*James*

I've been thinking about today all night long. Jonah gave me the ok to take Julia out for the day.

"Seriously, if you feel lightheaded at all or off in any way, you need to come back." Jonah takes Julia's vitals one last time to log in. "You're on new meds. It takes weeks, and I need to know if you start having side effects."

"I feel fine, really." She gets up off the couch, anxious to head out.

"And you need to eat and drink plenty."

"Obviously..."

I watch her roll her eyes at the nurse.

"No, I mean it, Julia."

"I already have it all planned out." I nod. 

"You do?" Julia smiles up at me.

"And Paul goes with you." Jonah waits till the last minute to say that one. Seriously?? I think I can handle Julia by myself. I don't say this, though. I'm just happy I get to take her out of this place and away from Nate for the day.

"Wait, what? Why would Paul go with us??" Julia starts pacing around the living room a little

"Julia, you saw the damage you did to the bathroom in the middle of your fit."

"She's not gonna have a fit..." I put a hand on her shoulder to stop her from pacing.

"And if she does?"

"I'm pretty sure I can handle her."

"Whatever. If you notice anything, come back." Jonah hands me a little pill case. "2pm dose and an Ativan if something happens. You already had your morning dose, so you won't need it, but I'm giving it to James for obvious reasons."

Alright, dad, can we go now?" Julia finally gets the green light, and we're off.

The minute I open the passenger door for Julia, she sees Maggie.

"Aww, Maggie!!" She jumps out of the car and barrels into Julia excitedly, knocking her down and licking her face. "I missed you."

"Apparently, she missed you too." I roll my eyes at how happy my dog is to see her. "Jesus, alright, Mags. C'mon. I have a day planned for us."

"What do you have planned??"

"Nothing big or expensive, but you'll like it. C'mon."

We drive off, and without telling Julia, we head to Griffith Park. I know she's been wanting to come back here, and then the weather is perfect today. I even make sure we park right where Julia parked the very first day we bumped into each other. I've never seen her smile so bright when she realizes what we're doing.

"We can stay as long as you want. We have all day, and I took the night off." I miles at Julia and get out of the SUV, popping the trunk to get the stuff I packed for our picnic.

"You didn't have to do that. I know you need the money." Julia gets out  and Maggie follows her.

"Cheryl is taking my shift, and I am actually good. Believe it or not, Nate already paid me."

"He did??" She watches me  grab two backpacks and a blanket from the trunk.

"Well, Trisha did. She gave me a check from him. You know he gave me a thousand dollars?? Just for helping out with everything??"

Julia's eyes wide,  and I laugh.

"I know, right? That was what I did, too." I take her hand. "That was very generous of him to do. It will help out a LOT."

"It really is. See, he's a good guy, after all." She teases, and we start walking.

"I never said he wasn't a good guy. I just rather you not make out with him all the time." 

"Grab an end." I lead Julia to the spot she always goes and and she helps me lay out the big blanket. We both sit down, and Maggie steals my spot, putting her head on Julia's lap. I start pulling stuff out of one of the baskets.

"Ok. I didn't know what you'd be in the mood for, so this is a little of everything. But Ashley gets credit for a lot of it." From one Tupperware container to another. I packed a full picnic for us here in the park, laying it all out neatly for us. 

"Oh my gosh. This is perfect!"

"I know this isn't some big expensive date, but I knew you wanted to come here."

"James. I love it. Thank you." She kisses me, and it's all I want, all I've ever wanted. I pull her in and kiss her back.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you." She says in between kisses and finallyendsd it since I never will.

"The only mood killer is I have to text Jonah what you ate."

"Of course you do." She sighs. "It's fine. I'm getting used to it. He means well."

I take a few dog treats out of the second backpack for Maggie.

"She gets a little picnic, too. C'mere ya big baby." She doesn't budge from laying on Julia,  and I roll my eyes. "Whatever..."

"That was really nice of Ashley to help you do this. How is everyone?"

I inhale deeply and close my eyes. "My mom's not doing great, but let's not talk about negative shit today. I'm just happy to be able to steal you away from Hollan." I smirk.

