Randal flipped the sign around and locked the door.  With a sigh, he walked behind the counter and slumped forward against it.

It had been a long day.  A lot of days were long now, but he didn’t mind the busy ones.  A constant stream of dumbass customers was a welcome distraction.  It was the slow nights, the ones that dragged on and he was left alone in an empty store with his thoughts that bothered him.  Those were the nights when Dante’s absence was the most noticeable.

After a moment, he pulled himself upright, scrubbed his face, then proceeded to close out the register for the night.  He worked on autopilot as he began counting the change, zoning out and thinking about crashing as soon as he laid down.  A sharp knock on the door startled him out of his thoughts.  His hand came up to his chest. 

“Shit.  Gonna give a guy a heart attack…” he grumbled.  After taking a second to collect himself, he called out.  “We’re closed.”

The tapping on the door only stopped briefly before it resumed.  He tried to ignore it, to let the idiot stand out there knocking until their knuckles were bleeding.  He went back to counting the till, but quickly realized he kept losing his place because of the jackass at the door. 

“Jesus.  Can’t anyone in this town read?” he complained as he walked towards the door.  “I said we’re—”

Randal froze mid-sentence when he saw who was standing on the other side of the glass. 

“… Closed…”

The last word fell from his mouth, barely above a whisper.  After seeing a shy wave from the woman outside, he reached forward, but his hand hovered at the lock, not quite sure if what he was seeing in front of him was real.

Though it had been nearly two decades since the last time he saw Olivia, he’d never forget her.  Their time together was permanently etched into his mind, though the bitter end had him trying to brush it off as if it never meant that much to him.  Seeing her staring back at him, he realized how wrong he had been to keep lying to himself like that.  Naturally, she looked older now, but not any less beautiful than she always had been.  More mature, but hardly her age.  He snapped out of his fugue and quickly unlocked the door.  She breathed a sigh of relief when he swung it open.

“Hey, Randal,” she said.  “Long time, no see.”

“Hey yourself,” he said, leaning against the frame of the door.  “What brings you here?”

“Sorry, I know it’s late and you’re closed.  It’s just…  Well, you’ve been on my mind lately.  And I was passing by tonight, so I thought maybe I’d check and see if you were still around.”

His grin grew as she spoke.  Her charming accent was like warm honey to his ears, and that smile had him feeling goofy.  The fact that he still crossed the mind of a woman like her was like crack to his ego.

“Oh yeah?” he asked, arching a brow. 

“Yeah.”  She paused, glancing away from him.  With a deep breath, she added, “I, um… heard.  About Dante…”

Randal really should have been immune to people telling him this by now, but each time he heard it, it was like the wound was reopened.  For a few moments there, seeing her again helped him forget all of that, but the sound of his best friend’s name quickly had reality crashing back down around him.  He nodded his head, the words to reply to her getting caught in his throat.

“I’m really sorry,” she continued.  “I know how close you two were.  He was a great guy.”

“Yeah,” Randal said, his voice cracking in spite of himself.  “Yeah, he was.”

Silence fell between them, with neither knowing what to say to make things less awkward.  A chilly breeze blew by, and Randal figured she didn’t want to stand in the cold any longer.

“You, uh… wanna come in for a minute?” he offered.  “I wouldn’t mind the company while I close.”

“Are you going to put me to work?” she asked, followed by a playful wink.  A new smile formed when he caught that she was trying to lighten the mood.

“Liv, I can’t even put the assholes who work here to work.  Now, do you wanna come inside this toasty little establishment or would you rather freeze your tits off?”

Liv laughed and nodded her head, prompting him to step to the side and hold the door for her.  Once she was inside, he locked it behind her and double-checked to make sure the sign showed they were indeed closed.  As she walked further into the dark convenience store, she looked around in awe.

“Wow.  It’s like stepping back in time.  This place hasn’t changed a bit,” she said before turning around to face him.  For better or worse, the memories came rushing back when he saw her beside that counter.

“I like I think we did a decent job,” Randal said.  “There was a fire a while back— well, shit.  Probably fifteen years ago now.  Had to rebuild it.”

“Yeah, one of my friends mentioned that…  Said you bought the place years ago and still ran it.  Can’t lie, I had to see for myself.”

“So, that’s how you found me here.  And here I was thinking it was just some of that women’s intuition,” he said as he walked towards the coolers.  “Want a drink?  I’ll comp it.”

