Here is chapter 6. It would be great to hear your thoughts about where this should be going. I'm open to suggestions !

An hour later Tom and Will came back from the cafe and found Julia slumped on the sofa watching TV with a bowl of ice cream in her hands. It was almost normal. They sat on each side of her, making themselves comfortable.

"What are we watching ?"
"Lots of commercials with some shows in between."

They were appalled by what daytime TV was like. Thankfully they had ice cream.

When it became obvious that none of them were really interested in what was happening on the screen, Tom finally put into words the question he had been asking himself during the past hour.

"What happened with Michael earlier ?"
A few minutes passed before Julia finally blurted out : "We kissed."
They both turned their head to look at her but she was still staring at the screen.

"And then ?"
"Then I backed away and he left." She was now looking at her feet.
"It still feels like cheating." Tom stated.
She was now looking right at him. "Yes."

Tom slept on the couch that night. His boyfriend was spending time with his sister and he couldn't see the point of going back to an empty apartment when he could be there for Julia. He hadn't really talked to her that much but his presence was enough.

He was awakened by the delicious smell of eggs and bacon flying across the apartment. Apparently Julia had smelled it too because, just as he was rising up, she walked in the living room with a sleepy face. They both went to sit at the table while Will was filling their plates.

"I don't know what I would do if my friends weren't such good cooks !"
"I think you would just starve to death..."
"Or become really fat because of all the ice cream and Nutella you would eat."
"Hey... I'm not that bad... I can make salad."
"Yeah, but would you eat salad every day ?"
"Well, in that case I guess you are going to have to teach me how to cook."
"Jules... you're a lost cause. You can just order in." They all laughed.

Julia had been thinking during the night. She had finally come to terms with the fact that she needed to move on with her life, and that would probably include living on her own. It was a scary perspective but it had become an unavoidable step in her life. She had gone to Will because it was a safe place but she couldn't lie to herself anymore. Going to Will was going backward, and she wasn't the kind of person who could go forward with her life by going backward. It was like a brief halt and she had enjoyed it but now she had to go back to her life. She just had to break the news to Will.

"Will... I should-"
"I know, honey."
"You do ?"
"Yes."
"And you don't-"
"No. I'm going to be fine and you're going to be fine too. I can promise you that, Jules."

Tom watched them hug each other, a little bit puzzled. He didn't understand at all what was happening. He had already felt the same thing last night. Will and Julia could just shorthand everything making it impossible for the other person in the room to understand anything. But it didn't look like if they were doing it on purpose, rather like if their brains were connected and they didn't need the whole sentences to understand what the other one was trying to say. It was quite amazing.

She finally turned back to him.
"Can I stay at your place for a few days, Tom ? It would give me some time to find a place to live and a lawyer. We could work on some of the arrangements Derek wants us to make on Bombshell."
"Of course you can stay ! My door is always open to you, and you already have the keys."
"As for the lawyer I can help, it's not really my field but I have a friend who is really nice and really good at what he is doing."
"Oh Will, I don't think I could ever thank you enough..."
"Well... Some tickets for Bombshell, once it's on Broadway, would be a nice way to start..."

She smiled at the thought of getting Bombshell on Broadway. Eileen seemed pretty confident but Derek, being really hard to please, would want them to rewrite a thousand times every little thing that hadn't had the effect he wanted on the audience. It could take forever. Hopefully Eileen could manage him. But going back to working on the show also meant going back to working with Michael, and how to act around him was the only thing she hadn't figured out yet. She wanted to be with him but without it feeling so wrong.

As if he was reading her thoughts, which Tom was persuaded he could do after what he had seen of their relationship, Will chose that moment to intervene.

"And what are you going to do about Michael ?"
"I haven't really figured that out yet..."
"If I can give you one piece of advice it's not to mind what other people think. Life is short, you should make the most of it. If he makes you happy, go for it !" As he was saying that Will saw the look of disapproval on Tom's face. They had talked about it at the coffee shop and it was really the one point on which they were disagreeing. Maybe it was because Tom had some kind of fidelity towards Frank that Will hadn't. Or some higher moral values. "But I'm no expert, you know that. I do my share of stupid things."

She didn't respond, she had nothing to say. He was right, the thing that was bugging her was the look of others, what they would think of her getting involved with someone three minutes after her marriage ended, especially with the man who was the cause of it. She would have thought she was above it but she could see clearly now that she wasn't. And it would take some time before she could rise above it, but she was willing to go there for him.