Ellie woke up early the next morning.  She was up most of the night and when she finally fell asleep it didn’t last long.  She was up even before Aidan, and with that knot that was starting to become too familiar in her stomach.  Today was it, she had to tell him.  But first she had to figure out when to catch him alone.  She had thought about taking Aidan with her, thinking Sean might not kill her in front of a child, but decided that wouldn’t be a good situation for Aidan to watch.  So Marco was staying with Aidan and she was skipping class to face Sean.  But first she had to talk to Jay, as much as she hated it, to see when to find Sean alone. 

“Yeah!” Jay yelled into the phone.

“God do you always answer the phone like an ass,” Ellie said.

“God do you always call people at seven o’clock in the morning,” Jay yelled.

“Stop yelling.  Your lazy ass should be out working and not laid up letting Ava keep you up.”

“Did you just call to bitch or is there a purpose to this Red,”  Jay asked ignoring the remark that he knew was true.

“I need to know when to go to see Sean.”

“You know what, you can do it whenever you want.  Sean is at the shop everyday from 6:00 till about 5:00,” Jay said.

“You’re not going to tell him tonight if I don’t?”  Ellie asked not sure if she understood what he was saying.

“No I won’t say anything.  But you need to tell him.”

“Are you serious?  Thank you Jay.”

“Whatever.  You are going to tell him though right?”

“Yes I’m going to tell him.  I just need a little more time.”

“Alright then,”  Jay said before hanging up.

“Yes a reprieve,” Ellie said hanging the phone up.

“What did you get a reprieve from?” Marco asked walking into the kitchen.

Ellie told Marco about Jay’s ultimatum and his new change of heart as he made them pancakes.

“Well you know what has been going on with me now what about you?”  Ellie asked as she poured syrup over her pancakes.  “I seems like I haven’t seen you in days.”

Marco smiled and said, “Not much.”

“You meet a guy!”  Ellie said pointing her pancake filled fork at him.

“No.”

“Yes you did.  Let’s hear it.”

“You know me too well.  His name is Tyler,” Marco gave in.

“And…” Ellie prompted.

“And he’s really sweet not to mention totally hot,” Marco said with a huge grin.

“Where did you meet him?”

“Last night when you ditched out on band practice.  He’s a friend of Jimmy’s, I think they have some classes together.”

“So he’s a hot tortured artist.”

“Something like that.”

“Well what does he look like?” Ellie pushed.

“He has the most beautiful eyes, they’re like ice blue, and he has dark hair.  Nice body about six foot.  You can see for yourself Saturday at the show,” Marco said before taking a bite.

“Good, I can’t wait to meet him.  Are you going to see him before then?”

“Actually we are going to meet for lunch today.”

“Well I hope you have fun.  I’m going to work on some homework while Aidan is still sleeping.  Thanks for breakfast,” Ellie said as she rinsed her dishes and put them in the dishwasher.

“El” Marco said stopping her.

“Yeah?”

“What does Cameron think about all this?”

“He doesn’t really know.”

“Are you going to tell him Sean is back for good?”

“He’ll find out soon,” Ellie said and walked out.

Ellie didn’t tell Marco, she was still trying to wrap her brain around it, but Cameron’s call last night ended with him telling her he was looking into moving here.  He’ll finish up his third year at Alabama in May and wants to finish his last year in Toronto.  He told Ellie he would have a better chance at a job here if he knew the sport scene in Toronto better.  Seven months, Ellie had seven months to decide what she wanted with Cameron.  Maybe we can figure some things out next month when he comes for Thanksgiving, Ellie thought as she sat down at her desk and opened her laptop.

******

Ava came into the store with two coffees and two blueberry muffins only to find Paige looking like she had been ran over.

“What is it?”

Paige tried to wipe her eyes and only smeared her mascara worse, “He cheated on me,” she managed to squeak out between sobs.

“Paige, I’m so sorry. What happened, how did you find out?”

