The Loneliest Stars || EDITING

Chapter 1

It was his niece Kayla and the family Labrador. Gabe bent down to pick Kayla up, nuzzling his bearded face into her rosy cheeks much to her tickled screams of delight. "How is my princess today?"

"Brilliant," Kayla screamed in a fake British accent courtesy of some cartoon show she had been obsessed with all summer. Gabe wondered how long the British Invasion would last for.

"Just brilliant? Not supercalifragilisticexpialidocious?" He tickled her some more as she laughed at his corny joke, walking into the hallway of the dining room where Ella was setting up for dinner. Gabe placed the bottle wine he'd brought to chill in the fridge.

Ella gave him a sideways hug, as he placed Kayla back down and she ran off to resume whatever occupied 4 year old girls, her long brown hair billowing behind her.

Kimberly, his other niece at a slightly older age of 12 year old was helping to set up.

"Hey, Kim." gabe said ruffling her hair.

"Don't call me that, Uncle Gabe."

"Okay, Kim-ber-ly," Gabe agreed pronunciation every syllable. He did it to annoy her, knowing that she was going through some kind of feminist phase where she stomped around the house saying "men are trash" and also expressing her dislike for gender traitors such as the Kardashians.

Gabe made eye-contact with Ella who was hiding her laugh behind her preparation of the salad.

"Honey." She called to her child, "Why don't you go wash up for dinner?"

Kim acquiesced, silently disappearing down the hallway. Ella turned to Gabe, and he knew that she had planned to accost him about a topic he'd been avoiding all summer.

Today was wife's birthday. His deceased wife. She would have been 36. It had been four long years since she had passed away from a short and gruelling battle with blood cancer.

Ella was Alice's sister. Ella was older by a couple of years and had been just as devastated when her sister passed away, especially since she had been tested as a bone marrow donor and hadn't matched her sister.

They eventually found an unrelated donor on the donor registry but Alice developed a viral cold days before the donor was to go ahead with the procedure. The donor donated anyway and the cells were frozen, in the hope that given a few weeks, Alice would recover. She never did.

"How are you, Gabe?" Ella asked seriously.

"You know me, I get by," Gabe said palming his neck. He got by but at a drink and sex-fuelled cost. He had been reckless all summer. With no work obligations he could blow off all the steam he wanted; steeling himself for the downward spiral that would come with this day.

"That's not what Alice would have wanted for you, Gabe. You're getting by, but she would have wanted you to be thriving.

"That's life. It doesn't always go the way we think it will." Gabe said quietly.

"Have you thought of dating?" Ella approached. "Let me set you up, I know a lot of wonderful women in this community that would love to be taken out by our resident brooding bachelor."

"No, how can you ask me that?" Gabe whispered tersely.

"Well you're out sleeping around - forgive me if asking you about dating is such a leap!" Ella returned, her voice rising with frustration.

"That's me getting by." Gabe said sardonically. Wanting desperately for this conversation to be over.

"I want you to be happy!"

"I'm trying!"

There was a beat, with both of them staring each other in the eyes before they burst out laughing.