“Hey, Elena, I was wondering if I could talk to you for a moment.”

Elena turned to Kyle who had called her name.

“Give me a moment, I’ll be right back.” Elena told Ruby whom she had been walking with “I’ll meet up with you in a moment.”

“Alright,” the other girl nodded as she gave Kyle a look before turning to leave the room. Kyle came up to Elena with a smile, even if she didn’t smile because it didn't matter if they had worked together on a group project, she still didn't feel comfortable with him. There was just something about him that was still a little weird.

“What’s going on?” she asked him, internally hoping that it wasn't something weird.

“Well, I just wanted to tell you that I would love to take you out to dinner or a movie. I think you’re a very beautiful girl. What do you think.”

Elena blushed. She’d had a boyfriend before but that was in high school and this was different. She was older and so was Kyle. She wasn't sure what dating in college entailed, but she wasn’t too sure she was ready for whatever that was and she didn’t want to find out.

"I don't know what to say..."

"It would be a dinner, a movie, whichever you'd like. We could simply go for a hike somewhere." Kyle insisted with a smile.

Elena bit her lip. She wasn't sure what to make of his offer. "I don't want to be rude... I don't think I'm ready for any sort of relationship, I want to make that clear. I want to focus on finishing school and graduating."

Kyle nodded, "I get it. I want those things as well. But it's nothing too crazy. How about lunch sometime, to get to know each other?"

Elena sighed. She thought for a moment. "I'll let you know. Let me think about it, please. I'm sorry."

"No, no. It's okay. Don't worry about it. Rain check?"

"Uh, sure. Rain check." Elena agreed nervously, nodding at him one more time before turning back to walk away in the direction that Ruby had left. Kyle stared at her until she was out of sight.

"So, what did he want?" Ruby asked Elena when the redhead caught up to her in the cafeteria.

"Wanted to invite me out to dinner or a movie." Elena said and Ruby scowled.

"I don't mean to be rude, but there is something a little odd about that one. He seems nice and all, but I just have an iffy feeling about him..." Ruby started and Elena nodded in agreement.

"I thought it was just me!"

"What did you tell him?"

"He was very insistent, but he said 'rain check', so we left it that." Elena pulled out a thick pharmacology book from her bag. "I hope he doesn't ask anymore."

"I would've just said no straight up," the younger girl replied as she pulled out some papers and laid them out on the table.

"I suppose. I won't mention it to him again." Elena said. "Now, let's get something to eat so we can finish this assignment."

....Present time....

Elena was actually having a good time being on this trip with Ben.

It was hard at first to let herself relax around him, but he was talkative and funny, so he made up for her lack of talking. Part of herself was still trying to berate her for deciding to go on a road trip with a man she barely knew outside of work, and she knew her mother would have something to say about it if she knew.

But her mother wasn't even in the country at the moment and Elena was an adult. She needed a break away from insanity.

They'd walked back to their little cottage/room, Elena feeling slightly nostalgic over the sunset they'd watched earlier, but didn't tell him. Ruby would be sh!tting bricks to know that she was sharing a room with none other than Dr. Ross, beautiful specimen of a man whom every woman at work was always fawning over.

Elena didn't care. Mostly because she had concluded that he was not a threat to her and he wasn't physically interested in her in any way. He had Sherry as well. She had no mind in trying to turn his head, she knew better.

"I think I'll take a shower and then we can figure out where to go for dinner."

"Oh, yeah. Sounds good," Elena said as she glanced at him over her shoulder. She was standing by the sliding glass door watching the last remains of the sunset as it disappeared over the horizon.

She wasn't sure what she was supposed to feel anymore.

She wanted to feel happy to be travelling, to be enjoying her days off. Maybe a little excited that she was hanging out with Benjamin, but she wasn't excited about that. She didn't really feel... happy? She was more content about the way that things were turning out. She had been a little flustered earlier when Alfonzo's parents had confused her for Benjamin's wife.

Honestly, all the emotions that Elena had been feeling for the past couple days had lingered more on the sad and somber part of the spectrum. Anxiety, panic, and overall bad memories making up the biggest part of her last couple days.

Ugh.

