Later that afternoon, I called my mom to let her know about my move. My relationship with my parents continued to improve; however, it was still fragile. They didn’t trust my ability to make mature decisions and the only thing I could do to remedy the situation was to prove them wrong. I knew they wouldn’t understand or approve of me moving into Mason’s apartment. They had never met Mason and I had only mentioned him to them a few times, so dropping the “hey, we are moving in together… sorta,” wasn’t going to sit well. I didn’t want to lie to her, so I opted for the limited, vague information route and hoped a lot of questions wouldn’t follow. Luckily, she accepted the story that I had a friend who had pre-paid for an apartment through the school year that had to move suddenly, so I was asked to stay there and house sit.

After hanging up with her, I began folding my clothes up and packing up bags. I couldn’t believe that I was actually moving into Mason’s apartment ~ squee!!. I plugged my Ipod in, and danced around my room and singing “Better Together” along with Jack Johnson as I continued to organize my things. Before I knew it, I looked at the clock and saw it was time to meet Max. After I loaded what I could of my clothes and necessities into my car, I wondered when or how I should tell Tessa about my moving out. The girl was seriously never at our place, so other than the money part of it, I couldn’t see that she would care much. I left her a note to call me and locked the door. I had spent my last night in that apartment.

Max was waiting for me at what had become “our” table at The Chocolate Bar. He already had my gluttonous treat and vanilla latte sitting in front of my chair when I arrived.

“Hey sweetheart, how was your day?” He stood up to hug and kiss me on the cheek when I reached the table. He had a smile on his face and a sparkle in his eye that I had only seen once or twice in the last couple of months.

I arched my eyebrow at him, “Really? Sweetheart? If you are going to break my nickname rule, at least come up with something original,” I teased. “And please nothing with wings…”

He tossed his head back laughing, “Damn, if you didn’t like ‘sweetheart,’ I was going with ‘flamingo.’

“Flamingo?!?” I screeched. “Why in the world would you call me flamingo? That’s hideous!”

He was laughing so hard he could barely talk. “Because you have skinny legs and you’re always wearing pink.” I looked down at my shirt, and sure enough, it was pink. Damn him!

I was more excited than usual for our talk because so much had happened that I needed to tell him about. Max was definitely the closest friend I had; he knew practically everything about me, and what he didn’t know was just because we hadn’t covered that subject yet. I found it so easy to talk to him, and even though I knew how great of a guy he was when he and Evie were together, I had really come to understand why Evie had fallen in love with him so quickly.

Once we were settled and ready to overindulge in empty calories and self-gossip, I blurted out, “I saw Ash. I forgave him.”

Max cocked his head and smirked. “Not what I was expecting from you today, but go ahead… spill. Where? When? How? What happened?”

I proceeded to relive the previous day’s events to him from the butterfly landing on my leg to the time Ash left the music store. I told him about how I felt relieved but how I couldn’t stop thinking about all of the good times that we had shared.

“Do you believe in soul mates?” He asked, interrupting my rambling. I sat silent for a few minutes as I pondered his question.

“I’m not really sure,” I began. “I have a lot of contradictory thoughts and feelings about it. I believe that some people, for whatever reason, have an immediate attraction or connection with another person that’s physical, mental, and emotional, even though they don’t know each other… like on a different level. But I also don’t think that God would be so cruel to just make one person on this planet that makes you feel like that. What are the odds that everyone is going to run into their soul mate during their lifetime? Would he really want so many people to not have the opportunity to experience that kind of love? Maybe you have more than one soul mate. I don’t know…” My voice trailed off. I looked into his pain-filled blue eyes and my heart broke for him.

“I know people thought that Evie and I were crazy with how fast things moved between the two of us,” he spoke softly, looking down at his fidgeting hands on the table. “They thought we were young and just caught up in the passion and all that, but it was so much more. It was like the moment we met, we had known each other forever. She really was my other half. I don’t even know how to explain it, but I knew immediately.” He looked back up with tears threatening.

“I can only hope that your theory is right,” he continued. “I hope that there is someone else that can make me feel the way she did, but I highly doubt it. I’m afraid I will never feel that way again.”

“Don’t say that, Max. You still have so much living to do; you don’t know who you are going to meet or what’s going to happen.”

“I’m not saying that I will never fall in love again. I believe that you can love multiple people in your lifetime… even at the same time,” he cocked his eyebrow at me knowingly. “But I think you have only one soul mate.” He reached his hands across the table and grabbed mine. “You said something today that made me realize something very important. There are thousands of people, millions even, that never get the chance to meet their soul mate and experience the indescribable feelings of completeness and bliss that I did, even if it was for a short time. I’ve been too busy focusing on the time that I don’t get to spend with her rather than appreciating the time I did have.” He smiled slightly.

