A/N: I am almost speechless by the amazing reviews. SugarKane, I loved your short play! Okay, we're getting close. I thought it would be kind of fun to get some other characters takes on what they see going on between Bianca and Marissa and how they feel about it. Oh, timeline update, we are now the week before Christmas in the storyline. Hope you like it!

/

Krystal watched Marissa as she sat waiting for Bianca. She looked tired and anxious. Krystal wondered what was going on inside that brain of her's. For herself, she was glad to hear that Kendall had invited herself today and was tagging along with her sister. By the time Krystal had a chance to call her last night to give her an update on what had happened, it had been too late. She was glad to get Kendall's call this morning telling her she would be there at lunch. They would be able to compare notes after the younger women left.

Marissa was exhausted. She had been up all night thinking about Bianca. It didn't matter how hard she tried. She hadn't been able to turn her brain off long enough for her to sleep for any period of time. She still wasn't sure how she would react when she saw Bianca today, but she did know how she felt. I know two things. Bianca is my best friend, the best one that I've ever had and probably ever will have, and I'm in love with her. There is no getting around that. I've never felt this way about anyone else in my entire life, never. I mean just thinking about her makes me smile. I've never known anyone like her. I've never known anyone who understands me or listens to me like she does. Someone that is just always there for me no matter what. Why did it take me so long to see all of this? I need to see her. I need to know how things went last night with, oh I can't even say her name. Marissa shook her head to clear the image from last night of the other woman and Bianca out of it. Okay, I need to get a hold myself. I don't know how Bianca feels about me. She may not feel the same way. If that's the case, I going to need to keep my feelings to myself because no matter what, I have to have her in my life. I need to keep her in my life. If that means not telling Bianca how I feel about her, that's what I'll do, but will I be able to actually do that?

/

Kendall glanced over to the driver's seat at her sister. Bianca had been quiet all morning. She looked worn out and like she had something on her mind. She wasn't willing to share whatever it was. Kendall didn't like not knowing exactly what was going on with her little sister. She had an idea that it was Marissa but wasn't completely sure. She was hoping seeing the two of them together would shed some light on the situation and help Kendall come up with some way to help her.

Bianca hadn't been able to sleep all night. Whenever she closed her eyes, she saw Marissa. She would see the redhead's brilliant smile and would think about how it made her feel. No matter how hard she had tried, she couldn't get that image out of her head and could no longer deny those feelings to herself. I'm in love with Marissa. I've also been down this road before, and it has always ended badly for me. Marissa is different though. It just feels different with her. I've never had anyone in my life fight for me like she has or had someone so willing to go out on a limb for Miranda, Gabby and me. God knows, I tried to ignore what I was feeling, tried to fight it, but it was hopeless. She's amazing, and I've never met anyone quite like her. The big question is what do I do now. I don't know how Marissa feels. I don't know how she'll react. If I tell her how I feel, I could lose her, and she's too important to me for that to happen. I don't see how I can tell her how I feel. It's too big of a risk. What I do know is that I have to see her. I have to know what happened between her and him. Okay, I can do this. I can handle this, I hope.

/

Marissa looked up as soon as Bianca entered the restaurant. Their eyes locked, and a huge smile spread across both women's faces.

"Hey!" Marissa's heart skipped a beat seeing the brunette and her amazing smile.

"Hey, yourself!" Upon seeing the redhead and that incredible smile of her's, Bianca felt her stomach flip.

Kendall and Krystal looked at each other and shook their heads realizing the younger women had completely forgotten about them. They only saw each other.

"Hi, Marissa."

"Oh, hi, Kendall."

"Hello, Bianca."

"Uh, hello, Krystal."

After sitting down, Kendall looked at Marissa. "So, how'd it go last night?"

The redhead rolled her eyes. "Hmmm. How can I put this? First, Krystal, I'm never doing something like that for you again."

No one saw Greenlee enter. "Ladies, mind if I join you, and what aren't you doing for her again?"

Kendall smiled. "The more, the merrier! Marissa was just telling us about the date Krystal set her up on last night."

Bianca raised her head up at her sister's reference. "I thought it wasn't a date." Please say it wasn't a date and that whatever it was went really, really bad.

Marissa sighed and threw a look at Kendall. "It wasn't a date! I was helping Krystal out, and like I just said, I'm not helping her out like that again. If you have to call it anything, you can call it a disaster."

Bianca couldn't hold back a small smile. Thank you! A disaster! That's good, real good! I like that! "What happened?"

"Well, he wants to be a stand-up comic which I didn't have a problem with at all. What I had a problem with were the jokes, or what he thought were jokes. He spent the whole time doing his routine which is entirely made up of bad lawyer jokes from what I can tell. It was just one after the other after the other."

The other women started to laugh.

Bianca couldn't hold back her amusement and delight. "Seriously? Did he know you're a lawyer?"

