Author's Note:

Hey guys! It's me updating this story for the very last time.

I've always written out of order; a scene or a quote just comes to mind and I expand it and then try to find a place to put it in the story. That's the main reason it always takes me so long to update; I usually have written a whole chapter but it'll only fit two chapters ahead.

Anyway, I've found a few scenes that I wrote for SoL about five to ten years ago but never found a place for them in the story.

So, these are some deleted scenes from SoL.

I hope you guys enjoy it.

HOTEL SCENE (after chap 20 but before chap 27)

She waited for him on the bed, wearing silk red lingerie and nothing more. He should be home soon and she was anxious to see him and sooth some of her insecurities in a passionate night. When she heard the lock of the front door turn and him walk in, she grinned excitedly. That was until he reached their room with an exhausted expression. Not even her sexy attire could call his attention. He looked at her with an apologetic smile and sat besides her on the bed.

"Sorry I couldn't come earlier. There was a difficult client."

"You mean an unsatisfiable one," she said with spite.

He sighed, "I meant a difficult one." He knew better than to get into an argument with her over a client.

She ignored the comment and sat up on the bed before crawling over to him. She reached him and with a movement of her leg she was straddling him. She kissed him hard, her hands snaking to his shirt, trying to open the buttons. He responded to the kiss but after a moment he took her hands in his.

She pulled away and looked at him with a smile, "So, I thought we could have some fun tonight. Anything you want."

He threw his head back and groaned with closed eyes before opening them again and focusing on her. "Sorry, Rory, but tonight I'm really tired."

"Too tired for me?" she asked hurt.

"Too tired for anyone. For anything," he corrected.

"But you weren't too tired to fuck your client a couple of hours ago, were you?" she said jumping from her position and getting away from him.

"Rory… you knew about my job when you invited me to come live with you."

"You said you'd quit eventually," she accused.

"Eventually," he pointed out. "I still can't quit."

"Did you enjoy fucking her?"

"Don't be ridiculous!"

"Come on! You can't tell me you don't enjoy sleeping around!"

He sighed and shook his head. "I'm going to take a shower and then sleep. Let me know when you're rational again so we can talk." He took off his jeans and shirt ready to go take a shower when he saw her putting on some dark jeans and a top. "What are you doing?"

She glared at him as though the answer was obvious as she put on her sandals.

"Where are you going?"

She took her purse giving him a look, "Out."

He laughed humorlessly, "You're going out to fuck some random guy just for revenge?" he asked incredulous.

She looked at him with eyes sparkling with anger. "It's only fair that both of us sleep around, isn't it?" And the next thing he knew she was out of the apartment.

(...)

Rory entered the hotel with distant empty eyes that wouldn't focus on anything. She felt lost, abandoned and empty. She walked to the reception and asked for a room. After handing the receptionist her credit card she was handed a key to one of the rooms. She stepped into and out of the elevator in a mechanical way, not really paying attention to anything she was doing. Her mind was a chaos and only once she was inside her rented room she let herself slide against the door to the floor and cry like a broken girl.

Of course she didn't actually want to go to bed with anyone else. She just wanted him to feel, at least for one night, how she felt every single night that he went out to work. But now that she was sitting on a hotel room floor, crying over a boy that had her heart, she wondered what would happen now. She accepted his job because she didn't have a choice, she couldn't think of living without him anymore. But maybe he could live without her just fine, maybe when she got back in her apartment he wouldn't be there anymore. And that thought frightened her more than anything else. She almost felt regret if it wasn't for the anger that was still very present in her veins.

She took a deep breath comforting herself with a 'what is done is done'. She picked herself up from the floor and crawled into bed then she cried herself to sleep.

(...)

When she got back home next morning Jess was lying in bed awake, looking at the ceiling. She walked into the room dropping her keys on the nightstand but he didn't move or acknowledge her. It wasn't until she whispered "Jess…" that he stood up and walked past her to the kitchen. She sighed but followed. He started making coffee while she sat down staring at her hands.

"I hope it was everything you expected," he told her in a voice she didn't recognize as his.

"Jess…"

"And I really hope it was worth it, that you had a really great time. I hope you had a blast."

"I- "

"Cuz I didn't. I didn't have any fun last night; or the night before or the night before that. I hate my job, I simply can't stand it. And whenever I'm with them I wish I was here, with you."

"I'm-" she tried to talk to but he wouldn't let her.

"Now, just listen to me. I get that sometimes I'm too tired to satisfy you and it frustrates you. And you have to know that I'm sorry for that. But I thought you would come and talk to me if it was bothering you that much instead of storming away like that. I know you have the right to sleep with whoever you want in this fucked up relationship that we have, I just thought that I was enough for you. And that if I wasn't, that you would tell me instead of throwing it on me on your way out to fuck some other guy."

"I'm sorry," she said sincerely with tearful eyes.

"I don't know if I should stay living here."

At that she stood up, in panic, "No! You have to stay. Please. I promise it won't happen again."

He gave her a knowing sad smile. "Once it starts you can never be sure it will stop. Yesterday you slept with some random guy because I was too tired, how do you know you won't just do the same next time we have a fight?" He paused. "I'm not sure I can handle it," he admitted.

