“Dylan, I would have used all my resources to protect you. At worst I could have paid him to leave you alone” I explained, albeit months too late.

“Helena, you don’t understand. If you did that once he’d just keep coming back for more.” Dylan’s defeated response caused something to twist in my stomach, “I understand if you don’t believe me, but I made the choices I did to limit impact Danny was able to have.”

“So it was all an exercise in damage control?”

“In the end, Danny didn’t gain and you didn’t lose.” She shrugged nonchalantly.

“That’s not entirely true.” Was my quiet response as I held her eyes until it became too much and she looked away.

“And what about you?” I asked softly.

“I sacrificed the best relationship I’d ever known to rid myself of the worst.” She replied while her gaze remained on a painting that hung on the wall to her left.

“I don’t quite understand how you were able to get rid of Danny without allowing him to keep the money?” I said as much to myself as I did to Dylan, something deep inside of me already knew she wasn’t going to divulge that information.

“Ultimately I did and that is what really mattered.” She stated as she finally turned back to look at me.

“I’d prefer it if I knew what had taken place.” Was my honest response as I barely refrained from begging for the details.

“And I’d prefer it if we could spend the rest of this evening discussing more pleasant topics.”

“Touché” I conceded and couldn’t help but laugh as she played me at my own game.

“You don’t actually expect to give up all my secrets in one evening do you?” Dylan responded with a sly smile as she relaxed back into her chair, “I need to save some details for the next time I see you, how does Saturday night sound?”

“That’s rather confident of you.” I remarked, a little taken aback at the gauntlet that had been thrown down.

“I think you’ll find that getting rid of Danny has been good for me in a number of ways.”

It was clear that Dylan had gone though some form of transformation since the last time I had seen her. Who was I trying to fool? It’s not like my world hadn’t been turned on its side in that time too. While doubts still lingered over Dylan’s reluctance to fully explain the past, I couldn’t deny that I was partial to the idea of a second date with her.

“I look forward to discovering all those improvements for myself.” I responded with a smile that I had no hope of containing.