Everytime his eyes danced across her face, his heart was twisted and lifted simultaneously. She was more beautiful to him than ever but the memories were still painful

"Summer, what the hell?!?" He had slammed the door wanting to forget the image of her in bed with some rich guy. It didn't go away. It still hadn't to this day, although as of late his heart fluttered more than it twisted. Time heals wounds.

She'd apologized. So many times in fact, it lost all meaning. How she'd justified throwing a 2 year, serious relationship down the tubes like that was beyond him. He'd gone to NYU and never looked back. He'd left Newport and Summer and that was okay with him. It seemed to him that he'd changed in New York, maybe it was age, or environment. Most likely both. Now with a new baby coming to his family, he wanted to reevaluate his life choices.

There she stood behind the reception desk at the salon. The phone rang, she listened and scribbled a note. The she hung up. He opened the heavy glass door and entered the fancy, furnished salon approaching the counter.

"Hi, my name is Seth Cohen. If you don't mind me saying, you are extremely beautiful. I know this is a long shot, but would you have dinner---with me, tonight?" She stared blankly at him, confused.

"7pm?" She gave him a sultry look. A fresh start. That was the key.

A kick, another kick, and then another. Finally, it stopped. She yawned as she squirmed a little trying to get comfortable. It'd start again in a few minutes, but for the moment she could rest. She awoke to the alarm; the clock read 7:30 am. She just stayed their, waiting for the kicking to return. She waited, and waited but it never did. She picked up the phone--afraid--and dialed.

"Can I get a double mocha with a twist of caramel?" Abby stood ordering at the counter. The person behind the counter looked confused but did such anyway. She was at the front of the line and they were taking forever. They finally brought it back and she moved over so the next person in line could order. As she stirred her coffee she listened to his order.

"I'll have what she had." He turned to her and smiled.

"Not a very common choice." She smiled back.

"I know. You got to be a little daring though." He replied taking his cup. She turned and walked out the door. "My name's Mike." She turned around pressing her back to the door.

"I'm Abby." He stepped toward her and offered her his hand. She took it and touched.

"So, Abby. What are you doing tonight?"

"I don't know. What am I doing tonight?" She laughed.

"Going to dinner with me, at the Harbor Cafe."

"Sounds fun." She smiled.

"Where can I pick you up at?"

"I'll meet you there."

"7pm?" He proposed.

"Sounds great." She waved a little, shyly and pushed the door open.

Abby opened the front door and entered the kitchen. Kiersten was attempting to cook something.

"Angela called, left you a message. Just wanted to hang out or something." Kiersten kind of looked up with faint interest.

"I haven't talked to her in a very long time." She shrugged her shoulders. "Am I the only one home?" She looked at her watch. It was 5:15.

"Yeah. I haven't seen anyone else since I got---all day." She continued chopping.

"Well, I'm going out tonight. Don't worry about supper for me."

"Why do you people have such crazy schedules? Planning in advance is excellent. I can't handle it."

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry I met a cute guy who totally wanted to go out with me. I'm going, end of story." She left the room in a fuss. Kiersten sighed.

"Seth!" "Abby!" They both exclaimed at the same time. They met in the middle of the rec room upstairs.

"Casual cafe date, is this casual enough?" She asked holding up a pink and white printed dress.

"Yeah, looks good. Sort of casual date, is this outfit okay?" He was wearing a nice pair of jeans and a button up shirt with a white tee underneath it.

"Any girl would be glad to have you as her date."

"We're both going out." Seth smiled.

"Yep, we are."

"My little sister is all grown up.'' He admired how pretty she looked. He had a good feeling about tonight.

When Seth arrived at her apartment the first thing he noticed was her attire. She greeted him and he politely responded back but was not deterred from his senses. She looked wonderful, casual but stylish. As he glanced around her apartment certain things stood out as distinctly her. For a moment he questioned his presence here, why he had decided to give this a second chance.

"Ready?" She asked grabbing a purse. He only questioned it for that one moment. Nodding, he led her out the door.

"So, where do you go to school?" He asked taking a bite of his fish fillet.

"Well, actually I'm kind of between schools right now." She had no idea if he knew how old she was. Did he? Did she even know how old he was?

"Where were you last year?" He sipped casually.

"Ah---Harbor High." She said silently.

"Oh---I never would have guessed. You looked at least two years older to me."

"Where do you go?" She asked, glad he didn't have a total meltdown.

"I'll be starting my junior year at UCLA." He smiled.

"Oh, that's one of the schools I was looking at. Harvard is turning out to not be so much my style."

"You haven't been accepted to a college yet?"

"Well, that's a long story. Do you like UCLA?"

"Yeah, it's great. I know people would like to tell you it's a total party school, and while I'll admit to some partying myself, I have managed to keep a good GPA."

