A gourmet meal doesn't taste as good after it's been in the refrigerator for 24 hours. What's even worse is eating in silence with the one person you've been looking forward to seeing for the past 60 days. The only noises that you could hear were forks hitting plates, drinks swirling around when glasses were put back down on the table, and off in the distance a dog collar rattling every now and then. Every time I looked up at him he was off in space. His body was sitting at the table eating day old salmon, but his mind was somewhere entirely different and I couldn't figure out where exactly that was. After a while of awkwardly avoiding eye contact I couldn't take the silence anymore so I got up to turn the radio on. Sitting back down I picked my fork back up and saw Justin pushing corn around on his plate so I put my fork back down, picked up my glass of wine and finished it off before slamming the glass back down on the table, standing up and storming off towards the stairs.

"Where are you going?" he asked. I spun around to see him still looking down at his plate and I could feel my face heating up with anger.

"Where does it look like I'm going?"

"Sit down and finish your dinner," he said cutting a piece of salmon with his fork, scraping his teeth against it as he put it in his mouth.

"You're not my father Justin, so why don't you stop trying to act like him. And while your at it," I said tapping my foot against the bottom step of the staircase, "Why don't you just do it...just fucking tell me."

"Tell you what?"

"Just tell me you want to break up with me, because I know that's where this is going..."

He finally looked up at me. His eyes glazed over digging into mine. I stared back at him trying to keep my composure. "Em please come back and sit down."

He didn't deny it, just went back to eating his food. I wanted to say no, but instead I found myself dragging my body back over to the dining room table. I picked my napkin up off of the chair and placed it on the table pushing my plate back suddenly feeling like I was going to throw up the little bit of it that I had already eaten. He took another bite of food then pushed his plate away in the same fashion before reaching out for me to give him my hand. Instinct made me reach my right hand out and put it in his. He didn't say anything, just looked down at my hand for a good while before running his thumb over the ring on my middle finger. I could feel my emotions getting the best of me so I closed my eyes and bit down on my bottom lip, "Just say it," I whispered in hopes that it would keep me from crying.

I opened my eyes to see him looking down at the ring Jake gave me and saw a single tear fall down his face. He wiped it away quickly running his hands through his hair that was longer then he was use to before sighing and looking me in the eyes. "I don't want to hurt you..."

I cleared my throat looking away from him down at the food I spent so much time preparing yesterday. Looking at it now it really doesn't look as appetizing as I thought it did yesterday, and the honey glaze was a little too sweet for my liking. I attempted to pull my hand away from him but he held onto it for dear life. "Can you just do it please?" My bottom lip was quivering so I sucked it back into my mouth.

"Emmy I--"

"Don't call me that."

"I just don't think you're ready."

I felt my body start to shut down. First all of the air that was in my lungs came out, and then blood rushed to my head. It was extremely hard to breath and I could feel my chest constricting as my heart was breaking into a million little pieces. But the whole time I kept telling myself to stay composed. Don't let him see you hurting. "What makes you think I'm not ready?"

"This," he said running his thumb over my ring again. "You're not over him Em. You won't let me love you because you're not over him."

"And you've just now come to this conclusion?" I said pulling away from his grasp getting angry. "Now that we've told everyone? Now that my face is plastered on every magazine cover and I get called a bitch every time I walk down the street if I'm anywhere but Tennessee? Now you think I'm not ready? Not 6 months ago when no one knew but us. Maybe if--"

"Em, just hear me out," he said reaching out for me again but I pushed my chair back far enough that he couldn't reach me.

"No, you hear me out Justin," I said standing up. "You were the one that told me that it was okay to not be over him. You were the one that said I'd always love him and that he'd always love me. Maybe if you just opened your damn eyes and saw something that wasn't work or golf at Pebble Beach, you'd see that all I want is for you to love me. And you'd see that I love you too. But it's fine...you don't think I'm ready. Life goes on, and there is no one in this world that knows that better then me." I spun around practically sprinting into the kitchen to get my car keys, the whole time willing the tears not to fall. I had to show him that I'm stronger then that now. I pulled the keys off of the hook so hard that the whole hook came off the wall but I didn't care. I flung the garage door open ignoring Justin's pleas to come back. Just as I reached my car I heard him calling me from the kitchen door.

"EM..." I didn't answer as I hit the unlock button and opened the door. "EMILY!"

"WHAT?" I screamed spinning around to face him.

"We need to talk about this, don't just storm off."

"There's nothing to talk about Justin," I said after a few minutes of just staring at him. "I have to go..."

"Where are you going?" he asked stepping down from the ledge into the garage.

"It doesn't really matter," I said sitting down in the car not taking my eyes off of him.

He was looking at me like I had just broken up with him. There was hurt in his eyes and if I knew anything about him I would think that he was about to run over to me and scoop me up out of the seat into a hug. He was sad and for a second I thought about getting out of the car to make sure he was okay but the shadow on the wall when I moved my hand caught my eye and I looked down at the ring on my finger. The ring that once caused so much happiness, that was now causing me so much pain. "Em I--"

"I'm okay," I said quickly cutting him off, "I promise." It was the first lie I've ever told him. I was the furthest thing from okay, but I had to get out of there before I actually showed him the truth. I closed the door to my car and backed out of the garage taking one last look at him before I made my way down to the gate that was slowly opening behind me.

I drove for hours before I pulled up to Trace's. I drove for hours and I cried for hours. I cried because I really did love Justin, but I realized it too late. I cried because I didn't know if I was supposed to be over Jake or not. I cried because Trace was right, and I cried because I didn't know where to go from here. When I walked in the door at midnight all of the lights on the first floor were off, but I could hear the TV on in the basement and saw the light shining through the bottom of his bedroom door when I looked between the rails upstairs. Making an educated guess on living with him for most of my life, I made my way downstairs to find him sitting on the couch playing Call of Duty. The minute I sat down next to him he paused the game and scooped me up in a hug.

