Disclaimer: I do not own the OC. Really. No elaboration needed.

A/N: So thank to you to the reviewers for the past chapter – but I'm guessing that some people weren't as pleased with the last chapter as the one before it, due to the amount of reviews I got. Hopefully you'll enjoy this one…

My little trip to Boston was nice, glad to be back though. Expect a new chapter soon. I promise by early next week. And I never break promises. Pinkie swear.

Oh & I don't really know how lawyering (that is a word, yes?) works so don't kill me if I'm a little off-base.

Read. And enjoy. And please review because they're always appreciated. :)

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Seth walked into the apartment, this time managing to sneak past Bethany to hide behind a tree, waiting for her to enter the apartment building before him, thus avoiding any uneasy confrontation.

And a bitch fest from Summer. Seeing as somehow it would end up being his fault.

It didn't go unnoticed by him, however, that Bethany had taken a few glances over her shoulder. She also had taken an exceptionally long time to finally get her keys out of her Dior handbag and slowly open the door, still sliding an extra glance of the area for any sign of Seth before moving into the building and closing the door behind her.

"Hiding from that pretty lady?" A man who was holding a plastic bag in one hand and in the other, grasping a leash with a small terrier roaming the area for a place to mark his spot asked him.

Seth turned around at the sound of the stranger's voice. "Oh," Seth finally noticed the man who was smiling at him, "Yeah, something like that." Seth rubbed the back of his neck and leaned his head down, as he walked awkwardly to the apartment building.

"Don't really need to!" the man shouted as Seth continued walking. "She looks like a keeper!"

Seth grunted sardonically to himself as he entered the building.

He managed his way up the few flightsof stairs andopened his door, thankfully without Bethany hearing him and bounding out of her apartment to greet him with her lips, and walked into the apartment getting a sudden whiff of spaghetti sauce.

Summer spotted him, noticing that this time he was not accompanied by a 5' 10 model look-alike and smiled. "Hey, Cohen."

Seth returned the smile and put his briefcase down, going over to the spaghetti without greeting Summer. For once, he was going to make her putty in his hands until she gave up pitifully and finally admitted to him why she had been acting so testy lately and lying about her friend, Chad.

Okay, so it wasn't exactly a lie but it was definitely leaving important facts out.

Summer frowned as Seth merely grabbed his plate and walked over to the couch, putting the TV on and his legs up on the coffee table. Without saying a word, she followed him, having to step over his legs that he didn't move for her to get through, and sat next to him on the couch.

She knew she should probably apologize and explain herself, especially after last night, but with Seth's ignorance of her presence and her attempt at making dinner for the two of them, she was not exactly content enough to do so. So she did the next best thing.

"Yeah, so I think I'm going to go with Chad again tonight." Seth looked up from his plate. "We didn't really finish our meeting so we gotta get that done."

Summer smirked. Stubborn Summer always got her way with Seth Cohen.

"Oh." Seth replied casually. Right, so she was still trying to hide the fact that Chad was gay and wanted to continue trying to make Seth jealous? Okay then. Game on.

"Yeah." Why was he not reacting to this at all?

"So, Bethany kissed me last night," Seth blurted out.

Summer nearly dropped her fork with spaghetti wrapped all around it on her lap, "Umm… what?"

"Bethany kissed me last night."

"No, I heard that. Why?"

Seth turned back towards the TV, "I don't know."

"And you just let her?"

"No. But she did it anyway."

Summer sat up, placing her plate on the coffee table. There was no way she could try and calm down when she was reaching rage blackout mode. "Did you like it?"

"No," he answered truthfully. "Her lip gloss was cinnamon or something. It really burned my lips."

"That's why you didn't like it," she asked deadpanned, making it sound more like a statement that Seth decided to answer anyway.

"Mostly."

Summer stood there agape. Did that just mean what she thought it meant?

"So if it had been a different lip gloss would you have liked it?"

Seth stood up from the couch and checked his pants pocket to make sure his keys were there. "Who knows? I have to go. Meeting with the boss. Hoping for a promotion from being the coffee boy." Seth leaned down and kissed Summer's forehead. "Have a fun night with Chad," Seth finished sincerely as he opened the apartment door and left.

Summer sat there, still staring at the door. After a few minutes of questioning her daze, looking between the door and the blank TV screen in front of her, her mouth finally caught up with her mind. "What the fuck?"

After snapping out of her befuddlement, Summer stomped over to the door, opening it and slamming it shut behind her, making her way over to Bethany's door, banging on it. Bethany almost immediately answered.

"Hi, whore," Summer smiled brightly but falsely, tilting her head to the side and pushing her way into Bethany's apartment.

"Umm…" Bethany began giving artificial looks of concern towards Summer. "Hey, Summer. How was your day at work?"

"Great. I'd ask you how yours was but frankly I don't care." Summer crossed her arms, staring pointedly at Bethany. She waited for Bethany to respond but when she didn't after a few seconds, Summer continued on her rant, full steam ahead.

