It had only taken a split second for his perfect haven to be ruined. The Distillery was a fairly new establishment and its location on the outskirts of town had kept it free of most of the usual Genoa City crowd. After a long work week, he had been able to come here, grab the large corner booth and just relax. He'd drink for hours – until he didn't have to think about anything … not about the love he'd lost, not about the dreams he'd shattered, not about the company he no longer ran, and certainly not the woman that was at the center of all three. He drank far more than he should, but it was his only vice. He wasn't gambling. He wasn't letting the drinking affect his work. It was his agreement with himself – his carrot on the stick. It was the way he made it through, the way he got through each day. He knew that at the end of the grueling week, he would get to sit here and drink and listen to the mutterings of nothing and everything all at once. He'd listen and close his eyes until it all blurred together, until his bones felt pliable, until his mind felt fuzzy.

The first thing he'd done when he'd chosen this place had been to chose his spot – the large corner booth that was meant for a far larger group than one, but Cassie didn't mind. He spent plenty on his bar tab and lofty tip to make up for her lost covers. Their agreement had always been that she would keep his keys and call his cab at the end of each carefully orchestrated bender. It had been all been going so well … until tonight … when it all went to hell in a split second. The cool breeze hit his neck, a clear indication that the door behind him had opened.

He enjoyed this part – the watching. He liked watching the new arrivals make their way to the bar. There was something incredibly telling about watching someone approach a crowded bar top. Did they hang back and wait to see if someone offered them a seat? Did they step up immediately and claim their place? Did they slink off to a corner table and try to blend in to the background? Did they skip the bar altogether and move towards the groups of dancers on the other side of the room?

He watched and waited and then he saw them … She'd changed from their earlier meeting where she'd been wearing the black and white striped dress he remembered so well. This dress was different. It was one he'd never seen before. It, like so many other things, was something she hadn't shared with him. Her hair was down and loosely curled. Billy found his jaw clenching as she ran her fingers through it while the nameless man beside her hung her coat on the hook by the wall.

Part of him wanted to get up and leave, walk away before things got even worse. The other part of him knew he never could and never ever would.

"Four." The bottle hit the table harder than he intended. He looked down, almost surprised to see the glass hadn't broken under the pressure of his grip.

"What's the matter?" Cass eyed him warily as she stepped over to the booth. She glanced down that almost empty bottle of beer. "You ready for another?"

"Maybe later," he muttered, his eyes still focused on the bar. "I need to try and keep my head right now."

Cass turned towards the bar, looking for the source of his interest. "You know those two?" she asked as she followed his laser-like glare.

"You could say that," he sighed. "That's her," he mumbled.

"Oh." Her eyes widened. She looked around the bar for a moment. Most of her customers seemed to be placated. Her eyes were steady on his as she slid into the other side of the booth. "She's with him …"

"Him?" His voice was sharp. "What about him? Who is he? I haven't seen him in here before."

"Oh he's a regular, but he's not usually the weekend crowd. The girls and I all call him The Suit. He's a hedge fund manager and he's here on most weeknights … always with a different woman. He woos them, wows them, and walks out with them. That's his pattern."

"And what happens when they don't want to be wooed?" Billy leaned slightly forward, watching as Phyllis put a little distance between them.

Cass smiled. "You think she's not interested?"

"Well he's tried sliding his hand down her back five times now and she keeps shifting away from him. The asshole's persistent, I'll give him that."

She shrugged. "I don't know. Honestly, I've never seen any woman that didn't end up leaving with him. If she turns him down, she'll be there first." Cass stood up and pulled down her apron before waving to a table in the corner. "You sure I can't you another?" She smiled down at the sweating bottle on the table.

"Not right now," he sighed. "But I'll let you know." He watched as she nodded and quickly headed towards the table in the back. His eyes quickly returned the bar where The Suit had finally managed to snake his arm around her. He shouldn't care what she did. He was the one that had told her they were over. He was the one that had thrown her out of the house and out of his life. But try as he might, she'd never be out of his thoughts.

"Business meeting, huh?"

She felt the breath catch in her throat as she heard the familiar voice. She looked at the man beside her first, the one whose hand was creeping far too high up her thigh, before she turned back to face him. "Billy?" she managed before straightening and, yet again, sliding a bit to her left. "What are you doing here?"

"I think that's a question you should be answering. You said you couldn't do dinner tonight because you had a business meeting. This doesn't look like business to me … at least not the kind of business a wife should be doing with a man that's not her husband."

"Who is this guy?" The Suit stood up and smoothed his obnoxiously expensive jacket down in front of him.

"He's uh …" Phyllis paused. Dating had never really been her thing. She'd always been the type that had believed you met people when you were supposed to, if you were supposed to. Chemistry was kismet, not something you were supposed to orchestrate with apps or set ups or blind dates, but that was a lot easier to believe when you were young and full of promise. When you were working 80 hour weeks and desperately in need of a simple easy way to blow off steam, the prospect of a quick hook up suddenly became much more appealing. Or at least it did in theory.

