Hello!! I'm sorry for the delay. This semester was absolutely terrible! I'm back and this chapter is reallly good!

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Mediator or Your Big Break where ideas were taken from.

Sorry if there's any errors!

Chapter 4

"Are you Susannah Simon? I'm Maria DeSilva."

My next client breezes into my office, all long legged, thick black hair, and huge boobs. She's decked out in a sharp Prada pencil skirt and carries a Christian Dior saddle bag purse.

I'm wearing a gray DKNY dress and my chestnut brown hair is flat from the rain, one of the nicer business dresses I own. I suddenly feel outclassed.

"The only and only," I say.

She didn't look amused."Yes well, I'm here about my boyfriend."

I pull out the Breakup Boyfriend form that I fill out for clients.

"What's his name?" I ask.

Maria sits down in the chair opposite my desk and crosses one of her slim legs over the other.

"Hector DeSilva"

I quite writing and look up quickly.

"So, your married. You do realize we don't do that here."

"I know" Maria snaps and rolls her eyes. "Jesse isn't my husband."

I stare. Not another incest breakup. I cringe.

"Jessie is my cousin. We have an arranged relationship," Maria sighs. "I'd like to get Hector out of my life, and I'd like to do it as quickly as possile."

"Have you ever used a breakup service before?" I don't usually ask this question, but Maria strikes me as the type who might have experience in this area.

"God no," she makes a face. "To be perfectly honest, I'm not even sure if I want to hire you. This seems a little tacky."

I bite my tongue. "I can walk you through how we work if that helps."

"Not necessary." Maria waves her hand. "Let me be blunt. What can I get for twenty-five bucks."

I roll my eyes from the inside. So much for Maria being a big spender. "That's our entry level package. I'll craft a Dear John letter and after you approve it I'll deliver it via e-mail or snail mail. Your choice."

"No, no, no," Maria shakes her head. "I have some expensive things at his apartment. I need you to get those back. Can you do that for fifty?"

I take a deep breathe. Maria DeSilva was really starting to piss me off.

"We don't do in person for less than a hundred."

Maria ignores what I say and hands me a list. I quickly look it over. Everything on it are small. There's earings, a watch, clothes, handbags and shoes. "These shouldn't be a problem." I do some quick calculations and give her a price of $110.

"I'll need to arrange a time to meet Hector in a public place. We usually do those things in public."

Maria claps her hands together. "Perfect!! You can see Hector tonight. He's got a poetry workshop at Barnes & Noble every Thursday at eight."

"He's a writer?" I ask.

"Hardly" She lets out a laugh. "His stuff's not worth the tree's it's printed on." Maria shakes her head. "He always stands up and reads a poem."

She laughs again as if the mental image of Hector DeSilva reading a poem is beyond rediculous.

"This is what he looks like," Maria passes me a wallet size photo of Hector.

Holy.

Let's just say, if Hector was my boyfriend. I would never break-up with him. Or let him out of my bedroom.

Ahem.

Hector looked like he had some Spaniard in him. He was tan with big dark eyes that were as black as eyelashes were longer than mine. His hair was short and dark and very crisp and thick looking. I'm sure he had a six-pack.

I snapped out of it quickly and handed the picture back to Maria.

"Alright. Call me when everything is taken care of" Maria begins to get up.

"Hold on a sec." I stop her. " We still need to go over a few details."

"I don't know what else we could possibly discuss."

"I need to ask you a few questions" I reply continuing to fill out the form.

"Like?" She asks.

"Can you tell me why you're leaving him?" I ask. I really wanted to know because girls usually don't leave guys like that. I wonder for a second if Hector is as shallow as Maria.

"Do I have to answer that?" She snaps back at me.

"No, but it would be helpful."

"Because I'm not sure If I want to" she continues.

I stop writing and look at her and say "There's no need to be embarrassed. Trust me. Whatever you have to say, I'm sure I've heard worse."

"I bet you haven't." Maria narrows her eyes at me. I get the sense that she's challenging me.

I think it over trying to come up with the most humiliating situation that I've dealt with.

"Did he fall in love with a man?" I ask.

"God no!"

"Are you leaving him for his brother?"

"No," Maria folds her arms and gives a smug smile. "I want to dump him because last week he quit his job to become.." she pauses dramatically

"A male stripper?" I couldn't resist. She rolls her eyes.

"When Hector and I first found out about the arrangement, he was a successfull corporate attorney. He just quit because he wants to go back to school to become a doctor."

I stared at her. "And this bothers you because?"

"Hector will be in school for like ten years. He'll be broke forever trying to pay back those loans." Maria then leans forward and lowers her voice. "I'm not going to waste a pair of tits like these," she points to her chest. "On an in debt doctor wannabe!"

I not to laugh at the stupidity of this. "Okay.."

"Now, are you going to Hector's book discussion tonight?" Maria asks giving me the picture of Hector again.

I check my schedule and confirm I'm free. It's kind of sad considering it's short notice. Maybe my mom is right. I don't get out enough.

"How old is he?" I look at the picture again trying not to stare at it longer than necessary.