"Look. I know you like my boyfriend. I know you want to date him and show him off to your family and then get married at some fancy beach resort in the Bahamas." Bethany stood there opening her mouth as if to protest but Summer reached her hand up and put it out to stop her. "Save it. I hear your giggly phone conversations with whoever it is that can actually stand to be friends with you."

Bethany smiled innocently, "Well, Summer, Seth is an adorable guy."

She really wasn't going to sugarcoat this was she?

"I know." Summer cut back into the conversation. There was no way this bitch was going to steal her thunder. Or her boyfriend. "But you see, the thing is, is he's my adorable guy. Not yours. And you can't go around kissing other people's adorable guys."

"I just wanted to show Seth what else is out there."

"He knows what's out there. And he doesn't like it. He loves me."

"Are you so sure about that?"

What? "Umm, what?"

"Are you sure that Seth loves you as much as you think he does?"

This skank really had some nerve, huh? "Of course I'm sure! What the hell kind of question is that?"

"Yeah, but he told you about our kiss didn't he?"

Ouch. Our kiss. Yeah, that stung a bit. "Well, yeah. We tell each other everything." Summer was starting to feel herself retreating into an imaginary corner. Which was not the intention of this intense rage she came over to Bethany's apartment with. In fact, it was pretty far from it.

"You tell each other everything of importance, correct?" Bethany questioned again.

Summer nodded her head, still fuming. Where the hell was she going with this?

"Well, then, by deducing your answers to my questions, obviously the kiss was important to him."

Summer's bottom jaw dropped. "You've got to be kidding me."

"Just think about it, Summer," Bethany started, "Seth told you either because of one of two reasons. Either he found it important enough to tell you instead of just shrugging it off as something that didn't matter thus making you upset or he told you to make you jealous so that you'd give him more attention – which, apparently, you have been lacking in lately."

"Who are you to tell me what I'm lacking in? You're not Seth. So you don't know what I'm lacking in. Which, for your information even though it's none of your business, I am not lacking in anything," Summer sneered.

"Apparently Seth doesn't think so or else he wouldn't have told you about kissing me. Maybe you have something to worry about, Summer."

"I don't have anything to worry about," Summer answered with false confidence, slowly getting the feeling that maybe everything Bethany was saying was right.

"Face it. Maybe your relationship isn't as strong as you thought it was. Maybe it's about time to realize you've taken it as far as you two can go and that you both should just move on with the rest of your lives. Separately."

"Just stay away from my boyfriend," Summer retorted back to Bethany, trying to ignore her growing insecurities of her and Seth's relationship, "And that includes your lips."

"Night, Summer," Bethany smirked and shut her door.

Summer walked the short distance back to her apartment door, huffing to herself. That argument with Bethany had not gone over quite like she had planned.

When Summer went to open the door she discovered it was locked. Guess the rage blackout hadn't failed in making her forget everything when she left the apartment, including her keys or making a point to unlock the door.

Summer slinked down to the ground, bringing her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them.

A few tears slipped from her eyes, clouding her vision. Everything Bethany had said minutes earlier was finally starting to sink in and Summer was beginning to question herself. Did she have anything to worry about? Was this why Seth was acting more like a caretaker than a boyfriend lately? Did he find their relationship boring and too routine? Was the arguing annoying him so much that he had to turn to someone else for a little bit of solace?

Was Seth really not in love with her anymore?

Never before had a rage blackout failed in making her feel even the slightest bit better.

In fact, this one made her feel ten times worse.

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Seth walked into bar, glancing around for his boss. There was no sign of him yet so he just casually went over and found himself a seat.

Two girls on his right side kept eyeing him and when he looked over at them, the brunette with deep brown eyes met his own brown ones and smiled innocently. Seth waved uncomfortably as she began making her way over to him.

"Hi, I'm Mandy."

"Seth," he shook her hand as she sat down.

"So what are you doing here?" she asked taking a sip from her drink.

"Umm, meeting my boss for, umm, well, a meeting."

Mandy laughed and flirtatiously placed her hand on his that was resting on the counter. "Well, where is he?"

Seth shifted his hand uncomfortably underneath Mandy's. "Ah, I really don't know." He glanced around, hoping to suddenly find him.

"Aren't you gonna get a drink? Try pre-gaming it before the meeting with the dreaded boss?"

Seth finally took his hand and shoved it into the pocket of his pants. "No, not legal."

"You're not legal?"

Seth shook his head, hoping maybe this was an easy way to turn her off.

"Well, how old are you?"

"Twenty."

Mandy smiled and resumed her hand's search for another part of Seth's body to hold onto, settling on his thigh. Seth winced inwardly as the events were unfolding in front of him.

Seriously. Where the fuck were all these girls coming from? Was he like that stupid deodorant or cologne or whatever it was commercial where as soon as you spray some on girls throw themselves at you? And if that was the case, how come it wasn't working with Summer?

Suddenly Seth's boss appeared on his opposite side, "Seth."

Seth's head snapped to his left, "Mr. Gavey." He stood up and shook his hand.

"Did you bring you girlfriend along?" Mr. Gavey noted the girl sitting on Seth's right.

