Ryan Atwood stared up at the ceiling and thought of Amelia. What time had he had promised to be back to her? Was it 3pm, 4pm? It only 2:30 so he had some time.

"What are you thinking about?" He had thought she was asleep—she had been snoring peacefully only five minutes ago.

"Nothing." He wrapped his arms around Taylor and squeezed her tightly. "You're awake."

"Hi." She smiled and kissed him. This was perfect; she forget had nice it was to lie in his arms—he made her feel so safe. "I snored, didn't I?"

"Yeah. You snore very ladylike though."

"Well that's good." Taylor propped herself up and ran a hand through Ryan's hair. "Penny for your thoughts?"

"This is amazing." She liked that answer very much; they kissed long and passionately. His hands moved slowly along her slim, soft body—he could hear her whimper in pleasure.

"That was amazing." It was Sunday afternoon, a full 24 hours or so after they had kissed in the garden. "I haven't had a Sunday afternoon like this in ages." She had turned down Summer and Seth's invitation to go to the beach; she had wanted Ryan badly and their beach getaway was the perfect way to get him over.

"I have to go soon." He moved to get dressed but she held him back tightly for a moment before releasing him.

"What's going to happen next?" She wanted him to break clean with Amelia right away, but he seemed reluctant.

"I'll call you. Are you free tomorrow?" Part of her revolted against his keeping the relationship secret; part of her revolted against the idea of stolen afternoons of sex but the other part of her did care about him deeply and didn't want to lose him.

"This can't go on forever."

"I know." He didn't know what to say. He wanted her and he felt a strong affection for Taylor but he didn't just completely stop loving Amelia. He had been with her for too long, and she had been so sweet, so good to him. Ryan Atwood could not break Amelia's heart—not yet. "I don't know what to tell you."

"I know Ryan—I don't know how I feel about all this either." Taylor wrapped her arms around him, not caring that she was naked before him. "I want to see you tomorrow though—I can't help it but I can't get enough of you." Her eyes were pleading with him to stay longer, to make love to her again. "Summer's gone at nine."

"I can't get away until noon."

"Come at noon then." They kissed deeply and then she watched as Ryan left her bedside. As she lay in bed Taylor racked her brain. She knew that what they were doing was wrong; Amelia seemed so sweet and loving—she didn't deserve to be treated so. At the same time, she wanted to be with Ryan—maybe he just needed time to sort his emotions out and make the final break with his long time girlfriend. Taylor knew how hard it was to end things with a long term lover; it had been hard with Andre-Michal and with David from Charleston—David! She couldn't continue to lead him on. He had called her the day after the party wanting to make plans but she had excused herself out of it to have dinner with Summer and Kaitlin and some of her UCLA friends.

"I have to break it off with David." What was she going to say to him? For all he knew, he had been having a great time with him; it was extra tough because she saw how in to her he was and he was a very sweet man. What to say, what to say? Relationships and love were much too complicated for Taylor right now. She thought of what Kaitlin had said about relationships the night before—that they were not worth the trouble; her solution was to hook up with as many men as possible. The girl confessed a complete lack of faith in love, even though she had examples of solid, lasting relationships all around her.

Kaitlin was obviously of little help. The dating philosophy of a 19 year old girl who liked her beer and pot a little too much did not really apply to Taylor's situation. She briefly considered the idea of dating Ryan and David at the same time—at least until Ryan made up his mind about Amelia, but she knew Ryan would never go for that. He would get jealous of David and break off with Taylor. She laughed at the hypocrisy of it, but there it was. David no doubt would not go for it either, and she couldn't bear the idea of dating one of them in second; plus, Taylor would never sleep with two different men at the same time. She wasn't a whore.

There then laid the problem. She could see herself, meeting Ryan in secret and carrying on a passionate sexual affair. The idea itself of being Ryan's lover made Taylor very aroused because he was a fantastic lover, but in the end she knew she would feel like a whore and that would only led to a fight and a end to their relationship…The girl stifled an urge to scream when she heard the apartment door open.

"Taylor!" It was Summer and Seth. Quickly she threw on a rope and met them in the living room. "What, did you go back to sleep?"

"Kind of—I've just been feeling kind of lazy."

"Well the beach was a bust. Seth saw some jellyfish and ran away like a girl."

"I did not run away like a girl—I screamed like a girl and ran away like a man."

"Well that's much better Cohen." Summer rolled her eyes and dropped her beach bag on the floor. "What's that smell?" The girl paused and sniffed the air closely. "It seems very familiar."

"I don't know. I don't smell anything." Taylor was suddenly tense and Summer and Seth knew it.

"It smells like manliness." Seth defiantly knew that smell; it was familiar but for the life of him could not place it.

"Did you have a guy over here while we were gone?" Summer said half jokingly as the blood rushed to Taylor's face she knew she had hit the mark. "Did you violate David?"

"It's Ryan's cologne!" The words rushed out of Seth's mouth just as Summer had finished her joke. When the blood drained from Taylor's face they knew they were right. All three were speechless.

"Wait. Ryan came over? You slept with Ryan." Taylor stood there, numb.

"Taylor—you slept with Ryan!" Seth was incredulous. "I thought you were just going to be friends."

"I know—I don't know…" She was at a loss for words. Taylor felt embarrassed and ashamed mortified at being found out and for her behavior—which all of sudden seemed very horrid. "Excuse me." Before either could say another word, she was in the guest bedroom, and had locked the door.

"Well—what do you think of that!" Seth could only laugh; only Ryan would get himself messed up in such a situation.

"Cohen—I see this ending very badly."

"For Amelia or Taylor?"

"For all of them." Summer stood silent, trying to devise a plan. "We need to stage an intervention. You talk to Taylor and I'll talk to Ryan."

"What am I going to say to Taylor?"

"What are you going to say to Ryan? Good job?" She knew Seth; he would give a half-hearted effort and then the two of them would end up talking about comics or music or Summer.

"Fine. Go talk to Ryan and I'll try and get something out of Taylor." Summer smiled; she liked it when he gave into his plans so easy.

"Good luck."

"What are you going to say to Ryan?"

"I don't know—but he's not going to screw up both relationships if I can help it."