Chapter 11.

The next day

I laid in bed, nursing a slight hangover and tried not to think about last night. I put my hand over my eyes and groaned, as thought of last night invaded my head anyway.

After I had watched Jasper leave in the cab, I'd gone back inside to find Alice. I'd found her leaning against the bar, still drinking and talking to a different guy this time. This one was unfortunately a fat middle aged short guy, this told me that she was definitely too far gone. I'd took her arm and led her out onto the street, ignoring the complaints of the guy she had been chatting up. Then I'd hailed us a cab, took her home, and tucked her up into bed, after making her drink a big glass of water. I hoped her hangover wasn't too bad this morning,

I looked at the clock and saw that it was just after eleven in the morning. My stomach grumbled, so I decided to get up and down some painkillers with a very large coffee. Followed by a big bowl of lucky charms, I know, the breakfast of champions.

As I crunched on my cereal I sent a text to Alice to ask if she was conscious yet and to make sure she was okay. I was also a little nervous to find out what she remembered about last night.

I quickly typed.

r u awake yet? Hope ur head isn't 2 bad babe. B x

A few seconds later, my phone chimed. I picked it up again and saw a text back from Alice.

I'm awake - just. Head feels like it's exploding! Did I imagine it or did we see Jasper last night?

I had hoped that she would have completely forgotten everything about last night, but I guess that was too good to be true. I decided to call her, or we'd be here all day texting. I finished the last of my lucky charms and then took my phone and coffee back to bed. I got myself comfy and then brought up Alice's number on my phone and nervously hit call. After a few rings, she answered.

"Hey Bells!" she croaked down the phone.

"Hey babes. How you feeling?"

"Think I'm dying. Never, ever let me drink again!"

"Okay hun," I laughed.

"Bella! It is not funny."

I continued laughing. "Sorry."

"You don't sound sorry you bitch," she grumbled.

"No really I am sorry. I know I shouldn't laugh, but you did bring it on yourself."

"Oh my god Bells, last night is so hazy. Please tell me I didn't do anything too stupid!"

I let out the breath I didn't realise I had been holding, feeling relieved that it seemed that Alice really didn't remember a whole lot from last night.

"No Ally, nothing too crazy. But you did chat up a few interesting looking men." I laughed.

"Well that's not too bad." She paused a beat before adding. "Hey, did we see Jasper last night?"

I tried my best to sound casual, before telling her the abbreviated version that I had decided on.

"Yep we did see him, but you were too busy chatting up some random guy at the bar to say anything to him. But I noticed he was feeling a bit uncomfortable by the female attention he was getting, so I walked him out and found him a cab." There, that sounded reasonable I thought to myself.

"Bells it's not like you to approach a client outside of work."

This was true, Alice knew me too well, damn her!

"Ummm, yeah I know. I just couldn't let the poor guy have a panic attack right there in the middle of the bar," I stated truthly.

"Yeah, I suppose it was a difficult situation for you to be in," she said in a far too serious voice.

I desperately wanted to move on from this conversation before I said something that I would regret, or before Alice asked me anymore questions.

"Well when I came back in you were flirting with a fat old guy, so I decided it was time to get you home," I said, hoping to steer the conversation in another direction.

It seemed it had worked, when I heard Alice groan. "Oh my frigging god, I swear I am never getting drunk again. I turn into a blind slut apparently."

"I'd like to say you don't, but unfortunately you do," I laughed, before adding. "But the guy you were flirting with before that was actually a bit of hot stuff."

"I don't suppose you know what his name was do you? As I have like three guys numbers in my phone, and I don't know which one belongs to the old fat guy and which one belongs to the stud!"

I laughed again, "Well Ally the lesson to be learnt is to drink a little less next time."

"Fuck you," she grumbled. "I'm gonna go put my head back in the toilet, thanks for all the sympathy. Bye." She said sarcastically before clicking her phone off.

I sent her a quick text saying 'love you' and then decided that I'd probably feel better if I got up and took a nice long soak in the tub. As I relaxed in the hot bubbly water, I took a sigh of relief that Alice had forgotten what she had said about Jasper, so we wouldn't have to have any awkward conversations discussing it. Unfortunately I hadn't forgotten what she'd said about Jasper. I still couldn't believe that she'd called me out on my feeling towards him. Even though she'd said she was just teasing me, it had left a bad feeling in my gut. I had to pull myself together and start acting like the professional therapist that I was. I had to stop thinking about Jasper outside of work hours, and I had to stop now. And I would, I vowed to myself.

~~ooo~~

I had spent the last few days doing research for my new book and trying to keep the promise I'd made myself. But not thinking about a certain man was proving harder than I thought it would. Especially when my subconscious wasn't listening to me, and my dreams were filled with thoughts of Jasper. Some sweet and romantic and some just down right x-rated.

