do over

It was so late, actually the wee hours of morning when Ollie got the call from Valentina that he was certain she'd butt dialed. Except, she was crying.

Ollie was with Maddie and they were studying in the livingroom at his house.

"Are you okay?" he couldn't help but ask. She sounded upset. But he wasn't sure about what. "You didn't break up with Robby, did you?" Ollie had his ways of knowing who his ex was with and what they were doing. It was homecoming. He couldn't imagine anything so tragic. Not for Valentina.

"No." She managed to get out, but she'd had words with Gabby. "I wasn't very nice."

"Nice?" He almost laughed. Wasn't Valentina the nicest?

He noticed Maddie looking up from her marketing book as if she expected he would go out to find Valentina.

"I'm sure she could handle it," he told her he'd expected her to yell at him more after their breakup. He said it was okay to vent. If anyone deserved some harsh words it was Gabby, but he would leave it alone. He was with Maddie now and somehow, he felt more grownup. He didn't expect for anyone to forgive him, yet he'd finally forgiven himself for being such a fool with Gabby.

"I don't expect you to forgive me, but I know you needed to meet someone who..." He didn't want to say was better. "Look, you're just about perfect, but you didn't need to be stuck with me." Ollie doubted that sounded any better. "I just hope you never have to go through anything with anyone else like you did with me." Even before the one night stand with Gabby, he knew how hot and cold he could be. It had been that way with Valentina since the beginning, and it wasn't her fault. It was his.

He knew he couldn't be that way with Maddie. He thought he'd learned a lot since high school.

"Stop worrying, and be happy." He reminded her how she used to worry about him. "Don't go down that road, ever again." He told her he wanted her to be happy and to make the last of her high school days sweet memories he knew he couldn't be a part of.