Since Rory came in to pick up a few things at the supermarket to help nurse his hangover, Joshua hasn't seen or heard from him.

Even so, that didn't stop them from constantly thinking about each other.

Joshua can’t count how many times he opened Twitter over the past week, having gone into his DMs to stare at the last conversation he and Rory had. Joshua can’t count how many times he went into the messenger app on his phone and started typing something to send to Rory, only to end up erasing everything halfway through.

Joshua was somewhat over the falling out that he and Rory had, but with his confidence gone, Joshua slowly reverted back to being a coward. He hated feeling this way, hated feeling like something good had slipped away from him, and Tamia hated it for him even more.

"Don’t tell me this is how you plan on spending your weekend…" Tamia sighs after entering the living room. Joshua is stretched out on the couch with his iPad, Rory's voice playing loud from the speakers. Tamia sneaks up and snatches the device away. Joshua grumbles but doesn’t have the energy to fight back. "We've talked about this at least a hundred times already."

"I’m sorry but it's not like there's anything else to do in this boring town," Joshua mutters, sulking a bit as Tamia sits next to him. "Might as well be on YouTube because who even watches TV anymore? It's overrun with shitty reality shows and thousands of ads for every commercial break. Think I’ll save myself the headache and pass on all of that."

"Trust me, I understand." Tamia laughs, placing the iPad on the coffee table. "I'm not here to preach at you again because I'm pretty sure you got the message last time, so instead I'm just gonna come out and say what I want to say and finally be done hassling you about Rory."

"What do you want to say?" Joshua asks, reluctantly.

"I want to set you up on a date with a guy that's actually worth your time," Tamia explains, surprising Joshua with her response. "As I said before, I’ll never ask you to stop supporting Rory. You can continue to fanboy over him as much as you want, but all I ask is that you let me do this one thing for you, and if it doesn't end on a positive note, I promise to never interfere with your love life again." Tamia holds up a finger as Joshua tries to speak. “And I also promise this dude isn’t anything like that loser Kyle.”

"Well, thanks for looking out, but…who says I want to date right now?" Joshua questions. “I’ve already told you what happened between me and Rory at his party. I’m still healing from that. I don’t want—don’t need to be dating anyone right now. That’s the last thing on my mind.”

"Because the first thing is and always will be that damned Rory Carter," Tamia replies. Her tone is harsh, but her expression is soft and sympathetic. "Joshua, if you're going to go all out and obsess over someone, shouldn't you at least get something back from them in return? As your best friend, I refuse to stand by and do nothing while you waste your time on a guy that doesn’t deserve you. I don’t care how annoying I become, or how much you grow to hate me for it, but I’ll never stop looking out for your best interests."

There she goes again being right and making sense.

Joshua sighs, figuratively waving his white flag and giving in. "Before we officially make a deal, I’m going to need some more information from you. For starters, what does this guy even look like? How old is he? And how well do you know him? Tell me everything."

As Tamia presents her case to Joshua about why he should go on this new blind date, Joshua has to fake like he's truly interested in hearing what she has to say.

After so many failed dates in his past, several due to misleading dating apps and creepy perverts who were only after sex vs love, Joshua has been let down one too many times. And because of that, he hasn't been eager to jump back into the complicated world of dating. Tamia thinks he's being too pessimistic, but Joshua thinks otherwise.

Better to be overly protective of your heart than careless about who you hand it to.

"... and that's why I feel like you and Henry will hit it off,” Tamia finishes. “But it’s not about me. What do you think? Does he sound like someone you might want to meet?"

"Sure. Whatever." Joshua had barely been paying attention, but if this will get Tamia off his back regarding Rory, so be it. "Can I have my iPad back, or is there more you need to say?"

Tamia passes Joshua his iPad with a smile, not saying another word as he resumes the video that she had paused. She leaves the room before saying something that she knows she ought to keep to herself. Tamia is glad that Joshua didn't immediately shut her down after she brought up her proposal about setting him up with somebody new; on the flip side, Tamia hopes this blind date goes better than the last one that Joshua went on because she knows Joshua’s patience with her and Lucas playing matchmaker for him is waning.

"I wonder what you're doing right now," Joshua whispers, his eyes focused on Rory's face as he vents to the camera about, ironically, the struggle of dating.

Memories.

They can be painful at times; the memories that are bright and colorful, the ones that are supposed to make Joshua feel good, but instead make him feel the opposite.

It’s been a week and some hours since Joshua had his lips on Rory Carter. A week and some hours since Rory had Joshua pinned down on his bed, kissing and whispering sweet nothings in Joshua’s ear. At the time, Joshua had felt like the luckiest boy in the world. Today he wonders if he’ll ever find someone that can make him feel that way again.

"I wonder if I've crossed your mind as much as you've been crossing mine…"