Pacey grabbed his jacket and stormed down the steps. Dawson followed more slowly, making sure to lock the door behind him. "Are you going to tell me what you think?"

"No."

"C'mon, Pace. I trust your judgment. I want to hear what you think of it before I present it to some of the guys at work."

"You want to hear what I think?" Pacey's voice rose an octave. He shook his head and started walking, not looking back to see if Dawson was even following. "You don't want to hear what I think."

"I know that it's a little presumptuous of me to use personal experience as the basis of it, but you know they always say that you should write what you know."

"Right." Pacey seethed. "I don't want to talk about this right now, Dawson. I want to go and meet my friend and avoid you and all your film geek buddies until I'm really, really drunk. And then I want to ignore them some more."

"Pace!" Dawson jogged after him, his brow furrowed. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, Dawson." He stopped and glared at him. "I'm just having a little trouble digesting your," he paused and sneered the last word, "masterpiece."

"So you think it's good?"

Pacey whirled around and started walking, his shoulders hunched as he headed for the bar. Dawson followed along behind him, ignoring Pacey's mumbles.

"Hey! Pace!"

"What?" He snarled.

"Who do you think should play Wade?"

Jen leaned back against Drue, tilting her head up so that she could see him. "What'cha thinking?"

"I was wondering what it would be like to have sex with you in that dark corner booth."

"Really?"

"Yeah. And then I was thinking what it might be like to sneak into the bathroom, lock the door, and take you on the counter."

"What about the soap dispensers?"

"If we're careful? We could incorporate them."

"Oooh."

"Okay," Jack shook his head and held the darts out to Drue. "You guys are making me sick here. Seriously. And I'm recovering and need all my strength."

Jen laughed and moved away from Drue, slipping onto the stool at the small table as Drue stepped up to the shooting line. She reached over and took Jack's hand. "How you doing?"

"Good. Better." He shrugged. "This is nice. Especially since I don't have to worry about anything I do or say to you being misconstrued by the jealous boyfriend over there."

"Well, you have to admit he didn't actually…misconstrue anything."

"True." Jack shook his head. "I'm sorry about that, by the way. About everything."

"Don't." She laced her fingers through his. "It's over. It's done. And we're gonna be okay."

"We might," Jack started to reply but stopped as he caught sight of the front door as Pacey walked in, fury radiating off him in waves, "but as far as everyone else, I think you might have spoken too soon."

Nicole stood as she saw Pacey walk into the room, glancing quickly toward the bathrooms to see if Joey was returning before taking a step toward him. He grabbed her arms as he approached, pulling her close.

"Let's get out of here, get drunk and fuck like we're back on the ocean, okay? Let's just run away from Dawson and his geek-ass friends and pretend that anything after this summer never happened."

"Okay."

"Good, because otherwise I'm going to end up in prison for murder before the night is over."

"What happened?"

"I'll tell you once I've calmed down enough just to be furious."

"Hey, Pace."

He stiffened as Jen put her hand on his arm. "Hey, Jen." He looked up and noticed Dawson, Jen, Jack and Drue surrounding them. "What's going on?"

"Well, I thought it'd be nice if we all got together," Dawson smiled. "But I knew you wouldn't come if you knew we were all going to be here, so I sort of lied."

"Sort of." Pacey looked down at Nicole for a long moment. "Uh…everyone…uh…this is Nicole."

"We know." Drue smirked. "Joey's roommate. We've been introduced."

"Joey's…" Pacey's eyes widened and he shook his head. "Oh, holy fuck."

"How do you know Nicole, Pace?" Jen asked.

"We uh…" Nicole blushed and stammered, looking desperately at Pacey.

"We sailed together." Pacey took a step back, suddenly realizing he was too close and too friendly and that Joey was standing behind her, an all too familiar hurt look in her eye. "This summer. Dean's boat. Dean's daughter."

"Did you secure the rigging on both of 'em?" Drue smirked at Pacey.

"So he's your soulmate?" Joey's voice was quiet, yet it seemed to echo through the noisy bar. "You took one look at him and that was it, right Nicole? You fucked all night long? Wasn't that what you said?"

