After dinner they sat around the living room and caught up some more. Two people would talk for a while, then switch off and pair up with someone else to chat with. Emily found herself clinging close to Matt, not sure she wanted to talk to anyone else.

Then she was approached by Ashley. "Hi, Emily." The other woman leaned against the armrest of the chair Em had claimed for her own. "So how are you?"

Emily looked her up and down. It was strange how different she appeared. Not just because of physical changes like the haircut or the weight gain, but because she commanded a different sort of aura now. Emily felt as if she were being spoken to by someone much older than her. It made sense, she supposed – Ashley had been through several major life events that Emily hadn't even had much of a chance to consider for herself. Emily still felt so young. She still thought of married people, of parents, as being much older than her. She certainly didn't think of them being her younger friends from childhood.

"I'm pretty good. I honestly thought this was going to go a lot worse than it's been going so far, so I guess that's a positive." Emily shrugged. "How are you?"

Ashley laughed a little. "Yeah, I wasn't totally sure what to expect either. But, I did want to say…"

She hesitated. Emily raised an eyebrow, waiting.

"I mean, I don't want to dredge up ancient history, but…I still feel bad about what happened all those years ago. With me and you." She shifted back and forth. "I still think about it sometimes and I feel awful. And now that I have kids it's like, God, you were someone's teenage daughter. I'd never forgive somebody who advocated hurting my boys. I feel like a real piece of crap for that. I probably always will."

The confession gave Emily pause. She had come here expecting either outright hatred or sugary-sweet fake niceness from pretty much everyone. But Ashley's words seemed surprisingly earnest.

"I forgive you, Ash," was all she could say in return.

"You don't have to. I wasn't looking for forgiveness. I just wanted to get it out there–"

"I do forgive you, though." Emily looked away from her. "You weren't the one I was really upset with, anyway."

Ashley followed Emily's glare over to Mike, who was too busy talking to Chris to notice. "Still a lot of bad blood there, huh?"

Emily folded her arms. "He tried to give me a half-assed apology way back when, but fuck that. Fuck him. I don't have to accept an apology from someone who wanted to fucking murder me. I don't care how many years it's been."

"That's understandable."

Chris soon re-appeared at Ashley's side. "Hey Emily." He greeted her with a kind smile. "Nice to see you."

You could always count on Chris to be pleasant to anyone. Even someone who had slapped his wife down in the past, and made a shitty comment about their son's name in the not-so-past. "Nice to see you, too," she replied.

"Did Ash show you any pictures of our kids?" he asked, clearly brimming with excitement about the subject. "And/or do you want to see any?"

"No and sure, I guess."

In about two seconds Chris had pulled up an album of pictures on his phone. The first one he showed her was a picture of two strawberry blonde boys. The boy on the left was tall and of average weight, the one on the right shorter and a little more heavyset. They were both grinning like devils.

"That's Joshy," Ashley said, pointing to the taller one before moving her finger over to the smaller boy, "and that's CJ."

"Chris Junior," Chris chimed in, grinning proudly.

"We have an agreement that after Chris Junior I get to name any future kids, as well as pets," Ashley said.

"You guys are thinking about having more?" Emily couldn't even imagine having two kids to deal with. Never mind more than that.

"Well I would like to maybe have a daughter before I get too old. And hey, maybe the third pregnancy I'll hit the metabolic jackpot and lose the baby weight from all three afterward." She laughed.

"Heh." Emily wasn't sure it would be appropriate for her to laugh at a self-deprecating joke like that.

"Sorry. I guess somewhere along the line I developed a sense of Mom Humor. Goes with his Dad Humor." She pointed at Chris. They both started laughing.

"Aren't you two just adorable…" Emily was rapidly losing interest in the conversation. As she glanced around the room, she suddenly noticed Mike watching her from the couch. He was sitting next to Matt and Sam, who were chatting away. He wasn't saying a word.

Ashley and Chris apparently noticed Emily's attention had shifted elsewhere. They said something to each other, and then Chris said, "We'll let you catch up with everyone else. Nice talking to you."

"Mhm," she replied, barely listening.

As soon as they walked away Mike got up from his seat and casually approached her. Not one to be intimidated, Emily stood up as well.

"Hey, uh, Emily," Mike began, waiting until he was just a breath from her before continuing. "You look great. Amazing, actually. I'm not surprised, but…"

"Flattery will get you nowhere," she spat.

Mike grimaced. "Okay, so you're still mad at me. Wasn't…totally sure." He nodded to a couple of chairs beside one another at the far end of the room. Emily crossed her arms and shook her head. "C'mon, please Em. I want to make things right here. I still feel like shit about it."

No way was she going to let that smooth-talking prick lower her defenses again. "Walk away, Mike."

Matt was observing them cautiously, half-risen from his seat. It was nice to know someone had her back. Even if he was a bit of a lug and would probably just escalate the situation.

"Please. Give me one chance."

Emily stood firm, but inside she could feel her resolve weakening. She didn't want to hate Mike forever. He had been such a big part of her life. She'd reached so many milestones of adulthood with him by her side – her first dance, her first serious relationship…some much more intimate, deeply personal milestones that Emily hated thinking about…

She swallowed hard. "Fine. One chance."

His eyes lit up. He led her over to the empty corner with the two chairs and offered her the most comfortable of the mismatched seats. Em wasted no time occupying it. She sat up tall, crossing her legs and folding her arms across her chest. As closed off as she could be. Mike sat almost as formally, but somehow he still managed to come across as open and inviting. No wonder he had such success as a politician.

Emily fucking hated knowing that he "represented" her as far as the United States government was concerned. And on top of that, how fucking popular he was. Every election she had to drive by at least a million "Munroe for Representative" lawn signs. She was always just a little bit tempted to drive over the person's lawn and "accidentally" take the sign out with her Coupe.

