding her laundry, of all things.

Even knowing that, Troy still hated the idea of her talking, that way, to another guy. It made his brain cramp. So when he noticed the headsets disappearance he decided she'd quit.

You could drive a truck through the hole in that shaky self-serving deduction, but until he had proof otherwise, he fully planned to delude himself.

Troy slide the drink across the bar with a little bit more force than necessary.

"Hey, watch it."

"Sorry about that," Troy said sincerely as we wiped the counter.

Turning to around he spotted her coming into the bar with bag slung over her shoulder, Ryan following closely behind as they both went back and forth about something. She'd twisted her long hair into a big, messy bun and had anchored it to the back of her head with a couple of chopsticks. Troy frowned. At least, he supposed they were chopsticks, but who the hell knew? He didn't keep up with women's hair fashion. All he knew was that he loved her hair. He let go of an unsteady breath.

"Troy?" Sharpay said, her exasperated tone indicating that she'd been unsuccessfully trying to get his attention. "Hey," she waved a hand in his face.

He blinked. "Sorry, did you need something?" he said turning his attention to Sharpay.

"Ice?" her eyes twinkled with humor, "Come on Loverboy wake up."

"On it." He began heading towards the back.

Gabriella watched him disappear into the back room. "What the hell am I going to do?" she said setting her things down on top of the bar. "I don't know how much longer I can keep this up. I canceled the phone line and at the end of the month that's it. I'm officially out of business. I'll be jobless. Unemployed. A staggering college statistic."

She was also flooded with relief. She'd made it a point to hide it from him, which she knew in her heart of hearts was wrong. Did she need the money? Yes. She could list a dozen plausible reasons why she could keep it, but only one reason to let it go. Troy.

And that one reason was enough.

Which was why she called the phone company the next morning and arranged to have the live disconnected at the end of the month. It was paid for until then. Might as well see it to the end.

Ryan rolled his eyes and gave her a big sigh, "you're going to get another job. We can get a paper tomorrow and start circling things that look promising."

"I know. It's just so weird."

"Well," Ryan shrugged his shoulders, "It's probably for the best that you get out now before you become jaded."

Her mind fluttered back to Hayden. He'd been a perfectly innocent guy and she immediately accused him of having a perversion. There had to be one. After all they all wanted something. There were days when she cringed when she heard her phone ring. Sometimes, even on the most basic calls, she would catch herself rolling her eyes and getting queasy. It was already starting to trickle into her real life.

She didn't want to feel that way about Troy.

Ryan shifted in his stool. "What did I say?"

Gabriella shook her head. "It's nothing. I'm good."

Taylor came up to them with severing tray. "Here you go, Ice tea and cheese sticks."

"Love you Tay," Gabriella called out as she looked back at the cheese sticks with desire. "What am I going to do when I can't afford these."

"Um, you ask your boyfriend to buy them for you?" Ryan laughed as he picked one up and dipped it in the sauce.

Gabriella rolled her eyes, "Okay fine, I'll admit it. I may be having a bit of an episode." She picked up her own cheese stick and dipped it.

It was heaven.

"That's my girl." Ryan winked in her direction before feeling a hand on his shoulder.

"I thought I was your girl?" Sharpay said as she placed a kiss on his cheek.

"There is plenty of me to go around," Ryan said reaching for a napkin to dab at his chin.

Everyone chuckled for a while. And Gabriella felt some of the stress roll off her shoulders. After a moment Gabriella settled only to catch sight of Troy as he emerged from the back room with a two bags of ice. She watched has he emptied them into the big tub they had for ice and she felt a deep appreciation for his arms.

When he finished up he came over and Gabriella felt a warmth spread on her cheeks because she been caught staring. Ryan was still distracted with his sister as they caught up on all things Zeke, which from what she could hear walking past his room the other night seem to be going just fine.

"Hey." She heard herself say.

"Hey beautiful," Troy said leaning across the bar to place a quick kiss on her cheek. "You just can't get enough of me huh?"

"I was hungry." Gabriella smiled. "Cheese stick?"

Troy smiled as he reached for one and took a bite.

Gabriella made a face. "You'll dip Doritos in sour cream but you don't dip your cheese sticks?"

Troy shook his head, "I like my cheese, pure. Just like my woman." He said the last part with wicked grin.

"Oh shut up."

"You shut up," he teased with a playful smirk.

"Make me."

"I will," Troy leaned forward on his elbows. "But you might moan a little."

