My eyes slowly fluttered open, and as soon as I could see, Alexis's back was the first thing I saw. I couldn't help but to smile- I'd taken her for granted. As much as I hated to admit it, I'd taken every inch of her for granted.

I gently fingered the material of her thin sweater, scooting closer to her. My lips floated along her shoulders, gently, but enough to wake her up eventually.

I looked down at her tiny frame, gently resting my hand on her hip as I completely molded my body to hers.

God, it feels good to be pressed against her like this.

I was eager for her to wake up so she could ramble on about her dream, and then proceed to forget it a few hours later. We'd then discuss what our breakfast plans were, and quickly get out of bed after our food talk had made us hungry enough.

I felt her backside push into me, her hand covering mine. "Mm."

"You awake?" I whispered, my lips against her ear.

She shivered, giggling. "Mm hmm."

I pressed a kiss to her ear, knowing the reaction a simple ear kiss could elicit from her. She interlaced her fingers with mine, rolling over on her back.

"Good morning," she whispered, smiling up at me.

"Good morning, baby," I said, gently massaging her hip as I pulled her closer to me.

"How'd you sleep?" She asked, looking up at me.

I nodded, slipping my hand up her shirt. "Good. You?"

She stretched, lifting her arms over her head. "Yeah. I slept great."

I covered her bare chest with both of my hands, pressing kisses to her jaw and neck.

She let out a half-moan, half-sigh as she rolled over on her side again, pushing herself back against me. "What day is it?"

"Saturday," I said, "kids are sleeping in."

She let out a relieved sigh. "Thank goodness. I do not want to get up."

I trailed my hand down her side and to her leg, pulling them apart. I massaged the inside of her thigh, moving my lips against her neck.

She wrapped her hand around my wrist, letting out a gentle sigh. I rubbed her bud through her underwear, letting out a breath against her ear, sending chills up her spine.

"Baby," she whispered, pushing her backside further into me.

I moved her underwear to the side and rubbed my fingertips over her folds, dipping a finger inside of her.

I'd taken a lot of things for granted- I was man enough to admit that. But pleasing Alexis? Most certainly was taken for granted. Her moans, her sighs, the way she squirmed at even the slightest touch.

She grabbed my wrist again and pulled my hand up to her mouth, dipping my fingers in her mouth. I grabbed her neck with my free hand, tilting her head back so I could see her.

"You like that?" I asked, nodding down at her.

She nodded, biting down on her lip. I rolled her over on her back, along with myself, and lifted her body to sit on top of my stomach. I grabbed the hem of her sweater and pulled it over her head, leaving her hair messy and all over the place. I threw the sweater to the side and trailed my hands up her midsection, to her chest.

From the looks of things, she was seriously enjoying herself.

I smiled up at her before grabbing her hips and pulling her to my face, making her let out a quiet gasp and grab the headboard. "Fred."

I pressed kisses to her through her underwear, using my hands to massage her thighs and hips. I pulled her legs further apart and moved her underwear to the side, looking up at her as I moved my mouth against her sensitive bud.

She let out a moan, keeping one of her hands braced against the headboard, and the other plunged into her tousled hair. I moved her hips against me, working her over with my tongue.

"Fuck," she whispered, looking down at me. She plunged both of her hands in my hair as soon as she realized my hands were steadying her, and then she proceeded to lean back and brace her hands against my chest.

"Don't stop," she breathlessly said, a little louder than she'd typically be- which worried me, to an extent. The kids were still here, even if they were asleep.

She circled her hips against my mouth, obviously enjoying herself. She let out moan after moan, and one hushed squeal before she came.

She leaned forward and gripped my hair as she rode out her orgasm, not allowing me to move. I hadn't really experienced this Alexis- definitely recently, and I wasn't entirely sure what to do with the dominance anymore.

"Don't fucking move," she moaned out, her orgasm lasting a few more seconds before she fell back.

"Watch the balls!" I whisper-yelled, making her quickly catch herself. She giggled and raked a hand through her hair, shaking her head.

"Wow," she said, "we haven't done that in a while, have we?"

I pressed a kiss to her inner thigh, slapping her backside. "You liked that?"

