He looked different. Older, healthier. But he was still AJ. The man who stole her heart and still held onto part of it. It wasn’t like she was still in love with him after so many years. But, as her first love, he still had a part of her heart that no one else ever could take.
“Hi,” replied Mandy, a soft smile crossing her lips. “You look –“ Amazing? Sober? Happy? “ – Great,” she settled on, taking an awkward step forward, unsure if they would meet in the middle for a welcomed hug hello or if a simple yet impersonal handshake would suffice.
“So do you,” AJ told her honestly, stepping around Kevin’s chair and enveloping the girl from his past into an embrace. “It’s so good to see you,” he told her, his voice muffled by her hair. It smelled delicious. But what girl didn’t have great smelling hair? It was one of the many – many, many – things that drove men wild about them. “It’s been too long.”
Mandy would be lying if she said she hadn’t thought of this moment; what she’d say, how it would be, what song would be playing, what smile would be on his face, and hers. But here in the moment, hugging the man she once thought as her forever – who now had his own forever – she was virtually speechless.
She smiled, breaking off the hug that was bordering on too long. “Yes, it has,” she agreed. Placing her hands on Kevin’s shoulders, she smiled down at the man. “Hi, Kevin,” she said, hugging him as he twisted in his seat to greet Mandy.
“Hey, kid,” Kevin answered with a grin. “Is this your friend?”
Mandy looked over at Erica, who was practically vibrating with excitement. “Uhm, no,” Mandy teased, laughing at her near-hysteric friend. “Yeah, guys, this is my friend Erica. Erica, this… wait. You probably know more about them that I do!”
Howie let out one quiet snicker – Mandy definitely knew one of them a lot better than Erica ever would – before composing himself and holding out his hand to the overly excited mother of two. “Nice to meet you, Erica,” he greeted.
“Hi!” Erica replied, her voice several octaves higher than normal. The others introduced themselves before shifting positions and inviting the two girls to join them at their table.
“So, what in the world are you guys doing at here?” Mandy asked once they were seated, making a face. She loved the bar, but not so much the town she was stuck living in. “You realise this town is a suckfest, right?”
“They had a show tonight in Cedar Park,” Erica answered before any of the guys could. “But some of the pipes at the arena burst, so the show’s been canceled.” Seeing everyone looking at her, Erica blushed a deep shade of crimson. “Sorry,” she mumbled out, kicking herself for being so awkward.
“That’s right, though,” answered Kevin kindly, not wanting to make Erica feel silly. “So we’re going to try it tomorrow night, but if it’s not fixed, we’ll just come back before we go over to Asia in October.”
“Plus, we heard this place had the best burgers and prettiest girls,” AJ added flirtatiously. He was married – happily. But once a flirt, always a flirt. He knew he wouldn’t act on any of his flirty comments. It was pure innocent.
“Can’t argue with that,” Mandy teased back, ignoring the fluttery stomach AJ’s innocent comment gave her. Purely innocent.
“So I guess we oughta ask what you’re doing in Texas,” Kevin stated, interrupting the little flirt session that could go on and on with AJ and Mandy. He knew his friend loved his wife very much and wouldn’t ever jeopardize his relationship, but he also knew that Mandy still held a special place in his heart and Kevin wasn’t sure how far things could get with the two former lovebirds.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” answered Mandy with a laugh. “No, I moved here like… seven or eight years ago. Uhm… got married, and he’s from Cedar Park, so…” she held her hands out in a voila pose and shrugged.
“You’re married?” AJ repeated, the words sounding weird to him as he heard his own voice. The thought of Mandy being married was odd to him, almost unsettling. He didn’t expect her to still be pining after him for the rest of her life, of course – he wasn’t – but he found himself almost embarrassingly jealous of her husband.
“Uhm, well… divorced now,” Mandy admitted, casting her gaze downwards and twirling the bracelet on her wrist. Telling the happily married AJ that she was now unhappily divorced was more than a little awkward. “I have a little boy,” she said quickly, turning the topic away from yet another failed relationship of hers. “Gavin… he just turned four. He’s kind of a big deal,” she added, smiling the proud mommy smile as she pulled out her phone to show off her son.
AJ smiled and reached out for Mandy’s phone, peering over his glasses at the picture of the white-blonde little boy holding a fishing pole twice as tall as he. “That is one good looking kid,” he commented, holding the phone over to Kevin and Howie could see. “He looks just like you.”