“Ooh, look at you.  The generous businessman over here,” teased Liv.  “Sure, I’ll take something, Mr. Monopoly.”

“Jesus, you haven’t changed a bit,” Randal chuckled while he grabbed two beers and brought them to the front.  He handed one to her before leaning against the counter and cracking his open.

“Thanks,” she said.  “You, uh… been keeping yourself busy?”

“Trying to,” he replied.

Randal couldn’t help but look at her fingers as they clutched the can, noting the lack of any rings.  He felt a flutter of that trademark confidence of his coming back.

“How about you?” he asked.  “What are you up to these days?  Pornhub?  OnlyFans?”

“I’m too old for that shit, Randal,” she joked.

“Pfft, absolutely not.  I can assure you, there’s no such thing as ‘too old’ for that kind of thing.  If anything, you might just be a different genre now.”

Liv snorted at this, nearly spitting up beer.  She turned away, holding her mouth as she laughed.

“And that would be?” she managed to ask.

“… Well,” Randal pondered his answer.  He was happy to see her again, and didn’t way to say the wrong thing.  She always had thick skin, but he wasn’t sure what might offend her now.  “MILFs are hot these days.”

“True… But I’m not a MILF.”

“Well, you’re not exactly a bloodsucking bimbo either,” he reminded her.  “It’s called acting.”

This earned a giggle as she said, “Touché.”

It felt good to get laughs out of her.  Randal missed the sound of it.  Hell, he missed all of this.

“So, if you’re not getting your back blown out on camera by cocks bigger than my forearm, what are you up to?”

“Wow, you are just as eloquent as ever,” she said while rolling her eyes.  “You know, I only did that stuff to pay for college.  I’m a software developer now.”

Randal’s arms folded in front of his chest and he bobbed his head in approval.

“No kidding, huh?  I always figured you were as smart as you are sexy.”

“Oh, shut up,” she mumbled before glancing off to sip her beer. 

Even in the low light, Randal could see the bright pink hue that tinted Liv’s cheeks.  He took great pride in the fact that he could still make her blush.

“So, are you just passing through or…?”

“Well, no, actually,” she said.  “My job is remote now.  Since I’m not tied to an office anymore, I thought I’d move somewhere that felt more like home.  Cali was nice, but it was never for me.”

A small noise of disbelief rose out of Randal.  “And Jersey was?”

“Crazy, right?  Who in their right mind would willingly come back to Leonardo?” she laughed.  “I dunno.  I suppose I was feeling nostalgic.”

“Happens to the best of us.  How long have you been back in town?”

“Only a few weeks.  Most of my shit is still in boxes.  Maybe there’s still a chance to change my mind.”

Randal nodded.  Despite her nonchalance, there was a feeling in the air that made him believe that it likely wasn’t the scenery that lured her back, and that she may have been looking for a reason to convince her to stay.  Maybe he just had a big head, but he really believed he had a chance to make things right with her.

During this lull in the conversation, he raised his eyes and caught hers looking back at him, all but confirming to him that she still felt something for him.  He didn’t know how he wanted to tackle this.  Did he go for it like old times and ask her if she wanted to hop on the counter?  Did he do this properly and ask if she’d like to go out to dinner sometime?  Somehow, he figured trying to impress her would help steer him in the right direction. 

“Y’know, you’re not the only star in the room now,” he said.  She tilted her head.  “I made a movie.”

“Did you now?” she asked.  Her face lit up, obviously intrigued. 

“Yep.  Written, starred, and directed by yours truly.”

“Was it a porno?”

“Nah, I think I’ll leave those to the professionals,” he said, giving her a nudge.

With a laugh, she playfully bumped him in retaliation.

“Well?  What’s it about then?”

“… Dante.”

The smile faded from her face.  She lowered her drink as a look of sympathy flashed in her eyes.

“Well, I … had a health scare of my own a while back.”  He sniffed as he glanced away, trying not to make a big deal out of that part and worry her.  “Really got me thinking, so I figured I’d try to do something meaningful.  It’s about our lives at the store.”  His voice wavered as he continued.  “All the crazy shit we’ve seen and heard over the years in this place.  We were making it when… everything happened.”

“Oh, Randal…”

“Yeah.”

