Liz was cleaning and unpacking some new curios into a large, old china cabinet inside of Dolan & Sons Antiques, or at least this is what she had started doing before she was distracted by her neighbor outside the gold-lettered window of her store. For the past few minutes, Liz had been attempting to subtly observe Steve in his navy baseball cap speaking to a woman with short, bright red hair with her back to Liz.

From her vantage point behind the cabinet, Liz peered around with one eye and noticed that Steve was holding two "to-go" cups with lids in his hands. His expression looked tired. Steve's lips started moving, then stopped a moment later. He must not have liked what the redhead was saying because Steve started shaking his head, said something else, and walked past her. The redhead turned. Liz thought for a brief second that her face looked familiar, but when the redhead's eyes met hers, Liz quickly withdrew behind the china cabinet as she heard the front door of the shop chime open. Liz peered around the opposite side of the cabinet.

"Hey, Steve," she greeted, aiming for nonchalance, though admittedly, she was nervous she may have been caught spying. In her defense, it seemed like a very tense exchange, and Liz had slightly started to worry.

Steve found her and smiled, "Good morning." He started making his way to the rear of the shop.

Liz waited until Steve had reached her side of the cabinet, "What can I do for you?" She finished polishing an amethyst glass vase and set it on one of the shelves within the china cabinet. She wanted to ask what had gone on outside but thought better of it. She could be an ex-girlfriend... Liz pondered to herself.

"I, um... I wanted to thank you for helping me with my mobile phone again yesterday," Steve extended one of the cups he was holding, "I hope you like coffee?" Liz had come across Steve by the mailboxes in the apartment building's entrance hall a few days ago. His eyebrows had been furrowed and directed at a new smartphone with which he was struggling. She had been teaching him about some of the features and answering his questions daily ever since.

Liz smiled, surprised, "Oh, yes! You didn't have to do that," her fingers grazed his as she accepted the warm cup with both hands, "But thank you. I was thinking about going for a cup soon." She took a sip. The coffee had already cooled to a drinkable temperature. She tasted cream and sugar, just how she preferred.

"Thinking, with no intention of actually going for several hours," Steve ventured with what might have been a smirk he was trying to hold back.

Liz picked up the now empty box that had been filled with items she had been cleaning and putting on display with one hand and started walking toward the door to the back room half-turned towards Steve, "Pops always reminds me to take a break sooner or later." Liz glanced out the gold-lettered window. The redhead was nowhere in sight. Liz found that fact relieving.

"You certainly do keep busy." Steve still had a small smile. He was slowly following her toward the glass counter that ran along the side of the shop from the door to the back room to the gold-lettered window in front, perusing the aisle as he went.

"Someone's got to keep this place in order. Pops is no spring chicken anymore," Liz said jokingly and opened the back door without looking.

"I heard that, young lady!" Pops scolded in a mocking tone. Liz jumped as she almost walked into him.

"Sorry, Pops," Liz chuckled lightly.

"No blood, no foul, Sunshine." The old man smiled as he stood in the doorway carrying his cane off the ground. "The dining server I re-stained yesterday is ready to come out. Would you help me move it?"

"You know I don't want you doing any heavy lifting, Pops." Liz was adamant. The last time Pops had tried to move something too large, it was a miracle a dresser had not completely crushed his foot. Pops had started using the cane after being sentenced to a soft cast for almost two months by his doctor. Pops had only been free of the brace a few weeks now, but Liz insisted that he keep the cane near him until the dull twinge in his step was completely gone, and the old man indulged her.

"Well, then it's a good thing you have a strapping, young lad here to help you." Pops motioned his cane toward Steve, who had given the old man his full attention. Liz felt her face beginning to turn red as her heart jumped in her chest. Very subtle, Pops... she thought to herself. Liz was convinced that the old man wanted Steve on her non-existent romantic agenda. Not that she minded spending time with Steve, which was growing more and more frequent (albeit mostly involving Liz providing him technological advice and lending him some movies), but that was beside the point. Liz, plainly, did not like the idea of being set up.

"I don't mind," Steve stepped forward after a moment's silence with a smile, "It'd be the least I could do after everything you've both done for me."

