Thank you to the two folks that actually reviewed. To those that put it on alert and nothing else, I usually wouldn't let it bother me, but.. eh. Thank you, too.


Chapter 2

"Why the hell would you sneak up on me like that, Phil?" I asked as I caught my breath and removed my hand from my chest, but decided to stay standing.

He knew what I was thinking and patted the spot next to him. "Never could call me Punk, could you?"

"No," I replied and sat down, but not directly next to him. Because he would put his arm around me, and that would insinuate that we're a couple, and we're not. I have no idea what's with this sudden change of heart he's having, either. "You have to act like a punk for me to call you one."

"I act like a punk every day of my life."

"Guess we've got two different definitions of what a punk actually is then, eh?" I shrugged, wrung my hands together, and looked up at him. "Why the hell are you wearing that sweater?"

"I'm comfortable."

"It's 85 degrees out here."

"So?"

"At night."

"So?" He pressed.

"We're going through a damned heat wave; take that off before you end up passing out."

"My mom is already on Twitter, I don't need to see her in my ex-girlfriend, too." He rolled his eyes, but took off the jacket anyway. Now it was his turn to look at me. "You look good."

"Yeah. Why are you here?" I asked, cutting straight to the point.

"Because this is America, and I can go where I please." I shot him a look that showed that I was not at all impressed with his sarcasm. "I can come up here, too. I didn't know you'd be here. I finished up my appearances early, it's nice out, so I thought I'd come up here. For old times sake."

I nodded, satisfied with his answer. Even though deep down, I know he shouldn't be explaining himself to me. I'm not his girlfriend anymore.

"Do I have cooties or something?" Phil asked, out of the blue.

That threw me off. "What?"

"You heard me."

"No, Phil," I rolled my eyes. "You don't have cooties."

"So why are you sitting so far away from me?" He asked, looking me in the face. Even now, I know that whenever he looks me in the eye, he's being serious.

I'm the kind of person that has an answer to practically any question that you ask me. But the simple question of why I was distancing myself, I couldn't come up with an answer. Well, I couldn't come up with a fabricated answer, so I had to answer truthfully.

"Because you hate me."

He frowned. "What? I don't hate you."

"Your facial expressions in meetings and pretty much everywhere else you see me say otherwise." And it was the truth. He looked like he wanted to vomit every time he saw me.

He sighed, and ran a head over his fuzzy head. "Look… I'm sorry if I made you feel that way. But damn it, girl, I miss you." He scooted closer to me, and I felt myself holding my breath a bit.

I snorted lowly out of spite. "Nice way of showing that."

He decided to ignore that. "I know it didn't work out between us the last time because of our schedules and shit. And I'm not going to lie over you and say that I'm losing sleep over you, 'cause I'm not. I'm not that kind of guy."

I scoffed, and looked away.

He put his hand under my chin and making me look back at him, while slipping his free arm around my shoulders. "But, I'm also not the kind of guy who will go to an ex and for her to take me back. You're really special to me."

I closed my eyes at his last admission. Damn Phil Brooks. Damn him straight to hell for making me feel like this.

"Phil, I don't know." I shook my head. "I don't want it to be like the last time. Where it started out great and went straight to hell. I can't deal with that again." I pushed his arm off of my shoulders gently and stood up, shifting my weight from one foot from another as I contemplated this. I'm not going to lie and say that I don't miss him, because I do. I miss him a lot. But I don't miss the distance between us, emotionally. I don't miss the fights we had because we never made time for each other.

He stood up and didn't come any closer to me, which I appreciated, because I probably would have ended up crying. Instead, he just looked at me. "It wouldn't be like the last time. I'm not champion anymore; you know how to deal with the demands of your jobs better than you did when you first started out." That was true. "We can make it work."

"Phil, I don't know, I just…" I sighed, actually facepalming. I have to be incredibly frustrated to facepalm. And I'm not frustrated in this situation, I'm conflicted. "I want to say yes."

"So say yes."

"It's a lot harder than it sounds, Phil. I wish it wasn't." I shook my head, looking down. I was not about to cry over this man.

"You're letting all of these 'buts' hold you back. Quit thinking so damned hard." He walked over, invading my space, and rested his hands on my hips. Not to be a pervert, but that's my favorite place for his hands to be. It's as if they were made specifically just for resting there. He took this opportunity to pull me closer to him, and I felt his breath blow across my face. It was still as minty as ever. "I miss you," he said softly, and the admission made me close my eyes and relax a bit against him out of habit. We were in this position a lot, whether it was when he was calming me down from the stresses of work, or we were just talking quietly with each other. "I miss you and I know you miss me, too."

I opened my eyes at that. He wasn't lying, but how could he be so damn sure? "What makes you think that?"

He gave me a light grin that was a little on the smug side. "Because if you didn't, you would have walked away from me a long time ago. You'd be at home on your laptop, doing stuff for work, trying to erase this conversation from your memory. You wouldn't be letting me hold you like this." He gave me a small squeeze, before he started to lean in slowly. "And you would be walking away right about now, since I'm about to kiss you…"

I did freeze for a minute when he kissed me. And damn it if I didn't want to kiss him back, but I pulled away, searching his eyes for a sign of anything. And what I got back both elated me and scared the hell out of me.

It was sincerity.

"I…I have to go," I stammered and moved out of his embrace. He looked disappointed, and I feel like shit because I know I'm the reason that he looks like that. But I put my head down and looked at the mixture of green and dry grass beneath my sandals. "We have a meeting in the morning at the Marriott. Your personal assistant will go over your travel arrangements afterwards, I'm sure."

I didn't have to look up at him to see the disappointed look on his face after I'd diverged into business talk. I did that with him, too. If I didn't feel like talking about something, I'd go into what we'd have to do for work.

"Yeah." He sighed. "I'll see you then."

I took that as my opportunity to leave. I walked down the small hill behind our… my spot to get to my car. I got in the car and put my seat belt on before. I looked over to see Phil sitting back down, looking over the city, much like I was doing not even an hour before. I exhaled before turning the car on, putting it into drive, and driving off.


I'm so mean, I know. Cuddling fic!Punk (because real life Punk would punch me in the face) and working on the final chapter. I'd be nice and ask what you wanted to happen, but I've got a feeling it would be something like "GET THEM BACK TOGETHER." If there's anything that you think would actually be helpful to the plot of the story, go on and leave a suggestion. Otherwise, I'll see you later. Review.