A/N – Here's a new story for you folks. Its SS, very AU, please leave a review.

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'Okay Mr Cohen, any questions.'

'No sir, just very eager to get to work.'

'That's what I like to hear Cohen. I have a good feeling about this, judging by your attitude and determination I think you have the potential to become a very valuable asset to this company.'

'Thank you Mr Crossley, I look forward to becoming a member of the Smith & Webber team.'

'Well we're more than happy to have you, your resume is outstanding.'

'Thank you sir, I try my best.'

'Once again, that's what I like to hear. You're the kind of employee we need in a company of this stature. Anyway, I have other business I need to attend to but I'll see you bright and early Monday morning. 9am sharp Cohen, not a minute late.'

'Yes sir, I look forward to it.' They shook hands briefly before Mr Crossley rushed off, asking his secretary to show Seth out.

'Hi, I'm Ruth, Mr Crossley's personal assistant,' the slim and attractive woman said as she walked into the office.

'Hi Ruth,' Seth replied, extending his hand and shaking hers lightly, 'Seth Cohen, nice to meet you.'

'Nice to meet you too sir.'

'Please, call me Seth.'

'Okay Seth,' she said with a wide smile, 'welcome to the Smith & Webber team, I'm sure you will enjoy working here.'

'I'm sure I will,' Seth replied, eyeing her up and down. She was tall for a woman, about 5"11, and looked to be in her mid twenties like him. She had shoulder length dirty blonde hair with faded sandy blonde streaks. Seth thought she would be more suited on the cover of a magazine than a secretary in a high class law firm. She blushed at him checking her out.

'Yeah, umm, would you like a tour of the office?'

'Err, no thanks, I have some place I need to be.'

'Okay Seth, I'll walk you out.' They walked to the elevator in peaceful silence, stealing shy glances at each other and smiling when they caught them. They reached the elevator. The company was based on the seventeenth floor of a huge skyscraper. 'So umm, I look forward to working with you Seth, and I'll see you on Monday morning.'

'Yes you will, and I will be expecting that tour then.'

'Of course, my door is always open for you,' she said with a flirty smile, resting a hand on his forearm. Seth smirked at her, he wasn't sure if she meant just professionally or personally as well. He hoped it was the latter because truthfully, she was one of the hottest girls he'd ever laid eyes on. Oh yeah, he definitely wouldn't mind getting a piece of that pie.

'Well that's good to know,' he replied with a grin. 'Okay I best go, I'll see you on Monday Ruth, have a good weekend.'

'You too Seth.' With one last smile and a small wave, Seth pressed the first floor button and the elevator doors closed. When he got out the building, he set off for his car. It was parked in an underground storage unit a few blocks away so he had a small walk. As he walked, he was unable to wipe the massive smile off his face. He had just landed his dream job. His dad had called him a corporate sell-out when he'd told him that he'd got an interview but Seth didn't see it that way. He'd be making money and he'd be following in his father's footsteps. Besides, he was only doing exactly what his father had done. His plan was to work at Smith & Webber for a couple of years, earning crazy money, then use those savings to set up his own smaller business aimed at helping the little guy.

Even the fact that his father wasn't very supportive of this career move couldn't dampen Seth's ecstatic mood though. This made the seven challenging years spent at Brown all worthwhile. He was twenty six now and had only been out of college for a year and a bit. He had worked at a smaller firm for the last year where at first, he had effectively been the office bitch. They had passed all the shit, repetitive, unchallenging stuff onto him. He had basically spent most of the time either going on the coffee run, filing or entering data. Boring, pointless, crap, but somebody had to do it.

It had been a struggle sometimes but Seth had persevered through until he was finally rewarded for his dedication. About four months ago he had been promoted to actually being allowed to do some law related stuff. He took on ten smaller cases and his bosses were incredibly impressed when he had them all tied up and settled with a fortnight. For most people it would've been six months work but he was just that damn good.

This led to another huge and unexpected promotion about two months ago, to head case worker. He was in the big time then, the real stuff, the important stuff. He excelled at that too and within the last two months he had won three massive cases that had all been ongoing for about two years. That was when Smith & Webber had called him. They said they'd heard about his impressive record and would love to meet him to talk about the possibility of him becoming a part of their team. Seth had snapped their hand off, he had heard of the company and how it was one of the most prestigious on the east coast. He knew that a few years spent working there would set him up for life in the law world.

