Page 6 of Once Upon a Star

“Really? That’s odd,” Layla said and looked over at Ella.

“Is he trying to be friends with you? Was he shocked that you were there? What was the vibe you were getting from him?” Ella asked.

“There wasn’t a lot of vibe to be had. I have no idea how to answer the question.”

“Okay,” Ella said slowly.

I was being snappy and I didn’t want to be. I had called them because I wanted to see them. I hadn’t thought I would tell them about seeing Bash. I had rationalized that I missed my friends. It was getting harder with them being married. But as soon as we had sat down, I told them that I had seen Bash and that was all we talked about for the last ten minutes. I had gotten just what I wanted when I told them. They had been honest, supportive, and asked questions I didn’t want to answer.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you. I’m just trying to deal with this and obviously I’m not handling this as well as I should. I thought I was over him. But apparently not.”

“Of course, you aren’t,” Layla said matter-of-factly.

Ella laughed as I looked at Layla with my mouth open. Ella reached over and affectionately tapped my hand. “He was your first love. You still have feelings for him. It would be understandable that it would be hard to see him again.”

“I don’t have feelings for him,” I said and both Layla and Ella shook their heads at me.

“Are you trying to convince us or yourself?” Ella asked.

“I don’t need convincing,” I said.

“Are you sure? If you didn’t, you would have been fine seeing him. You wouldn't have needed to call us for an emergency happy hour,” Layla said.

“It wasn’t an emergency happy hour. I missed you,” I replied.

“And you needed to talk about Bash,” Ella added.

“He’s been in town for months. Why now? Why there? It doesn’t make sense,” I said.

“Maybe he just wanted to see you? Maybe he wanted to say hi. I mean, he did wave,” Ella said.

“He shouldn’t have. I was doing fine. I mean, I see his face literally everywhere I go. It’s like the city has gone Sebastian Anderson crazy. It’s ridiculous.” I downed the rest of my drink and signaled to the server that we wanted another round.

“I haven’t seen that many posters, have you?” Ella asked Layla.

“Shut up. They’re everywhere,” I put my glass down.

“You’re looking for them,” Ella said.

“Well, maybe not consciously,” Layla added.

“Are you saying my subconscious wants to see Bash? What, is my soul talking to his?” I asked and then thanked the server for our drinks.

“This is the last round for me tonight. I have a long day tomorrow,” Ella said.

“How is the new job going?” I asked.

“Good. Busy, challenging, but exactly what I wanted. I think we can do a lot of good and I’m looking forward to seeing what that is,” Ella said.

Ella had recently been promoted to head of all philanthropic endeavors for Dax’s, her husband’s, company. Her goal was to find ways to help the community through outreach programs, charitable donations, and anyway that she saw fit. She was going to work in conjunction with Layla’s husband, Nic’s, newest company. I knew that Ella was excited about what she could do and the chance to get to know Nic better.

“You’re going to do great. Nic’s already has some great ideas and is looking forward to meeting with you,” Layla said.

“I have a lot of ideas, too. I’ve spent the last two weeks getting organized and trying to hire my own staff. It’s been fun as there were a lot of people in the company that wanted to help me. It allowed me to find just the right people.”

“And did you?” Layla asked.

“I think so. Time will tell. But I’d like to think I’m a good judge of character and know who will work well on my team,” Ella said.