Kelsey woke up to a throbbing head and furry feeling mouth, simultaneously feeling like she was dying of thirst and needed to puke. She rolled over and saw blond hair obscuring a familiar face.

Shit.

She sat up and looked down at herself. She was still wearing her yellow dress, though that didn't mean much. Her shoes were gone, and she shifted carefully, felt her underwear between her skin and the dress, and upgraded her situation from "shit" to merely "crap."

She looked around. She was in a bedroom, sparsely furnished, with books everywhere. Phoenix's room, most likely, since he was slumbering next to her. She vaguely remembered coming upstairs with him last night, wandering the long halls of Candy's Bel-Air mansion in the wee hours of New Year's Day, hopelessly drunk, talking and laughing with Phoenix about anything and everything.

She saw a mini fridge next to the bed, opened it, and found it full of bottles of water. She opened one and nearly emptied it in one swallow, which alleviated one problem, but made the other one worse.

She grabbed another bottle and went in search of a bathroom. The first door turned out to be a small office, with more books and a computer, and the second door was a walk-in closet. Hippy or not, you could definitely tell he used to be a model. This boy knew how to dress.

Kelsey finally found the en suite on her third try and went to the bathroom for what seemed like forever. Ahhh. She also found some aspirin in the cabinet, and took a few with her second water. She also took the opportunity to wash her face at the sink.

Feeling a little more human, she went back to the bedroom, this time looking for her shoes. She tried to remember what exactly had happened last night. She remembered drinking a lot of champagne, talking to Phoenix and Kiki, and not feeling miserable for the first time in a week.

She remembered seeing Jack, too.

Kelsey sat down on the bed with a soft thump. He had looked really good, so handsome in a teal shirt that she remembered picking out for him, along with fitted, tailored slacks. The look on his face, though, when he saw her with Phoenix, was awful.

He'd been with Marian, though. So he was really trying to get on with things, then. She'd better try, too. Kelsey sighed, raking her fingers through her hair. She wondered what time it was. She heard a sound and looked over at Phoenix.

He had rolled over and was regarding her with one eye cracked open.

"Good morning," he said, his voice raspy. "Did you sleep well?"

Kelsey nodded. "Hell of a hangover, but I'll live. Thanks for letting me crash."

Phoenix sat up slowly. "Mi casa es su casa," he said, spreading his hands expansively. "Oh, fuck, man, too bright," he muttered, rising and adjusting the curtains.

"Have you ever thought of moving out?" Kelsey asked. "You know, getting your own place?"

Phoenix looked around, then looked back at Kelsey, shrugging. "Why? I'm not even twenty-five, my parents are the coolest people, I've got plenty of space here, I can come and go as I please, I mean, it's a pretty sweet deal, I think."

"Yeah, I guess so," she agreed. "Not many people our age get along with their parents, you know?"

Phoenix nodded. "But like I said, Candy and my dad are the best. I'd miss Lulu and Seth, too, you know? We even eat dinner together sometimes, which most people find unbelievable in this day and age." He looked around again. "I like it here. And I feel welcome. So I stay."

Kelsey nodded. "And I also want to thank you for not putting pressure on me about--about anything," she said, looking at the bed. "I mean, we were both pretty wasted, but I remember you wanting to, and I remember saying no, and I remember you stopping, so thanks for that."

"Aw, hey," Phoenix said, leaning forward and rubbing her arm. "No thanks necessary for that. I dig you as a woman, I mean, you're so fucking hot, you must know that, but I also like you as a human being, and only a total shit would not stop, right?" He continued to rub her arm as he spoke. "I know what happened to you last summer, and that shit's just not right, at all, and it should never happen to anyone.

"Besides, you probably don't know this, but your friend was keeping a pretty close eye on you," he informed her. "Kiki?" At Kelsey's look, he nodded, grinning. "Yeah. She and I know each other from some stuff I've done for UNICEF, so she knew she didn't have to worry as long as you were with me."

"Well, I don't want you to think I'm that stupid, either, though," Kelsey said. "That I'd let myself get into another situation like this after what happened to me--before." Phoenix gave her a questioning look. "When we stumbled in here, I had every intention of sleeping with you," Kelsey said, too embarrassed to meet his eye. "I'm just getting over something--someone-- pretty serious--"

"The swimmer?" Phoenix interrupted.

