Hours later, with darkness setting in, EJ climbed out of the pool in his parents' backyard. He had basically given up on all things water polo after Stanford, despite a few offers for assistant coaching gigs in the Bay area. No time in the tech world. But he never stopped loving the feeling of being in water, feeling it pushing back on him, holding him up. He always thought more clearly when he was in or around water. It's actually a part of why he was headed to Boston. The offices for the company he was working for were in an area of the city called the Seaport, looking out over Boston Harbor. Despite growing up hundreds of miles from one ocean and thousands of miles from another, the ocean brought him a lot of clarity. Gina, who's spent time on every coast imaginable, used to say that she had ocean in her soul. When he was looking out over the expanse of the Atlantic from those windows, he knew exactly what that meant.

Gina. Right.

With a sigh, he picked up his phone to see what kind of chaos his abrupt exit earlier might have caused. He was unsurprised to see a bunch of notifications from Ashlyn waiting for him.

Ashlyn: So Gina's been surprisingly tightlipped about earlier…

Ashlyn: How bad was it, exactly?

Ashlyn: Like, do I need to rearrange the seating chart? Because you don't understand on just how many levels that would suck at this stage of the game.

He rubbed his eyes, and started tapping out his reply.

EJ: I don't know, Ash. Seb was going off about Carlos again…

Ashlyn: I'm beginning to regret inviting them both.

EJ: And Gina starts going on about people changing and she was looking right at me and… shit, I don't know, It just got uncomfortable real quick.

Ashlyn: Have you guys ever really TALKED about, you know, the last time you were in town?

EJ: Other than the next day? No. We agreed that we still weren't in any place to make things work, and we'd be better off friends, and left it at that.

Ashlyn: And then never spoke of anything, ever again.

EJ: Don't be dramatic, Ash. We talk, we just don't… talk.

Ashlyn: I'm always dramatic, and you love me anyway.

EJ: I'm kinda contractually obligated. Shared DNA, you know how it goes.

Ashlyn: Are you going to get through this weekend in one piece?

EJ: Again with the drama. I'm FINE, I swear. Today was a mistake, but that was my fault, my bad.

Ashlyn: Caswell, if you start singing A Billion Sorries, I am uninviting you to the wedding.

EJ: Noted, my escape plan is complete.

Ashlyn: Oh haha. You're coming. And you're not going to make it weird?

EJ: No weirder than it was going to get all on its own. Promise.

Ashlyn: Ok. I'm tied up all morning tomorrow with nails and stuff before the rehearsal, and I think you've got to get your dad at the airport, but I'll see you at the thing, and the dinner?

EJ: Wouldn't miss it.

Ashlyn: And you'll THINK about talking to Gina?

EJ: Not sure what there is to say, Ash. She's been pretty clear on where she stands.

Ashlyn: I think it's less obvious than you're thinking, but I'm not one to meddle.

EJ: You are ALWAYS one to meddle.

Ashlyn: And yet, the love.

EJ: And yet, the relative.

Ashlyn: I'll see you tomorrow.

EJ: Bet on it.

Ashlyn: Always the HSM with this one…

EJ tossed his phone on the table with a smile before picking up his towel to dry his hair. He admittedly didn't spend much, ok any time in Salt Lake these days, so it was kind of nice to hang out by the pool in the summer heat. He couldn't help but remember all the time that he and Gina had spent around this particular pool the summer after he graduated from East High. A lot of unsupervised time around each other in bathing suits went exactly how one would expect it to go.

He also thought about a conversation they'd had, right here, that sort of set the tone for everything that's gone down between them since.

It was a couple weeks after the spring show, and their relationship was really just finding its groove. They were making plans for prom, and for EJ's graduation party, and very carefully NOT talking about him leaving for California at the end of the summer.

Until Gina, in her very Gina way, decided it was time to talk about it.

They'd spent the afternoon at EJ's, out back by the pool. It wasn't quite warm enough for swimming yet, but it was still a nice spot for attempting to get some homework done, even though they had mostly spent it chatting, laughing over Tiktoks, and stealing kisses.

Gina suddenly sat up very straight, put her phone face down on the table, and exhaled slowly.

"Look, EJ, we should talk"

"Ok, so to be clear, what we've been doing for the last hour and a half was..."

"C'mon, EJ we need to like, talk talk. About this, about us."

"Did I do something wrong? Are you breaking up with me already?"

"Oh no, of course not. I love… I'm loving spending time with you."

"Ok, so… what's with the heavy we need to talk energy?"

"EJ, this, you and me, you know we have an expiration date, right?"

"I'd been trying not to think too much about it, honestly. As much as everyone keeps going on about 'the future' every single time they see a senior, I'm not ready to go there yet."

"I think we need to go there. I think we need to go into this with a clear look at what it is. And when it's going to end."

"I mean, I'm leaving, yeah, but -"

"We're leaving."

"What does that mean?"

Gina sighed as she got up from the table, promptly flopping onto the chaise lounge by the pool.

"I'm moving. Back with my mom."

"Seriously? I thought you wanted to…"

"I can't, EJ. Your aunt and uncle have been amazing to me, but I can't ask them to continue to host another teenager for two more years just to stay at East. My mom's being transferred again at the beginning of August, so I'm going to move back in with her at the end of the summer."

"Where?"

"You're not going to believe this, but… Albuquerque."

"Seriously? You're going to be a real life Gabriella Montez."

"I am definitely not freaky math girl, but… sorta, yeah."

"So you want a fresh start there, no strings attached."

"That's not it. EJ. We're both going to be trying to figure out life in new places. The absolute last thing I want is to try and hold on, only to have a messy breakup over the phone when we're a thousand miles apart, with you resenting me for wasting your freshman year on some silly high school girl."

"There's nothing about you that's silly, or anything I could resent."

"You say that now, but experience tells me by some Friday night in October, you'll be singing a different tune. And it's not even like I'll see you when you come home… it won't be home for me anymore. It won't be home for me as soon as you're not here."

"So what, are you saying? This is it, don't even bother getting involved?"

"No, I'm saying let's have the best summer making the most of the time we DO have, regret nothing and know we'll still be friends when it's over."

"That's… depressingly practical."

"But you're not saying I'm wrong."

"No, I know you're not," EJ sighed, joining her on the chaise, perching carefully on the end. "I've seen it happen with guys I played water polo with… nearly every relationship is done for by Thanksgiving break, I don't want that for us. But it does make me regret not getting over myself sooner and wasting any of the time we did have."

"No regrets, Caswell. Ain't nobody got time for that."

"So, one summer, no expectations, just being in the moment."

"And in the fall, we let it go."

"Could have done without Frozen now running through my head, but ok. I'm down if you are."

"Let's start now," she said, shifting onto his lap and pulling him in for a kiss.

Ej shook his head, coming out of his reverie and back into the present day. Truth is, he didn't have a lot of regrets about that summer. And Gina was right, as she usually was. He watched a bunch of relationships fall apart around him at Stanford that fall, and it was never pretty. As much as he missed her being in this life that way, he was glad they had parted on good terms and stayed friends, especially since that left the door open for… something later on.

Until that door closed, pretty firmly, three years ago.

Ej gathered up his things and made his way into the house. He needed to shower and sleep if he had any prayer of getting his shit together, as the bride requested, before facing Gina again tomorrow.