That made her cheeks burn. Damn him. For all intents and purposes, he might as well have placed a zillion kisses all over her body. Without warning that suffocating feeling blind-sided her and in an instant she turned on.

"Break it up you two," Sharpay placed her hand on the counter top. "I got an order of three drafts from the table in the back."

Troy popped the last of the cheese stick into his mouth with a wickedly knowing grin. "Coming right up."

Gabriella smiled as he made his way back over to his station and began filling the order. Simply being with him, feeling him unexpectedly sliding his hand into hers, or a tender kiss on her cheek, not to mention those more intimate moments.

At some point, and she didn't know when precisely, she'd fallen head over heels in love with him.

She knew that he didn't understand her reluctance, knew that he'd compromised by coming and spending the night with her, but Gabriella also knew that one night in his bed would be all it took for her to be firmly, irrevocably, attached to him and that happily ever after dream that had become brighter and brighter with every moment she spent with him.

"So you, him, his parents" Ryan said turning his attention back to Gabriella as his sister walked off with a tray. "Tell me all about it."

Gabriella smiled. "His family is amazing. Did you know he's one of five siblings?"

"Something like that, I know there are twins. He has pictures in his room." Ryan inched his stool closer to her. "Please, please tell me you got some gay vibes in that house from his brother. His father even? I'm not above home wrecking for my happiness!"

Gabriella let out a laugh, "No his parents are happily married and his brother is as straight ever."

"Damn it," Ryan clenched his fist in the air. "Please tell me he has a flaw. A third nipple, webbed feet, a crooked penis."

She felt her cheeks go red. Gabriella bit down on her bottom lips as she smiled and shook her head. If Troy did have any physical flaws she'd have found them by now. She let him make love to her, she relished every second that they spent together, and then after he left she would step back into reality, back to her lonely bed and … phone sex.

"He snores," she said even though she was still smiling fondly. She loved listening to him snore.

Ryan huffed. "Well, damn. What an inconsiderate son of a bitch?"

They both broke out into a fit a laughter again.

Troy's eyes shifted towards the end of the bar, and everything around her faded into insignificance, and he wanted her so desperately that he honestly thought his reason might completely snap and he's make the monumental error of devouring her right now, in public.

She caught him staring, the tentative smile she wore faded and he had the pleasure of watching those chocolate brown eyes darken into a melted milky Hershey delight. Her lids drooped, presumably under the weight of desire, and whether the move was intentional or not, he couldn't really say, but that small tongue, the very one that had locked his loins in a fiery pit of hell, peeked out. Gliding slowly over that ripe bottom lip.

He was hard. Not semi-aroused, or mildly turned on. No. he was granite hard.

He watched as she got up from the stool and excused herself. Once she walked past him and down the hall, Troy squeezed his eyes tightly shut and uttered a sizzling slur. He rubbed the bridge of his nose with curiously shaky fingers and made a valiant effort to get himself under control.

He had to get a grip. He had to just-

His cell phone chirped. He pulled it out of his pocket and glanced at the screen.

You can't look at me like that, Troy, especially in public. It … does things to me.

Troy raised a brow as he darted a look over his shoulder. His heart rate kicked into overdrive.

I'm sorry.

Shit. He let out a breath and his phone chirped again.

You should be.

Another message appeared.

When you look at me like that, like you want to eat me up, devour me… you make me want to touch myself… make me want to touch you.

Troy re-read the message twice before responding.

Yeah, well watching you lick your lips is particularly provoking, too. In fact, I almost dragged you back behind this bar.

"Jack and coke."

Troy jerked as he looked up at the customer and nodded, quickly grabbing a tumbler and filling the order. His phone buzzed and as soon as he exchanged the cash for the drink he picked his phone up.

Are you telling me that you've got a hard on? Right now? Right this very minute?

He chuckled and tapped the bar. "Tay I'm on break!"

"Alright," she called over her shoulder.

Troy lifted the phone to his ear as he started making his way to the back.

"Yes," she murmured, her voice a low throaty purr that instantly hissed through his blood.

"That's exactly what I'm saying." He was past caring about control or anything else for that matter. He just wanted her. Had to have her. Right now. "Where are you."

A beat slid to three and he listened to the thin, unsteady rasp of her breathing. "I think you should come back here."

Troy stopped in front of the woman's bathroom door and lightly knocked. A startled gasp sounded in his ear and he smiled. "I think you should open the door."

Gabriella bit her bottom lip as her gaze flew to the door. She barely resisted the urge to squeal. It was crazy, what they were about to do. Scandalous, even, and instead of reprimanding herself for being out of control, for being reckless, she simply opened the door.

