it could be

"There's a place I want to look at," Lon said to Ellie. He'd came home from work with Charlie.

"You're really serious about this, aren't you?" Ellie winced as if maybe he'd had a memory loss of some kind. Hadn't they talked about this enough? It would be crazy to move in the winter, according to Ellie.

"Now, I know you really hate the idea of a fixer-upper, even if you know I'd fix it." He'd been thinking about this, knowing she wasn't crazy about change anymore than he was, and they really did have their hands full of Charlie, but he was who he was thinking about.. "And right now the snow is gone. Its mild. Its a great time to look at a house."

"Where?" She crossed her arms and just watched him go to change Charlie's pamper.

"What if its in the neighborhood?" He smiled as if he had to sell her on this. He hoped he wasn't overacting. Maybe she'd just be enamoured with that smile and say yes to anything he said. Well, he hoped. Maybe.

"Right here?"

"Yeah, there's a place right up the street. Two bedroom, one bath. Granted its not brand new, but its not as old as Olivia's Aunt's place, either. And its small, but don't need anything huge, right?" He went on to tell her as he was getting Charlie ready.

"Really? Right up the street?" She was coming around to the idea. He could tell. She was giving him a look that she might go for it.

"Yep." He nodded. "Want to go see it?"

"I guess." She shrugged being her reluctant self. But hadn't he been the one to show her how much the two step could be out on the dance floor. He knew how she looked when she was happy.

"All right." He was excited. Lon put Charlie in his stroller. She grabbed her wrap. Now, he just hoped she liked the place.

It wasn't that far of a walk. About six houses up from Roger's.

"Usually, college kids rent it out, but the owner was looking for a family. Its one of those rent to own kind of things. You know, we could just see if we liked it, well enough, to buy it." Lon informed her.

"So you wouldn't be buying?" She looked at him and then at the white house. Granted, it wasn't fancy, but most of the houses were the same age, built in the sixties, possibly. There was a detached garage.

"No. Not yet." He shook his head. Lon went up the steps and unlocked the door. "Well, what are you waiting for."

"You already rented it?" Ellie squinted.

He shook his head. "I'm waiting to see what you think. We're in this together, you know." He looked a bit hurt that she'd think he was a control freak of some kind.

could be that

"We never do anything anymore," Kelsey said to Kyle.

"We just went to Roger's for that thing." Kyle stared at the TV. He had his arm around her as if he was suppose to. True they'd watched the Proposal for the second time, but she said she loved that movie. He took his arm back and crossed his arms. "I knew this day would come." He was solemn about it.

"What day is that?" She looked at him as if there was a holiday they were forgetting.

"That you'd rather not be with me." He shrugged.

"I didn't say that." She grabbed his arm then. "I like being with you. Its just, you know."

"Rosie?"

"No. I dunno, you seem down about something. Like something awful is about to happen." She clicked off the movie then. "Is it because Amanda is going to marry Elliot?"

"I don't care." He sighed. "It doesn't matter."

"You can't get over her, can you?" She messed with his messy hair a bit which he wasn't so fond of.

"I've accepted the fact, I don't mean a hell of lot to her. Just if one person can fuck things up, well, she's pretty good at it. Its just, I feel Elliot should know everything he's getting into if he's going to get into it with Amanda."

"You mean the baby?" Kelsey hugged his arm as if they were ready to take on the world together.

"Its more than that. You know, Eric. I'm worried about him. I am." Kyle nodded.

"Did he go off with that girl, Liz?" Kelsey winced.

"Afraid so."

"She looked seriously cruel." Kelsey admitted.

"Yeah, maybe she beat him up." Kyle bit the corner of his lip.

"She really could, couldn't she?" Kelsey smiled.

"I just hope he didn't get to know her too well." Kyle turned the movie back on and put his arm around Kelsey.

"You think he would?"

"Of course, this is Eric we're talking about." Kyle just nodded.

highly unlikely

Olivia had gotten an e-mail from Roger's mother. She so wanted them to come for Thanksgiving. Honestly, she didn't know what she could write back. She was certain he was upset with her. He had every right to be. She couldn't demand him to go see his mother.

A little of her thought it would be sweet if she went alone to see Roger's mom. She could take the bus. It would give her time to think.

As it was... her own folks were ignoring her again. Of course, they'd never say it. But honestly, they were in the tough love thing. She had her chance, and blew it. If she on their team, she'd be working at the orphanage, right now. Have a working holiday. Of course, this made her all the more depressed. She wasn't quite ready to send herself off to help others in need. She guessed. Wasn't it enough that she helped deaf children at the preschool? There was always more she could be doing. She just couldn't live up to their expectations. Perhaps if she'd been their own daughter it would have been different. Not that she played the adoption card much. She'd never mentioned it to any of her friends. It was a harsh reality, now.

They'd had plenty of discussions on the fact that she'd turned on them. It was as if she was a pit bull that didn't know she was a pit bull until they told her and expected her to act like one. Vicious, perhaps.

She knew Eric thought her parents were kind and always there for her, but really, they had their own agenda. They could only do so much. And then she was on her own. This coldness had grown. And if she didn't have Roger, who did she have?

She wrote back to Roger's mother telling her they'd had a disagreement. She wasn't sure she was even his girlfriend anymore. She wanted to tell her that she'd love to come. Really, she wasn't sure she had all that much to be thankful for on Thanksgiving.

But then she got a text. And to her surprise it was from Roger.