"27. I spent two years training the idiot and look what he does."

"Training?"

"Suze, men are like blank slates," Maria states. "Or like dogs. However you prefer it."

I don't believe this.

"I taught Hector everything he knows about pleasing a woman. I practically drew him a map of the female body." She boasts.

I feel like I need to change the subject. "Do you want to collaborate with me on what goes in the letter?"

"No. You can tell Hector whatever you like. I don't care."

The Barnes & Noble book discussion is packed. I pull out the wallet sized photo Maria gave me and search the crowd for Hector DeSilva. I sit in the middle row.

I felt like a hitman. A suddenly very nervous hitman.

I won't deny that I didn't spend a few more minutes in the mirror getting ready for this.

I really wished he wasn't like Maria.

Hector and I have never met and yet I know this giant secret about his life-medschool-and all the way's his life's about to crumble. The worst part is is that he has no idea.

I search the sea of faces but I don't see anyone who resembles Hector.

At 8 o'clock on the dot a short stocky woman walks up to the front of the room and introduces herself. "I'm Sal and I'll be your moderator tonight." She scans the room with a huge smile on her face. "Welcome back returning readers and a big hello to all our new fresh-faces!"

"Today we will be discuss Plato Complete Works. As usual we'll begin with a few short readings from Plato and then we'll open up the floor for comments," Sal says. "I encourage you to comment on whatever you'd like. Let nothing hold you back."

Sal then begins reading passages from the novel. I don't have the novel and I'm lost already. I look around the room hoping to spot Hector. Everyone is engrossed. I couldn't find him. Unless he was sitting in the back. He had better show.

We finish and the floor is ipened for comments. No one says anything and I'm scared she's going to start drafting people. I'm not about to get up there and wing it.

Then a burly bearded man ambles up to the front of the room. "I'm Jason," he says.I notice Jason is cute too. He's got nothing on Hector, though.

"I really was engrosed with Plato. He's the man. Even when he talks about the underrworld...."

Jason keeps talking and my thoughts trail wondering where Hector could be.

Jason must have finished because a guy in the back claps his hands and said in a very smooth voice. "Good job Edwards, that took alot of courage." I turn around to see who spoke and my eyes lock on an attractive, dark haired tan skinned man in a pair of black slacks and an olive green button up shirt, which may I add, complemented his skin tone immensly.

Hector DeSilva.

He must have snuck in late.

He was more gorgeous in person.

I swallowed and turned back around.

"Would like to go next, Jesse? You always have a good opinion." Sal asks.

"Sure," Jesse makes his way to the front of the room.

Jesse? Suddenly I was very confused. Did he have a twin brother? Do I have the wrong person?

"Hi everyone. I'm Jesse." He smiles brightly.

My heart starts to race. I feel as though he's looking directly at me.

"Sorry I haven't been around. Ever since my father died two weeks ago," he begins almost as if he's fighting off tears. "I've had a really hard time dealing with things."

I jerk upright in my chair.

WHAT?

Obviously this is some sort of mistake. Maria can't possibly want to ditch must be confused. Maybe she thinks I'm a relationship counselor, hired to patch things up.

Deep down, I know that's bullshit.

I start to panic. What should I do?

Hector finishes his opinion and the discussion is over. I decide to confront the situation head-on. I jump up and make my way to the back of the room. Hector is sitting by himself leafing through a notebook.

I stand there for a second hesitating.

"Hi Hector," I say brightly. "I'm Suze Simon," My face turns read. I'm being to enthusiastic. "I'm an...acquaintance.. of Maria's" I finally manage to say. Friend wasn't the word I would have used.

He looks at me surprised. "Maria DeSilva?"

"The very same."

"Nice to meet you, Suze. Short for?" He shakes my hand.I feel a bolt of electricity run through my body. My knees grew weak.

"Susannah."

"I like Susannah better," he smiles. "And, please, call me Jesse."

I wonder why Maria never told me that.

Now that I'm face to face with Jesse, I can't think of what to do. I realize that I'm staring at him, and my mind is quickly searching for something to say.

He eyes me quizzically. "Is everything okay?"

"Of course. I was just hoping you and could talk about something." I sound like an idiot.

Jesse opens his mouth and I'm pretty sure he's about to question me. Suddenly Jason came up to us "Hurry up DeSilva." he looked from Jesse to me and a big grin spread on his face. "

"Jesse, who's this gorgeous looking friend of yours?" He asked; I smiled.

"This is Susannah, she's new here."

"Ah, very nice to meet you; I'm Jason Edwards," He grabbed my hand and kissed the back of it charmingly, winking as he did.

"Nice to meet you, as well." I replied smothering a blush. My eyes ran over him quickly; Jason seemed a lot more laid back then Jesse did. He was wearing jeans and a long sleeved T-shirt.

Jesse looked annoyed with Jason.

"Susannah would it be okay if we met and talked privately?" He gave a stern look to Jason.

I nodded cooly and wrote down my e-mail address on a Starbucks napkin I found in my purse and Jesse left pratically dragging Jason with him.

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