He was standing in the toy isle, absent-mindedly scratching his head as he browsed the rainbow colored xylophones, stuffed animals and teething rings. I quickened my pace and skipped to the next isle: baby food. I grabbed the shelving unit to balance myself. My heartbeat had picked up and I could feel my face getting hot. Maybe if I just waited a few minutes, he'd find his toy and leave the isle. I stood there pretending to go through the different kinds of food for as long as I could stand. Then, when I'd seen everything from carrots to banana pudding, I slowly crept back to the toy isle. To my dismay, he was still standing in the same place, which just so happened to be right in front of the bright orange baby guitar I was planning to get for Max. He was still scratching his head. He always did that when he was uncomfortable.

I knew I couldn't just keep hovering around the isles until he left. I started to walk towards him, trying my hardest to look normal, yet so conscious of how loud my heels were on the linoleum and how heavily I was breathing. When I reached the instrument portion of the isle, the clanking of my heels subsided as I came to a stop so close to him that I could hear his shallow breathing and see that he wasn't even looking at the toys. His eyes were glazed over, his foot was tapping and his hand was buried in his hair, grasping for some stability.

"Sorry, can I just reach around you to get that toy?" I half expected him to jump, but he just nodded his head and stepped to the side enough for me to reach the bright orange guitar. I picked up my package and muttered, "Thanks," before I turned and retreated.

Just as I thought I was going to get to walk away from this whole thing unscathed, I bumped loudly into the stuffed animal display, and thirty fluffy bunnies toppled headlong to the hard floor. As if the clamor wasn't enough, each one started to play a different song. For some idiotic reason, I turned back to him and saw that he'd stopped scratching his head and was now walking toward me. My instincts told me to flee, but my head told me I'd already made enough of an ass out of myself. I reached down and started to collect the plushies, but paused when a pair of shoes appeared in my line of sight. I looked up and groaned internally at the man connected to those shoes.

He was smiling. I always hated it when he smiled. "Would you like some help?" he asked, not waiting for my answer as he bent down and helped me herd the rabbits.

"Thanks," I replied shortly. I kept my head down and did my best not to look at him. When the mess was all picked up, I stood up and smoothed my skirt over my legs as I looked up and saw him looking at me. As soon as I saw the recognition flash in his eyes, I scolded myself internally for looking up.

"Moll?"

I cringed at the old nickname and forced myself to smile. "Hey, Joe."

"Damn, it's been a long time. I hardly recognized you!" He waited for my response. I just nodded. A few moments of thick silence sat between us. He shifted his weight as he ran his hand through his hair and said, "S-so, what are you doing here?"

"My nephew's birthday is today."

He smiled slightly. "How is Max?"

"He's doing fine. He really wanted a guitar like his daddy, but my sister-in-law told him it would be too loud and he was too little, so I got him this."

"I guess that's your job as his aunt, huh?"

"Yeah," I smiled a little, and then wiped it off my face.

"You cut your hair," he said with a somber tone.

My hand instinctively went up to grasp the ends of my hair that fell to my shoulders. "Well, people don't freeze in time just because you don't see them."

"I liked it better long."

"I know," I responded and then regretted it immediately.

His eyes were boring into me with a sad softness. It was torture. The question bit at my throat, but I didn't want to ask it. Before my mind could stop it, my mouth let it slip out. "So, what are you doing here?"

He hesitated and swallowed. "Just looking for baby toys and stuff." He avoided my eyes.

I knew what was going on before the girl walked up. Her blonde hair fell to her mid back, her bright blue eyes shone brightly behind her long white eyelashes, and her stomach was round enough to have it's own gravitational pull. She looked at me skeptically as she got closer to Joe. She looked up at him and said, "Hey, I've been looking for you."

"Sorry, hon. I got distracted." He replied. She closed her mouth and quickly directed her attention to me.

"Who's that?"

"Just an old friend." Ouch.

"Well," she said as she defensively interlocked her arm with his, "aren't you going to introduce us?"

"Uh, yeah. Louise, this is Amalia. Amalia, this is Louise." He paused. "She's my–"

"I'm his wife," she interrupted sharply.

A pang rang though my bones for a split second. Wife. I nodded in understanding and said, "Wow, wife? Congratulations."

A flash of satisfaction crossed her face. Joe wouldn't look me in the eye. Louise grinned and flipped her hair as she said, "So, how do you know each other?"

Before Joe could even open his mouth, I responded. "He's my ex-fiancée," I said, looking at him, rather than her.

The satisfaction disappeared and Louise pursed her lips. She looked up at Joe, whose eyes were locked with mine. "Quite a friend. You never told me you'd been engaged, Joseph."

He didn't respond. He just kept looking at me, trying to apologize wordlessly.

