Quietly, I tried to creep into my apartment, dreading the moment that someone realised I was home. I hoped Arthur wouldn't be there to welcome me home for the first time in my life. Unfortunately, fate has a way of picking on me when I'm down, so I wasn't that surprised when I went sprawling over some treacherous object in the pitch blackness and hit the floor with an obvious crash.

"Crap!" I shouted loudly, knowing that someone would have heard me anyway. Sure enough, Arthur came rushing out of the bedroom, and immediately smiled in that cheeky way of his. God, I didn't deserve him.

Offering a hand, he pulled me up and said "Are you alright?"

No. My heart felt like it was in tatters because of how much pain I was about to inflict on him when he found out. I didn't want him to know until he had to.

"I'm fine."

"How was your evening?" Already, a frown had appeared on his face, and I guessed my brusque tone had alerted him that something was wrong.

"Fine, thank you." If I didn't stop using the word 'fine', he would realise that things weren't 'fine' at all.

"What about your evening?" I said quickly, before he could press for details.

He shrugged. "Nothing special, just lay on the sofa watching some bad late night tv, awaiting your precious return." He grinned at me, whilst I tried to return one and ended up grimacing.

"Ari," He murmured, taking my face in his hands, "Are you sure you're alright?"

I could've told him then, I could've broken down on his offered shoulder and told the truth and begged for his forgiveness. But I couldn't bring myself to do it. I just couldn't.

"I'm fi-I'm ok, really. Just exhausted, is it alright if I go to bed?"

"Sure." Arthur was trying to sound lighthearted, but his eyes were boring into mine, trying to read me.

Brushing past him, I put down my keys, wrenched off my heels and in another act of the vengeance-seeking fate, tottered as I was taking them off, causing Arthur to laugh and grab my hand to steady me. My left hand.

"Jeesh, you're clumsy tonight!" I tried to laugh with him, but the whole time my eyes were staring at our clasped hands in panic.

Gaining my balance, I went to pull my hand away and was relieved when he let it go without a suspicion.

"Good night, my lady." Arthur said in a sexy voice, and bent to kiss my hand. My left hand, again. And that was when my world fell apart.

"Ari...What the hell is this?" Arthur dropped my hand like it had stung him and stared at me in complete disbelief.

"Arthur," I pleaded, "please listen to me. He just sprung the question on me and I knew if I turned him down he would've broken up with me and then the past 3 months would've been a complete waste! You have to understand!"

Arthur stared at me like I was speaking a foreign language. "You're acting like staying with him is so important, like what you have is special."

"No! No no no. But do you want it all to be for nothing?"

"It wouldn't have been for nothing if you had chosen me over him."

I felt like he had stabbed me, right in my heart, and was twisting slowly with every word. "Arthur. I never chose him. It was never a competition!"

"Well sometimes it feels that way!" He yelled, completely losing it. "I don't think you get it Ariadne. You think that just because it's a job you can skip as far as you want down this pretend path of love with Lucas and there be no consequences whilst still keeping me on the side, assuring me that you love me. Well I'm starting to get sick of it, ok? This twisted love triangle that I'm stuck in. I want out, and if the only way is letting go of you then so be it."

I tried to steady my heart, which was on the brink of giving out. "You...you're breaking up with me?"

Arthur took a breath too. "I think we should, give each other space for a while. This job hasn't been good for either of us, and we both need to step back and think about our priorities." Ouch. That was meant for me.

"I see." That was all I could manage to get out. Arthur looked at me with devastation written in his eyes where I could see tears pooling, and quickly turned to go out the door. With his hand resting on the handle, he turned back to me.

"Ari, I know work is important to you. But don't become like Cobb. Don't become obsessed with the job. Or you'll lose everything else." With that, he wrenched open the door and closed it with a slam.

"Or I'll lose you, you mean." I whispered to the empty flat, and collapsed to the floor as I began to sob.

"You look like utter shit." Eames said dryly as I collapsed into a chair beside him and pulled the nearest cup of coffee towards me. Before I could say anything, he reached out and covered my hand with his. "Well I could say 'I told you so', but I won't because I'm nice like that."

