I hate to see him with her. Why does he have to bring her along to every party of the company? Oh, yeah, right, ‘cause they’re married! – she thought as she saw Nick and his wife walk in the room. No matter how much she wanted to avoid the wife, she had to go and talk to them. It was time to leave her feelings for her lover aside and be professional.

“Hi, there! You finally made it! We were all waiting for you!” She said to him and turned to kiss her. “Hi Lauren! Long time no see! How’ve you been?”

“Great, Allie, thanks. And you?”

“I’m great, too. Now the two of you go on and talk to the guests. I’ll check on a few final details.” She said and left them. While she was turning away he looked deep inside her eyes. Allie immediately recognized that look. He wanted her. She wanted him too, but they had to act all cool about it, Lauren was there and couldn’t know what was going on between the two of them.

As Allie walked away Nick tried to hide his secret wanting for her. He held Lauren’s hand and made their way through the crowd, stopping every now and then to talk to some important people in the industry.

Allie locked herself in the restroom trying to regain her energy to go back to the party and face her sad truth of being the other woman. She decided to talk to him tonight and either have him only for herself or not have him at all. As she left the restroom, she bumped into Lauren.

“Oh, Allie, sorry! Hey, great party! You must have worked really hard to get all this going on, but let me tell you what. It’s worth it! It’s just amazing!” Lauren said, sounding honest.

“Oh, thanks! I’m glad you’re enjoying it!” Allie answered trying to sound nice and then she excused herself and left.

Nick wasn’t far away from the ladies’ room and she went straight to him, decided to do as she had just planned. She dragged him to a quiet corner and said everything that was on her mind.

“Listen, Nick, I can’t take this any longer. I can’t stand seeing you with her everywhere we go. I’m tired of being your second best. I work my ass off for you and she gets all the credit. I spend all day long trying to have a good time with you and she gets to spend every night with you.”

“What are you talking about?” Nick interrupted her. “She’s my wife, remember? I can’t just leave her alone every night to be with you… At least, not yet…”

“Oh, come one, Nickolas. You said you were going to leave her a long time ago. So what’s keeping you for so long?”

“It’s not that easy, Allie, you know it! There’s a lot involved…”

“Yeah, you know what I know? I know you’ve been lying to her for ages and leading me on all this time, too. But I can’t take it any longer.”

“What are you saying? Are you breaking up with me?”

“No, Nickolas, not yet. This is just a warning. I can’t continue living like that. You gotta choose what you want, or better, who you want!” She said and left him.

He just stayed there for a moment, without reaction. What would he do? He just couldn’t divorce like that, he thought. He hadn’t been married for a year yet, But his love for Allie was much older that what he had with Lauren. They’d been together for too long, but they kind of broke up when Allie went to Europe for an MBA. In the meantime, he met Lauren and they got married. Allie only returned to the US a week after the wedding. She went straight to him when she knew he had started up his own label and started working for him.

They only started seeing each other again about two months later, when it was extremely impossible to control their feelings anymore. However, nobody at the company knew about them, except they were old friends. Allie was in charge of everything relating to Public Relations, so it was common that they traveled together and she was him 24/7. But she was very professional and could hide her feelings very well.

Nick was still lost in his thoughts when Lauren found him on the corner. “Hey, baby, what’s wrong? I’ve been looking for you.”

“Hey! I was taking a break. I should give my speech soon.”

“Oh, baby, don’t worry. You’ll do great.” And she kissed him.

Allie got back just in time to interrupt the kiss. “sorry, lovebirds, but Nick, you should come with me now. It’s time for your speech. You don’t mind if I steal him from you, do you , Lauren?” Nick sensed the sarcasm in Allie’s voice, but his wife might have not noticed it. She said it was okay and kissed him good luck.

On the way to the stage, Nick asked Allie if she was serious about what she had said before and she confirmed.

“Listen, Carter, I don’t wanna ruin your marriage, but I can’t let you ruin my life. So make up your mind. You have until tomorrow to tell me what you’ve decided.” She, then, rushed to the stage and started introducing him.

Ho got on stage and gave his speech on his new short film and invited everyone to take their seats in the next room for the movie would start in 10 minutes.

Throughout all the rest of the night he was like a zombie. Lauren thought it was because he was anxious, little did she know. He was trying to decide between the love of his life and the life he had now.

The next morning, he was already up when Lauren woke up. “Good morning, baby. Oh, Nick, you look like you didn’t get any sleep…”

“Yeah, you’re right. I didn’t sleep at all. I was thinking… Can we have lunch together today? I gotta go into the office but there’s something I wanted to talk to you.”

“Sure! I’ll pick you up at noon!”

“No, it’s not necessary. I’ll come home and we can talk here.”

“Ok, then. I’ll order in!”

He left, but he didn’t go to the office. He had to think exactly how he was going to tell Lauren he was leaving her.