A/N Again the disclaimer. I do not know personally anyone mentioned. This is purely a fiction exercise. Also because English is not my native language you may have to excuse some mistakes I may write. That being said I hope you enjoy it. :)

At your birthday party Joan has just asked you if something has already happened between you and Grant. You ponder for a second whether you should tell her or not.

You decide not to. At least not until you and Grant try to sort it out.

"Of course not, Joan. We're friends, that's it. You know I'd never put my job at risk for that..."

Joan squints her eyes at you. "But if he wasn't your client..."

"Well, he is." You try to end the conversation. The fact that you're lying to one of your best friends is upsetting you enough.

She sighs. "I wish you could find someone you could be happy with... You say you're good being single but we both know that's not true..."

"Oh, Jo, come on..." You roll your eyes, but you know she's right.

"Am I wrong? You never let anyone get close to you, you find faults in everyone... I just wish someone could sweep you off your feet. And I know Grant is close to that... You two laugh at each other's jokes, you finish each other's sentences, you can talk for hours and hours, you're caring and sweet to one another..." At this point you can't help but to let a tear roll down your cheek. It's a happy tear. As you listen to Joan's words you recall those moments with Grant and you smile tenderly.

"Oh dear..." Joan looks at you with a happy smile. "You really like him..."

You shrug, knowing you couldn't keep it from her anymore. "I do."

Joan suddenly hugs you. "Oh sweetie, and I'm sure he likes you too. Doug is wrong. Grant has to like you more than friends, it's just so obvious... He probably doesn't want to cause you problems at work, that's why he doesn't do anything..."

You take a deep breath realizing that if you tell Joan about you and Grant, she'll probably get mad at Doug because he knew and didn't tell her. You really don't want to ruin anything between them. "Jo, if I tell you something, won't you please get mad at Doug?"

She looks at you confused. "What? Mad at Doug? Why?"

"Who's mad at Doug?" Sophie says as she gets back to you, after being rejected by Grant.

You quickly change the subject. "Me. He gave me a lame gift for my birthday." You make up an excuse.

Joan is still intrigued as she looks at you.

Sophie smirks. "You know what? I think these boys are full of themselves. Sorry, Jo, they are. I mean, Doug is not that bad but Grant... He probably thinks he's too good for me or something. Well, I hope he stays single forever and the next time he's interested in a girl I hope she rejects him just like he did to me. Serves him good."

Joan replies to Sophie after a quick glance at you, "Have you ever thought that Grant might already like someone else? And that's why he's not interested in you? I mean, if he said yes to every girl that came across his way you'd even be madder at him cause he'd be a ladies' man."

Sophie shrugs. "Whatever. It's his loss." She walks away again to get a drink.

Joan stares at you. "So...? Why would I be mad at Doug? Tell me, please."

You take a deep breath. "Well... I..." You look around and you pull her to a more secluded area. "Grant and I have been seeing each other."

She opens her eyes wide. "What?"

You nod. "Yeah, as in dating in secret."

"Oh my god." She grins. "I knew it!" She claps her hands excited.

"Hey, Jo, you have to be quiet about this. Please. We're trying to sort it out but in the meantime no one must know. After all, we are breaking our work contract."

"Of course I won't tell. You can trust me." She hugs you happily. "I'm so excited. I knew it. You two look so good together, it must be hard to date in secret..."

"Hard? It's more than that believe me."

"I can only imagine... How long have you two..."

"For nearly a month. It started four days after we met..."

Joan raises her eyebrows. "Four days? Wow."

"Yeah, it was like... I couldn't control it, even though I wanted to, even though I knew it was wrong... And now despite all these difficulties I know it couldn't be otherwise. When I'm with him it's like... It's lame I know, but I honestly never felt like this for anyone before. I find myself doing things for him that I never thought I'd do for anyone, it's... unsettling."

"Oh dear." Joan looks at you with a sympathetic smile. "I swear I've wondered if I was ever going to hear those words coming out of your mouth..."

"Yeah, I wondered myself. And of course, it had to be for the only person it couldn't be..." You sigh deeply while you look for Grant. You see him talking to some of your friends. He smiles discreetly at you.

Joan giggles. "Adorable. I can't wait to have double dates. You, me, Doug and Grant. It'll be awesome. By the way... What's that story of me being mad at Doug?"

"Oh...About that... It's just that Doug knows about us, me and Grant, since the beginning... We..."

"What?"

"Jo, we asked him not to tell anyone. And this was even before you two had actually started dating so... He just kept his promise."

She nods. "Yeah, ok. I'm not mad. Not at Doug at least. Why didn't you tell me?"

"Well, the less people know the better. The fact that Doug and Nate knew… it helped us, this way Grant and I can meet at both our places. If we didn't tell them then we'd have no place to be together. We can't meet in public and if we couldn't meet at our own houses..."

"Ok, I understand. I do. This is already hard for you two, you have my full support. Really."

"Thanks."

You can see she's still taken back. "Wow, seriously... Do you plan on telling Stella?"

"I was going to, but then Grant stopped me, saying he didn't want me to do it, at least not just yet, it would job suicide for me, so we're seeing other options... Talk to lawyers... We'll see."

Joan keeps looking at you with a foolish smile without saying anything.

"What?" You giggle.

"I'm just happy for you. And Grant seems so sweet... And you seem so smitten... I reckon it takes a lot to keep a relationship under those circumstances... It's serious, isn't it?"

You shrug with a smile. "I guess... Yesterday I became officially his girlfriend..." Joan looks at you totally amused and you nod. "Yeah, he really asked if I wanted to be his girlfriend. It's that adorable. It was a surprise for Christmas..."

"Adorable indeed. So how is it gonna be tonight? Are two sneaking away or something?"

"Maybe... We'll see..."

"Oh, and if Sophie knows..."

"She can't know. Please, Jo, don't tell her. She's all resentful because Grant rejected her, so if she finds out she might do something stupid just out of revenge or something."

"I won't tell her, don't worry."

"Ok thanks."

"So, shall we join our boys?" Joan winks slyly at you.