When she arrived there, She checked in with security, and the Security guard on call there said that Tom wouldn't be in untill the afternoon and that the props designer would be coming to get her to bring her to his office to discuss some issues. She re-applied some lipstick and gloss to her and ran a hand thru her hair while the Security guard paged the Props manager.
I could use a little time without Tom around, She thought to herself.

Not long after the security guard paiged the PD, a Tall, goodlooking younge man started walking from across the lobby. Adi couldn't help but check him out and noticed how good looking he was. Daaaaaamn, She thought to herself. The man had longer,almost shaggy hair, wearing faded cargo American Eagle Khakis and a Orange polo with a hemp necklace. "How ya doin, Ken?" The man said enthusiastically.

Ken, the Security guard replied, "Not all bad."

"Well this must be the girl I am looking for," He charmingly said. She noticed what strait, white teeth he had and what an amazing smiled it made.

"That'd be me," Adi smiled. "Hi, My Names Adriana...call me Adi."

"Adi," he thought. "Adi from Brady's board?"

"Ah, yeah, that's me" She said, "Good to meet you," She said warmly. "So, You read my Message to Brady, I take it?" She asked as they began to walk away from the main lobby doors.0

"Yeah. I went up there this morning to talk to Brady about some stuff but he wasn't there yet, so I ended up leaving a message of my own." He said as the two began to walk to his office. "You know him, I take it?"

Adi nodded. "Yeah, actually, I just met up with him yesterday. We actually went to highschool together."

"Really...Interesting. "He stated. "Yeah, I live with the guy."

"Oh do you?" She asked

"Yeah." He answered. "He's a pretty good guy to live with I guess."

The two walked up some stairs and then entered an elevator.

" Well Adi, huh. Well, it's nice to put a face with the name." he smiled.

The two got up to Jimmy's "office" and noted that it wasn't even really an office. More of a studio with a scruffy, hardwood floor and some pictures of some bright painting on the wall. Much of the floor was lined with news paper and gallons of paint sitting around everywhere. In one of the corners, where racks and rack of clothing and costumes, and another 4 racks of shoes. In the corner sat a middle sized grey metal desk with a Grey rolling chair behind it. It was dark untill Jimmy flipped the switch and some studio lights went on. The familiar scent of paint fumes lingered in the room.

"You, ah, gotta excuse the smell," he smiled as he picked up a stack of manilla folders from his table. "You'll get use to it."

"Do you ever get high up here?" She joked.

"Actually, yeah, quite a bit." He said seriously.

Adi's face dropped the smile and said in a more seriouse tone, "Oh,"

Jimmy smiled and started to laugh. "No," He corrected. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding."

"Oh," Adi exhaled and laughed from relief. "I was about to limit my time here," she laughed.

"So, this is your office, huh?" She asked while taking another look around.

"Well, I dont' know if you wanna call it an official office...but my names on the door."

Adi laughed. "True that."

"I don't complain though. It's pretty conveniet for me to have everything I need here. That way I'm not running from one place to the next constantly." He explained.

He pulled up a stool next to another one that was already there by a huge wooden table with cubbies underneath it.

"Here," he offered, "Have a seat."

"Thanks," Adi said as she hopped onto her stool and slung her bag on the space of the table next to her.

"So," she started, "Do you kinda wanna take a look at what I have sketch out already, and we can go from there?"

"That's prolly a good idea. I really don't have anything on paper, but I have some folders with some pictures and things from some of the other plays that we could maybe work for this,"

"Oh, great!"

"But, since you have you stuff right here we can take a look at what you got."

Adi opened her bag and pulled out her sketch notebook. She took out some of the sketches in which she had done the night before in Charcole.

"Oh, wow," He said in a amazement as he looked at the sketches one by one. "You drew these?"

"Yeah. They aren't that great, I mean, I drew them when I had a vision last night at god knows when a.m."

"No, Adriana. They are great...honestly."

Adi felt herself blushing.

"Well Thanks." She said modestly.

"Taking alook at these, I actually have some stuff over here that can maybe match some of these." He said getting up from his stool and walking over to the many racks of clothing in the corner. "We would have to alter them, but do you think these could maybe work?" He said as he pulled a piece of clothing from a hanger and displayed it to her.

