AJ’s Point of View

I was sitting of the balcony of my hotel smoking. It was bittersweet being in Atlanta. I was excited to be spending time with Eden and my mom. Eden was excited about attending her first ball. On the other hand it killed me seeing Leah with Brian. She didn’t seem happy and something was off with her.

I rubbed my face with my hand. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get Leah out of my mind. It was like a sickness with me. Maybe I needed to get on with my life. She had shown me time and again that I was the not man she wanted. It came down to I didn’t want to move on, and I didn’t want to love another woman. I wanted Leah.

“Good morning Alex.” My mom came out and sat with me.

“Hey mom.” I said dejectedly. My heart wasn’t into being cheerful.

“Alex, what’s eating at you? You haven’t been acting like yourself since we got here?” My mom looked concerned. She probably thought I had fallen off the bandwagon. The only drug I craved was Leah.

“I’m fine mom.” I wasn’t sure I was ready to talk to her about this. Besides Howie, I hadn’t told anyone my feelings.

“AJ, I’m not going to push you, but does this have anything to do with Leah?”

“What makes you say that?” I didn’t look at her because my face said it all.

“I saw how you were looking at her yesterday. You still love her don’t you?” My mom turned my face with her hand.  She smiled at me.

“More than I did when I wanted to marry her.”

“What happened between the two of you? I could never understand it. One day you’re telling me you’re going to propose and then a few weeks later you broke up.”

“Leah was cheating on me. I was upset so I never even said anything to her. After that things blew up. I started drinking and doing drugs to forget the pain. She got pissed off and dumped me. That hurt the most because she took Eden away from me.”

“Sweetheart, why didn’t you ever tell me?” Denise could see the pain in her son’s eyes. She was sad for him.

“Mom, I don’t know. Everything got messed up. I ended up in rehab and Leah moved as far away from me as possible. I was angry about everything.”

“But she’s marrying Brian.”

“I know that mom.”  I started playing with my shirt. “I can’t help that I love her. I would give anything to have her and Eden back in my life for good.”

“From all our talks she seems to really love Brian. You can’t just break them up because you want her.” Denise tried to reason with her son. She loved him dearly and didn’t like to see him hurting, but realistically Leah wasn’t going to leave Brian for him.

“No kidding.” I stood up and was ready to go back inside. I didn’t want to talk about it anymore.

“Alex wait.” My mom called out. I walked away.

------------------------------

“Dad, I’m glad you could come.” Eden yelled happily from the pool.  She decided have an impromptu pool party.

“Hi Mr. McLean!” Her friends waved at me. I waved back as I went and sat down at the patio table.

“Hi AJ.” Brian acknowledged me. I was surprised at first, but I realized he was in Backstreet mode because of Eden’s friends.

“Rok.”  

We both sat there in silence. I didn’t want to talk to him, and he didn’t want to talk to me. It was awkward, something I never expected to happen with our friendship.

“So what have you and Eden been doing in L.A.?”  I could tell that Brian wanted to make sure that everyone thought we were the best of friends. Eden’s friends weren’t even paying attention to us.

I decided to be the nice guy and answer his question. “We’ve been hanging out at home and going to some amusement parks. Eden’s taking surfing lessons.”

 “Yeah and you haven’t visited me yet.” Nick joined us at the table. I was still pissed at him for the way he treated Leah.

I let Frick and Frack do all the talking. I attempted to tune out their conversation about sports. Instead I watched Eden and her friends have fun. Leah joined us at the table, but I didn’t talk to her either. I chose to watch her behind my sunglasses.

“You sure are quiet today.” Nick commented.

“Don’t have much to say.” I responded. “I’m here because my daughter invited me, and I would do anything for her.”

“It’s about time.” Brian commented. Leah gave him a look.

“Whatever, man. Mind your own business.”

“I think it is my business. I spend nine months out of the year with her.” Brian commented arrogantly. He had a lot of nerve.

“I’m still her father, regardless of how much time she spends with you.” I had to bite my tongue before I said something I shouldn’t. Brian was a pompous ass. Things were starting to go well with Eden. We were getting along and my daughter was opening up to me. I didn’t want him or anyone else to ruin the bond that was forming between us.

“When you choose to be.”

“Guys this is not the time or place.” Leah warned.

“Dad, come here!” Yelled Eden. Both Brian and I got up. I took my sunglasses off and glowered at him. He gave me the same look. There was no way she was talking to him. They may have been close, but I was her dad.  Leah looked at both of us with her typical pissed off expression.

“Brian sit down.” He looked at her stunned. “AJ go see what she wants.”

I moved towards the pool to see what Eden wanted. Brian looked like he was ready flip out on Leah. This day wasn’t turning out how anyone expected. At least Eden was enjoying herself. When I got over to the pool, I noticed Brian and Leah were in a heated discussion. Even Nick moved away from the less than happy couple.

“What’s up?” I bent down to talk to her. She brought herself close to me like she was going to whisper something in my ear. The next thing I knew I was surrounded by water and a bunch of giggling teenage girls.

“Gotcha ya dad!” Eden laughed uncontrollably.

I swam over to her and picked her up. She screamed thinking I was going to dunk her. Instead I placed a kiss on her forehead and put her down. “I love you, Eden McLean.”

“Love you back.” Then she swam over to her friends.

I looked up to see Brian stomping towards the house. Leah was upset and was having trouble with her breathing. I climbed out of the pool and went over to her.

“Leah, are you okay?” I knelt down in front of her.

“I’m fine.” She said slowly, trying to catch her breath.

“You don’t look fine. Is it Brian?” She nodded her head. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“NO!” She screamed. “Just leave me alone!”

Leah pushed be out of the way and ran towards the house. I didn’t take offense to her outburst because I knew she was upset. I don’t know what Brian said to her, but it must not have been good because I’ve never seen Leah this upset. I didn’t know what to do to make things better, but maybe I needed to stay away.