Randal attempted to blink away the tears that were threatening to fall from his eyes, but for the first time in months, his composure was crumbling.  He had become numb to the magnitude of his loneliness until he saw her again.  With Dante gone, he had no one.  There was Elias, sure, but it wasn’t the same.  When Dante lost Becky, he had been there.  It wasn’t much, but having a distraction managed to soften the blow.  When Randal lost him, there was no shoulder to cry on.  No one to confide in.  Not a soul he trusted to comfort him.  In spite of his best efforts to put up a good front, it all started hitting him at once, and it hit him hard.

Live placed the can to the side and pulled him into her arms when he started breaking down.  She tried to shush him, only to feel him shaking against her as everything he had been bottling up finally burst free.

“I can’t believe he’s gone,” he confessed, choking up harder when he felt her arms around him.  “I fucking miss him…  I miss him every day.”

“I know, Randal…  I know you do…”

His cap had been bumped off of his head in the process of holding him against her chest, and her hand found his hair to rub it.  She was surprised that he allowed her to hold him and attempt to comfort him like this.  He may have looked the same, talked the same, and behaved the same as the Randal Graves she once knew, but that Randal would have never showed any kind of emotion other than sardonic disinterest around her, especially not one so raw.

“Every day…  Every fucking day…” he murmured against her.  “I walk in here, expecting to see that asshole standing behind that counter, bitching and moaning about something or another…”  He grabbed fistfuls of the back of her jacket and gripped it as the tears began to fall harder.  “He’s always…  Always been here.  Dante’s supposed to be here.  He’s…”

Liv hated to see the man she once— no, still loved so broken.  She couldn’t stop her own tears from falling as she squeezed him tighter and pressed her lips to the top of his head.  There wasn’t a single thing she could think to say to ease his pain, so she continued to hold him for as long as he would let her, which was far longer than she anticipated.  It felt like they stood there forever before he calmed down a bit.

“He was arguing with me when it happened,” he managed to say.  “I…”

“Shh…”  She quickly tried to stop that train of thought before it continued.  He sounded so uncharacteristically weak.  It was painful for her; she knew it had to be tenfold for him.  “Don’t.  It’s not your fault, Randal.”

“I know,” he softly said as he pulled away from her.  “But, still…  I dunno.  I guess I just wish we both had another chance…”

Liv reached for him before he could withdraw entirely.  Vulnerability wasn’t something that Randal showed anyone, and she knew that.  Allowing himself to admit these things to her was a sign that he had matured, though she wished it didn’t take this kind of tragedy for it to happen.  She held his face in her hands, thumbs brushing the tears away.  While she may not have been around in many, many years, she knew both men were set in their ways and nothing had ever changed between them.  If one thing was constant, it was their friendship.

“Dante realized how much you cared about him,” she told him.  “Even if you argued, that was nothing new.  I’m positive he knew ‘til the end that you cared.  And you… you do know he cared about you too, right?”

Randal’s eyes screwed shut, but he nodded.

“Maybe I’m selfish,” he said.  “No, I know I am.  I’ve always been.  It just… It sucks, Liv.  I don’t believe in all that afterlife bullshit, but if there is one, I hope Dante’s finally happy out there, because he was fucking miserable down here.  But fuck, I still wish he was around.  I don’t know what to do without him.”

“Hey, he’s rooting for you, Randal.  He always did,” she said.  “And for what it’s worth, I am too.  I’m not telling you this to convince you to move on.  God knows after spending damn near half a century with someone, it’d be impossible to expect that of you…  But you have a responsibility now.  You owe it to him to carry on.  Maybe release that movie, so others can see how good the two of you had it in this shithole, if you’re comfortable with that.  Who knows?  You might make it big.”

A laugh rose out of Randal as he wiped his face with the back of his wrist.  “Yeah.  And then I can rub it in his face if I ever see him again.”

“Yeah.”  She offered him a smile.  “That’s the spirit.”

Liv gave his cheek a pat before pulling away.  Randal sunk down to the floor, grabbing his cap and throwing it on before resting his head back against the counter.  After a moment, she lowered herself to settle down by his side.  He felt her eyes still fixed on him, and shame began creeping up that he just unloaded all of this onto her.  The initial wave of self-consciousness over his moment of vulnerability was quickly overshadowed by his humiliation that she was still willing to sit with him and comfort him despite him running her away.

