"Hey," Nick said, softly, as he approached Katelin and Aidan on the beach.
"Hi." Katelin was surprised as she looked up. She didn't expect him to join them this afternoon.
"Hi daddy," Aidan replied, quietly.
"Hey there little man." Nick bent down to his son's level. "What are you building there?"
"Castle," Aidan answered, never looking up from his sand toys. "Mommy's fell."
"Mommy's a city girl that's why." Nick glanced up at Katelin and gave her a small smile. "She doesn't know the first thing about building sand castles. But daddy, on the other hand, he grew up on the beach. I can teach you everything you need to know."
Katelin tossed a small handful of sand at him. "Thanks dad, but I do too know how to make a sand castle. Aidan here just tripped over it."
Nick glanced at his son, feigning astonishment. "Is that true?"
Aidan giggled. "Yeah."
Neither Katelin nor Nick could help the laugh that escaped their lips at their son's cuteness. He was the perfect combination of them. Nick's mischievous facial expressions mixed with Katelin's seriousness. They couldn't have asked for a more perfect child. As if sensing that they were each thinking the same thing, they glanced up at each other, their eyes locking for a minute, sending a silent message between them. One that said that they could do this. Together. Without killing each other in the process.
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
Howie slowly dragged himself towards the door, not wanting to be bothered by anyone today. It was Sunday. A day of rest as far as he was concerned. He just wanted to veg out on his couch and not deal with any one or anything from the outside world. "I'm coming!" he called just before he flung the door open and saw Christine standing on his front steps. "What are you doing here?"
Christine was shocked at the cold tone that his voice had taken. "I…I wanted to come by and apologize for last night."
Howie turned around and began to walk towards the living room, not really caring if she was following or not. "Why should you apologize? You didn't feel well. We're not a couple, Christine. You don't owe me any explanations."
"That's it?" Christine asked, surprised by Howie's reaction.
"Yeah," Howie answered, slowly. "Why? Do you have something you need to tell me?"
"N…no..," Christine stammered, confused by the way Howie was acting.
He looked at her carefully, wondering how she could lie so easily to his face. "You sure?"
"Yeah," Christine replied, guilt plaguing her heart. She knew she should tell him about Paul but she couldn't bring herself to. "So, are we still on for later?"
"I'm not sure." Howie wasn't going to let himself get sucked in by her only to get himself hurt again. "AJ came back today and he wanted to talk to me about something. I'm not sure what time yet and I should really…"
"I understand," Christine interrupted, ignoring the hurt she felt that he was blowing her off. She couldn't understand why he was being like this? There's no way that he could have known that Paul was there, could he? "Well, I guess I'll talk to you later then."
"Okay." Howie began to walk her to the door, feeling guilty about how rude he had been to her. "Bye Christine."
"Bye," Christine responded, quietly, before walking out the door.
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"What's up, Bri?" Kevin asked, as Brian walked into his house.
Brian sighed and collapsed, dejected, on the couch. "I think I just made a huge mistake. A mistake that could possibly cost me the love of my life."
"Ang?" Kevin raised his eyebrows and sat down across from his cousin. "What the hell happened? You guys are, like, the picture-perfect couple."
"We're not, though!" Brian cried. "Everyone seems to think that and when something goes wrong, it's, like, this huge big deal! We're not perfect, damnit."
"Okay," Kevin replied, slowly. "You're not perfect. That's fine. But you're not answering my question. What happened?"
"Ang has been keeping something from me." Brian didn't want to go into too much detail because not everyone knew about that night in L.A. But he didn't know where else to turn right now. Howie had no idea about what happened. Nick knew but he had his hands full right now and Brian didn't want to bother him. And AJ, well, he wanted nothing to do with AJ right now because it was AJ who had known all along everything that Ang should have told Brian, himself. Kevin was his cousin, and while Brian wasn't going to tell him the full story, he still wanted his advice.
"Keeping what from you?" Kevin questioned, softly. Brian looked a mess and that was a rare occurrence. He and Ang never fought.
"Just stuff," Brian replied. "Something happened a long time ago that, I guess, was partly my fault. And now it's coming up again to haunt her and instead of feeling like she could talk to her own boyfriend, she confided in AJ. I only found about it yesterday. It's been going on for months. Why the hell would she feel like she can't talk to me? She told me she didn't want to bother me with it. That I had enough on my mind. That's crap, Kev. I want to know the real reason."
"You just said it, Bri," Kevin answered. "You said that it was partly your fault. I'm sure that deep down, maybe that's what she feels. No offense, but if you're the reason that whatever happened, she feels uncomfortable bringing it up to you. She feels that if it wasn't for you, maybe it wouldn't have happened."
"Great Kev." Brian sighed. "Thanks for making me feel better."
"I'm sorry, Bri." Kevin was genuinely apologetic. But sometimes Brian needed to be reminded that he wasn't perfect. Kevin didn't mean that in a rude way but it was true. Everyone had their faults. Including he and Ang. "You need to sit down and talk to her about all of this. Tell her everything. Tell her that you're sorry for whatever happened originally. Then tell her that you want her to talk to you about this. Not AJ. Not Katelin. Not anyone. Just you. I'm sure she'll understand."
"Thanks Kev." Brian stood up and grabbed his keys. "I guess I just needed someone else's opinion. Maybe I was being a little ridiculous."
"It's nothing." Kevin smiled. "You're my cousin, Brian, and I love Ang like a sister. I think you guys are perfect for each other. I'd do anything to help you guys stay together."
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She listened as the number of the flight was called. "Flight 1203 to Orlando is now boarding at Gate 17." She slowly grabbed her backpack and made her way towards the gate. Hesitating just a little bit, she handed her boarding pass to the woman standing at the terminal and then proceeded to make her way on to the plane. She sat down in her seat and waited patiently for the plane to take off. As soon as it was in the air and the city of New York was disappearing from view, she began to get very nervous. Maybe she shouldn't be going. She had screwed with his life enough. Should she really go and make everything worse? Maybe he really was happy with this other girl. But then again, when she had asked him if they still had a chance, she had seen the way he hesitated. She wasn't going to let this opportunity pass. She wanted to be with him, she knew that now. They were meant to be. She just hoped that he was going to see it the same way.