Disclaimer: blah, blah...I don't own it, so don't sue...blah, blah. Anyone up for some tacos?

AN: I realized after I posted this, that I had a small line in chapter 4 that mentioned Rei married to Chad. Forget that line. :) I changed married to date. Thank you to those who pointed it out to me.

Serena and Darian just looked at each other for a moment before they spoke at once.

"I should get going," Darian said, while Serena said, "I should get to cleaning up Rei's mess."

"Did you need any help?" Darian asked suddenly.

Serena's head shot up. "Umm, yeah. That would be nice," she whispered, a half smile on her face.

"So," Darian said, taking off his jacket. "Where do we start?"

Serena looked around her apartment, a hopeless look on her face. There were Rei's clothes draped over everything that remotely looked like furniture, empty cups and bowls covering the coffee table, and a massive amount of magazines of every type scattered all around Serena's floor. "Errr..."

Darian looked around and just started laughing. "The girl hasn't changed since she was 15 years old. Ok, I'll grab the dishes and you get the clothes. Then we can tackle the magazines together."

"Ok," Serena said, letting out a deep breath. "That sounds doable."

"I never knew magazines could be so heavy," Serena commented as they came back from carrying the last stack of magazines from the living room into a corner of Serena's bedroom and plopped down on the couch.

"I never knew that there were so many different magazines. Now I know how the company makes so much damned money."

Serena laughed. "And it makes me wonder how my company gets any business."

They both laughed, as they had several times already that afternoon. They had actually talked and laughed with each other without any awkward moments. But then the awkward moment set it. They both just sat there in silence.

"Would you like something else to drink?" Serena finally offered.

"Sure, ice water."

"Coming right up."

Serena got up and walked into her kitchen, trying to calm down her heartbeat. She poured his water and dropped in a few pieces of ice as she took deep breaths to calm herself. Taking one last breath, she made her way into the living room and over to Darian.

She handed him the glass and he took it from her and set it on the coffee table. Before she could move, he had grabbed her wrist, stopping her from walking past him. He pulled her down and she collapsed onto her knees in front of him. He leaned forward so their faces were inches apart.

"How do you do it?" he whispered.

"Do what?" she replied breathlessly.

"How can you rip my heart out and me still want you so much?"

Serena's breath hitched in her throat. "I didn't-I wanted to-" Serena couldn't find the words she was looking for. She knew what she wanted to say, but her brain was too foggy to make any sense out of them.

"Why?" is all Darian asked.

Serena teared up until she couldn't see him anymore, then she closed her eyes, letting the tears run down her cheeks. "I thought I was doing the right thing," she answered in a voice he could barely hear. "I just wanted to protect myself from getting hurt again."

"Oh Serena," he said as he pulled her into a hug. She clung to him and let the tears pour out into his shoulder, soaking his shirt. "You have to know that I would never hurt you."

"I've heard that before."

Darian pulled her away from him and looked at her face. "Am I like every other guy out there?"

"You could have been."

Darian sighed. "But I'm not. The last thing I would want to do is hurt you."

"That's why you've stayed away so long? That's why you only stop by to check on Rei when I'm not home? Well let me tell you something Darian. The more you stay away, the more it hurts. And I just can't take it anymore."

"You pushed me away first Serena. I made a mistake, and I apologized. You were the one who refused."

"And I went to tell you I was sorry but you weren't there. And the next time I saw you, your eyes were so cold. You were so cold to me."

"I know, I saw you leave my apartment. I wanted to go after you, but I was too proud. It's a man thing for you."

Serena managed a smile through her tears. "You really need to work on your pride."

That made Darian smile. "How about we start over?" he asked. "Clean slate, just me, you, and whatever we want to do."

"That sounds nice."

Darian leaned in to kiss Serena when her apartment door busted open. They jumped apart quickly to see Mina staring at them, a grin on her face.

"Lil help here?"

Serena looked behind Mina to see a ton of bags in the hallway, and groaned. "I'm gonna kill Rei."

"Now Serena, don't be too harsh. It was her first time out in weeks and it was a huge sale and-"

"Mina, I JUST got this place cleaned up! Now I have to deal with shopping bags full of, well, whatever she has in there."