“Lucky for him!” cracked Erica, her dislike for her friend’s ex now apparent to the three men.
“Thanks,” Mandy replied, taking her phone back from AJ. “Let me see your kids!” she instructed, laughing as the three fathers scrambled to pull out their own phones. “Isn’t it weird? Being parents? Last time we all sat around… “ she paused, remembering the last time she’d been with AJ. It wasn’t a happy memory. It was still by far the worst moment of her life, worse than her husband telling her he wanted a divorce. Way worse, because she wanted the divorce, too. She hadn’t wanted to lose AJ.
“We were all just kids ourselves,” she finished, casting a glance at AJ and wondering if he was thinking about their last time together, too.
AJ looked down, fumbling with his phone and feeling Mandy’s eyes on him. He knew she was thinking about the last time they saw each other, and the memory made him sick. He knew he wrecked her, shattered her and there wasn’t anything he could do to ever right it. Now being a father to a little girl himself, he wondered how he could have let himself hurt Mandy so badly. If anyone ever did to his little Ava what he did to Mandy, AJ would be behind bars.
“This is Ava,” AJ said after what felt like a lengthy pause, handing Mandy his phone. He watched her as she looked at the picture; a small smile forming on her face but he couldn’t read it like he could years before.
“She’s absolutely beautiful,” Mandy told AJ, smiling softly at the picture of AJ’s tattooed covered arms enveloping the pure, innocent little girl. She knew, despite his struggles and addictions, that he was made to be a father. The smiling faces looking at her from the photo proved that to her.
“Who’d have thought, huh?” AJ joked, taking the phone back from Mandy and handing her Howie’s. The old friends spent a few moments looking at each other’s kids, laughing and exchanging stories about the trials and tribulations of being parents before the loud ring from Mandy’s phone interrupted their conversation.
“Sorry,” Mandy apologised, sighing as she saw the name ‘Josh’ across the screen. “Hello?”
“Where are you?”
Even though they were divorced, he was still demanding and controlling. As much as Mandy adored her son, she wished her break up from Josh could have been a clean break. “Out with Erica and the girls,” she answered shortly. “Why?”
“Cause I need you to take Gavin.”
“Right now?” Mandy asked incredulously, grabbing Erica’s phone from beside her and looking at the time. “He should be asleep!”
“He is,” answered Josh, his voice as short as Mandy’s. “But I gotta go. Can I drop him at your house in like twenty minutes?”
Mandy scoffed, but Josh didn’t say anything. “Are you serious?” she asked, irritated at the fact that her ex would wake up their son and drive him all the way across town just so he could go off and be a single guy for a few hours.
“Yeah, so I’ll meet you there?”
“I fucking suppose!” Mandy snapped, hearing the click as the line went dead. She sighed and ran her hand through her hair. The last thing she wanted to do was leave. She felt if she left, it would be another ten or more years before she saw AJ again. She didn’t want that.
“What’s going on?” Erica asked, a scowl forming on her face. She couldn’t stand Josh, and if he was going to get in the way of her hanging out with three fifths of the Backstreet Boys for the rest of the evening, he’d better start sleeping with one eye open.
Mandy shrugged, annoyed at Josh and humiliated that the phone call was airing all the dirty laundry from their tumultuous relationship in front of an ex who was so much happier than she was. “I guess he’s got stuff to do so he’s dropping Gavin off in, like, twenty minutes at my house.”
“What!?” Erica and AJ both yelped in unison. “But I don’t want to go home!” Erica whined. “My kids are there! And my dumb husband!” And the Backstreet Boys are here! she thought to herself, sulking like a teenager.
And I don’t want you to go, AJ thought, surprising himself.
“I mean… you guys could all come to my house?” asked Mandy, a hopeful tone to her voice. As quickly as she spoke the words, she dismissed them with a wave of her hand. “Never mind, I know you’re crazy busy and everything like that…”
“No, we’re not,” AJ assured her, his comment drawing looks from Howie and Kevin. He ignored them, pressing on. “We could definitely come and hang out… it’s been too long to let you disappear after fifteen minutes,” he added, this comment directed more at Howie and Kevin.
Erica’s eyes widened with excitement. “That would be so fun!” she squealed happily, not knowing enough of Mandy’s past with AJ to try and talk her out of a bad idea. Which it was. A very bad idea.