But today I was allowing myself to think about him, as I headed over to Alice and ours apartment. Alice had a session booked with Jasper in an hour and my mind was playing over the events of the night at the bar. I wondered what, if anything, Jasper would tell Alice about what had happened between us outside. But more than anything I was just looking forward to seeing him again.

I arrived at the building that housed our office apartment and headed up to our floor. Alice hadn't arrived yet so I flicked on the coffee machine and took advantage of the few minutes I had alone to get myself into work mode and put my professional head on. I opened the cupboard and reached in and got two large coffee mugs out, just as I heard Alice's keys rattle in the lock.

Alice bounced into the room, all signs of her hangover seemingly gone.

"Morning Bells. Ooh coffee great!"

"Feeling better, I see."

"Of course, no thanks to you though," she joked. "I'm running so late today though, I really need to go over some notes before Jasper arrives," she added while dashing into her office.

I turned my attention back to the coffee, and poured Alice and I a large steaming mug full each. Then remembering Jasper was due anytime I pulled out another mug and set it down on the worktop, deciding to offer him a coffee when he arrived. As usual thoughts of Jasper caused that little spark of excitement to spread through my body, and the butterflies to dance in my stomach.

Trying desperately to distract myself I picked up Alice's cup and carried it into her office. She was sat at her desk but she looked up and smiled as I entered.

"Oh thanks Bells," she said as she took the cup from me and inhaled the caffeine. "I really need this, I slept in and haven't had a drink yet."

"You're welcome, glad I come in useful occasionally," I laughed.

Alice looked at her watch. "Jasper is due to arrive any minute but I just need a bit more time to get prepared, would you mind just distracting him for a few minutes when he gets here and I'll come out when I'm ready."

"Yeah, no problem," I answered quickly. While the little voice in my head was saying 'oh Alice, it would be my pleasure'.

I headed back into the kitchen area and leaned on the counter and sipped my coffee for a few minutes, until I heard the knock at the door that I had been waiting for. I took a deep breath and headed over to the door and opened it. As usual the sight of Jasper made my heart rate speed up a little and caused a smile to cross my face.

I stepped to the side slightly and said, "come in Jasper, it's lovely to see you again."

The complement caused a shy smile to appear on his face as he stepped into the room.

"It's nice to see you too Bella," he said looking me straight in the eyes.

When I thought back to the first awkward meeting we had, the change in him was amazing. I knew they were just baby steps and that he had a long way to go but it warmed my heart to see his progress.

"Alice will just be five minutes or so," I told him before adding. "I've just made coffee, would you like one."

"Yeah definitely, thank you that's thoughtful of you."

"No worries," I said heading over to the counter. I poured another cup and then picked up both mugs and turned around. Jasper was still stood awkwardly by the door, looking very unsure of himself again.

"Come and sit down," I smiled. But as he started to walk towards me Alice's door clicked open and she skipped out.

"I thought I heard voices," she stated. "So sorry to keep you waiting Jasper, do you want to come through now," she added, motioning towards her office.

He started to head towards the door. "Hey, don't forget your coffee."

I held the steaming mug out to him, "be careful though, the cup is really hot," I said, walking towards him.

He reached out and took the mug from me, his sexy little shy smile adorning his face.

"Thanks Bella."

"Your welcome," I smiled back and watched him disappear into Alice's office.

I got comfy on the sofa and engrossed myself in my research for the next hour. The time quickly passed and before I knew it I heard the soft click of Alice's door again.

"Okay, so I'll see you in a couple of days," she said while walking him to the door.

"Yes and thank you so much for today," he said smiling sweetly at her. Seeing them interacting like this caused an inappropriate pang of jealousy to hit me. I almost felt like growling at her, and shouting 'mine'. I really had to get my shit together.

"Bye Bella," I heard him say from the door, drawing my attention back to the room. As he was heading out the door I suddenly remembered that we hadn't made another appointment together yet.

"Alice, I need to book another session with Jasper." I looked at Jasper and he was suddenly looking awkward again.

"It's okay, I'll speak to her about it," Alice said quietly to him before saying bye to him again and closing the door.

"What's going on?" I asked her, trying to keep my voice calm, even though I was getting a very bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.

"Bella, Jasper and I have decided that he isn't going to have anymore sessions with you for the time being."

And with those words the bad feeling suddenly got a million times worse.

A/N - sorry about the cliffie :) Would love to hear your theories, so hit review LOL

Sorry for the delay in getting this chappy out to you - I've started a Facebook group and there is more info on there as to why. Just search emmzz75 FanFiction Stories and apply to join xxx

Thanks, Emz x