They found themselves talking a lot of the flight if for no other reason than to keep each others and their own minds off of what was going on in their lives. They joked and even found themselves laughing lightly. By the time the stewardess came on the speaker announcing they were about to land, they knew quite a bit about one another. As they buckled their seatbelts, conversation hardly faltered.

"So where are you staying?" Meredith asked.

"I'm not sure." He shrugged. She bit her lip and looked to be contemplating something. It made him nervous as silence continued to hang in the air. "How about you?"

"My mother had a beach house down here." She answered, but she hardly stopped biting her lip long enough to do so.

"What's wrong?"

"Hmm?"

"You're biting your lip."

Subconsciously, she reached up and touched her lower lip. "Nothing." She wanted to invite him to stay with her. But that sounded crazy! They just met. For all she knew, he could be a murder that would kill her in her sleep than use her body parts as household appliances.

It wasn't long that they were on the ground and grabbing their carry-on bags from the overhead compartment. They walked off the plane and through the crowd in silence. Once they were in a clearing, he stopped and turned to her.

"It was really great to meet you, Meredith." He said with a small smile.

"You too, Mark."

"I hope things work out with Derek and all."

She cringed at his name but he didn't seem to notice all that much. "You too with Addison."

He gave her a small, sad smile. "Thanks. I'll see you around."

"Yeah." She gave him one last smile before he turned and walked away, out of her life.

--

He pushed the door open to his hotel room. Throwing his bags on the floor, he stepped in shutting the door behind him. The room was expensive as to be expected. It was huge with beige painted walls and a pattern painted in brown along the top of the wall where the wall meets the ceiling. The king-size bed was fluffed and covered with a light brown comforter with the same pattern as the one on the walls. A dark desk sat in the corner, and a matching chest sat at the end of the bed. A TV sat on a table with its DVD player on top of it. A bathroom was to his left and a walk in closet to his right. French doors led to the balcony, and the door across from the bed led down the hall to the ice machine that he and three other rooms shared.

Sighing, he fell back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. Thoughts of Addison mostly passed through his head at a million miles per hour. Every once in a while, Meredith cross his mind, but then Addison would come in and kick her out. He liked to think of Meredith. She was cute, nice, understanding, and beautiful. Addison was gone. She left him. He wished thoughts of Addison would end.

He needed the mini bar.

--

Her mother had brought an upscale townhouse not far off the beach when Meredith was seven years old. Her father had just left, and Richard was starting to move into their lives. But, Meredith had only been there a few times since she had school, and her parents had surgeries. She opened the door to the townhouse. The living room was a pale green color with white trim. Sheer green curtains hung over the windows hardly keeping any light out. Cream colored couches and matching chair sat centered around a light brown coffee table and TV.

She set her things on the ground and walked into the kitchen. She wished she had beer or tequila, but knew there was knew there would be none. After opening and shutting many cabinet doors, she found a bottle of red wine. Her mother was probably saving it for a special occasion.

"But this is an emergency situation." She thought as she opened the bottle. She discovered her mother's stash of wine glasses and poured a generous amount into one before walking back into the living room. She lied back on the couch kicking off her shoes in the process. With her head propped up on the arm of the couch, she sipped her wine and stared at the painting on the wall. She tried to sort through what she was feeling about the whole Derek situation. But it was too hard to think about. She needed to drink.