Skyfall

Zola’s, a frequent restaurant that Eleanor and Gabe used to eat at, was quiet for a Sunday afternoon. Saying hi to Gina, one of the cooks, and ducking into one of the booths, she began to feel the nervousness deep in the pit of her stomach for what was about to happen once Gabe showed up.

At first, she hoped he wouldn’t show—like he had for the past year, and would call her up letting her know that he really wasn’t that interested in being a dad anymore, yet some part of her deep down wanted him to show, they would talk and everything would somehow be okay.

He did show though.

The chimes of the old restaurant rang and in walked a tan Gabriel Landeskog. He took off his Ray Bans as soon as he walked in the door, and gave Gina a hug, while the cook mumbled about how it had been a long time since she had seen both of them in the diner together. Elle watched Gabe as he nervously laughed, tucked his sunglasses into his khaki short pockets, and waved to her from the entrance of the store. She waved back, the nervous pit in her stomach growing deeper and deeper, and tried to put on her best smile. Things were about to get really serious.

“Hi,” he spoke quietly as soon as he sat down. Elle responded to his pleasantry and then stared at her menu, trying to figure out her next move. “Where’s Ava?” Gabe finally asked after their drink orders and food had been taken. In the five minutes that they had been both sitting down, there hadn’t been much conversation. She looked up from the spot on the table she had been focusing on since the menu (her security blanket) had been taken away, and up towards Gabriel. His blue eyes shone and his blonde hair was even blonder because all of the time he must have been spending out in the sun thus far.

“She’s at my moms. I didn’t want to involve her in all of this and usually on Sundays anyways my mom gives me the afternoon off to catch up around the house and take care of a few things.” He nodded his head and took a long sip from the glass of water already sitting on the table, before placing his arms behind his head and stretching. Elle about lost it all as he inadvertedly (or possibly on purpose) flexed his biceps and then crossed his arms across his chest. He stared back at her and for a couple of seconds everything was silent. Nobody spoke and a pin could have dropped halfway around the world and it would have been heard in the diner.

“Why did you bother coming back?” Elle finally cried out sounding more as a upset mumble than the strong persona that she was trying to put up—a mere façade to what she was really feeling emotionally and physically. Gabe looked across the table at her, surprised at the outbreak. For the most part throughout everything that had went down prior to Ava being born, she had been quiet, calm, and reserved. After he had left them even, she had just let it happen with no large scene.

“I miss you,” Elle scoffed and tried to wipe the fat tears that were forming around her eyes away before he could see the weakness she was beginning to show.

“You don’t miss me, Gabe. You miss the thought of me, the thought of us, and the thought of having a family. You could have tried this a year ago, and it would have been the exact same thing. You left. You chose to leave, and I didn’t stop you because who the hell is I to tell you to stick around when I didn’t even want too? You don’t miss me, Gabe. You miss the convenience of me.” Gabe took a long and annoyed sigh, before leaning against the old plaid table.

“Don’t tell me what I am and aren’t. You don’t know what I’ve gone through for the past year. You didn’t understand how hard it was for me when my agent and my own father told me that it was for the best that I broke up with you and left you behind, pregnant. I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to be there for you, I wanted to be a dad, and I wanted to marry you. I still have the fucking ring packed away in one of the bottom drawers of my apartment back in Denver. The entire season it was a constant reminder of what I didn’t have: you and Ava. I’m sorry that it didn’t play out the way that we had planned, I really am. I’m sorry that I wasn’t there for you when you needed me the most, and I’m sorry that I haven’t helped out the way I should have, but I want to be here now… that’s not something I’m lying about or trying to pull a quick one over you so I can fuck up your life once again.” Like Gabe had been surprised over Elle’s outbreak, Elle was surprised over Gabe’s. She looked back down at the table again in front of her, at a loss of words as to what she should say.

“What makes this time so much more different? You still have the same agent and the same dad… What makes you think they wont say the same thing over again? What makes it different than the last?”

Gabe took a sip of the strawberry milkshake that had been brought to the table and took a long, deep breath before pulling his wallet out of his back pocket. He opened up the worn leather and flipped to the part where pictures were able to be stored. They went in chronological order of their relationship: first date, first kiss—a picture someone had taken at a party, homecoming, junior prom, senior prom, a couple of polaroid’s in between, a picture from the draft, then an ultrasound—the first glimpse at their beautiful baby girl, and finally the picture that had been taken just moments after Ava had been born. Eleanor was covered with sweat, hair sticking up in every which direction, and tears were large in her eyes, yet her smile said it all. The little red and pink baby was cradled into her arms, not more than a couple of minutes old… and he hadn’t been there for it.

“This is what makes it different. I was there for every one of those pictures, except the last one. One of the most important days of our lives, and I missed it and no matter how many times I apologize and try and make it better, I can’t take that back… but I can be here now, and maybe, just maybe I can still be here for you.” Gabe knew how and when to lay it on thick, and he was just playing it right. She stared him back in the eye before answering back to him.

“You want to be a part of her life?” He nodded. “Okay, I’m going to give you the opportunity. I’m going to go back on all of the feelings I feel, and all of the things I’ve said to both Tara and Ben, and I’m going to change my mind, but we’re playing my rules… and I don’t always play fair.” At that moment Gabe didn’t know what exactly he was getting himself into, but he figured it might be a world of trouble.