She tried not to think about Kyle's call and his request that she call him back because she didn't want to. She refused to even consider the possibility of having a connection with that man again. He was like a dark cloud over her head and she didn't want it.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

Elena glanced back and saw Ben standing by his bed as he dried his hair with a towel. He had changed into a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt. It made her grin when she saw the it was a System of a Down band tee. 

"I was just admiring the last rays of sunlight against the horizon. It's crazy how it turns all pink and purple." She turned back, trying to give him some space so that he could finish doing his thing. "I'll take a quick shower and we can go wander around town for a bit."

"Yeah. Okay."

.

Elena slipped into the bathroom, enjoying the silence of the room and the warmth left behind from Ben's shower.

She turned on the water, letting it run, and turning her back to the tall mirror above the sink, she removed her clothes and climbed under the shower head, feeling the warm water soothe her aching muscles.

She had probably overdone it with the laps around the beach today, especially since she kept sinking into the sand and it had taken her extra strength to keep herself on her feet. She realized too late that she had forgotten her shampoo in her bag and pouted with the thought of asking Ben to bring it to her.

The bottle of shampoo in the little shelf on the wall of the stall caught her eye. It must be Ben's shampoo. Well, now the question was: smell like sweat or smell clean even if she smelled like a guy? With a shrug, she poured out some shampoo into her hands and washed her hair, taking in the crisp clean smell and grinning despite herself when she realized that she now knew what Ben used to smell so good.

She rinsed off quickly and dried herself off, climbing back out to change. She was in the middle of trying to pull on her underwear when she hit her toe on the bottom corner of the sink, jumping slightly and wincing. She glanced up at caught sight of her naked top self and stopped.

Elena gasped when Kyle leaned back and pulled her shirt off, leaving her in her red bra. She tried to cross her arms over her chest, but he got her arms, kissing her neck again.

"Ellie, you're so pretty. Wow. You were hiding these under all those clothes. Wow. Lucky me..."

"Oh, god." Elena stared at herself on the mirror. She'd heard various women comment on how they wished they had her body, her breasts, but Elena didn't see it. She hated herself. She hated her body that only had brought her trouble.

"It's okay, Ellie. It'll be good, I promise." He moved on to removing her bra, ignoring the fact that she tried to stop him with her hands even if she didn't say it...

"I don't think I'm ready, Kyle. Please!" She finally reached up to cover her breasts trying to sit up on the beach seat...

"It's okay, Ellie. It'll be fine..."

Elena leaned against the counter, holding herself up with both hands placed by the sink. She took a deep breath, trying to forget those words. Trying to kick the images from her head. He wasn't here, he wasn't around anymore.

She was fine. She was okay. She was strong. She didn't need to freak out.

She stood there for another couple minutes breathing slowly, just trying to avoid another panic attack.

Finally, she looked back up. She was a little pale, but she had managed to avoid her panic attack. That was a win. She dressed slowly, glad that she had brought a loose dress to wear. She paired that with boots, and her cardigan. She probably resembled an old woman with the way she was dressed, but she was fine with it. It made her feel less conspicuous.

She brushed her hair, threw some product on it to try to tame it and called it good.

“Oh, wow.”

Elena stopped dead in her tracks when she heard that. She looked over at Ben who was sitting on the corner of the bed petting Kevin’s head.

“What?”

“You look different.” Ben started, and added, “You look nice,” when she raised an eyebrow in question. It was hard to compliment Elena because it seemed anything nice he tried to tell her got turned around in her head. She bit her lip and finally nodded at him.

“Ready?” she asked, trying to change the subject. For some reason, it always made her feel awkward when people would bring attention upon her, making small comments or complimenting her. 

“Uh, yeah.” Ben patted Kevin on the head, told him that they’d be right back and to behave, before following Elena towards the door. “We can go wander around town and see what catches our eye, or whatever you want to do.”

“Okay. We can do that.”

They climbed into the car and drove into town. After driving past a couple places, they finally settled for some seafood and grill. Elena found the restaurant quaintly interesting. It was located over a pier side, with open water on one side and view of some cliff sides and the passing bridge highway. She liked that there were patio seats and it calmed her nerves at being out in the open.

.

“I like how they even have live music,” Elena pointed out with a smile at the small group “on stage” playing music.

For some reason, it made her feel like even if conversations got awkward, it was still okay because people had the music to talk about. They had gotten their meals, and had been talking about her art work. He insisted that she was very talented and should take it up for more than just a hobby.