"Oh yeah, I definatly think they would--"

Adi was suddenly cut off by her cell phone ringing insistantly.

"I'm sorry," She confessed as she answered her phone, not taking the time to see who it was.

"Hello?" She asked walking a bit away.

"Hey babe." A cool, low, sexy voice sounded from the other end of the phone.

"Oh, hey you," She smiled, to her pleasant surprize that it was Dustin.

"Are you busy?" He asked

"Well at the moment...kinda, yeah," She responded as she noticed Jimmy going through the racks of clothing.

"Hey, Adi," Jimmy whispered. "I'll give ya a sec. I'll be right outside."

She smiled. "Ok, thanks." she resumed her converstaion on the phone.

"Sorry. Anyways, you need anything?"

"How could I need anything after last night?" he playfully asked.

"Dustinnnnnnnn," She moaned.

"Ok, I'll keep this shorter than I would like." He said. "Adam's having this thing at his house tonight...apparently he won a George Foreman grill and wants to try it out for size and show off the cooking skills he thinks he has... Anyways, he wants us to come and help him plan the 4th...with them."

"Who's 'them'? The usual?" She asked.

"Uh, yeah, I think."

"Kay."

"Anyways.....so..you wanna come?"

"Do you really want me to come or is this your cheap way of taking me out the day after I give you what you want?" She asked flirtaiouly.

] "Oh god," He moaned. "You know that's not it. Besides, I wanna talk to you about that anyways."

"About what?"

"Last night."

"Oh....Dustin, I already know what your gonna say so it's okay you don't have to--"

"No, you don't know what I'm gonna say."

Adriana exhaled. "Okay."

"Will you just please come with me tonight? It's been while since all of us have been together anyhow."

"Yeah, it has," Adi smiled as she tjhought of her friends in that she hasn't seen in probably over 3 monthes or more. "Ok, I guess it would be ok to take off a little early. What time should I be ready?"

"6? too early? too late?"

"No that sounds ok."

"Alright well I'll be ready at 6 then."

"ok." He responded. "Thanks babe.. love you."

She sighed. "Love you too."

She hung up the phone and was confused about the conversation she had just had. It had been a long time since her and Dusitn went out to anyone's house together. She looked forward to it. Plus, seeing her friends would be great again. She had been so busy lately she hadn't even had time to make a phone call to one of them. And, in the back of her mind, she was wondering what exactly Dustin had to talk to her about. If it wasn't the usual "I love you, but can't commit you" bullshit, what could it be? The opposite? She could only hope.

She headed for the door to look for Jimmy. She had alot of work to do yet and was thankful he understood her and appreciated her help there. At this point in time, the saying "Two heads are better than one" Couldn't be more true.

She peaked her head around the corner of the door and saw him talking with another man. He said his final words as he headed for her with a grin on his face.

"Sorry, I'm so sorry about that, " She appologized.

"Oh don't worry about it," He said as he re-opened the door to his offce for her. "Office?"

"Oh, no, it wasn't them, althought I'm surprized I haven't gotten a call from them yet today."

He laughed. "I know the feeling too well. It can become a pain in the ass." He said as he tried to act casually and walked back to the clothes. "So...husband..friend?"

She thought it was strange he was asking who was on the phone with her, but she was sure he didn't mean any harm by it. Although she didn't feel like getting into explaining who it was."

"Ah, just my-"

"Boyfriend?"

Adi was silent for a moment.

"Yeah, I'm not sure if I'd call him my boyfriend...."

"Ohhhhhhh," He said as though he thought he knew what she meant.

"Oh, noo...not that . I mean we aren't just...fuck buddies...there's a ton of history there."

"But not enough to call him your boyfriend?"

"Well," she started. "He was at one time. What he is right now, I don't think I know. I think he does, I just don't think he wants to tell me."

"Yeah, I kinda get that. One of those 'Love you, but love alotta girls' kinad guy?"