Mike raked a hand through his hair and sighed. "I don't know how to start, so I'll just say it outright. I'm sorry, Emily. I acted like an asshole back then. I was just afraid you–"

"A good apology doesn't try to justify the offending behavior," Emily reminded him.

"…Right. You're right. So I know what I thought, but it doesn't matter, because what I did was wrong. And I've been living with this guilt for ten years now." He inhaled slowly, almost nervously. "What I tried to do back then, I obviously couldn't do it. Because I loved you too much. I still care about you, even now. It was shitty, and awful, and I'm so, so sorry. I'll always have to live with the fact that I even considered hurting you. But if there's any chance I could just…make you hate me a little less…I figure this is probably my best shot."

"Why do you care if I hate you?" was all Emily said in response.

"Because I don't want you to hate me. We went through so much together. I'd like to be able to look back on those memories and know they have at least kind of a happy ending."

"You piece of shit," Emily muttered. "Fuck you, you know? You don't get to just…come back into my life, and…and…" She clenched her teeth in her familiar snarl. Her eyes were beginning to sting, which was just about the worst possible thing that could be happening at that moment. No. I will not cry because of Mike ever again.

Mike searched her moist eyes with the warm brown of his own. "I know I'm a piece of shit," he said. "I'm sorry, Em."

Emily quickly got to her feet. She couldn't hold the tears back any longer. Attempting to look as casual as possible while crying and running away from a former lover, she wandered into the hallway and then out to the front steps. She closed the door behind her, but not before she saw Mike's shadow in the doorway.

She sat down on the steps and buried her face in her hands. She'd thought her wounds from Mike had closed up over these ten long years. But no, apparently she was still just as emotionally volatile in matters of the heart as she'd been in her delicate teens.

The front door opened a little behind her. "Really," she mumbled through her hands, "you're gonna fucking follow me out here?"

"It's me."

She'd never been so relieved to hear Matt's voice. Emily uncurled herself and gazed up at him with her surely-blotched face and runny makeup.

Matt sat down beside her. "Are you okay? What the hell did he say to you?"

Emily stared down the driveway, avoiding Matt's concerned face. "He said that he was sorry. That he didn't want me to hate him. He says he wants our memories together to have a 'happy ending'."

"Oh." Matt hesitated. "Well I guess that's not as bad as it coulda been. I mean, he knows he fucked up at least."

"He ruined my fucking life. He destroyed the best friendship I ever had too, and now no one even fucking knows where Jessica is, so I can't even make amends with her…"

Matt froze. Despite not looking directly at him, Emily could sense his shift in demeanor.

She turned to him. "You don't know where she is, do you?"

Matt bit his lip, saying nothing.

"Oh my God. You do." The tears in her eyes began to recede. She'd already gotten to smooth things over somewhat with her other old friends. If she could only talk to Jessica… "I mean, she's alive, right?"

"Yeah. She's alive." Matt rested a meaty elbow on one of his knees. Now it was his turn to stare outward, avoiding Emily's piercing gaze. "I don't know if right now's the time to tell you about it, though. You're already pretty upset."

"Why? What's wrong with her?" Emily pushed him lightly, desperate for him to look at her.

He hesitated. Checking to make sure the front door was tightly closed, he leaned just the slightest bit closer to Emily. "I haven't seen her in about a year, but I talk to her every couple weeks or so. She's just–she's not in a good place. She's living in a shithole apartment in Lincoln Heights with these two girls who are in the same situation."

"Situation…?"

Matt seemed to be searching for an answer. Ultimately he said, "I shouldn't say any more. But, since I'm staying overnight in a hotel here in L.A. and not leaving 'til tomorrow afternoon, I was thinking about visiting her before I left. Would you maybe want to come with me?"

"Will you tell me more about her 'situation' before we get there, so I can know what the hell I'm getting into?"

"I'd tell you on the way there. I promise."

Emily dried her eyes. "Okay. I guess I'll go."

Matt nodded. "All right. I think she'll be happy to see you, Em."

"You think so?"

"Yeah."

Emily sniffled and attempted to wipe some of her run make up off her cheeks.

"Are you going back in there?" Matt asked.

"Yes, but just to get my purse. Then I'm heading home." She'd had enough socialization and painful old wounds opened for one night.

"Yeah, me too probably. Well not home, but to the hotel." He rubbed his neck. "You know what I mean."

In a moment of impulsivity, Emily leaned over and flung her arms around Matt's massive frame. He made a small noise of surprise, but quickly returned the hug.

"Thanks for checking up on me, big guy," she murmured into his shirt.

"No problem." Matt cradled her in his strong arms. "I, uh…"

She pulled away enough to look up at him. "Hm?"

He cleared his throat. "I still love you, Em. …I mean, not like that, but like – you know, like, I care about you and– "

Emily smiled just the tiniest bit. "I still love you, too."

When they eventually separated, Matt offered to accompany her inside to get her things. And so they went back inside together, and Emily said her goodbyes to everyone. To her surprise, Ashley asked for her phone number to keep in touch. Life's too short, you know? she said. A typical Mom-ism, Emily thought to herself as she nevertheless agreed and exchanged numbers with her.

It must have been obvious to everyone that she'd been crying, but thankfully no one commented on it. Sam quietly hugged her and thanked her for coming, telling Em she'd love to have lunch with her again sometime. Sarah smiled warmly at Emily and told her it was nice to meet her, which Emily reciprocated.

She was tempted to pass Mike without another word, but when she drew near him she couldn't help but say something.

"Thank you for the apology, Michael. Maybe I hate you a little less now."

He responded at first with widened eyes, and then with a smile. Thanks, Em. Maybe I'll see you around.

Maybe he would.