Juliet tapped the pen against her temple, staring into a space of red velvet curtains and beige bed linen.

"So, what ya think?" Marcy stood proudly, holding out both items for Juliet to inspect.

She said nothing. Just kept lightly taping her pen.

"Jules?!" Marcy encouraged, feeling hope dwindle. "Jules...have I hit the jackpot or what?..." still no response "won't these suit the Fitzgerald's apartment?"

"Huh?" was the best she got.

Marcy rolled her eyes. Juliet knew she was hurt.

"Oh, look Marc...I'm a bit worse for wear today....why don't you just choose whatever you want, ok?"

Marcy raised one brow. "You're letting me choose?" she scoffed.

Juliet thought for a moment. Well...not really thought so much as paused as to appear to be in humble thought.

"Ummm....yeah, go for it!" she offered, a little lamely.

But that was all Marcy needed. She went scurrying out of the office, curtains dragging, happy as Larry.

Juliet sighed. Uninterested in anything lately.

She looked over at her little clock and rolled her eyes when she noticed she'd only been at work for 45 minutes. It was 9:50.

She had an entire decade to sit through before her lunch break.... Before a shag with Mark! Bloody oath!

Their little trysts had been going on for a week and two days now. So far, no problems. But they were still being very uptight about everything. He wouldn't call her mobile, unless it was absolutely necessary, in which case he'd use the pay phone two blocks away. She'd always call Peter an hour before she left for Mark's, just pretending to be bored out of her wits at work and calling to make little kissy noises over the phone. Peter thought it was very sweet.

She felt sick every time she smacked her lips together. Her stomach would now literally lurch whenever peter said 'I love you'.

Honestly. It wasn't that she didn't love him. She did. He was amazing. Sweet. Generous. Great in bed. Very loving. Extremely attentive to her.

The thing was, so was Mark. He worshipped her. It wasn't as though he walked on eggshells around her. They had a laugh when they were together. They'd share a beer after sex and watch re-runs of the footy, yelling obscenities at the ref and pathetic players, acting like real yobbos.

It was a great, laid back, but still very serious relationship.... They took each other very seriously, and sometimes they wouldn't even make love, but talk for an hour instead. About everything. About nothing. About how bad they felt. It was great. He was great.

She suspected her feelings for Mark had grown rapidly over a period of just a few days. And she knew that was a bad sign. It made her feel sick that she wasn't just physically hurting Peter, but emotionally, she could feel herself pulling away from him and falling more and more for Mark.

Well, he was brilliant. She couldn't help herself.

"Juliet!"

She almost flew out of her swivel chair when Marcy interrupted her thoughts.

"Er, yeah?" she called in reply, calming herself. She found that when she was thinking about Mark, she felt insecure. As though people could look at her face and know straight away that she was thinking impure thoughts about someone other than her husband. She blushed.

"Phone!" Marcy yelled.

Juliet rolled her eyes, and gritted her teeth. Love her as she did, Marcy was a hopeless assistant. "Who is...." She started, but saw no point, as her yelling out would only provoke this screaming match further.

She picked the phone up and pressed the flashing red button.

"Hello, Juliet speaking!" she chimed.

"Jules" came a familiar, warm voice.

"Jamie!" she squealed.

She hadn't heard from her dear Jamie in weeks, not since his awful girlfriend, who Juliet never liked in the first place, cheated on him with his brother of all people. Sodden cow.

Well...what did he expect from a journalist, though you could hardly call her that since she works for Hello! Magazine. As if the world needs more reports on Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, for god sake!

"How are you daaarling?" Juliet giggled into the phone.

There was a slight pause as he breathed into the phone; she had hoped that he wouldn't be in much she same state as when he left after the 'Tiffany' incident. But from the sounds of it...he was worse.

"Oh shit, Jamie! You didn't go back to her, did you?" she had a thought, "or...she didn't come back to you on her knees, did she? Tell me you and Tiffany are not back together, Jamie! Jamie!"