"Oh yeah, he knew, and they weren't just jokes about bad lawyers. They were bad jokes about lawyers, really bad jokes. AJ tells much better jokes than this guy. I don't think I'm being overly sensitive here. I think I have a good sense of humor."

"You have a great sense of humor!" Bianca offered.

"Thanks!" Marissa smiled at the brunette's support of her. "It was just one bad joke after another. It was torture. Oh, then he spilled wine on me because he was 'getting into his routine' and tends to get carried away when that happens."

Bianca started laughing. "Sorry."

"Oh no, please, feel free to laugh at my pain." Marissa started laughing too.

Krystal looked at Bianca. "So, how'd it go for you?"

Greenlee smiled. "Bianca, you had a date?"

"No! I was covering a meeting for Kendall."

Greenlee slid a look at Kendall who whispered, "I'll tell you later."

"Okay, how'd it go?"

Marissa held her breath. Please say it sucked. Please say it sucked. Please say it sucked.

"It sucked."

The redhead exhaled and did a little fist pump under the table. She did her best to conceal a smile. Yes! "Why?"

"Well, she was texting the whole time so I don't really know how much she was paying attention to what we were discussing. You know how much I love someone texting during a meeting."

"Yeah, that's one of your favorite things!"

"She even held her hand up one time to stop me from talking so she could finish a text."

"You're kidding me?" The redhead chuckled.

"Nope. She also said she didn't know how anyone could listen to other people's problems all day."

"Wow! I don't even know what to say to that. She knew about you and The Miranda Center, right?"

"Yeah, she knew. I know that not everyone can do that kind of work, but it felt like she was downplaying the importance of or the need for it. Like that kind of work somehow mattered less because it's not where the 'action is' like corporate law which is her specialty. Suffice it to say that I won't be meeting with her again."

Marissa was torn on how to feel about what she just heard. I gotta say that Bianca not meeting with her again is just fine with me, but I can't believe she said that to her. It makes me want track her down and slap the shit out of her. "Well, the work that you do does matter. It's much more important than any merger or acquisition. You're helping people put their lives back together, and I don't think that there's anything more important than that."

"Thank you. That's means a lot." The brunette beamed at Marissa's defense of what she did.

The two looked intently into each other's eyes for several seconds before Marissa was able to pull herself from Bianca's gaze. "You're welcome." I don't know what the hell that was. Keep it together. Keep it light. Now's not the time. "I'm not sure whose night was worse!"

Bianca inwardly blew a sigh of relief, grateful for the break in the tension. I'm not quite sure what just happened, but I have got to grip on myself. I'm just not ready yet. She managed a chuckle. "I'd say that maybe it was a tie! Although, mine didn't require a trip to the dry cleaners!"

Marissa smiled. "Lucky me. I'll go with a tie though. That reminds me. I should go. I need to stop by the dry cleaners before I head back to the office. I'll call you later." Okay, I made it through this. I still can't tell how she feels about me, if she feels the same way about me that I do her. I have to figure something out though because I don't know how long I can do this.

Bianca nodded and watched Marissa leave. That went okay, I suppose. I still need to figure out what I'm going to do. I don't know how much longer I can keep these feelings to myself. After a minute, she was finally able to turn to look at her sister. "I need to get back. Are you ready to go?"

"I'll catch a ride back with Greenlee. I'll see you later."

As soon as Bianca had left, Greenlee turned to the other women. "Anyone else feel like a third wheel? It's like we weren't even here. You know I don't like being ignored. What's going with them?"

Kendall smirked. "What do you mean?"

"Oh come on, Kendall. Something's going on between them. I thought Marissa was straight, but that's not the vibe I was getting from her just now. The looks she was throwing Bianca's way? That's not the way you look at someone who's just a friend. And your sister, she was giving the same ones right back. She's definitely into Marissa. So, spill it. What's going on?"

"I've had a feeling for a while now that things were changing between them. That they were becoming something more than friends. I've seen the looks, how they go way out of their way for each other. I know my sister well enough to see the signs, but I wasn't completely sure about Red so I asked Krystal."

"I hadn't really thought about it too much until Kendall brought it to my attention. I could tell there was a special connection between the two of them, but I wasn't sure exactly what it was. I started watching them, Marissa in particular, and I had to agree with her. Things had definitely changed between them. If you had seen the two of them last night, you wouldn't believe it."

"Yeah, about last night, what really happened? I have a feeling they weren't telling the whole story." Kendall asked.

Krystal laughed. "Oh no, they missed a few things. Marissa got here early, and she was definitely more interested in seeing if Bianca was here than Mike. She couldn't even get his right. She did get Sienna's right though, and the look on her face when she just said her name? Priceless! The only other look I've seen that matched it was Bianca's when she said Mike's name. It was like just saying the name left a bad taste in their mouths. Wait, I forgot about Bianca's entrance! She was so busy watching Marissa that she ran into a chair, banged her knee up pretty good. Of course, Marissa saw it and started to go over to her. The most amazing thing happened then, and I don't know if you're going to believe me. Hell, I probably wouldn't believe me if I didn't see it myself. Marissa was over there, and Bianca was way over there, and they were just looking at each other. I swear it was like one knew what the other was thinking at that exact moment. Like they were talking without really talking. Does that make any sense?"