Adi was shocked that he understookd all of this. "Yes!" She exclaimed. "Exactly... I mean, when we broke up back in...oh God, I don't know..... 2 years ago maybe, he went wild with girls. I mean I didn't even care. But he would always come crying back to me when something went wrong." She tried her hardest to explain what she meant.

"Mmm Hmm," He nodded to let her know he was with her and paying attention.

"And... I don't know. I guess there's a lot of stuff that happened with us for us not to be the way we are, ya know?"

"Ugh," she shook her head in frusteration. "I don't know." She stared off. relizing she was just beginning to pour her heart out to a guy that she barely know for 2 hours. "Ooh my God," She said. "I can't believe I am rambling on about this."

"No..No," He said. "If you think your annoying me your not. I'm sorry. I guess I brought up a heavy subject. Maybe we should bury it again." He suggested.

She laughed. "Well, how about you? Do you have a good love life going for ya?"

He thought for a second, wondering what to say. "It's not totally rough."

"Oh, so you have a girlfriend then?"

He nodded. "Yeah. I do."

She hopped back on her stool. "Well hey...that's, that's great."

"It is," He sighed. "I suppose."

She raised an eyebrow. "You suppose?"

He smiled. "Nothing," He went back into looking into the clothing on the racks. "Just at one of those wierd stages in a relationship."

"Don't tell me she's in the "I love you, but I love alot of boys" Boat too."

"No," He chuckled. "We're in the "She's graduating from college and doesn't know where she wants to go and we aren't in that seirouse of a relationship for her to make a choice to stay here" Stage."

"Ohh," She nodded her head. "Wow, her category has a lot more information than the one I'm in," she joked.

"Yeah, lots of information, no answers," He added. "Oh well. I'm not the type of guy who wnats to waste a ton of my time on something I have no controll over. I respect her enough so whatever she does, is fine with me as long as she's happy and makes the decision for the right reasons."

Adriana was impressed. "How many guys out there are like you anyways?"

He flashed one of thost modest, sexy smiles she had noticed before. "Just a few of us." He laughed. "We're numbered."

"Hey you," She said as she answered the door. Dustin walked in and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"Rough day?"

"Kinda," She answered. "More busy than rough."

"At the theater all day," He asked as he picked up a magazine from her living room coffee table.

"Yeah. Tom wasn't there for some reason today. I thought I would get alot done, but I ran into this guy I went to highschool with, and his roomate is the Props Designer. We had alot of conversations so we didn't end up getting as much done as I would have liked to." She informed him while she slipped on some black thong sandals to match her white capries and coral colored halter top.

"What kind of conversations?" Dustin asked, putting the magazine down in it's place.

"Oh, I don't know," Adi replied, not wanting to tell Dustin that the major topic of conversation was relationships. "Business, college...just normal stuff."

Adi finished gathering her belongings and got into Dusitn's Ford Escape and began the short 15 minute trip to their mutual friend, Adam's, house.

"Guys! C'mon! Dinner's a ready!" Adam yelled from the porch as Dustin and Adi walked from the car to his house. "Mmmhm. Food!" Dustin smirked as he wrapped his arm around Adi's waist, walking up the stairs in to the house. "Heyyyy, look who's here!" A voice said from inside the house.

"Hey guys!" Adi said excitely to her old friends.

Dustin, who was unusually wearing light-tinted sunglasses indoors, Adi, Adam and his girlfriend Julie, there other friends Jasper, and Jasper's girlfriend Alissa mingled around the round table drinking bottles of beer and hard lemonade as Adam set the barbecued goods down on the table and removed his cooking gloves. He had been barbecuing out on the awning-covered deck barbecuing.

"What are you staring at, guys? Sow down." Adam said while taking a seat next to Julie.

"George Foreman is a genius" Dustin commented while taking a peice of steak from a plate. "I'm fuckin' starvin."

"Well ya took long enough to get here," Jasper replied.

"Na-uh, blame that on Adriana Sue," He said.

"Hey," She said defensivly. "I had 15 minutes to get ready. You should be happy we made it here when we did."

"So Adi hun," Julie started. "What the hell is up? I haven't seen you since like, April."

"Uh, I know," She sighed. "I've been busy as hell."

