Episode 378: There's Got To Be A Way

It pained Ryley to see her fake a smile. He held her closer, kissed her cheek, and whispered, "I’m sorry," in her ear. She’d wanted to spend the holiday alone in his apartment, tell her dad she was too devoted to her studies to come home. She’d used her dreamy voice talking about fixing a traditional dinner together and snuggling and more. She’d said Ryley was all she needed to be happy.

And it had made Ryley feel so impossibly sad.

Almost as impossibly sad as Adria. He really was the one and only thing that made her happy now. So he’d brought her home hoping her dad would see it too and help him figure out what to do for her.

But Mr. Marques was all grins too glad to have his youngest home, too glad to have her free of her "flaky" arts major to really see her. To help Ryley help Adria see she was so much more special than those pathetic women whose lives revolve around their man.

That wasn’t the fully passionate, alive Adria he’d fallen in love with. He wanted that girl back. More importantly Adria needed her back. Ryley just hoped he’d find a way to make it happen without dumping her - at the moment the only solution he’d come up with - a solution that could just as easily destroy her as show her that he shouldn’t be the only light in her life.

There had to be another way.

Episode 379: Deck The Halls