Pacey glanced quickly at Nicole then took a step back, bumping into Dawson. "I have to get out of here." He turned quickly, brushing past Dawson and heading for the bar.

"Pacey!" Dawson grabbed his arm. "You can't leave. I have to tell everyone about the film."

"Film?" Jen asked.

"Your fucking film," Pacey threw Dawson's arm off him, "is your fucking fantasy about what went down between the three of us. Your little melodrama that's the only way you can justify the fact that she dated me, she loved me and she fucked me. Me, Dawson. Not you. So take your fucking screenplay and stick it up your sanctimonious ass."

Dawson stood there, his eyes wide with shock as Pacey stalked off. He didn't even flinch as Joey shoved him out of her way, intent on finding Pacey.

"Joey…"

She whipped around and nailed Nicole with a glance. "You've got nothing to say to me, you bitch."

Joey grabbed Pacey's arm just before he reached the bar. He whirled around, stopping with some sort of defeat as he saw her. Her lips were pursed together angrily and her eyes flashed. "We need to talk."

"No. We don't." He freed his arm from her grasp and kept walking, pushing through the employee exit that was hidden around the corner from the bar. Joey stalked after him, refusing to let him get away.

"You fucked her!"

"Yeah." He whirled around and met her glare with his own, his heart pounding, his brain on overload. "I did. I fucked her, Jo. So fucking what? She wasn't your roommate over the summer."

"No. Apparently she was yours."

"It wasn't like that."

"Oh? What was it like, Pacey? She said you guys took one look at each other and it was a quick slide into bed from there. How long had we been broken up before you fucked her?"

"What does it matter, Potter?" His anger started heating up again in the wake of her attack. "We were broken up."

She watched him start to walk away and ran after him and shoved him, sending them both tumbling toward the wall. Pacey landed on his back, catching her as she fell on top of him.

"Great. I was really hoping I'd get sprawled out flat on my ass in an alley behind a bar. I haven't smelled like sex and vomit in so long." He shoved her off of him and got up. "What the fuck do you want from me, Potter?"

"The truth."

"I told you the truth. I fucked her once. It was over two months after we'd split up. I haven't fucked her since."

"No." Nicole's voice was quiet and sad, her gaze locked on Pacey. "You've been too busy fucking my mother."

"You fucked her mother?"

Pacey ignored Drue's comment. "What the fuck are you talking about, Nicole?"

"Last night. I saw you come out of her room. I saw the way she looked. She looked like she'd been fucked, Pacey."

"Your mother looked perfect last night."

"Yeah. Too perfect." She sniffed back tears that suddenly threatened. "Just like she always does after she's cheated on my father. And then you fucking saunter out of the room like you're some sort of fucking stud…"

"I was fixing the fucking toilet."

"Right." She was crying now, not caring. "Just like all the others were just helping her with something. One was fixing a shelf. One was rehanging the closet bar. My mother's a fucking whore, Pacey. And you were more than happy to take her up on what she was offering."

"My job is to be the fucking handyman on all school buildings, Nicole." Pacey shook his head, disbelief in his eyes. "That includes your parents' house. Your mother called me. I showed up."

"My mother called and you came, you mean." She sneered the words, wiping away tears with an errant hand. "Was she on top again, Pacey? Did you think she was me again, Pacey?"

He flinched, feeling everyone's eyes on him. He looked past Nicole to Dawson who was leaning against the brick wall, listening intently, a tape recorder in his hands. "What the fuck are you doing?"

Dawson looked up, dropping the tape recorder in the process. "Nothing."

"You fucking…" Pacey started toward Dawson, scooping the tape recorder off the ground and shattering it against the wall just past him. "Is that the next screenplay, Dawson? Is that the next little saga you plan to write about?"

"You wrote a screenplay?" Jack stayed well away from Pacey, his eyes tinged with a residual fear of violence.

"Don't tell him your story, Jack, or you're sure to see it on the screen. Only you'll barely fucking recognize it since he'll have twisted it up to fit his manipulative purposes."

