The pair of blonds seemed to have been walking for a long while in silence. Torrie had no idea as to how to react in this particular situation. A part of her really wanted to slap his arm hard and just go back to the way they had come from.

But another strong part of her which she wouldn't dream of admitting to him or to anyone for that matter yearned to see him again. Not in a major confrontation or a furious argument but perhaps from a good distance away, without his deep blue eyes having seen her.

"Well" the Lionheart suddenly broke the long silence and gazed at her briefly befor saying "We're here."

Instantly, Torrie felt her heart beginning to pound in her chest. A wave of mixed emotions ran over her body. She still didn't know what she was gonna do once she was face to face with him. Especially not after what had happened between them long time ago.

A twist of fate however was mandatory in the life of Torrie Wilson.

Before they could even open the gym doors, the very person for whom they had come there in the first place suddenly opened the it himself.

And in a fraction of second, blue eyes immediately locked onto her beautiful green ones.

Surprise slowly found it's way to his handsome face as he gazed at her intently. His cotton shirt had dark spots of sweat over his torso and sweat glistened from his big strong arms and forehead.

To Torrie's eyes, he looked even more hot in that particular state and she forced herself not to become dazed.

"Hey John. Look who decided to show up tonight after a zillion years" Chris lightly remarked.

The Boise Belle decided to make the first move and spoke in a polite voice "Hey John" accompanied with a friendly smile.

She watched as his eyes grew a darker shade of blue as he frowned a little before replying "Long time no see huh Wilson."

He used to call her by her surname only when he had a bad temper.

"Well, I thought maybe you guys would like to catch up on stuff" Chris said amiably, trying to ignore the invisible tension in the air as his eyes shifted from John to Torrie. "So I guess I will leave you two alone for now." He slowly tried to walk away, but was stopped in his tracks by the Idaho beauty's voice.

"What about Alex?" she asked whilst gazing at his back and hence not noticing they way John had raised an eyebrow at the very mention of her boyfriend's name.

"Oh I'll handle him. Not a big deal." Before she could stop him again, Chris quickly walked away, knowing fully well that this was what had to be done to bring their lost friendship back again. They needed to sort things out, clean up the mess their bitter-sweet relationship had made and perhaps only then could things go from bad to good.

Little did Chris know that things were only gonna go from bad to worse in a matter of few hours.

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For a long moment, an awkward silence hung between the two people standing infront of each other. Neither did they try to look into each others' eyes again nor did they seem at ease in each others' company, especially the green-eyed former diva who cleared her throat a few times whilst John just pulled his phone out and begin to scroll down his agenda for tomorrow.

She really felt like he had forgotten she was standing infront of him. So taking a deep breath and silently crossing her fingers behind her back, she finally spoke up,

"How have you been John?"

"Good. Never been better" came the dry but slightly sarcastic reply as he never looked up at her to meet her gaze.

"You haven't changed much have you?" she said again, this time in a little playful maner, trying to her best to lighten the tension between them. "Same brown crew cut, colourful shirts, amazing sense of humour and still winning hearts of millions of fans."

To this, his deep blue eyes finally looked up to engage with hers in an intense eye contact. "Don't believe everything you see on T.V Wilson" he said, his voice cold and yet, Torrie could sense a tinge of sadness to it. "Some things have always been hidden from the camera."

He then looked down at his exclusive Puma watch and shook his head "I have to go shower now. Maybe you should go back to your Alex" he almost spat out the last word like it left a bad taste to his mouth.

"No" she suddenly said, her eyes still locked to his. "I'll wait in your room. You don't take more than 10 minutes for a shower, I remember."

She noticed how he looked taken aback for a moment. Then he said without looking away "What do you want Torrie?" This came out a little more sharply than he had intended to. He had no plans whatsover of taking her up to his room and have a little "friendly" chat like she had on her mind and pretend like everything was back to happy-go-lucky phase.

Things had changed and he wasn't going to risk letting her into his heart once again, not after she had trampled on it mercilessly 5 years ago to "settle into her life" like she had claimed to.

No, he wasn't going to allow her to get close to him once again.

