She missed him. She knew that. Hell, that's pretty much all she knew at the moment. If there was an instruction manual on how to deal with what she was currently dealing with, she'd be the first person to buy one. Sadly, however, there wasn't one; so here she was, drowning her thoughts and feelings and misery in alcohol at some out-of-the-way bar where Karen knew there wouldn't be a risk of running into Derek - and Jimmy too for that matter.

Ugh. She so didn't want to think about either of them tonight, but she couldn't help it. No matter what, her thoughts helping going back to them, or more accurately, him: Derek.

Damn the man and his God-awful timed confession. Why now? Why not after that almost kiss at The Plaza? She had been left wondering for weeks whether or not he was just looking to score with her - and to her dismay, she realized that if Ivy hadn't interrupted them, he would have. Even if Derek truly did feel something more for her than just friendship, why hadn't he fought harder for her? He hadn't tried to kiss her since then nor had he indicated he wanted anything more with her and now he suddenly tells her he cares about her?! Cares. He only admitted to caring, nothing about love.

It seemed like a lifetime ago instead of the 2 weeks it had really been since then. Why? Because ever since she told the Brit that she was kinda/sorta with Jimmy, he had stopped talking to her. No, that wasn't entirely true. He still did, okay, more like yelled and screamed at her, but only in rehearsals. Outside of them though, it was like they were strangers. At first it had hurt, but Jimmy had been a nice distraction from Derek's sudden distance and cold attitude towards her. But now that things between the two of them weren't so good, Karen was beginning to wonder if starting a relationship with the Brooklyn native had been such a good idea.

If she had known that the price of being with Jimmy was losing Derek's friendship and possibly more (though she refused to think that), the brunette wasn't sure if she would've jumped into said relationship or not. Hence why she was currently at the bar, trying to drown herself.

*Sigh*

The worst part of this situation was that she couldn't really talk to anyone about it. She hadn't spoken to any of the friends she made in Bombshell since she quit the show to do Hit List. Ana's advice would probably be something along the lines like 'sleep with Derek, get him out of your system'. And she certainly wasn't going to call her parents for advice. What was she supposed to tell them anyway? That her director liked her but she was currently with someone who didn't treat her right because... because...

Karen sighed again, her mood worsening as even her inebriated state of mind wouldn't let her escape the truth.

"'notha." How many drinks had she had? Six? Seven? Nine? Who cared, she certainly didn't - not at the moment anyway. Come tomorrow, when she woke up with a killer hangover, she most likely would. "I think you've had enough, miss. Besides, the bar's closing soon." Shit. That wasn't good. She didn't want to go home yet, wherever that was, she wasn't too sure where it was anymore. If you asked her last year, she would have told you without hesitation that it was with Dev. But he was gone now, the cheating bastard.

Focus, Karen.

She vaguely recalled Ana telling her she was going out to party somewhere. Chances were that her friend had found a partner for the night, so going back to the apartment was out of the question - that's assuming that Ana and the guy she found were even there.

For a brief moment, the brunette thought about calling Kyle before dismissing it; Kyle and Jimmy lived together and she and the latter were having problems. There was a time when she would have immediately thought to call Derek, but with him not wanting a thing to do with her outside of rehearsals, she didn't think to call him.

Forget it, she'd just walk. She needed to sober up anyway, the night air would do that.

"Whoa, easy." The bartender said as he hasted to steady her after she tried to get up and off the stool. "Let me call you a cab." Karen shook her head, then groaned in pain. So much for walking. "Tom. Call Tom." Yeah, Tom would come get her. He was pretty decent to her the last time they saw each other, and he did kind of owe her for the crappy ending to their 'date'. He agreed to, and taking her phone from her, he looked through the contacts list for this 'Tom' guy.

A hour and 20 minutes later, Tom Levitt arrived at the bar to pick up his intoxicated former star. Another hour later; Karen was passed out on his couch.

"Miss. Cartwright, there's this lovely contraption called a phone. Please use it next time to inform someone you'll be late." The agitated voice of the director greeted Karen as she entered the theatre they were using for rehearsals, making her groan in pain (her hangover was making everything seem louder than usual). Curse the 2 Advil's she took before leaving Tom's for not working fast enough. She was extremely thankful though that the man had left the painkillers out for her. The brunette was sure that she wouldn't have been able to function well enough to get back to her apartment to shower and change before rehearsal started that afternoon without them.

Yet, despite Tom setting the alarm on her phone to go off at 10:40 (which was really sweet of him), giving her plenty of time to gather her wits - or at least sober up a bit - she was still apparently late. Glancing at her watch, Karen saw it was ten after one. Muttering about traffic and temperamental directors, she made her way over to Ana to find out what - if anything - she'd missed.

Completely unaware of the narrowed, concerned green eyes following her every move.