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●ARIA'S POV●

After my awkward evening with Alex AND Warren I decided that a much needed girl time was in order . I told Sonja and my sister that I wanted to do face masks and watch How to Lose a Guy in 10 days . A little Matthew McConaughey always cheered me up and as soon as I said that to them they knew this was defcon 2 . It wasn't super serious , but enough for concern.

Once we had our food delivered , wine bottle opened and the stream prepped for movie night , the girls and I settled on the couch with our sheet masks on .

"How did your date go last night Ar?" Sonja asks . Although we argued about this yesterday , I couldn't let it out of the bag of our little plan in front of my sister. Plus, when I walked in this morning Sonja's first words were 'it was a date's.

I smiled at the flashback of going to Alex's place and seeing what he prepared for dinner and our almost kiss. Before I can answer her she says , "that good? You can't even tell us?" I blushed.

"He took me to his home. He cooked dinner and he had it displayed when we got there . Alex has an amazing view of the city and it really was something," I smile but it was soon replaced with confusion.

"Did something happen?" Delilah asks me.

"Warren showed up drunk and everything got incredibly awkward."

I relay what took place last night and how Warren drove me back this morning . They listened intently to everything I said and when I finished they looked like they wanted to say something, "what? Tell me what you guys are thinking. I know you want to."

"You like Warren . You liked him when we were kids and you like him now," was what Delilah said .

"I have to agree although things between you and Alex seem to be heating up as well," Sonja added .

"Have you slept with Alex?" Lilah asked .

"No, and you know how I am about that. It took me how long with Dylan?"

They both nodded.

"But at the end of the day you're dating Alex," Lilah says to me .

Exactly. I'm suppose to be Alex's girlfriend, albeit a fake one , but no one other than Sonja , myself and Alex knows this . We finished our evening by topping off the last of the wine and me dragging myself to bed.

I checked my phone and saw that Alex had sent me a message :

That was sent this afternoon and since I hadn't been paying attention to my phone another text was sent :

I didn't want him getting the wrong idea and of course I wasn't mad . I am a bit confused as to why he wants to see me again, we don't really have any kind of 'engagements" with family or friends . But I shrug that thought off . It wouldn't hurt to actually get to know the guy who people think is my boyfriend. So I hit reply:

I think I covered everything in this message . I swiped out of that screen and did a quick check of my calendar . Looks like I have to wake up a little earlier because I need to make my way out to Trip to see his progress.

Morning came much quicker than I anticipated it would come and just like how I dragged myself to bed last night, I dragged myself out of bed . I would be spending all day with Trip since it is a longer drive out . With that said , I grabbed some jeans, a tank top and my trusty sneakers .

Because my head was still a little fuzzy I decided on keeping my hair down . Just a touch of makeup , since I don't have to be around the big bosses and I was good to go.

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●TRIP POV●

I know Aria is scheduled to come today and for some reason I was excited . I wanted to show her I was serious about the changes that I'm making .

Although I was against all of this in the beginning , when I found out that it was Aria that was going to head this up I knew this was my way of truly apologizing to her . I have been waiting 20 years to be face to face with her again .

Little did I know she was going to come into our lives as the most beautiful woman ever . Everything about her was vibrant, it wasn't just her obvious physical appearance that drew me in . It was this aura about her that made her glow .

For 20 years I had lived with this guilt that I had seriously harmed Aria . It was bad enough that their family stopped coming around and it was my fault . My father ended up sending me away to boarding school because of that incident .

I held resentment to my siblings because I was the only one to be treated as a criminal at a young age . And if I were being honest , all my outbursts were just a cry for help . But the only help my family was willing to give me was to drown out my issues with their money . No one ever took the time to get to know me, or to actually take time to care .

Hell, I thought the same thing when I found out Aria was going to be my publicist. But she surprised me . She took enough observation to know that "the standard" would've only quelled the storms for a short while . And because of this , and the years of guilt, I decided that I want to make a genuine change .

I had breakfast already made and by the time I was finished setting the table , Aria was knocking on the front door .

"Good morning," I say with a happy tone .

"You're in a good mood, did you have breakfast already?" She asks me.

I shake my head, "I just finished cooking, I made enough for you . So I hope you're hungry."

She gave me a look of relief, "That is really considerate of you Trip. And all I had was coffee . I'm completely famished."

With a grateful expression I led her to the kitchen where I had the food laid out on the table ,"Did you cook all of this yourself?"

"Yup," I reply , "breakfast food is my favorite and easy to make . But that's as far as my culinary skills can take me."

That earned a giggle from Aria . Wow, that giggle was something I wasn't expecting to make me feel warm inside.

"How was your first few days out here? Are you getting used to living far away from the noisy city?" She asks me as she takes another bite of the scrambled eggs.

"It's an adjustment, that's for sure . Surprisingly I didn't realize how much I needed to be somewhere quiet . It gave me some time to think," I honestly answered her.

"That's good . That's progress . Are you ready for your session today?"

I nearly forgot that we were going to start the counseling today. This was one of the things I really didn't want to do . But I know it's necessary , "Not really, I've never been good at expressing my feelings."

She puts her fork down and looks at me , "but you don't see that you actually do express it well . People just had been reading you wrong . All those stunts...." she didn't have to finish that sentence because I knew she was right.

"Trip, did you feel like you accomplished anything when you had a weekend bender , or you hooked up with those women?"

"At that moment? It helped fill something."

"Time?" She asks me .

I shrug , "I'm not sure exactly."

"Would you like to know?"

"I suppose I do ," I admit to her.

"Then we're definitely heading the right way. I won't be in the room during your session but I will be setting things up here so that you have a physical calendar of what to expect. Did they set up the gym yet?"

I forgot about that . She was specific about getting me in shape throughout every aspect of my life. She mentioned something about it being therapeutic to sweat things out , although I could think of other ways .

"Not yet."

"I'll make sure that gets done by the end of the day . And Trip...." she changes her speaking voice to one with authority.

"Yes?"

"You can't have any of your playthings here, and by that I mean the women . No alcohol, no drugs , no smoking , none of that," she says firmly.

"So I'm basically in rehab," I say outloud .

"Yes but you still have freedoms . Just refrain from the things that have gotten you in trouble in the past."

I give her a cocky grin , "just because I have that bad boy thing going on doesn't mean I'm not a real good man underneath it all," I say with a wink hoping she catches the double entendre to what I just said.

"None of that Trip! You're here to focus on you . Now go get yourself presentable."