She nodded, biting down on her lip with a grin. "Mm hmm."

~*~

"Zach," I whisper-yelled, throwing rocks at his window.

When he didn't answer soon enough, I let out an angry sigh. "Fuck it."

I leaned down to grab another rock before I heard his window open, making me stand upright and fold my arms over my chest.

"What the fuck?" I yelled.

"Hey, shut the fuck up, my parents are asleep," he said, "scale the fucking house if you wanna talk so bad."

I lifted an eyebrow- Henry King had never backed down to a challenge, even if it meant climbing up the side of a house.

"Fine," I muttered, rolling up my sleeves.

"Henry, I wasn't being serious. I don't want to speak to you."

"Too fucking bad," I said, beginning to climb the side of his house. He simply watched- didn't offer any help, didn't say a single word until I made it up to his window.

"You're annoying as shit," he muttered, walking away from me.

"No, what's annoying as shit is the fact that you can't answer your goddamn phone. And I know you've been on it."

"I just said I do not care to speak to you."

"So is that what you do?" I asked, shrugging, "you just shut people out when they make you mad?"

"Honestly, yes," he said, nodding as he looked back at me, "I'm not obligated to say anything to you after you accused me of fucking outing you."

"Listen, it was a mistake," I firmly said, "I have said that how many times?"

"Henry, I don't care to be involved with anyone who doesn't trust me. Specifically with something like that. I have no desire to have that in my life."

"So your solution was just to never speak to me again?" I shrugged.

"No, my solution was to figure out what I wanted to say to you. And you know, figuring that out takes time."

"I said I'm sorry, Zach," I said, "and if the times before weren't clear enough, then here you go. I'm sorry."

"Henry, that's not going to make anything better," he said, "if you really feel like you can't trust me-"

"Zach, after that, I felt like I couldn't trust anyone. Guys I've known since I was six are treating me different. Everything changed, everyone changed."

"That's just not an accusation you throw around like that," he said, shaking his head, "I don't care how much you don't trust people. You don't just go to the first person around and accuse them of doing it."

"Y-you were literally the only person that knew, Zach!" I yelled, "a-aside from my family, you were the only person. Until I met with Cordelia. Then-"

"So Cordelia found out?" He asked.

"Yes."

"And you didn't think it could've been her?" He asked, shrugging.

"I thought it was," I said, "but then, I mean, I didn't think Cordelia was that bad."

He chuckled. "You're digging an even deeper hole for yourself. So you think I'm that bad?"

"That's not what I fucking meant, Zach, god damn it. Listen to me. Stop talking for one fucking second, and fucking listen to me. I'm fucking talking to you."

He clenched his jaw. I'd never seen Zach back down- he'd always had some kind of comeback. It was like they were just stored away in the back of his mind, waiting for the perfect moment. And I'd never really been forward enough with him to make him back down.

"You went back and forth from telling me to wait until I was ready, to pressuring me to be out," I firmly said, "alright, that was a lot. It was a fucking shit ton to deal with. I couldn't ever understand what your game was, with that shit. I thought maybe you did it to just get it out of the way for me. I don't fucking know what my thought process was."

He didn't speak, just continued staring at me.

"Don't you have something to say?"

"Well, am I allowed to talk?" He deadpanned.

"Fuck," I sighed, looking away from him as I clenched my jaw.

"No," he said, shaking his head, "you don't get to tell me what I do and don't do. You don't get to give me fucking orders."

I lifted an eyebrow, watching as he walked towards me. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," he said, nodding, "you need to remember who you're talking to. Because it seems like you forgot for about three seconds there."

Fuck.

I clenched my jaw, my eyes darting down to his lips before meeting his eyes. "Remind me, then."

~*~

"Baby, give me one second, okay?" I whispered, holding up a finger to Lily.

"Mommy, I'm sleepy," she whined, hugging her stuffed teddy bear close to her chest.

"I know, baby," I said, "just one second, okay?"

"I can get her in bed, if you'd like," Josie sweetly offered.

"N-no, Jo, that's alright," I said.

