Thanks so much to my lovely reviewer Masako Moonshade! Now, on with the story!

Wait, I forgot, I need a disclaimer: I'm not Meg Cabot and all the characters you recognize belong to her.

Not sure why we put that there, but I see it on all other stories so… cool!

-8-

I slammed through the kitchen door and ran straight to the living room onto the couch. Work had sucked.

And I guess it makes sense. I mean, working in a bank just seems to constantly remind me of how much money there is in the world that doesn't belong to me.

At least I had Jesse. Without his constant income as a doctor, I'd probably be living in a box on the street.

Jesse. I thought to myself. Somehow, thinking of him reminded me of my encounter with Paul earlier that day.

I snorted to myself. Like I needed reminding. I had been completely spacing out at work today thinking about it and was nearly fired. Shirley said that if it happened again, I'd be stuck in the back counting out those paper tubes people put coins in.

Suddenly, the knob to the back door was slowly turning and a large figure loomed in the window.

Jesse was home.

I smiled as I watched him slowly lumber through the kitchen and come towards the couch. He threw a lazy kiss at my cheek and then slumped down next to me.

"How was your day?" he said while pulling off his shoes.

"Pretty sucky," I responded, trying to sound tired and uninterested. Inside, however, I was freaking out. What if Jesse found out about Paul? Would he be mad at him? Would he be mad at me?

"So that makes two of us." I could tell he was having one of those days. Of course, Jesse loved being a doctor, but some days there's just that gloomy atmosphere, you know?

"I'm pretty beat. Thinking of going to bed early," I mumbled and stood up to walk towards the bedroom.

"I'll be in after I eat something," Jesse mumbled back and lumbered off towards the kitchen again.

I tried to keep my gait normal as I left the room, but it ended up as a sort of limp/jog. I had to get away from him and sort out my feeling about this morning before I talked to him again.

When I reached the bed, I fell flat onto it, and then rolled over to the bedside table. I pulled out my calligraphy pen from a drawer and admired its elegance. Then, in a random moment of Suze crazy-ness, I flipped over and began to write on the wall above the headboard of the bed.

Emotions seemed to be pouring out of the pen like a waterfall, but when I looked back at what I had written my entire mind seemed to dry up like a starfish under a heat lamp.

I LOVE PAUL

It was written there plainly on the wall. Just three little words that I hadn't even realized I had written. I stared dumbly at them for a few seconds and then heard Jesse's footsteps approaching.

My heart seemed to seize tightly in my chest. I desperately shoved the wicked pen under the bed and then licked my thumb and began to rub desperately at the wall.

I had managed to completely rub out "I LOVE" but Paul's curse still remained there in clear black ink. Jesse was turning the knob in that slow, tired way of his after a long day so I simply sat up as high as I could and managed to have my hair be covering the word.

"Susannah… what are you doing?" Jesse asked, chuckling a bit. I realized I must look fairly ridiculous, sitting on the bed with my hands holding me up as though the bed were on fire.

"Oh, just…" I searched my mind frantically. "Yoga?"

Suze, you idiot! That was possibly the stupidest thing you could have said at that moment! I thought to myself. But I had to go with it. I folded my legs Indian style and sat there, my arms shaking from exertion. Then I tried to look slow and peaceful as I shifted to a kneeling position so the weight was off my arms. I kept my eyes closed, hoping this would be a bit of a "go away" signal.

No such luck. Jesse laughed and came to sit next to me on the bed.

I completely panicked. "Jesse, I think there's, um, a message for you. On the answering machine. Which is in the kitchen. And… um…. You should go check it."

Bad, Suze! More stupid lies!

"Well… I thought there were no messages, but I guess I missed it." Jesse looked a bit confused and hurt as he lifted himself off the bed and slid through the doorway.

Sighing in relief, I turned to face the wall. Paul's name still stared out at me, with an ugly gray halo around it from where I'd rubbed at the wall. I looked at it for a moment, then turned and ran into the bathroom where I grabbed a rag and dampened it. I wiped at the wall with it and watched the words magically disappear.

If only life were that easy.

Jesse came back in to report that there were no messages and climbed into bed.

"Querida…. There was never any message, was there?" he sounded sad, with a bit of exhaustion too.

"No, Jesse, there wasn't." I don't know what I was thinking because this was clearly going to lead to the confession I didn't want to make.

"Why did you want me to leave the room?"

"I…" I couldn't think of what to say. Sorry, Jesse, I professed my love for the person you hate most in the world on the wall of our bedroom?

"Well… there was… I mean… I have a surprise for you in the making and I didn't want you to see it," I gushed.

"Oh. Alright then," Jesse sounded relieved. He leaned over to kiss me.

"'Night, querida."

"'Night, Jesse."

And with that, we both fell asleep.

-$-

Okay, I admit. I write things in calligraphy pen on my wall.

There's a bit of a gray spot behind my headboard now.

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