'The next morning'

Ring

'You slept with someone else'

Ring

'Whatever'

'How could you do this to me again', Serena was struggling to wake up.

Ring

'I hate you! I fuckin hate you!' She tossed her head about trying to drown out the screams and the piercing sound in her ears.

Ring

'Get out!'

Ring

Serena sat up in a panic looking around wildly, and glanced over at the clock on the night table...it was eight o'clock in the morning.

Ring

She grabbed her cell phone and flipped it on. "What?"

"Serena?" It was Mina. "Are you okay? I've been calling you for ten minutes."

Serena lay back pulling the covers over her head. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just uh, I was having a bad dream." She peeked out from under the covers and looked at the clock again. "What are you doing up so early?"

"Andrew," Mina huffed. "He woke me up trying to get some ass."

Serena chuckled despite her irritable mood. "Okay, so what are you doing calling me then?"

"Oh, I sent him to Pepe's bakery to get me some croissants." She responded flippantly.

"You sent him half way across town for croissants"" Serena started laughing. "Damn, you're good."

"Yeah, I am," Mina laughed herself. "Anyway, it serves him right, since he tried to get me drunk last night. Plus, I wanted to talk to you." Her voice turned apologetic. "Serena, I am so sorry about last night. I had no idea Allison was going to show up, I swear."

Serena placed her hand over her eyes. "Don't worry about it, you had no way of knowing."

"Yeah, but I really wanted you and Darien to get a chance to talk. Did you two get a chance to talk?"

"Well, if you consider us getting into it about why I left without a word to Milan four years ago as talking, then yes, we talked," She responded smartly, purposely leaving out their brief entanglement.

"Umph, I'm sorry."

"Yeah, me too." Serena cleared her throat. "So, do you think Allison was suspicious of anything?"

"Well, I know she asked Darien a few questions," She paused, "and she asked me how we knew one another."

Serena put a hand over her eyes again. "What did you say?"

"Luckily, Darien told me before she asked that he introduced when you two were at school. So that's what I told her," Mina shrugged, "she seemed satisfied with that, so."

They were both silent for a moment.

"So, how did the rest of the party go?" Serena asked changing the subject.

"Ugh, a disaster, first, one of Andrew's suit co-workers spilled a drink on Rachel Capshaw, which wasn't so bad in itself because I've never liked her, but the idiot tried to..."

Mina's voice began to wash over Serena almost immediately. She closed her eyes as thoughts of Darien returned replacing remnants of her dream with images of their encounter on the balcony the night before and the interaction at the bar.

She could still feel Darien's mouth on her lips and neck. His hands stroking her thighs. The irrepressible feel of his body against hers. The smell of his skin.

"Then if that wasn't enough, I walk into the kitchen and caught my boss," Mina continued.

Serena was trying to force herself to listen, but her thoughts kept shifting back to Darien.

The naked look in his eyes. His face between her legs, eliciting a shameless reaction from her body. The stubble from his beard exciting her skin. And the delicious feeling of him moving inside of her. Taking what was his, giving what was hers.

"Then he tries to tell me it was just a misunderstanding…"

Misunderstanding. The word snapped Serena out of her current thought back to another.

And I still hold the opinion that you and Darien's break-up was a huge misunderstanding.

"What did you just say?" Serena sat up suddenly, interrupting Mina's rant.

"I said that Mr. Kinnard and his secretary Sheila getting busted tongue battling in my kitchen..."

"No, what did you mean by an misunderstanding?"

"Huh?"

"You said the other day while we were at lunch that Darien and my break-up was all a misunderstanding, what did you mean by that?"

It took a moment for Mina to realize that Serena had switched subjects. "Oh...oohh." She didn't respond.

"Mina?"

"Um," She bit her lip, debating. "Look, Serena maybe you should talk to Darien about this."

"Okay, don't do that."

"Don't do what?"

"Don't give me that: I think you should talk to Darien, crap. If you didn't want to tell me you wouldn't have brought it up the other day." Serena stated perceptively.

"Okay, for the record, up until the other day when you told me about your little encounter at the bar, you would avoid conversations about Darien like the plague. So don't even try it."

"Okay, whatever," Serena rolled her eyes. "Look, Mina, I realize that I don't exactly have the luxury of avoiding talking about Darien anymore, given what happened the other night. So, please I really want to know."

Mina pondered a moment. "Alright. But, you have to promise you won't get mad at me, okay."

"Fiiiine! I promise, just tell me."

Sighing heavily, Mina began. "Well, up until about six months ago, I was under the same impression you were concerning your break-up with Darien," She hesitated again, feeling like she was betraying a trust.

"Okay," Serena replied slowly.

"I hadn't seen Darien in a few weeks so I stopped by the hospital one night, just to see how it was going. We went to dinner at the Lita's restaurant and were sitting at the bar talking and I could tell something was bothering him. Then out of the blue he looks to me and says, "I miss her, Mina."

When Serena didn't respond she continued.

"He told me about how strained things had gotten between you guys before you left. And, he told me about what really happened the day we graduated and he didn't come home."

Serena pushed the covers back and sat on the edge of her bed. "Wait, wait, wait. What do you mean what really happened the day we graduated? What are you talking about?"

"You said you wouldn't get mad," Mina reminded.

"I'm not mad. Look, I know what happened that night, Mina. Darien got drunk, went out and slept with some tramp." Serena's tone was indignant but there was a trace of doubt in her reply.

"No, Serena he didn't," Mina rolled her eyes sighing heavily again. "Darien didn't cheat on you that night or any other night for that matter. But for reasons I don't even pretend to understand, he let you believe he did."

Serena remained silent. Her mind frantically trying to wrap itself around what Mina had just said.

"Hello"" Mina asked after a long moment.

"Yeah."

"Are you okay?"

"Mina where is Darien today?" Serena jumped out of bed, opened the drawer of her night table and pulled out a piece of paper and pen.

"Uh, at the hospital," She stammered, taken back by the forthright tone of Serena's voice.

"What floor is he on today?"

"It's…"

"Never mind, I'll look it up myself. I'll call you later, okay?" She started to close her fireplace.

"Serena wait! What are you going to do?"

"I don't know yet."

"Oh crap!" She started panicking. "I knew I shouldn't have told you. Serena, you said you wouldn't get mad."

"I'm not mad! Mina look, I'm not going to do anything crazy, okay? But I need to go, I'll call you later, I promise," Serena closed the screen up before she could protest.

Running into the living room, she grabbed a directory to look up the number to the hospital. She was having trouble holding a single thought in her head but one question was constant: Why did he let her believe he had cheated on her again? A part of her already knew the answer, but she needed to hear it from him.

After a long shower, careful attention to hair and makeup, and a deliberate selection out of her closet, Serena called for a cab and made her way to Midtown London.