"Pretty good, how about yourself?" I said, partaking in the casual conversation.
"Pretty good. The band's doing great, me and Maggie are doing well, everything's smooth." I tried to ignore the second comment, since just the mention of her name felt like being pricked with a needle. "And now you're back in my life." I quickly perked up, not sure if I had actually heard him say that, or if I was just imagining it.
"What'd you say?"
"I said, things are good and now you're back in my life."
"For now anyway," I said, attempting an uncomfortable laugh. Suddenly I asked him, "What happened to us, Bri? Why did we lose touch?"
"I don't know," he said, looking at the ground and kicking some parking lot gravel around. "It's weird, huh? How we were that close, then after we broke up, went days and then a year without even talking on the phone. I guess we just fell out of each other's lives and moved on."
'Except for me, I never moved on,' I thought to myself. I wish I could have told him that not a day of that year had gone by without the constant heartache of him not being there. I may have fallen out of his life, but he never fell out of mine. Then I went out on a limb and said tentatively, "We should catch up with each other. Maybe go to dinner or something, sometime."
"I don't know, Maggie isn't too fond of the idea of us working together, much less going to dinner." I felt like someone had just punched me in the stomach. But I persisted. I wasn't going to lose him again this easily.
"Just tell her it's about business stuff or something. Strictly business."
"I don't know, LeighAnne. You know how she feels about you, and rightly so after that stunt you pulled at the awards show." He had a point. I was about to just forget it when he said, "But she can just deal with it. Business is business. And you and me have some catching up to do. A year is a long time, ya know. And I especially wanna hear about your affairs with JC and Justin NStink."
"Oh, so you heard about that, huh?" I said laughing, happy that he had actually paid attention to what I'd been up to in the news. Maybe this was a good sign.
"You bet. Did ya catch any smack from Britney or what?"
"Oh yeah, you know it. Brit-Brit gets a little fiesty when it comes to her little Justin."
"So I've heard," he said. "So how about I meet you at that little coffee diner on 14th Street tomorrow night at 7:00?"
"Deal," I agreed. "Bye, Brian," I said as I hopped in my car.
"See ya," he said, and waved one last time before going back in the studio. I drove off with that familiar butterflies-in-the-stomach feeling. I was so happy that we were finally re-connecting again.
'Maybe now I can win him back and...' then I stopped. 'Take it slow, Leigh. You just got him to talk to you again. If you screw up, you could lose him for good. Just be glad you have him back as a friend and forget everything else.'
But deep down I knew that just being friends with Brian was about the farthest thing from my mind.
