Andie woke up to a bright morning. Her eyes blinked drowsily as she remained tucked under the thick blankets of Eric's bed. An aroma tickled her nose.

Coffee.

Propping herself up on one elbow, Andie reached for her phone and checked the time. It was well past her usual alarm that didn't go off that morning. Confused, she looked to the vacant side of the bed, and found only an imprint of where Eric's body had been.

Clinking in the kitchen told her that he was still here, so she pulled her blankets aside and left the warmth of the bed.

She padded towards the kitchen and found Eric putting his coffee mug in the dishwasher. He was fully dressed for work in a navy blue suit and white button-down.

"Hey," Andie greeted him, her voice soft and scratchy from sleep. He turned and bestowed her with a smile that melted her heart.

"Hey, sweetheart. I wanted you to stay in bed this morning. Did I wake you?"

Andie shook her head just as Eric closed the distance between them and pulled her into his arms. She buried her face in his chest.

"Why did you want me to sleep in?"

"It was a long night for you last night," Eric replied, reminding Andie of the previous evening when he and Teddy had made her feel about three inches tall. "I wanted you to rest and recover."

"I've suffered worse," Andie said, pulling back to smile drowsily at the man whom she loved so much.

"I know you have." Eric grinned, dragging another blush up Andie's neck.

"I don't need to rest," she countered. "I can come to work with you."

He dipped his head and kissed her lips. "No. Stay home today. Please?"

"I'll be bored..."

"I'll come home this afternoon and take you to lunch."

"But what will I do until then?"

"Lay back down. Or, take a bath. Or, wrap up in a blanket and watch TV. Whatever you choose, just make sure it involves some form of resting. Okay?"

"Okay..." Andie glumly replied, loathing the idea of being unproductive. She wanted to go to work with Eric. She had yet to be home alone, and she worried what ridiculous notions her brain might conjure during her brief solitude.

It's only a few hours, she told herself, feeling like an absolute nutcase as Eric left with one final kiss, closing the front door behind him. She stood in the kitchen for a minute, staring at the door as if he might return at any moment.

She felt anxious immediately. What was wrong with her? She wasn't worried about Eric not returning home; it had been several months since they started dating, and Andie was very confident in their relationship. It was her that she didn't trust. She couldn't count on her demons to stay away. All it would take was Eric getting back late, or forgetting their lunch date, and no amount of rationale would settle the hurricane inside her head.

No, this was absolutely ridiculous. She was perfectly capable of being without him. He would return home from work, and everything would be just fine.

Andie distracted herself by doing exactly what Eric recommended. The drew herself a bath in Eric's large bathroom and soaked for up to an hour in the heavenly lavender bath salts he bought just for her as part of her aftercare. They relaxed her significantly.

Afterward, she stood in front of the mirror and appraised the red marks left on her skin from the candle wax the night prior. She smiled as she recalled the scene. Eric was so creative when it came to carrying out consequences, and between him and Teddy, they rendered her so out of control which was when she felt most at peace.

Thinking of Teddy made her heart swell. He had become so important to her over the last few months and so a part of her life. She loved Eric for trusting Teddy with her in the role that he played in their relationship. They felt like a family and she didn't want anything to come between them.

Andie dressed in a soft cotton dress the color of cream. It was a gift from Eric, as part of her "anything with short sleeves and pockets" collection. As she slipped the dress on, she felt so cherished by Eric that all of her anxieties started to diminish and her demons tucked themselves away.

Sighing with relief, Andie grabbed a thick throw from the foot of Eric's bed and made her way out to the living room where the intended on following his advice and watch TV. But a knock at the door pulled her through the kitchen instead, where she peered through the peephole in the door and saw...

Morgan?

"Andie! Open up! I know you're in there!"

Yanking the door open, Andie stared at her best friend.

"Morgan? What are you doing here?" She asked, just as Morgan stepped forward and crushed Andie in a hug.

"Andie, I was so worried! You haven't been returning my calls!"

"I-I'm fine," Andie chuckled, returning her friend's hug. "Why would you be worried?"

"Because its been months, and the last conversation we had, you were a wreck, and—" she pulled back and scowled at Andie. "Why haven't you called me back?"

Sighing, Andie ushered her friend inside the apartment. "It's a little complicated, Morgan. I've been figuring stuff out, and I needed to do it on my own."

"But you're not alone, Andie. You're with him. The very guy that abandoned you shortly after your parents died, and who didn't come home or check-in for the next five years."

"Morgan..." Andie dropped her face in her hands. "I don't expect you to understand this..."

"I don't understand because you haven't told me anything!" Morgan stepped forward and took Andie's hands in hers. "Help me understand and then maybe I won't be such a pain in the ass about it."

Andie stared at her friend for a moment, and a pang of guilt hit her as she recognized Morgan's concern. She shouldn't have been ignoring her calls; Morgan was just trying to help.

She nodded. "Okay. I'll explain everything. Come on," she said, pulling Morgan towards the living room.

"No, let's go out and talk about it. I'm starving. I took the red-eye here, and I haven't eaten anything in eleven hours. I passed the cutest little breakfast diner on my way here, it had outdoor seating and mimosas! Let's go there—please?"

Andie hesitated. She couldn't leave. Could she? Eric hadn't specifically told her to stay home...

"All right, let me just tell Eric—"

"Girl," Morgan balked, releasing Andie's hands and taking a big step back. "Please don't tell me that you have to tell him where you go. Because that's some serious control-freak-ness right there."