"Just come back home, Cecilia," Luke pleaded from the other side of the phone, "I-I mean, I miss you. I miss Lily."

"Well, you should've thought about that, Luke," I firmly said, motioning for Josie to take Lily from the room, "I mean, in our bedroom? Come on."

"Cecilia," he said, and I could tell he was internally beating himself up.

"What?" I asked.

"So it'd be better and easier to forgive if it'd happened elsewhere? Okay, I took her to a motel. There. Does that make it better?"

I let out a laugh, shaking my head. "Bye, Luke."

"Cecilia-"

I hung up on him, raking my hands through my hair as I walked out of Fred's office. "Hey, thanks for letting me use it."

"No problem," he said, "everything alright?"

I shook my head, letting out a defeated sigh. "No. Everything's not alright."

My phone chimed, making me look down at it.

"It was one time, my ass," I muttered, mostly to myself, but obviously caught Alexis's attention.

"Why don't you get some sleep, sweetheart?" Alexis offered, "I think you just need to rest."

I placed my phone face down on the counter, making Fred smile a sympathetic smile. "As a now-man, I can admit that boys are stupid. Didn't I tell you that about another boy when you were, what, eighteen?"

I smiled up at him, nodding. "Yeah."

I looked over at Alexis, biting down on my lip. "Speaking of, how is he?"

"He's, um, in town," she said, "just for the weekend."

"Oh," I said, nodding. I hadn't heard from Milo in years since we'd seen each other at the gala, and when I saw him, I still felt a shooting pain through my chest. I thought it would've been gone by then- considering I had a family- a husband, a child.

But it wasn't. Milo Parker was the first guy to ever teach me heartbreak, and for that, he'd always stick around.

"Well, I think I'm going to head to b-"

"Alright, Fred, tell me you missed me, because I know you did."

And there it was- the same voice that had literally broken me when I was eighteen.

I was an idiot. Why was I still caught up on a teenage heartbreak, nearly twenty years later?

I spun around to face Milo, who had his back to me as he attempted to close the front door. He had a box of beer in one hand, and in the other, his keys, jacket, and phone.

"Um, okay?" He chuckled out, "or no one speak to me. Cool. Really feeling the l-"

He turned around, and his sentence was cut short when his eyes met mine. I awkwardly folded my hands in front of my stomach, biting down on my lip.

"H-hi," he greeted, dropping everything in his hands.

"Hi," I softly greeted.

"Here," Fred said, "let me grab everything that you dropped, since you're just gonna leave it there."

Fred grabbed the box of beer and Milo grabbed his belongings, his eyes locked on me for every second. I couldn't help but to feel nervous- but at the same time, a lot more empowered than I was seventeen years ago.

"H-how've you been?" He asked as he walked over to me, making me take an entire step back and rub the back of my neck.

"G-good," I said, "yeah, I've been good. You?"

He nodded, placing his things on the counter. "So what brought you back to Chicago?"

"I-um, I-" I stopped myself, shaking my head. "Just needed the getaway."

He nodded, a small smile tugging at his lips. "Nice."

"Did you book a hotel, Mi?" Lex asked, walking past him and into the kitchen.

"Yeah, I just wanted to drop by and see you guys first. Are the kids home?"

"Josie's here, putting Lily to sleep," Fred said, "and Henry's... out. Not sure where."

Fred was an awful liar- he knew where Henry was, but for some reason, just didn't want to share.

"Sucks. Guess I'll have to drop by again tomorrow."

I looked over at him, and wondered how on earth I'd been so head over heels for him. I guess it was the young girl, older, more experienced guy thing- but even looking at him now, I saw him. The true him. The guy that stood on a rooftop and called me a convenience, and the guy that watched me cry multiple times, and simply stood there.

No, you're never going to forget that, so don't even try to.

"I'm going upstairs," I said, "goodnight, guys."

"Already?" Milo asked, "I was dropping in to visit with everyone."

I turned to face him, folding my arms over my chest. I looked up at him, shaking my head. "Yeah. I need some rest."

"You're right, sweetie," Alexis said, "love you."

"Goodnight," I said, shooting Milo one last glance before jogging upstairs.

~*~

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