We eat a little bit of everything, and I finally get to put my head on Julia's laps before my dog has a chance to.

"Ha! Beat ya, Mags!" I wiggle my head a little and look up at Julia. She knows what I want. She runs her fingers through my hair, and I close my eyes. I wish I could bottle this very moment up forever.

"I can't wait for you to be better and outta there."

"I'm nervous when it's my turn. You see how Nate is right now. Jonah gives him Ativan to help with the symptoms. I'm detoxing from the one thing that helps." 

"You'll be ok. I will make sure of it. I'll distract you with sex. Lots of sex." I sigh

"Yeah? In Nate Hollan's apartment?"

"Don't you worry, I'll find a way."

"I'm sure you will. Then what's gonna happen? When I'm done? I don't have a plan."

"Whatever you want it to be, babe. We'll figure it out. You'll be busy with counseling and all that, too, remember. You're gonna follow through with all that, right?"

"I don't have much of a choice, do it?" She stops playing with my hair and lays down flat, putting her hands behind her head and closing her eyes to feel the sun. We lay quiet for a long time. Something me and Julia can do without it ever being awkward. We just stay quiet and listen to everything around us, and when we want to talk, we talk. Maggie entertains herself with her chew toy and eventually falls asleep.

"Come back to my house later." I don't ask. I demand it.

"We'll see..." She teases,  knowing full well what I'm asking.

"Excuse me."

Both me and Julia open our eyes and jump up. There's a woman standing near our blanket looking down at us. She's older than us and dressed like....like a fucking reporter.

"You're Julia Moretti, right?" The reporter focuses solely on me.

"Can I help you?" I stand, annoyed but still being polite to the woman. 

"I work for the L.A Tribune. I just had a few questions for you. You were recently admitted to-"

"How did you find me?! Are you following me or something? James, her phone." Julia ticks her head at the phone aiming at her and  we start packing up quickly, feeling.

"Ma'am. The world wants to know your story. There's so many unanswered questions."

We ignore the reporter and pack everything up fast, walking back to the car with Maggie, who keeps barking at the woman following us with her phone on.

"C'mon Mags." I clap twice for my dog to pay attention to me. "Get in the car."

We rush to leave the park and the woman standing in the lot filming us the entire time. Once she's out of sight, Julia loses her cool and hits her hand on the dashboard of the car. "I can't FUCKING believe this!" She yells.

I look back at Maggie who was a rescue dog who was abused before I took her in. When she hears yelling she gets freaked out. I never yell near her and she's not used to it now. Maggie sits up and I can tell my pup is nervous.

"It's ok. Let's go back to my house." I say calmly but inside I'm wigging out. She's overreacting.

"She was livestreaming that! How are you not mad right now? She ruined everything!"

"No she didn't. She was a pain in the ass but whatever. Babe, we still have the rest of the day together. Don't let her get to you."

"She had to have followed me. But how? No one knows I'm at Nates. I doubt people even know where exactly he lives anyways. What, she just saw me while we're driving and takes it upon herself to follow us?? God I can't even have a fucking picnic?!" She yells again an I look at Maggie through the rear view mirror for a second and then back at the road.

"Stop Julia. Maggie's not used to yelling. You're scaring her." I look through the mirror again. 

Julia  looks back at my dog who is sitting up on high alert instead of laying down on her blanket like she always does during her car rides. Out of nowhere Julia starts crying. "I'm sorry, Maggie." She reaches back and pets her. "I'm sorry, girl." She tries to calm her while I drive but Julia's crying is not helping her.

"Oh my gosh, look at her. She's afraid of me. Her tail's not even wagging when I pet her." She turns back around and looks straight ahead while tears roll down her cheeks. "I'm scary to her now." She's all over the place with her moods now.

"You're not scary."

"I ruined this whole day you planned. Look at me!" Her voice raises again and she catches me look back at Maggie in the mirror.

"Just take me back, James."

"What?? No. Julia... She's fine. It's fine. Lets go to my house, ok?"

