"Luke has that laid back, easygoing Aussie attitude about him, but he's a shrewd businessman, no doubt. He knows exactly what his customers want, and always manages to give it to them, in bucketloads. He and Haley are sweethearts, too. I honestly love that bar. Even more now that it ended up scoring me a date with a super hot doctor." She gave him a grin, playful, but tired, as she listened to him, though she sobered as he talked about his experience with cancer and going through chemo. He was very quick with an apology, and Ella shook her head, turning to look him right in the eye. "Listen," she said softly, her fingers still gently holding onto his. "You survived cancer, Dave. That's a huge thing for anyone to go through, and it's a part of your life that you'll never be able to just ignore. When I started dating you, I knew you were a survivor. I knew that you had gone through that. I know it was hard, because I know my mom went through hell. I didn't get to see her while she was dying, but Kyan told me maybe it was for the best that my memories of her were of good times. He doesn't have that luxury, because he was her caregiver til the bitter end. But listen to me. I care about you... about your present and your past, and your future, too, for that matter. I don't want you to feel like you can't talk about being a survivor with me. I want us to be able to talk about anything, and that includes that part of your past, because it's huge."

She smiled, leaning into his side again once she'd settled back into the sofa. "We could always go out to Long Island... Granted, it would be easier if we knew someone with a house out there on a private beachfront, because I've never actually had sex on the beach... I mean, not aside from the cocktail once in college. But we can figure all of that out. You can definitely use a break, sweetheart. I can see it in your face." This made her happy. The fact that she and Dave could meet up after work... both tired and not at all in the mood to hop into bed for marathon sex... and they could just sit together and chat about pretty much anything. It was comforting in a lot of ways. "I want to talk to Kyan and Trey about us," she said softly. "I think it's high time we made this fully official."