His boss had been reluctant to let him talk to them but knew that it was too good an opportunity to stand in Seth's way, so had written him a glowing reference and agreed to let him attend the interview. Mr Crossley, head of personnel at Smith & Webber, had been so impressed by his resume and character that he had offered him a job as head of business law only ten minutes into the interview. Seth had been surprised to say the least. He had expected that they would just want him as a case worker but no, they had offered him one of the highest positions in the company.

He liked his current job, he had nice co-workers that he saw more as friends and a decent boss who would no doubt let him leave to pursue this opportunity. While Seth would no doubt feel bad for leaving them to move onto bigger things, he knew he had to do it. This new job was just in a different league, it was too good to reject. His boss, Mr Todd, had already agreed to let him go with immediate effect if he did get the job. Well he had got the job and when he got to his car, he moved off and headed back to work, preparing himself to tell all his friends and colleagues that it was in fact his last day.

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Seth walked into his apartment, brown bag of groceries in hand, and collapsed on his couch. It was dark but he couldn't even muster the energy to get up and turn the lights on. He sighed, the afternoon had been emotional and exhausting. Working in a small building with only eight other people had made them more like a family than a bunch of co-workers. He was surprised to find that during his year there he had become incredibly popular and some of his colleagues, mainly the women and Brandon the gay political lawyer, had erupted into tears when he told them that he wouldn't be coming back. He felt bad for them but he had to put himself before them. It wasn't selfish, it was just logical.

Seth saw that his phone was bleeping which meant that he had a message. He crawled to the other end of the couch and pushed the button. 'You have four new messages,' said the computerized voice, 'first new message.' The machine made a shrill beeping noise which was shortly followed by the sound of a female voice filling the room.

'Hey Seth, its Emma. Just to let you know, I had an amazing time last night and I was really hoping we could do it again sometime. Okay, you have my number, call me.' By the time the message had finished, Seth had a smirk on his face. Last night had been amazing, well the hour that he'd spent fucking her brains out had, the actual date though had been pretty boring. Yeah, he wasn't gonna call her, she was good in the sack but that was pretty much all she had going for her. He reached over and pressed the delete button. 'Message deleted. Second new message.' The shrill beep echoed again before the sound of another woman's voice filled the apartment.

'Hey gorgeous, it's Danielle. You probably already knew that but I just wanted to make sure. So Tuesday night was hot as normal, call me when you wanna do it again. Bye.' Seth smiled at the sound of Danielle's voice. She was a good friend, his best friend. They had been doing it since junior year in Brown, hooking up for wild, smoking hot sex whenever they were bored or lonely. Luckily she had moved to New York too and they had been able to carry on their little friends with benefits scheme. It had been going on for six years now but despite that, they were still not romantically interested in each other at all. What they had was nothing but a really close friendship with casual, strings-free sex factored in. Seth thought it was awesome and he had a suspicion that she did too.

He didn't know exactly when or how it had happened. It was when he had moved to the east coast. Despite being bullied his entire high school life in Newport, he arrived in Providence to find that geeks were the popular one's there, and they were infinitely more desirable to east coast girls that dumb jocks. Seth had found himself being swarmed with phone numbers and flirty girls. One day, he lost his virginity to a girl called Alison who had then walked straight out afterwards. At first he had been quite upset, he felt he had been used, but then he realized that it was exactly what he wanted. For the first time in his life he had freedom, he had confidence and he had girls all over him like flies on shit.

Then one day he met a girl in the campus library, and had screwed her senseless within three hours of meeting her, he didn't even catch her name. So from that day on, he became a player. He hooked up with countless girls, some of them multiple times, without ever committing to any of them. When he met girls he just flat out told them, 'look, I'll date you, I'll fuck you, we'll have fun, but you'll never be my girlfriend and we'll probably last a month at most before we're done.' He was surprised to find that most of them were totally fine with that, that they were looking for exactly the same thing. He wasn't proud of the way he lived his college life, but he did like it.

It wasn't Seth's fault though. All his life he had just wanted to fit in and while in California the dumb muscleheads had been the popular ones, when he got to Providence he found that it was the intellectuals who were the cream of the crop. Sure he liked the benefits that came with being a huge man slut but he didn't actually want to be one, it was just what he had to do to fit in.