"Yeah, I saw the lil number you designed for Drew Barrymore a while ago in People." commented.

"Yeah..." she smiled. "It wasn't one of my best pieces of work."

"Oh c'mon Adi, you never could take a complement." Alissa told her. "I thought the outfit was tight."

"Hm, well thanks anyways. I know I've been so busy I think this is the first time I've gone like.... out in probably 2 monthes."

"Isn't that a sign that you are getting umm...what's the word... OVERWORKED?" Julie asked playfully.

"I know it seems like it...but I can't complain I guess."

"Well, you sure as fuck better be here on the fourth, right?"

Adi smiled. "You bet you ass I'll be here on the fourth." "So, uh, guys," Alissa interupted the guy's converstaion, "we're staying here for the fourth, right?" "Fuck yeah, man." Jasper replied in a corny manner, "I've already bought like 18 boxes of explosives."

Julie laughed. "Uh, explosives?"

"Firecrackers. Same deal."

"Yeah, the new year. Exacto. I feel the same way," Justin quietly replied sarcastically, fiddling with his Rice-A-Roni.

"I think it's gonna be awesome," Adi said enthusiasticaly. "Spending the fourth of July in this big house and water skiing and tubing and shit?" She listed, "What more can you ask for?"

Jasper looked up at her, "I can name a few things."

"Dude, what is IN this stuff?" Dustin asked, picking up an item from his plate.

"It's called a MEAT BALL," Adam replied.

"At a barbecue?" Dustin asked in confusement.

"Well, yeah, what's wrong with it?" Adam looked at it. "You didn't have a problem with the rice-a-roni," He defended.

"Foget I said it," Dustin said shaking his head, slinging the meatball back to it's plate.

"Annnnnnnnnnyways," Julie continued.

"So, guys, what should we buy for this little shin-dig?" Alissa asked.

"Well, of course, we need Beer and junk like that," Adam replied.

Adi laughed, knowing how much her friends enjoyed alchohol.

"Dusty?" Adam asked.

Justin looked up from his daze, "Mmm?"

"You can handle going shopping for the stuff, can't you? You and Ade can go?" he asked.

Dustin looked over at Adi as she shrugged.

"Yeah, we can handle it, I guess," he replied. "Or should I say, I can handle it, Little Miss Workaholic here might not be able to escort me to the liquor store.

Adi slapped his arm. "Hey," She joked.

"Well as long as someone gets it, I don't care who," Jasper said, "and Julie and Alissa can get the food and stuff, right?"

"Sure, I guess," Julie said as she took a swig of Adam's beer.

"And, Adam and Jas, y'all can get the fireworks and stuff?"

"Hey!" Jasper yelled. "What did I say before?"

"Yeah guys," Adi laughed. "18 boxes of explosives," she giggled.

Dustin got a confused look on his face. "Jasper," he started, "Where in the HELL did you get 18 freaking boxes of fire works? What did you do? Fucking Rob Wal-Mart?" He asked as the group broke up in laughter. "No," Jasper said, "I just make it a hobby of mine to pick up an economical pack of fireworks everytime I run into Target or somewhere." He explained. "Do you WANNA light fireworks, Wilfyre?" He questioned.

"Ok, I'm done with asking retarded questions," He replied as he finished what was left of his plate.

Dustin reached undereath the table to took Adi's hand and held it affectionately. She looked over at him and gave him a light smile .

The group finished up their meal and then the girls headed out the deck to have some more to drink as they overlooked a beatiful view of a lake. Adriana and the girls just began to randomly chat about things.

"I still can't believe it, girl. It's like, in your own way you famouse," Julie admired.

"She is famouse," Alissa rephrased as she took a puff of her cigarette. "I'm just glad I already have 4 of your outfits. If I ever get really poor, I have some space on E-bay that I can put them up on."

"Oh god," Adi laughed. "Whatever." She took a sip of her Sky Blue. "Hey Liss, get me one, will ya?"

"What, a ciggy?" she asked.

"Yeah,"

"You smoke? " Julie asked, her eyes bulging out.

