Jesus, I'm so busy these days. Writing becomes harder and harder to do, so I apologize for these long delays :(

Still, enjoy :)

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters and I write for my own pleasure and that of the readers.


"What are you doing up so early?" a sleepy Max asked Mike when she saw him sitting in the kitchen, nursing a cup of what looked to her like tea. "It's five in the morning."

"I could ask the same about you." Mike retorted.

"I had to pee but you don't see me making a cup of tea." Max poked out her tongue as she took a glass and filled with with water.

"Can't sleep." Mike shrugged.

"El keeping you up?" Max grinned. "You two have certainly increased the amount of sex you do."

"Not this time." Mike chuckled. "My book's getting officially released today, I'm a bit nervous."

"Why?" Max wondered. "El said that three weeks ago, during your party, you were told that the pre-orders had passed the three million mark. Isn't that a bestseller already?"

"I know." Mike sighed. "Still, it's jitters. I doubt I will ever get rid of those no matter if I released twenty bestsellers beforehand."

"So, now tell me, what's going on between you and El?" Max asked, sitting down at the kitchen island.

"What do you mean?" Mike wondered.

"Come on." Max scoffed. "Ever since that book party, you two had so much more sex than usual. I mean, you do it in the morning, the evening and don't think I haven't noticed you doing it during the day too."

"Huh." Mike hummed, seeing the logic in Max's words.

She was right. While he and El had regular intercourse, ever since that party, it had become a lot more frequent. And most of the time, it was El who was initiating it and the few times Mike did, El immediately agreed by her actions, even when he had seen her dead tired after a hard day of training. Up until now, he never thought about, way too happy that it was happening that frequent but Max's words had awoken a concern in him that El was doing it because something happened during the party.

"You know what, you're right." Mike admitted. "I really should talk to her and ask if something's going on."

"I didn't want to put a bug in your ear." Max apologized. "Just wanted to know."

"No, not your fault." Mike shook his head. "Now that I know, I can maybe find out if there's a special reason for why she's so much more affectionate than usual."

"Well, I'm heading back to bed." Max said after downing her water. "Got some more sleep before I get to wake Lucas the way he loves."

"With his penis in your mouth?" Mike lifted an eyebrow.

"Oh yeah." Max nodded and got up, turning around to face Mike one more time. "One more thing."

"Yes?" he looked at her.

"Offer still stands." she winked and opened her robe, revealing her naked body.

"Tempting, but no." Mike laughed. "You realize if I ever tell El you did this, she will shove her foot so far up your ass that you will taste her nail polish."

"You're a strong man." Max was impressed. "I don't know many straight men who'd say no if I offered myself to them."

"I love El too much to even think about cheating on her." Mike told her. "Doesn't matter if the woman offering herself to me is Miss World."

"Well, I think I'll head back to bed and prepare myself for waking up Lucas." she grinned and walked out of the kitchen.

"Unbelievable." Mike chuckled and took another sip before grabbing a water bottle from the fridge for El.

He walked back to his room, where he found his love still in bed, sleeping soundly. The comforter was down a bit, revealing her naked breasts and his manhood began stirring, though he worked hard at suppressing it for now. When he put the water bottle down, El's eyes opened, her mouth twitching up into a smile.

"Morning." she hummed and turned onto her back and Mike could see that she was sore if not hurting. "What time is it?"

"Just after six." he told her and got back into the bed.

"Come here you." El smiled and climbed on top of him, leaning down to kiss him.

"Wait." he stopped her.

"What, morning breath to severe?" she wondered and grabbed the water.

"That too, but that's not why I stopped you." he sighed. "El, what's going on?"

"What do you mean?" she looked at him.

"I didn't really notice before, since I was too busy enjoying it, but Max pointed out to me that since that book release party we went to, we had had a lot more sex than before." he answered.

"And that's bad how?" she became apprehensive.

"El, you're hurting, I saw it when you turned around just after waking up." he sighed. "So please, what's going on?"

"Please don't leave me." she began crying, falling forward to hug him.

"What?" Mike was momentarily too stunned to even hug her back. "Why would I leave you?"

"I'm not with you for your money." El sobbed. "I love you."

