From Mine to Ours

50: Thank you.

It's been a few months since the whole 'bring Cadence and her team down' thing happened. We're already nearing the end of winter and the afternoon breeze is already starting to feel different as we cross the bridges between the seasons.

December was essentially a major vacation for everyone, including my lovely friend Alexis who I'm actually on my way to meet right now for a late lunch. I haven't seen her since she came back in January. She had a lot to catch up on career-wise after basically escaping her reality for a little while with a certain someone. Although she mostly took a break for herself, she happily used most of her free time to get to know him.

"Noah!" I reach up to remove my sunglasses and see her waving her arm outside one of our favorite restaurants. "Long time no see," she pulls me in for a tight embrace squealing happily beside my ear and I return the gesture.

As soon as we sit back down and have our drinks the gossip begins. "So, you need to tell me all about it," I reach over to grasp her hand in mine and her widening smile is already an indicator of how her dates with Alex went.

"Oh, Noah, I don't even know where to start..."

Seeing the genuine sparkles in her eyes and the dimples deepen in her cheeks, I can't really help the small thought of if this is what I looked like every time I so much as mentioned one of my men. Completely lovestruck.

Whenever his name slips past her lips, her smile twitches up again and my own cheeks are starting to hurt from the amount of smiling I'm doing in return. I love seeing my friends so hopelessly in love with someone who deserves it. Well, I suppose being in love is a bit strong as they only recently started becoming official, but still my thought process proudly stands.

"I just..." For the first during our entire lunch, the corners of her lips tip downwards. My eyebrows furrow and I reach forward again so we can go back to holding hands once our plates were cleared away. She sighs and looks down at her lap. "I'm all over the internet, Noah," her eyes flit back up to me and I immediately catch her drift.

"Yeah, but he knows that now, no?"

She nods and a shadow of a smile crosses her features. His reaction when he found out she's famous was absolutely priceless according to her. "He says that doesn't change a thing between us and I believe him for now,"

"For now?"

"I know how this goes, Noah," she sighs again, freeing one of her hands to pull at one of her curls as she usually does when she's uncertain about something. "They either start trying to take advantage or they get way too overwhelmed with the public's eyes on them," and then they leave. The unspoken message hangs in the air and I do my best to reassure her with a small squeeze of my hand.

Having personally been in front of the camera for quite a while now, nowhere near as long as Alexis though, I understand where her anxiousness is coming from. And I know she's already fully aware of the promises I cannot give her. Doesn't mean I can't cheer her up and hopefully remind her to have a little faith in him. "I know I can't promise you he won't do that to you, but from what I can tell he fell hard and fast for you, Alexis,"

That finally brings a small smile back to her lips. "I think you should take this day by day and enjoy being in the moment with him, see where things really go before worrying about what could happen," her eyes flit around as she contemplates my words. She processes things for another fleeting moment before she squeezes my hand back and looks back at me with a large grin.

"You're right, thank you, Noah,"

I shrug. "What for?" I grin back and we both burst out into a fit of relieved laughter. "For what it's worth, I truly do hope things work out between the two of you, he seems like a really great guy from what Gabriel is telling me,"