Though Alexa had tried desperately to sleep in the next morning, she was wide awake only a few hours after the sun. Content to simply lie in bed with the covers pulled tightly around her, she gazed out of her large bedroom window observing the sleepy neighborhood. The sprinkler systems on most of the houses were already on, ticking furiously in an attempt to keep the fall grass green. Across the street, next door to Brian’s house, there was a mom shoving her children into a minivan. She had a little girl in a tutu and two little boys in soccer uniforms. The scene made Alexa smile as she stretched, finally deciding to get out of bed.

She walked across the room to the master bathroom and turned on the water in the shower. While she waited for the water to warm, she propped herself up on top of the counter and began to file her long fingernails. As thoughts from the night before crept into mind, she smiled softly. There had been nothing spectacular about the evening. It was two adults sharing a pizza and some non-committal, skin-deep conversation. Still, it was nice. Being around Brian was refreshing. He was non-apologetic about the way that he felt and about the sadness that still surrounded him. He didn’t try to put on an act. He just is who he is and you can either take him or leave him.

Alexa was both in and out of the shower quickly. As she stood in front of the vanity mirror with towels wrapped both around her head and around her slender body, Jenny barged into the room with a smirk plastered to her lips.

“What’s with you?” Alexa asked, not being able to help smiling at the expression on her friend’s face. She leaned closer to the mirror and began to apply mascara to her long eyelashes.

Jenny shook her head. She stepped behind Alexa and made herself comfortable on the bed. “You had a late night last night.”

Alexa glanced at Jenny through the mirror and rolled her eyes. “Me? You’re the one that went out.”

“Yeah, but my date was completely lame. I was home hours before you were. So, where did you end up, anyway?” Jenny smiled knowingly.

“I didn’t end up anywhere.” By now, Alexa had moved on to her eyeliner and eye shadow.

“Yeah, right.” Jenny laughed again and continued to probe. “So, how was it?”

“How was what?”

“How was Brian? You know. How was IT?” Jenny jumped off of the bed and was now standing at her friend’s side.

“Jenny!” Alexa exclaimed as she swatted her friend on the arm. “There was no ‘it’! We had pizza and we talked. That’s all.”

“Whatever.” Jenny rolled her eyes, obviously not believing Alexa’s story.

“You can whatever me all you want, but that’s all that it was. I didn’t go over there to take advantage of him. Geeze.” Alexa turned back to the mirror. “How did you even know I was at Brian’s house last night?”

“Well, because he’s downstairs waiting for you right now and he’s got your panties.”

Alexa laughed and swatted her friend again. “He does not. I bet he’s not even here.”

“No, he’s totally here. And it’s not that far off base to think that he might have wanted to have sex with you, you know. It’s probably been a long time. His man parts are going to start to get rusty soon.”

“You’re ridiculous.” Alexa shook her head and walked to the bed to grab her clothes. “Can you get out of here and tell him that I’ll be down in a minute.”

“Sure, and I’ll let him know that you’ll be nice and naked in here in case he wants to come up instead.”

Alexa pulled a pillow off of her bed and threw it at Jenny just as she was slipping out the door. She then got dressed quickly and bounced down the stairs, not wanting to subject Brian to her boundary-less friend for any length of time.

Just as Alexa was walking into the living room, she heard Jenny ask, “So, did you and Alexa have a good time last night?”

Brian looked back at Jenny with squinted eyes and replied slowly. “Yeah, I guess.”

Alexa jumped in quickly and widened her eyes at her friend. “Thanks, Jenny. You can go now.”

Jenny smirked and shrugged her shoulders. “I was just making conversation.”

“Just go.” Alexa muttered and then turned to Brian and smiled. “Hey, Brian.”

Brian chuckled and stuffed his hands into his pockets. “You’re roommate is… interesting.”

Alexa nodded and looked over her shoulder where she was sure that Jenny was listening. “Yeah, she definitely has her own ideas about things. So, what’s up?”

“Oh,” Brian took his hands out of his pockets and held out her maroon Blackberry. “You left this at my house last night.”

“Oh, thank you. I didn’t even know that I didn’t have it.” She took it from him and immediately saw Ben’s name on the screen signaling that she had missed his call. Her face went pale. She glanced at Brian to make sure that he hadn’t actually looked at the number.

“Are you okay?” He asked softly, noticing the change in her color and demeanor.

“Oh, yeah, yeah. I’m great.” She smiled up at him nervously. “You didn’t have to bring it over here though. I would have come to get it when I realized that it was gone.”

“No, it’s no problem.” He laughed softly to himself. “I don’t know how you could have missed it. It’s been ringing off the hook all morning.”

“I’m sorry if it was bothering you. You could have turned it off or something.”

“No, no. I just thought you might want to have it.” He answered quickly. “Someone named Brooke called and a guy, Ben, maybe? He called about four times already this morning.”

Alexa rolled her eyes and continued trying to smile. “I can imagine.”

“Is that your boyfriend? Did you have a fight or something?”

“Wow, Brian Littrell, jumping right in there.” She laughed softly as his cheeks turned pink.

To Brian’s own surprise, the answer was more important than it should have been. He looked down to the floor, nervously anticipating her answer.

“No, he’s not my boyfriend. He’s my boss actually.”

“Oh? Your boss.” Brian found that he was relieved. His heart was torn. A piece of him wished that she’d never moved in across the street and further complicated his life. A similarly sized piece, however, was grateful. Even after only such a short time in her presence, he was slowly beginning to feel alive again. “What exactly do you do?”

Alexa was startled by his question, though she shouldn’t have been. She hated to lie to him and wanted to avoid any questions about her personal life as long as possible. “What do I do?”

Brian lifted his head and smiled. “Yeah, like for work? You seem kind of young to be able to afford all of this.”

Alexa knitted her eyebrows and tilted her head sideways. “So, do you want to be the pot or the kettle today?”

Brian laughed. “Yeah, yeah. I guess you’re right.” He held up his hands in front of him. “Forget it. It’s none of my business.”

“I actually work in New York. I’m just on vacation right now. I work in talent development.”

Brian nodded slowly feeling a bittersweet mixture of disappointment and relief. He narrowed his eyes playfully. “I see. And it’s just a coincidence that you ended up across the street from me?”

Alexa laughed softly, though felt achingly guilty. “Yes. It’s just a coincidence.”

Brian smiled and looked down to the floor. “So, I was getting ready to take Tyke to the dog park. Do you think you might want to come with us?”

Alexa’s insides warmed at Brian’s invitation. “Yeah, definitely. I just need to go upstairs and grab my sneakers.”

“Okay, so, I’ll meet you outside in five minutes or so?”

“Sounds good.” Brian smiled and showed himself to the door. Goosebumps sprouted on Alexa’s arms as she watched him walk away. She shivered slightly, then rubbed her arms quickly with the palms of her hands. She sighed and smiled to herself, through mentally she was anguished. She was falling for him. They’d shared a pizza one night and were now going to bring his dog to the park, but somehow through their thin conversation she’d become attracted to him. She was in between wanting to throw up and wanting to dance. It had been a long time since she’d met anyone that had given her goosebumps. It sickened her, however, that the person that was finally able to spark her interest happened to be the most emotionally unavailable man alive. Not to mention the fact that she was being paid to befriend him and bring him back to Jive. She’d never hated a person as much as she hated Ben in the moment; but still, she hated herself more.