"El, look at me!" he demanded and pushed her upper body back up, her eyes meeting his. "I know you don't want me just for my money."

"How can you?"

"Because unless you lied about it, you fell in love with me before you knew that I was a writer." he told her. "Before you knew I had money."

"I didn't lie." she was adamant.

"And I believe you." he nodded, seeing no signs of her lying. "So, as much as I enjoyed all that sex, please don't overexert yourself anymore. I hate to see you in discomfort."

"Thank god!" she rolled off of him. "My pussy is so sore."

"Remember that it was mostly you who initiated the sex." he chuckled.

"You know, Max was right." she sighed.

"About what?"

"You really are splitting me in two with that giant dick of yours."

"Yeah, yeah." he laughed and rolled her into his arms, spooning her.

"WHOOHOO!" they both heard coming from outside the open window.

"What the hell?" El wondered. "That sounded like Max."

"Probably doing things to Lucas again." Mike chuckled as El got up to look out the window to see if something was amiss.

"I don't fucking believe it." El laughed.

"What's going on?" Mike wondered and stood up to stand behind her, looking at what she was looking.

"No, don't look!" El tried to stop him but Mike was already there.

"What the fuck? Did she move her bed?" he asked, seeing Max's body bounce up and down, her legs spread and her breasts swaying to the rhythm she had and small parts of Lucas' body visible.

"I think they're doing it on her desk." El mused and turned around to look at Mike's face. "And stop ogling my best friend."

"I'm not ogling her." he laughed, wrapping his arms around her body and inadvertently poking her with his growing erection. "But it's like a car crash, hard to look away."

"And you react to it." she said accusingly, though she too was affected.

"Who wouldn't." he shrugged as they watched Max open her eyes, look straight at them and give them a wink before she grabbed her breasts and played with her nipples.

"What the..." El gasped. "Did she just...?"

"I think she did." Mike laughed and pulled El away.

"Well, now you have seen her naked." El sighed, once again feeling a little subconscious given that Max's breasts were bigger than hers, even though not by much.

"And not for the first time." Mike chuckled before realizing what he had said.

"What?" she shrieked. "When?"

"Uh..." he stammered but then deflated. "This morning, when I was in the kitchen. She opened her robe and told me that the offer still stood."

"What did you tell her?" El gasped, feeling her ire rise.

"The usual." he shrugged. "That I loved you too much to ever think about cheating on you. And that I wouldn't risk my friendship with Lucas for a booty call."

"Okay, that's it." El huffed. "Max's ass, get ready to meet my foot."

"You could use a wooden spoon when she's least expecting it." he suggested with a smirk, sitting against the headboard of his bed.

"Ew!" El gagged. "I won't shove a wooden spoon up her ass, we'd never get the stink off of it again."

"We could buy a new one." Mike laughed. "But I meant that you could whack her one on the ass with the spoon when she's least expecting it."

"Huh, I might do that." she nodded. "You know, this soreness sucks."

"Is it that bad?"

"No, but normally, I'd screw your brains out right now to get the image of my friend naked out of your head." she moped. "Or kicking her ass because she showed you that image."

"See, if you hadn't been so affectionate the last two weeks, you could do that." he joked.

"You know, come to think of it, you saw naked parts of all of my roommates already." El pointed out. "Stacy took off her shirt and bra in front of you and Jennifer more or less rode your face with only a thong on under her skirt."

"Yeah, I kinda have that effect on the ladies." Mike tried to be arrogant but couldn't stop himself from laughing.

"Shut up!" she laughed with him and dropped a kiss on his lips.

"Now come on, since we can't have sex, why don't we go out for some breakfast?" she asked, getting up. "Your treat."

"Good that we have that decided." he said sarcastically and got up as well.

"Consider it a punishment for ogling my best friend." she poked out her tongue and gave him a whack on his ass before running out of the room to get to the bathroom.


"Too bad that Dustin didn't want to come." Mike sighed as he opened the door, Will and Chris also exiting his car. "Do any of you know what's going on with him?"

"Not really." Will shrugged. "Probably problems with Jennifer. Otherwise, why would he be this glum."

"He sounded so normal yesterday when we made the final plans for tonight's poker game." Mike argued.