"Er, no" came the simple reply.

"Well then, why so glum?" she asked, "you're supposed to be all refreshed and on the prowl again...you were supposed to have shagged a whole load of hairy, French women and gotten Tiffany completely out of you're system!"

Jamie was a dear, dear friend that Juliet was sure she could not live without. Actually, they were more than friend's...cousins to be exact, though the title never suited each other, and they much preferred to think of one another as buddies.

And though he was quite a few years her senior, they got on like a house on fire. They had grown up in a very posh area, with very snobby families who couldn't understand why Jamie wanted to go off and live a penniless life as a writer, and why Juliet wanted to start her own interior decorating company without any help from her wealthy father. But they understood each other. And remained close friends their entire lives.

She loved Jamie to death. He was brilliant. Handsome, intelligent, witty, a real sweetheart. But he was hard to understand, most of the time. Unless you were close to him, and understood how he worked. He was very aloof when upset. Keeping his feelings close to heart, allowing them to eat him up from the inside, like poison.

When things didn't go right in life, he would blame them on himself. Like Tiffany, for example. Seeming as the whole incident happened during Juliet's wedding, and the honeymoon was soon after, Jamie didn't want to disturb her during her happy days by bringing her down with his sad-sodden life. So he kept the whole cheating-brother-and-girlfriend thing to himself for two weeks. An entire two weeks!

By the time Juliet went over to visit him, he was a drunken, rambling mess. Completely sure Tiffany had left him either because; a) he didn't say 'I love you' enough b) Jeremy (brother) was better looking and better in bed c) he hadn't agreed to buy a hideous oak shelf for their apartment that she loved. The list actually went through to 'K', but those were the main 3.

It took Juliet the entire day to convince him to get out of England and relax, away from Tiffany, Jeremy and his whole 'sad-sodden-life', as he put it.

"Look, Jamie...how about we go grab a bite to eat right now?"

He sighed again. "yeah, alright"

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Jamie sat, stirring his cappuccino without actually drinking it, while Juliet tore into a blueberry muffin and ordered her second expresso.

"....I mean, she has these beautiful eyes that...that....just break you're heart...." Jamie was explaining in surprisingly thorough detail,: "...and she has the best body, real fit..."

"You had sex with her?"

He looked up. "Jumped into a lake with her, actually"

She didn't pretend to understand.

"...She has the most beautiful, sultry voice...."

"You can't understand a word of what she's saying"

"I can understand some. Portuguese it's much the same as Italian!"

"You don't speak the best Italian, Jamie" Juliet broke it to him, gently, "...don't tell me you spent four weeks with her and the most you said was 'mamma mia'.... which I highly doubt is a common Italian phrase, anyway!"

He shook his head, gently. "Ok, so she's from another planet, practically..." he sighed, looking into Juliet's face, "but it's just something Jules! You know... I cant explain it.... but I know, just because when I look at her...I know...."

She smiled sweetly. "So, what are you going to do?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you clearly like this girl..."

Something in his face told her differently.

"Holy shit, Jamie!" she suddenly gasped.

He almost fell out of his seat, "what?"

"I haven't seen you look that way since Courtney Graer in year 10!"

"What?!"

"...You more than like this, Aurelia...you may actually love her!"

"I don't...know...." He muttered.

"My god! Fancy that! Haven't spoken an understood word between you, and yet you love the girl!...Now that is romance!"

"Oh, shut up Juliet!" he said, blushing and smiling.

She jabbed him with her big tow underneath the table, "don't be a silly sod and do nothing about it!" she warned.

"Well I can't very well do anything about it, can I?"

"Why the hell not?!"

"Well...I've used up my frequent flyers!"

"Have mine...I will lend you the money for a ticket if need be!"

"No...no...no." he began to murmur, "I should just try and forget about her.... I mean, I don't even know how she felt about me, for Christ sake!"

"You are a twat!"

"I'm not a twat because I'm thinking clearly and being rational about this. A little crush on a girl who may very well despise me is nothing to waste a plane ticket over or anything...."

