You and Me, Forever

I'm Okay Now [2]

Part 2 of 'Not Okay'

ꫝડꪀꫝꪶ𝕥ꪶρ𝕫ꪑ

His world is off beat. The man who can play any chord at anytime, can pick up a simple hum and work it into a song, the one who can play guitar and sing all day, he's off beat.

And he has been since Camila left for the airport with a tear in her eye and a searing kiss he left on her lips to remind of what she was coming home to. Or that he hoped she was coming home to.

He knew Camila only packed for a few days, and that her flight back was in that time period. He knew deep down that she was coming back, but he couldn't help the panicky feeling of her leaving for good. The thought scared him half to death.

He's been MIA since she left, hiding in their condo, that now felt so foreign without her energy. He was slowly starting to understand where she was coming from, and how she felt.

"Hey Shawn!" Rang through the hallway as Josiah walked in.

"What are you doing here?" Shawn stood up quickly, hoping to hide the bottle of liquor he couldn't get himself to drink.

"Thought maybe you could use someone to talk to? Noticed something was up at dinner the other night, and now you've cancelled the studio time here and in Nashville, just wanted to check in and make sure you're good."

Josiah looks around and then back at Shawn and he just knows. Shawn sighs, slumping back into the couch, back to hugging her pillow from her side of the bed.

"When does Camila get back?"

"Tomorrow night I hope." Shawn mutters.

"Tell me what happened?" Josiah takes a seat on the other side of the couch, across from Shawn.

"I'm not totally sure myself? Camila wanted to leave when we got back here after dinner. She left the next morning."

"You don't know why?"

"I'm sure I could guess, but I don't really want to."

"What's your guess?" Josiah pokes at the topic.

"That she wants to move back home," Shawn sighs, letting his eyes fall shut as he hugs her pillow tighter.

"I don't think that's the case." Josiah shakes his head. "This sort of thing happened when I started leaving for work after I moved in with my girl."

Shawn's head perks up, eyes wide, ears fully listening to everything spilling from Josiah's lips.

"I know you're dedicated to your work, and we all love that about you. I'm sure that's one of the main reasons why she loves you, but you have to remember what she's doing too? Like we don't mean to, but we sort of get busy and push them to the side because we know that they're always there."

Shawn stews on that for a moment, his mind swirling with arguments on how that's not true.

"I know you want to say that she's your main priority and that you love her more than anything, and I don't doubt that you do, but sometimes we have to face the music Shawn. It's easy for us to be in the middle of a take, or a shoot, or a show, and go 'I'll call her back once it's done.' But then it's 'I'll call her after dinner with the team' and then after that it's 'I'll call her after drinks with the band' and then before you know it it's turned into a text saying 'I'll call you tomorrow, got so busy tonight.'"

Shawn deflates, he couldn't even begin to count the amount of times he'd done that to her.

"And they don't say anything because they feel like if they do then they're being clingy, or whiney, but sometimes we need a slap in the face. This Shawn, this is your slap. I don't mean to be in your business, but I heard your phone call earlier this week while we were in LA, she called and you said you were in the middle of a take. I don't know what it was about, but you never did call her back that night."