"It happened after lunch." Chris said. "We talked about his upcoming sixth week anniversary with her and then he had to make a phone call and afterwards, he was like that."

"Maybe she broke up with him during that call?" Will suggested as Mike opened the door.

"What the...?" he was surprised when he saw the girls on the couch and El on the armchair, Jennifer sitting in the middle with a blanket over her and a large amount of wet tissues around her, another held in her hand with which she constantly wiped tears. "What's going on? Did something happen?"

"As if you don't know!" Jennifer yelled at him.

"Seriously Mike, I really thought you were a good guy." Stacy shook her head and even El looked sat at him.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Mike was completely gobsmacked, looking at Will and Chris who also could only shrug.

"I thought Dustin was your friend." Max said accusingly. "And Jennifer was always nice to you, but then you turn around and do this? You fucking..."

"HEY!" Mike shouted, everyone looking at him surprised, having never heard him loud like that. "I restate my questions and please someone give me a real answer. What the hell is going on and what did I supposedly do?"

"You told Dustin about my past relationships and my number of boyfriends." Jennifer wailed. "He called me this afternoon and broke up with me!"

"What?" Mike was confused. "I did no such thing!"

"Who else could it have been?" Jennifer gave him an angry glare, accentuated by her red-from-the-tears eyes. "Except the girls, you're the only one who knew about it and who also knows Dustin."

"Um..." Chris held up his hand and stepped forward. "I think that's my fault. I told Dustin."

"What?" Jennifer looked confused and shocked at him. "How would you know about my past? We've never met until Mike moved in here and introduced us to you guys."

"Bob told me." Chris shrugged.

"Who's Bob?" Jennifer looked even more confused, her tears momentarily forgotten.

"Robert Fallon?" Chris elaborated. "Maybe five foot six, kinda scrawny? Fair skin, freckles, reddish hair?"

"Oh, him! He's also a student at CaƱada." Jennifer remembered. "I went on one date with him and we didn't even have sex. How do you even know him?"

"He's at Man-hatten's every day." Chris told her.

"Wait, I heard of this, isn't that a gay bar?" Max asked.

"A bar and club in one, yes." Chris looked at her. "So?"

"Why would Robert go to a gay bar?" Jennifer wondered.

"Because he's gay." Chris laughed.

"Why would he even go out with me then?" Jennifer mused. "No wonder he didn't react to my advances."

"To be fair, Bob's gayer than gay, he makes Chris look straight." Will chuckled. "He's also a nymphomaniac manslut."

"What does that mean?" Mike wanted to know.

"He essentially offers his ass to anyone in that bar who wants it." Chris laughed. "I don't think he ever wants to be the active part, he just wants cock inside his ass. Or mouth. But mostly ass."

"I have trouble reconciling that image with the one in my memory." Jennifer was doubtful. "I mean, he gave off some weird vibe but I'd have never pegged him as gay."

"We once saw him getting fucked by a guy at the club."

"What, they sneaked into a quiet corner, or so they thought?" Stacy chuckled.

"No, the club offers rooms at the back for exactly that purpose." Chris explained. "Customers don't have to pay rent for those rooms but are asked for a, ah... contribution... for changing the sheets and cleaning the room afterwards and they offer free condoms in those rooms too."

"I guess that's why they're getting away with it." Mike mused. "Otherwise, they'd have to register as a brothel or hotel, like those that rent rooms by the hour."

"What do you mean?" El asked.

"They don't charge for the rooms, just for contributions, which implies that this money is voluntary." Mike shrugged. "Then again, I'm not versed enough in that particular kind of law to really know about it."

"So, if they have secluded rooms, how did you see them?" Stacy inquired.

"One day he found a guy who's now his favorite fuck buddy and they didn't close the door." Chris chuckled.

"I think, given the guy, that he slammed the door shut but with so much force that it opened again and they simply didn't check before they began fucking." Will added. "I mean, we did see Bob's pants completely ripped apart on the floor."

"Jesus, they must have been in a hurry." Max shook her head. "I mean, I often felt a certain need with Lucas but we never ripped our clothes apart."

"Might have been because of the guy's strength." Will suggested. "Mike, you might know him, he plays on the Stanford football team."