"Oh, umm, no. My girlfriend's at home in our apartment. This is Mandy. I just met her."

At the mention of a live-in girlfriend, Mandy's smile faded a bit and waved as she stood up from the bar. "Well, I guess your meeting's about to start. Nice to meet you, Seth." Mandy then retreated back to her friend where Seth saw she mouthed the word 'girlfriend' and the other girl's mouth formed the shape of an 'oh' as they both moved to a different area.

"Meeting, eh?" Mr. Gavey snapped Seth out of his thoughts. "At a bar? This isn't that formal." Mr. Gavey chuckled.

"Yeah, I didn't think so but I wasn't sure what else to call it."

"More like a proposition."

Seth's eyebrows rose, "Proposition?"

"Business-related, of course. You see, I know you haven't been getting as much exposure in the law field as you have hoped for but there is this new case that just came in that I really need help with."

Seth stared at his boss intently. "A new case?"

"Yeah, it's not one of our usual divorce and child custody cases. And it's definitely not one of those plastic surgery gone awry ones that the firm is slapped silly with. You want anything?" Mr. Gavey pointed towards the bar and Seth shook his head still waiting for him to continue.

"Alright. Suit yourself. Seven and seven," Mr. Gavey told the bartender. "Anyway, it's a corporate case. One of the those big accounting firms downtown are being sued by one of their big clients, claiming they made him pay for some extra thousands of dollars of taxes that he didn't need to pay. Thing is, this accounting firm – I believe – has done this sort of thing before and happened to get away with it. I'm almost positive this firm is hiding something but they refuse to say anything when I ask about it. Now, where I need you is I need you to do some extra digging around on this firm. Get as much information as you can so I can either find out what they're hiding and try to hide it in the case somehow or present a truthful case. I don't care if they're the biggest frauds in LA; I need this information to win my case. I represent them if they're wrong or right, but it doesn't look good if I don't win. I need to win. And in order to do that, I need all the information. And to get all the information since I don't have the time, I need you."

Mr. Gavey took a large swig from his drink and looked towards Seth, "Think you can handle it?"

"Of course, sir. What is the name of the company and where do I start?"

Mr. Gavey pulled out a piece of paper that had 'Neels, Harvard, & Sons' written on it and below the name was a website. "Start there," Mr. Gavey pointed at the website, "It should give you the basis of the information and I'll leave it up to you to find the rest on your own. I need you to have a little bit of info available for me by tomorrow morning. Not everything, obviously. But something to start my case to show them that I'm working on it. This isn't illegal – if that's what you're thinking – it's just they wouldn't be happy to know I was going behind their backs getting information. But I know I couldn't win without it so I'm actually doing their lying asses a favor. Alright," Mr. Gavey turned his attention to his hands which were reaching for his wallet, "Does that work for you, Seth?"

Seth nodded again, gripping the piece of paper in his hands. "Great." Mr. Gavey stood up from the bar and put some money onto the bar countertop. "I'll see you tomorrow morning. And thanks."

Mr. Gavey walked out of the bar and Seth fumbled with the piece of paper, smiling.

He was getting the upper hand in his relationship with Summer, girls were drooling all over him, and he was just assigned a real task at his job by his boss who actually trusted him to get the job done right.

Well, this day was turning out rather magnificent.

Seth smiled to himself and began walking out of the bar, back in the direction of his apartment.

"I bet this has something to do with the briefcase," Seth mumbled to himself happily. "Yeah, definitely glad I got the briefcase."

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"Hey Chad." Summer stood outside of Chad's apartment door and greeted him when he opened it.

Chad smiled at the girl in front of him. "Summy… your head feeling better?" Chad stood aside, letting Summer walk in.

"Yeah. Besides locking myself out of my apartment, that is. Wait, did Lily tell everyone I was nursing a hangover?" Summer asked wondering how Chad knew she wasn't in work due to too much alcohol being put into her system the night before.

"What? Lily doesn't know you had a hangover. I told her you had a family emergency to deal with in Newport. I'm not that blonde. She would not take it too lightly to know you skipped out on work due to getting your cute little ass drunk the night before."

"Wait. How did you know about the hangover then?" Summer asked shockingly.

"Besides the fact that I'm the one who got you drunk – Seth also called me this morning."

"Seth called you?"

"Uh huh. He told me to tell the 'important people' you were sick. He's quite the charmer," Chad giggled.

Oh, now this whole Seth issue made sense. "Did you tell Seth anything else?"

"Not much. Well, I told him I got you drunk last night because you were stressed. But don't worry. I totally told him it was from work. I don't think he suspects it was because of him."

Summer sighed and held her head in her hands. Yeah, there was no way Seth couldn't tell from even the shortest phone conversation with Chad that Chad was gay. And Seth probably realized, on his own, that she had forgotten to mention this simple detail to him the night before when she attempted to make him jealous.

"Summy, you sure you're okay?" Chad rubbed her back soothingly.

Summer mumbled into her hands sardonically, "Yeah. Never better."