After a lengthy talk with Auggie encompassing why she is no longer going to try and repair things with Cory and Topanga ('They don't actually care about my happiness or the life I've built'), why she'll be OK without them ('I've got you, Eric and Linda, Zay… I still have family'), and, less emotionally, how they can navigate the remainder of the wedding without any conflicts or incidents ('Ava can give me a list of activities where my presence is non negotiable and I'll make myself a wallflower at those and scarce at everything else'), Riley rejoins Lucas, Eric, and Linda in the dining room to see about plans for the day. As it's a largely unplanned day until the bachelor and bachelorette parties that evening, Eric and Linda are planning on doing a self-guided bike tour of the Cape, which they immediately invite Riley and Lucas to join. It sounds relatively enjoyable, but Riley figures she's already pressing all of her luck as a mostly reformed clumsy person with all of the dancing she's doing for the wedding and she politely rebuffs the invitation. When asked what they'll do instead, Lucas jumps in before Riley can say anything.

"I don't know that it'll take up the whole day, but I figure since Riley technically worked yesterday while she's on vacation, she has more than earned a massage."

"And will that be coming from you or…?" Linda's grin is impish.

If Riley didn't know any better, she'd swear there's a tinge of blush in Lucas' cheeks as he raises his glass of water for a quick drink. "The front desk is making an appointment at a local spa for us. So at least part of our day is spoken for."

It's news to Riley, though not unwelcome news. She can't imagine what made Lucas think of it, or why he'd bother to take such initiative for someone he's not really dating, but she also can't ask him that now with Eric and Linda present so she decides to just take the pleasant surprise for what it is. "That sounds wonderful, thank you." She leans over and kisses his cheek.

Linda sends a look in Eric's direction. "How come you never do anything romantic like surprising me with a couples massage?"

Eric sends a sly look right back. "Who says there's not going to be something waiting for you at the end of this bike tour?"

Riley watches as Linda pauses, considers the possibilities, and smiles, seeming to like what she determines may happen. The older woman grabs Eric's hand and pulls him to stand. "Well, not to eat and run on you, but we've got to go pick up our bikes. Catch you later!"

Riley and Lucas share a laugh at Linda's eagerness as the couple exits the dining room.

A moment passes before Riley turns her focus to her companion, finding the now empty room suitable for a change in topic. "I'm sorry for ducking out on you this morning, but I wanted to talk with Eric and it didn't seem right to wake you just for that."

"It's fine." Lucas assures, waving off her concerns. "I'm here to support you, remember?"

"I don't suppose your support extends to convincing her to talk to us?"

At the question, Riley and Lucas turn in their seats to face the entryway. Standing in the doorframe are her parents; Cory, though still pale, looks much more put together and overall better than he did last night, and he holds Topanga's hand with his uninjured one.

Riley stands, partially to be on even footing with them and partially to be better able to leave should she need to. "I don't think there's anything for us to talk about right now." She says, doing everything she can to let her calm and resolve from earlier take over.

Cory frowns, a wounded look marring his features. "How can you say that?"

"Because I'm not feeling very forgiving after what you did last night."

"After what he did last night?" Topanga repeats, incredulous. "You're going to hold that against him? He was high on the painkillers from his hand."

Lucas stands, his hand finding Riley's; she relaxes a bit into his grip. "High or not, he humiliated Riley. Not to mention his fight with Eric."

Topanga holds up a finger and glares at Lucas. "Young man, I understand that you think you have feelings for Riley, but this is a family matter." She turns her attention back to Riley. "I think the meaning of your father's gesture got lost in all of his...poorly chosen theatrics."

"Really?" Riley challenges, refusing to rise to the bait of hope as she has so many times before. "Please, tell me what I missed in all of his drunken rambling."

"I'll admit, it wasn't executed well, but I was trying to open the door for an apology."

Riley shakes her head. "Well, you failed. An apology usually includes things like the words 'I'm sorry' and an acknowledgement of what's been done wrong to make the apology necessary. What you did was beg for attention and pity."

"I meant an apology from you."

Oh.

Oh.

Riley blinks at Cory's words. The realization that he really hasn't even taken in what Eric had told him, slides down her spine in a cold chill. He still thinks he and Topanga have done nothing wrong. They still blame her for the past ten years. She feels Lucas squeeze her hand.