"So you're not freaked out that I'm two years younger than you thought?" She had to get it out there.

"No, should I be?" He laughed.

"No, that's not what I meant. It's just I didn't want you to pick me up at my house because I am still there and then you would have known. It's just that we hit it off so well, I didn't want that to ruin it."

"We can't have a relationship based on lies, can we?"

"No."

"And lying is categorized as withholding the truth, correct?"

"I suppose, yeah."

"Well, than I've been lying to you all night."

"About what?"

"I haven't told you how stunning that dress looks on you." She blushed and he smoothed down a stray hair that was blowing in the wind. Their eyes clicked together in place and Abby got a feeling, she had intuitions every once and a while. This was one of them, a good one.

"I'd absolutely love to see some of your photos, Seth. I'm sure they're amazing." She picked up a salad green with her fork.

"They aren't that special."

"Well, I'd still love to see them."

"Sure. So, cosmetology, huh? How do you like that?"

"It's good. Makes me some money and its fun to talk to people."

"Sounds wonderful." He smiled awkwardly. This wasn't going as well as planned.

"Is it just me or is this weird, Cohen?" There was a memory. She hadn't called him that all night. He nodded his head.

"It's a little bit weird."

"Why?" She asked.

"Honestly, I don't know. We used to be so great together." He sighed. Had they grown apart?

"So, how is the gang?" She changed the subject.

"You haven't talked to them, you live here, right?"

"Well, yeah Cohen, but it's not like I have every waking minute to spend with them or something." She was getting snippy. Something she'd tried to control since she'd realized how horrible she'd been in high school.

"They are good. Ryan and Anna are getting married soon; I haven't actually talked to Marissa so I don't know. Have you?"

"Of course, I would totally never quit talking to Rissa, come on. She's good. She's out at Penn State actually, I don't remember what she's actually studying but she's doing well with everything. Ryan and Anna, really? I never would have thought. So different."

"We're ---well, we were different. We worked out good for a while." He flashed back again on some of those happy high school memories.

"We still could."

"I thought that, but I'm not sure anymore." He was solemn and quiet as he finished his dinner. He wished it would work between them, but something just wasn't clicking like it had before. Maybe they had changed too much. So much that it wouldn't work anymore.

They made light, uncomfortable conversation before returning to Summer's apartment. They stood on the front step.

"Tonight was weird, right?" He asked looking into her eyes.

"Honestly, it was totally weird." She looked down at the ground, afraid to catch his eye. She had such high hopes.

"Can we try it again, soon? Maybe tonight was a fluke or something?" She looked up.

"I'll give you a call." She replied. The ball was in her court.

Seth and Abby reached the driveway at about the same point and pulled into their spots respectively. It was late. Sandy was home. Glances were exchanged as they made their way inside to the living room.

"How was your night?" She asked, afraid of what the look on his face might mean. She sat down next to him, reassuringly.

"Summer and I have no chemistry anymore. I honestly don't know what happened. It was a disaster, believe me. You are glad you weren't there." She ran a hand through his hair.

"I'm sorry, Seth. I know you've always had a thing for her. People grow apart, it is possible. Give it another chance; I'm sure it'll be fine." She patted his leg.

"What about you? Any horror stories to tell?"

"I was afraid the whole time that he'd find out I just graduated."

"How old is he?"

"He'll be a junior in college, this year. God, you're almost the same age." She giggled. "It's like dating my brother. But he's nice."

"Hey, aside from the whole blood relation thing we'd make a good couple. We have good chemistry."

"Don't even wanna go there." She laughed, covering her ears. "You wanna watch a movie?" She asked. He glanced at his watch.

"Sure, why not." He smiled.

"How does some Princess Bride sound, or The Princess Diaries. It appears we have an overabundance of Princess films. What'll it be?"

"I'll take the Princess Bride for 800, Alex."

"The Princess Bride it is." She popped it in, made some popcorn and they began to watch. They heckled and laughed at the appropriate times. It was fun. They came to a dramatic scene and the room was quiet, their concentrations both fixed on the screen. Soon it was funny again. She looked over at Seth. He was asleep. She threw a blanket over him where he lay. "Sleep well, and dream of large women." She muttered as she turned off the movie and curled up onto dreamland on the adjacent couch.

Kiersten was sitting on the bed, head in her hands, when Sandy made his way upstairs. It was late, almost ten o'clock. He thought nobody was home, but obviously he now saw his wife was.

"What's wrong?" He asked quickening his paces towards her, a twinge of concern in his voice.

"I resigned today." She wiped a tear from her face.

"Why, there's too much stress? That was the company your father built. Why would you quit?"

"I lost her, Sandy. She's gone."