Sunshine and Roses or Notttttt

Beach house

She didn't own a car - who the hell owned a car in New York - so she'd shelled out the $200 for an uber. She was trying to figure out her next steps as she'd not mentioned to Natalie she was on her way and didn't know her exact address so had asked the uber driver to leave her in the middle of the town, when the very person she was looking for crossed the street holding hands with a hunk of a man that Melanie knew from somewhere but couldn't immediately place.

"Natalie," she shouted.

Natalie whipped her head around and stared at her in surprise, "Melanie?"

Without waiting or looking at the little bit of traffic, Melanie ran over to her best friend.

"Found you!" she laughed, jumping into her friend's arms. Well, this was easier than she could have ever imagined.

"Melanie! What are you doing here?" Thankfully, Natalie's arms found their way around her as well and they were hugging each other in the middle of the road.

"Making sure my best friend wasn't making the biggest mistake of her life."

Natalie just hugged her tighter for a moment and then stepped back.

"You left College for some guy, said bye and I barely hear from you anymore. What the hell, Natalie?"

Natalie thankfully seemed to feel a little bit of guilt as she looked away and sighed.

"I'm sorry, Melanie, I just really, finally knew what I needed and didn't want to think too long about it."

"I have no idea what you're talking about but we'll have plenty of time to discuss." Melanie hiked up her weekender bag and smiled big. "I'm inviting myself to your beach house, in case you were wondering."

Natalie looked shocked and for the first time she looked over at the hunk and glared at him. He was chuckling. Melanie also couldn't quite get rid of the notion that she knew him from somewhere.

"Do I know you?" Melanie wasn't much for subterfuge.

Natalie stepped into her line of sight and took her arm, "Well, if you're here, let's go home and we can catch up. Alright?"

"Works for me," Melanie smiled at Natalie but glared at Connor.

"Don't you want to introduce us?" The guy finally spoke up and Melanie had to admit he had a good voice. A great voice, actually.

"Ehm, Connor, this is my best friend Melanie, Melanie, Connor," and Natalie left it at that. Again, something niggled at the back of Melanie's mind but she just stepped forward and shook his hand.

"I wanted to meet the guy that took away my best friend," Melanie stated brashly.

The guy, Connor, just smirked and it made her anger bubble inside. She looked more closely at him and had to admit that he was gorgeous in a rough sort of way. He was definitely no College dude and seemed quite a bit older than Melanie and Natalie but no grey in his dark hair that she could see and he was definitely all man.

"Well, then let's go."

--

So here she was. Melanie stared at the beautiful beach house and thought she somewhat understood Natalie deciding to continue College remotely, but that didn't stop her from lamenting her best friend, her roommate, leaving. She'd felt utterly alone. It wasn't a good feeling. After two months of her own pity party, she'd pulled up her low-rise jeans and took action and followed Natalie to her new home.

Stepping out of the car, Melanie took one of the shopping bags that had already been in the car, obviously from a grocery run that the couple had done in town and grabbed her weekender and followed the couple towards the entrance. Stepping inside, the first thing she saw when stepping through was high ceilings and beams everywhere, and an open view towards the sea, glittering bright in the summer sunlight.