I was so tired from my month long marathon of work. I slept like a rock. I vaguely remember Chris waking me up telling me he had to go. I vaguely remember kissing him, but that was a little fuzzy. I woke up again around eleven. I couldn't even remember the last time I've slept in this late. It felt good. I stretched out my legs a bit and yawned. I checked my phone, and nothing drastic happened while I slept. So I stayed in bed a little longer and finally got up for a long shower.

If Donna and Tom from Parks and Rec were here, they would say I was having a Treat Yo Self Day. I went shopping at a upscale mall I liked. I actually didn't get anything which beats the point of a treat yo self day, but I still relaxed.

I met Chris at set around 3:30, since he was getting off a little early today.

"Hey" I said greeting him with a kiss.

"Hey" he replied. He slipped on his usual baseball cap and sunglasses.

"Are you ready for this, because you still don't have to go. I told them I wasn't sure you would get off work."

"No, no I want to meet them." He reassured me. Tonight we were driving down to Akron, Ohio to meet my family for dinner at my sister's house.

"Okay, just know you have a way out."

"It'll be nice. Don't worry Luce. You worried they won't like me?" He joked slipping his arm around my shoulders.

"No, quite the opposite. I'm pretty sure I'll have to rip you from their grasp." I admitted making him laugh. We go back to the hotel and changed for dinner. I put on a casual dress, and Chris slipped on a nicer shirt.

"You look nice." He told me and we walked to the car.

"Thank ya." I said and I put the car in drive.

This was the first boy I've brought home in awhile. It had been a couple months since I last saw my family. Cate, my sister, was the pinnacle of a good person. She got some kind of environmental studies degree from Stanford, then she joined the peace core. She met her husband, Alec, in the peace core. They've settled down back home. He teaches at a high school, and she works for the EPA. They've got two cute little kids, Charlie, and Leah. Leah's the oldest in second grade, and Charlie's in kindergarten. My mom and dad live close to them in Akron. I'm the black sheep in my family. I left and never came back, plus, I've had no interest in really starting a family either. My mom, dad and sister are nice, soft, and caring people. Each of them work in the community, go to church, feed the homeless, take care of the old, that type of stuff on the daily. I've got to be brutally honest; I never picked up their service attitude. I'll gladly help old and sick people, but I don't actively search out the opportunities like I should. That also makes me stick out like a sore thumb in my family.

We arrived in a nice middle class neighborhood. The house in front of us, was in a typical suburb. It was a brick two story with a green door and a nice lawn. I parked the car in the drive way and noticed my parents car already parked. I knocked lightly on the door and entered it.

"Cate? Mom? Dad?" I called from the entry way. To our left was a living room, littered with toys and to our right was the stairs to the upper level.

"Lucy?" Cate yelled. She rushed from the kitchen in the back of the house to greet us. She gave me a long hug. She made her way to Chris and offered her hand. Like me, she has brown hair and brown eyes. But her's, aren't dull like mine, they're lively and happy.

"I'm Cate O'Malley."

"Chris Evans. Nice to met you." He said shaking her hand. She gavr him a warm smile, and if the name rings a bell she doesn't show it. We followed her deeper into the house to see Leah and Charlie showing something off to my parents.

"Hey Mom, Dad. Hi Leah, and Charlie." I said smiling at them. My parents stood up to hug me. They shook hands with Chris, and the warm greetings continued. Leah and Charlie ran up to hug me.

"Oh my gosh, you guys are so big! Charlie have you lost a tooth!"

"Yeah! I got a dollar from the tooth fairy!"

"That is so cool! What did you do with the dollar?"

"I put it in my piggy bank." He stated playing around with a toy he had. We shuffled into the dining room for dinner. I sat next to Chris who sat next to Alec, Cate's husband. We sat across from Leah and Charlie.

"So, Leah, do you like school this year?"

"Yeah." She answered quietly. Her brown hair just brushes her shoulders and it was tangly and messy. She had these bright brown eyes that melted hearts left and right. She was quiet like I am, but she's sweet like Cate is.

"What's your favorite subject."

"Math"

"Thats my girl!" I cheered giving her a high five.

"I hated math" Chris admitted

"I don't like it either." Charlie pointed out.

"Charlie what do you like to do in school?"

"Recess." He replied and Chris bursted out laughing.

"What do you learning?" Cate asked in her mom voice. She emphasizes the word learning.

"I don't know."

"You like reading. He's at a second grade reading level." Cate proudly bragged.

"That's awesome buddy. I liked reading a lot better than math too." Chris told Charlie making him smile.

"So Lucy how long are you in Spain for?" My mom asked looking at me pleasantly. I stopped my chewing. Chris just turned his head at me, hiding his surprise and hurt. I haven't told him. I just couldn't. I didn't want to.

"A couple months, longer maybe. How ever long it takes to get the job done." I answered quietly. Since I was the head designer for the set they wanted me on set. The drafts weren't 100% done, so we had to design on the go. That is why I was required to go to Spain for filming. I could feel Chris' unhappiness, he was upset and had every right to be.

"Well, those spanish classes you took will come in handy." My dad said shoveling food into his mouth.

"That was in high school. I pretty much forget everything."