"Thank you, lad! You know, I could get used to having an extra set of hands around here." Pops led Steve through the door to the back room. Liz followed, trying to hide the embarrassed look on her face and trying even harder not to notice Steve's apparent strapping-ness. On second thought, maybe spending time with Steve was not the best idea given her clear overreaction to a comment about his physique. Perfect as— No, don't even finish that thought, Liz mentally scolded herself from behind Steve, Stop it, Liz. You're only going to get your hopes up again...

As it turned out, that extra pair of hands around the shop once in a while was not all that bad. Steve would show up in the shop from time to time throughout the week with a much-needed coffee for Liz and a chocolate donut for Pops (the man loved his sweets) when it seemed like he had some time to kill. Wednesday afternoons seemed to be the only sure day for this over subsequent weeks, where Steve would come in with a particularly somber expression. This seemed to dissipate most quickly when Pops started explaining the origins of certain objects in the shop as they went through aisles and eventually even through shelves in the back room. It was not long before Pops was trying to convince Steve to accept his invitation to come over for dinner. Steve, however, ever the gentlemen, would graciously decline as he did not want to impose. When Pops started trying to rope Liz into these dinner invites as what seemed like an incentive for Steve, Liz was grateful to be able to use picking up the Schaeffer twins from school that afternoon as a route of escape from Pops' scheming.

"Sorry, Pops, I need to get Billy and Emma. Catherine will be working late tonight, so I was going to entertain them upstairs. You can handle things here for the rest of the afternoon?" Liz asked, zipping up her white hoodie and slinging her messenger bag over one shoulder.

"Yes, yes, I'll be fine. You forget I'm the one who taught you everything you know about running this place, Sunshine," Pops countered.

Liz smirked mischievously, "What about the new point of sale system?"

Pops glowered at the computer monitor sitting on the counter, "You can take that glorified calculator and throw it out the window for all I care."

Liz snickered, "Easy, Pops. It's not that bad. If Steve can get the hang of these 'new-fangled gadgets', as you like to call them, so can you." She kissed Pops on the cheek before starting towards the front door.

"I'm not sure whether or not I should take that as a compliment." Steve made a half-smile from behind a table filled with old tin wind-up toys. Liz just glanced back at him with a smirk as she left the shop. A fair amount of teasing and playfully snide comments had been slowly making its way into their exchanges, but Liz decided she would keep him wondering about that one. The front door chimed as it opened and then shut behind her.

Liz walked a brisk pace a few blocks over to catch the Metro, weaving in and out of pedestrians meandering down the sidewalk. The Catholic school that the twins attended was only a few stops down the Red Line, but Liz would most certainly be late to collect Billy and Emma if she missed the next train. Liz skipped down the stairs into the underground station and found a vacant kiosk where she purchased a roundtrip ticket and made it through the turnstile just as the car was slowing to a stop at the platform. The station was not particularly crowded as most of the people who used it lived in the immediate semi-suburban area, and it was not quite yet rush hour. The doors to the car opened, and Liz waited for a few people to come out before she entered and found a seat in the nearly empty car with her back towards the window. She pulled out her phone to check some notifications as she waited for the doors to close and the car to start moving. Liz was vaguely aware of two other passengers entering the car. One of them took the seat directly across from her.

"Lizzie?" A familiar voice seemed to question. Liz's glance darted up quickly as the doors of the car sealed shut. She was met with dark eyes framed by a chiseled face with a surprised expression topped with short, thick black hair that was a bit mussed. A sudden shot of adrenaline coursed out from the pit of her stomach to the end of her limbs and back again in a minor panic.

"Jason," Liz almost stuttered. Running into her ex-boyfriend had not quite been part of her expectations for the day, especially since he had been the one to call it off. And move out of the building without any warning whatsoever... Liz reminded herself. She took a slight pleasure in the fact that Jason looked almost as surprised as she felt.

"What are you doing here?" Jason asked. He gazed at her as if thoroughly confused.

The adrenaline spiked to Liz's head, and she felt her eyebrows furrowing into an annoyed expression. Is he serious? She pocketed her phone as she crossed her arms and legs, leaning back in the plastic seat. Her eyes began to narrow on his face into a glare, "What do you mean, what am I doing here? You know I live a few blocks away from this station. Same place you did once."

