Hello there,

Like I mentioned earlier this year I've been working on several projects for Damon and Elena this last few months so I think it's already time to present you guys with another one. I got the inspiration for this one from Adele's When we were young and The Lumineers's Sleep on the floor (if you haven't watched this music video please go and watch it right now because it's just a masterpiece) I really really hope you like this one so if you have anything to say please just let me a review.

I want to thank Amy (Ukarnaj68) for taking a chance on me and agreeing to be my beta for this one.

Here we go.

If by chance you're here alone, can I have a moment before I go?
'Cause I've been by myself all night long
Hoping you're someone I used to know

.

.

.

NEW YORK CITY

PRESENT TIME

.

.

Elena Gilbert closed her apartment door and slumped against it sighing. Her head was throbbing, her feet were aching and her stomach was growling. Today had been an especially depressing day, one of those where you feel everything bad is happening to you and that you have the worst life possible, so the only thing she wanted to do was lock herself in her house and shut off the world around her.

Elena knew she probably wasn't being fair, she had it much better than a lot of other people out there and it wasn't like her life was bad, it wasn't yet she couldn't stop the growing feeling in the pit of her stomach telling her what a great disillusionment she was.

She walked further into her beautiful apartment, located in the heart of Manhattan the place was a complete gem; with beige walls and super tall ceilings, it was decorated with expensive wooden furniture and had floor to roof windows that overlooked New York city skyline but most importantly it was hers, albeit it had been a gift from her father but she didn't like to dwell too much on that thought.

She walked into the spacious living room and dropped herself in one of the luxurious velvety cream couches while simultaneously releasing her purse into the wooden floor.

"One more day Elena" She murmured "A million more to go" Elena knew she was being over dramatic but she guessed after the horrible day she had it was her right to be this intense. Didn't we all deserve to have at least one day where we can complain about everything we don't like in our lives without having someone bothering us about how grateful we should be about what we have?

Well, today was that day for her.

She heard the ping of her phone inside her purse and twisted her body so she could retrieve the offending device from the floor; the name of one of her best friend's appeared on the screen signaling a new message.

Elena exhaled loudly when she saw that Bonnie wanted her to accompany her to an art exhibit in a couple of hours, she quickly typed an excuse knowing fully well that her friend would be able to call on her bullshit but she didn't care, she didn't feel like doing anything tonight.

She remained in the couch staring at her towering ceilings for a couple of minutes before mustering all of her strength and standing up, heading towards the kitchen and pulling out a bottle of rosé while she nibbled on a couple of crackers. She poured herself a glass and walked towards the bathroom to start running a bath; she sprinkled the water with salt and even dropped a bath bomb all while contemplating where her life had gone so wrong.

Reality was so far away from the hopeful dreams she created when she was young and filled with expectations for the bright future that for sure was ahead of her.

And it wasn't fair of her to pin the blame on him, he had done nothing but arrive in her life with a swirl of passion surrounding him, everything that happened after he was gone was all on her, she was the one who let life suck out of her every ounce of hope she ever had while believing to be doing exactly what she dreamed her entire life to do.

As she shed her clothes her mind drifted back to careless days in Chinatown and picnics in central park, to a crowded pub in the middle of winter and ice skating in Rockefeller center.

Yeah, she knew exactly what she wanted her life to look like and it was nothing like what she was experiencing. But why? Why did her life turned into something she didn't quite like when she did everything in her power to follow the dreams and goals she set herself as a small girl?

Elena lowered herself into the steaming water and sighed when it hit her skin, the lavender smell calming her senses and the wine she was ingesting dulling everything inside her.

Why was she complaining anyway? She had the job of her dreams! Granted, said job hadn't been exactly what she expected but now she worked in one of the most important fashion magazines in the country and received a lot of money for doing what she always dreamed of doing.

Elena rested her head against the tub and thought about how naïve and innocent she had been when she was fifteen and thought every woman in her thirties knew what they were doing. She wondered briefly if that was what this whole depression thing was about, the big thirties had arrived and she had no idea what she was doing with her life.

She was stuck in a job she didn't enjoy anymore; she remained single as her mother liked to recall every Friday in their fancy family dinners; she still had no idea how to change her own tires and she wasn't having the time of her life or night outs in the city like Carrie Bradshaw had promised.

On top of that she still cried every time Kate & Leopold was in TV, she still refused to enter any Italian places (this was a particular difficult one because she loved Italian food) and every Christmas she still went to Rockefeller center and stood in front of the beautiful Christmas tree and cried her heart out while strangers all walked pass her giving her the stinky eye.

At this point in her life she felt like she was a woman stuck in the past who hadn't managed to do anything important with her life at the age of thirty. She contemplated the idea of sinking into the tub and letting the water fill her lungs but she knew that Caroline and Bonnie would never recover from that plus they had gotten her tickets for Anastasia next week and since she really wanted to see Dimitri she chose to stay afloat and suck it up one more time.

Deep blue eyes appeared behind her closed ones and she felt the air being sucked out of her chest. Damon Salvatore, the man who had changed her entire world with just a twist of his mouth, the man with whom she had spent the happiest and the saddest moments of her life.

From the second he appeared on her life Elena knew that he was the man she would love forever, the man she would compare to every other. Their love had burned so bright and so fast that she wondered now if maybe that was the problem, loving someone so much couldn't be healthy and couldn't last forever.

And it didn't.

Because that sort of things only worked out in Hallmark movies and in the romance novels that crowded her bookshelf. In real life, love wasn't enough to keep a relationship afloat.