"Riley has nothing to apologize for."

Topanga once again scowls and tells Lucas to stay out of it.

Riley sees Lucas about to respond, but she doesn't want him to get sucked into their craziness, or for this to turn into another fight. She just wants to enjoy a quiet, uneventful day. She strokes the back of his hand with her thumb before he can speak. "It's all right, Lucas." Turning to face her parents directly, she sighs. "I don't know if you don't believe what Eric told you last night or if you don't remember because of the medication, but there's video and I can assure you that what he said was 100% true.

"I made my mistakes with how I handled the situation with Maya and Charlie, but you made yours with how you handled me. You were so preoccupied with getting me to follow in the footsteps of your legacy that you forgot that before I was Maya's friend I was your daughter and beyond that, just a human being. The pressure you put on me without any thought into what it was doing to me or what I needed or wanted...it was unbearable. And no matter how much time passes, no matter what I say or what I've achieved since then, it's more of the same.

"I'm not going to apologize for not following in your exact same footsteps, or for removing myself from a situation that was killing me. And I guess if doing that makes me selfish then I'm at least a little bit selfish. But I'm also alive. And happy, and healthy, and successful, and all of that was achieved in spite of you.

"And really, that's all I have to say to you."

With Lucas in tow, Riley steps around her parents before they can formulate a response, and exits the dining room, feeling lighter than she has the whole trip.

Confrontation with Cory and Topanga notwithstanding, it's been a good day for Riley. She's happy with how she left things with her uncle and brother, the masseuse at the spa had been so talented at working out the tensions in her muscles that Riley had been able to relax despite being mostly naked under a sheet mere inches away from a similarly unclothed Lucas, and now, as they enjoy some time in the spa's hot tub, sitting close and easily chatting about nothing in particular, everything just feels so comfortable and easy; she can't remember the last time she felt so at ease.

"What made you decide to become a nurse?" Lucas asks, taking his turn in their makeshift game of trading questions.

"In my freshman year of college I got appendicitis, which normally isn't too bad of an operation or anything, only I was kind of used to pushing through things so by the time I actually went to get it checked out it was rupturing in the emergency room."

Lucas winces.

"By then Eric was my emergency contact but it was October in a year he was up for re-election so even for a family emergency, getting him or Linda out to California was next to impossible, so I was alone in the hospital with only Zay, my RA at the time, for company." Riley explains. "And the nursing team was incredible. I never felt lonely or like I was a burden to them. The comfort I got from them was invaluable when all I wanted to do was feel sorry for myself.

"Leaving that experience, I thought about it a lot, and I wanted to be able to give that comfort to people. So I joined my school's nursing program."

"If it hadn't occurred to you that you could do that, what would you be doing now?" Lucas plays with the hair at the nape of her neck that's escaped her messy bun as he asks.

Riley thinks. She hadn't really found her path at that point, or even a path to a path. "I'm not sure." She answers after a brief moment. "Maybe I would have gone into Poli-Sci and gone back to DC with Eric and Linda." She pauses. "But I think things ended up the way they were supposed to." After all, who's to say how this trip would have gone if she didn't have her nursing skills, or hadn't been able to call on Lucas to accompany her; he was, after all, local to LA himself.

She pulls herself from the thought and back towards a question that's been burning a hole in her mind. She wouldn't normally daare ask, but Lucas had opened the door… "What about you? How did you become…"

Lucas finishes the question for her, an amused look on his face. "An escort?" Riley nods, blushing, but he simply shakes his head. "It's nothing that exciting."

She nudges his shoulder with hers. "Humor me."

"I was working my way through college. But waiting tables and handyman gigs were eating up my time and barely giving me enough to live, let alone save for anything. My organic chemistry tutor realized what I was doing and thought I was crazy. She pointed out that there were all sorts of events that single people would rather not go to alone and that as someone...conventionally attractive and really good at most social situations, a lot of those same people would pay to have me on their arm.

"We worked a bit to craft the right kind of ad so people were coming in with the right sorts of expectations, but once things took off...It lets me put way more into savings then minimum wage and tips did and I have way more control of my time."

"And if your tutor hadn't gotten you into it?" Riley probes, nearly biting her lip. She's only asking the same question that Lucas had, but it somehow feels bigger turned in his direction. "What would you be doing?"

