Hello everyone! Once again, thank you so much for all of your encouraging reviews. I apologize profusely for the delay in posting this chapter, but I literally had to rewrite it 4 times before I liked it enough to post it. Even now it has pretty much taken on a life of its own, and turned out completely differently than I had originally imagined it, but I think it is much more entertaining. Once again, let me know what you think, and don't worry there will be much more explanation in chapters to come. =).

And, MillaMayhem thank you so much for your kind compliment and to answer your question, no I do not write professionally, but I am attempting to write my first original novel and hopefully some day I will have it finished and be begging people to buy it. lol.

Chapter 3

Alex let out a groan as she rolled over and gazed at the long brown hair and smooth, almost blemish free skin. Her eyes traveled over the olive skin and she could feel the disappointment when her ogling was cut short by the seemingly strategically placed sheet. She slid out of the bed and gathered her discarded clothing; she crept out the door and made her way across the dark living room donning on her now dry clothing as she went.

Standing at the front door, she went to pull her hair up into a ponytail and paused, her fingers playing with the ends of her hair that she hadn't had the heart to cut in the past ten years and she could feel the tears start to gather in her eyes. When had she become this person? She had been in two beds with two different people in one night. What had happened to the perfect porcelain doll of a daughter her mother had raised? What had happened to that trust fund baby who had gone to Harvard and Columbia and had earned straight A's, wore Prada shoes and who's only vice was a glass of red wine at Christmas dinner.

The first time Alex had ended up in bed with a woman she had blamed it on extremely high blood alcohol levels and curiosity brought on by her extremely conservative and sheltered upbringing. It had been the first time she had ever gotten drunk, and it had been exhilarating. But this, this had gone too far, this wasn't right.

It had started so innocently, with a celebratory dinner. Alex rested her head against the cold worn wooden door and let her mind wander back over the events of the last few hours and felt the warm tears start to fall down her cheeks.

"Reenie!" She whispered loudly, shaking the shoulder of the very naked blonde woman next to her.

When the other woman let out an indignant mumble and rolled over Alex shook her shoulder harder, "Serena, you have to wake up. You have to leave."

"Wha? Alex? What's going on?"

"Serena, you have to wake up. I have to go," Alex had worked her way out of the bed and was actively searching for her bra, which was around there somewhere.

"No, you go. I'll stay and sleep."

"Serena, you have to go. You remember that woman I told you about, the one from the coffee shop? She just called and I am going to meet her at Bill's. I can't go meet her, with you sleeping in my bed. It's not right." Alex argued as she pulled her off of a lamp and grabbed a new pair of underwear out of the drawer.

Serena huffed and propped herself up on her elbows the sheet piling around her waist leaving her naked breasts for Alex to view. "What's not right, Alexandra, is waking up your fuck buddy friend and kicking her out of your bed so you can go on a date with another woman. You have a screwed up idea of ethics my friend."

"Serena!" Alex whined, pulling on a shirt and jeans. "It's not a date, you know I don't date women. And you did the same thing when you had a shot with Caroline, you know married Caroline from our judicial ethics class. Don't even get me started on the ethical irony of that one."

Serena couldn't help but laugh as she rolled her eyes. "Oh, of course not. You don't date women; you just get drunk off your ass and fuck the living daylights out of them. Or should I say out of me, since I seem to be your lesbian of choice. And say what you want about Caroline, but at least I can accept my sluttiness and my membership in the KD Lang fan club. You my friend are one mixed up puppy."

"Okay, fine, I am mixed up, but you know what, you are my friend, so you should do what I ask and get out of here!"

"Fine, Cabot, but only for you would I do the walk of shame at midnight," Serena mumbled, pulling herself out of the bed and picking up her discarded clothing.

"Walk of shame, my ass, you live across the living room."

"It's the principle!"

The diner, Bill's, was too brightly lit for 12:30 in the morning. The florescent lights seemed to be trying to make up for the darkness outside. It was pretty crowded for the time of night. Olivia sat in the booth finally feeling the exhaustion of the last few days settle over her. She gripped a steaming cup of coffee in her hands, and allowed her head to lean back on the sticky plastic back of the booth bench. Every time she felt herself start to nod off she would jerk her head up and take a long sip of the coffee. It was a futile attempt— she had gone so long with out a decent night's sleep that no amount of caffeine would keep her awake for long.

Alex ran into Bill's about 15 minutes after Olivia had gotten there. Her hair was pulled into a messy ponytail. It had started to rain when she was still five minutes away causing her to break into a run. It was now pouring, Alex was soaking, freezing and extremely out of breath. Sexy.

"It's retribution," Alex grumbled to herself as she attempted to ring out her hair and rubbed her hands together furiously at the entrance of the diner. She glanced around and spotted Olivia: head back, dozing in the booth. Well they were a pair— maybe she was getting to old to be going out all night.