"I don't know the guys on the team personally." Mike said. "No idea which one of them is gay."

"Maybe you have seen him?" Will tried again. "About six foot seven or thereabout, definitely close to three hundred pounds, short-cropped hair, a tattoo running up his neck to his left cheek, ten inch cock as thick as my forearm."

"NO WAY!" Mike shouted. "Leon Carpentier?"

"Maybe, I don't know his name." Chris shrugged.

"He's one of the linemen on the team." Mike said. "They call him Bulwark because nothing gets past him."

"Strange name." Max remarked

"He's from France." Mike explained. "Bit I've seen him date girls."

"Maybe he likes both?" El suggested. "I mean, who's the gay one. The guy who's shoving his dick inside another person's ass or the guy who takes it?"

"You're right." Will realized. "Never thought of it that way."

"Still, his dick is scarily big." Chris shuddered.

"How do you know so much about his penis?" Max wondered.

"If you happen to walk by a room with an open door and you see a six foot seven giant pound the ass of a guy half his size with what looks like a nine or ten inch cock that's as fat as my forearm like he's jumping on a trampoline, that's an image that gets seared into your brain." Will chuckled.

"I guess it would be." Max had to admit, still remembering the image of walking into the house and seeing El bounce on Mike's dick.

"I have to talk to Dustin." Jennifer suddenly jumped up and walked towards the door.

"No, you don't." Mike put out his arm to the side and stopped her.

"Let me go!" Jennifer tried to get out of his grasp.

"Jen, he's right." El walked up to her.

"I have to try." she argued. "God help me, I love that guy."

"That's why you shouldn't go." Mike told her. "I will go. He might just shut you out because he feels hurt."

"And I will go with him." El added. "If it comes from us, he might listen."

"Why would he feel hurt, he broke up with me?" Jennifer was offended.

"Remember when I told you why I didn't want you come on to him?" Mike looked at her. "Dustin wears his heart on his sleeves, he goes all in in a relationship and he has been hurt bad by his last girlfriend, so the reason he dumped you was most likely to protect himself from future hurt."

"I hate this!" Jennifer began crying again and ran to her room.

"Lets go." El said. "The quicker we get to Dustin, the faster we can sort this out."

"Agreed." Mike nodded. "Guys, there's beer in the fridge, enough snacks to go around and you can order some food if you want."

"Will do." Chris waved at them.

"Mike, wait!" Will called after them.

"What is it?" Mike asked.

"Here." Will said and threw something at Mike, which turned out to be the apartment keys.

"Thanks." El smiled and left the house, pulling Mike with her.

"But if you touch the casserole in the fridge, I will cut off your hand." Mike added before he closed the door.

"Oh oh." Will laughed as the front door closed. "He shouldn't have said that."

"Why?" Stacy asked.

"Casserole!" Chris drooled and walked briskly to the kitchen.

"He lives for that stuff." Will chuckled. "Especially if it's chicken pasta."

"Oh oh." Max facepalmed.

"CHICKEN PASTA!" they heard a loud yell from the kitchen.

"There goes our lunch for tomorrow." Stacy sighed but then looked at Max, who stared right back.

"CHRIS!" both yelled and ran to the kitchen, seeing Will's boyfriend shoving another large spoonful of casserole into his mouth, the dish already more than half empty.

"WHT?" he humbled as he chewed, a string of cheese still hanging from his mouth. "Cn't you shee I'm eatng?"

"That was our lunch for tomorrow." Max huffed. "How can you even eat that, it's cold."

"Your point?" Chris hummed and shoved another spoonful into his mouth. "Oh my god, this is so good."

"Yeah, Mike's an amazing cook, isn't he?" Will grinned as he joined them.

"Damn, if he were gay, I'd offer him my ass just for more of his cooking." Chris threw out before eating more.

"That hurts my feelings." Will moped. "You're asking to be punished again."

"If it's the same as last time, I look forward to it." Chris winked at him as he began scraping the remains of the casserole together with the spoon to finish it.

"We'll see if you still think that when I have your hands bound together while your head is hanging from the bed and I shove my dick down your throat." Will huffed.

"I was very, very bad boy." Chris giggled.

