So, we are in this huge room.  There is a big table, and there are like a million chairs around it.  Jessica looks nervous.  I’m looking around the room, and my heart drops into my big toe.  Ashley is all over this room.  Her plantnum records.  There is even a picture of me on the wall.  Soundscape.  Shit, Ashley.  This is the record company she opened.  I can’t believe it hadn’t clicked until right now.

Jessica is looking at me because I’m the one pacing now.

"Baby, what is it?"  She asks knocking me out of my thoughts.

"This is Ashley’s label."  I say.

She now takes the time to look up from her finger nails to the wall.  "Baby, I didn’t know.  You can leave if you want."

Before I can answer, the doors open, and the topic of conversation walks right through the door.

"Hi Jessica."  She says, and she doesn’t look at me.  I’m facing the other direction.  "And, who is this beautiful lady?"  Ashley asks.  I turn around slowly to see her face.  She looks hurt a little.  She looks surprised.  She looks happy though.

"Hi, Ashley."  I say.

"Hey, Spence.  What brings you here?"  She asks.

"She’s my girlfriend."  Jessica answers for me.  She looks like someone just stole her favorite teddy bear and hung it outside her bedroom window.  She looks sad, but she knows that she deserves it.

I just sit down, and she doesn’t look at me for the rest of the day.

They talk about dates to record.  They talk about at two year contract.  Ashley keeps her eyes trained on Jessica so she won’t look at me.  I just look at her.  She’s so beautiful.  She’s got a new tattoo on her wrist, but I can’t see it.  I see a heart with words.  That’s it.  I think Jessica can read my mind because she ask what it is.

Ashley finally looks at me.  "Oh, it’s a heart, and it says, "You’re still a part of everything I do.  You’re on my heart just like a tattoo."  She smiles at me, and I know she got it for me.

"I love that song."  Jessica says.  She’s oblivious.

So, next week, they start recording.  That means that my ex and my current will be spending a lot of time together.  I wonder who the topic of conversation will be.  Yeah, me.   I find myself hoping that Jessica doesn’t tell Ashley we slept together.  That is something that I’d like to tell her myself.  Wait, why does it matter?  It doesn’t.  Of course it does.

"Spence, we can go now."  Jessica says knocking me out of my thoughts.

"Oh."

I get up.  One door of the two is open, and Ashley is standing in it.  Jessica walks out first.  They shake hands.  When I walk up, Ashley touches my arm so light, and she whispers in my ear.

"You look so beautiful."  She says.

I walk to the car holding my arm that she touched.  With one touch Ashley Davies has completely taken down every single piece of my heart that I had put back together.  Or, was it really back together?  Maybe I was just telling myself that.  She makes me so mad how easily she can make me forget all the bad and just want her.

When we pull up, I look back.  She’s looking out her window, and I can see her plain as day.

She mouths I Love You to me.  I don’t know if she know I saw her or not.  I just smile as one little tear sits on the brim of my eye.  I wipe it away.  I’m done crying over her.