Seth had stopped being so whorish in his fifth year at Brown, when a girl he'd had a one night stand with phoned him up and told him she'd just found out she was HIV positive. He had gotten tested and it had come back negative but nonetheless, it had scared the living shit outta him and made him realize that he just couldn't afford to be so slutty. Sure he still had lots of sex, just not with half as many girls and he'd always been extra careful from that moment on.

Now though, when he was twenty six years old and had just landed a job that had a salary of half a million dollars a year, Seth longed to settle down. Truthfully, that was what he'd always wanted. The only reason he hadn't was because none of the girls he slept with, as hot as they may be, interested him in the slightest. Seth wanted a girl that stood out, a girl that could catch his attention without even meaning to, a girl that he didn't notice just because she was gorgeous.

Deciding that he'd call Danielle later, Seth pressed the delete message button and pressed the play next message button again. The shrill beep sounded before the room was once again filled with a woman's voice.

'Sethela, why don't you call me anymore?' Seth grinned at the sound of his beloved nana's voice. 'Sandy told me you got some kind of job interview. He doesn't sound too happy but it's not about him, it's about what you want. Anyway, call me and let me know how it goes. Love you.' It was late Friday night so Seth decided not to call the nana. He always went over to her house in the Bronx for Sunday dinner anyway so he'd just tell her then. He pressed the delete message button again and pressed play new message for the final time.

'Hey sweetie. Just calling to see how it went, I know you totally knocked it outta the park.'

'Sell-out,' he heard Sandy mumble in the background, causing him to smirk.

'Sandy, shut up,' his mother hissed, 'leave him alone. Anyway, call me and let me know. Oh and can you call Ryan too, he wants to know if you'll be coming back to Berkley for the wedding.'

'Kirsten, let me talk.'

'Only if you're gonna be nice.'

'I will. Hey son, congratulations on getting the job if you did but I'll say it again, it's a big mistake. Those corporate bigwigs will suck the morals outta you until you end up like Caleb was. You do remember what he was like don't you.'

'What, bald and rich?' Seth mumbled at the answering machine with a smirk.

'No not bald and rich smartass,' Sandy said as if he knew what his son would think. 'I mean you'll end up a greedy, heartless little rat bast-'

'SANDY. That's enough,' he heard Kirsten say angrily, 'that's my late father you're talking about.'

'Sorry honey. Anyway, call us and let us know how it went Son. Bye.' The answering machine beeped for the last time and said 'no new messages.' Seth got up and ambled into the kitchen with his grocery bag. As he unloaded the groceries into his refrigerator, he thought about his father. He loved the guy, but he was such a hypocritical asshole. He had pretty much been doing the same thing when he'd worked at Partridge, Savage & Khan for six months so Seth thought he had no right to be mad.

After Seth had put all the food away, he decided to call Danielle. He sprawled himself out on his couch as he dialled the numbers to her cell. 'Hey gorgeous, how's my favourite fuck today,' Danielle said happily as soon as she picked up.

'I don't know, how is Greg, or is it Tom, no it's Jake isn't it. Oh I don't know, it's kinda hard to keep up these days,' Seth countered teasingly.

'Seth Cohen, are you implying I'm a slut,' she replied, trying to sound angry but he could tell she was joking.

'Oh I don't think I need to imply it, I think it's obvious to anyone who meets you,' he jibed back.

'Whatever, what do you want butthead?'

'Well I got a massive job today and I was wondering if you wanted to come over and celebrate with me.'

'What kind of celebrate? Like "dinner and a movie" celebrate, or "bring my overnight bag and a box of condoms" celebrate?'

'Whichever you prefer,' Seth replied with a smirk, 'I know which one I'd prefer but it's up to you.'

'I'll be over in an hour, I just need to pack my bag.' Seth smirked at her words.

'Great, I'll be waiting. Okay bye.' He hung up with a big goofy grin on his face, Danielle was definitely his best friend.

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Two hours later, Seth collapsed off the beautiful woman under him, rolling onto his own side of the bed with a flushed, post-coital glow on his face. 'Wow,' he said breathlessly, 'six years and it's still awesome. I swear, having sex with you is never gonna get old.' Danielle grinned at him, looking equally sweaty and satisfied.

