After our dinner with Seth and my mom Amelia had said she needed to go for a walk. I'd let her go by herself like she'd asked. I didn't try to pry because she looked like she needed some space. When she'd been gone an hour I called her, then again at two hours, and for each and every hour after that. I even called in between. I'd gotten no answer. I'd gotten no text. Nothing. For the total of five hours she didn't answer me.

I'm lying in my bed staring at my ceiling feeling worried sick about her. I've always been Amelia's person and the fact that she doesn't feel like she can talk to me hurts. I get that she needed time for whatever was going on with her but she would usually at least hint at what that would be. She would never ignore me for five straight fucking hours either. Never on my birthday of all days either.

I blow out a long breath and then sit up in the bed. I reach over and grab my phone to check it once again. There's still nothing. I dial her number and after it rings I hear her ringtone right outside the door. What the fuck? I stand up and go to our conjoined doors when I hear her door open and shut.

She stumbles into the room, almost falling on her face as she does. She looks completely trashed. I lean on the frame and watch as she manages to get her shoes off.

"Really?" I say as I step into her room. "Taking a walk, huh? This is what you'd call taking a walk, Amelia?" She looks up at me and her face has none of the make-up it previously had, had on it. It's completely bare, almost like she'd washed it. Come to think of it, her hair is wet too. "Where the fuck did you go?"

"Oh heyyyy, Jamie." She slurs as she sets her purse on the table next to her. "I did go for a walk and then you know," she starts to laugh to herself, "heard some really interesting things."

"What?" She's making no sense. "Heard some interesting things?"

"Yup. My life is just a joke. I don't even know who my dad is. It's kinda weird." She reaches around her back to try and get the zipper of the dress. I know she's not going to be able to get that off herself. I walk toward her, shaking my head as I do. She's a complete mess.

"Here, let me get that." I grab the zipper and pull it down.

"Thanks, I don't know how I would've been able to get in the shower without Rhoen doing that." I freeze at her words because there's no way I'd heard her correctly. "I don't know how I'd have even been able to get back to the room without him." She starts laughing but I'm still processing the fact that she just spent the last five hours with Rhoen. She looks up at me after she'd shimmied out of her dress. "Why do you have that look on your face?" She even stands on her tip-toes to boop my nose. "Turn that frown upside down, birthday boy!"

"Let me get this straight." I purse my lips and look at her drunken self before continuing. "You have been ignoring my calls for the past five hours because you were with Rhoen?"

"Well, yeah. I mean, you said you were jealous of him." She shrugs. I look her over, her entire body, for signs that she'd done something that would completely break everything between us. "Why are you looking at me like that?" She steps forward and puts a flirtatious hand on me as she slurs, "you want to get frisky? I am kind of worked up already and could use some good dick." Jesus Christ she does not sound like Amelia at all.

"What did Rhoen not already supply that?" She removes her hand automatically and her features scrunch together.

"No, of course not." That's a relief but why in the actual fuck was she with him and why did she need to take a shower.

"Why were you with him in the first place?" Instead of with me.

"I, uh, I ran into him on my walk." She looks away from me and I can tell she's lying about something. I hate it.

"And what, you decided to go to a bar and go get smashed?"

"No, we went back to his room and got smashed." It just keeps getting better and better. "Then I showered and he walked me back here."

"Why the fuck did you shower?" And just the thought of him helping her out of her dress and seeing her in that sexy underwear she's wearing right now is driving me mad. Even though I'm frustrated with her doesn't change the fact that she's wearing a sexy red-lace thong and matching bra, looking absolutely delicious.

"I may have gotten sick and I may have gotten some vomit in my hair." For fuck's sake, she's a mess. On top of that, she's my girlfriend. My girlfriend who got shit-faced with a potential client that could either make or break my career. This is wonderful. "He was just being there for me, Jamie. It's nothing."

"Excuse me?" She may as well have just slapped me in the face. "He was just being there for you? What the fuck is that supposed to mean? I'm your best friend, Amelia. I'm your fucking boyfriend and now you can't talk to me?"

