Another few weeks had passed and the guys returned home from their tour. Leighanne, Leigh and Kristen were there to pick them up. AJ looked around for Alissa and then remembered that she wouldn’t be there. She would never be there again and AJ died a little more inside. He turned down the guys’ invitation to go back to Brian’s and hailed a cab to take him home.

He’d been there for about an hour and the loneliness was crushing him. He finally called Nick and asked him to come over. Nick showed up about an hour later.

“What’s wrong J?”

“I can’t do this.”

Nick sighed. “What happened this time?”

“Do you remember the night we went out?”

“Yeah, you left with some blonde. All I saw was you guys heading out and then you showed up the next day at breakfast looking like you hadn’t slept in days. Didn’t work out like you thought huh?”

“No, it made how I felt even worse. I thought if I could just spend the night with her, it would be one step in the right direction. Instead, all I could think of was Alissa. She’s the only person I want to be with, to kiss, to spend the night with and she’s gone.”

Nick thought carefully before he spoke again.

“J, you need to make a decision and stick with it. Are you going to try to find Alissa and fix this or are you going to move on? You have to pick one or the other man. You can’t do both.” Nick waited for AJ to say something and when he didn’t Nick decided to give AJ his opinion.

“I think you need to find a way to resolve this with Alissa. If you’re still angry with her, then just tell her and end it. Or tell her how much you love her. You’ve gotta do it soon.”

AJ knew Nick was right but had no idea which direction he wanted.