Eric twisted slowly back and forth in his chair. The boys had gone out for a late lunch, so it was just the two of us.

"Did you take off the afternoon?" He asked. An odd look checked in on his face.

I threw him a devilish smile. "More or less." I saw my pictures sitting on the desk in front of him. "Billy came and got the pictures from me." Eric nodded. "What'd you think of them?"

Eric spun his chair over to the desk and picked up a few of the glossy sheets. I had a bad feeling. "You didn't like them did you?" I asked, trying to sound positive.

He mimicked my positive tone when he clearly shot down my photos. "No, not at all, Jace. I thought they were great, but they just won't work for the album." I nodded, my confidence was smashed by my own fiancée. I felt horrible, but I wasn't about to let it show.

Truth be told, I thought those pictures were among the best I had ever taken. I went into the studio and photographed all the guys singing, performing, recording, joking, and just flat out being with each other. Eric told me that they were going to go back down to Washington D.C., I guess that's around where the boys grew up, and take some pictures. I had a feeling that he'd been planning it for awhile.

"So, when will you be leaving?" I asked.

He pulled his date book out. "We're leaving on Saturday, I'll be back by Friday of that next week." That was almost a week. He'd be gone for a week when I needed him to be around the most; he had to help me plan the wedding.

Item #22: He's there when you need him, and if he's not he'll do what he can to make sure you'll be fine.

"When do you think you'll be able to help me plan the wedding?" I asked. I felt like I was walking on eggshells when I asked him for a little help with our wedding.

I heard him heave a monumental sigh. I felt like he was going to purpose a trip down to city hall instead of a wedding. So far the farthest we had gotten was setting the date. We had no place, no guests, no invitations. We did, however, had three months. Between trying to find someone that was "better" than Eric and planning my wedding to Eric, time was not on my side.

"I'll be home by seven tonight. We can work until we're tired on plans tonight. I don't know about anything else. How about when I get back from D.C. we'll work hard. I think I have, like, two or three days off at one point." I nodded. "Don't stress, Jace," He said and got up from his chair. He walked over to the couch where I had stolen Billy's seat, and sat down next to me. I guess that was when I found one of the few 'items' Eric actually did have. He wrapped his arms around me. "Everything will turn out in the end, I promise."

Item #10: He holds you when you really need it the most and when you just need it.

I decided when I got home that night I'd make dinner. I sometimes cooked, but we mainly went out to some restaurant. So, I started in on my journey around the kitchen around five. I cooked pasta and bread. It was a good dinner, I thought. Especially because around seven thirty, when dinner was getting cold and he still wasn't home, I ate by myself.

I finished eating the pasta I made for him with the sauce he really liked, but I hated, by eight. I went up stairs and started the water running in the bath in hopes that it would calm me down; I was about ready to call him up and yell at him. It was then, as I sat there, thinking about this perfect guy that Baelee swore was actually out there, the phone rang. I stepped out of the tub and grabbed the portable which was left sitting next to my make-up bag. It had to be Eric, and I was ready to give him hell.

"What?" I asked, picking up the phone.

"Jace, uh..." It wasn't Eric.

"Billy? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to come off so..."

He cut me off before I could even search for the right word to describe my tone. "It's fine. Eric told me to give you a call, tell you that he was sorry for being so late."

I let a deep sigh tumble out. "Yeah." What was I supposed to say when my fiancée has some guy (who could was shaping out to be Mr. Perfect) call me and apologize for being nearly two hours late? "Are you guys still recording?" He was there so late last night, he was there again tonight, he might as well just marry that studio!

"Yeah. It's just that we're so close to wrapping up Benji's vocals."

Hope clicked on in my head. "So you guys are almost finished with the album?"

A long silence hung over the line. "Not yet. We have all the vocals done, and the drums. We just need to get the guitar parts and bass and put it all together. Then we're finished."

I sighed again. "You guys aren't even close."

He laughed a little. "No, we're not. I'm sorry we've been stealing so much time from all the wedding plans I'm sure you two need to make."

Why was he doing that? Why was he being such a complete gentleman and apologizing for something he shouldn't be apologizing for? I couldn't believe it; Eric didn't understand 'plans' (even though his life seemed to be totally based around them), but Billy did. Why was Billy looking more and more like Mr. Perfect with each little word that slid out of his mouth?

I then decided that even if Eric ever found a moment to actually sit down with me a plan our wedding, chances were it wasn't going to happen. I took a breath and jumped in the deep end, wondering how I'd ever get out of it. "Maybe we can go to lunch tomorrow, Billy."