2

They were back in bleached white sheets with the blinding sun shining through the curtains in some cheap hotel in the middle of nowhere. Except now, this middle-of-nowhere town was his home. He counted her even breaths and his fingertips ghosted over the soft skin covering her shoulder where the light found a spot to linger. Her strands of hair felt soft to his touch without any of the gel or hairspray or whatever it was that she used to put in it. When she snuggled further into him, he let his stubble drag across her forehead before leaving a kiss. The contented sigh dragged her bent knee across him, a perfect white thigh draped carelessly across his stomach.

"You lost weight," she murmured into his collarbone. "You eatin' right?"

"I've been just fine." Without you. And he had survived her leaving him in the end. They couldn't all have happy endings. "How many boys have you loved after me?"

She pressed her ear closer to his heartbeat, her whole body curled into his. He traced his index finger from the dip at her waist, up her side, back to that spot on her shoulder again. "None." He felt her whisper on his skin.

"Chiles..."

"None," she said with even more conviction. She sat up with a sheet clutched to her chest and turned back to him. "And I don't care if you have. And if you still have someone then... well just tell me."

As strong of a front as she put up, the tears misted in her eyes before he could utter a word. Some things never changed. He leaned forward, rubbed his thumbs across her closed eyes, and leaned his forehead against hers. "There's no one else." He pulled away as she was pivoting in. "But there could have been. There should have been. I'm still... I was ready for there to be someone else and I still might be. A lot can happen in a year."

"I know," she whispered as she looked away. Suddenly, it was like she was gone again, her eyes farther away than she ever was. "So let me ask you again. What now?"

"I have an extra room in my apartment. You can stay there for a while but I think... well I think we should just try to be friends for now. See what else - who else is out there. Right now, the way I am, I don't think I'm right for you. So yea, let's just be friends. It'll be something new."

She let out a hollow laugh, one he had never heard from her. "Yea. Friends."

"I don't think friends do this, Beau." Her denim covered hips ground down on him, a knee on each side digging into the rough material of the folded up futon. He leaned away from the back of the seat and towards her, his hands on her waist and his lips instinctively reaching up to hers. Her hair tickled his cheek as they stayed a hairs breath away. He could taste the chocolate cake in the air between their lips, just hanging beneath hooded eyes. One petite hand was tangled in his collar while the other brushed his neglected facial hair.

"We can just be really, really good friends." His baritone dragged her mouth to his.

They would make a solid effort. They swore.