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Friday Evening

"We need more pink," Brielle declared from where she stood next to me on a stool by the kitchen island. She had a spatula in one hand and an empty tub of pink icing in the other. There were both decorated and undecorated cupcakes in front of her.

"We have twenty," I paused to count the decorated cupcakes, "twenty four pink ones. I don't think we need more than that."

"But," her bottom lip pouted. "They're not done."

She was right. There were more plain ones. Another fifteen or so to decorate. I had stress baked during the week and even though I'd brought some to the office; I had plenty left.

I took the remaining ones with me to my sister's so Brielle and I could "bake." But also so I wouldn't eat them all by myself. My work pants were already getting snug from all the stress eating I'd been doing.

Now we had a dilemma. We had cupcakes to decorate, but we were out of pink icing. My sister had green and white in the cabinet, but that wasn't good enough for Brielle.

"How about I ask your mom to put the undecorated ones in the freezer? That way, you can decorate them when these are all gone?"

She nibbled on her lip as she thought about it.

"That will give your mom time to buy more pink icing," I argued in my attempt to convince her.

"Thanks a lot for that one," Aubrey hissed under her breath. "Now she's going to tell me we have to go to the store."

I swallow down a chuckle because it sounded about right.

We didn't have to wait long.

"Okey." Brielle agreed and nodded with a serious expression on her little face. Then she turned to her mom. "We have to go to the store, Mama."

I bit my lip as Aubrey glared at me.

"Not tonight, Brielle," Aubrey said. "We have enough decorated cupcakes for dessert and daddy has already started the grill. I'll buy some the next time I go to the store."

"But, mama..."

"How about we use the white icing and put colorful sprinkles on them instead?" I suggested.

"No," she shook her head like it was the worst suggestion ever given. "Pink, Aunt Ellie. We need pink."

She was so damn cute with the stern expression on her pouty little face with pink icing smudges across her forehead. Hanging out with my niece was just what I needed even if it lead to an argument about pink icing.

"Brielle," my sister began in her stern mom voice, but stopped when the back door opened and Brian walked in from the backyard. Brielle immediately turned to him and said with the whiniest voice she had, "daaaaddddyyyyyy..."

"What princess?" he asked, while Aubrey rolled her eyes. I couldn't help but giggle. Brielle was just a little girl, but she knew exactly how to work both of her parents.

"Look," Brielle said, and held out the empty icing tub.

"Oh, you finished. Nice." Brian said, praising her good work, although the smile faded a bit as he glanced over at the finished product and the mess we'd created along the way.

"No, there's more left, but no pink," Brielle said, trying to make her father understand that there was a problem.

"We don't have any more icing?" he asked.

"Did you miss the pink part?" Aubrey asked sarcastically.

A small smile appeared on Brielle's face. "Pink, daddy."

Brian noticed my sister's expression, and his brows narrowed. "What?" he asked her.

My sister just rolled her eyes and right on cue, Brielle said, "we need to go shopping, daddy."

"Walked right into that one, didn't I?" he asked and I laughed.

"Daddyyyyy," Brielle whined.

"Alright, enough." Aubrey took the empty tub out of Brielle's hand and threw it in the garbage and handed her a plate. "Put the finished one's on here that we'll have after dinner. We need to get this mess cleaned up."

"But," Brielle pouted. "We need sprinkles."

"I swear I'm starting to hate cupcakes," my sister muttered as she walked past me towards the cabinet where he kept her baking supplies.

Brian's phone rang. He picked it out of his back phone and answered with a, "hey."

Aubrey put four different kinds of sprinkles in front of Brielle. Her eyes lit up a bit again, and she selected two of them. One with small round sprinkles in all different kinds of colors and another one with regular shaped sprinkles. Pink, of course.

Brielle was happy again as she added sprinkles to the cupcakes. Half of which ended up on the counter or on the floor.

"Have a glass of wine," I told my sister when she sighed again for the fifth time. I reached for the sponge and assured her, "I got this."

"Fine by me," she responded and pulled a half empty bottle out of the refrigerator. "Do you want some?"

"No, but I'll take a beer if you have any."

"Did someone say beer?" A deep voice asked behind me.

I looked over my shoulder and found Spero walking into the kitchen. He handed Brian a six pack of beer and held out a pink tub of icing for Brielle.

"PINK," Brielle shouted and reached for the icing.

We all laughed as her smile blossomed. It was like he'd given her a present.

"Thank you for that," Aubrey said, and gave Spero a hug.

"You're welcome." He turned his dark eyes to me and smiled. "Hey Ellie."

"Hi Spero."

