Oh my God, I'm so sorry for the lack of updates! It's been what, like 3 months?

Anyways, really, really, really sorry for that! I've been so busy with... life in general! Hahaha, but I will do my very best to update as soon as possible!

Thank you to everyone who has been sending me messages, reviewing the chapters, and all the alerts and favorites!

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Moonlight or any characters except for Vittoria and those you don't know!

Vittoria De Luca nearly hit the top glass of her freezer as she was startled by the very loud, forceful knock on her apartment door. She managed to exit her freezer and put her clothes on as fast as she could before whoever was on the other side of the door could knock it down.

She hurried out of her bedroom and into the living room where the knocks got increasingly louder. She swung open the door and felt her stomach drop to the floor.

"Oh, Beth," she said, taking in the angry face and overall presence of the blond woman. Beth must have driven here the moment work let out. "I can explain-"

"Are you serious! I must have called you at least ten times today and you couldn't answer one of them?" Beth ranted, inviting herself into her apartment.

Vittoria sort of stood there, taking a scolding like a young child. Did she hear what Beth was saying? Yes and no. She was mostly repeating herself so the first sentence kind of told her all she needed to know about where this convocation was going. Beth was incredibly mad at her for a couple of reasons, the most predominant one right now had to be for not answering her phone.

However, she really couldn't complain about getting in trouble with her friend. After keeping her date a mystery to Beth for a week, she shows up at the party with not only the host of the event but one of the biggest men in L.A. And then, of course, the whole "disappear for 24 hours without any indication that she was alive."

"And on top of everything," Beth said, snapping her attention and coming to a closing after a very, very, very long list of reasons why she was angry, "you didn't tell me - your friend who confides in you for advice - that Josef Kostan was your date?"

Vittoria spoke after a moment of silence. "Can I explain?"

"Fine," Beth said, taking a seat on the sofa, arms crossed, with an angry expression masking a curious one.

"First off, my phone hasn't rang once today since ten o'clock, my cell phone that is. But, I'm sorry anyways," Vittoria said, trying to remember if she had heard her phone rang. The last time it rang was when Lisa called, but she had answered that one at Josef's apartment. Agh, did she seriously just say that sentence in such a… "I don't absolutely hate my one night stand" kind of tone?

Beth raised an eyebrow. "You're kidding me, right? Let me see your phone, I swear to God I called you about a million times."

"Okay, fine. But I'm telling you, it hasn't rang," Vittoria said, walking over to where her phone usually was, which in this case would have been on the kitchen counter, but it wasn't there. She checked her purse but had the same result as the kitchen counter. She even went as far as checking by her freezer but had no such luck. She tried to recall what she did when she got to her apartment, but could only remember trying not to kill everything and anything that breathes.

"Where the hell could it be?" she muttered to herself, checking another purse, even though she knew that it wouldn't be there seeing as the last time she used that purse, she had just moved to L.A. Vittoria could have sworn that she had put her phone into her back pocket once Josef had handed it to her - .

But then it hit her.

"God damn it," she said, loud enough for Beth to hear her.

"What is it?" Beth called back as she entered the living room, looking rather annoyed.

Vittoria closed her eyes, trying to imagine herself mentally strangling him with a very satisfying success. "My phone is gone but I know where it is."

Beth blinked, slightly confused. "Well, where is it?"

"Um, I'll explain that later. My point is, I left my phone somewhere so that's why I didn't get your calls," Vittoria said, searching through her day, trying to figure out when he could have taken her phone. There was only an hour time frame when he could have grabbed it, but then again, she was ninety-nine percent sure that she had it on her when she changed into the clothes Brenda brought over.

"Fine," Beth sighed, "then explain how Josef Kostan became your date!"

"Well, that's kind of a long story," Vittoria admitted, hoping that she wouldn't have to explain it to Beth. The last thing she needs is for her to know exactly what happened over the past week or so.

"I've got all night," Beth said, refusing to let this go. She had already lost the phone argument and she wasn't ready to let this one go as easily.

Vittoria sighed. "Alright. Well, a few weeks back, I had to do this interview on him - this was before you started to work at The L.A. Scoop - and we got to know each other, just mindless flirtation, nothing serious. And then he asked me to be his date so I said yes, because who wouldn't? And I didn't want to tell you because I didn't exactly know how."

Vittoria knew that her 'story' was the biggest load of bullshit she had ever said (the only other time that could have come close was when she had argued her way out of a parking ticket a year ago). They got to know each other better? Well, they did but it was through a web of confusion, annoyance, and fighting. And, of course, the whole sex thing.

If Beth actually fell for this story, she would eat her foot.

Thankfully for her foot, Beth replied. "I don't believe a word you just said, but I'll take it. For now, that is."

"So, er, how was your night?" Vittoria asked, desperate to change the topic. The last thing she needed was for Beth to not only find out how and why Josef Kostan became her date, but also what exactly happened last night. Vittoria was sure that Beth would, being her nosy information hound self, eventually find out but she was going to do everything in her power to make that harder than necessary.

Beth sighed, knowing fully well that she was just trying to change the subject. But, since she was dying to talk to a woman about her day, she caved. "Last night was indescribably perfect. This morning, however, was an absolute disappointment."

"How so?" Vittoria asked, rather curious as to what Mick could have done to make Beth so… bland in answering. Normally, she would have been bouncing off the wall with details - both good and bad - but now she felt as if she had to literally force the answers out of her friend.