Alex tried to slide quietly into the booth, but froze as the unforgiving plastic let out an unflattering whine and Olivia's eyes flew open.

"Um, hi," Alex muttered, fruitlessly attempting to wipe another clump of soggy hair out of her eyes.

"Hi," Olivia responded, her eyes traveling over the other woman, taking in the wet mop of hair tied into a messy knot, the sweatshirt dripping from the too-long sleeves and shivering body. Letting out an involuntary laugh, she slid out of the booth and swung her leather jacket over her shoulders.

"You coming?" Olivia called over her shoulder to the bedraggled woman as she sauntered towards the door.

Olivia didn't stop or turn around as she made her way down the sidewalk in the now drizzling rain, and as Alex hurried to keep up with her, the little voice in the back of her mind kept on piping up, asking her what she was doing. Why was she following this woman who was practically a stranger to who knows where? Did she really trust her? Why did she trust her? She could be crazy. She could be a lot of things.

Alex paused at the crosswalk, Olivia standing only a few feet in front of her. She could feel her hand itching to reach out and run her soaked, freezing fingers through the wet matted head of long brown hair in front of her. All she needed to do was stare at the back of Olivia's head, and she could answer that annoying little voice definitively; yes, she could trust Olivia, she could trust her implicitly. And, no, she could not tell you why. It was something in her eyes that made Alex want to drown, and it scared and enticed her at the same time. Alex wasn't gay, she upon occasion found herself in her roommate's bed, naked, but that didn't make her a lesbian. She also did not drink heavily even though she had woken up with monster hangovers, and she did not smoke anything legal or illegal even though she owned her own Zippo lighter and had a hidden stash of rolling papers and Camel Lights in her room.

And, so she continued to follow Olivia up two city blocks, through the front glass door of a nondescript apartment building, up five flights of stairs, down a poorly lit hallway and into apartment 5D.

It was quiet in the apartment, and the musty smell told her that Olivia hadn't been there in a couple of days. There was a half full ashtray on the small table by the door and a pair of shoes lying haphazardly on the floor. Alex took in the apartment as Olivia mumbled something about making herself at home and hurried around picking up discarded items and articles of clothing. Her eyes wandered to the only personalized items in the room; a framed diploma on the wall and a picture of a blonde woman and a small brunette girl by the phone. The blinking light on the answering machine next to the photo caught her attention next. Eight new messages confirmed Alex's suspicion that this woman did not spend much time at home.

It should have been strange being in a stranger's apartment, but Alex wasn't worried. Maybe it was the residual effects of the joint that she and Serena had shared earlier before they had drifted off to sleep or maybe it was the three shots of tequila she had done before that.

'Or it might be her eyes.' The voice in the back of her head piped up.

'Yeah right.' Alex silently replied.

"Everything okay?"

Alex whirled around, out of her trance and came face to face with those eyes.

"Yeah, yeah," she managed to stutter.

"I brought you some clothes," Olivia stated plainly as she held up the bundle of cotton blends in her hands, never breaking eye contact with the other woman. "I thought you might like something dry to wear. Might warm you up."

Alex remembered then that she was soaking wet and noticed that she was actually shaking because of it.

"Thank you," she mumbled, reaching for the articles and moved towards the bathroom Olivia was gesturing towards.

Halfway across the living room she paused and turned around and looked at the woman who was now staring back at her quizzically.

"Fuck it," she said, before dropping the clothes and marching back over to Olivia, taking the other woman's face in her hands.

"I don't do this," Olivia whispered, but made no move to back away.

"It's okay," Alex had replied, rubbing her thumb gently against the other woman's bottom lip as she lowered her mouth towards hers, "Neither do I."

Even as she thought back on it the moment seemed surreal to her, who does that? Who comes onto a complete stranger in a strange apartment on the same night that they had just slept with someone else? The tears were spilling freely down her cheeks as Alex flipped the lock on the old wooden door quietly and dug into the pocket of her hoodie for a cigarette and her lighter as she slipped the door open. Once safely in the hallway she took a deep drag and leaned against the wall.

This was it, this was the end; nothing like this would happen again. She would take that job at the prestigious law firm she had been offered, no more toying with that bullshit about legal aid and advocacy. Gone were the days of ripped jeans and comfortable t-shirt and of long hippie hair. It was time to grow up. It was time to go back to being that perfect little porcelain doll.

Pulling out a second cigarette, the last one in the pack, Alexandra Cabot stepped out into the pre-dawn hours and tossed the empty cardboard box and the pink Zippo lighter into the trashcan. "Sorry Olivia," she said to a tumbleweed of garbage floating down the cold New York street, "I think I really would have liked you."