*Trisha*

One thing I'm certain of, I've become addicted to James Gallo. I can't get enough of him. It's crazy! We've already had sex a handful of times and we just became a couple. We had a rocky start but it's only because of Julia. In a way, I'm glad she knows, and everything is out in the open.

"Morning sex it the best." I mumble. Once we knew everyone was in their bedrooms last night, I snuck into James's room and spent the night with him. It was outstanding. This morning, I woke up and wanted more. I've never been like this! Again, aside from Nate.

Now we both lay completely naked in James's bed after not one but two rounds of sex. The guy really is a machine.

"I could get used to this." James breathes out with a sleepy smile. I just gave him the ride of his life and am still straddled on top of him. I lean down and kiss his lips, biting the bottom one a little and feel him twitch inside me.

"You can't be serious." I whisper.

"What? I can help it. There's a beautiful blonde woman sitting on my lap." He ticks his hips up, hard and wanting round three.

"How?! It's not normal!" Yet here I am, rocking my hips into him a little.

"I have a healthy sex drive."

"Aren't you afraid you'll knock me up?" I laugh, knowing full well I have an IUD, thanks to Nate's strong swimmers.

"Not possible. I had a vasectomy."

"You did???"

"Yeah, after Carter died." James says in a more somber tone.

"Oh right. Sorry I forgot."

"That my son died??" His eyes are wide.

 Well, the mood is gone, I can tell you that much. I lift off him and lay next to him on my side.

"Sorry. You just don't talk about him much. It slipped my mind." I admit.

"It's the first thing I think of when I wake up and the last thing I think of when I fall asleep."

I swallow hard, feeling like a complete ass now.

"But why would you get a vasectomy? Wouldn't you want to try and-"

"Replace him?" James furrows his brows at me. I'm not doing too well here, am I?

"No. I mean... No. Of course not." I fumble.

"You never forget. You never stop thinking about it. And I could NEVER replace my son." He looks away from me and I remember, James and I really don't have a ton in common, do we? Him and Julia have this strong connection. Among other similarities, they have both lost their sons.

"Sorry. You can't understand unless you've gone through it. I don't expect you to understand." James lightens up and smiles halfheartedly at me.

I nod and peck his lips. But the sex is done for now. James is deflated after talking about the death of his son and I can't blame him one bit.

"Can you help me get dressed before you go? You should... well... I mean... before everyone wakes up, you should probably go back to your room. Right?"

"Yeah... ok. Right." I get out of his bed and help him get dressed before I throw on one of his T-shirts to cover myself. I wonder if we are fine. I feel like James is a little off now.

Once dressed I slip out of his room but before he closes the door, I pull him in for a kiss. I feel his hands gravitate down to my ass and he pushes me in more. We're fine. 

"Knock it off you two." Nate's British voice makes us both jump and break our kiss. James shrugs and closes his door to go back to bed, but I now feel awkward as all hell.

"Want me to make you breakfast?" I walk to the kitchen, feeling embarrassed.

"I want you to not be doing that. Not here. C'mon Trish... this is going to kill Julia when she comes back home." He crosses his arms over his bare chest and furrow his brows.

"Comes back home.... Nate.... She's not coming back home, remember?" I blurt out, immediately wishing I held my tongue. What is wrong with me today! "I mean, I don't mean it like that. Well... I do... but-" I lift my hand to tuck the hair away from Nate's forehead, but he swats me away.

"Get out of my face."  He goes back to his room, back to bed.

Ugh. I can't win today and it's not even eight in the morning,

******

*James*

Once Trisha leaves my room I lay back in bed. It's still early. Maggie is still sleeping right here in her doggy bed. She is pretty good with waiting for Casey to come get her to go out to pee but also has a pee pad right here that she is trained to use in case she can't wait. She's only needed to use it a handful of times though.

Unfortunately for me, once Trisha leaves the room I begin to think about Julia. I wish I could finagle my hands to use a phone. I could at least text Julia to say good morning and see how she is today. I need to go see her. I hate how we left things. 

Right as I begin to doze back off to sleep, I hear a little knock on my door. Casey. She is good with always knocking first.

"Good morning. Did you sleep ok last night?"

Sleep? Trisha and I barely slept. That much I know.

"Perfectly." I lie.

"Do you need help with anything, or do you want to still rest?" Casey asks, the nurse in her coming out.

"I may go back to sleep for a little while." 

"Ok. No problem. I'll take Maggie out for a run and come back to check in on you in a bit."

Maggie hears her name and bolts up, practically pouncing on Casey like she does when Julia is around. I seriously think she thought it was Julia for a moment. They really do look similar, and both have soft spoken voices...when Julia isn't having a fit that is.

After they leave, I toss and turn for a while and then give up on sleep. Only problem. I think everyone else is still sleeping and Casey took Maggie out for a run. I do my best in the bathroom and head out to the kitchen.

I can't start the coffee.

I can't make my own breakfast. 

I can't even unscrew the milk carton if I wanted to dump cereal into a bowl.