"Seriously? That's interesting. You know, I think I've seen them do that before. It is amazing to witness. Anything else happen?"

"Yeah, after Bianca hit the chair, she proceeded to bump into a server and a table because she was still focused on Marissa. My daughter missed those moves since she had to pay attention to another bad joke."

"Bianca does tend to get a little on the clumsy side when she's nervous." Kendall laughed.

"Marissa was trying to pay attention to what Mike was saying but then Sienna got here, and her eyes almost bugged out of her head and all bets were off then. It kept going back and forth between the two of them for a quite a bit. Bianca would check out what was happening with Marissa, and then she'd do the same. It was pretty funny after a while to see how they'd figure out how to sneak a peek at the other. It stayed like that for a while until Sienna touched Bianca's hand, and it was just a touch, maybe lasted a second if that. I thought Marissa was going to fall out of her chair. If looks could kill, Sienna would've been dead and buried. I thought for sure my daughter was going to jump up and run over there and rip that woman's hand off."

"Red was that jealous, huh?"

"She was so jealous she couldn't see straight. I've never seen her like that. Then, Marissa got this stunned look on her face. It was like all of a sudden something dawned on her, and you could've knocked her over with a feather. A couple of minutes later, she left. It was like she couldn't get out of here fast enough."

"What did Bianca do?"

"Well, she was okay until she saw that Mike was walking Marissa out. He made the mistake of touching her back, a slight touch mind you. Bianca didn't like that at all. She threw him a look that reminded me of pure Erica Kane. The man would've turned to stone if he had seen it. Then, the same thing happened like with Marissa. This light clicked on inside her, and she had to get out of here."

Greenlee looked at the two women. "I'm guessing neither one of them knew the real reason for these so called 'dates'."

"I don't know what you mean."

The smaller woman rolled her eyes. "Oh please, Kendall, think about who you're talking to. Judging by what I just witnessed, I think it's pretty safe to say that Marissa doesn't see Bianca as just a friend anymore, and the same can be said for your sister and how she views Marissa. That little stunt last night was designed to help them realize that. What's your next move?"

"We're going to need one, aren't we? Both are pretty gun shy when it comes to relationships."

Krystal sighed. "You got that right. JR did a number on Marissa, and Bianca's been burned a few times. You have any ideas, Greenlee?"

"I thought you'd never ask! As I see it, you've got the hardest part out of the way. You've got them to admit to themselves how they feel. That's big. We just have to get them to admit it to each other. I need to ask you both a question, and I need you to be completely honest. I'll ask you first, Krystal. How do you feel about them being together? To say this is a big change for Marissa is a huge understatement. Are you okay with it?"

Krystal thought for a long minute before responding. "You're right, it's a big change, but I can honestly say that I'm okay with it. I've seen them together. There's something special between the two of them. Bianca is… Well, I can't quite describe her. I've never met anyone like her. She's been to hell and back, and most people would turn bitter or hateful. Bianca is the exception though. She is the most caring and definitely the most forgiving person there is. I know that first hand. She's also the most honest. I don't ever see her hurting Marissa. Why wouldn't I want someone like that for my daughter? Man or woman, it doesn't matter. I just want my daughter to be happy. I believe she can be with Bianca."

"Kendall, how do you feel about them being together? I mean, Marissa is another straight girl, and we know your sister's history."

"Yeah, we do, and it's not pretty." Kendall took a minute to think. "I don't know why, but I know that Marissa's different. She's been there for Bianca like no one else ever has and has never asked for or expected anything in return. You should have seen her when Reese's goon of a lawyer tried to take the girls. She was ready to rip him to shreds, and if Reese had been here, she wouldn't have given it a second thought of going after her. For me, having someone like that for my sister would be a dream come true especially after everything she's been through. Like Krystal, I don't ever see her hurting Bianca. Why wouldn't I want someone like that for my sister?"

Greenlee smiled. "Good because you both have an important part in what comes next. The fundraiser is in two weeks, and the two of them are still working on it together, right?"

Both Kendall and Krystal nodded.

"They're going to be working closely together every day then. Seeing how they were around each other today, it's going to be hard for them to keep those feelings in check much longer. As I see it then, the next move is to keep it simple, no big plan is required. You both need to talk to them. Get them to admit to you how they feel. If you can do that, I think that's just the nudge they'll need to tell each other."

Kendall nodded. "Because it'll be real once they tell someone else. There's no going back after that."

Krystal smiled. "That's actually pretty good, Greenlee."

"I know. I must be getting soft because I think they're actually good together, and I see it working out for them. Don't tell them I said that. I have a reputation to think about."

Kendall smirked at her friend. "You're secret's safe with us."