"Please Aria, don't leave," Alex begs .

I look between the two brothers . Alex pleading with me and Warren staring daggers into his brother . The amount of tension is overwhelming and for some strange reason the things said tonight kind of hit me a little harder than I expected.

Not really sure my exact place and what I should be doing I nod at Alex . He walks over to me and hugs me . Warren was not exactly thrilled with how this was turning out as he let out a snide laugh .

"Aria, you can do better than him," he says as he begins to make his way to the elevator.

Knowing the state he was in I begged Alex with my eyes to make him stay. When he didn't budge I grabbed Warren's arm. "You can't leave . You're not leaving," I reaffirm.

His body language softened and I looked him in his eyes . He was tired and he was sad , "I can't be here Ar," he says to me .

"Yes you can , I won't be able to stop worrying if you leave like this. There are several rooms in this place . Why don't you lay down and when you've slept off the alcohol you can leave," I suggest to him.

Alex sighs next to me , "Stay."

With that Warren follows Alex to a room . They did not exchange any more words . I stood there trying to think of something, how do we navigate this new territory? Why did Penelope tell Warren about her affair with his little brother . How did something so simple turn into this ?

He came back in the room and said , "I'm guessing you have more questions for me."

"Yeah, let's talk somewhere privately," I suggest. So Alex leads me back to his room and onto the balcony. He has a nice set up with a comfortable couch and that's where we decided to sit.

"So I omitted some things from our conversation earlier," he begins.

"I can see that . But why? Why would you?" I question .

"I didn't want you getting the wrong idea."

I raise a brow, "and that would be you being in love with Penelope? I don't know the woman but she sure knows how to wrap you guys around her finger."

"You're right , you don't know her and neither did I. Yes, I followed her but not the whole time I was gone . We had a very shortlived romance . I stayed away because of the guilt . I hate that I did this to Warren," he confesses .

"And it didn't hurt you WHILE you were with her?" I ask .

"Of course it did . And soon we both were consumed with guilt . She was still in love with Warren and she told me that I needed to leave her."

I stayed quiet for a minute trying to make sense of this . "And that hurt you so much that you stayed gone for awhile?"

"I was young and confused . Once I walked out of the haze that surrounded me when I was with her, I began to think clearly . I thought about how lousy of a brother I had become ."

"You know," I try to choose my words carefully , "you would have been forgiven a heck of a lot sooner had all this come out sooner. Warren would be mad at Penelope but he wouldn't be like this towards you ."

He sighs, "I know . I was afraid of how he would have reacted and I thought if I were gone long enough he wouldn't be so affected by her."

"I think it was more about your relationship with him , she was just a catalyst to what happened tonight, it'll be super weird tomorrow but neither one of you should run away . Have the hard conversation but without me present, that was really uncomfortable."

"You're right . I'm really sorry you got caught up in that . But we're still okay?" He tries to get reassurance.

I give him a small smile , "yeah. But everything that happened tonight kind of makes things a little harder . Am I suppose to be mad at you? I want to make sure that you're not still hung up on her ."

He mimes himself crossing his chest , "I'm not . I think what I felt for her was pure infatuation ."

"If you're sure, I'm going to go now," I start to get up . But like all my other attempts he stops me .

"You can stay here," he motions to his room .

I laugh, "I'm not sleeping with you Alex."

"That's not what I was trying to -," he stammers , "I have plenty of rooms. It's getting late."

"And this isn't some kind of ploy to keep me here as your guard?"

"No," he answers flat out.

"I have nothing to wear," and just like any man , he wiggles his eyebrows at me with a suggestive expression.

"I'm kidding , you can use one of my shirts and , i probably have some boxers that might work, you'll just have to roll them down a bit." He walks over to his dresser looking for something that'll fit me , or close to it . I take whatever is in his hands and then we walk to an empty room.

"I'll see you in the morning," I say and he gives me a warm smile .

"Thanks for being understanding," he says and hugs me.

○○○

I woke up the next morning rather early but not early enough . The smell of breakfast wafted to the room and it instantly got my legs moving . The sweet aroma of coffee also got me to the kitchen faster . Thinking that Alex was up early , I didn't bother to check my appearance .

Instead, Warren was the one cooking . He must've heard me shuffle in because he turned around at the sound of my steps.

"Hey, sorry if I woke you up," he looks at me .

"It's okay as long as I have whatever you're cooking . It smells so good," I sniff the air.

He let's out a hearty chuckle , "Of course . I decided to make breakfast . Make up for what happened last night."

I walk over to the coffee pot and pour myself a cup , "I get it . I understand, but the question is , are you okay?" I know I'm treading in deep waters here.

"Honestly?" He looks at me .

"Honestly."

"I knew . I knew back then . I knew Alex had a crush on Penny . But there were things he didn't know about her or my situation . Did I know he traveled for her? No . That was news to me . I was hurt and disappointed by what he did. As far as Penny goes, she wanted closure and forgiveness . That's why we had dinner ," he tells me while putting food on a plate for me.

"She's getting married . And her fiance wanted her to get closure and find forgiveness," he finishes as I sit across from him on the other side of the island.

"So you're over her? The whole situation?" I prod.

"I was never in love with her ," he says matter of factly .

"I see...." I begin to chew in the bacon, "you mentioned something about tracking me down , last night."

He stops what he's doing and looks up , "I did?"

Maybe he didn't mean it like that . "Maybe I misheard you," I offer an excuse .

He doesn't say too much more about it and changes the subject , "So you and Alex, huh?"

I nod at him , "Yeah, me and Alex."

"How'd that happen?" He asks me.

Trying to think of an appropriate answer I decide a little truth won't hurt, "Dating app."

"A dating app?" He sounded surprised.

"My roommate convinced me to get back on the wagon and set up my profile. I didn't even know Alex was Alex until I met him . He was going by A.C. Wells," I explain .

Warren begins to laugh , my goodness is it infectious , "So he was going by a sort of alias, interesting he decided a dating app was a good idea . No offense, I see now that it worked out for him, but everywhere we went he never had a shortage of attention."

"Oh? So he's a ladies man like Trip?" I inquire.

"No, unlike Trip , Alex was quite a bit more reserved."

I bob my head , "Are you guys going to be okay?"

"I think so , but I'll want to have a heart to heart with him ," he says

"I'll wait for him to wake up and then I'll get out of your hairs," I begin to clean up my plate until he stops me .

"You know, I can take you home ."

I give him an unsure look, "how? You didn't drive here last night."

"You're right but he did leave his keys on the table. Besides I really do need to have some alone time with him. Especially since he'll be working with me."

"Okay, let me change ."