"Why?" the question was more of a confirmation but he wasn't very willing to answer.

"You know why," he rubbed his eyes, tired.

She stood up and went to the other room. A minute later she came back and handed him a receipt. "Room for one," she stated as he checked the paper on his hand. "I just needed to get away for a little while and I was frustrated and angry and I really wanted you to know how I feel every single night that you leave through that door."

He looked at her and sighed in what she could swear was relief. "So there wasn't anyone last night?"

"No."

He nodded and took her hand and kissed her palm. Then he suddenly grabbed her wrist and pulled her roughly against him, kissing her hard. He took her stumbling back to their room and started undressing her, hands everywhere, not looking so much for sex than for intimacy.

"You know we'll have to talk about this later, right?"

She nodded silently, urging him to keep going and forget about all their problems at least for the moment.

JESS' FAMILY (after chap 23)

She nodded and kissed his chest before resting her head on him again. "Will I ever meet your family?" she asked quietly.

He chuckled, "If you're lucky, no."

She paused then hesitantly added, "I think I'd like to meet them."

"Believe me, you wouldn't," he said, stroking her hair. "I wish I had never met them."

"You've told me about your mom and dad but don't you have anyone besides them? I mean, since they weren't exactly role models maybe you could try to reach someone else in your family now. It's good to have family," she said, thinking how it would be like if she didn't have her mother.

He shrugged. "My grandparents are dead – from both sides – my father was an only child and my mother has a brother but I never met the guy."

Rory sat up in excitement at the new possibility. "See, an uncle. That might be cool. We can try to look for him when we get back to the city. Maybe he is a nice guy and you two could get along…"

Jess chuckled, "Come on, Rory, let's not get ahead of ourselves. We're talking about my family here, which is just a bunch of nuts put together if you haven't noticed; let's not get our hopes too high, okay?"

She looked down with a pout but nodded, "Okay. I was just trying to think positive."

He smiled, "I know. I just don't want you to get disappoint when you find out he is just some guy who spends his time getting high when he's off of work washing dishes."

LOGAN (after chap 24)

Jess watched her intently, "Why did you have coffee with him, as if you were interested? You told me the guy used to be a jerk to you plus the whole bridesmaid thing!"

Rory didn't look him in the eye, instead she decided to look down as she shrugged with one shoulder. "I don't know, I guess I liked the attention. A guy paying attention to me."

"I pay attention to you," he defended, firmly.

She shook her head, sad. "It's different."

"How?" He asked, slightly put off with a hint of curiosity.

"We talked. It was nice. He was nice," she replied quietly.

"What was so nice about him?" he mocked, not able to help himself anymore.

"Just stuff, Jess. Stop being so irritating," she threw back, starting to get annoyed.

"I just can't understand what he could have possibly said or done to make you think he's so nice," he said almost lightly but still with a hint of accusation and that was the last drop for her.

She looked at him sharply and asked, "You really wanna know?"

Jess hadn't expected to actually have a real answer but he had asked so he could only mutely nod and wait for her to go on, "He said he regretted sleeping with those women from his sister's wedding and that if he could go back he wouldn't have done that cuz now he understands how much it hurt me. He asked for another chance and promised he'd never cheat on me again; would never sleep with another woman again if I got back with him. And you wanna know what? It sounded damn tempting, especially since he wasn't smelling like some other woman's perfume as you always are."

RAINY DAY (after chap 24)

He kissed her shoulder and watched the rain falling and the gray sky through the window while she slept. His arms were around her waist and the covers were tucked around them both, protecting them from the cold. She moved slightly, still not completely awaken but not quite sleeping and he kissed her nape; this time she woke up.

She turned her head to look at him. "Hey," she whispered.

"Morning. Or afternoon; it depends on how you see it."

She chuckled. "Last night was fun."

"Fun is a word to describe it, yeah," he agreed. "So, I was thinking we could stay in today; maybe not leave bed at all…" he said suggestively.

She chuckled again as though he was joking, saying a stupidly impossible idea. "As if."

"Why is it so absurd?" he asked offended.

"Today is Saturday," she said matter of fact. "You always work on Saturdays."

"I've already called today's client canceling," he told her.

She looked at him with wide unbelieving eyes but remained silent.

"But I can call her back if you want me to," he said, reaching for his cell.

"No," she shouted. She paused and collected herself. "I mean, I don't think that will be necessary," she said trying to be as casual as she could and failing miserably.

He smirked at her.

"You're mean, you know that?"

He kept his smirk on but covered her body with his. "It will end soon; I promised, right?" he whispered on her ear and by his tone she knew he was talking about his job.

She looked away silently but nodded.

"Just another month," he said, kissing her neck.

"Promise me it's really just for another month," she asked him in a broken voice.

"I promise," he said, kissing the side of her mouth. "You are all I want."

She couldn't understand how he could say something like that when they were in such a complex and complicated relationship but for some reason she believed him.

OLDER CLIENT (after chap 25)

"Rory, you don't really want to know about these kind of stuff."

"I do. Now tell me about her. Is she a model?"

