INNOCENT (Gabe's Trials)

Once in a blue moon

'Don't move! Don't go! I need you! My audition is tomorrow. Shah blue blah! Me lah peeh! Ombrah!... Pooh!'

I couldn't help but laugh at Joey's desperate tries to get Phoebe to stay and help him with his French. It didn't even matter that I had already seen that episode a dozen times. Friends was a classic and it had never failed to make me laugh before. In fact, it was one of the few things that could keep my mind from wandering to the chinesse woman I've met back at Gabriel's and her words.

The fact that it had been two days since my last encounter with him and that he hadn't called yet -just like I knew he wouldn't-, but also that he hadn't made an appearence so far, wasn't helping. I mean, maybe she was right, after all. Maybe I was nothing more but a conquest to him. And maybe it's better that way! My conscience added, making me reach for my bottle of beer. I needed something that would drown the bitch. Or, at least, make her shut the fuck up. Her snarky comments were the last thing in the fucking world I needed right now.

Placing the box of cold chinese takeaway on the coffee table, I took a swig of my beer. The alcoohol was warming my insides, making me forget all about Gabriel, the chinesse woman and my still missing best friend. Lila was still spending most of her time with the tattooed gorilla and that was really starting to piss me off. She was putting our friendship on hold for a man. And what a man that was...

Two swift knocks at my front door had me snapping my head towards it. Grabbing the remote control, I turned the TV off and ran one hand through my disheveled mess of a hair before heading towards the source of the noise. My heart started pounding a frantic tattoo as my hand grabbed the knob and slowly turned it, opening the door. Then I slowly let out my held breath the moment I came face to face with my visitor.

"Judge..." Mathew Rowton nodded his head at me once, before running his eyes over my small figure.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, sighing and moved away from the door, so that he could come inside. I knew better than to let any stranger walk into my house, but then, he wasn't exactly a stranger, was he?

Smirking, he accepted my silent invitation, walking past me and stopping next to the kitchen archway.

"Gabriel sent me. But then, I think you already had that figured out." I couldn't disagree with that. I knew that Gabriel had sent him, but the question was why?  "This is for you." Mathew said, extending a bottle of Montrachet to me. "He said he owed you a bottle of wine." Yes, he owed me a bottle of red, cheap wine, not an over the top expensive, white one. A weak laugh escaped my lips.

"I think we both know that I can't accept that. Drinking three thowsand dollars wine is not my thing." Mathew's eyes lit up, a knowing smile pulling at the corners of his mouth.

"I told the fucker that you looked like a girl who knew her way around wine. He kept insisting that you would accept this as long as there was no price tag attached to it." Mathew had been right. I didn't need a price tag. I knew my way around wine just fine, especially when it came to the expensive type. My father had taught me well.

"My father would probably have a heart attack if I couldn't tell the difference between a Montrachet and a Cabernet." A light giggle fell from my lips and Mathew placed the bottle on my kitchen table, his shoulders slightly shaking with a silent laughter as well.

"Well, I'm gonna leave this here, anyway. The fucker is a stuborn ass, as I think you've noticed by now. He just doesn't know what the word 'no' means." I frowned a little making Mathew shrug on a smile. "He would probably send me back to you with the wine until you took it." I almost felt sorry for the big guy. Who knows how manny times he had to pay these sort of visits to the girls Gabriel had a thing for.