Episode 810: Dance With Somebody

Ava nodded though she didn't throw him a smile or turn to him or anything, she just stared out at the dance floor with sadness building in her eyes.

They'd had a drink and a couple dances but mostly they leaned against the wall. Sure, she'd never been a party girl, she used to go out sometimes though, they used to go out, he'd thought it would be fun, take her mind off things – evidently not.

He leaned in to her ear again. “We don't have to get married,” he said even though the words twisted his heart in the most painful way. “We can cancel.”

Before he had the chance to speak further, a blonde in a short skirt sidled right up to him as if he hadn't been in the middle of talking to Ava.

“Do you mind?” he said. “I'm with someone.”

The woman tugged at his sleeve anyway, as if he would go with her, but the part that surprised Sebastian wasn't this stranger's ignorance or persistence, it was the moment he went to pull his sleeve from the woman's clutches and his fiance told him “go ahead, dance with her.”

Then she walked away. Not the stranger. Ava. She just walked away from him, like she thought he wanted this! What the hell?

It took him a couple seconds to regain his bearings, long enough for Ava to disappear into the crowd. He shook off the other woman and tore after the one he loved. He made his way through the throng, checked the bar, scoped out the dance floor once more, then finally asked the doorman who confirmed that she'd left.

Fortunately, she was still out there on the sidewalk and hadn't run off who knows where insanely thinking that he wanted to be with someone else.

Episode 811: The Moment I Knew