"No."

"What does she do? Big corporate lawyer? CEO? Has her own business?"

"She used to be a housewife."

"What?"

"Her ex-husband is a CEO but a few years ago he left her for his secretary. Very typical. Anyways, her self-steam went way low and this was her way of proving to herself that she is still beautiful and can be happy and have a life without him. Before the divorce her life revolved pretty much just around him."

"Huh. I never expected to pity one of your clients. Usually I don't have positive feelings towards them."

"Pity isn't a positive feeling."

"It is compared to the ones that I usually have."

He chuckled, shaking his head.

"Anyways, it isn't really about sex with her. Of course, sometimes she expects me to perform for what she is paying, but half the time she just wants to talk. Usually she tells me about her kids and her new projects like a painting courses or whatever."

"Kids? She has kids?"

"Yeah, two. Mark is around my age. An accountant and works way too much. I think he cares about her; he calls at least once a week but doesn't visit much. I remember once I was there and he called. It was almost as if he had caught her in bed. She just got up and mentioned to the door for me to leave. She called later apologizing and explaining but she just couldn't not talk to him because of me. Her daughter, Rebecca is a few years younger. She is in college studying arts; sounds like a free spirit. Wants to be a photographer apparently."

"You sound like her therapist."

"I guess I kinda am. But she asks about me too, sometimes. She knows that I have you."

"Really? And what does she say about that? That you're too young and hot to settle down?"

He chuckled again.

"Actually, she said that I was lucky to have someone like you and that I shouldn't let you go. Since the day I told her i had a girlfriend we only talk when I go there. I feel bad for charging her since nothing really happens. she just wants the company, somebody to talk to, you know? But she insists, says that she is paying me for those two hours and she can do with them whatever she wants. sometimes she asks about you, but don't worry, I don't tell her much. Just that you're beautiful, intelligent, crazy for putting up with me and hates what i do for a living. She says you're perfect for me."

"If she really is like you just described her i think she should be your only client from now on."

CONDON SCENE (after the end of the story; if they had stayed together - when I started this story I planned for them to end up together and intended to write a sequel to SoL)

She walked into the apartment, threw her key on the counter and put her purse next to it. Just then she noticed Jess sitting on the couch, staring at his hands with a uncertain expression on his face.

"Jess? You okay?"

"Umh... yeah, yeah," he cleared his throat. "We need to talk."

"Are you going to break up with me?"

His eyebrows furrowed as if she had grown another head, "No."

She let out a sigh of relief, "Okay, then." She sat next to him, waiting for him to say something but he only fidgeted and looked around. It was starting to bother Rory, so she probed, "So, you wanted to talk..."

"Yeah... it's about sex. It's big, at least I think it is. And I want you to know you can say 'no'. It's okay if you do, nothing will change. I was just wondering about it, you know? And I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask what you thought about it..."

"Jess, just ask it already."

"I was wondering what you think of having sex without a condom."

Rory paused and stared at him. "You want to have sex without a condom," she repeated.

He nodded.

She paused again, "Is it a 'I want to try it - one-time' thing or a 'I want to do it for good' kind of thing?"

"I want to do it for good kind of thing."

"Where did that come from?"

He shrugged, "I guess it's the next step on intimacy. We've been together for almost a year now, we're living together, I'm not working as a hooker anymore... Like I said, I get it if you don't want to, I just thought it wouldn't hurt to bring it up."

"No, it's fine, it's just... unexpected."

"So, what do you think about it?"

"We're not talking about having children, just about not using condoms, right?"

"Yeah."

"I know it's a stupid question and you most probably have but anyway... have you ever done it without a condom?"

"No, I have never had a long lasting relationship, you know that. But you've had Tristan and Logan."

"I've always used condoms with Logan. With Tristan... I don't know, a few times, not always. But Logan... I've never trusted Logan. I think he cheated on me during our whole relationship, I just didn't want to admit it. And I'd never put my life at risk like that."

"Okay, so you haven't with Tristan and I've always used it ," Jess stated.

"Yeah, I'm already on the pill, so okay."

"Okay?"

"Yeah, okay. Were you expecting me to say no?"

"No, I just thought you'd ask me to be tested, get some blood exams, you know?"

"But you just told me you've always used a condom and last year, when I stopped paying you, you said you always got tested and that you were clean," she said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"I did, I am. I just thought you'd want to double check, to see the exams for yourself. Anyway, I'll take all the exams again, and I'll show you. I want you to know that I'm clean, that you're safe."

"I know that, you just told me so."

"Rory, still, I'd feel better. I don't want any shadow of doubt between us."

"Okay, then I guess I'll get tested too."

Jess chuckled, "No, you don't have to."

"Well, if you have to then it's only fair that the same rule applies to me."

"You've only ever slept with Tristan and Logan and I'm pretty sure you've been tested after you finished things off with Tristan. I don't need to see a blood exam."

"Neither do I, but you're still taking it. We are together in this relationship and if you'll do it then I'll do it."

He chuckled, "You're amazing, you know that?"

She smiled, "Yeah, I do. You say it quite often. But I never get tired of hearing it."