"What did I change?" Dawson practically shouted. "What did I change? What did I do to make it so different, Pace? She was my best friend. You got the hots for her. You dated her, you fucked her, you dumped her. The only thing I changed was that she dumped you. I made you less of the fucking villain."

"You made me a fucking rapist!" Pacey grabbed Dawson's shirt and shook him. "You made me some melodrama villain practically twirling my moustache as I looked at Joey, plotting how to get her into my bed."

"That's what you fucking were." Dawson brought his hands up inside Pacey's grip and broke his hold on him. "You're just a goddamn cock waiting in the wings to find some vulnerable girl, so sad inside that she's willing to give it up just to feel like someone might love her."

"Is that how you see Joey, Dawson?" Pacey's voice was a mocking laugh, dangerously low. "I'm sure she'll be thrilled to hear it." He moved a step closer. "And you just couldn't handle the fact that she and I made love, could you, Dawson? You just can't handle the fact that I defiled your precious, virginal Joey, so you had to make me a fucking rapist, didn't you?"

"You did rape her, Pacey. Maybe not in the legal context, but you ripped away everything that mattered to her at the prom and left her practically bleeding and broken in front of everyone. You shattered her."

"And you're her white knight, right, Dawson? Riding in that night to offer her your comfort? Making sure she knew that you were still waiting in the wings? It didn't matter to you that you'd been pursuing some sort of relationship with someone else at all, did it? Of course, that relationship was ready to crumble anyway, since the only person you could manage to talk about to Gretchen was Joey."

"You're jealous of the connection I have with her."

"You're just jealous that I've had her."

Dawson launched himself at Pacey, swinging wildly. Pacey blocked one punch as the other glanced off his cheek. "You may have had sex with her, Pacey, but she and I have something that will last forever."

"Maybe so, Dawson." Pacey took a swing and caught Dawson on the shoulder. "But you can bet your sweet ass that you'll never see me down on my knees begging you for forgiveness."

"Wow, and I thought we had soap operatic overtones," Drue wrapped his arms around Jen's waist and rested his chin on the top of her head as she started to move forward. "Uh-uh, honey. Joey's staying out of it and so should you. They're big boys. Let 'em fight it out of their systems."

"If you didn't want my forgiveness, Pacey, why the hell did you call me? Why did you need to hear me say that I was proud of you for running off and getting your life back?"

"Thus freeing you up to make a move on Joey."

"I could have made the move at any time, Pacey." They walked in slow, stalking circles, both ready to move in on each other. "I don't care how much you fucked her, when it comes right down to it, Joey loves me. She needs me. You're just a distraction. She wants you for your cock. You're just her fucking dildo with legs." Pacey swung and Dawson danced out of the way. "Just like you are for all the other girls you've managed to pick up lately."

This time Pacey's punch landed firmly, the loud thunk of flesh on flesh echoing underneath everything. "At least I'm not sitting in my bedroom every night wanking off to the thought of the girl I can't manage to get it up for."

Dawson threw another punch, this one going wild. He advanced on Pacey, something black in his eyes. "I have to listen to you every night, hear you fuck them, hear them want you." He was dangerous and determined, pushing Pacey back with every swing until he was up against the wall near Joey. "I have to hear them tell you what to do and listen to you beg them…"

"Oh shit," Jen breathed.

"When you know as well as I do that you want to beg me."

"Wha…?" Pacey's confused response was cut off as Dawson grabbed him and kissed him, holding him firmly between his body and the wall, his erection digging into Pacey's leg. Pacey placed his hands against Dawson's shoulders and shoved, pushing him away. "The fuck?"

Dawson came at him again, trying to push him to the ground, to his knees. "Beg me. Beg me to forgive you for fucking Joey, for taking away the one thing in the world that mattered to me. Beg me to forgive you. Beg!" When Pacey refused to kneel, Dawson grabbed for him again only to find himself sprawled on the ground as Pacey clocked him.

"This is like Chasing Amy," Jack muttered.

"Joey's a lesbian?"

Jen reached up and smacked Drue. "Shut up."