"Uh..." Andie looked down at the cell phone in her hands that she had just snagged off the counter. Morgan scrutinized Andie's concern.

"Okay, now I'm concerned."

"No, don't be. I don't have to check in with him." Andie placed the phone down. "We had plans to meet for lunch, that's all."

"Well, that's hours away. You'll have plenty of time to get back to him."

Andie nodded, a bad feeling knotting in the pit of her stomach. "Let me just grab my wallet."

It took them a little over five minutes to reach the diner. It was a nice walk from Eric's condo, and shortly after arriving, they were seated outside. Morgan immediately asked for mimosas and strawberries, and Andie drank hers nearly whole in an attempt to ease the anxious nerves that had begun buzzing inside of her.

"Okay," Morgan clasped her hands, very business-like, as soon as the waitress had removed the menus from the table. "Tell me everything."

Feeling very much in the hot seat, Andie cleared her throat and fiddled with her fingers in her lap.

"Well... Eric and I are dating."

"I knew it," Morgan groaned. Her hands pried apart and she pressed her fingers into her temples.

"I know you don't approve, but I love him."

"You've been dating for...how long? And you're so sure you love him?"

"I loved him before this, Morgan."

"You were a kid, and those were a kid's emotions; a young and immature love that needed to mature before it was validated."

"Oh my God, stop."

"Andie, this is serious!"

"I know it's serious!" Andie nearly slammed her fists down on the table. "But I'm not making a mistake by being with him. We have talked through this, and he knows how I feel—"

"Wait—did you tell him that you love him?"

"Yes, of course."

"Oh my God, Andie!"

"What?"

"I can't believe you just let him in like that. After everything he's done, you couldn't make him work a little harder for it?"

Scowling deeply, Andie sat back and crossed her arms over her chest. "What would you have me do instead?"

"Let him know how lucky he is to have you, and how much he has to make up for! But if you just tell the guy that you love him, then he knows he doesn't have to do anything for you because you're already fully committed to him."

"That's not true; he's done a lot for me!"

"What? Give me an example." Morgan sat back and waved her arms in invitation for Andie to continue.

Andie opened her mouth with every intention of telling her friend to go fuck herself, but the waitress appeared at that exact moment to deliver Andie's second mimosa.

Accepting it gratefully, Andie knocked back the entirety of the contents. She winced as the heat of the alcohol poured down her throat, and roughly clanked the champagne flute on the table.

With a deep breath to ease to the swirling of her head, Andie readdressed her friend.

"Listen to me, Morgan," Andie started. "Eric left me when we were kids because he was in love with me. He didn't trust himself around me. And he knew how madly I loved him. If he were to slip, just once, I would have allowed it. He didn't want to take advantage of me; he didn't want to do something so inappropriate... That's why he left."

Morgan listened, blinking slowly as she took in her friend's words.

"If he loved you..."

"Then he would have come back?" Andie interrupted, finishing her friend's statement. "That's not how Eric saw it."

"Andie, he didn't even call."

"Because he knew that I would have begged him to come home, and he wouldn't have been able to say no again. He would have come home, and we would have..." she trailed off, averting her eyes.

Morgan sat up. "Andie... Did you and Eric... Do things? I mean—when you were kids? Before he left?"

Andie returned her eyes to Morgan. She breathed deeply, before offering a subtle nod.

Clapping a hand over her mouth, Morgan slammed back in her seat as if she were absolutely floored by the information. "Why didn't you tell me!"

"How could I admit to something like that?"

"But I was your best friend, Andie. You were supposed to tell me everything."

"I'm sorry, Morgan..." She apologized, genuinely guilty for keeping such secrets from her dearest and oldest friend. "I wanted to tell you, I just... I was embarrassed. He left, and I felt rejected, and instead of getting a grip, I pined over him for the next six years.

"Okay, see? That's why I hate him."

"Morgan, please..." She implored, reaching across the table to take her hand. "I trust him, and I need you to trust him too."

"Psh!" Morgan snorted. She rolled her eyes and slumped against the table. "I'm too shocked. I need time to absorb this. Especially," she brought her voice down to a whisper, "the little tidbit about you having sex with your stepbrother and not confiding in me!"

"I didn't have sex with him!" Andie whispered back.

"But he still inappropriately touched you."

"No, he didn't," Andie groaned, dropping her head into her hands.

Morgan's arms flailed up, exasperated. "Then what the hell happened? Did you guys hold hands so hard? Ooooh, so naughty, Andie."

Andie lifted her head to glare at her friend. "I can't tell you, you're being too bitchy."

"I'm being bitchy?"

The two stared each other down, their faces fuming, their jaws clenched, their eyes narrowed. Andie wasn't ready to tell Morgan about what really transpired between her and Eric all those years ago. Since they were kids, Morgan still harbored ill feelings towards John's disciplinary methods. If Andie confessed to having a similar relationship with Eric at the exact same time that Morgan was undergoing her up and down relationship with John, then she may never receive forgiveness from her friend.

But—as Andie looked at her friend from across the table—she couldn't bring herself to lie anymore. Morgan was her dearest friend, and Andie eventually needed to fess up about the secrets between her and Eric.

Sighing, Andie settled her anger by closing her eyes and rubbing at her brow; not sure if what she was about to do was a good idea or not.