Even with things being somewhat okay now…..certainly better than they'd been yesterday, with Lawrence, Adam eventually left that motel room with a lot on his mind.

He may not even have noticed the woman's voice calling out from just behind him, as he started his way down the hall, had he not vaguely recognized it from a previous encounter, he was so distracted.

—
"Hey." It was just loud enough to grab his attention, though with a considerable gentleness in the tone.

He turned, curiously, towards it, smiling when he started to recognize who it belonged to. "Rockstar...hey."

"Hey." She repeated with a friendly chuckle. "Are..you okay? That..sounded kind of heated." She glanced behind her, before shaking her head to herself. "...not that I was listening, I didn't even hear what was being said.."

"Right, thin walls." He sighed.

He'd be lying if he claimed that he, himself, hadn't heard his own fair share of debacles from various other motel guests, during any of his previous meet ups with Lawrence in these kinds of places.

She nodded sympathetically. "...bad breakup?"

"It's...ahh, it's complicated." He answered. "..the short of it is...uh, yes and no, I guess."

"How's that?" She shook her head, catching herself before he could answer. "...not..that it's any of my business."

"Nah, it's alright." He chuckled. "I wouldn't have said even that much, if I minded all that much."

"No, I guess you wouldn't have." She chuckled, gaining some relief in the increasing sense that there was probably more to why he hadn't even tried to really brush her off yet. "Did...you wanna talk about it, say...over coffee or something? There's a shop, just down the street a ways"

He was smiling a little more now, as he nodded. "I could go for a coffee or something, there." He chuckled. "I know that place, you wanna meet up there?

"Sure." She agreed.

He watched as she turned to walk away, just before stopping her.

"Hey."

She stopped and turned, curiously, to look back at him.

"Aren't you gonna tell me your name?"

She laughed to herself, over the realization. "Amanda….or, my friends call me Mandy."

He nodded. "Do I fall into that category?"

"We'll see." She answered with a little smirk, waiting for him to tell her his.

He'd already gotten this lucky, he was feeling hopeful enough.

His smile grew a little at the comment, as he nodded. "Adam."

She smiled back and nodded.

Once they'd met up and taken their orders to sit down with, they chatted for a little bit, and Adam gave her the gist of what had gone down between him and Lawrence and generally what she had probably been unintentionally privy to.

"Geez, what a jerk." She blurted out. "...no, offense. I know that's not really my place, but..."

"Mmm.." He shrugged as he took a bite from his muffin which, so far, he was lucky enough to be able to keep down. "..I think it was just heat of the moment, more than anything, you know. Shock and all. I mean can you blame him?"

"You don't?" She scoffed. "You're the one carrying his child."

"..and I already told you, it wasn't like that. Besides, I knew what I was getting myself into from the beginning."

"So, you're just okay with this, then?"

Adam just quietly shrugged.

Amanda sighed. "Well, I'm sorry."

He gave a small half smile. "Thanks."

She smiled sympathetically back at him. "I've just- I've known guys like Larry, I can't help it if it looks like you're getting the short end of the stick here."

"I see, and are you always this protective of guys you've met twice, who take your picture in stairways?" He teased.

"Just calling it how I see it." She chuckled, sipping her coffee. "What about you?"

"What about me?"

"Do you always take pictures of girls you meet in stairways?" She laughed.

"Nope." He shot her a little smirk. "...just the one."

Her own little smile spread even wider across her face, much as she would've preferred to hide it.

"You don't...still have that picture, do you?"

"Of course I do." He said it with another little smirk, as he took a sip from his own coffee. "Why? Did you want a copy?"

"Mmm god, no." She laughed.

"Oh, god no?" He laughed.

She spun her little coffee stirrer around in her drink. " Come on, Adam. You saw how I looked that day."

"I did. That's why I stand by what I said…." He insisted with another little grin. "...Rockstar."

She lifted her arms from the little table, so that her hands were positioned in a way that she could rest her chin across them and attempt to cover up how much the idea of that and him calling her Rockstar in the way he'd said it that day in the stairway was making her grin.

"...You can call me, Mandy." She finally said, still grinning.

"Yeah?" He asked, reveling in his little win.

He had gotten through to her, afterall.

She nodded with another little smile, as she gazed back at him with adoration.

"Yeah."

"Mandy the Rockstar." He whispered, adoring the joy it seemed to be giving her.

"Very Rockstar." She whispered back.

—

—

They would chat for a little while longer and eventually exchange numbers with each other, before they had to part ways.

When Adam finally arrived back to his apartment, as well as being greeted with the usual echoes of dogs barking and such coming from the other units, he was greeted by a just as familiar sensation that was currently rubbing itself against his legs.

He began fumbling for his keys and looked down at the little black and white cat, who was now sat diligently by his feet and meowing at him.

He smiled at the little guy and gave him a good head and chin scratch, before placing his key in the lock.

The friendly little critter was a fairly well known stray, who had apparently decided that Adam was his primary food and attention giver, and Adam was just as happy to oblige whenever he came around.

"Hey, bud." Adam smiled even more, as his pets were being met by more aggressive rubs and head butts against his hand. "That's the third time this week…..yeah."

He gave the cat one more head scratch, just before opening the door.

"Bet you're starving by now, aren't you?"

He was answered with another, even happier, mreow!

He chuckled. "Come on in, I'll get you some food, and we'll hope that mine continues to stay down." He muttered that last bit to himself.

His stomach had generally settled and allowed him to enjoy his little coffee shop breakfast with no problem, he just remained skeptical in how long it would last.

The cat was just as eager to follow him into the apartment.

—

Adam set his keys on the nearby dining room table and took a couple dishes out of the cupboard, pouring some milk into one and filling the other with some canned tuna, as the cat continued to follow rather closely behind him.

He looked down, noting how much more closely the little guy seemed to be following him around, and wondered to himself if this might be the day he succeeds in coaxing him into staying inside

He smiled at the thought and went to set the dishes down by a wall, nearest the dining room table, and stroked his hand down the cats back and watched him go to town on the tuna, before taking his phone out and making his way over to the living room couch to lay down and see if he could get himself a doctor's appointment for the next morning, as promised.

"Well, here goes nothing." He told himself, just as the cat was racing over to the couch, to lay on top of one of the cushions just above Adam's head.

Adam gave him some approving pets as he dialed.