Pacey was shaking as he looked down at Dawson, sprawled out on the ground, not ready to get up. "Take your boyfriend home, Joey."

"He's not my boyfriend."

"For your sake, I hope the fuck not." He looked over at Jen. "You could have mentioned that when you told me about his experience in L.A."

"I never thought there'd be a need."

"He lives in my fucking apartment, Jen. Him getting hot about me begging him for mercy? That's a pretty fucking salient point, I think." Pacey shook his head and looked from Nicole to Joey. "I need a fucking drink."

Nicole slid into the opposite side of the booth and refused to look at him, staring down at the table and her folded hands. "I hate my mother. She cheats on my father with people close to him, people he likes. And he knows it, I think. Or he suspects. But he loves her and he won't divorce her. But this…this was the first time she cheated on him with someone…with someone I like."

"I didn't sleep with your mother at the party, Nicole."

"I believe you. And maybe I knew. I mean…but I was so angry and hurt by the thought of it. The not completely unfounded thought of it."

"I know." He sighed and slammed back a drink. There were ten shot glasses in front of him, and four were empty. "But I didn't." He paused and drank about half of his beer. "You want to tell me why, in all the times I've seen you this year, you neglected to mention that my ex-girlfriend was your roommate?"

"I didn't want…I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to feel uncomfortable around me. I mean, I know what you did during the summer. All the sordid and not-so-sordid details. I didn't want you to be afraid I'd tell."

"And you didn't tell her because there was no evidence whatsoever that she gave a fuck, right? I mean, she's practically shacking up with Dawson every weekend and I doubt I'm much of a presence in her décor, huh?"

"Actually, she's got a few pictures of you. And she talks about you. So I didn't want to tell her that I knew you from the summer. I was afraid she'd ask questions that I didn't want to answer or I'd lie differently than you did or…or she'd jump to conclusions."

"Which is funny, considering when she didn't jump to them, you just gave her a nice, solid shove." He tossed back another shot. "So, you and I are eternally fated lovers, huh?"

"I'm sorry, Pacey. I'm sorry that I might have made things worse for you. I'm sorry that I hurt you. I was scared and hurt and worried and I lashed out. Trust me, it's not something I'm particularly proud of." She sighed and grabbed one of the remaining shots. "Even worse, my roommate, who I actually liked a lot by the way, now hates me."

"Jo doesn't hate you," Pacey sighed. "She hates me. Justifiably, I suppose. But you guys'll be fine. Trust me, so long as you're not going after Dawson," he grabbed another shot and downed it, "she doesn't hold a grudge."

"Somehow I doubt that." Nicole sighed. "I'm sorry if I messed things up for you, Pace."

"Messed things up? Nicole, honey, the last time I saw Joey she was coming out of Dawson's room dressed in a bra and panties. I don't think reconciliation with me was at the forefront of her mind."

"She's still in love with you, Pacey." Nicole gave him a sad grin. "Just like you're still in love with her."

"Yeah, well, my roommate gets off on me begging him to forgive me, so I think Joey's feelings or lack thereof are the least of my troubles."

She nodded and slid out of the booth, reaching down for his hand and squeezing it. "I'm still sorry."

He looked up with her; his eyes clear despite the alcohol. "You'll find, with the Capeside gang? Someone's always sorry." He squeezed back, lifting her hand to his lips and kissing the back of it softly. "But we're okay, you and I, regardless of the rest of the shit that proceeds to go down as a result of this. Just…" He grinned, his smile devastating. "Just stop thinking I'm screwing around with your mom, okay? I promise that, should I feel the need to bed a member of your family, it most definitely will not be your mother."

"You're not going to go after my dad next, are you?"

He laughed and shook his head. "You got any sisters or brothers?"

"Nope. Just me, I'm afraid."

"Damn. I guess it's gonna have to be you then."

Nicole looked over her shoulder as Joey headed in their direction. "I won't hold my breath."

"I can walk."

Jen nodded and continued to hold Dawson's arm across her shoulders. "I'm sure you can. In fact, I would bet large sums of money I don't have, knowing that I'd get a huge return on my investment, on the fact that you can walk."