"I want my best friend back" her voice came out soft and tender, hitting John right in the heart and for a second making him forget all the pain she had caused to his heart.

"Look, I know you aren't willing to forgive me for all that happened in the past" her voice trembled slightly as she let these words fall from her mouth. "But I want to start over. Please John...one last chance to our friendship...please."

This immediately sent John's temper up in a flare.

"What damn friendship are you talking about Wilson?" he snapped furiously at her. "The kind of friendship where I was your fuck buddy on one side while you had an abusive relationship on the other?!"

"John please..."

"You threw yourself at me everytime you felt weak. And that weakened my senses so much so that I made the big mistake of falling for you" his voice cracked now but his fierce gaze never left her slightly shorter frame.

"I'm just so sorry Jo..."

"Sorry isn't going to change the fucking past now will it Torrie?" he cut her short by almost shouting at her, his brows burrowed in anger and frustration.

Much as she tried to, the Idaho beauty couldn't control a small tear to slip from the corner of her eye and let it roll down her cheek with abandon.

That is when she saw his angry features soften a little.

"You destroyed our friendship Torrie" he spoke while trying hard not to reach up a hand and brush the tear away from her cheek. God, he hated the fact that she was his weakness. His only damn weakness. Much as he tried to tell himself that he hated her, a part of him was deeply attached to her.

"I did love you" he said much more calmly, his voice brimming with both sorrow and anger. "I kept you safe with me everytime. But how was I to know in the end, you would just drop everything and walk away from me without a single explanation."

"5 years. I waited for 5 damn years. And all you have to tell me is you want your best friend back?" He grew angry again and he balled his large hands into two tight fists whilst glaring hard at her "Like hell that's gonna happen."

Again there was a long heavy silence. The green-eyed beauty had absolutely no words to respond with to the outburst of the man standing in front of her. She was just speechless.

John glared at her all through the silence and then suddenly wondered why he was even wasting his time talking to her. There could not be any reconcillation between them. She had slammed a heavy door on their passionate love story and he wasn't going to be the one to open that door again.

But before he could stomp away, he noticed the rapid trembles going through Torrie's body as she looked down, her face covered with her hands and her long blond curls falling down her shoulders.

It didn't take a detective to know that she had broke down before him.

In a blink of an eye, all that spite, hatred and frustrations that filled his heart vanished into thin air and it almost felt like an arrow was poked through his heart at the mere sight of the Boise Belle who had stolen his heart, crying.

It brought back a whole wave of old memories from the past of how she used to come to his room with a bruised and battered body and swollen red eyes, begging for the comfort of his arms. All it took for her was to look up at him with those beautiful green orbs filled with tears and he would immediately open up to her in every possible way.

It was his moment of weakness and their mutual desires that led them to the bedroom everytime she came to him.

Yes they had been long-time best friends before things began to get complicated. But when she decided to throw their friendship out of the window after sharing one night of passion with him, they were no longer friends. They had become more than best friends. After one blissful night together, they had fallen in love with each other.

It was like that, every time her boyfriend Nick beat her up and threw her out of his room, she would go crash into the arms of the Chain Gang Soldier while he would hold her tenderly through the night. Some times they made love, more out of need for each other than for plain lust. And it was those moments that made John the happiest man in the world.

He tried not to look into her tear-filled eyes lest the walls he had firmly built around himself come crumbling down again as he slowly rested his hands on her shoulders and pulled her up.

But nothing could prepare him for the next thing that happened.

She suddenly grabbed his soft hands and placed them against her face and John could feel the wetness spread across his hands as she cried into them. With each passing minute, the walls began to crack more and more and his heart was torn between locking her in his muscular arms and thrusting her away, far away from him and his life.

Without warning, she whispered softly against his hands "I'm sorry John. I really am. But please, don't push me away."

The walls came crashing down when she slowly looked up at him with those tear filled green eyes, the same look that made him want to make love to her like she was the best thing that ever happened in his life. Emotions were running high between them and it was suddenly 2008 all over again.

John could just not help the next thing that would happen between them.

And neither could fate.