"Probably still crawling my way through undergrad." Lucas says. "Never mind working towards veterinary school."

"Wait, that was true?"

Lucas chuckles. "Did you think I was just making stuff up as I go?"

"Kinda…?"

"Riley, everything I've said with you has been true. I'm really saving up so I can become a vet."

"Why a vet? Because of what happened with your horse?"

"That's a big part of it. I've always loved taking care of animals. It's probably the only part of living on the ranch that I miss."

"Does it ever bother you that you're not there yet?"

Lucas takes a moment to think, but ultimately shakes his head. "I think things are ending up exactly how they're supposed to."

"Oh my gosh, you have to try this."

Lucas scrambles to lower his ice cream cone and keep it in balance as Riley thrusts her own confection under his nose. At her continued urging, he takes a lick, pleasantly surprised by the cool rush of sugar melting across his tongue. "What flavor is that?"

"Brown sugar caramel." Riley draws the cone back as they find an empty picnic table outside of the ice cream place they had stopped at post-spa. They sit and she eyes his cone. "What kind did you get?"

Lucas holds the cone out for her to taste without thought. "Blueberry pound cake."

"Mmm." Riley moans after she samples; it's hard for Lucas to reconcile the woman in front of him with the anxious, uncertain person he had met barely a week ago. He wouldn't have believed it if he hadn't witnessed the transformation himself, watching as she unburdened herself of the weights she'd been trying to bear on her own for years, and as she slowly came to accept that there were things that were and weren't fighting for, like herself. As endearing as he had initially found her, he never would have expected the beautiful confidence to emerge as her personality began to blossom and shine.

He never expected to be in the position where he is so uncertain of what he is doing.

Oh, he knows the practicals. He and Riley are getting ice cream instead of a late lunch after their time at the spa. But the details of the day...the pride that had swelled in him when she had stood up to her parents, the candid and sincere conversations in the hot tub and as they drove to find the ice cream place, the feelings that have been swirling in his chest every time he looks at Riley or hears her voice...that's uncharted territory. Especially when every time he catches himself marveling at how cute Riley's bashful smile is or thinking how much she would enjoy visiting the horses at the stables he goes to whenever he needs a taste of country life, Lucas also remembers that Riley is a client.

He's never done any of this for a client before.

And yet, with Riley, all of his carefully drawn lines and boundaries are an afterthought. Lucas has never had this problem and can't even begin to explain what's happening. His business partner is going to have a field day when he calls her asking for another pep talk.

"You're dripping."

Riley's voice draws Lucas back to the moment and he follows her gaze to realize belatedly that he's been so caught up in his thought that he's completely ignored his ice cream and it's melting all over his hand and dripping down to the table. "Oh! Crap." He draws the cone up to his mouth to eat and stop the mess from spreading.

Riley smiles fondly, tilting her head to the side, and holds out some napkins she had pulled from the table's dispenser. "Busy brain?"

"Huh?"

"Busy brain." She repeats. "It's what Zay asks whenever someone gets so lost in their own thoughts. What's on your mind?"

"I was just thinking…" Lucas trails off as he wipes up the mess from his ice cream, trying to buy himself time to come up with an answer. It's not like he can tell Riley the truth that he's more than a little troubled by the feelings he was never meant to develop for her. He doesn't want to freak her out. "Today has been really nice."

There. That sounds normal and neutral, doesn't it?

Riley's smile grows. "Yeah, it has."

He's a little surprised she agrees, given that the start of the day had included a confrontation with Cory and Topanga, but quickly reasons that during that conversation she had stood up for herself and spoken her mind, which had to feel good after years of swallowing herself down for them. And the rest of the day had been good. Great even.

He takes another lick of his ice cream, feeling a bit more even-footed. "So, what comes next? There's still plenty of daylight…" Lucas drops off as a cool drop of water hits his forehead. A glance up at the sky shows dark clouds have moved in over the sun. "Or not…"

Riley follows his gaze up. More raindrops fall. "Maybe we should head back to the car."

"Good idea."

