I own nothing, unfortunately.

It Came Softly

I sat at my window, watching the streetlights flicker and numerous people walking, enjoying their lives on this one Saturday evening. An evening that would soon pass, like any other. Seeing a couple embrace before entering the diner below, I felt my eyes prick. Preparing for the tears that I would never allow to fall.

Never before in my life had I experienced so much pain. It felt like my heart was actually breaking. I guess that's where the term heartbreak came from.

It was more than a year since she left, but I couldn't eat, my sandwiches tasted bland to me, no matter how many rave reviews I got. I couldn't sleep. It was horrible, a hell I couldn't escape.

My ongoing insomnia made me face my past again and again, reliving every moment, every glance, every touch, wondering what went wrong.

How I misunderstood.

That first night, I went backwards. Betty's speech still ringing in my head, verbatim.

...

"I...I can't go to Rome with you, Gio. I just think...we're better off, as friends."

...

So many times I had repeated that in my head, the tone changing just slightly each time. Somewhere along the line of endless memories, I figured I'd have to go to the beginning. The beginning of it all, which was the one memory I had never allowed myself to relive since then.

That one, fateful day I'd decided, on a whim, to apply for the sandwich cart at Mode magazine.

When I first saw her, she surprised me. The way she looked and her profession didn't seem to quite match up. And I guess it intrigued me. Other than that, she didn't exactly register in my psyche.

But then, unexpectedly, we were thrown together again and again.

I don't know exactly when I fell in love with her. Completely and utterly. One day I just saw her with Henry, just talking, occasionally stroking his arm with affection, and I felt more than a friend should. This odd welling up of heat in my face, the need to continually swallow, and suddenly a pang in my chest whenever I even so much as glanced at a tomato.

Maybe it had happened instantly, the first moment I saw her red-framed glasses, or maybe it had been when she showed me a side of her I'd never bothered to see in anyone else. A timid and tentative side. One that had been so hurt and beaten down that it had been hidden to people on the outside looking in.

But she had let me in. Why?

I couldn't answer this, only she could.

She was so close. Just a fare and a subway ride away, but every time I tried to muster the courage to just go and see her, something held me back. The memory of my angry facade finally cracking under the pressure.

...

"As I recall, it takes two people to make a friendship, and I'm not interested!" I had said.

"Well why not?" she pleaded.

"Because you broke my heart!"

...

I didn't mean for that to come out, and least not like that, but it did.

It was then I realized that not only was I angry at her for misunderstanding, or not returning what I offered, but that she had forced out of me a side I'd never shown to anyone else either. A side I really didn't even know I had.

This side that wanted to make her happy, so happy I was willing to go however far she wanted me to. But she never wanted anything more of me than a shoulder to cry on.

How badly I wanted, in those first few months, for my deli door to open, the bell to ring, and she'd be there. Glasses and slightly mismatched clothes and all, telling me that she was wrong. Then she'd tell me what had happened to her in the last year in that light teasing banter that matched mine so well.

But I knew it wasn't ever going to be. But still, every time that little bell over the door would jingle, my heart leapt to my throat, then fell to my shoes as I realized it wasn't her. That it couldn't be her.

The last I'd heard, she had been dating someone else. Had being the operative word.

In the last few months, I'd heard so many rumors as to why. They were too different. She couldn't handle his womanizing ways. She was a gold digger. His parents broke it up. He never liked her to begin with.

But I knew, deep down, the true reason.

I knew Henry had come back into town, by word of mouth. It didn't take much to figure out what exactly had transpired. Ever since I met her, I knew the intense hold he had on her. He was truly her first love. No matter what happened, what paths their lives led them down, they would always be a part of each other.

I knew that firsthand.

But, Betty? She wasn't the type to cheat, the guy must have been the jealous type, and dumped her. Real classy.

I bit my lip, my eyes pricking again as I thought of the pictures I'd seen of the Easter party they'd both attended earlier in the year. He was a typical pretty boy, pampered, it looked like. This...Matt was it? Wasn't her type at all. His eyes were angry, while hers were sparkling, and just the way he held her made my skin crawl. His hand had enclosed her waist as if she was his property, something to own.

I'd also heard that Betty had gotten promoted. I wasn't sure exactly what to do. We had made our peace after I'd returned from Rome, and agreed we would be friends. Friends congratulated each other, right?

Right, I thought, smiling to myself in what felt like ages to my default pouting and grimacing expression.

That's when I decided not to get this petty fear in the way of what I actually wanted.

Betty. Or at least, the friend part, anything was better than this desperate state of affairs.

A sandwich would do. I leaned back on my bed, reaching for a pad of paper. Taking the pen from behind my ear, a shock of my newly grown-out hair falling down as I did so, I started to scribble down various ingredients. The warm wind hitting my bare chest made me shiver slightly as I anticipated the making of the somewhat-peace offering.

It would have tomatoes, no question, lots of them. I smiled in spite of myself. Lettuce, onions, ham, and celery.

And under absolutely no circumstances, would there be egg-salad.

...

A/N: Hey readers! I'm back, and I finally gave in to my Getty obsession, haha. I hope you like this story, because after the season three finale I really missed Gio and Betty's banter. So, tell me what you think, thanks!