Kelsey nodded and continued. "--and usually the best way for me to do that is to hop in the sack with someone else. So I figured that it could be you, you know?" She gave a little shrug. "I was drunk, it was New Year's, there was a party, you're hot, all perfectly good reasons in the Kelsey Carlisle book of reasons to have sex with a stranger," she concluded. "So I figured I would. But then, after we started, I just couldn't, you know? I don't know, maybe it's too soon or something. So I changed my mind." She looked into Phoenix's blue eyes. "I'm saying that when I came up here with you my intent was to have sex for sure, or I never would've come up," she reiterated. "Otherwise I never would've let myself be alone in a bedroom with someone I'd just met."

Phoenix patted her shoulder. "Kelsey, you don't have to explain yourself to me, you don't have to defend what you choose to do." His voice was soft. "I'm not judging you, I never would."

Kelsey let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you."

"No sweat, kid," Phoenix assured her. "Now, let's go find some breakfast, okay?"

"You mind if we stop at my house real quick so I can change?" Kelsey asked.

"No problem," Phoenix replied. "Let's go, I'm starving.

An hour later, they were parking at an upscale eatery in Beverly Hills. A surprising number of places were open, considering it was January first, Kelsey thought, and a surprising number of people were out frequenting them. She heard the host tell the woman in front of them that it would be at least forty-five minutes, but of course Kelsey Carlisle and Phoenix McTaggart were seated immediately, right out on the patio, under one of the cone heaters in a central location.

Kelsey had forgotten what it was like to get the celebrity treatment. When she was with Jack, they kept a pretty low profile except on very rare occasions, usually choosing to hit a local IHOP or smoothie joint. It was one aspect of her old life she didn't particularly miss.

"You okay?" Phoenix asked.

"I'm fine," she answered, smiling at him. He really was so handsome. He had a very strong jaw, and his eyes were an amazing shade of blue, like the center of an iceberg. And his blond hair looked like it was completely natural, not touched up or anything, wow. Effortless good looks, coupled with intellect and a quick wit made him a catch by anyone's standards. Throw in the fact that he was Hollywood royalty and straight made him the equivalent of the holy grail as far as the entertainment business was concerned.

"You're not one of those, are you?" he asked, breaking into her thoughts.

Had he noticed her looking at him? "One of what?" she responded, taking a sip of her coffee.

"One of those people who gets all hung up on what someone looks like?" He gave her a piercing look, eyes narrowed. "You were giving me the once over."

"Are you saying you don't notice what people look like?" Kelsey asked. "That's not true, right? You said I was 'hot' earlier."

"Well, hot doesn't always have to do with what a person looks like, but we'll leave that one alone for now," he replied with a smirk, taking a sip of his own coffee. "I just hate it when people get all weird about how good looking I am. I mean, what's the point? Saying I'm handsome is like saying 'congratulations on your face;' it doesn't mean anything, you know? It has nothing to do with who I am inside, that's all." He shrugged.

"That's easy to say if you're handsome or pretty, though, isn't it?" Kelsey asked. She thought of Jack, who had spent his whole life thinking he wasn't good looking. "And sometimes a person can be so gorgeous and not even know it, he can carry so much beauty inside himself and not even be aware of it..."

"And I can tell we're not talking about me anymore, are we?" Phoenix asked rhetorically.

Their food arrived, and Phoenix looked over at Kelsey's plates.

"Wow, can you really eat all that?" he asked.

Kelsey had ordered an omelet with a side of fries, a short stack of pancakes, and a bowl of fruit. She shrugged. "Yeah? I like a big breakfast, I guess." She looked at his food. "What's that again?"

"Avocado toast and a vegan muffin," he responded. At her silence, he continued, "Hey, don't judge until you've tried it."

"I'm not judging," she insisted, taking a bite of her omelet. "This is amazing, though."

As they were eating, her phone pinged with a text from Kiki.

"I hope you're feeling okay this morning? And I thought you should know this is already out there."

It was accompanied by a picture of Kelsey, obviously taken with a long distance lens, leaving Candy Rosenblum's house earlier that morning, hand in hand with Phoenix, still wearing the yellow dress she'd worn the night before to the party. "The morning after," the caption read.

Great.