***Playlist: "No Wedding Cake" by Fol Chen

The days went by, Karen and Will barely speaking to each other, let alone acknowledging their intimate past. Those days turned into weeks, the weeks turned into months. Grace remained blissfully unaware of the love affair her best friend and lush assistant had been involved in years ago, and Karen enjoyed flaunting her new relationship with Jack in front of Will. The more time Karen and Will spent together, the easier things were. The dynamic between them developed organically - almost instinctually. Whenever she found herself in a situation where the veil of animosity towards Will was threatening to fall, Karen simply amped up the put-downs and eye rolls. And likewise, in those not-so-rare instances when Will could hardly control himself from grabbing her waist and kissing her mouth, Will turned cold and distant. This had become the norm between them; both of them constantly repressing their past affair and present feelings.

….

Will trudged up the wooden stairs, his socked feet thumping softly as he ascended. Downstairs, he could hear Grace banging around in the foreign kitchen, searching for ingredients to make hot cocoa. Although today was the would-be anniversary of Will and Michael's romance, right now he wasn't thinking about Michael at all. His friends had brought him here, to Karen's cabin in the woods, to take his mind off of things, and he was grateful to them. He could tell that even Karen had made an effort. This side of her - the considerate side - was one he hadn't seen in almost five years. He missed it. He missed her.

He reached the top of the stairs and started down the long hallway to the last room on the right, his bedroom. The first door on the left was cracked open, just enough for Will to hear Jack's snores resonating into the hall. He smiled to himself as he pulled the door closed all the way, holding the knob to turn it slowly so as not to wake Jack with the loud "click" of the mechanism. Karen's room , was across from Jack's, and Will cast a wary glance at her closed door, a fleeting thought of her sleeping beautifully crossing his mind.

Once inside his room, he flopped onto the plush-looking double bed, sighing heavily. The soft lamplight coming from the bedside table cast an arched glow across the logged ceiling. Will followed it with his tired eyes, then traced the line of the ceiling down to the adjacent wall. And for the first time, he noticed another door there. Curious, he got up from the bed and went to the door. With some trepidation, he opened it slowly, hardly surprised when it revealed the bathroom that he and Karen were sharing. He went to the sink; splashed some cold water on his face.

Toweling off, he noticed another door on the opposite side of the bathroom that mirrored the one he had just come through from his bedroom. He realized that this door must lead to Karen's room, and that it was cracked open. A small sliver of yellow light streaked out of it, and cautiously, without being able to help himself, Will aligned himself behind it. With shallow breath, he peered into Karen's bedroom. Karen was standing with her back to him in front of the bed, removing a black fur overcoat. Her feet were bare, and Will tensed as the coat fell from Karen's shoulders to the floor, leaving her standing in only black lingerie. The familiarity of the scene was not lost on Will, and he was transfixed as he watched her move to the table beside her bed and dropped her wedding ring on the night stand. As she turned back towards where Will was standing to fold the covers of the bed back, he stepped back into the middle of the bathroom. His mind lost in the memory of Karen's body between the sheets of their hotel suite, he nudged the door closed.

Karen looked up as she heard the "click" of the door to the bathroom shutting. She smiled.

Five minutes later, Will was lathering up in the shower, trying to get the image of Karen's half-naked body out of his mind. It was still just as lovely and perfect as he remembered it. As the warm water washed over his face, he closed his eyes and leaned his head against the shower wall and began to pleasure himself, unable to help himself.

Karen slipped into the steam-filled bathroom, her silk bathrobe now wrapped tightly around her as she hopped up onto the countertop. She swung her legs slightly as she watched Will's form through the blurred glass of the shower, tilting her head to fully admire the shape of his fit body.

"Am I interrupting something?"

Will jumped at Karen's question and following giggle.

"Jesus, Karen don't you know how to knock?"

"You know, honey, it's nothing I haven't seen."

Will abandoned what he was working on and went back to shampooing his hair.

"Oh so you suddenly want to talk about that?"

Karen bit her lip.

"Talk about what?"

"'Talk about what?' Please," Will scoffed, rinsing the suds from his hair. "You know what I'm talking about."

"I'm not the one who decided we weren't going to talk about it. I think you made that pretty clear."

"I can't…do you really want to have this conversation now?" he turned the shower off.

"We have to have it sometime."

"Why?" he poked his head out of the sliding glass door of the shower and motioned for her to hand him his towel. She obliged and he wrapped it around his waist before stepping out the shower.

"Because…" Karen stood from the counter and opened the door to her bedroom. She eyed Will's wet body, the beads of water rolling down his taut muscles. "I miss you." She pulled the door closed behind her as she disappeared into the room.