"I knew it would only be time before you came here." he said confirming my thoughts that he had already talked to Justin.

"Just do me a favor and don't say I told you so okay?"

"Okay," he said before reaching to turn the TV off and turning to face me, "Mint chocolate chip or cookie dough?"

"No ice cream..." I leaned back on the arm of the couch letting out a sigh, "I should have seen this coming. I guess I can't really blame him."

"Em..."

"No, you know what Trace, I'm surprisingly sort of okay with this. I mean of course I'm upset but at least we didn't have this huge argument and say we hate each other you know. We fought, he had a reason and that's that. This is just...life."

"You love him don't you?" he asked really wanting to know the answer not just so that he could tell me to fight for him. I nodded my head and closed my eyes so that I wouldn't start crying again. I had to be strong, but when he spoke again I couldn't hold them back any longer, "He loves you too, and he'll come around because you guys are right for each other."

Tears spilled out of my eyes, and I cried even harder then I did when I was alone even though I thought I had no tears left. Even though I knew Trace got use to our relationship I've been longing for him to actually say it since I told him we were dating that night on the roof, and now that he has it doesn't even matter anymore. Before I knew it he got up from the couch and came back over holding in his hand the one thing he knew would make me smile. I reached out taking the stuffed squirrel out of his hand and held it close to my chest, "Blackie to the rescue," I sniffled while wiping my face with the back of my hand.

"He worked when we were five..."

I kicked him with my socked foot in the knee just as I heard Barbie Girl calling him upstairs, "Don't tell her please?" I begged.

"DOWN HERE BRI..." He stuck out his pinky and I locked mine with his, "I pinky promise."

I let out a loud aggravated moan when I heard the basement door close and saw her coming down the stairs. Rolling my eyes back to look at Trace I said a silent prayer to not attack her tonight, "Oh Emily! I didn't know you were here. This is great Trace," she said rubbing his arm that was hanging over the back of the couch, "We can tell her the news now..."

"What news?"

"Bri sweetie, I don't think now is really the best time for this..."

"What news Trace?"

"Oh come on baby...it's so exciting!"

"TRACE!" I yelled, "What news?"

All of the color drained from his face and I knew this wasn't going to be good. "Now really isn't a good time."

"Trace just tell her!"

"SOMEONE FUCKING TELL ME!" I was getting pissed off, and this only added onto my bad mood.

"Maybe this should wait until--"

"We're having a baby!"

"Tomorrow," he finished after the dumb slut blonde started jumping up and down in excitement.

"This is a joke right? This is a sick joke?" I said getting up off the couch and backing into the wall in an attempt to be as far away from the both of them as possible.

"I was going to tell you Em..."

"This is just fucking great...just...how is this my life right now? I have to go," and with that I started running up the stairs with Trace following closely behind.

"Emily wait..." I made it to the front door before he actually caught up with me and grabbed my arm that wasn't reaching out for the doorknob to pull me back, "Would you talk to me?"

"No," I said pulling my arm back, "I will not talk to you about having a child with this...girl. A baby Trace. Jesus Christ! She is a child herself, and she's not even with you for the right reasons. I bet in the back of her head she's thinking 'Yippee Justin will be the godfather so now I'll have more time with him and maybe I could get him to fuck me in the closet while the baby is sleeping and Trace is off making money.' You don't even want kids! I can't deal with this right now..."

I opened the door and started walking back out to my car, "Where are you going?"

"I honestly don't know Trace...I don't know."

***

I never thought at the age of 27 I'd be back to living with my parents, but I had nowhere else to go. The house that I owned was being occupied by my brother and his pregnant girlfriend, and my home was occupied by my ex-boyfriend that thinks I'm not ready to be in love. I let myself sulk for a couple of days and then finally decided I had to put everything behind me and just move on with my life. That was a month ago, and today as I left what seemed like the millionth apartment I've seen to rent I was debating on if I should let myself sulk for another couple of days. I never imagined having to do this after signing my life away on a mortgage close to two years ago.

Work has been really interesting. Suddenly Justin wants to take part in the golf course renovation which means he's in all of the meetings, staring at me until someone says the meeting is over, and then he usually follows me back to my office and lingers by the door until I sit down at my desk and pretend to ignore him. I'd catch glances of him every now and then and take note of how unhappy he looks, but the extent of our communication has been work. Since the night we broke up nothing else has really been said about it, but something about the way he's been acting makes me think that we will soon be having a discussion. He went back to LA last week to start voiceover work for another movie that he signed on for, only adding to my belief that work will never be second fiddle for him.

Closing the door to my car I happily drove away from the apartment building that I would never in my life inhabit.. If I wanted to I could kick my brother out of my house since the fact of the matter is I can't afford two mortgages, but I can't do that to him, especially now that he has a child to worry about. I still can't believe it. Supposedly Bri went on some medication that didn't agree with her birth control and now poof the bitch is three months pregnant. My version of the story is a little different though. She just stopped taking birth control. I shook my head as I pulled up to a red light thinking about being an aunt to a child with a mother that has no brain and plastic everything else, when my phone began buzzing in the console of my car. My instinct was to hit ignore for the 10th time today, but something told me to answer this time. Maybe it was because it was a blocked number, but whatever it was, I wish I didn't.

"Hello?"

"Emily, thank god you finally answered...I booked you out on the first flight to LA, I need you to go to the airport now it leaves in an hour."

"What? Why?"

"Please...I'll meet you at the airport."

The caller was panicking which made my heart start racing, "But why Mrs. H? What's wrong?"

"It's Justin..."