“Yeah, I have been here once before, some years back. I like the setup of the patio.” He watched her as she observed the musicians. She had been quiet after her shower and he wondered if something had happened to her. He didn’t want to ask her in case she got defensive and tried to block him out like before.

She hadn’t mentioned anything, but he had concluded that no matter how horrible she was feeling inside, she would never let people know how she truly was feeling. She would always put a brave face on.

She finally turned back to him, blushing slightly when she found him looking at her. “What?”

“Nothing. I was just wondering to myself. Nothing specific.” He shrugged so that she would understand it wasn’t about her and feel uncomfortable.

“Uh…Okay?”

“Say, how about—” He didn’t finish his sentence because his phone started ringing. She watched as he pulled it out from his pocket and stared at the screen. It was Sherry. Elena glanced away, since this was not her conversation. “Sorry, give me a minute. I have to take this call.” He stood and walked towards the exit as he answered the call.

Elena nodded but didn’t look at him. She’d forgotten about Sherry and her relationship with Ben. Truth be told, she felt slightly guilty that she was out here with the man while his… lady friend was unaware. For some reason, she felt like she was getting in between Ben and the other woman. It wasn’t like there was anything personal going on between Ben and herself, but it felt wrong to think that if she was in Sherry’s position, she would be hurt to find out her boyfriend was travelling with another woman.

At least, she would feel that way.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Ben.”

“Sherry. What are you up to?” Ben asked as he stepped outside of the patio. Heart pounding, he heard the amusement in Sherry’s voice as she responded.

“Hanging out with my grandmother.” There was some rustling in the background and someone said something. “My grandma says that if I’m going to be hanging out with her, then I need to at least help her win Bingo, so I’ve become her Bingo partner for the next couple days.”

Ben grinned. She had mentioned that her grandmother was obsessed with the game and it reminded him of his Nana. Except Nana was obsessed with Canasta and God knows how the heck that was played.

“Any wins yet?”

“Three consecutive games. She swears that I’m a lucky charm and won’t let me go home without playing another two games first.” Sherry snickered. “Anyways, how’s everything going? Didn’t you have a party at work to go to?”

“Nah. I’m not going. I’m actually just hanging around. I don’t really know how I feel about company parties yet.” That wasn’t a lie. He knew everyone liked him, but he just felt so…off, and being surrounded by his peers, getting drunk and photographed didn’t seem like a great idea.

“So, what about your friends? Don’t be a loner,” Sherry teased. She paused for a moment when she heard the high-pitched squawking of a seagull. “Is that a seagull?”

“Yeah. I’m at Fort Bragg actually.” Ben said as he mentally cursed the seagull. Damn bird.

“Oh, did you end up taking your friends up on the offer to hang out?”

“Nah. It’s actually Elen—” he stopped. Shit. Fuck. “Uh. Yes.”

There was a pause from Sherry’s end and he knew that he had said the wrong thing.

“Elena? The nurse Elena….Your nurse Elena? Are you with her? In Fort Bragg?” Sherry asked, her voice almost a whisper.

Ben sighed. What good would it do to lie to her? Didn’t they already have a talk about being honest with each other? “Yes. That Elena. But it’s nothing crazy. She’s actually going through some tough shit. I had to drag her out of her house because she was planning on spending the holidays alone,” he explained and Sherry said nothing. Part of her knew that he was only trying to explain so that it didn’t look like there anything funny going on.

Elena didn’t seem like the person to try and snatch other women’s boyfriends, but… Part of Sherry felt angry, hurt, betrayed by the other woman.

“Tough shit?”

“Yeah, I don’t think she’s quite right, but she refuses to admit it. I’m trying to keep an eye on her today.”

Uh huh…

“Okay…”She really wanted to trust him, but her heart was pounding heavily with his words. “Listen, I have to go. My grandmother is calling me. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Sherry…”

“Hmm?”

“I swear, nothing is going on. I’m not that heartless.”

She paused. She wanted to trust him. She wanted to believe him. They had talked about honesty, about starting over new. She needed to stop thinking the worst about people.

“Alright. I trust you. But I really do have to go, my grandmother is giving me the stink eye from across the room.”

“Alright. Stay safe.”

“Yes, you too. Night, Ben.”

“Night—” He cursed as he heard the click on the other end.