"So let me go."

"No. Because I'd also lay down those huge sums of money on the fact that you've got a hard-on to run back there and confront Pacey or Joey or any combination thereof and you really, really need to not do that."

"Right."

"Look, Dawson. I know we talked a little bit about this a while ago, but I'm guessing you weren't listening otherwise you wouldn't be in this predicament. You'll remember, after you told me about your summer fling, that I mentioned you might want to take some of this up with a trained professional?"

"I thought that was banter."

"No, Dawson, banter is sexual tension disguised as witty dialogue. 'Go see a professional about your strange obsession with your best friend and the sexual ramifications of said obsession' is not banter. That would be sage advice." She sighed. "And, while I admire you wanting to get some of your Pacey and Joey angst out of your system through writing, I don't know that having Pacey read about it is exactly a good idea."

"I figured that one out all on my own."

"Probably wouldn't be a good idea to show it to Joey either. Even though I'm sure you've got her up on a pedestal in your script, villainizing the man she did claim to love probably isn't the best way to win your way back to her heart."

"Jack and Drue think I'm insane, don't they?"

"Trust me, the three of us have our own drama, we've got no need to borrow yours." Jen looked up at the apartment. "Move out, Dawson. You can't live here with him like this."

"Another bad move when it comes to the obsession?"

"Most definitely. Living with the object of said obsession never works out well."

"We actually make pretty good roommates, surprisingly. He's hardly ever there when I am…"

"I think the fact that you've now admitted to listening in on and, by admitting that admitting that you're probably getting off on, his sexual exploits probably isn't going to make for comfortable discussions about the rent."

"Probably true."

"Maybe you, Jack and I can get a place."

"Drue would go for that?"

"Not in a million years." She smiled. "Unless I let him share my room."

"I can't believe you're dating Drue Valentine."

"You get a hard-on when you think of humiliating your ex-girlfriend's ex-boyfriend who is also your ex-best friend. I think, when it comes to relationship choices, I'm on much safer ground than you are."

"Pacey can't afford this place by himself."

"It's got to be cheaper than the dorms. Maybe Drue'd be willing to share the space with Pacey."

"He'd get along with the rats, I'm sure."

"Hey now, you're mocking the man I've chosen to sleep with."

"Yeah. You're going to have to get used to that."

Jen sighed regretfully. "Yeah. I already have." She took the keys from Dawson's hand and led him up the stairs to the apartment. "Promise me you'll stay here and not go out after them."

"I promise. Trust me, I've had enough humiliation for the night."

"Dawson?"

"I have," he nodded. "I swear. Besides, I don't think either of them would hesitate to kick my ass right now. Although I don't know what I'm supposed to do if Pacey comes home."

"Maybe you should stay at Drue's or Jack's tonight?"

"Nah. I've got to deal with this…with him, sooner or later. May as well get it over with now while he's probably tired and weak from kicking my ass earlier." He stood in the doorway and looked down at her, leaning in to kiss her forehead. "Thanks for the offer of a place. And the advice."

"I know someone you could talk to."

"I'll think about it."

"Dawson…"

"I will. Honestly."

"Okay." She looked hard at him for a long time. "You okay?"

"My face hurts like hell. I have a feeling that, when we fought in the past, Pacey took it fairly easy on me."

"I wouldn't be surprised. Pacey doesn't like to pick on people smaller or weaker than him. I imagine that's a lesson he learned from his family."

"Probably." He smirked. "I don't suppose kissing him is a post-traumatic delusion I'm having, is it?"

"No. You kissed him."

"I was afraid of that." He started to close the door when her hand stopped him.

"Dawson?"

"Yeah?"

"Did you enjoy it?"

He smiled at her, self-deprecating and ironic. "No. Not in the slightest."

"Well, that's good, right?"

"You've got no idea."

Joey watched as he downed the last shot and the last of his beer. She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against the edge of the booth. "Drinking your troubles away?"