Troy quickly entered the room, no regard for the fact that he'd just entered the lady's restroom. He shut the door behind him and locked it with a purposeful click. That click might as well have been shot gun at the start of a race, because the next thing she knew she'd lunged at him.

With a guttural growl of approval, Troy matched her enthusiasm, crushing her to him and she actually heard herself whimper. He felt so good. His kiss was hot and frantic, thrilling and impatient, Thank God, because thought she'd absolutely loved everything about this moment she knew she couldn't wait that long.

He tore his mouth from hers, then trailed thorough but speedy kisses down the side of her neck, along her jaw. Gabriella untangled her fingers from his hair, eagerly jerked his shirt from the waistband of his pants then sighed with pleasure when her hands found his bare skin.

He lifted her just as if she weighed nothing. Propping her up so that she was seated on the vanity with her legs parted making room for him.

A low masculine hum of pleasure hissed out of him, and his belly shuddered gratifyingly beneath her fingers. Getting beneath the shirt wasn't enough, she wanted it off. She tugged his uniformed polo over his head, then slung it over the stall door.

With a soft wicked chuckle he returned the favor, removing her t-shirt and tossing it behind him. His hot gaze fastened on her chest and she had the pleasure of watching his blue eyes darken with hunger. "I like the bright pink." He said with an unsteady breath as he traced the lacy edge of her bra.

Gabriella hand shifted down between them until she was holding him in her hand. A hot thrill snaked through her at the intimate contact. He was gloriously hard. She slipped the button of his pants and then pulled his zipper releasing him. An instant later, she had him in hand, tenderly working the hot slippery flesh over his rigid length.

She felt his warm fingers against her belly, felt her shorts give way beneath his questing hands. His mouth found hers once more. A hot probing kiss, the dizzy rasp of his tongue against her own.

She alternately lifted her hips as he tugged her shorts and panties down in two tugs. She blinked drunkenly, astonished with her own need. Troy withdrew a condom from his back pocket, then his pants and briefs sagged to his knees as he rolled on the protection.

He reached for her grabbing her hips, scooting her forward then guided himself to her center. The first nudge of him inside made Gabriella inhale sharply. Then he smoothly slid inside her, buried every glorious inch of himself to the hilt and she exhaled in satisfaction. The frantic storm inside her briefly quieted.

It didn't matter that they were hiding in a bathroom, that her panties hung from one ankle, or that on the other side of the door, roughly twenty-five unsuspecting people sat calmly drinking their beers and eating their dinners.

Nothing mattered but him being inside her.

Her world shifted and she clung to him. Troy expelled a harsh breath and he rested his forehead against hers, locked himself inside her. His hands came up and gently framed her face, then with a tender heart-wrenchingly sweet look, he lowered his mouth to hers once more.

She looped her arms around his neck, threw every ounce of passion she possessed into the kiss and simultaneously clamped her greedy muscles around him. Pleasure barbed through her, and the single wanton act was all it took to make Troy forget about being tender. His palms slid down her sides then wound around until her bottom rested in his hands. He kneaded her rump as he slid in and out of her, a hot thrilling game of seek and retreat that quickly stroked the fire raging through her blood.

A coil of tingly heat tightened in her womb and her breathing cam in sharp little puffs as he upped the tempo.

Harder, faster, and then harder still.

Troy's breathing grew labored as well, and a fine dew of sweat glistened on his shoulders. He pumped in and out of her, a rhythmic erotic bump and grind that made her inside quiver and dance as a result.

She couldn't get enough of him. Her hands mapped his body. His shoulders, his belly, the small of his back and when she felt the building of her orgasm she anchored them on his ass and writhed wildly against him.

Troy growled low in his throat, a masculine sound of pleasure that sang in her veins.

"Troy," Gabriella gasped brokenly. "I'm almost there.'

Troy increased his rhythm, pounded into her. One hand left her bottom, came around and messaged her clit. The shock of sensation made her open her mouth in a soundless wail from the back of her throat, and a few clever strokes later she came so hard she honestly feared she might lose consciousness.

Wave after wave of release eddied through her, sucking her under, lifting her up. Heightened sensation bolted through her with every eager spasm of the orgasm.

She heard Troy's breath catch in his throat, felt him tense, then a low keening growl sounded next to her ear as three hard thrust later, he joined her in paradise.

Troy placed a hand on the vanity to balance himself. "Do you know how much you're driving me crazy?"

Gabriella smiled. "Someone has to keep you on your toes."