“She would want you to move on Max,” I said nervously, unsure of how he would react to my words. “She would want you to love again.”

“I know. I just feel guilty. I feel like I’m cheating on her if I even think of another girl like that,” he explained. “It is so overwhelming that I don’t even bother. I’ve been on one date since she died, Scarlett, and it was awful. I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. I refused to touch her, kiss her… nothing… I couldn’t.”

“There’s no time table, ya know? It’s okay to still feel like that, but just know that one day you will be ready to love again. And when that day comes, don’t be scared… don’t hold back. You deserve to be happy.” I squeezed his hand supportively.

“Do you think Ash is your soul mate?” The question caught me completely off-guard and I just stared at him helplessly. The look in my eye and failure to respond answered what we both probably already knew.

“So why are you with Mason?” he continued to prod.

“Because he’s good to me and he loves me and I love him. Since the day we met he’s been there for me, and the day I came back, he welcomed me without reservation. I’m happy when I’m with him ~ he makes me smile and laugh and think everything is going to be okay. He makes me feel like I’m the most important thing in the world… that nothing comes before me. No matter what I feel for Ash, I can’t forget that he never made me first. Your soul mate shouldn’t be your dirty little secret. I didn’t deserve to be treated like that.”

“You deserve to be treated like the incredibly beautiful person you are, Scarlett. Always.”

“I think I will be.” Grinning, I told Max my other piece of news. “Mason asked me to move in to his apartment here in Houston, and I said yes. I’m actually moving in tonight.”

Max smiled back at me. “I’m happy with whatever makes you happy, sweetheart. Now finish up your coffee so we can get you to your new place.”

MASON

The two weeks that Scarlett and I had together at my apartment before I left, I spent showing her how great things would be if we lived together permanently. Despite her protests, every morning when she showered and dressed for school, I made her coffee and breakfast. I offered to take her and pick her up from her school each day, but she usually declined saying it wasn’t necessary. On nights we didn’t go to the bar, we would spend the evening cooking dinner together and watching movies. I had never before thought about living with anyone. Shit, I had never wanted any girl to even come to my apartment, I used the bed at the bar for that, but it was different with Scarlett. In just a few months, she had me playing house like I was Mr. Fucking Responsibility... and the kicker was I wanted to.

I assumed that the guys would give me hell about always being up her ass and not hanging out with them other than when we were practicing, but they stayed pretty quiet. I think they all got it, plus they were excited about the move and living in Austin. They also didn’t mind that when I was with Scarlett, I didn’t stay out all night getting fucked up and dragging my ass to practice the next day feeling like shit. She grounded me, made me focus, and inspired me to be a better person for her.

So our living together in Houston was like a trial run ~ if it went well, hopefully she would be open to moving to Austin. I had decided that I was going to go there on the first of the month and get settled in the apartment. Once I figured out my routine with rehearsals and shows and shit, I was going to ask her to move there and go to school at UT. It wasn’t Rice, but it was still a respectable school. I felt much better knowing that until then, she would be living in my apartment… surrounded by my things… sleeping in my bed.. our bed.

In the blink of a fucking eye, it was the day before I was supposed to leave and I thought I was going to be sick to my stomach. We had planned on spending the day at the house just relaxing and hanging out together, but the weight of the pending goodbye hung heavy in the air. We were tiptoeing around each other, neither of us wanting to actually talk about it. Even though we both knew the day was coming, we had done a pretty good job of not thinking about it until then.

After breakfast, we sat side-by-side on the couch staring at the TV, but neither of us paid attention to what was on. The thoughts were running so rapidly through our minds, I’m sure a bystander could have heard the brain activity just by being in the room. I repositioned myself and reached my arm down to touch her leg and she jumped nearly two feet in the air. Realizing what she had done, she looked up in my eyes and I could see the worry on her face.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pull away,” she apologized sincerely. “I’m just…”

I stood up abruptly and said, “Get dressed and throw on some shoes. Let’s get out of here.”

“What? Where are we going?”

Reaching down and grabbing her hands, I yanked her up off the couch and up against my body. I wrapped my arms around her waist and leaned down to capture her soft lips in mine. God, I was really going to miss feeling her sexy ass body next to me every day.

“I’m not sure, but it’s a beautiful day outside, and we need some fresh air. So, go get ready.” I playfully spanked her ass as she turned around for the bedroom and I sauntered after her to get dressed myself.