-"Just The Beginning"-

Tommy noticed the girl's look of disappointment. "Trust me." He said as he sat down, no longer looking at her. "I'd rather have a set of seats to myself too, but we don't all get what we want." He said with a light shrug.

Jude looked over at him. "No, I uh..." She stopped. "Sorry, I'm just having kind of a rough time right now." She looked out the window. "I'm making my 'great escape'." She said quietly as she turned to look at him once again

"We all need a fresh start every once in a while." He replied, looking at her, this time noticing her true beauty. A few strands of wavy blonde hair had come loose from her messy bun, framing her face perfectly. Tommy snapped out of it quickly. He had just dumped the woman who had fallen for him, and he didn't exactly want to get into a relationship right now. Of course, life didn't always go as planned, he realized silently.

"Yeah.." Jude replied quietly as she looked down at her black converses. "I guess." She looked back up at him. "So what's your story? Why are you heading to Toronto?" She asked, hoping he wouldn't find her too terribly forward.

"Well..." Tommy began with a heavy breath. "Just broke it off with the girlfriend...I live in Toronto, and she lives here in New Brunswick, and I didn't want to be a total jerk and do it over the phone, so I came down for a visit..." He paused and looked over at her, a small laugh forming under his breath. "Yeah, it didn't go over too well."

"Yeah, well..." Jude started with a shrug. "My boyfriend doesn't know that I'll ever be back so..." She looked over at him to find a confused look on his face, so she quickly changed the subject. "What's it like there?" She asked innocently. "In Toronto, I mean."

"It's great as long as you don't mind smog and traffic jams." He replied with a small laugh. "I don't believe we've had an actual introduction." Tommy began, holding his hand out for her to shake. "I'm Tom Quincy."

Jude took his hand and firmly shook it. "Jude Harrison. Nice to meet you." She said with a small smile. When she smiled, however, it caused her to jump as her cheek pained. She raised a hand to it, rubbing off some of the make-up that she'd worked so hard on to hide the bruise.

Tommy was about to try to comfort her, but held himself back. They'd just met, he thought, having to remind himself, once again, that he didn't want a relationship. "That why you're running away?" He asked curiously.

Jude shrugged. "How'd you guess?"

Tommy looked at her sadly and thought back to his past...

"No!"

A five-year-old Tommy heard his mothers scream. He rushed towards the sound only to find his father hurting her, punching her in the face.

However, when push turned to shove, in the end, Tommy's mother never made it. It also caused him to get hurt while in the act of trying to help her.

"I-" He began, wanting to badly to tell her the story of his past that he'd never told anyone else before. "Let's just say..." He began. "I've had experiences with people like that..." He said, hoping she would just drop it at that.

"Yeah." Jude agreed. "Too many have." She said sadly as she looked at him.

Tommy squirmed uncomfortably. "Anyways..." He began, changing the conversation topic completely. "What do you do?"

Jude blushed. "Right now? Nothing. You?" She asked. She'd wanted to tell him about her dream of being on stage, or in the recording studio, but to a lot of people, dreams like those were considered unrealistic.

"I'm a producer." Tommy replied happily. He showed off a sense of pride when he talked about his job. He had worked hard to get there, and now, he was living the life he'd only dreamed of when he was a kid. "At G-Major Records."

Jude's eyes lit up as she looked over at him. "Wow, really?!" She asked.

Tommy looked at her. To him, she looked like a little girl. Her eyes full of innocence. Her heart amazingly pure. "Really..." He said with a smirk.

Jude blushed slightly. "Sorry." She said, about getting so excited. "I've just-I'm a closet singer/songwriter and I think it's pretty awesome to actually meet somebody in the business." She said with a small shrug. "Don't mind me." She began with a small laugh. "I'm just a small town girl in desperate need to break away from the 'norm'." She said.

"No..." Tommy said, looking over at her. "I think it's great." He paused. "You really think I just walked into this whole producing thing? Just got up one day and asked for the job and they gave it to me?" Tommy laughed slightly. "Not quite, Harrison."

Jude giggled softly. "Harrison? I've got myself a nickname now?" She asked with on of her eyebrows raised, before she began laughing.

"Yeah..." Tommy said with a chuckle. "And you said you're a singer/songwriter...Why don't you show me what you got?"

Jude looked back down at the magazine in her hand. "Because I've never sung in front of anybody before..." She said quietly.

"Never too late to start." Tommy replied with a shrug.

Jude looked up at him. "Yeah, but...Not here."

Tommy looked down at Jude. "Well, I'm a producer...You're in of one." He paused. "Put two and two together and you've got yourself a job. But you've gotta show me your stuff first." He looked at her in thought before saying. "But I'm not gonna pressure you into doing it." He stopped. "You got a phone number?"

"Well, that depends..." Jude said as she looked at him with a smirk. "Are you actually gonna call me?"

Tommy smiled. "Not if I don't have a number..." He said, shrugging.

Jude laughed as she dug through her purse for a pan and a piece of paper. She wrote down the number of her cell on it, then passed it to him. "I don't know if guys have a rule about this or something, but...Call me before three days from now is up, okay?" She asked with a smile.

"I'm not like other guys." He replied with a smirk.

"I know." Jude said, her voice lowered to almost a whisper.

"Well," Tommy began as he stood up. "I should probably get back to my seat." He said, looking at her.

Jude simply shot him a look of confusion, but laughed softly when she saw him walk to another seat and sit down. He looked back at her and smiled, causing a huge smile to break over her face. She giggled and continued to look at her magazine.

Tommy let out a large breath as he turned around and looked at the number Jude had given him. He was thankful that he'd given her a chance. Because, truth be known, he wasn't going to sit down at first. But when he saw the look of disappointment on that girl's face when she thought he was about to sit down, he figured he'd tease her a little. There was something about that girl. He knew she'd handle it allright. There was something about her, that he found himself extremely attracted to. This, he decided, wouldn't be the last time they met. He'd call her. And before three days was up.