The last two days were like a blur to Ellie.  She was still trying to work up the nerve to go see Sean.  This morning she decided that she would get through the weekend first;   Monday she would go to him and get all this drama over with.

Ellie and Marco had just left her parents house to drop Aidan off and were on their way to Craig’s so they could all go to this club together. 

“So are you excited to see Tyler tonight?”  Ellie asked.

“Yeah I am, and I can’t wait for you to meet him.  I think you’re really going to like him,” Marco said smiling. 

The rest of the walk the two friends talked about what they thought they should play tonight.  Craig, being very unCraig like, said he didn’t want to practice the two days before the show so they didn’t talk about a playlist.  Ava had told Ellie all about Paige giving Craig a black eye because she caught him cheating.  Ellie had tried all week to call Craig and tell him what an idiot he was but he didn’t answer her calls or anyone else’s from what she had heard.  So tonight would be the first time they had seen him. 

“I wonder if Paige will come,” Marco asked as they rounded a corner.

“I don’t know.  I could see it two ways: either she never comes around him again or she comes looking great and being fun just to show him she’s over him,” Ellie answered.

“Yeah, knowing Paige it’ll be the last choice,” Marco said as they reached Craig’s door.

******

An hour later Jimmy, Marco, and Ellie were trying not to listen to the argument going on across the room.  Paige had gone even farther than Ellie had guessed and brought a date. 

“Who is this guy?  We broke up three days ago and already you’re out with someone,”  Craig yelled.

“His name is Sam and what I do and who I do it with is no longer your business.  At least I waited until after we broke up to find someone else,” she returned.

“You know what I don’t give a shit what you do.  You can go out and fuck the guy on stage for all I care.”

“I don’t know what I ever saw in you,” Paige yelled.

“I know what I saw in you.  Just a fuck but then you got all clingy. You were right the other day I don’t love you, I never did.”

Paige turned away as if he had hit her.  When she looked at him again he saw the tears in eyes and instantly regretted his words.

“Well, at least now I know how you feel.  I gotta go,” Paige said softly just as someone called a five minute warning.

The couple’s friends sat across the room and cringed at what Craig had said.  By the time they looked towards Paige she was gone and Craig was standing in the middle of the room staring at the door. 

Marco and Jimmy walked past Craig and out of the room to the stage.  Ellie stopped in front of him.  “I cannot believe you just said that.”

“What, you’re going to blame me for this?  She’s with another guy.”

“Oh my god are you really so stupid?  You sleep with someone else and she saw it.  You really do deserve that shiner,”  Ellie turned and walked out the door leaving Craig to follow.

******

Downtown Sasquatch had just taken the stage when Paige saw Ava and Jay at a table with Sean and made her way over with Sam in tow.

“Hey Ava!” Paige called over the music that had started.

“Hey,” Ava said smiling at seeing whose hand Paige was holding.  Ava was glad to see that Paige was moving on.

After room had been made at the table, chairs found and everyone had been introduced to Sam, Paige was working on the first drink that Sam had bought her and feeling a little better.

“Wow Sean it seems like forever since I’ve seen you,” Paige said.

“Hey Paige,” Sean said glancing at her. 

“So where’s the little mommy I’ve heard so much about?”

“Not here,” Sean said this time not looking away from the stage.

“Are you afraid we might scare her off?  She has already seen the worse we have to offer and is still hanging around,” Paige said smiling sweetly at Jay.

Jay rolled his eyes and whispered something into Ava’s ear.  Sean didn’t respond at all.

An hour and a half later Paige was working on her fifth drink, Sam was all over her and the band was taking a break.

“I think I’m going to go back and say hi to El I’ll be back in a few minutes,” Ava said.

Ava had barely gotten out of view when Sean stood up and walked away without a word to anyone.  Ava was trying to make her way through the crowd when she felt someone’s hand on her shoulder.

“Hey,” Sean said when Ava turned to face him.

“Yeah?” Ava said.

“I’m going to see uh Craig,” Sean said looking over Ava’s head.

“Okay, I’ll show you where they are,” Ava said before starting to walk again.

******

Ava didn’t recognize the person standing on the other side of the door but soon heard Marco’s voice.

“Hey I’m Ava,” she said to the guy holding the door for her.

“Hi, I’m Tyler.”