I rolled my eyes, which spilled a few tears hidden there. "I knew you wouldn't be able to resist."

"Hey, I didn't actually say it, well, I did, but...oh sod it who cares. Let's get to the proper subject: why haven't you spoken to Arthur?"

I sniffled miserably. "He doesn't want to talk to me. And I can hardly blame him, I mean look!" I waved my ring finger at Eames. "I can't believe I let myself get this far in on a stupid job! Arthur was right, as usual."

"Ok, please, never let me hear you say Arthur is right again, especially not in front of him. He'd be all smug to me. Also, why are you still wearing that ring? Not exactly an encouragement to get him back?"

I looked at Eames in annoyance. "Well, hell, now you're the one that's right."

Eames grinned, looking pleased. "You can say that in front of Arthur."

"So...what do I do now?" I said timidly.

Eames looked at me seriously. "Well, you have to choose what's more important to you. The job or Arthur?"

"Arthur. Of course Arthur. Jeesh, why does everyone keep asking me-"

"Because you haven't exactly made it clear that Arthur is most important right now. Hey, don't give me that look, it's true, ring Lucas, call off the engagement and screw the job."

"Why are you saying that it's ok to back out now when for the last 3 months it's all been about getting close to Lucas."

Looking at me like I was stupid, Eames said gently "That's the point isn't it? We pushed you into this, when we all knew how much you loved Arthur. So if it costs a job to get you back together then so be it."

I didn't think I'd ever heard anything so profound and wise come from his lips. "Wow. You're acting like you really care about us as a couple."

Now it was Eames' turn to roll his eyes. "You'd be surprised, behind all the mockery I actually do care about you idiots. Now ditch the ring and the annoying rich boyfriend, and live happily ever after with Arthur."

I couldn't believe he'd made everything so clear. "Eames," I said seriously, "You are an amazing friend-"

"I know, darling. Now go!" I jumped up and engulfed him in a hug, before skipping out like a cartoon character. I mentally checked the list in my head: talk to eames, check, what was left? Ditch fake boyfriend and get my life on track! Simple. Right?

The door creaked open ominously as I unlocked it (I added another item to my mental list: give back Lucas' house keys!) and the feeling of being in a horror film intensified as I called out "Lucas?" into the disturbingly cold house. Creeping up the stairs, I carefully looked for any sign of movement before heading straight to the study-if I was going to break up with him and not get another moment in the house, I may as well have one last shot at exposing him. Feeling like a ninja, I sneaked down the hall, as the study door grew bigger and bigger and my heart pounded faster and faster.

Which was why my heart nearly stopped when a pair of hands grabbed my waist. I span round with a shriek of alarm, and wasn't surprised my panic didn't lessen when I saw it was Lucas.

"Hey there, my beautiful fiancé!" Lucas bent down and kissed me smack on the mouth.

And I had absolutely no idea what to say.

"Hi." Always a good way to start, Ari.

"It's lovely of you to come round and see me, shall I make us dinner? I've learnt to cook just for you!" Lucas laughed with a twinkle in her eye.

Oh God, I was such a horrible person.

"Actually. I wondered if we could just talk."

"Ok, what's up?" Unlike Arthur, he didn't read my mood. He didn't understand that I was being serious. So, in a last kind gesture, I took his hand and actually remembered the way to the sitting room. I gestured for him to sit down and before I could leg it out of there or crack under the strain, I blurted out what I was really feeling in the bluntest way possible.

"I think we should break up."

"I'm sorry what?" Lucas looked like someone had thrown up into his lap - disgusted and shocked.

"Y'know, well, I think that, Lucas...it's only been 3 months since we first met. Don't you think it's a bit fast?"

Lucas' shoulders sagged. "I didn't think it mattered that we haven't known each other that long. I knew you were my soulmate...am I not yours?"