"Everything was perfect. The timing, the place, the day. Everything. But, for whatever unknown reason, he couldn't follow through and just kiss me," Beth explained, adding the last part for Vittoria's sake, whose eyebrows had shot up faster than they had in quite sometime.

"When did you see him this morning?" Vittoria asked, not wanting to admit that she wasn't all that surprised that Mick hadn't followed through. She was sure half of it was because of the whole 'She's a human, I'm a vampire' deal and half of it was because he was scared of his emotions.

Beth blushed slightly. "Well, I sort of stayed over at his place. Nothing happened, of course! We just stayed up late talking and he thought it would be good if I stayed over at his apartment."

The idea of kissing in apartments made Vittoria's mind flash to the beginning of her day and exactly what happened on her way out of the door. Of course, she was still trying to convince herself that that never happened.

"Oh, I see," Vittoria said, forcing herself to think about Beth and her problems rather than her own. "But he didn't kiss you, right?"

She sighed again, the kind of sigh you make when you are disappointed, which she obviously was. "Nope. Not even a kiss on the cheek."

"I'm sorry Beth," Vittoria said, rather sincerely, putting a reassuring hand on her slightly tanned arm. It now made sense why Mick had gone over to Josef's apartment, no doubt because of what had happened between him and Beth this morning. She was actually kind of glad that she had this kind of blackmail on him… actually, there wasn't much blackmail so she was, basically, right back where she started. "I know how much you like him."

Beth gave her a half real - half fake smile. "Thank you, but I don't want to talk about Mick anymore. I actually want to know where you were last night."

And just like that, the spotlight had been turned on her once again.

"W-What exactly do you mean?" Vittoria stuttered, a bit surprised by Beth's sudden change in direction.

Beth rolled her eyes. "Come on, I saw you two leave last night. I want to know what happened, although something tells me I already know."

"If I tell you, will you promise not to tell a soul?" Vittoria asked, sighing in defeat. She figured that if she didn't tell her, she would probably just hear from Mick about how he saw her leave Josef's apartment earlier that morning.

"I promise."

Vittoria sighed. "Do you remember that time I went over to your house and we - well, mostly you - had a couple of drinks and got a little drunk?"

"Yes, wasn't that the night I kissed Mick at the door?" Beth wondered out loud, recalling that night with slight embarrassment.

She nodded. "More like made out with him but that's beside the point. Anyways, I was in that situation last night, kind of."

"So what, you had a hot and heavy make out session with Josef Kostan?"

Vittoria winced. "Something like that."

"Wow," Beth said, her eyes wide with curiosity. It seemed almost impossible and quite strange to think of the two of them even dating, let alone doing something physical… actually, she probably should have switched the two of those, "were you drunk or tipsy or sober?"

"I was very, very, very drunk," Vittoria answered almost instantly.

Beth couldn't help but grin - just a little bit. "So, what happened after that?"

And suddenly, Vittoria found herself in a very awkward position.

"Well…" she started but stopped, trying to figure out what exactly she was going to say. On one hand, it was quite obvious what had happened last night. Beth knew that they had left together so it wasn't as if she could have explained that without feeling any embarrassment. She was also quite sure that Josef had told Mick, which meant that it would all somehow get back to Beth.

On the other hand, well, she would be admitting to having slept with the one and only Josef Kostan.

Beth raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? Just spit it out."

Beth knew that she was being slightly insensitive but she was nearly one hundred percent sure that something a bit more intimate than "making out" had happened last night. She wanted Vittoria to feel like she could talk to her and tell her anything, or maybe she just wanted her friend to feel a bit embarrassed. More than anything, she just hated being kept in the dark. Especially when it came to things like this.

Vittoria let out an angry sigh. "Fine, we had sex. Happy?"

"I'm glad you told me," Beth said, sweetly.

She rolled her eyes. "Yes, well, that would also be the reason why I wasn't at work today."

"So, did you leave your phone at Josef's place, then?" Beth asked, trying to block out the mental image of her friend and Mick's friend doing other dirty things.

"Yeah, something like that," Vittoria muttered. She was glad that she was able to get that off her chest, but at the same time she still hated admitting that she made a mistake. And Josef Kostan was a very big mistake… well, a mistake.

A silence fell upon the two of them until it was interrupted by the sound of a cell phone ringing. Seeing as Vittoria's cell phone was in the possession of a very attractive yet incredibly annoying man, she knew that it was Beth's the moment it rang.

"Hello?" Beth answered, giving Vittoria a look that basically told her to stay where she was. As her facial expression changed from relaxed, to confused, to excited, Beth walked over and grabbed her shoes, showing some indication that she had to leave or was, at least, going to leave.

"Where are you going?" Vittoria asked, raising an eyebrow as Beth slipped on her shoes, already having hung up the phone.

Beth sighed. "My friend just got engaged and she wants me to go over and congratulate her or something."

"Oh, give her my congratulations as well," Vittoria said, feeling very grateful for which ever one of Beth's friends had interrupted her interrogation.

Beth rolled her eyes and headed for the door. "Fine, I'll let it go for the next couple of hours."

"Whatever you say," Vittoria said, holding the door open so Beth could leave and (hopefully) forget that such a convocation ever happened.

"Oh, and Vittoria?" Beth said, having already walked out into the hallway, she turned to face her, a sly grin on her face. "Mick told me what you are. Well, actually, it kind of slipped out. Guess it's one less thing you'll have to explain."

Vittoria De Luca found herself standing next to the door, mouth wide open (as was the door), trying to mentally plan the demise of Mick St. John.