"Hey, where's Audrey?" Jack poked his head into the room. Lori took out one earbud as she looked up. "She left an hour ago."

"You didn't go with her?" Jack asked, leaning against the door frame. 

"Neither did you." Lori shot back defensively.

"No, I mean, she didn't want to go alone."

"Yeah, she went with Eli." Lori remarked with an impatient sigh.

"Eli?" Jack chuckled nervously, "Old friend, Eli?"

"More like old boyfriend Eli." Lori snickered, eyes widening when she saw the look on Jack's face. She gulped, "Unless she said old friend to you."

"He's her ex-boyfriend?" Jack bellowed, stepping forward. "Why didn't- what is-"

Lori noticed his face getting red, his hands pushing through his hair. "No. No, no, no, no." She stood up, laughing to lighten the mood. "Not an ex-boyfriend." She twirled her hands around in the air, trying to think.

"Not an ex-boyfriend or not an old friend, Lori?" Jack put his hands on her shoulders to stop her pacing. He narrowed his eyes to get a read on her. She was a difficult one to read, Lori Nadar. Insanely smart, and yet a total party girl, and a ditsy one at that.

"An ex-friend boy?" Lori joked, flashing him her perfectly white smile. Jack pushed away from her and walked out of the room, already pulling his phone out.

Lori panicked at her accidental blunder. Why is everyone always involving me in their drama, she thought, I'm only here to watch the drama, not get dragged into it. She rushed out to the hallway.

"Jack!" She called, stopping him from dialing. He looked up. "You broke up with her."

"What?" Jack scoffed. "I said I thought it would be good for us to take a break."

"That sounds like breaking up."

"It's not." Jack rolled his eyes, "You'd know that if you ever had a relationship for more than a week."

"Whatever you say, Captain Jack." Lori smirked at his reddening face, "I'm just telling you what it sounded like to her." She shrugged innocently, "Oh, and he's definitely and ex-something." She winked animatedly and continued to smirk as he stormed away, proud of herself for covering her tracks.

****

"Ready to go?" Audrey asked, leaned against her little red car. Eli stood in the parking lot outside of Phoebe's apartment. His breath swirled circles in the air as he looked between Audrey and her car.

"How far away does your Mom live?" Eli asked ominously. 

"About 4 hours." Audrey replied as he hefted his duffel bag on top of hers in the trunk. "Why, you don't trust Rusty?" She smiled and patted the hood of her car.

"You've named it Rusty?" Eli asked with a short laugh.

"Yep."

"That's not a great sign." He shivered from the cold and walked around to the passenger seat to get in.

****

"I liked that part when you talk about people being like galaxies." Audrey said, peeling off her jacket.

"Made out of a million beautiful things to become one spectacular phenomenon." Eli recited quietly. That had all been about her, but he didn't want to embarrass her further, not when she was warming up to him again.

She still managed to be wearing a dress, even in this weather. It made him feel warm, at home, when he saw her wearing one again. Woolly black tights underneath a burgundy, long sleeved dress. "There won't be any time to change before we get there." Audrey commented, as if she were reading his mind. 

"Do they know I'm coming?" Eli asked. 

"Nope." Audrey answered, glancing over to him to share a nervous smile. 

"So what's going to happen when I arrive?" 

"Absolutely nothing," Audrey sighed wistfully, "That's  the beauty of it. They'll never say a thing that's not nice or welcoming as long as I bring a guest." 

"But, I'm not just a guest." 

"Try not to get too hot headed, there." Audrey laughed, which Eli took a moment to soak in before he continued, "I just mean, assuming they know who I am... What do they think of me?" 

Audrey's big, hazel eyes flicked into the rear view mirror to look directly into his. "Honestly?" She waited for him to nod, and then sighed, "They think you were a two week fling. And that I made more of it than it was." 

There she was. Good old, honesty Audrey. Eli cracked a smile. "A fling, huh?" He considered this, looking out the window. "Well, that makes it sound a lot more scandalous than it was." He joked, making Audrey laugh again. "I know, right? Much cooler." She added.

A small comfortable silence settled over them. For the first time, Eli broke it. "You didn't make more of it than it was." He claimed, quietly. 

"I didn't?" She responded, also quietly. It was strange, whispering back and forth in the comfort of her own vehicle, but she didn't think she could ask any louder. "That would be impossible." Eli whispered back. Audrey's lips twisted in an effort not to grin. 

"Besides," Eli resumed in his normal voice, "I think me coming over kind of debunks that theory." 

Audrey let go of her apprehension and grinned fully, "My thoughts exactly." She passed Eli her phone, "Put some music on."

Eli scrolled through her playlist for a minute before letting out one of his small laughs. "What?" She laughed yet again, everything sparkly erupting inside of her. That's the moment she knew she was in trouble. Uncontrollable laughter and sparkly feelings? The power of Eli was back.

"Do you have any music from this century on your phone?" He asked, amused at this new fact about Audrey, but not surprised.

"I'm not done with the old one yet." Audrey retorted, and snatched her phone back at the red light. Eli's eyebrows furrowed as a song started to play. "The Beach Boys?"

"Yes, The Beach Boys!" Audrey feigned offence and Eli grimaced. She raised an eyebrow mischievously and turned the volume up. "Round round get around, I get around, get around ooh-ooh-oooooh." Audrey sang out at the top of her lungs, the car swaying a little as she shimmied her shoulders.

"Okay, okay." Eli laughed at her antics, turning it down. "I apologize for insulting The Beach Boys." He held his hands up in surrender, and Audrey could see, with his jacket off, that his scars had faded significantly. It was a sort of comfort, knowing they'd been untouched for so long. 

Tearing her eyes away from his arms, she gulped. Desperately. Desperately, she wanted those breathtaking words in his book to be true. All those things he said- all the things he was saying- were so dazzling, so loving... Yet, they all became unhinged under the vagueness surrounding his three year absence. 

The most insane thing of all was that Audrey knew she would forgive Eli. She knew that as soon as he explained everything, she'd forgive him in a heartbeat. She knew Eli. And she knew his reasons would be valid and perhaps even out of love. 

Phoebe had been right about her. Audrey was scared. Petrified, really. Because, she had the feeling that once she heard Eli's story, she wouldn't just forgive him. No, those feelings would flood her just as they had three years prior, and she would be unequivocally in love with Eli, with absolutely no transgressions or mistrust to stop them. 

Those thoughts swung like a pendulum in Audrey's mind, the thoughts her Mom and Grandma had spent three years drowning her in. That she was young, that it was infatuation, that falling in love in two weeks was impossible. That 'meant to be' was a made up concept. Childish. 

"You're quiet." Eli said, after almost a full hour of silence, cheery 60's music playing in the background. Audrey could sense his concern. "I was thinking," She said, gripping the steering wheel a little tighter, "You seem different." 

"So do you." He said, and Audrey narrowed her eyes at his retort. 

"Okay," He smiled one of his small smiles,  "So, I'll go first."