"It's mostly clothes-" Mina started.

"CLOTHES? She already has too many clothes!"

"Well, she felt she needed some new ones. Now HELP ME!"

Serena sighed and went to help Mina. Darian grabbed her arm as Mina walked into Serena's bedroom to put down the bags in her hands. "Friday night, I'll pick you up from work. And we'll start from there."

Serena nodded and smiled softly. Darian leaned down and kissed her forehead before turning and walking out the door.

"Well damn. The least the man coulda done was help with the bags," Mina announced, a mischevious grin on her face.

"Well, he did help me clean up this place, so he has worked it off," she replied with a laugh. She joined Mina at the door to help with the bags. She couldn't beleive how many there were. After 2 trips into her room and back, she finally spotted Rei being carried to the apartment by JEDITE? Serena raised her eyebrows questioningly at Rei.

"Serena, this is Jedite, who lives a few buildings over. He was nice enough to catch me trying to get up the stairs because someone wouldn't help me."

Mina just laughed. "Ha! I had a hard enough time with all your bags!"

"Thank you very much Jedite," Rei said sweetly as he put her on the ground.

"Anytime Miss Rei," he said with a half smile before turning and walking back down the hallway.

"Be careful, I might take you up on that!" she called after him.

Serena just looked at Rei, bewildered.

"What?"

It was Friday afternoon and Serena had so much work to do before the Monday deadline that she started panicking. She dropped the stapler on her bare foot and used every curse word in the book as she hopped gently over to her chair. With a long sigh she banged her head down on her desk. "Ow," she mumbled.

That's when she heard the knock on her door. "Come in," she groaned, her head still on the desk.

"Am I interrupting something," came a slightly amused voice. Serena looked up to see Jedite standing in her office doorway.

"No," she groaned. "Just a ton of paperwork, a stapler landing on my foot, and my recent headache. What can I do ya for?"

"Actually, I came to apologize about what happened a while ago. I know it doesn't mean much-"

"It's fine, Jedite. It's fine," she said with a smile. "Was awfully amusing to see you carrying my recently acquired roommate up to my apartment though."

"Well, can't have an injured lady trying to get up the stairs by herself, now can I?"

Serena laughed. "Injured, eh? She had been out at the mall shopping ALL day, which I told her I didn't want her to do anyway, but you see how well she listens to me."

"Serena, you sound like a mother," he said with a chuckle.

"Ugh, she has invaded my house like a crazy teenage girl! What else am I supposed to act like? I had just finished cleaning my house from her mess over the last 3 weeks when she brings home MORE for me to deal with!"

"Why is she staying with you? I thought she might have been your roommate."

"She is temporarily. That apartment building that burnt down a few weeks ago was hers and she was injured in the fire. So I've been playing mom. Can't wait to get some privacy, but it'll be a while. They have to rebuild the entire building. And all they could salvage of hers out of the fire is at my house."

"Wow, she wasn't kidding when she said she was too hurt to get up the stairs. I thought she might have been pretending so I could just carry her."

Serena raised her eyebrow at him.

"What? It's happened before!"

Serena laughed. "I bet it has."

"Umm," Jedite started, looking a little fidgety. "Would you give her my phone number?" he asked quickly.

"Yeah, sure. I'll let her know you stopped by to check on her," Serena said with a smile.

Jedite let out a releived breath. "Thanks Serena."

Serena smiled as Jedite walked out of her office and closed the door behind him.

Serena went back over to her desk, the reminder of how far behind she was crashing back over her. She plopped down in her chair and grabbed the file nearest to her and opened it. Then her door knocked again. "Come in!"

Serena looked up to see a very scrumptious looking Darian walk through her door. She smiled as he closed the door behind him. "This a bad time?"

"Actually yes," Serena complained. "I am so far behind I'm gonna be working all night."

"So no break then?" he asked.

Well, I really do have to get these done..."

"It's ok. We can do this some other time."

"Well...it's not like I don't have all weekend..." she trailed off.

The smile returned to Darian's face as Serena slammed the file closed and slipped her feet into her shoes.

"Mind if I stop at home to change first?" she asked, looking down at her navy blue pants suit.

"Not a problem."