a chance or so

Nick found Eric at the grocery store. Looking scruffier than ever, but he looked happy. He was in the produce isle.

"See, the cat comes first." Nick smiled. The basket was already full of cat food and kitty litter.

"Yeah, its the cat that gets me to the store." Eric smiled back.

"Well, something must be going your way." Nick couldn't help but notice. He seemed a lot happier now than he did at that dinner. "You hit it off with Liz?"

"Not really." Eric bit a smile with a wince.

Nick just nodded. "Blind dates usually suck."

"That, they do." Eric cleared his throat. "But I found out the cat has a name. Its Belle. The owner called me."

"Oh, that's great. Is Belle going back to its owner?" Nick picked up some apples thinking he better grab some hard ones while he remembered.

"No." Eric shook his head. "Its just, yes, everything is so shitty right now. You know, not knowing what to do about Amanda. No job. Its just, I find this one person, who so randomly called me that I can't wait to hear from again. I don't even know what she looks like, but I don't care. I just get this feeling that I want to wait for her. Is that crazy?"

"About as crazy as No Shave November." That's why Eric wasn't shaving. He remembered now.

"Oh yeah, at this rate I might have no shave December too. Its winter." Eric shrugged.

"Well, maybe you are good at long distance relationships." Nick smiled.

"Yeah, well, its better to think about Syd than my stupid life, at the moment." Eric nodded.

"Its not stupid." Nick gave him a pat on the shoulder.

"So what are you doing for Thanksgiving?" Eric asked.

"I'm going home to the folks. Heath is going to his folks. It'll be a bummer Thanksgiving. Just the usual. Watch my folks make over Rex when he isn't making out with a new girlfriend."

"Ian's coming in tonight. I'm not sure what we'll do. I guess go to my Mom's. Dora is coming in." Eric shrugged.

"Sounds about as much fun as at my house." Nick nodded, not looking forward to Thanksgiving one bit.