When Greg Kingston had stayed after the business expo to introduce himself to 'Jabot's newest power player', she'd initially found him off putting. It wasn't his arrogance that bothered her – she had a bit of that herself, it was his automatic assumption that she'd be interested in him. She didn't want to give him that satisfaction and yet, when he'd suggested a Friday night drink, it had sounded so relaxing that she'd been unable to quickly come up with a good excuse. And now here she was, drinking and being pawed by a man she didn't much like while being interrogated by a man she couldn't help but still love.

It was obvious she was stymied and her discomfort almost made him smile … almost. "I'm her husband," Billy said quickly.

Her shocked expression brought an immediate smirk that he only barely camouflaged by a quick drink from his bottle of beer.

"You're married?" Greg looked at her, surprised. "You didn't mention that when we talked earlier."

"I'm um …" She glared at Billy who looked back at her completely unphased. "We're separated. I … He …"

"We're trying to work things out or at least I was. I'm not sure what the hell you're doing. I guess you're playing our your options here. So tell me, who is my competition?"

"I'm not into this."

Billy watched as The Suit raised his hand to signal the bar tab.

"The last thing I need is some kind of domestic disturbance hitting the papers. When you actually cut this loser free, give me a call." He took a step closer to her and leaned in. "I'd really like to see more of you."

"And I really think you need to get the hell out of here." The once light, almost playful tone in his voice was gone now. She could feel his presence as he stepped closer, his body now looming over the both of them. She held her breath as she watched the two men.

Greg stared at him. "I'll never understand what get some people together." He took one more look at Phyllis, his eyes roaming all over her body before stepping away and heading out the door.

The cool breeze as the door opened did little to cool the rage that welled within him this time and he paused only to glance back at her before heading back towards his corner booth. He could hear the quick raps of her footsteps behind him.

"You wanna tell me what the hell that was about?" She flung herself into the booth as she looked at him.

She was frazzled and frustrated, completely caught off guard and utterly annoyed. He loved it. He loved her. He couldn't help it. This was what they did. They fought. They made up. This was who they were. "In some circles," he smirked, "what I just did would be considered a favor."

Her body jerked back in response to his glaring arrogance. "You're serious? A favor? I can't … You know, in other circles, it would be considered insinuating yourself in your boss's personal life."

"Well I guess it's important that we establish which circle we're talking about isn't it? Are we in the same circle?" He smiled, watching her eyes narrow at him. The silence seemed to sober both of them for a moment and he finally added. "We used to be."

"We used to do a lot of things," Phyllis said quickly. "We used to be there for each other. We used to understand each other. We used to put each other first. And now …" She shook her head, the conversation turning far too serious, far too fast. "So what are you doing here anyway? Since when do you come to bars alone? I never thought Billy Abbott would have trouble finding a date."

"I'm alone by choice." He relaxed a bit as he let his back lean against the plush leather of the booth. There were things they needed to discuss of course, but the easy banter was far preferable than angry words. If they could sit and talk like this, maybe it could build to something else, anything else. He'd take the crumbs if they meant he could sit with her, watch her smile, hear her voice … "You know me, I like to scout before I hunt."

She chucked. "Like a wildebeest …" Her fingers twirled the torn bits of napkin he'd been picking at all evening. "So is that how you came across my little experiment? Your scouting?"

"Is that what this was? An experiment? It kind of looked more like a nightmare to me."

"Greg is uh …"

"An ass that can't keep his hands to himself," he finished her sentence as he looked up from the table. "I mean, if you liked him, I guess I'm sorry for interrupting, but I'm …"

"He was a little handsy I guess, but as I recall you might have a little issue with that as well." Her eyes sparkled a bit as she let her lips curl ever so slightly.

He felt the jolt of his heart racing in his chest. It was the first time in so long that she'd looked at him like that. When he'd told her about Summer, about what he'd done to make her pay, she'd looked at him with such disgust and such complete disappointment that he wasn't sure she'd ever be able to regard him as a human being again. And then, it had changed. He'd expected it to be better, her anger and disgust having waned, but somehow the way she now regarded him as an employee and nothing more made it even worse. She looked at him as if he were a stranger, as if there had never been anything between them at all. All the love and light that had once been in her eyes was gone … until now.

"Well, you never minded with me … or at least I don't think you did." He watched as the smile on her face grew.

"No," she whispered. "I didn't."

He was afraid to speak again, afraid to say anything that might frighten the smile he'd missed so much away and yet somehow the silence did that anyway. "So," he finally spoke, "what was his deal anyway?"

She shrugged. "Just some guy I met at the expo last week. He invited me for a drink and I decided to take him up on it. I just wanted to get out a bit you know … get my mind of things …" She let her eyes settle on his. She couldn't help but wonder why he was here, if his reasons were similar to hers, if he too was trying to push thoughts from his mind.