"It's worked for me in the past." He refused to look at her, preferring to stare down into his empty glass instead. Finally he raised his eyes and held her with his clear gaze. "Except for you. You always come back to haunt me."

"I never haunt, Pace." She slid into the seat Nicole had vacated. "You want to tell me about your summer?"

"Well, I don't think it will come as any surprise to you that I slept with Nicole."

"Was she the only one?"

"No. She was only once."

Joey nodded. "But there were others?"

"One or two."

"More than two?"

"More than two."

"Were you…you were careful?"

"Always careful, Jo." He sighed and started playing with the shot glasses, setting them up in random patterns. "You?"

"Did I sleep around?"

"Have you been seeing anyone since you moved to Boston? I mean, other than your weekly rendezvous with Dawson."

"I haven't slept with anyone since the last time we were together." She bit her lip and looked down at the table, watching his hands as they moved, caressed each glass. "Not for…I've had offers here and there. But the guy that I want to sleep with…well, he's been busy."

"There's a guy?" He flushed at the blatant jealousy in his voice. "Good. I mean, good that there's a guy."

"Nicole introduced us."

"Great. She's a great friend, that Nicole."

"Did you sleep with her mother, Pacey?"

He cleared his throat, hating the disappointment in her voice. "Her mother came onto me on the boat. I turned her down. I mean, she's married, she's older, she's…it would have hurt people and I'm usually pretty good about avoiding that at all costs these days."

"I know the feeling."

"But one night," he looked up at her then back down at his hands. "We'd docked on this island for some big soiree that an associate of Dean Newman's was throwing. I didn't want to be there, so I went to my room and got drunk. Sometimes, all I could hear was the sea, and I'd smell something and it would just remind me of you, of True Love, of everything I had left behind. So I got more than drunk," he chuckled softly. "And my door opened and she was touching me and…" He caught Joey's quickly indrawn breath and cut off. "I thought it was Nicole. We'd talked about you a little and she knew I was…trying to recover from you. And then the door opened and Nicole was standing there, and I was lying there underneath her mother."

"Oh."

"Not exactly proud of the moment." He watched her hands as they moved nervously on the tabletop. "The look on Nicole's face killed me. And the look of triumph on her mother's face was nauseating."

"Then what?"

"Nicole and I reached a truce about it. It wouldn't happen again and it was forgotten. Until last night."

Joey was quiet for a long time, only looking up as the waitress brought over another pitcher of beer. Pacey poured some into his glass and pushed it over to her. She took it gratefully, still not meeting his eyes, and drank. Placing it down in the middle of the table, she sighed. "I get why she did this to you. I mean, intellectually, I get that she was hurt and wanted to hurt you back, especially since she probably figured she let you off easy the first time." She rested her arms on the table, watching as her fingers stirred the air so close to his hands. "But I don't get why she went after me."

"I think you just got caught in the crossfire. She feels bad."

"She tell you that?"

"Yeah. She did." Pacey watched her hands, so close to his. "I'm wondering about something."

"What's that?"

"Well, I know from Drue that Dawson kissed you after I left town."

"It was more sort of a mutual goodbye thing, but go on."

"Well, I'm just wondering if, now that he's kissed me as well, we can just call ourselves even on that score."

Joey laughed softly, lifting one hand up to her mouth. "The look on your face was priceless."

"There's something more than slightly disturbing about feeling your best friend's erection pressed against you." He chuckled. "Of course, you'd probably know that."

"The feel of yours sort of blocks everything else from my mind." They both froze in the wake of her words. "Tell…tell me more about the screenplay."

"Oh no. I want you to read it. So you too can feel the disgust and hatred that fired through me."

"I want at least the highlights. C'mon." She dropped her hand and it brushed his, igniting the fumes of desire that clouded around them. Joey barely caught the gasp before it left her, her fingers trembling as he turned his hand over and captured them, holding them loosely. "Other than Pacey as rapist, I'm a little vague on the overall thread."

"It's the retelling of our relationship through Dawson's eyes. I'm the conniving, plotting, manipulative ass who's trying to get you into bed. You're the haunting ingénue who needs to vanquish the bad-boy desire from her system. Dawson is the ever-loving, ever-forgiving, ever so understanding true love of your life."

