On Sunday morning, Dawn woke up to a beautiful arrangement of roses at the bedside. "What the..", the said to herself. She turned to find Anthony gone.
She got up to go see where he was. She walked into the kitchen to find him making breakfast.
"Good morning beautiful", he said in a cheery voice. "Would you like some coffee?"
"Sure", Dawn replied grabbing a coffee cup out of the cupboard.
"Go sit down, I’ll get it", he said, taking the cup out of her hand.
Anthony had been incredibly sweet since their argument. All weekend long he had been waiting on her hand and foot. She just wished he treated her like that all the time instead of only after they fought.
"The flowers are beautiful", Dawn said. "You didn’t have to do that".
"I know", Anthony replied, "but I felt bad because of what happened the other day and wanted to make it up to you".
Dawn looked at him, she wanted to yell, "then quit drinking", but she kept her mouth closed, she wanted to maintain the peace. Especially since she was still trying to convince him to let her audition for the singing job AJ offered her. She hadn’t brought it up all weekend, she figured since Anthony was in such a good mood, now was as good a time as any to bring it up. He walked over and handed Dawn her coffee.
"Remember when you said we’d talk about that singing opportunity later?" she asked.
Anthony cringed, he’d hoped she would just forget about it.
"Yes," he answered.
"Can we talk about it now?" Dawn questioned. "AJ wants me to go in tomorrow and audition".
She was almost afraid to say it, she was afraid of what his reaction would be. Anthony sat down at the table next to her.
"You really want to do this, don’t you?" he asked, taking her hands in his.
"More than anything in the world", she replied.
He thought for a minute, he didn’t want her to do it, but he did want her to be happy.
"Well, as long as you don’t have to do a lot of traveling or anything, I guess it would be okay. I couldn’t get by without you for any extended period of time," he finished.
Dawn’s eyes lit up.
"Thank you so much!" she said enthusiastically as she threw her arms around his neck, giving him a kiss.
"You’re welcome," he responded.
He hadn’t seen Dawn this happy in a long time.
"Now let’s eat, the food’s getting cold," he got up to fix their plates.

The next morning, Dawn got out of bed and walked over to the mirror. She wanted to make sure her bruises were at least light enough to be hidden under her makeup before she called AJ. She examined her reflection in the mirror.
"Hmm", she said aloud, "almost gone, good enough".
Just then her phone rang.
"That boy is relentless", she said aloud. She knew it was AJ.
"Hello?"
"Hey, how are you feeling today?"
. "Better, thanks. What time do you guys want me there?" she inquired.
"You’re coming?" He said, surprised. "Great, how about 11:00?"
"Give me directions and I’ll be there," she responded.
AJ gave her directions and hung up the phone. He wanted to tell her he had seen her bruises the other day, but he knew she would get mad at him for being there. He was so pissed. He was going to wait until Anthony got home and approach him about it, but he knew if he did that, he would have really hurt him. Not to mention Anthony would have taken it out on Dawn.
"I’m still gonna talk to that asshole, but I have to do it when I know Dawn won’t be around him for awhile," he said to himself. "Yeah, like that’ll happen anytime soon," he finished.
Just thinking about the situation made him mad.
"I hope she comes to her senses soon", he said aloud. "Before it’s too late".
AJ sat there thinking about the situation for quite some time. He went over and over it in his head, trying to figure out weather or not he should get involved.
On one hand he absolutely HATED to see this happening to anyone, especially someone he cared so much about. On the other hand, he was afraid that anything he did would just make Dawn hate him, then he would have no chance to get her away from Anthony.
"I guess I’ll just keep my mouth shut", he said aloud, "and hope she asks for my help eventually," he finished, "or I lose it and beat the hell out of him," he added.
He didn’t realize how long he had been sitting there mulling over things when he saw Dawn pull in the parking lot. He got up and walked over to her car, giving her a big smile.
"You made it!" He said sarcastically as he leaned down and hugged her.
He looked closely at her face, looking for any signs of the bruises he saw just a few days earlier.
‘Damn,’ he thought to himself, ‘she sure must have a lot of experience in hiding them’.
"Come on, I’ll show you around and introduce you to the rest of the guys".
He took Dawn’s hand and led her into the building.


Chapter 8
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