Damon and she had gone their separate ways but her love for him hadn't stopped, not even for a second. She wondered briefly how she had been so stupid to let that man slip through her fingers or if with time their feelings would have deteriorated to something ugly like she thought it would do. She guessed that now she would never know, for Damon Salvatore was no longer hers. She could still remember the raw pain that had eaten at her when she saw the pictures of his wedding online. She didn't think of him too often, most of the times she managed to lock him up in a recess of her mind she refused to dwell, on but there were moments like tonight when her guard was low, and he would pop up, unwanted and painful.

She opened her eyes and willed his memory out of her head, too many tears had been shed because of him already, Damon would always be the one who got away and there was no use in dwelling on it, not anymore.

"Can you tell me again why I agreed to this?" Elena whined in the back of the Uber where she sat sandwiched between two of her best friends.

"Because it's Friday and you need to stop being a hermit" Her blonde friend, Caroline, chastised her while she adjusted the strap of her tight blue dress. "You turned thirty so what? That's not the end of the world!"

"I just came because Caroline promised me free drinks" Bonnie said from the other side of her as Elena sighed.

They had ambushed her today after work; forcing her to get into a too tight red dress she hadn't worn in too long; curling her hair and even applying her make up before dragging her out of her apartment and into the bar where the love of Caroline's life worked. Well, she claimed he was the love of her life but the poor man didn't know about her friend's existence or her obsession with him.

"We are going because today is the day hottie bartender will know I am meant to be his wife and have his babies" Caroline said with a wide grin while she fixed her lipstick in the compact and the driver chuckled from the front seat.

"Sometimes I wonder why we're friends"

"We are friends because I am the sunshine of your life"

Elena had no words to refute that because the blonde was actually right. Bonnie and Caroline were her best friends and the ones she could always rely on, she had met the first one since they were toddlers because their parents were also friends but Elena had met the blonde girl in a school in Paris many years ago and they had both ended up working for the same magazine.

Elena had been in a very dark place around that time and Caroline had taken her under her wing and helped her get out of that depressing stage of her life and for that the brunette was going to be forever grateful.

The girls arrived at the bar, a little picturesque and classy place Elena had never heard of, they walked inside with their arms linked together and sat in one of the booths in back where they could see the bar but still be shielded enough not to be spotted gawking at the bartender.

Elena had to admit that for a minute there they did seemed to be out of an episode from Sexy and the city and she thought that maybe she wasn't as different to Carrie as she believed, the sassy blonde never seemed to have things under control and that was something they had in common, although she did wondered how she managed to purchase so many designer shoes, that was something Elena still hadn't been able to do even though she was quite a successful working woman.

Caroline had turned into mush the minute they saw the bartender working his magic behind the bar, the man was handsome Elena had to give him that. He had forest green eyes and spiked light brown hair, he was tall and athletic with tick eyebrows and straight nose, he had seemed incredibly familiar to Elena since the moment she saw him but her mind wasn't cooperating with her.

"Okay I'm going" Caroline adjusted her boobs in the dress and stood up only to return five seconds later without even reaching the bar

"What happened?" Bonnie asked when the blonde girl sat down once again.

"I can't. What if he doesn't like me?"

Elena and Bonnie shared a surprised look before taking their attention back to their friend "If he doesn't like you than he's probably gay" Elena offered with a small smile. Caroline was the most confident person she had ever met so it came of as quite a surprise to see her tangled like this because of a man.

"Elena is right, there's no way he can resist your charms" Bonnie encouraged her.

"And what if he's gay?" Caroline said completely horrified "I don't think my heart could take that"

Her friends laughed while shaking their heads slightly "No one that cute can be gay" Bonnie offered.

"Matt Boomer begs to differ" Elea murmured before focusing her attention back on her friend "But I don't think this one is gay and my spidy senses are never wrong. So you go and get that man"

The blonde girl nodded "You're absolutely right, but I think I might need this a bit more of this" She said taking the pint of dark beer in front of her and sipping greedily.

Elena laughed as her eyes moved back to the hottie bartender; her neurons clicking together making her remember exactly where she had seen him before, pictures. She had seen him in pictures.

As if her mind was conjuring the memories to life she saw a tall dark haired man approaching the bar as the bartender smiled in his direction. He was wearing dark jeans and a button down dark blue shirt, his hair was a lot shorter than she remembered and he was less thin and more built but she would have known him anywhere.

"Elena…?" She could hear Caroline and Bonnie talking to her but it was all background noise, Elena couldn't focus on anything but the man a few feet away from her.

The man who had known her inside out, who had known the deepest parts of her soul, the one who broke her and put her back together at the same time.

He shook hands with the other man and chatted away with him a few seconds until as if sensing he was being stared at he turned around. His blue eyes widening in surprise when he spotted her, they shone with nostalgia as they travelled the length of her.

Her mind went back to freshmen year of college, to a small dorm and kisses under the sheets; she could smell the pizza and cheap beer in the air, the taste of vodka and lemonade seemed fresh on her tongue and she even felt his butterfly kisses on her skin.

"Elena, are you okay?" Caroline asked and she realized her hands were trembling, her heart was beating a mile a minute in her ribcage and she felt ill, just because the sight of him.

"Damon…" She whispered briefly and missed the widening eyes of her friends because she was too focused in the way his expression changed when he saw his name on her lips.

A small smile curved his lips as he started walking towards her. Damon Salvatore the only man she ever loved was walking towards her after ten years. If this wasn't the cherry on top of her shitty week she didn't know what it was.

"The Damon Salvatore?" She heard Caroline murmur but couldn't tear her eyes off him, of his confident stride and clenched jaw. His eyes still shined the same and as the so familiar smirk started to form in his mouth Elena felt like crying.

"Hello Elena" His voice was like a song she never listened to anymore but of the one she still knew every word, and it caressed her skin like silk.

There he was, standing in front of her after so long. Ten years vanished as they stared at each other like it was the first time and just like that Damon Salvatore was once again back in the game.