"Wow."

"He encourages you to go to me and deal with your feelings for me so that you can come back to him complete and whole and ready to start your life together." Pacey watched his fingers as they stroked hers, so small in his hand. "Then you go to him after we have sex for the first time." He cleared his throat with a choked laugh. "I guess I do have to give him credit for slipping in just enough truth that anyone who didn't know all the gory details might believe this was all true. Anyway, you go to him and tell him that you wanted to stop and I wouldn't."

"He doesn't know you at all, does he?"

"Well, his story doesn't really focus on the nine months of waiting that we did before you were ready. His was more about my vile desire to take you to my bed." Her fingertips scratched the inside of his palm and he shuddered, a shaft of longing dancing down his spine. "Anyway, so he comes out to the dock to see me and gets me to confess that I took you against your will."

"And I'm the helpless victim, am I?"

"Then, in the grand finale, you've apparently put him on hold and I'm staying away from you so that he won't kick my ass."

"Oh. Good thing. He's tough."

"And I go to him and I beg his forgiveness, telling him that I wanted you so that I could be like him. That was my driving force all along. I didn't love you. You didn't matter. All that mattered was that I wanted to be him. And you were the most important thing to him, therefore I had to have you."

"Wow. I do have to read this thing." She freed her hand from his, tucking it into her lap so he wouldn't see her tremble. "He really dissected our relationship, didn't he?"

"Completely."

"I'm glad he manages to tell me why you and I were together. Because, you know, I honestly had no clue."

"Me either. It's good to know that it was all because of Dawson."

She smiled and watched his hand curl around the glass of beer, turning it so that his mouth fit over where hers had been. She watched his throat as he swallowed, following the liquid down his chest to the dark, flat surface of the table. When she looked up, his eyes were locked on her. "You told me," she cleared her throat, wanting her voice more assured, less breathy, "that the reason we had to break up was because you were holding me back. That you were Capeside and I was more than that."

"I remember."

"You lied." She shook her head. "You're not Capeside. Not any more than I am. You're whatever you want to be and wherever you want to be."

"Like Visa?"

"You're here now. Doing well, right?"

"Job. School." He nodded. "I'm passing all my classes. Making decent enough money. I don't know that I'm going to stay with school though. I thought I might explore some options. See if there's something else out there that I want to do."

"You're going to leave Boston?"

"No. Just leave school, I think. School was never…it wasn't ever what I wanted. I think we all know that."

"So what are you going to do?"

"Well, I'll keep working for the school. But Doug told me about a friend of his that owns a restaurant. I thought I might check it out and see if my skills lie in the culinary field."

"You cook a mean fish."

"That I do."

Joey swallowed and smiled at him. "But you'll still be in Boston."

He held her gaze, his blue eyes dark. "I will."

"And will you still be whoring around the clubs every Friday night with Dawson?"

"Well, no. Not with Dawson." His laughter was half sigh. "Will you be spending every Saturday night at my apartment?"

"No." She smiled at him, reaching out and taking his hand deliberately. "Not with Dawson."

"Because I'm kicking him out?"

Joey shook her head and slid out of the booth, still holding onto his hand. With her free hand, she pushed the table closer to the bench she'd just left then squeezed in front of Pacey before straddling his legs and easing down onto his lap. She released his hand and smiled softly as both of his hands moved to curve around her waist. "No." She breathed the word as she leaned in, her lips brushing his lightly. "Because I've seen your bed, Pacey. And there's no way in hell the three of us would fit in it."

"That's not quite the strong, heartfelt reassurance I was going for, Jo."

Her tongue painted his lips until he parted them, breathing in her warm breath. "Dawson who?"

His eyes closed and he swallowed hard, his body alive with the feel of her. "Better."

"What if I promise to scream your name so loud that all of Boston will hear it when I come?"

He groaned and pulled her down to him, his lips on hers. "Much better," he assured her as he kissed her, as the rest of the world faded to black.

11/21/01