The next morning on her way to work, Hermione was suddenly craving coffee and decided to stop by Suzy's. She walked in through the door being held open for her by a leaving customer, and looked into her purse for her wallet. When she looked up, the barista in front of her was ready to take her order. She paid for her latte and waited for it to be made near a counter on the other end of the cash register.

She looked around the restaurant amongst the cheery and dreadful customers waiting to get their cup of Joe. Something bright had caught her attention in the corner of her eye, and at a table in the corner near the windows sat Draco, Lewis, and Cecelia. She turned to look at them just in time to see Lewis leaving, leaving the other two alone.

The barista caught her attention and gave Hermione the latte that she ordered. After thanking the waitress, she hurriedly walked over to the door to leave when she heard her name being called. She found herself hoping that it was Draco, calling her over so that he could introduce her to their friends as a couple.

But her heart quickly sank as Lewis walked over to her when she turned, and hid the emotions on her face as fast as they had shown.

"Lewis," she said, attempting to be cheerful. "Good morning. What are you doing here?"

"Oh, some boring work stuff. You know how it is," he said with a smile. "How've you been?"

Terrible. I introduced my boyfriend to my friends as my boyfriend but he won't do the same for me. "I'm well," she said. "Bit tired lately, so I grabbed some coffee. Yourself?"

"Things have been so busy now with the new launch. There's almost double the work to be done and I drink coffee all the time just to stay awake and do it. I think my body might be running on coffee now instead of blood."

They both laughed at his joke, but Hermione couldn't help but notice Draco and Cecelia laughing at their own jokes. Her thoughts were interrupted when Lewis asked her if they could go to work together. He took the subway from his parents' house and walked here and was going to walk to work, but thought he might as well go with Hermione in her car so that neither of them would have to be alone.

She smiled and said, "Absolutely."

They both got in the car and arrived at work in less than three minutes. They walked together to the elevator discussing their favorite coffee blends; how Lewis liked strong, bold coffee while Hermione enjoyed lighter blends more.

When they got to their floor, he thanked her for the ride and turned the corner, and Hermione went the other way towards her cubicle.

After setting everything down, she logged onto the computer the company had supplied for her at her desk and began to answer emails. She did this for a while, and when she picked up some sheets from the fax machine, some girl in a rush asked Hermione to drop some papers off at Draco's office.

She walked over to his office and knocked on the door. "Come in," said the voice inside. She opened the door and was surprised to see that he was not alone.

Cecelia's long blonde hair cascaded over Draco's face as she stood behind him, bending down to point at some paperwork on his desk. They were discussing things quietly and both looked up when Hermione entered the room.

"Sorry to interrupt," she said quickly. "I was told to give these to you."

"Mm, yes, just leave those on the corner of my desk," was all Draco said before going back to the papers in front of him.

Huh.

She put the papers in the corner like she was asked and paused for a moment to look at him. It was like he didn't even know she was in the room. She scoffed, pulled her shoulders back and swiftly left the room. When she closed the door on her way out, she didn't care how loud it was, and when even when the sound made her jump she just brushed it off and acted like the hallway had been silent the whole time.

She went back to her desk to take a deep breath in, and exhaled, pushing that feeling away, the one she got that made her teeth clench and her body tense all over. It wasn't exactly anger; she didn't know what to call it, but compared to anger it was much worse.

When that feeling left her body as she blew out, she felt lighter and actually found herself laughing at what just happened. She figured most girls would be angry at the thought of a pretty woman that close to their boyfriend and their boyfriend ignoring them, but Hermione laughed inwardly as she replayed the events in her head. She wasn't laughing because she genuinely thought it was funny, she laughed because it was, in a way, amusing to see him back to his old ways. A pretty girl draped over him and ignoring Hermione as though she was nothing. She was never one to get cocky, and that's not what she felt now but confidence.

She felt like after what happened, she didn't deserve him if he was going to push her away when there was another girl around. She wouldn't stand for it.

No way.

At around 6:30, after almost an hour of being home, the phone rang. She put down her book and got up to answer it, almost slipping when her fuzzy socks made contact with the smooth tile floor.

"Hello?" she asked into the phone.

"Good evening, Ms. Granger. I hope you don't mind me asking, but I was wondering if I may borrow an hour or so of your time to take you out to dinner." Draco's charming voice made her giggle like an idiot. She was a sucker when he talked to her like she was the Queen of England.

But reality hit her like a truck and she remembered how much she was mad at him. She really, really didn't like how close he and Cecelia were becoming, and she knew it would be out of place for her to say anything because it was (supposedly) company business. She really wanted to spend time with him, but after what she witnessed she wasn't exactly sure if she wanted his company yet.

So instead of politely declining her boyfriend, she did one of the worst things she could. She lied.

She used the raspy voice she used to use when she called in sick for work before switching companies. "Sorry Draco, I'm not feeling that well." She coughed, but not loud; just enough so that it was believable. "Maybe we could try again another time?"

"Umm, yeah, sure, whenever you're feeling better," he said, sounding hurt. "I mean, we don't have to go out. I could come over and cook for you, if you want."

She absolutely loved how willing he was to make her feel better, and even though she wanted nothing more than for him to come over and bury her face in his chest, she didn't want to see his face. Worse, she didn't want him to see her face when she looked at his face and started feeling sad over something that could possibly not even be a big deal.

"Oh, no, it's fine, really. I just got it today, and the first week is usually when it's contagious, and I don't want you getting sick because of me," she responded.

He sighed into the receiver and said, "Alright, but call me before you go to sleep so I know you're okay, okay?"

She agreed and regretted lying to lying to her boyfriend the second she hung up the phone. She knew she shouldn't have lied, but it was the first thing that came to her mind, and it did seem to be effective, so…

After what seemed like hours of thinking (with a break in between to order pizza), Hermione finally had her mind set on not letting the whole Draco-Cecelia thing get to her. Draco was her boyfriend and he had tried so hard to prove to her that he could be trustworthy, and it didn't make sense for all that to go to waste. He didn't seem like the type of person to waste their time trying to gain people's trust, only to purposely lose it in the end.

While she munched on her pizza and watched reruns of Doctor Who, the conclusion she came to settled more firmly into her head, and she became more comfortable.

At around ten o'clock, she decided to go to bed and called Draco as she promised.

"You're sleeping now?" he asked with a concerned tone in his voice.

"Mhm," she replied. "You should sleep now, too. It's late."

"I will, after I finish filling out this paperwork. I know things have been busy lately and I know I haven't been paying much attention to you as I should have been-"

Is that so? She thought with a sarcastic tone.

"But I promise I will make it up to you. This weekend. I can come over Saturday night and we can order fast food and watch movies all night. Sound good?"

She had to admit, it sounded fantastic. She couldn't blow off another set of plans or he would think that something was up, and she would rather not have him call her out on her tendency to overreact.

"Sounds great. Come over around seven," she said.

"Yes, my love. Might as well sleep over then, anyway, since we'll be watching a bunch of movies, and it'll be late, and dark, and it'll be just us-"

"Shut up before I forbid you from coming to my house!" she yelled playfully.

They were both laughing now and had agreed for plans on Saturday night. When she got off the phone, Hermione went upstairs to her room, brushed her teeth, and sank down under the covers of her bed.

Although it was summer time, her bed felt cold and empty, and she wished that Draco was sleeping with her that night instead of Saturday.