"No hug?" he asked and faked looking offended.

I rolled my eyes.

"I'll give you a beer," he offered.

"Oh, is that the cost? A hug for a beer?"

He grinned, which displayed perfectly white teeth. "Sounds about right."

"Fine."

I put the sponge down on the counter and gave him a hug. It was quick but long enough for me to notice his enticing cologne and feel the warmth of his embrace. It was nice, but it wasn't Austin.

And there it was. My mind was back in the gutter.

I cracked open the beer aggressively and took a long drink, draining half of it in one go.

My sister looked on, somewhat amused from behind her wine glass.

"Damn, woman," Spero commented, his eyebrows high on his forehead.

"She deserves it," Brian said in my defense. "She's been baking with Brielle all evening."

I had, but that wasn't the reason for my frustration. Spending time with her was what kept me from loosing my mind.

"Aunt Ellie," Brielle called out. I turned my attention back to her. She was struggling to open the tub of icing.

"I got it," I said and reached for it.

***

We had just finished our barbecue dinner, which had been very good, and Brielle was eager to get to the cupcakes, when my phone rang. I excused myself and got to my feet when I realized it was Linda.

"Hey Ellie," Linda's voice came through the phone. She sounded overly happy, like she'd been drinking, but not quite slurring. A glance at the clock on the wall showed it was shortly after eight. I knew she was going out for happy hour right after work, so if she was still at the bar she was probably on her way to being a bit more than just tipsy.

"Where are you?" I asked before she got a chance to say anything.

"Still at the bar," she responded, confirming my suspicions.

"Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, it's great," she half shouted to overpower the loud background music. "You should come here."

I relaxed a little, knowing she was okay.

"I'm at my sisters."

"Oh. Why don't you bring her? I like your sister."

I smiled. They'd only met once.

"Not tonight, Linda. We're having dinner."

"Oh, okay."

"Are you gonna be alright? Do you need a ride home?"

"I'm fine," she said in a much clearer tone. "But I have something to tell you. Are you sure you can't come here?"

That made my stomach uneasy.

"What's going on?" I asked, instantly worried all over again.

Linda sighed. "Hold on, let me go outside for a moment."

There was some rustling, and I heard her say excuse me a couple of times and then she was back on the line. "Ellie, you still there?"

"I'm here," I confirmed. "What is it, Linda?"

She exhaled and said, "I heard that William's leaving."

"What? What do you mean?"

"He gave his notice. He's leaving the company."

"Leaving? For where?" I'd only had one beer, but somehow this was a very difficult concept for my mind to comprehend.

"He quit BioloGen, Ellie."

It was like all the air was sucked out of my lungs. I deflated like a balloon and sunk down onto one of the kitchen chairs.

"He did? When?"

"Yeah. I heard next week is his last."

I stared into space as I hung up with Linda and lowered the phone. The reality of what that meant sunk in.

He was leaving again.

That was it.

All hope was lost.

I'd never see him again.

"Ellie," Aubrey said. She came up to me with a concerned look on her face. "What's going on? Is everything okay?"

"I don't even know anymore," I admitted.

Her eyes narrowed and created a deep line between her eyebrows.

"Well, who was it? What happened?"

"Linda. She said Austin... uh, William is leaving. That he quit."

Aubrey tilted her head and studied me. "You're wearing the necklace, Ellie," she noted.

I hadn't even realized that I'd left it on, or that my hand was grabbing at it.

"Yeah..." I didn't know what to say. There were so many thoughts flying through my head. But all of them came back to the same thing. Austin was leaving. Again.

Whether I was ready for that part of my life to be completely over was becoming irrelevant. The fact that I wore the necklace he'd bought me ten years earlier was a clear sign I wasn't. And Spero's flirty attempts did nothing more than amuse me.

But he quit.

I'd never find out why he left in the first place...

"So now what?" Aubrey asked.

That was a very good question.

"I don't know... I don't think I'm ready."

Her eyebrows rose, but she didn't say anything. From her expression, I could tell she was thinking it didn't matter if I wasn't ready. I didn't have a say in the matter. It wasn't my choice.

"I think something might be wrong. It doesn't feel right, Aubrey."

She nodded slowly.

"It just doesn't add up."

Instead of questioning me or giving me some kind of lecture she just asked "So, what are you going to do about it?"

There was only one option. And just like that, I knew exactly what I had to do.

"I have to go back. I'm running out of time."

Aubrey nodded again, and a small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.

I felt the tension release in the back of my neck as I made up my mind.

It was now or never. If I didn't get to him before he left, I'd never find him again.

I opened up the browser on my phone to search for flights.


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