"Do you mind?" Derek asked pointedly, upon walking into his dorm to find his roommate making out with his girlfriend. He slammed the door behind him, startling the pair out of their kissing.
"Sorry, man," Matt said, but he wore a shit-eating grin, betraying the sincerity of his apology. "Next time I'll hang a tie on the door knob..."
Kristy lightly swatted his shoulder. "Matt," she hissed, scandalized, making him laugh. "Sorry, Derek," she apologized, more earnestly.
"He's just jealous because his girlfriend's mad at him..." Matt teased.
"One: she's not my girlfriend," Derek pointed out, dropping his gym bag on the floor with a thud. "Two: I'm not jealous. I just don't need to see my roommate dry-humping his girlfriend."
"Hey!" Kristy yelped, this time at Derek. "We weren't dry-humping!" But her complaints were again drowned out by Matt's laughter.
"And three:" Derek persisted, "She's not just mad – she's fucking pissed. She'll probably never even speak to me again." He dropped heavily onto his bed looking entirely pitiable.
Kristy cocked her head, brow creased in sympathy over his obvious heartbreak. "What happened?" she asked.
"Yeah, man," Matt piped up, "What'd you do?"
Derek shot him a glare, but told the story anyway. "We were filming the commercial in Hawaii and everything was great, except that the hotel had overbooked and we were sharing a room..."
Matt interrupted by making a lewd gesture, causing Kristy to shove him off the bed.
"It was fine. But then she was teasing me and I started tickling her and one thing lead to another...and suddenly we were kissing." He shrugged awkwardly. Outside the heat of the moment, it sounded less like a natural progression of events and more than a little predatory.
"And she has a boyfriend?" Kristy asked, having been privy to him waxing poetic about Emily before (without him actually mentioning her name).
He nodded silently, wincing a little in anticipation of her judgement. When the silence dragged on for too long, he added, "But she kissed me back..."
"Does she know you like her?" Kristy asked.
"I assume so – it's not like I've exactly been secretive about it," he said. "I've never liked anyone like this – like this all-consuming, can't stop thinking about it, want to be around her all the time crush."
"Dude..." Matt lamented, shaking his head sombrely.
"That sounds like more than a crush," Kristy said gently, "It sounds like you love her."
Derek heaved a sigh, ran a hand over his head. "Well, she doesn't love me, so whatever these feelings are, I need them to stop."
Kristy and Matt shared a look then, a thoughtful expression crossing Kristy's face. "What do you think?" she asked.
"You think she'd go for it?" Matt replied, brow arching.
"She has asked about him," she said with a shrug. A smirk crossed her face. "You wanna?"
Matt mirrored her grin. "Derek, it's your lucky day – we're going to help you forget about this girl."
"I don't want to forget her," Derek countered. "I still want to be her friend – I mean, if she will ever even look at me again."
"I think the best way to show her you can be friends is to move on," Kristy gently encouraged. "Go on a date with someone else."
"What..." he stammered. "But..."
"There's a girl on the field hockey team with Kristy – she's asked about you," Matt said.
"I don't know that I'm ready to..." he started.
"Just go out for coffee, meet with her, get to know her," Kristy insisted. "You've got to get your mind off this girl and onto someone else before friendship is on the table."
Derek chewed his lip thoughtfully. "Maybe you're right," he admitted. It was clear from his tone, though, that he wasn't entirely convinced.
The door to Ian's office was open, but Emily knocked anyway, feeling timid and unsure of herself ever since the fateful kiss that had ruined everything.
On the plane ride home (during which Derek had been uncharacteristically silent), she'd arrived at the decision not to tell Ian what had happened between them. All she wanted to do was forget it had ever happened and she knew Ian well enough to know that he'd likely never let it go, turning it into a much bigger deal than it actually was.
Ian glanced up from his paperwork and, if he was surprised to see her there, he hid it well. "So, you're back, then?"
She frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?" she asked, referring more to his frosty tone than the words themselves.
"Nothing," he said dryly. "It's just nice that you've decided to take time away from your whirlwind media tour to actually train..."
She scoffed, rolled her eyes. "You know as well as I do that if I'd had any choice at all in the matter, I wouldn't be caught dead in a bikini commercial."
He shook his head. "I'd just hate to see my most promising gymnast miss her chance to make the Olympic team because she was too busy taking pretty pictures to put in the time at the gym..."
"I missed two days, it's not the end of the world! But in the gym today, you didn't even look at me – you passed me off to the assistant coach like I wasn't even worth your time!"
"Emily, you're not the only girl here," he said, rather snidely. "The world doesn't revolve around you."
"Why are you acting like this?" Emily snapped. "Is this really just about the commercial?"
"Maybe it's because I have to compete with this meathead rugby player for your attention lately," Ian countered pointedly.
"Are you really this insecure?" she asked, sighing in exasperation. "You're my fiance, you've got nothing to be jealous about!"
"Might I remind you that you never truly gave me an answer..."
"I told you..." she started, stopped, shook her head. "You know what, I'm not getting into this argument again. But, since we're on the subject of not answering...why didn't you pick up when I called you?"
He cocked his head to the side, fixing her with an almost patronizing look. "Emily, I was working. You have no idea all the paperwork that's required by the Admissions Committee before they arrive to evaluate you."
She pursed her lips, decidedly unhappy with his response. "You could have at least called me back when you saw I'd called."
"I didn't want to ruin your lovely vacation with a reminder that you have responsibilities back home – like a career and a fiance..."
She threw her hands up in the air in aggravation. "Whatever. I'm done indulging this jealous fantasy world you've built in your head. I'll talk to you when you've seen reason and can have a mature reasonable conversation." She slammed the door behind her, leaving before anger made her say something she couldn't take back.