Elliot and Julia have a complicated relationship. Since they met in the seventh grade, the only heart-to-heart conversations they've had have been strictly over text. But they don't mind this lack of intimacy. If anything, they enjoy it.
Don't thi...
There was only one thing I could do when I realized how I felt about Eli: take a step back. I couldn't see him every day and stay over at their house and make coffee in the morning and drop Ava off at school and basically acting like I was his wife and Ava's mother. I was acting like, it was horrible to say, Nora would have. I knew I couldn't replace her, no one could replace someone has wonderful as her, and I couldn't pretend that I wasn't subconsciously trying to do that. Taking a step back was much better.
Not to mention the fact that I was now 34 and the biological clock was ticking. I couldn't just play pretend with someone else's family, it wasn't fair to them, when I wanted to make my own family. I only had so much time to do that and I couldn't just slack off. If I did then I'd be 40 without any kids and I didn't want that as part of my plan. I couldn't let that happen.
So I started going on dates. So very many dates. None of them went past three or four dates, if they got to that point, but it was nice starting fresh. I hadn't had a guy in my life for longer than a few weeks since Casey (other than Eli, I mean) and there was something nice about being single in the city. Abby, who was newly single herself, and I went out every weekend and even if we didn't meet anyone, we had a good time buying each other drinks and making fun of the young girls trying to look more mature. We were well on our way to finding our own husbands.
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"So how old is Ava?"
"She just turned seven."
"That's a great age."
"Isn't it? She's always been smart but now that she's moving along in school she's making me feel dumb."
"Okay, I don't really believe that. You're so successful! You're too smart to feel dumb."
"Well, thanks, you're really sweet."
"I'm really glad you agreed to come out with me tonight."
"I am too."
"So what about Ava's dad?"
"What?"
"You told me about Ava's mom and what happened but you didn't mention her dad." "He's... around."
"What, is he a bad guy?"
"No! Eli's a great guy and an even better father. Um... he's an old friend of mine. We grew up together in California."
"That's cool. So you guys are close?"
"Sort of. We were always close-ish and I was really close with Nora so when she died we go a lot closer when we took care of Ava."