“Oh nice to meet you,” Ava said walking further into the small room so Sean could come in.

“Sean, good to see you man,” Jimmy said holding out his hand.

“Hey Jim, you guys sound really good,” Sean said shaking the hand extended to him.

“Hi Sean,” Marco said. “This is my uh friend, Tyler.”

“Hey guys,” Sean said not sure what Marco thought of him.  He knew he and Ellie were still best friends so there was a good chance Marco hated him.

“So where is Ellie?” Ava asked.

“I think she made a stop at the ladies room,” Marco answered her.

Sean had been talking to Jimmy for a few minutes when he asked, “Where’s Manning? I haven’t seen him since I got back.”

“He was standing at the stage door spying on Paige the last time I saw him,” Ellie said from the doorway.

“El,” Sean said taking her in.  She was more beautiful than he remembered.  He didn’t think she had changed much.  Her hair was shorter, not much shorter but he noticed.  He caught himself staring at her body and noticing she was much curvier and it seemed that she would be softer to his touch.  He heard her voice but had to drag his thoughts back to the conversion.  He heard something about his shop so he just said “Yeah its going great.”

“That’s good Sean I know this is like a dream for you.”

“Yeah I’ve always wanted to do it so when Mr. Ehl called I jumped at the chance,” Sean said.

“I hear you have a little one now,” Ellie said trying her best to smile.

“Yeah, a little girl, her name’s Callie.”

Please god don’t let him show me a picture.  As soon as Ellie had the thought Marco asked to see a picture.

“Sure,” Sean said pulling out his wallet.

The picture was passed around the room.  When it was Ellie’s turn she didn’t want to look but knew she had to.  She really was a beautiful little girl.  She seemed to have Sean’s nose and mouth but at the time of the picture she had dark hair and eyes.

“She’s beautiful,” Ellie said to Sean handing him the picture.

“Thanks, she really is a great kid,” Sean said smiling for the first time that night. 

When Sean took the picture from Ellie he rubbed his fingers along the back of her hand.  Ellie pulled her hand back quickly and questioned him with her eyes.  Sean just looked away.  Craig decided to come in at that moment and Sean was pulled into conversation with him and Jimmy.

Ellie quickly got to Ava.  “I’m sorry El.  I came back her to warn you but he wanted to come see Craig.”

“It’s okay I saw him from stage, I took a minute in the washroom to calm down.”

“Well I’m going to go back out I left Jay with a drunk Paige,” Ava said.

“What, Paige is drunk?”

“Yeah, her date is buying her drinks.  Let’s make sure she gets home tonight this guy seems a little too happy about how much she’s drinking.”

“Okay don’t leave after the show.  Let’s go get something to eat.”

“Cool see you in a bit.”

Ellie watched Ava leave and remembered that eating with Ava and Jay most likely meant eating with Sean.  “Shit,” Ellie said to herself. “Well I’ll just make sure everyone goes with us.”  Ellie was afraid that being with Ava and Jay would make her and Sean seem like a couple which would be too much.

“So you still talk to yourself I see,”  Sean said.

Ellie looked up and saw that Sean was standing right beside her, while everyone else was across the room. 

“Still?”

“Yeah you always talked to yourself.  When you did homework or when you were worrying about something,” Sean said with a shrug.

“I believe the term is thinking out loud.”

“Oh okay whatever you have to tell yourself.”

Ellie smiled, this seemed like the Sean she remembered. 

Sean lifted his head to look at her but this time he seemed serious.  “El, I just wanted to say I’m sorry.”

Ellie’s good humor evaporated.  “Look Sean all that is over and done with.  I don’t really want to talk about it.”

“El, I need to talk about it.  I need you to understand.”

“Sean what you need really isn’t on my list of concerns right now.”

Sean reached down and took her hand.  Ellie looked at his hand covering hers.  She started to speak; she wanted to tell him about Aidan but Marco called her name.  Ellie pulled her hand from Sean’s as if his touch burned her.

“Sean I have to go back out.  There are a few things we need to talk about but not now.”

Sean followed her out.  He was staring at her as she walked.  He just wanted to hold her, bury his face in her hair and forget the last two years ever happened.  Just as Ellie turned a corner his cell phone rang.  A look and the phone reminded him that time didn’t stop and he had a little girl at home and unfortunately she had a mother.