"You know, if you really wanna punish him, don't have sex at all." Max suggested.

"But where would be the fun in that?" Will wondered. "By the way, will Lucas join us?"

"He said he would, his shift should be over by now." Max nodded.

"Done." Chris said proudly and began washing out the dish.

"We're so proud of you." Stacy deadpanned and walked out of the kitchen again.

"Yeah, hope you had fun with your hand." Max added and grabbed a six-pack of beer from the fridge.

"Will Mike really cut if off?" Chris asked Will, a bit concerned.

"No." Will shook his head. "Maybe just a finger, but not your hand."

"Please smile so I know you're joking!" Chris pleaded as he followed Will out of the kitchen. "Will?"

Unbeknownst of what was playing out, El and Mike were driving to the guys' shared apartment, Mike in the driver's seat while El sat next to him, both wondering what they would or could say to Dustin. Mike remembered Dustin's crushed mood when no girl he asked for prom said yes, leading him to accompany the rest of the gang stag.

Mike knew that Dustin had always been a guy to go all out in any relationship, friends or more. He took what considered treason very seriously and while he often gave people second chances, regaining his trust was a time consuming process. In this case, Mike was sure that it would be easier, since Jennifer didn't really do anything to violate his trust, it was apparently only due to Dustin's concerns about getting his heart broken again in the future that he did what he did.

"We're here." Mike proclaimed and parked the car, both exiting it and going into the building before climbing the stairs to the fourth floor.

"Lets hope he'll listen to us." she said as Mike opened the door with the keys he had gotten from Will. "Dustin?"

"Dustin?" El repeated Mike's call, looking in the living room and kitchen but finding nobody.

"Dustin, you here?" Mike called out again, knocking on the door of his room.

"Leave me alone, Mike!" came the reply.

"Dustin, talk to us." El called back. "We know what happened."

"Leave me alone!" Dustin repeated.

"Can we come in?" Mike asked.

"NO!" Dustin yelled back quickly, making Mike and El look at each other.

"Tough." Mike shook his head and opened the door, seeing Dustin desperately trying to dry the tears on his face.

"I told you to stay out!" Dustin yelled again and turned around to hide his face.

"Dustin." El sighed and walked up to him, turning him around and simply hugging him.

"Why can't I have luck in love?" Dustin sniffed, collapsing into her embrace but El pushed him away and gave him a gentle slap. "Ow! What was that for?"

"What the hell is wrong with you?" El asked. "You dump her and you complain about not having luck in love?"

"Do you know how many boyfriends she had?" Dustin asked incredulous.

"Yeah, nineteen in the past two years." Mike nodded.

"See? I don't want to be just an interlude number twenty before she continues with twenty-one to thirty." Dustin pointed out. "Wait a second, you knew and you didn't tell me?"

"It was not my place to tell you." Mike replied. "Also, I told her to stay away from you and she did until you initiated sex with her."

"But..."

"Dustin." Mike sighed, interrupting him. "Do you accept that I can read people well?"

"Yeah, it's scary sometimes." Dustin nodded, wondering where Mike was going with this.

"Then there's one thing you can believe." Mike continued. "Jennifer feels more for you than she did for any of her previous boyfriends."

"How would you know that?"

"Because she's crying at home." El told him."If she just saw you as a temporary conquest or interlude, would she do that?"

"I don't know." Dustin groaned, unsure of himself.

"Let me ask you something." Mike said. "When you think of her, what do you feel?"

"Are you kidding me?" Dustin scoffed. "Not a second goes by where I don't want to go to her, hold her, kiss her."

"Good." Mike smiled and walked behind him, where he started to push him forward.

"What are you doing?" Dustin asked, unable to resist Mike's push. "Jesus, when did you get so strong?"

"We're going to bring you to your girlfriend and you can sort things out." Mike laughed and pushed him out of the apartment.

"Okay, why did I come with you if all you had to do was push him?" El asked as she walked behind them, grinning.

"Because you volunteered." Mike poked out his tongue.

Dustin could only enter the car with apprehension. He had no idea what to expect.


Chapter ends here. It's 11 pm now and early shift tomorrow. God, I hate getting up early -.-

Review please :)