No sooner do the pair start to stand that the skies open up and rain starts to fall in heavy curtains. Several people around them shriek and jump up, hurrying to find shelter. Lucas grabs Riley's hand and starts to run towards their car in the parking lot. Halfway there his ice cream goes flying. When they're almost at the car, Riley's foot catches on the pavement and she stumbles over the next several steps. Lucas swings to a stop in front of her, catching her around the waist; she collides, ice cream and all, with his chest.

"Sorry."

The unnecessary apology hangs in the air between them for several seconds as they stare at each other before the absurdity of the moment catches up with them and they burst into shared laughter. Running in the rain had done little except make them lose their ice cream and breathe hard. Riley's hair and clothes are plastered against her skin and Lucas knows he must be in a similar state.

Their laughter dies off, but instead of getting out of the rain, the pair stands there, stock still next to the car.

Lucas stares, watching rain droplets gather at the tip of Riley's nose and lips. He can't stop himself from reaching down and brushing the hair back off of her face.

At the gesture, Riley's smile softens. "How do you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Make a girl feel so beautiful and special that she realizes she can take on the world, without even looking like you have to try? I've been thinking about it all day, and I can't imagine what it's like, taking on these roles so perfectly day in and day out… How do you do it without losing yourself in the feelings?"

Lucas can't give her an answer. Because right now, the truthful answer would be that he doesn't. It's never been a problem before because he never experienced anything other than physical attraction to his clients before, and never on jobs that extended for days at a time; it had always been easy to separate himself from the work-to keep feelings out of it-because there were no feelings to keep out. And while he had noticed his deeper attraction to Riley early on, he hadn't done anything special to deal with or avoid it. He'd just kept doing his job. Which had clearly been the wrong choice since from the beginning he hadn't kept the same personal boundaries with Riley as he had with other clients and there wasn't much, if anything, this week that he'd stopped to consider if it was really his job to deal with or do. He'd stopped thinking of her like a client (exactly the sort of thing he wasn't supposed to do) some time ago.

And he can't say that because the last thing that Riley needs is for him to cross the boundaries that she still has firmly established. After all, this is the second time today she's asked about his work. God, has she noticed his confusion and this is her way of politely reminding him that there's nothing between them?

No, Lucas can't answer Riley's question, and he can't do what he really wants and pull her up and meet her lips with his. So after a much too long delay, he clears his throat.

"We should, uh, get in the car." He takes a step back, reaching into his pocket for the keys. "Head back and dry off." He doesn't wait for her response, opting instead to turn away from her and unlock the car.

"Right." Riley says. "Good idea."

There's something in her voice that Lucas can't quite place. It almost sounds like disappointment, but that can't be the right interpretation because he'd been doing his best to follow Riley's cues. She'd only be disappointed if he'd been misinterpreting the situations and reading scenarios like this is his job. If he can't read Riley correctly, or he can't trust his own judgement, then his feelings are getting more in the way than he had even realized, creating blind spots and self-doubt that he can't afford.

Lucas sighs, getting into the car. He needs to get his head on straight. He needs to talk to his business partner.

"OK, I normally hold back from saying things like this because I know it's rude and most people don't appreciate the perspective I'm coming from, but jeez, you're stupid."

Lucas can't believe it. Here he is, pouring his heart out in a hotel bar, questioning how he can possibly pretend to be Riley's boyfriend for two and a half more days when he keeps finding himself wishing it wasn't pretend, asking for his partner to reinforce what he already knows about intimacy and transference and to gently but firmly remind him that what he's feeling is a product of that and not genuine romantic affection and that he'll finish the job because he's a professional, and here she is, deriding everything he had said. She's always been blunt, but never entirely dismissive of the feelings of the person she's talking to. He must really be frustrating her.

"Smackle…"

"Seriously." Isadora Smackle, his longtime friend and business partner continues as though she doesn't hear the exhaustion in his voice. "Completely clueless! An idiot!"

Lucas sighs. He had not snuck out of his room after Riley had fallen asleep to be called an idiot. Especially to his face. "I don't think that's fair."

"I chose Riley as your client on purpose you dumb-dumb!" Isadora smacks the back of his head. "You were supposed to fall for her."

Wait...what?

Lucas blinks, staring at Smackle, trying to process what he's just heard. Smackle always picks his clients for him-it's one of their many precautions to avoid situations just like this one (plus she has a knack for weeding out the women who see the word escort and expect any interaction to involve sex); she picks the clients and fills his calendar out while he provides the fake dating services. Falling for a client goes against everything they've ever talked about, so why would she pick someone she thought he would get feelings for?

