"Where are we going?" Maddie asked once they stepped out into the parking lot.

David looked around, dizzy from the feeling of Maddie's hand in his, but aware that he had to hurry before Carly came after him and created a scene. He had no idea what he was going to say or do, he just knew that he had to be alone with Maddie.

"Over here," he said, leading her towards the limo that ABC had provided for Carly. The driver opened the door and Maddie slid in with a questioning look.

"Here..." David said, digging in his wallet. He produced a fifty and handed it to the driver. "We're not going anywhere. Why don't you take five?"

"Thank you, sir," the man said. "I'll just be waiting over in the..."

David shut the door before they could hear the rest of his sentence.

He looked over at Maddie and found himself speechless now that he had her here. She gave him a shy smile. He wanted to touch her, to push a strand of hair behind her ear and feel the warmth of that smooth, porcelain cheek. But he'd given up that right a long time ago.

"So," he said.

"So..." Her eyes were bright, but guarded.

"It's been a long time."

She nodded. "Almost a year..."

"Over a year."

"A year and two months," she admitted with a small smile.

"And four days," he teased.

"I thought it was five," she tossed back.

"Oh, well, yeah, I wasn't counting today..."

She shook her head. "David...do you realize that we just left our dates back there without a word?"

"Yes," he replied. "And I'm sure this sounds horrible, but I really couldn't care less. Does it bother you?"

She glanced down at her hands folded in her lap, then looked at him with those soulful blue eyes and answered softly. "Not really."

All he wanted to do was lean over and kiss her, to hold her and whisper in her ear all of the things he had been holding in his heart for the past year.

"You look good, Goldilocks," he said, then stopped and shook his head, laughing at himself. "That isn't what I wanted to say..."

"I know," she said. "But you don't look bad yourself."

"Gee, don't lay it on too thick! You'll turn my head!" He bumped her shoulder with his. He was aching to touch her, to run his fingers across her collarbone...

"I guess that'd be doing you a favor, seeing as it's always been screwed on backwards."

"Ouch. I see you've kept your claws sharpened." It was a lame comeback, but it gave him an excuse to pick up her hand and pretend to examine her nails. The contact of her skin against his sent his heart, already racing, into overdrive. He rubbed his thumb across her palm, and heard her take in a sharp breath. He looked back up at her and saw all of longing he felt mirrored in her face. Now...kiss her now... "Maddie..." he said, leaning closer.

"Is this yours?" she asked with a sharp flick of her eyes, and it was like a cloud passing over the sun. He remembered this defense tactic. She was scared, stalling.

"This?" he asked, holding up her hand, purposely misunderstanding the question. "I did ask for this hand once before, but as I recall the answer was no..."

She arched a perfect eyebrow at him. "This limousine we're sitting in, David. Whose is it?"

He dropped her hand back into her lap. Was that a look of relief or disappointment? "The ride is Carly's...The girl I just ran away from...Well, not hers, it belongs to ABC. They cart her around in it occasionally for show promotions."

"Ah," Maddie nodded, folding her hands in her lap. "Actress?"

Oh god, he did not want to talk about Carly. "Yeah."

"So...she's your...niece?" she said with that icy stare that could chill him to the bone in a New York minute.

David shifted in his seat. There had to be way to get off this topic. "She's a friend. I mean, I guess you could say we're friends...We're...friendly...but I'm actually... I'm just about to..."

"Right," she answered, shaking her head and pulling herself back from him a little more. "Well, it's nice to know some things never change."

He'd been about to admit that Carly was a fling that he'd already decided was over, but something about her arch tone and cool demeanor triggered his old, knee-jerk reaction, and before he could stop himself, he was firing back. "Yeah, I noticed that myself...your boyfriend there is a dead ringer for the old Space Cowboy. Let me guess: he's a big-wig television exec, lots of power, lots of money, treats you like a princess, looks good on your arm..."

"Looks good on my arm? That's rich from the man dating a teenaged silicone factory!"

A heavy silence filled the limousine as they stared at one another.

Finally Maddie spoke. "So. I guess some things really don't change."

"Guess not," he mumbled, wanting desperately to turn the conversation around but at a loss as to how to do it.

"Well..."

No, no, no... He knew that tone—she was closing off. Why had he let her pick a fight?

"Maybe this was a mistake," she said flatly and raised her eyebrow just a fraction, a mere millimeter of a challenge.

Suddenly, he knew that she wanted him to for fight her, to convince her to stay. He'd learned a thing or two in the past year, by replaying all of the tiny moments between them where they had turned the wrong corner.

"No. This isn't a mistake." He took a deep breath. Was he really going to do this? He'd rehearsed this scene over and over in his mind for the past year, but it was so much scarier now that the moment was actually here. He grabbed her hand and she let him. "The mistake was ever letting you walk away from me in the first place. The mistake was not fighting harder for you, the mistake was..."

"Screwing my married cousin?"

He was taken aback; both by her sharp words and at the pain in her face. Her cool façade had crumbled and she looked so vulnerable and wounded that even though her question cut him to the quick, he couldn't resist touching her any longer. He cupped her face in his hands, forcing her teary eyes to his. "I don't even know how to say I'm sorry...but that...that was the single biggest mistake of my life and I would do anything if I could take it back. I tried to tell myself I was over you—over us—that I was just moving on, but the truth is that I was still...so mad at you, mad at myself, mad at God that you lost the..."

He couldn't say it, and had to choke back his own tears. He let go of her face and grabbed her hands. "I think maybe at the time I did it to hurt you, to drive a nail in the coffin so you could never hurt me again...but I'm sorry Maddie...I'm so sorry..."

A tear rolled down her face and she looked down at their hands. He wanted to kiss that tear off her cheek, wanted to stop talking and just hold her, but he knew these were words he needed to say and that she needed to hear. "There is no excuse for what I did, Maddie. Reasons maybe, that made sense to me at the time, but no excuse. The truth is, I think I wanted to see if I could hurt you, or bring you back, or have any effect at all on you anymore. It was the desperate act of a desperate, defeated man, and it's the regret of my life."

She looked up at him then, and he swore she had never been more beautiful. Tentatively, she put her palm to his face. He closed his eyes and leaned into her touch and it was like soaking up the first rays of sun after a long, cruel winter.

"I'm sorry too for the things I did to push you away...I know there were times, lots of times, that I was awful to you. We've hurt one another so much, and I know I started most of it." She took her hand off his face and the curtain started to come down again as he could see her trying to compose herself. "You're right, this wasn't a mistake...I think we both have wanted, needed this closure..."

For a moment he just stared at her in shock. "Closure? Closure is the last thing that I need or want."

She stared back at him with a bruised expression. "Then what is this about? We just happen to run into one another out of the blue, and suddenly you feel it's time for apologies? If you don't want closure, David, what do you want?"

"Maddie..." He grabbed her firmly by both shoulders. "Maddie," he said again, softer this time, stroking her cheekbone. She offered no resistance, and he leaned forward until his lips were almost touching hers. "What I want, what I need is you..."