"No. This is stupid now. Look at me. Just take me back to Nate's."

"Babe, I had this whole day planned. I took time out of work to be with you. Can we please just start over? It's really not a big deal. Julia..."

"I said TAKE ME BACK!"

*****

Jonah buzzes us in to Nate's apartment. I can't believe this is happening right now.

The elevator doors open and Julia storms into the apartment with me trailing behind her. She's pissed. 

"What's the matter Jules? What happened." Nate asks, alarmed and for good reason.

"This is all your fault!" Julia yells and speed walks right past him, down the hall and slams my bedroom door, locking it. Nate pulls his blood pressure cuff off my arm and heads towards me instead of Julia, who's clearly in the middle of a fit.

"It all happened so fast." I sit on the couch and lean my forehead into my hands. "I had the whole day planned. Even found coverage for work tonight, and some damn reporter ruined it all."

"Shit. Are you fucking kidding me?" Nate sits down next to him.

"She had her phone facing us. Julia thinks she was livestreaming. We packed up and left fast but it.. I don't know...she flipped her lid. Started screaming and yelling that the whole day was ruined. She told me to take her back here."

"Did she take an Ativan?" Jonah asks, now in nurse mode.

"I asked her if she wanted to take it. She flipped out more accusing me of thinking she's crazy and needs meds. I had to bring her back. Her screaming was scaring my dog. She's never like this."

"It could be the new med. All meds have side effects. Maybe this one isn't right for her."

"Christ Jonah, figure it out then!" Nate snaps and heads to his room.

"She's not getting better. She's getting worse." I stand up and whisper to Jonah.

"I'm gonna try and help her, ok? I'm doing everything I can."

"I know you are. I appreciate it. She just caught me off guard. It seriously happened so fast. She was yelling so much my dog was shaking." I frown, feeling bad saying that but Maggie is just a pup. She doesn't understand. "I left Maggie in the car. I gotta go bring her home and feed her.  I don't think Julia wants me around right now." I sulk and Jonah pats me on the shoulder.

"We're gonna figure it out, ok?" He assures me and I nod before leaving Nate's apartment.

I can't win.

*****

"You ready to get your ass kicked?" Trisha ties her shoes while I put Maggie's harness on. Right after Julia had her meltdown, Trisha texted me to see if I was up for a run. Perfect timing too because I needed to decompress...and I needed a friend. But I don't talk about Julia to Trisha because I don't think she understands and have a feeling she doesn't want to hear about Julia shit.

Julia did try to text me to apologize but I just told her we'd catch up later because I'm going for a run.

"Wait. I'm at a disadvantage. I have my dog!" I joke.

"Well, I'd take her leash but Hollan's allergic to dogs and that's all I need when I go back over there. Him bitching and complaining about his allergies. We'll walk. How bout that. You'll just have to deal with me twice as long so I can get my steps in." Trisha looks at the pedometer on her smartwatch.

"Faaanncccy" I tease her but have actually always wanted a smart watch.

"You should get one! This one does my heart rate, calories burned, steps, stress level.." She pauses and nudges into me while we walk. "I try not to wear it around Hollan. The stress level would be through the roof." She laughs.

"Yeah. You remember I'm James the RECEPTIONIST, not Trisha the CELEBRITY PERSONAL ASSISTANT, right?? Let me go find that money tree to pluck from." I joke and have to stop already because my dog can't seem to walk in a straight line and got tangled up. "What are ya doing over there, Mags?" I untangle her, and we continue.

Trisha shrugs at my celebrity personal assistant comment. I hate bringing up money with her. I have a feeling she is set for life. Maybe not as much as Hollan but enough.

"Speaking of receptionist.. Are you working tonight?" She asks nonchalantly.

"No," I sigh, remembering I took the night off, hoping to spend it with Julia. I had everything all planned out. "But I may hit up your 'B.F.F.'s crib to see Julia for a bit. Are you going over?"

"Probably not tonight. He's moody today and no fun to be around." She huffs.

Seems like we're in the same boat when it comes to our best friends today.

*****