"Do you have a plans for tonight?"

Her smile widened and hesitant joy expanded in her chest. "No," she said slowly.

"You do now," Troy smiled as he slowly pulled out of her.

After some post sex damage control to her hair and outfit, Troy pushed her hair to the side and placed a kiss on the back of her neck. "Gonna back to work now. Please let me know if there's anything else I can do for you tonight."

"I'll keep that in mind," she smiled enjoying his warmth. Then she felt a quick smack on her bottom. "Hey?"

"Couldn't resist love," he chuckled as he made his way out.

Gabriella giggled as she stood in front of the mirror watching the door close behind him. Her eyes looked back at her reflection and she couldn't help but smile.

Couldn't resist love.

It was everything to keep from jumping up and down for joy.

Later that night Troy smiled as he made his way up the stairs to the house. Tonight had been amazing. He'd had a perpetual hard on. Hell even with that performance in the bathroom. He wanted more. He somehow knew he always would. She was forever material. That kind of love that was constantly lauded in music and film, the ultimate brass ring, and he fully intended to reach for it.

For her.

He made sure he rushed through clean up, closed down as quickly as he could and he probably speeded the entire way home. But he didn't care. Tonight he was gonna tell her. He loved her. He also wanted her to agree to come home with him for spring break.

A quick look at his phone told him he was a little early, which was just what he wanted. He simply hadn't been able to wait to see her, to hold her. To just lay there and smell that fireball whiskey scent he fallen in love with.

He felt like an impatient kid with a dollar in his pocket at the candy store. He took the steps upstairs two at a time.

He wanted her.

Troy lifted his hand to knock on her bedroom door, but the sound of her laughter stopped him. A clammy sweat instantly broke out all over his body. He knew that laugh. He'd heard it the first night he'd stood in this door way, then had heard it several times since, only in those instances that sexy chuckle had been for him.

Troy swallowed and something stark and painful cut through his chest. He didn't know what made him do it but rather than knocking he just pushed door open quietly to let himself in.

"Oh, that's positively wicked. I like the way your mind works." She sighed dramatically, the sound at once sexy and hurtful.

Troy stopped in her doorway as she came into view. Gabriella stood in front of her mirror, the bedamned headset in place over her ears. He silently swore, felt that newfound hope he'd just moments ago entertained wither and die. His hands fisted at his sides.

She wore a dark pink bra, matching panties and nothing else. Need instantly filled him, but he ruthlessly tramped it down. She leaned forward wrapping a strand of hair in a curling iron. Ordinarily, he would have been content to simply watch her. It was fascinating really, that she sometime went through so much trouble to make herself beautiful for him, when all she had to do was breathe.

Then he forgot all about watching her, and instead watch as a familiar scene began to unfold right before his eyes.

"Oh Rick," she sighed. "You can't know how hot you're making me. Yes, yes I know. Oh, I'm wearing a black teddy and spiked heels. No, no panties," she sighed. "I never wear panties. I like to be readily accessible."

Troy told himself that she was playing a part. He plainly saw that. She was getting absolutely nothing out of this exchange. He reminded himself that she needed the money, she didn't have anyone. She was on her own, trying to make ends meet. Get through college.

He told himself all these things and, though he desperately wanted to laugh like he had the first time he'd seen her do this, Troy found himself unable to conjure the necessary humor to complete this scene.

A thousand needles were stabbing into his chest and that near-suffocating sensation took hold, but for a completely differently reason this time, he knew. His skin felt like it was going to split and a slow burn of humiliation and anger tore through him.

Troy smirked as she rounded out her performance once more with another long ecstatic howl of feigned sexual gratification. He was a fool. An utter and complete fool. He didn't wait for her to finish her call this time, but rather lifted his hands and applauded. His hands smacked together, cracking through her small room like gunfire.

She jumped and squealed and her startled eyes found his. "Troy," she gasp.

"Sorry I interrupted," he told her. "It's a bad habit, but one I'm committed to breaking. I swear it will never happen again." And it wouldn't. His mind clouded and he turned abruptly on his heel and headed back down the stairs.

He heard Gabriella call after him, heard her shout his name, but he was too upset to heed her, too caught up in his own stupidity to listen to anything she had to say.

God, he'd been an idiot.

"Troy, wait!" she pleaded. He heard her as he reached his car. "Please let me explain! I'm sorry, I just- " she drew up short. "Please."

Troy shook his head, feeling himself already coming undone. He pulled the car door open and got inside shutting it behind him loudly as he turned the car on again and shot out of the drive.