[Collin] Just Dessert

[Elizabeth Danielle Ridgefield]

Ellie walked the red carpet and smiled while the photographers fought for a good picture of her. She was by herself, naturally. Collin couldn't come with her to events, obviously, since their relationship was still under wraps. It wasn't until she saw all the couples around her all the time that she felt a little disheartened about it. She knew obviously part of it was because she'd let it be okay all this time, the secrecy, him staying in his marriage. At the time it had seemed like the right thing to do for his career since he had just broken up with Natalia and Ellie hadn't wasted much time moving in on it. Especially since initially it was clear to both of them that it was nothing beyond a hook up. The problem was when they both realized it was more than a hook up. And Ellie hadn't been in a rush, she was just getting her career off the ground at the time. But now she was doing the math for the first time and the fact that it had been two years since she'd met Collin and what were they now? Ellie smiled as she approached someone from E! who had a few questions. "Ellie, you look so great tonight, just stunning." "Thank you," she smiled, shifting her weight nervously. She hated talking to interviewers, she always thought she would say the wrong thing. "Things have been going really well for you, your first album went platinum, you had six singles off that album, Turn It Up. What changed from that album to your sophomore album we will be hearing very soon?" "The first album, we worked really hard on Turn It Up, it was a really long time in the making and I really wanted a little bit of everything on it." "You got a lot of touring on that album." "Yeah, it had a lot of hits, which was good, it was a good platform to really build a fan base, get my name out there. With this second album, it's called Young Foolish Happy, it's... exactly that. I have loyal fans, people supporting my work so far, so I was able to branch out a little more, it's a really fun album. Just a lot of songs about being young, having fun. Which, I know comes off as pretty cliche but it's where I'm at in my life." "You turned 21 just a month or so ago." "Yeah, I did, so I'm just doing the young, fun thing," she laughed slightly. "Young, having fun... being single? You keep pretty hush about that, no one can seem to figure out if you've been dating anyone, or who that might be. Any comments about that?" Ellie laughed slightly, shaking her head, "Oh no one is interested in that, how boring, my dating life..." she scoffed jokingly. "Any how, maybe we'll just have to wait until your album comes out, maybe there will be some hints in there. All About Tonight is your first single off the new album, it's done so well already, what's next?" "The album is going to be released, and... going back to film a new video for the next single as well." "I'm sure you're keeping mum about that as well," the interviewer smiled, "Well thank you for your time, we'll see you inside." "Thank you," she said politely, glad to head as far away from that conversation as possible.

As Ellie sat through the ins and outs of typical events like this one, she still thought to herself, damn, two years already? Time had flown by. Guess they say it does that when you're having fun. Ellie just hadn't anticipated that much fun. Collin was not supposed to be a serious relationship, but lo and behold, she'd fallen for him. Stupid Collin. He had to go and hook her, now she couldn't imagine not being in a relationship with him. He was her first relationship in a long time. It was pretty serious she supposed, to have stuck it out this long. She wondered if he thought they had a future. They told each other I love you and all that. Maybe he did. The future just hadn't been something of concern when your boyfriend is already married. How were they supposed to get serious and talk about the future, about things like maybe being married one day, if he was already married? Why was it bugging her so much all of a sudden? It just struck her that as long as he was married to someone else, their relationship was just sitting still. How was she supposed to know if they were going to be something more? This wasn't going to work anymore. It was like all the time she had been chill about it all of a sudden had boiled over and she didn't feel chill about it anymore. She just wanted more, there wasn't anything wrong with that was there?

On the way home Ellie stopped at her favorite sweet shop to get a slice of chocolate turtle cheesecake, as the dessert at the red carpet event had been minuscule, and picked up Collin's favorite too. It was like she was frantic to get home, cursing herself for calling it home so easily, almost laughing at the fact she knew off the top of her head what Collin would want from the sweet shop. She hoped he wasn't sleeping when she got back, though she doubted he would be. He was always working on something, r at least waiting up for her when she went to events. Ellie flung the door open, tossing her bag down and her jacket, "Collin," she called out, slipping her heels off and walked through the apartment in her bare feet. She carried the bag of dessert with her, stopping in the kitchen to grab silverware and went out to the living room. "Collin, we need to talk," she started, taking his take out box out of the bag and put it down on the table in front of him, handing him a fork, "I know all this time I haven't made a big deal about the whole being married thing, because it wasn't, and we weren't all that serious," she said, plopping down next to him, opening her cheesecake box, "But now lately it kinda seems more serious and how are we supposed to be serious when you're still married?" She reached down to scoop up a bite of cheesecake, "I mean we live together and everything, and I know I told you I didn't have a problem with you being married at the time but now suddenly I kind of have a problem with it." She stopped, cheesecake half way to her mouth, realizing she was rambling and stopped, setting her fork down and stared at her cheesecake, "Sorry, I'm being terribly abrupt." Ellie took a breath, turning to look at him, "I just... I feel like we can't really be serious about a future, your future is a little tied up at the moment," she joked, offering a small smile and picked her fork back up, "But then I realized we hadn't exactly talked about it, and I wasn't sure what your thoughts were about it. The future, I mean. Sorry, you know what, eat your dessert and think about it." Maybe she should pipe down, maybe he was watching an intriguing TV program and she should just eat her cheesecake instead of bombard him like a tornado had just rushed through the apartment.