I frown, wishing Julia were here. She could always just sense when I was up. So long as she wasn't in one of her shut down modes, she'd be the first one to help me.

My stomach growls and I frown. I don't want to bother Trisha. We really didn't get a ton of sleep last night. And I'm sure as hell not waking Nate up, though he WOULD help me. But he's grumpy in the mornings.

Paul has been at the Marriott covering for Will. Guess I'll have to go wake up Jonah.

I tap lightly on his door but hear no movement. I try to twist the knob, but my wrist won't twist for me. After a few tries, I give up.

I sit on the couch. By myself. Hungry. Even turning the TV on is something I can't do. Not that I really watch TV but it's better than sitting here staring at nothing.

I REALLY miss Julia.

******

Everyone slept in today. Of all days. By the time Casey comes back with Maggie I'm starving.

"No one is up yet?" Casey unhooks Maggie's leash and looks around the room. "James, has anyone come to help you with breakfast...or ...anything???"

"It's fine." I mumble but Casey can tell. It's not fine. 

"I told Jonah to come check on you after I left with the dog!" She says, immediately starting the coffee for me and grabbing a few eggs to make my breakfast.

"I tried knock on his door but I think he may have fallen back asleep."

"Next time..just barge right in there and wake him up."

"I..." I look down at my hands. "I couldn't turn the doorknob to get in." 

Casey's shoulders sag. The girl seriously looks like she may burst into tears.

"I'm so sorry, James."

"It's fine. Really." I repeat.

Once Casey helps me with breakfast and makes sure I'm well fed and don't need anything, she storms into Jonah's room. She's pissed. I've never really heard her get mad at Jonah before...well... at anyone to be honest. But she's yelling now. I can tell ya that much. She's reaming into Jonah about how she asked him to make sure I'm fine, yet he goes and falls back asleep.  Obviously, he didn't mean to fall back asleep, but Casey is letting him know that is NEVER going to happen again.

When she storms back out of the bedroom, she is red in the face. JUST like Julia. Jonah comes out with his tail behind his legs. 

"Sorry, James. I fell back asleep on accident. Next time I will make sure to leave the door open."

"NEXT TIME you won't fall back asleep!" Casey glares at her boyfriend. Jonah takes a deep breath in.

"Next time I won't fall back asleep." He repeats and I can't help but laugh a little. I can tell who wears the pants in this relationship. It aint Jonah.

*****

*Trisha*

"Is he really still sleeping?" I look at my phone to see its almost noon. Casey is baking muffins, Jonah and James are watching some sports thing on TV. This isn't like Nate to sleep till noon.

"Yeah, he should get up soon. He needs to take his heart meds." Jonah says without looking away from the TV.

I march into Nate's room. Yep. Still sleeping. Like always, I pull the curtains open to let light in. He groans like he's a fucking vampire.

"Ok, it's almost noon. You've slept in long enough."

"Jesus, Trish." Nate throws a pillow at me and rolls over. "Why don't you go make out with James or something."

I pick up the pillow and sit on the corner of the bed.

"Does it really bother you that much?"

"I could give two shits." He sits up and scratches the back of his head. "I think it's great you are with James. I'm all for it. I just worry about Julia right now. The timing is way off. She's having a hard time with this. And you don't make her feel good about herself as it is."

"ME? What have I ever done to her?!" I widen my eyes.

"C'mon Trish, we've had this talk before." 

"Whatever, Playboy. So are you going to just stay in bed all day or what?"

"No. I may go to the studio for a little bit. Then gonna head to the Avalon."

Of course he is...

"You don't have an AA meeting today, remember?" 

"To check on Julia. You know. My fiance?"

"Oh God, here we go. Nate... you really still think you're gonna marry her? Bring her on tour? You've tried that. It didn't work. You need to let her detox and pull herself together. Give her space."

"You make me want to drink sometimes, you know that?"

"Why? For telling you like it is? Julia can NOT come on tour with us. She was too much of a distraction and couldn't handle that lifestyle. Why would you put her through that again?" I reply. C'mon. Nate knows she isn't traveling any time soon. He needs to stop giving himself false hope and move on. She's getting the help she needs. Time for Nate to live his own life again.

"You know...because I want to BE WITH HER maybe?! Christ, Trisha. Have you EVER been in love before?!"

I frown. That one stung. That one stung bad. I've been in love before. To Dave. And look how that one worked out for me. A restraining order against the fucker. I'm in love now, if only Nate would give in. But he's too wrapped up in Julia. 

Rubbing it in my face doesn't make me feel good. I look away from Nate.

"Sorry. I'm sorry." He walks over to me and throws his arms around me. "Sorry, doll."

"Maybe I will bring James on tour and fall in love with him." I say into Nate's chest. He backs away and stares at me. Why wouldn't James want to join us? I can take care of him myself. He can travel and see all these new places like we planned.

"Trish.... you can't take James away from Julia like that." 

"Julia is at the Avalon. You said it yourself. She signed the forms to be a permanent resistant there."

"WHAT?!!" James is standing in the doorway.

******