"Yes it is!"

"Why?"

"Because I see you gushing about her.... you clearly have feelings for the lovely girl...and you'll never be happy unless you tell her how you feel! If you don't you'll be lonely and feel incomplete...as though you have a great big, gaping hole inside of you!"

"Oh. You drama queen!" he smiled.

Juliet looked into her half eaten muffin. A thought suddenly hit her, a huge blow to the head. She'd been silently slagging off about Tiffany cheating on Jamie...when she, herself, was cheating on her husband of three months with his best friend. She was no better than the slapper Tiffany! Mind you...cheating with a best friend is better than cheating with a brother! ...But still very, very bad.

"Did she really hurt you?"

"Well, I can't exactly blame her for not being able to understand English, can I?"

"Not Aurelia....Tiffany?"

He looked into his cappuccino for the longest time, crossed and uncrossed his legs five times, and finally looked up to Juliet, softness in his eyes. "Yes"

She gave a small nod, and avoided his eyes.

"Why?" he finally broke the silence.

She shrugged.

"Juliet, why?"

She turned to him. "Do you think, maybe she really did care for you, and love you...but it just...just wasn't..."

"Meant to be?"

She nodded.

"Maybe. But that doesn't change the fact that she hurt me"

"Could you ever forgive her?"

"I don't plan on seeing her ever again...so no"

She nodded, glancing down at her watch. Her lunch break had just started, and she still wanted to see Mark. She didn't suspect that Marcy would mind the fact that she'd taken two, two-hour breaks. And if she did, tough luck.

"I...I have to go"

"You all right, Jules?" he asked, standing as she did the same.

She pulled her leather jacket on and nodded wistfully, forcing a smile. "Yeah, I'm right...just gotta get back to the office" she stood on her tippy-toes, kissing his cheek. "I really missed you" she smiled.

"Me too" he replied.

She turned, and took a step for the door, but stoped, looking over her shoulder. "The hole will only get bigger unless you do something about it!..." she said, with a smile. And then she fluttered out the door, heading in the opposite direction from her office. But Jamie didn't notice, he was too busy smiling as a plan formed in his head...

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"You know... I cant explain it.... but I know, just because when I look at her...I know...."

Jamie's words rang in her head as she opened the door to Mark's studio.

He looked up and smiled at her. "Hey you!" he beamed.

She fought back tears, and bit her bottom lip, as she remembered her own advice.

"And you'll never be happy unless you tell her how you feel! If you don't you'll be lonely and feel incomplete...as though you have a great big, gaping hole inside of you!"

"I love you!" she blurted just as Mark opened his arms, about to pull her into him.

"Wh..." he started.

She brushed away a tear, and smiled up at him. "I don't want to...I mean...I do...but I shouldn't...but I do...I do really, really love you!"

She gulped back tears, and at the same time let out a little laugh as she looked into his bewildered face.

"I think a part of me has...ever since you came to my door that night...and told me that I was..."

"Perfect?" she finished.

"You are,..." he added. She laughed him off.

He wrapped his arms around her, kissing her feverishly. When he pulled away, her eyes were watering, but her lips were smiling. "I have loved you for the longest time!" he whispered, leaning in for another kiss.

AUTHORS NOTE

okay, so... remember at the end of the film when everyone is at the airport, hugging one another and kissing?

And for some reason, Jamie and Aurelia meet Juliet, Mark and Peter? Well....I thought I'd kinda explain that, making him (obviously) into her cousin. I just wanted Jamie in this story so I can have the other perspective of being cheated on. By the way, in the film, Jamie's girlfriend didn't have a name, so I made one up.

So yeah, just thought I'd explain how Jamie knows Juliet.

Hope you liked this chapter.

I may not be able to update for a while, because computer is being shipped off to be fixed over the weekend. So, sit tight, please?

THANKS FOR ALL REVIEWS! YOU ARE ALL MAAAAARVELOUS!!!!!!!!!!