'Yeah you're not too bad yourself but just remember, you learnt everything you know from me.' Seth rolled his eyes.

'Woman, the amount of girls I've slept with is nearly into triple figures. Just because I've slept with you more than anyone it doesn't mean I learnt all my skills with you.'

'Whatever, I'm taking the credit for it. You know Kelly's been asking about you, she say's you're the best she's ever had.'

'Well a lot of girls say that,' Seth countered with an arrogant smirk, 'it doesn't mean I'm gonna call them back though. I'm sorry, Kelly may be your friend but she is boring as shit.' Danielle smirked and slapped him playfully.

'Leave her alone you tool. She's not boring she's just shy.'

'Whatever,' Seth replied dismissively, brushing some sweat soaked curls away from his eyes.

'Soooooo,' Danielle said, turning to face him and propping her head up with a hand, 'what's this awesome new job then?'

'Well, I just got offered the position of head of business law at Smith & Webber,' he replied excitedly. Danielle's eyes almost doubled in size. She had majored in law too and worked in a small firm much similar to the one he had just left so she knew exactly who Smith & Webber were.

'HOLY FUCK!!' she said loudly, 'the Smith & Webber, as in the third best law firm on the east coast.' Seth grinned and nodded. 'I hate you, you bastard,' she whined, causing his smirk to grow bigger, 'why do the assholes always get all the luck.'

'Hey, it's not my fault I'm a better lawyer than you could ever be,' he said with a sweet smile, causing her to glare at him. 'Oh come on Danni,' he said softly, leaning in to give her a kiss, 'you'll hit the big time one day too,' he added reassuringly. She just nodded sullenly.

'So do you start first thing on Monday?' Seth nodded. 'Well that's great,' she said with a smile, 'I'm really happy for you.'

'Thanks. I felt kinda bad though, you know, for just ditching Mr Todd and the rest of the guys on such short notice.'

'Don't feel bad,' she said, stroking his hair, 'they'll understand that you need to do this for you. When they get over the shock of you leaving so soon they'll be happy for you like I am.' Seth nodded at her words. 'So, you see any potential conquest's while you were there for the interview,' she asked amusedly.

'Oh yeah, the bosses P.A, Ruth. She's tall, slim and gorgeous. She looks like she could be a model, I'm definitely gonna be hitting that.'

'I thought you were done with being a man whore?'

'I am, I don't sleep with half as many girls as I used to but she is just too damn fine to ignore. What about you, how are things going with uhh, Dave is it?'

'Yeah, it's good but we're not gonna last much longer.'

'Why not?'

'You know me Seth, I can't stay with a guy for more than a month without totally freaking out.' Seth nodded, she was like that, so was he for that matter.

'Hey do you uhh, do you ever think about you know, finding someone to maybe fall in love with and settle down with?' Danielle looked at him quizzically.

'Seth Cohen, are you going all soft on me?'

'No it's just, don't you ever get tired of this single life thing we've had going on for like the last eight years? I mean casual sex with lots of different women is fun and all but I'm twenty six, I don't wanna be doing it forever.'

'I hear you Seth. I mean yeah I do sometimes think about falling in love and commitment and marriage and babies, but then I remember that I've still got plenty of time.'

'I don't know, I just think I'm ready.'

'Well go for it then. So I guess if you're ready for commitment then we should stop fucking and you shouldn't go after that Ruth chick.'

'Nah, one more conquest won't hurt,' Seth replied with a smirk. Danielle smirked back, she knew he wouldn't be able to give up the single life that easily. 'So uhh, you tired? You wanna go to sleep now,' he added. She smiled and nodded before snuggling up to him, resting her head on his chest. After ten minutes he heard her breathing slow.

'Goodnight best friend,' she mumbled drowsily.

Night,' he whispered, placing a kiss on her forehead before drifting off into his own sleep. He dreamt about his new job and all the new possibilities it opened up. He dreamt about meeting a woman who he was interested in more than just fucking, a woman who could hold his attention for more than five minutes. The more he dreamt about it the more he wanted it. Oh yes, he knew his life was going to change for the better because of this job. Little did he know how much it was going to change.

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A/N – There you go folks. I know it's doesn't seem very SS at the moment but don't worry, it will be in good time. Please leave reviews folks, the first chapter is when I need feedback on whether I should continue or not.