While she loved that she was going to see her fiance in just a few short minutes, the flight had taken it all out of her. She was tired, and all she wanted to do was curl up on the couch with Lucas, talking to Jamie and Haley and Nathan all night long.

Those plans, however were put away quickly once they got to the house and Lucas told her to get ready.

"What? Why? For what?" she asks, with a bit of a whine in her voice.

"I thought that we would catch the shuttle and meet Lindsay for dinner tonight"

"Luke, seriously? I... I just flew all day long, and my hair is... and... "

"I got us a suite at a hotel downtown so we can have some time alone, away from the prying eyes of our family and the crying sounds of our nephew... and besides...You look beautiful."

She just narrowed her eyes at him, just a tiny bit frustrated that one comment could make everything alright all over again. It was so aggravating sometimes.

"I can call her and cancel if you want. That's okay."

"No. Don't do that. I'll go get ready and we can go to New York. She was expecting us."

She walked past him and into the bathroom to quickly clean herself up and change her clothes. After freshening her makeup she made her way to the living room where her fiance was, with a new blue shirt and a pair of pin striped pants on.

"When did I get so lucky?" he asks as he watches her walk into the room, admiring the way her curls fell around her face with a spring even though she had flown all day.

All she could do was blush, smiling at the compliment, and then walking over to give him a kiss on the cheek.

"Are you ready?"

"Yeah, let's go meet this Lindsay..."

"Peyton..."

"I know, I know... she's your editor... blah blah blah. I'll be nice."

Just a few hours later, they were in New York, putting bags into a hotel room that was a lot larger than either of them expected. "They are paying for it, so I figured that I would splurge a little bit." he says, shrugging a bit at her mouth that hadn't closed since opening the door.

"Who knew that this publishing deal was so hot. You should have quit basketball a long time ago Luke!"

He laughs and moves to pull her to him when his phone rings.

"Lucas Scott" he says, answering, and then putting a quick kiss on Peyton's cheek.

"Hey Luke! Did you guys get in okay?"

"Yeah, we did... thanks. What time were we going to be meeting you?"

"Reservations are in about a half an hour, but I can push it back if you need me to."

"No, Lindsay, that's fine. We'll be there. Our same place right?" he asks, and Peyton hopes that he doesn't catch her quick head turn at the comment.

"Yup. I'll be waiting!"

"Thanks, and I'll see you then."

With that he hung up, explaining to Peyton that the reservations were in just a half hour so they needed to get downstairs so they could hail a cab.

She was already still a bit crabby from the flight this afternoon, and with the cutesy little banter she thought she heard between Lucas and his editor, she was convinced that this wasn't going to be the best of evenings.

Then, as they opened the door to the restaurant, she saw her. Long brown hair, with piercing blue eyes, tall, not too skinny, a killer smile, and everything that she had prayed that the woman he was spending his time with wasn't.

Yeah, this was going to suck.

"Peyton, I'd like you to meet Lindsay Strauss, my new editor." he says, gesturing to Lindsay and putting his hand on the small of Peyton's back.

"Oh my gosh! It is absolutely wonderful to meet you. I feel like I know you already, and Lucas can't ever stop talking about you when we are working, so it is wonderful to finally put a face to the Peyton Sawyer." Lindsay says, a little too excited, opting to loosely hug Peyton instead of going for the casual handshake that Peyton had hoped for.

"ummm... It's nice meeting you too. You sure have Lucas working pretty hard on the book."

"yeah, well, I told him that it would be like we were married... all the long hours and fighting over each passage." she says, patting Lucas' arm as they are waiting to be seated.

Nope. This was a bad idea. By about halfway through the meal Peyton was damn near ready to throw herself across the table and attack the woman, who was openly flirting with her fiance. If it wasn't the doe eyes when he was talking, it was the retelling of a random story about one of their work sessions together, or a casual touch of his arm.

His hand was firmly in Peyton's under the table, but she didn't care... she still didn't like it. Editors were supposed to be old ladies who had nothing better to do than read books for a living, or thirty something year old men who still lived with their mothers. They were not supposed to be attractive, single, women that just happened to be her age.

With a hug for Lucas and for Peyton from the woman, Peyton was glad to get into the cab, and proceeded to not speak the entire way back to the hotel.

"Peyton, what is up? You haven't spoken at all about Lindsay and what you think about her, or about anything we talked about with the book."