Jason leaned forward, looking at her intently and propping himself by putting his elbows on his thighs and crossing his hands. "I thought— you were supposed to be in New York."

Liz tilted her head and looked at Jason as if he had sprouted two, eyebrows still furrowed, "Why the hell would I be in New York?"

"I..." Jason looked at the space of floor between his feet, "I found the email you got from Stark Industries. I thought for sure you would nail the interview..."

Liz felt her blood begin to boil, "You went through my email?" she asked incredulously. An edge had crept into her tone.

Jason looked up with narrowed eyes, "You never even told me that you applied for the job."

"I did not apply for the job."

"Oh, please," Jason scoffed and leaned back in his seat again, "Research and Development for Aerospace Technology. Do you seriously expect me to believe that you would pass up a position – at one of the most prestigious companies, I might add – in your field of study? That Masters' Degree hanging above your bed is just for show, then?"

Liz's eyes scanned Jason's, searching for anything that might make this conversation make an atom of sense. It was already longer than the one they had had when Liz found out that Jason was moving out of his unit directly below her on the second floor of the apartment building.

"I did not apply for the job," Liz repeated with emphasis, "Pops had one of his contacts make a call. Thought he was helping me get my life in order." She looked away from Jason to the floor somewhere towards her right at nothing in particular. Liz was determined not to make a scene in public even though she was fuming.

The car slowed and stopped as it reached the next station. A few passengers exited the car as a greater number began spilling into it. Jason took the opportunity to relocate to the empty seat on Liz's left.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Jason's tone had softened. Liz felt his eyes on her. He had positioned himself half-turned towards her in his seat, arm resting on top of the back of her chair. The familiar scent of his cologne wafted subtly in her direction. There seemed to be a calming chemical reaction as the smell hit her brain. Liz mentally cursed as she fought the urge to lean into him, realizing then how much she missed physical contact between her and someone she loved, someone she believed had also loved her. You do not love Jason anymore, Liz reminded herself.

"There was nothing to tell." Liz could not bring herself to look at him. She knew he would see right through her if she did. Liz would never give Jason the satisfaction of telling him that she never had any intention of leaving him behind. Not after what had happened between the two of them. Not after the way he had abandoned her. The doors closed, and the car resumed its course.

"You never went to the interview, did you?" Jason's eyes felt like they were burning a hole in the side of Liz's face. It sounded like he may have started to smile.

"After you moved out, we had a video conference. Turned them down. Couldn't leave Pops all by himself." Liz made an effort to put some distance between herself and Jason. There was a conflict raging inside her, torn between welcoming the closeness of his proximity again and telling him what he could go do with himself.

Jason seemed to notice. He leaned back slightly, "I was an idiot..." He withdrew his arm from around Liz's chair and folded his hands between his knees.

A realization began to dawn on Liz. Any conflict that may have been battling inside her stopped. Anger took over, "That's why you left? You thought I was leaving, so you wanted to beat me to it?"

"It was your ideal gig, Lizzie... I didn't think you would pass it up for anything."

"You obviously don't know me very well." The car began to slow, and Liz stood up to get out at the next stop.

"Much better than you think. Say hello to Billy and Emma for me." Jason began to smile.

"How did you—" Liz seethed, looking down at him while holding onto a metal pole to stabilize herself as the car swayed back and forth.

"You're a creature of habit, sweetheart." Jason's smile transformed into a devious smirk.

"Don't call me that," Liz demanded sharply as the car finally stopped. The doors slid open.

"I'll talk to you later, Lizzie." Jason had the nerve to wink at her.

Liz gave a final scowl, then swiftly exited the car.

* * * Author's Notes * * *

Thank you all for waiting so patiently for this chapter! Real-life has unfortunately been cutting into my writing time, but I promise this story will continue soon. Special thanks to whimsymuse again for being a fantastic beta reader. They are also my kick in the pants to be sure I make time for actually writing the chapters that I have outlined.

Chapters 5 and 6 have already had their plans finalized. Chapter 5 WILL BE posted before September 2015 is over, I promise :-)

As always, comments and votes are very much appreciated and make me happy :-) I always love hearing what my readers think about a story!

Thanks for reading ^__^

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