But it wasn't enough for me. "Oh no, I can't imagine he would. Because then he'd have to explain when it was and why he called it off." All the anger I'd suppressed for so long was bubbling back up to the surface, and I selfishly couldn't care less what affect it had on their relationship. "'Not the marrying type,' eh, Joe? Isn't that what you told me? 'Not ready for that kind of commitment'? Not to mention when I told you I thought I might be pregnant."

"But you weren't pregnant." He said, guiltily.

"Yeah, thank God, right?" I bit back. His eyes shamefully pleaded me to stop, but I was on a roll.

"I mean, I guess it's good that you broke it off before we'd really gotten into the wedding plans, right? Imagine what a financial mess that would've been." He didn't take his eyes off mine. "But I guess I'm glad you're over it. I mean, it only took you how many months to knock up someone else? At least this one was good enough to marry, huh?"

"A few months?" Louise asked.

"He moved out of my apartment a year ago next week."

Joe pulled his arm away from his wife, and she looked appalled. "Louise, can you go wait in the car?"

"Absolutely not!" She shrieked.

"Don't bother, Joe. I need to go anyway." I tore my eyes from him. "It was so nice to meet you Mrs. Pence." I turned to walk away.

"Moll, wait," Joe called. I kept walking, ignoring his pleading.

I paid for the little guitar and headed out to my car. A few rows over, I saw Joe and Louise arguing next to a silver CR-V. Before I could get to my car, Joe was walking to meet me. I looked behind him and saw Louise still standing by the CR-V glaring in our direction as she tapped her finger against her arm, impatiently. He reached my Volkswagen before I could, so I unlocked the car, placed the present in the back seat, slammed the door and leaned up against the car.

Joe stood a few feet away from me, looking down at his feet. As much anger as I felt towards him, I couldn't deny how beautiful he was. He needed a haircut, I noticed as I watched him brush his dark bangs out of his gorgeous hazel eyes. Even in jeans and a t-shirt, he looked like a movie star. After a few moments, he still hadn't said anything, so I said, "Do you have something to say? Because I have somewhere to be and I've already wasted enough time with this."

The harshness in my tone made him look up. He looked genuinely sad, I'd give him that, but at that moment, it didn't matter. "Moll–"

I closed my eyes and waved him off. "Just don't, okay? I don't want to hear your excuses. I don't want your apology. I was finally getting over it, and I don't really feel up to an emotion relapse."

He walked towards me. "If you didn't want to hear what I have to say, then why didn't you get in your car and drive away?"

"Because unlike you, I don't put my tail between my legs and scamper off when I'm in a tough situation. I fess up and deal with it like an adult."

He ran his hand through his hair and I scoffed. "What?"

"You still do that when you're nervous. I just thought it was funny." I paused, and then added, "coping never really was your strong suit." He looked down again. "So are we just going to sit in discomfort, or are you going to talk?"

He nodded and looked back up. "I don't expect you to forgive me, I just want to explain what happened."

I gestured for him to go on. He didn't.

"Why don't you start with that?" I said, pointing at his wife across the lot. He glanced over his shoulder and sighed.

"I met her at a party about six weeks after I left. I was drunk and we were just messing around. I saw her a few times afterwards, but she didn't tell me she was pregnant until she was three months along. She said we had to learn to love each other because there was a part of each of us in this child. I was still confused about you and didn't know what to do. I think I took pity on her because I still felt so bad about you. Anyway, the wedding wasn't anything special. Literally just the two of us and her mother as a witness." He stopped and looked at me.

"When's it due?" I asked quickly.

"Two months." He responded. I laughed.

"So if I'd actually been pregnant, would you still have left?"

He shook his head. "I don't know. Probably not." I laughed again, more harshly this time and looked up at the sky, shaking my head. He added, "I was confused. I didn't know what to do and I knew I wasn't ready for a child. You didn't want it either."

"I didn't know what I wanted, Joe! Except that I wanted to marry you because I loved you and you led me to believe that you felt the same. Don't even try to shift the blame on me!"

"That's not what I'm trying to–"

"You're pathetic, you know that? You were willing to throw yourself into an unwanted marriage, and instead of being a man and owning up to your shit, you left."

He turned to me completely and said, "I stayed with Louise."

The traces of sarcastic laughter dropped from my face. "You want me to congratulate you for whoring around and marrying some girl you've known a few months as a result of your promiscuous actions?" He looked at me stoically. Dryly, I added, "Good for you."

I pushed off the car and opened the driver door. Just before I got in, I turned back to him and said, "Have a nice life, Joe."

He didn't move. "If it means anything, I'm sorry."

I stared at him for a few seconds before saying, "It doesn't."