"Luke, I'm tired. It has been a long day, and I just want to go to bed." she says, walking past him and into the bathroom after picking up her pajamas along the way.

Later in bed was when he couldn't take it any more. "Peyton, come on. Talk to me."

"Will you just let me sleep?" she says, more annoyed than anything.

"Not until you tell me what is wrong..."

"Lindsay." she says, without any emotion in her voice, just stating it like a fact that he should completely understand.

"Oh come on Peyton, are you serious? I told you that she wasn't anything but my editor."

"But you forgot to include your hot, single editor, who can't seem to keep her hands off of you. I mean God Luke, you're a freaking author now... use an adjective!!" she bites back, turning to face him in bed.

"What?!"

"You've got to be kidding me Lucas? You are seriously going to play dumb about this!?" She says, getting even angrier as he appears to be letting her words just roll off his back. "Luke! If she was this bad when your fiance was there, I don't even want to know what she does during those late night work sessions she seems to be so fond of talking about!"

"She is my editor Peyton, nothing more, and you know that. You are totally overreacting about this whole thing!"

Her mouth gapes open at that, and throwing the covers off, she storms out of the room and into the main area of the suite.

Knowing he should go after her and actually going after her are two different things. He doesn't understand why she could think that he and Lindsay were even close to an item. After about a half hour, he decided that she had probably cooled off enough to go talk to her.

However, when he entered the living space, he found her curled up on the couch fast asleep with dried tear tracks down her cheeks. He knew that part of it was the long day and the flight, and he knew that tomorrow he would have to prove to her that she was the only one for him. For now, all he could think about was how beautiful and fragile she looked, curled up with a few tendrils in her face and her mouth slightly open as if she were sighing.

Scooping her up, he was able to get her at least out of her heels and dress before putting her in bed, and then grabbing a pillow, he took up residence on the couch for the evening.

The next morning, before she even opened her eyes, her arms searched for him, reaching out to his side of the bed but only meeting cool sheets. She knew what happened last night, but with confusion she sat up remembering that she had been the one who fell asleep on the couch.

The first thing that she saw were his feet. They dangled off the side of the couch that was obviously way too short for his taller frame. The blanket he had wrapped around him was also too short and couldn't cover the awkward bend of his neck as he slept. He couldn't have been comfortable, and she knew that it was all her fault. She knew that she had nothing to worry about, and she knew that the distance between them was actually improving, not hurting their relationship. She knew he loved her, and she knew that everything really was going to be okay.

She knelt down beside him, planting a soft kiss to his temple before trying to wake him up, "Lucas..."

His brow furrowed a bit as she called his name again, "Lucas..."

"I'm sorry Peyton." he says, still groggy, and barely opening his eyes.

"No, baby, it was my fault. I didn't mean all that I said... I'm the one who should be sorry."

He had opened his eyes now, looking at her with nothing but adoration, "It was my fault too. I should have told you more about Lindsay, and if you are uncomfortable with her, I can always see if they can give me a new editor."

"No!" she says, moving to sit up on the couch with him, "Luke, she was the one who found it. She found in your book what I knew and your mom knew, and I don't think that you should throw that away. She saw the magic, so you need to keep her on."

"But if you..."

"Lucas, how often am I really going to have to see this woman? I don't hate her... I wish she'd keep her damn hands off my man... but I don't hate her, and I'm only here for a weekend every other month, at least for now. Don't worry about me! You do what is best for you."

"What is best for me is having you happy."

"Well, having you makes me happy, so as long as that works for you, it works for me."

"Can we start the weekend over?"

"and how would you like to start it Mr. Scott."

With a smile, he leans into her, pressing a kiss to her lips and then moving down towards her collarbone as she bends her head to give him better access. "Hey honey, I missed you..."

"God, I missed you too..."

"I got us a suite in New York..." he says, continuing to kiss her, moving the neck of the t-shirt she had put on to the side.

"Really? And why would you do that?" she says, pushing onto his chest and moving to lay beside him.

"I thought that we could use some alone time while you were here."

"Oh, well, what would we do with a hotel room for a weekend?"

"hmm... I think I might have some ideas..."

–

That will probably be it for Man Face, cause let's all be honest... we hate her. Well... I know I hated her, but I don't know about the rest of you. It sure is going to be some good times up ahead though. Does anyone have any predictions that they would like to share with the class??? Anyone?? Bueller???

Review, Predict.... love... hope you enjoyed!