"I just can't believe you're signed with Sony. That's amazing." Cate gushed and I wanted to disappear.

"She worked hard for that deal for sure." Chris commented and his eyes burned into the side of my head. Dinner passed without any more surprises. I helped out with the dishes, just to spend some alone time with Cate.

"I really like Chris" she mentioned thoughtfully. We both looked over at him talking with Alec, and our parents while simultaneously playing with the kids.

"Me too."

"I'm guessing you guys are going to try long distance."

"I don't know. I suppose."

"Lucy, don't let this go. What happened was long ago. You need to let it go. Don't push him away like you usually do."

"You need to stop acting like you know everything." I snapped glaring at her.

"Lucy don't do this. I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry too." Silence.

"Leah and Charlie miss you. We all do."

Leah wants to be just like you she says."

"I miss you guys too. After Spain I'll come back for maybe a longer stay."

"We would really like that. I'm sure Charlie would also enjoy seeing Chris again." Cate commented nodding her head to see Charlie playing with Chris. He gave Chris some Legos and they were building something.

"How's everything with Alec?" Cate and Alec hit a rough patch a couple years after Charlie came around.

"We're going to stay together for the kids. We go to marriage counseling, I guess it helps. It's hard to trust him though." She said empty. Alec spent a lot of money and never told Cate that, so now they were digging themselves out of debt. I had been around enough failed relationships to be more than wary. Cate, my parents, myself had all failed. And we all stayed because we thought it was best. Was it a curse? Why do we stay and suffer? Are we that numb that feeling something even heartbreak was worth it? Or do we love enough to endure heartbreak? Would I endure pain for Chris and our relationship?

"That's a long time Cate. You know you can always get out now, it might be easier while the kids are young."

"No, it's just weird. I still love him, of course I do. But it's different now. In love, the very basis is trust and now that foundation is gone. All thats left is the empty love. The kind you keep because there's no real reason to let go. It's like we're to lazy to divorce. You know?" We left Cate's house somber, but faked a happy smile. As soon as I got into the car Chris asked why.

"Why didn't you tell me!" He yelled making me wince. I gripped the steering wheel hard.

"Because I didn't want to count. I know you, and I know me. We would just be counting the minutes until I left instead of enjoying each other. It would burn in the back of our heads, and we would never just relax." I defended staying calm. Chris fell silent the entire car ride and the tension was thick. There was too many feelings bubbling up at the top. He was quiet the entire elevator ride. His silence was tiring me.

"Please say something." I softly pleaded as we entered the hotel room.

"Don't you think we should have talked about this?" Chris sharply pointed out.

"Talk about me going or not, or talk about how to deal with me going? Because there was no other choice, I was always going to go and if you wanted to deal with that fine and if you didn't fine."

"Jesus Christ." He mumbled running a hand down your face. "You're a fucking robot. You'd really be fine either way?"

He gave me a look that made me uncomfortably shift. I crossed my arms and looked away from him. "I wouldn't have a choice would I? I know I did the wrong thing, I just didn't think—"

"You never think." Chris interrupted half joking. "There's two people in this relationship. You might be okay going robotic, but I can't. I don't want to."

"Okay then don't. What do you want Chris?"

Chris sighed playing a hand on his hip. He shook his head. "I don't want you to go, but I know that you are, and I'm happy for you. But I don't want to lose you."

"I don't want to lose you either."

"I thought you said you'd be fine either way." He probed

Rolling my eyes I admitted, "One would make me less fine than the other."

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"Don't pull this shit again."

"Don't worry, I've got plenty of other shit to pull."

Chris rolled his eyes and sighed. "I'm going to miss you."

"I'm going to miss you too, Chris."

He kissed me in a way that my legs threatened to give out. I wanted to melt into him. We fumbled into the bedroom and I pushed him onto the bed. I slid into his lap kissing him straddling one of his legs. His hand slid up and down my body lighting me up, till all I felt was this fuzzy, warm feeling. His body was warm, hard and seemed to engulf me with every touch, and I wanted it too. My dress slipped off and for the first time he could see me. He continued kissing me down my neck, collar bone and chest.

"I didn't know you had all these tattoos." He mumbled taking in all of me.

"I've got three, I don't think thats a lot." I whispered, my fingers traced his cheek as he looked up at me. His eyes were so painfully blue, they're beautiful. He touched each one and smiled as I shiver. I've got one just under my breast, and one on my hip and one down my spine. The one under my breast says breathe. It was my first. The second is of a flower pattern and fills out my right hip and a bit of my thigh. The one down my spine is the newest one. It says 'I must become a lion hearted girl' in light clean cursive.

"Tell me what they mean to you."

"Later, just kiss me."

We continued to explore each others bodies, like we have all the time in the world. Just simply enjoying each other, enjoying being kissed and kissing, enjoying pleasing and being pleased.

I rested my head on Chris chest, running my fingers through the contours of his stomach lazily. It was close to two in the morning, but we couldn't sleep, we didn't want to. His arm was either playing with my hair or it was running down the tattoo on my spine.

"Chris, I'm going to be away for awhile, if you find—" someone else.

"No, Lucy I won't. I don't think I ever will."