Two months had passed before Xanda returned to work full time. The past few months seemed like a nightmare to her and she was happy to be back to normal. Susan had been promoted to another department while her relationship with Howie slowly came apart. He wasn't ready to commit to a long termed relationship causing Susan to break things off with him.

The ringing phone caught Xanda off guard as she sat in her office day dreaming.

"Alexandra Soldatova speaking." She said quietly into the phone, the sound of professionalism not to be heard in her voice.

"You busy?" Susan asked as she flipped through different files.

"Depends what you consider busy." Xanda replied with a grin.

"In that case I'll be up to your office in a minute." Susan stated before hanging up the phone.

Xanda sighed to herself when she realized that she had too much work to do. She sat up, stretched, then plopped back down in her chair, occasionally pushing the files on her desk around. A knock on her door startled her.

"Come in, Susan." Xanda shouted.

Susan walked in to the office and pulled up a chair to Xanda's desk. "Oh, don't tell me that you're planning to do some work!" She exclaimed with a shocked expression.

"Me? Do work? Nah! I only run this office, I don't work. Lift a finger? That's not in my vocabulary." Xanda replied.

"Smart ass." Susan grinned. "So, can I complain to you?"

"Why else would you be here?" Xanda smiled, taking a sip of her coffee.

"True. Anyway, what do you think about me, oh I don't know, asking Nick out on a date?"

Xanda choked on her coffee and spit it across her desk barely missing Susan. "I'm guessing that I shocked you." Susan grinned.

"Shocked? I guess you could say that." Xanda replied while wiping off her desktop. "But you should know that Nick isn't over Keely yet not to mention dating down the BSB conveyor belt isn't a good idea. Howie and Nick would constantly be fighting if you did." She warned.

"I know, I know. Well then, how about dating Kevin?" Susan smiled.

"Smartass!" Xanda laughed. "Anyway, you can't date him either. He's been seeing Dayna, a friend AJ introduced him to months ago."

"Oh, that stripper! I forgot about that." Susan stated.

"No, not a stripper. A waitress and college student. Anyway, dating Kevin would still be considered dating down the BSB conveyor belt. You can no longer date any singer in that group and/or the band. No matter how you look at it, you're screwed." Xanda explained.

"You mean I can't date Tommy? Or Guy? Shit, just ruins all my fun!" Susan joked.

"I know. All the good men are taken. However, you can still give Tommy a lap dance." Xanda smirked while she continued to sip her coffee.

"I think I'll pass." Susan replied.

"I thought so." Xanda smiled. She settled back into her chair and continued to talk with Susan about work and life in general while avoiding the topic of their love-lives or lack there of. Susan was about to tell Xanda that Howie had been hinting around about getting back together when the phone rang. Xanda looked at the phone for a moment, mentally debating if she should answer it or not, knowing that it was probably someone wanting her to do more work.

"Are you going to answer that or do I have to? Last time I checked I was promoted so I no longer have to do minimal shit like that." Susan stated.

Xanda nodded before she grabbed the phone. "Make this quick!" She yelled into the phone. Her eyes became wide for a moment then a small smile spread across her face. "Damn AJ! I thought you were John. You prick, don't scare me like that!" Xanda laughed.

"AJ!?" Susan mouthed, obviously shocked. Xanda looked up at Susan and nodded before she continued on with her conversation.

"Do what feels right. If you know there's a possibility of regret later on then don't do it. Well, I'm taking my lunch break in about 20 minutes. Want to meet me at my office and we can talk about it? Yeah, me too. I'll see you in a few." Xanda placed the phone back and stared at it for a moment before shaking her head, trying to get back into reality.

"You have less than a minute to explain THAT!" Susan yelled, pointing at the phone.

"Oh all right! I was planning to tell you anyway." Xanda sighed.

"Oh you are NOT back with him, are you!? How could you be so stupid!?" Susan shouted. "He broke your heart once, he'll do it again! He's nothing but a womanizer with no respect for anyone other than himself and his bank account. I cannot believe you don't respect yourself enough to see through him! My God..." Susan rambled on.

"Are you finished yet?" Xanda asked calmly.

"For now." Susan replied.

"Good. Now, let me explain." Xanda stated. She remained quiet for a moment while she tried to collect her thoughts. She wanted to phrase everything correctly without leaving too many questions in the end.

"I'm waiting..." Susan said as she tapped her foot.

"Oh, jeez... Okay, look, AJ and I have been trying to..."

"...work things out." Susan finished for Xanda.

"NO! God, no. We're over, completely and utterly. We're just trying to be friends, I guess you could say. During our entire relationship, when you took away the sex, we were the best of friends. I missed that, he missed that, so we're just trying to get that back and it seems to be working. I mean, we'll never get too close but at least we don't hate each other any more." Xanda explained.

"I never hated you." AJ said as he stood in the doorway of Xanda's office.

"And I never hated you." Xanda replied with a slight smile.

"I'm glad we got that cleared up." AJ joked as he and Xanda walked towards each other for a friendly embrace. "Well, I'll let you two finish talking cause it's obvious Susan doesn't think this conversation is over yet. I'm gonna go make a few phone calls and use the bathroom."

Susan and Xanda watched as he walked out of the office; he made sure to close the door on the way out.

"I'm sorry; I just can't believe what you've told me in the last two minutes. After all the hell you went through? I don't get it." Susan said, mostly to herself.

"Let me try to shed some light on this situation for you. That night, at the store when we ran in the guys? Well, we made plans to settle some issues."

"Yeah, you told me. You both talked, realized that you would never get back together, and you both wanted to move on in your lives." Susan said as she quickly replayed the events of the previous few months.

"Right, well we did talk and we have moved on in our lives. He now sees a therapist to help sort through some old issues and we're just trying to build a friendship. Now that I think about it, I don't see how we stayed together as long as we did. We were never right for each other. It's funny to think that we thought we were in love. We used to screw like rabbits! It makes me laugh to think that we even talked about marriage! What were we thinking?" Xanda laughed.

Susan sat stunned. She didn't know what to say. There sat her friend laughing about a relationship that, months before, left her emotionally distraught and almost suicidal. Now, she was friends again with the man that had done the damage and they were going out to lunch! Susan couldn't quite grasp how Xanda worked but realized, long ago, that she never would.

"Okay, then clear something up for me. That phone conversation with him?" Susan asked as she pointed to Xanda's phone, referring to the conversation that Xanda had had with AJ 15 minutes before.

"Oh, that! He met someone and he's kinda confused. His therapist says he should wait a while before getting involved with anyone again because he has too many issues to sort out but AJ really likes her. He just needs some advice." Xanda replied as she did a quick check on her makeup using her the mirror in her compact.

"Oh, I give up trying to understand this. The only thing I understand right now is that I will NEVER understand." Susan complained.

"I've been going to therapy with AJ. His therapist is helping me out with my problems, as well." Xanda said quietly. Susan was about to dig further when the door opened. She turned around to see AJ poking his head into the office.

He peered at Xanda over his glasses and grinned. "Ready?"

"Yes! I'll call you tonight, Susan." Xanda said as she leaned down to give Susan a hug before leaving with AJ.

 

 

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