[Collin Scott Reynolds]

Collin scratched above his eyebrow as he stared down at the computer screen which was illuminating the remaining darkness in the living room. He listened to the music in one ear, clicking and dragging a few of the film clips in order to make the sequence flow better. After piecing together about a minute of the footage, Collin sat up, turning his neck side to side as an audible crack came from his tense body. He didn’t realize how tense his neck and shoulders were until he was finally sitting up straight. After taking a deep breath in he sighed, looking around at the mass amount of work he had yet to do. His attention turned toward his computer when he got an email from Tyler. Collin smirked, looking at the time. He could picture it now ; Tyler was probably in his own apartment getting nagged by Ka-sorry, Mikayla, about how he needed to come to bed cause she was tired and blah blah blah. At least Ellie worked with Collin every day at the office, so she knew when his plate was full and when it wasn’t. Collin brought his hands up to his hair, shaking them tiredly to try and wake himself up. He stared at the computer screen until he decided to get up and make himself some coffee.

Collin bit at the edge of his lip as he waited for the Keurig to finish making his single cup of coffee. He would make a couple, but he still wasn’t sure what time Ellie was going to be home. He tapped his fingers along the counter behind him as his mind wandered off to the dilemmas in his life outside of work. Obviously the marriage to Katy had been… bullshit. He’d cheated on Anabelle with her, up and got married in Vegas. That relationship had been public, the one with Natalia was a bit more private seeing as how everyone thought that he was married to Katy – which, technically.. he is. But with Ellie, he at least stepped out in public with her more often. She was seen alongside him and Katy at some things, because Katy knew exactly who she was, how couldn’t she? He’d never lied to Katy about his feelings or anything, but he also didn’t want to screw her over. Did he care about her love? No. But he could respect her career. Which is why his meeting with Katy today hadn’t gone over too well. In fact, the “meeting” had turned into a lot of her screaming at him, saying that she never gave them a chance, he was giving up on something that could have been beautiful, blah blah blahhhhh. He’d gotten out for the most part unharmed, though there was a scratchmark across his forearm.

After his coffee was finished, Collin retreated to the living room, setting it down beside his computer when he heard Ellie coming in. He sounded at the familiarity of the sound of her heels coming off. Most men, when hearing ‘we need to talk’, cringe. But Collin never felt any sort of anxiety about that kind of stuff with Ellie. He was under the impression if they ever had an issue that they would work through it. There weren’t any problems, just solutions. He tilt his head as she came into the living room. ‘ Hey baby,” he said, leaning in to give her a quick kiss. Because he knew, as seldom as it was, if she wanted to talk there wasn’t going to be any stopping the talking train once she started. Collin pulled Ellie’s legs into his lap before taking the fork from her, and smiled at the caramel cheesecake inside the box. Collin rest his arms against Ellie’s legs, taking a bite of the cheesecake as he listened to her talk. “ Mmm. Actually I need to pause you for a second,” he said, leaning forward to set the dessert box onto the table. Collin ran his hand across her legs before moving them gently and getting up to go into his office. He was constantly bringing paperwork to artists that worked with videos on him ; different agreements, licensures, outlooks, ideas, etc. And Ellie had a video coming up soon, so surely she was expecting paperwork from him.

“ Read over this and then come into the kitchen, I’m gonna go make you some coffee for your dessert,” he said, leaning down to give her a kiss. Collin went into the kitchen and took down a keurig pod before putting it in the machine so it could heat up for her. After taking a deep breath he looked down at his watch, knowing that it wouldn’t take long for her to realize that she had just been handed the divorce papers signed by himself and Katy as well this afternoon. Collin turned his neck to the side once more before he went to the wine cabinet, taking out the two small boxes that he had hidden up there since they were just out of Ellie’s height. Collin got down on one knee, setting one of the boxes on the kitchen island but opened the box containing the ring. He heard her moving off of the couch and coming towards the kitchen, causing him to realize momentarily that he was actually a little nervous. From the outside perspective it looked like he was jumping from one marriage to the next. But in his defense, his marriage with Katy was never a real one. And, he knew that they would have to keep a long ass engagement to make Ellie’s reputation unharmed from any type of scandal of this. He smiled softly as she came into the kitchen, “ Ellie, I didn’t have a future until I met you. You’ve always had mine. Will you let me have yours?” he questioned as the coffee pot began to start her cup of coffee.