“Last night, I didn’t go to the practice because I have a paper due tomorrow and I needed to work on it.  I finished it so I thought I would go surprise him.  When I got there his roommate was acting weird and didn’t want to let me in but I pushed past him and went to Craig’s room.  When I opened the door he was with some girl.”

“Were they doing anything or could you be over reacting?”

“They were fucking.  So I don’t think I’m over reacting,”  Paige screeched.

“Okay I’m just asking.  Calm down.”

“Oh god I feel like such an idiot.  Can you believe he cheated on me?” 

“Well he has a history of it.  But I can’t believe he did it again,”  Ava said then asked, “What did you do when you saw them?”

“Well I was shocked at first but they didn’t even notice I was in the room with them so they were still going at it and I just wanted to kill them both.  I yelled his name and you should have seen the look on his face.  Craig has the jar on his dresser he puts change in and I picked it up and threw it at him.”

“Oh my god did you hit him?” Ava said trying not to laugh.

“Yeah it hit him right in the head and bounced off him and hit her in the stomach.”  Paige said.

“I cannot believe you did that,”  Ava said with a giggle.

“He jumped up and was running after me naked with his hand over the side of his face.  I wasn’t sure if he was chasing me to hit me back or to talk so I ran out of there.  He called several times last night but I didn’t answer.”

“Do you want to go home?” Ava asked.

“No I’m going to go clean up a little bit and I’ll be fine,” Paige said and went to the back to pull herself together.

Paige had just walked away when Craig came in the store.  Ava glared at him.  The glare was replaced with laughter when she got a good look at him.  He had a cut above his right eye which was swelled almost shut and black. 

“Oh yeah it’s hilarious.” 

“Well you deserved it you piece of shit,”  Ava said still smiling.

“I know, is she here I just want to talk to her.”

“I don’t think now is such a good time,”  Ava answered.

“I just want to apologize.”

“I’ll ask her if she wants to see you but I doubt it.”

Ava walked into the back leaving Craig up front.  Paige walked out of the bathroom with her face washed and hair pulled back.

“Hey do you have any concealer?  I didn’t bring mine and I’ve got to cover these circles.”

“Yeah I think there is some in my bag but wait don’t go out there.”

“What?”

“Craig is out front.  He said he wants to talk to you.” 

“I am not talking to that ass,”  Paige said with her head high.

“You don’t have to but just look out there and see your damage,”  Ava said laughing.

“What, where I hit him?”

“Yeah go look.”

Paige cracked the door and peaked out. “Oh my god.”

“Paige I can hear you.  Please come out I just want to talk to you.”

Paige took and deep breath and opened the door “You can come back here I don’t want you scaring away any customers,” she said with her shoulders straight and her head high.

Craig sighed and walked to the back.  Ava squeezed Paige’s hand on her way out front.

“Well let’s hear it.  You fell and your dick just happened to land in that slut.”

“Paige I screwed up. I’m sorry.  I don’t know why I did it.  She was all over me and I just wasn’t strong enough to turn away,” Craig said.

“Give me a break.  Do you really think I’m going to fall for that crap?  I’m not Ashley or Manny Craig.  That’s not going to work on me.  I want you to go.”

“Paige you don’t mean that.”

“Yes I do.  I can’t believe I wasted two years of my life on you not to mention gave up my dreams of Banting to be with you.  We are over Craig now leave,” she said crossing her arms and acting stronger than she felt.

“Paige I love you,” he said reaching out to her.

“You don’t know what love is.  When you have love you just throw it away.  So go Craig I’m through with you.  Your love means nothing to me now and my love died.  Leave.”

Craig walked out of Damsel and Ava went to check on Paige.  “You okay?”

“No but I will be.  I deserve better than him,” Paige said wiping her eyes.

Ava couldn’t help but think of Jay.  Would this be her?  With Jay she never knew what to expect and she couldn’t stop wondering when she would catch him or if she wanted too.  Would it be better to just pretend it didn’t happen?