"Yeah," he whispered. "I know."

"Well," Cass smiled at him as she stepped up to the table. "Can I get you that beer now?" She looked over towards Phyllis. "And what about you? Can I get you anything? I'm sure he's buying." She turned her attention back to Billy. "I have to say, I'm sorry for doubting you. I guess The Suit can't compete with true love."

"I'll take that beer," he said quickly, "And a … a vodka cranberry for her."

The questions were evident on her face. "True love, huh? What kind of story have you been selling her?"

"It's not a story, Phyllis. She wanted to know why I came here every week, what had me so messed up that I just sank myself into the booth and drank myself into a stupor. She wanted to know why she had to call me a cab every night, why I was so determined to drink myself into in a black hole of nothingness. She wanted to know and I told her. I told her that I had lost everything that ever mattered to me. I lost the woman I love. I lost the respect of my family. I lost my job. And worst of all, I set it all in motion. Sure we both made mistakes, but the final death blow, that was all me. I came here to escape, to forget, to get away, to get my mind off things as you put it."

"And tonight?"

"She could tell something was wrong when I saw you come in and I told her it was you. I told her you were the one that had brought me here. I told her you were the one I'd lost, the one I was here trying to forget, the one I couldn't … no matter how hard I tried. I came here to forget about you and then you came walking in."

"I didn't know you'd be here. I was just trying to have an evening out so that I wouldn't spend the night …" She stopped herself. "Maybe I should go."

He reached for her arm as she moved to slide from the booth. "Please don't." Her face softened as she stopped let her body relax again. "I'm not asking you to forgive me tonight. I'm just asking to sit here … just sit here and talk, have a drink … maybe smile a few times."

"I can sit and talk and the drink I can definitely do, but the smiles …. You're pushing it." She managed to keep the serious expression just long enough to watch his eyes flash the wary look she loved. "But I like to be challenged … you know that."

"Here you go." Cass returned to the table and placed their drinks in front of them. "Your beer."

"Sorry I ordered for you," Billy interrupted, suddenly realizing he hadn't given her the chance to order for herself. "If you want something else, please …" He gestured towards Cass. "Get her anything she wants."

Phyllis shook her head as she gestured to the fresh napkin in front of her.

"And a fresh vodka cranberry for you," Cass smiled. She flashed a knowing grin at both of them before walking away.

"You always did know what I want," she grinned.

He ran his hand across the back of his neck sheepishly. "I guess … most of the time. But there's one thing I don't know … I don't know if you still want me, or even if you ever could, if you think you ever could again."

She was quiet for a moment, so quiet that he was afraid he'd overstepped, afraid that the chance he'd taken in that moment was so brazen that he'd lost the opportunity to spend this night with her. And then he heard the sound of her voice yet again.

"I know that without you my entire world feels dull. It's like everything used to be vibrant and colorful and now it's just these shades of gray. I know that you hurt me in a way I hadn't been hurt in a long long time, but you also made me happier, made me feel more joy, made me angrier … You made me feel stronger, more hopeful, more stable than I ever have. You brought a sense of excitement and passion and fun into my life that I thought had long since gone and I miss that. So I guess I have to decide if the crazy highs are worth the possibility of some crazy lows, because you can't promise me there won't be any."

With everything in him, he wanted to make her that promise. He wanted to tell her that he would never hurt her again, but she wouldn't or couldn't believe him now. "I know you can't believe me if I promise I won't hurt you again and I get that. I understand that. I've done horrible things that you have every right to hate me for, but you don't. You don't hate me. I can see that in your eyes."

"I could never hate you." Her voice cracked as she said the words.

"So the only promise I need you to believe is this one…" He reached out to take her hands as they flat on the table in front of her. "Believe me when I say I'll always love you. I'll make stupid mistakes. I'll say stupid things, but don't ever – not for one second, don't ever doubt that I love you." He leaned closer to her. "I love you and I always will. If you can believe that, the rest is a goal I can work towards."

"That's a hell of an uphill climb." The lump in her throat made it difficult to speak. She could see the sheen in his dark eyes, the low rumble in his voice proving the depth of his emotion. "Love isn't always enough, Billy. We both know that. We've seen it."

"And we've seen us. We know us. And I know that if you're what I'm working towards, there's no amount of work too daunting. You're the best motivator in the world. I do anything for you." He stopped to look at her, trying to gauge her reaction. "So tell me boss, how's my pitch going?"

"Well." She took a breath and crossed her arms over her chest. "You've got a few really good things going for you. You're a hell of a charmer, Billy Abbott. You're innovative. You're smart and the fact that you're pretty damn handsome doesn't hurt. But probably your biggest advantage here … the thing that really sets up apart from the others like Greg and that gaggle of slightly inebriated businessmen over there is this … "

She stood up, slowly slinking over towards his slide of the booth and letting her body slide in beside him. "I just can't seem to stop loving you."