How the hell was I meant to answer that? Arthur was my soulmate, and I hated this constant lying. I should never have taken this job, it was wrong on so many levels, and I had become to dislike the person I had turned into. Since when was I so obsessed with jobs? They don't come first. Love does.

"No." I said softly. "You're not."

Emotions flickered over his face. First he looked taken aback, then sad, then furious. "I know what this is about. You're still seeing that johnny guy, aren't you!"

"What? Eam-I mean Johnny? No! Why would you think that?"

"Oh come on Ariadne, a friend of mine saw you and johnny canoodling in a coffee shop. How much more obvious do you want to be?"

I had a terrible urge to crack up, and nearly broke a rib trying to keep it down. "Lucas, I assure you, we are friends. Just friends."

"Oh please, if you can hug another guy then clearly all this intimacy issues crap is just a cover, you're seeing someone else!" He snapped, and I made the mistake of letting out a giggle because I couldn't believe he had actually guessed right.

"I'm sorry Lucas, but your reaction clearly tells me what I'm feeling is right. We're just not meant to be." I turned to walk away and the next thing I felt was an agonising pain at the back of my head before everything went black.

My eyelids flickered open, and I moaned in pain as I tried to turn my head and get my bearings. At first, everything refused to come into focus, and I willed my eyes to work. That was when I realised I was in Lucas' bedroom, and full panic set in. I quickly sat up, dismissing my head pain, and after a quick examination of myself I noted with relief I was fully clothed. Lucas didn't seem the type to be that evil, but on the other hand he had attacked me. Clearly first impressions were wrong. Staggering off the bed, I managed to make it to the door and I leant again it, gingerly putting a hand to my head. No blood. Thank God. Feeling slightly better about my state of health, I pulled open the door and willed myself to punch, kick, bite or headbutt (well, perhaps not the last one as I was sure it would deteriorate my health more than his). But no one was there. And that's when it hit me: my opportunity had finally arrived.

I felt like someone was going to jump me any second as I crept down the hall towards the study, and it seemed to take a lifetime. When I finally reached the study door, I was twitching with nerves and feeling over paranoid. In my haste, I had forgotten that there was a fat-ass keycode for the door, which I had no means of breaking into or cracking the code. I hurriedly tried to rack my brains for a solution, but seeing as they'd just taken a pounding, I wasn't that surprised when I came up blank. Stupid, out-of-control business man. Time seemed to blur as I stood there, knowing his whole dirty secrets could just be waiting on the other side to betray him, and I was incapable of reaching them. A small, insignificant cough brought my back to my senses, and I had my solution. I whipped around, ready to confront Lucas, but it was just an extremely short and nervous looking guy, and I had to seriously think before I remembered who he was. The intercom guy, or Lucas' servant. Probably slave was a better terminology.

"Miss? Mr Ford asked me to convey his apologies, and to show you out once you had, urm, awoken."

Awoken? Jeez what was this, a twisted version of sleeping beauty?

"Miss?" He bleated again. "Is there anything I can get you?"

"Yes actually, I'm so glad you asked."

"Oh?" He looked terrified at my unexpected acceptance for his help.

I smiled. "You can help me by telling me the code for Ford's study so we can kick his butt."

He made a funny choking noise. "Miss. I could never betray Mr Ford-not that I know the code anyway."

I restrained myself from rolling my eyes with difficulty. This guy wasn't exactly great at the art of lying.

"What's your name?"

"George."

"Well George, do you like your boss?"

"I-I don't know-"

"Is he nice to you?"

"No, but-"

"Does he pay you well-"

"No, but-"

"Then why should you like him?"

"Well I guess I don't, but-"

"Then there's your answer. If you help me, you'll never have to work for him again."

"And what will I do for money? The whole reason I got this crappy job was because I couldn't go anywhere else!" He looked on the point of crumlbing, and I knew what I could offer him was what he deserved if he helped us get this horrific job out of the way.

"I can give you money. A lot of money." I watched him process my offer, going from trembly to doubtful to elated. "So-what's the code?"

Hmm will Ari actually get anything on Lucas? I promise I will update soon!