"What are you talking about?"

Smackle exhales heavily. "When we started the business, we said it was a temporary endeavor. That we'd do it long enough to take care of your undergraduate debt, and for you to put away enough money to get you started at veterinary school."

All of this is true. None of it explains why Smackle would try and sabotage it.

"Right. I was there."

Smackle takes a sip of her drink. "Only it's been seven years. And by my calculations, which are never wrong, after my salary, your living expenses, taxes, and your undergraduate debt, we've banked nearly a million dollars. An amount that would comfortably cover your veterinary education."

"A million dol-are you serious?" Admittedly he hasn't looked at the savings account in a while but still...he'd know if it were that high.

"I rarely joke about monetary matters."

Lucas swirls his whiskey in the glass, trying to process this new information. "OK. So we've made a lot of money. What does that have to do with you choosing Riley?"

"You've had enough money for years." Smackle says. "And yet you've never even applied to a single veterinary school. Why?"

Lucas doesn't know what to say. While he truly didn't know how much money he had saved over the years, he'd known he'd had enough for school. At least enough to get started. But Smackle is right that despite it always being his goal, he's never applied. He's never even made a list of schools. "Because…" he fumbles over his words, "the timing hasn't been-,"

"You know what I think?" Smackle cuts him off. "I think your life is now comfortable. It's comfortable and pretty great overall and I think you're scared that applying to veterinary school is going to ruin that."

Lucas frowns. "Why would I be scared that my dream is going to ruin my life?"

"While you have many gifts that I do not and are not generally without any manner of intelligence, you are hardly a certifiable genius. As such, getting into a school is not a guarantee. I posit that you're scared that your dream may end before it even begins or that you may find the work to be too much to handle."

OK, well...it's not something he's ever admitted to anyone, but it wouldn't be a stretch to say he'd had thoughts similar to what Smackle had just described. He's solid enough in school, but only with a lot of work and he's smart enough to know that even for geniuses it takes a lot of work to get through vet school. And a lot of work plus a lot of work equals an exponential amount of work that he's not entirely sure he can do. And that's assuming any school would even let him in. But he has never thought about applying and stopped himself because of that. He says as much to Smackle, who rolls her eyes.

"Well, duh, Friar. It's called your subconscious, not your -every-waking-thought-conscious."

Lucas blinks. He still doesn't get what this has to do with Riley. "Say that's true. What does it have to do with you wanting me to fall for a client?"

"Because…" This time it's Smackle's turn to struggle momentarily with her words. "I know that you're capable of becoming a veterinarian. I also know that me telling you that will not magically break through years of insecurities, even if I tell you multiple times. I cannot convince you to apply to school until you're ready to. But you have been a very good friend to me and I want you to be happy."

"And you thought a girlfriend would do that?"

"I think that for seven years you've purposefully stayed single so as not to complicate things with the business. And that you have a limited social life outside of the job, even if it's just with other friends. For whatever reason you have isolated yourself and something that I've learned over the years about humans is that we require interaction. Genuine interaction. And we need things that are purely for our own pleasure and happiness, not just for survival.

"I worry that if you continue down your current path you will never quite be happy, and I worry what that will do to you. After much consideration, I determined that a significant romantic attraction would be the best motivator in all directions; if you felt seriously about someone, you would naturally want to quit the business, and if you quit the business, you'd start to consider applying to school as the next logical step.

"I selected Riley to be your client not only because I believed her to be a good person who did need your assistance, but also because I knew her to be your type and that given the nature of your work and what happens at weddings that any natural chemistry would be heightened, accelerating the process of falling in love."

"Love?" Lucas swallows thickly around everything he's now trying to process, his mind instantly catching on the word. "Who said anything about love?"

"You did. When you first got here and you were describing your feelings for Riley, you said that beyond your physical desires to kiss or have sex with her, you were consistently preoccupied with thoughts of how you can do right by her, wanting to somehow be a part of her life even though in two days that becomes impossible and about fifteen other things that tell me that your feelings for Riley Matthews exceed that of a schoolboy crush or mere transference. You've fallen in love with her."

Oh.

Oh.