“Are you going to come with me this weekend?” Howie asked.
“I haven't decided yet.”
“Why not? I think it would be good for us to get away from everything for a couple of days. Just us and the kids.”
“But it's a working weekend for you,” I groaned.
“I'm only going to be working one day – I swear! I want this weekend to be about us,” Howie said as he leaned over and kissed me.
I didn't need much more convincing, “Okay, we'll go. But if the kids go crazy on the airplane, you deal with them!”
Howie laughed, “Okay, they'll be my kids on the plane.”

Amber's View

“You sure you can handle them?” I asked AJ as he picked up Tyler with one arm, the diaper bag and Arrianna's hand in the other.
“I think I can manage for one day, besides I'll be at my mother's house.” AJ walked out to his car and put them in their seats. He walked back over to me. I tried to turn around and walk away but he reached out and grabbed my arm. “I miss you, when will you talk to me?”
“I'll talk to you when I can look at you without seeing the two of you together,” I said as I jerked my arm out of his. I turned around and headed back in the house. I could hear the door of the car slam and then the sound of him driving off.
As soon as the door closed I slid to the floor. I wasn't going to cry, I was tired of crying. I needed to do something. I needed something to take my mind off of AJ. I stared at the empty house and decided that since nobody was home I was just going to do a movie night. I went to the fridge to check what kind of junk food was in the house. There wasn't much of anything, but there was a bottle of Chi-chi's Mudslide. I pulled it out and was pleased to find that it was a new bottle. “Hmmmm…” I said as I headed towards the blender.

“Anybody home?” I heard Nick call out from the foyer.
“I'm in here!” I yelled from the kitchen where I was trying my hardest to open the cap on the bottle of mudslide. “Damn!” I said, as the cap still wouldn't give.
“What's going on in here?” Nick asked following my muffled curses to where I was.
“You would think that if they knew you really needed a drink they wouldn't put the damn lids on so tight!” I said my hands now turning red.
“Here, let me.” Nick took the bottle and in one simple twist he had it off. He laughed as he handed it back to me. “You must have loosened it for me.”
“So, Nick did you come all the way over here just to open a bottle for me or was there an ulterior motive?” I asked not really in the mood to be amused or to hear another one of AJ's friends try to convince me to give him another chance.
“Umm…I just came by to check on Rhonda and the kids.”
I looked at Nick. He turned red and looked the other direction. “Hmmm,” I thought. “Well you just missed them. They took off for a family getaway. This is a chance for them to get away from everyone and try to put their lives and family back together.”
“Oh,” Nick said sounding crestfallen.
I poured the mudslide mix into the blender and added some ice. “Well since you're here do you want to join me? AJ has the kids today and I'm all alone with nothing to do but drink.”
“How are you and J doing?”
“I don't want to talk about it right now,” I said angrily. “So do you wanna drink or not?”
Nicks shoulders drooped a bit as he shrugged and said, “Sure why not? I have nothing better to do either.”

“Bad news,” I said slurring my words and trying real hard to walk back to the couch without falling. “We seem to be out of drinks.” I set the empty pitcher in front of Nick on the coffee stand. It wobbled for a second before it finally fell onto the floor.
Nick almost fell off the couch laughing. “Shhh,” he said his words almost as slurred as mine. “I know where they keep the good stuff.” Nick stood up to show me where the “good stuff” was kept but his legs wouldn't support him, he fell on to the floor next to the pitcher.
I was the one doubled over in laughter now. “I think you're too drunk to get it. I'll go.” I said standing up and swaying with the room.
“No you won't you don't even know where it is.” Nick tried again to get up. Once again it didn't work. He grabbed onto my pant leg in an effort to help himself. His pulling caused me to loose my balance and I ended up falling on top of him.
“See what you've done!” I said in mock severity. “Now we're both stuck down here.” We were both laughing so hard that tears were in our eyes.
“So what do we do now?” Nick asked once our laughter had died down a little. I felt Nick's body under mine and I looked into his deep blue eyes. I could feel the minute he realized our position too. I don't know who started it but the next thing I knew we were both kissing each other hard.
Nick pulled his head back slightly. “We can't…”
“I know… we can't…” I breathlessly said as his head came up to kiss me again. Nick rolled me over onto my back and I felt his hands start to roam my body. I closed my eyes and tried to enjoy the kiss but I couldn't all I could think about was AJ. I finally pushed Nick away and sat up fixing my bra. “This is wrong…we can't do this…I… I…all I can think about is him.”

Nick scooted himself up against the couch and put his head in his hands. “Yeah I know what you mean,” Nick said glancing over at a picture of Rhonda on the mantle. I knew at that moment the real reason he had come over here today.
“Maybe you should call a cab and go home,” I said not being able to look at him.
Nick ran his hands through his hair. “Yeah, I think you're right.” He stood up and walked out of the living room. I heard him call for a cab. I reached over and grabbed the remote and turned on the t.v. to drown out the sound of his voice.
“They'll be here in ten minutes,” he said walking over and sitting on the far side of couch.
“Good,” I said as we both sat there and watched the tv in silence. Neither one of us could look at the other, there was too much guilt and embarrassment. I tried to rationalize the situation by saying that now I was even with AJ, but that didn't help. I still couldn't get the picture of him and Amanda out of my head and I still couldn't help feeling extremely guilty about what had just happened.

***