I don't know how I am going to do this. I don't know what I am going to do, or what I am going to say.

I walked into my apartment, and threw my keys on the table. I knew she was here; she was always here to greet me after work. Something that I had once found quite endearing was not something I dreaded. I wasn't ready for this, whatever it was going to be. I wanted to be mad at her, but I couldn't be. I was angry with myself. I had created this situation from the very beginning. All I knew for certain was that things needed to be fixed, I wasn't sure how I would make things right. But that's what I did. I was Seely Booth and I made things right.

"Hey baby."

I heard, her moving around in the kitchen, probably making dinner.

I walked in behind her. She was the picture of domesticity. Whatever she was cooking smelled great. She had been doing the dishes as she was going along. The table was set. She was even wearing an apron. It was everything I had ever wanted when I was growing up. This was the kind of life I had dreamed about. We were going to be married, start a family. We were going to build a solid life together, and in fifty years we were going to be old and sitting in rocking chairs watching our grandchildren run around in the yard. That is what I had always planned. But things rarely work out the way that we plan do they? I didn't plan on meeting Brennan, and the two of us becoming the best crime fighting team in the district. I didn't plan on her slowly becoming the closest friend I had ever had, I didn't plan on falling in love with her, and I sure as hell didn't plan on her leaving and breaking my heart.

Maybe I was trying too hard to do this thing with Kheri. Trying to get some semblance of what I had once thought I wanted. I am a firm believer that God has a plan for us, what if his plan was just different from what I thought it should be.

I don't know what I think anymore, but I will tell you what I do know. I know that I am a good man. A man that doesn't balk at my responsibilities. I made a commitment to Kheri, and no matter what, I intend to see that through. That's what I do, I see things through I make things right.

"Kheri, we need to talk."

She turns towards me, with a smile on her face. The sight makes me sick to my stomach.

She reaches towards me to put her arms around my neck. But I can't touch her, not right now.

"Kheri, you lied to me."

For a moment the shock that I had found out registers on her face, before it was quickly disguised with innocence.

She opens her mouth to say something.

"No Kheri please. Don't even try it. I know the truth. I know you lied to me, and I think I even know why. But I need you to tell me, have enough respect for me, for us to tell me the truth."

She sighs and turns back around.

"Seely, I can only assume that you are referring to what I told you today about the conversation I had with Dr. Brennan. I don't know what she told you, but frankly it hurts me that you are going to take her word over mine. Especially after what she did to you."

I stared in shock for a moment at the back of her head. Could she be serious? I am trying to save us, does she not get that. I am giving her an opportunity to make it right.

"Kherington, you know how much I need to trust you. I have to trust you implicitly for this to work. I know that you lied; Angela was listening in on your conversation. Not only that, but she brought me the video footage to prove it to me. I heard everything. "

I was yelling by this time.

"I gave you an out Kheri, you just had to be honest and upfront with me. I am trying to fix us; I am trying to make it work."

Finally she spun around to face me.

"You're trying to make it work Seely. Trying to make it work by forcing me to have lunch with the women that you were so madly in love with. The woman that you never got over. That's not how it seemed to me. Making me watch the way you looked at her."

I cut her off.

"First of all Kheri, I didn't look at her any special way. And second I didn't force you. I wanted to be friends with her. We had a history; I was trying to mend our friendship. I wanted you to be a part of that, because you are a part of me. All you had to do was tell me you how uncomfortable you were with that. You just had to be honest with me from the beginning that's all I wanted, that's all I ever wanted."

"Oh really, all I had to do was tell you that I didn't want to meet her. Tell you that I felt uncomfortable with you resuming a friendship with her."

"Yes, that is all that you needed to say."

"Ok Seely, I am uncomfortable with you being friends with her, I am uncomfortable with you working with her again. So what are you going to do about it?"

I was stunned; I hadn't expected her to ask me what I was going to do about it. What was I going to do about it?

"What do you mean, what am I going to do about it?"

"Well I have expressed my feelings about you being around her, now are you going to ignore them and continue or are you never going to be around her again?"

"I think it's a moot point Kheri, I don't see her talking to me again after the way I yelled at her today."

She walked up closer to me; if she was taller we would be standing nose to nose.

"That's not what I asked you, I asked you if you were going to ignore my feelings, or make sure you never cross paths again?"

"Are you asking me to choose?"

She nodded.

"Yes I believe that's exactly what I am asking you to do."

I was speechless. The right thing to say would be that I would never see her again. But could I go through with that. Could I live with never seeing those eyes again, that crooked smile. Could I leave her, do what everyone else did to her. I know it was irrational, after she left me. But her leaving stems from her fear of people leaving her. I know it seems like a lifetime ago, but I promised her that I would not betray her. But I also promised my life to Kheri. Apparently my silence was enough for Kheri.

"That's all I need Seely, I am leaving now."

I had to stop her; this isn't what was supposed to happen.

"Kheri wait…"

"Wait for what? You have clearly made your decision."

I put a hand on her shoulder, to stop her from leaving.

"I can't choose. She is my friend. It's too hard, please don't make me choose."

She turned and looked at me again. Her purse on her shoulder, her hand on the door.

"It shouldn't be hard Seely, do you love her or do you love me? What no let me rephrase that, because I already know the answer to that. Who do you love more? If it's me, then you should have no problem cutting contact with her. And if it's her, then I should be going because we have nothing left here."

Who do I love more? What an absurd question. It was so simple that I loved Kheri more. But when I opened my mouth to say that, nothing came out. I could not bring myself to say out loud that I loved someone more than Brennan.

Apparently for the second time that evening, my silence spoke louder than anything I could say.

Kheri nodded her head.

"That's what I thought."

She looked at me for a moment, and I mean really looked at me.

"I'm sorry, I did what I did Seely. I really am, but maybe it was my way of giving you an out. "

I started to shake my head.

"Maybe you didn't know that's what you wanted at the time, but it's clear to me now how much you wanted it. You love her Seely. I don't doubt that you love me too; I don't think you would have proposed if you didn't. But you love her more, and you always will. You are connected to her, and even though you would never back away from your commitment to me you would always wonder what it would have been like with her. I can't live like that. So, and I can't believe I'm saying this maybe it was best she came back when she did."

She held up her left hand and looked at the ring that I had put there not too long ago. She smiled a sad smile, and removed it. She placed the ring in my hand and closed my fist around it. She raised her arm and placed it on my face.

"Good bye Seely, go be happy ok?"

And with that she walked out of the door and out of my life.