"He just happened to be there! I ran into him in the hallway! It's not my fault he's staying on the same floor as Seth!" She shakes her head angrily at me. "He was just trying to take care of me."

"What the fuck does that mean?"

"I'm tired and drunk, Jamie. I don't want to do this right now."

"Yeah, well too fucking bad. We're doing this right now." She rolls her eyes and turns away from me, going to her bed. "What are you doing?"

"I told you I'm tired. I'm going to sleep. I've had a really rough night." She throws the covers down.

"You? You have had a fucking rough night!? I have been up for hours worrying about you, Amelia. I have been calling you nonstop. You have never ever gone to someone else for anything problem related. Now that we're together you feel like you have to go to someone else?"

She looks up at me and shakes her head no, "that's not it at all, Jamie. You know that."

"Then why ignore me? Why go to Rhoen's room? Going to his room with him, of all the rooms, is like a big fuck you especially after we found out he and I are going to be working together tonight."

"It's complicated."

"Then make it less complicated. You could've gone and talked to Seth. He's basically your brother. The two of you have always been close. Why Rhoen? Why-"

"That is where I went, Jamie!" She shouts and I'm surprised she continues with, "I went to his fucking room to talk to him about my father and heard him and your mom. I heard them talking about how Seth thought he was my fucking father!" There's tears in her eyes now. "A man I've looked at like an older brother my entire life could've been my father. He slept with my mom. Like," she chokes back a sob, "how fucked up is that? It's so fucked up."

"Mellie, I'm sorry." I don't know what else to say. Seth is my step-father and to think of him being Amelia's actual father is really strange.

"That's not even the best part!" The tears are really flowing down her cheeks now. "Denver, the guy I just met in the parking lot of your workplace, could be my dad. Because why not?" She laughs through her tears. "Why fucking not, right?"

"Why would you say that?" I mean, I'd honestly thought their interaction was really weird but I didn't think that.

"Because I heard your mom say it to Seth. She asked him if he really thought Denver could be my father." She wipes the tears away from her face. "Think about how awkward he got too. How long he'd been gone from Boston is how old I am."

"Jesus fucking Christ, Mellie." I walk over to her to try and comfort her but she holds her hands up to me. "Baby, come on. I was just worried about you. I didn't know any of this. I wish you would've come to me." Instead of go to Rhoen. But I'm not going to say that since she's already so upset.

"I'm sorry." Now I feel bad as she looks up at me with those tear-filled orbs. "I just ran into him and I was a mess. I was a fucking disaster right there in the hallway. He was right in front of his room and took me inside to help me calm down. He made me a drink and then one thing lead to another." I freeze again.

"One thing lead to another?"

"Nothing really happened." She looks away from me and I feel an ache begin to develop in my chest.

"Nothing really?" I reiterate.

"He kissed me." Of course he did. Because why not kiss the sad and beautiful drunk girl to make her feel better? "I kissed him back a little before I realized what I was even doing." Of course she did. Because drunk Amelia doesn't think twice about sexy time. "I know you're mad, Jamie."

"I'm not mad. From the sounds of it you were a drunk mess that he tried to take advantage of." And I have to fucking work with this prick. "Trust me, I'm not mad. No, I'm just genuinely not looking forward to having to work with a man who has tried to steal my girlfriend." She snorts out a laugh. "What, I'm serious. I'm going to have to schmooze the man who wants in your panties. I'm really not thrilled about that."

"Don't worry, he didn't get in them." She climbs into the bed. "But I'd really like you to get into them." She pats the spot next to her and I automatically climb in the bed after turning out the light. "So are we going to-"

"Nope." I grab the blanket and pull it over the two of us. "Once you've sobered up and we have a proper conversation maybe."

"Excuse me?" Even in the dark I see her features turn incredulous. "I want that famous Anderson dick."

"You're clearly inebriated. Now turn around and be my little drunken spoon." She does and I wrap my arm around her before pulling her into me.