“Olivia,” he said without tearing his eyes away from the flickering fluorescent light above.  “I’m sorry.”

She placed a hand on his shoulder.  From the corner of his eye, he could see her shake her head.

“Randal, it’s okay,” she assured him.  “You don’t have to be embarrassed.  I’m here for you.  If you wanted to talk or…”

He turned his head to the side, and she trailed off when his eyes caught hers.  In that moment, a softness he had only allowed her to see brief glimpses of previously claimed his own expression.

“No.  I mean, I’m sorry I was so shitty to you,” he clarified.  She stiffened, caught off guard by the sudden shift in conversation.  “You deserved better.  Way better.  I let my own bullshit get in the way of a good thing.  You were one of the best things that ever happened to me.  You were everything I could have ever asked for, and I was too fucking blind to see it.” 

He looked up at the ceiling again and let out a shaky, shallow breath.  It was getting to be difficult to continue to look at her with all this regret brewing inside of him.  Following a shake of his head and a self-depreciating laugh, he sighed and continued.

“I mean, where the hell else was I going to find a girl with the same tastes as me who enjoyed my company despite me being a huge tool to everyone around me?” he asked.  “Let alone one who was into the same fucked up sex shit while also being an absolute knockout?  Christ, I fucked that up.”

“Randal…”

The sound of his name came out quiet and hesitant.  Hearing it was enough to convince him to get to the point.

“I honestly loved you, Liv.  I always tried to tell myself and everyone around me that I didn’t to save face, to look like fucking that up was on purpose, but I did.  I do.  At this point, I just gotta accept I always will.  You know, it always blew my mind that Dante’s ass somehow always had two chicks to fight over him, but I was never jealous of that.  God, it seemed like such a pain in the ass.  I didn’t want two chicks at the same time.  I wanted you back.  I may have fooled around with plenty of others since, but it was never the same.  All I ever really wanted was you.  And I always got onto Dante about his pining bullshit, like I had any room to talk.  Fucking hypocrite.”

Her fingers graced his cheek again and guided him to look back at her.  When their eyes locked again, her hand slid back to his neck.  His breathing hitched, and his heart pounded in the seconds before she closed the distance between the two of them.  Their lips met in a kiss softer than any he could recall, one that felt as warm as those memories of waking up in her arms.  As the weight of regret lifted from his shoulders, he held onto her waist and pulled her closer.  Her other arm hooked around his neck and surrendered herself to him.

“I love you,” he whispered against her lips.  “Fuck, I love you.”

He felt her grin, and her warm breath fan his skin as a small laugh escaped her.

“I know.”

Randal’s eyes widened, then narrowed when he realized what she had done.

“Oh, fuck you,” he breathed, but there was no real malice in his voice.  “That was supposed to be my line.”

“Sorry, sorry…  Couldn’t resist.”  She apologized with another kiss.  “I love you, too.”

“Just for that… I love you even more.  You fucking nerd.”

When she eventually pulled away, his eyes sparkled.  A woman who interrupted their tender reunion with a goddamn Star Wars reference?  He wouldn’t have it any other way.  It just reminded him how perfect she was for him.  With emotions already running high, he couldn’t help but crave a little more ‘catching up.’  It had been far too long since the last time he had gotten laid, and just having her this close to him was making him hot.  He chased her lips, pulling her in to kiss her again. There was more urgency behind this one, more need.  It left them both breathless when they parted.

“I live next door,” he blurted out, causing her brows to furrow.

“In the video store?”

Randal couldn’t help but laugh.  “Nah.  Between here and the video store.  Got a little apartment.”

“Oh,” she giggled.  “How convenient.”

“What can I say?  Convenience is my business.”

She shoved him after hearing this, causing him to crack up.

“So… was that an invitation?”

He raised a brow, shrugging as he caught his bottom lip between his teeth.

“Up to you.”

Liv beamed, pulling away from him to stand.  She offered him a hand and helped him off the ground.

“Do you need help closing?” she asked.  “It’s been a while, but I think I remember enough to lend a hand.”

“Nah.  Fuck it,” he said.  He reached for the till that he left sitting on the counter.  “I’ll just put it in the safe and count it in the morning.”

“Bold as hell to think you’ll be getting out of bed in the morning.”

He wagged a finger at her.

“I love the way you think,” said Randal as he walked to the back.  “Elias knows how to count.”