"Just lately," she responded as the girls looked at her. " What!> "

Alissa shook her head and gave her one and lit it for her. "How long have you picked up my disgusting habbit?"

"Since a couple of airhead got hired at the office. Don't know what the hell they are doing." She took herfirst puff of the cigarette and then looked at it. "Yuck," She said. "They even look disgusting."

"So, it can't be all bad leaving the office a few hours everyday to go to the theater." Julie commented.

"A few hours? Psh, please," She said taking another puff of smoke from the cigarette. "but, I ran into one of my old highschool friends, and I've been working with his roomate, Jimmy there who is the props designer,"

Julie and Alissa both raised their eyes.

"Yeah," Adi continued. "He's great and wow...he's damn good looking... easy to talk to..funny.."

'Ooo," Julie gawked.

"woah woah wait, hun, what about Dustin?"

"What about him?" She generally asked.

"Well, what's with you guys again? Together, not togehter?"

Adi sighed. it seemed the topic came up alot lately. "I dunno,"she saidtappin some of her ashes onto her ashtray. "It seems he's different. Like he's coming around or I dunno," she said. "But, he says he needs to talk to me...and who knows what that is about."

The other two girls nodded their heads along.

'Besides," Adi said. "It doesn't matter what I am with Dusty anyawys. I've known Jimmy for what, 5 seconds? And he has a girlfriend who he seems to be smitten with."

"Oh ew," Alissa said. "Everyone rose has it's thorn I guess."

"Yeah,' Adi Agreed. "I guess so."

"So we'll see you o nthe fourth, then?" Alissa asked hopefully. "Yes, definatly." she responded.

Adi and Dusty made their way to the car as he opened the door for her.

"So," He started as he got into the drivers seat. "Did you have fun?"

"Oh god, yeah," she said. "It was so great hanging with those guys again. It's just what I needed." she said.

"good," He said as he pulled away.

"But hey," She said, "Didn't you have to talk to me?" She asked. "About last night?"

"Oh, yeah." he said. "But I don't wanna be driving when I talk to you," he said. he pulled into an entryway that led to a campground around the lake. "Wanna walk?" he offered.

"Sure."

The two walked hand in hand out in the campground untill the got to a lake dock, where they began to talk onto it.

'I've just been thinking alot lately."

"About what?" She asked as the two took a seat at the end of the dock.

"I dunno, lots of things..." He admitted. "I found a picture of Ben the other day and it just made me think of you and how much he looks like you," he said.

"Yeah," she commented. " I think about him every day I think."

'You should," he answered. "But it just made me think...about us, ya know. I know I've probably been a jackass to you and you prolly think I come to you when I'm drunk or when I want some...but I don't think you know exactly what I think about you or what I feel for you," he confessed. "Last night meant more to me than just fooling around...It made me feel like the luckiest guy in the world just bieng with you," Adi smiled. "And I've asked my self time after time why I just ca n't be with you and how someday I'm gonna majorly regret this...but I dunno. I just can't commit to you but I don't wanna lose the possibility of someday that happening." He said.

"Dusty," She said. "...You know what I think of you. You are apart of me that I don't think I will ever get rid of," she coninued. "I love you...and it hurts me when I know that..." she tried to think of the right words, "you love me but can't commit to me. Maybe your scared, I am too, but I don't wanna waste my time and opportunites waiting around for you, only to find that you've found someone else,"

Dusitn nodded his head. "I understand."

"It's just hard to explain to people about us. I don't know what to tell them...We are more than friends...we aren't togehter, we aren't just fuck buddies but we aren't exactly a pair either, you know?" She swallowed. "I'm just waiting for the day to hear the words come out of your mouth that I'm the one you want and are sure of that. I want you to commit to me..but I understand if you just aren't ready to make that kind of commitment right now.."

Dustin shook his head. "Adi, You have been the one girl in my life, ya know? Like the main girl in my life...I love you...you have my heart," he confessed. "But I'm just not ready to make a commitment to you. I just...like the way we are," He said, gently kissing her on the forehead. "I love you."

She she looked at him and smiled for a moment.

"...I love you to..." and their lips met.

She was telling the truth...but was officially confused.

Chapter 5