Thank you guys so much for the reviews on the last chapter. Means a lot! :) The next one will be the last. Hope you like this one!

Drake found himself driving again. He was driving to get away from everything, to leave that café, and to leave that experience behind him as a distant memory. He couldn't believe all that had happened; he wanted to crawl in a hole and die. He and Mindy were supposed to be together. She wasn't supposed to have found someone new. It wasn't supposed to work like that. It was supposed to be a perfect fairytale ending – what had he done wrong? It had to have been him, right? No, it couldn't have been him. It had to have been Mindy being insensitive and telling him that they could make it work when she had no intention of trying. No, maybe it was him. He didn't have a clue. He just knew that it was all screwed up when it shouldn't have been. It should have been easy, not hard.

He'd asked Mindy about her boyfriend just so he wouldn't seem like a complete jerk; he knew listening to her talk about him would crush his heart even more, but it was the right thing to do. His name was Sam, and he and Mindy had been dating for a month. She showed Drake a picture of the two of them together and looking at him made Drake's skin crawl. He was everything Drake wasn't – a clean shaven blonde with a college education and a steady job. Drake understood why Mindy was with Sam because he seemed far more her "type" than he did, but he didn't understand why Mindy didn't wait. Why she didn't want to give them a chance. Why she jumped in so quickly.

"I met him when he joined the firm," Mindy had explained. "He was so sweet, and when we met, we had an instant connection. He asked me out. I couldn't turn him down because he was just trying to get to know me, and besides, I couldn't really say, 'oh, I can't; I'm waiting for someone who's currently in rehab but will be out soon.' It sounds like a cop out, even if it's the truth! I told him yes with every intent of that being the first and last date…I planned to go out with him, have a few drinks, have a nice conversation, then tell him we should just be friends, but Drake, it didn't work that way. We hit it off right away." She had smiled, but once again, she didn't look happy. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Drake tried to shake her words off, but they kept circling his head. He wasn't supposed to end up alone after all of this; he was supposed to leave rehab and have someone waiting for him. He'd never felt this way about anyone before, and now he was getting punished for finally feeling something at all. He realized he was on the familiar path to Josh's and sighed as he pulled into his brother's driveway still trying to clear his head. He knocked on the door absently and walked right past Josh when he opened it.

"Um, hello to you, too, bro," Josh said, closing the door and watching as Drake shuffled to the couch looking like a puppy with his tail between his legs.

"She has a boyfriend."

"She what?"

"She ha-" Suddenly, it hit him. Drake knew that tone, and Josh watched as his brother's facial expression changed. He stood up fiercely, pointing at Josh yelling, "You KNEW! You knew, Josh! Why the fuck didn't you tell me? I made an ass of myself because I thought she was single! God damn it."

"I…"

"I can't believe you!" Drake fumed, watching at how small Josh suddenly became. "Why wouldn't you tell me that? I go to see her trying to make a move on her and trying to get her to be my girlfriend, and she's already moved on! What the fuck, Josh, what the fuck?"

"Drake, you've gotta let me explain."

Drake raked a hand angrily through his hair, sitting down on the couch and crossing his legs. "It better be a fucking good explanation."

Josh sighed, sitting down next to Drake and turning to face him. He'd never seen Drake so upset over a girl; he'd been torn over his ex Caroline, but this far surpassed that. Drake looked like his heart had been ripped out of his chest. "She told me not to tell you," Josh said, seeing fire appear in Drake's eyes, making it clear that it was not an acceptable excuse to him. "She said she wanted to tell you herself. You'd never forgive her if you found out from me, Drake. Hate me for not telling you. Don't hate her."

After a long pause, Drake said, "I couldn't hate you, and I definitely couldn't hate her." He sighed, still trying to process everything. It confused him that Josh and Mindy had reconnected; he just couldn't fathom being friends with your ex. How was it possible? How did old feelings not get in the way? They were obviously talking more frequently now, and he wondered why he was left unaware, but knew that was the least of his worries now. "If I hate anyone, it's fucking Sam."

"He's innocent," Josh reminded him, attempting to be the voice of reason but knowing it would fall on deaf ears. He knew exactly how Drake felt; it was the same feeling that came over Josh when he watched Mindy flaunt her cousin Chad. Of course he hadn't known that Chad was her cousin when he was seething with jealously, but he knew how horrible that feeling was. Mindy had a way of casting a spell over men though she didn't know she did it.

Drake shook his head with a sigh. Deep down, he knew that Sam was innocent, but the rational part of his brain was clouded with severe anger and hurt. In a matter of a few moments, a man he'd never met or even seen in person had become enemy number one. He knew he shouldn't hate him, but he couldn't help it.

Drake liked Mindy because she was so different from him – and everyone else he'd liked for that matter – and he assumed that Mindy felt the same about him; they were the perfect example of how opposites attract. Drake felt stupid having thought that Mindy would actually wait for him. He knew she was an amazing woman who deserved the best of the best. He wasn't blind to that, but he wished that he'd been given a chance.

"It's just that Sam…" Drake stopped himself.

"What?"

"Of course Mindy wants him. He's better than I could ever be," Drake said dejectedly as his whole body deflated.

Josh patted Drake's shoulder lightly in an attempt to comfort him. "You're a great person, too, Drake. She'd be lucky to have you." Somewhere in saying that, it occurred to Josh how bizarre it was that he was telling his brother that his ex would be privileged to date him, but he shook the feeling off knowing how much Mindy had come to mean to Drake.

"I can't compete with him, Josh. He's a lawyer who's really smart and way more in her league than I am. How can I compete with that? I'm a struggling musician who just got out of rehab. Seriously?"

"When has that stopped you before?" Josh asked. "You're Drake Parker. When do you give up on getting a girl so easily? Never."

"I made an ass of myself. She's not even interested, and I told her I wrote songs for her." Drake rubbed his face in his hands, wondering how he could ever face Mindy again. "Dear god."

"That's it!" Josh exclaimed, snapping his fingers and jumping up from the couch.

"What is?" Drake looked up at his brother confused by his sudden outburst of enthusiasm.

Josh smiled, thrilled with the brilliant plan that sprung to mind. "What have you been telling me since we were fifteen?"

"Doing homework is pointless?"

"That girls dig guys who play guitar!"

"Yeah…"

Josh's grin was getting larger by the passing second.

"…and I have no idea where you're going with this."

"Dude, go play her the songs you wrote!"

Drake perked up and a smile began to form on his face – he hadn't thought of that. Girls couldn't resist his charm when he played his music; for some reason, girls fell at his feet once he was behind a guitar, but Mindy was different. She wasn't a vapid fangirl, she wasn't a groupie, and she wasn't easy – she was intelligent, strong, and opinionated which Drake wasn't used to. It wasn't that he was opposed to someone like her, but he just didn't know how she worked. "I don't know man…"

"What'll it hurt?" Josh quipped. Drake was about to speak when Josh continued, "I'll tell ya! Nothing! It won't hurt anything!"

Drake shrugged. "Do you really think it'll help something?"

"It might do something, it might do nothing, but you've gotta do it, Drake. Go for it. Go to her place and play her a song. Go get her back."