She had a boyfriend and kissed me anyway. Ted let that thought sink deep into his brain unwilling to see any other reasoning other then it was something you just didn't do. Sure, he had his share of times when at any given time he could have been with any number of women, even though he was married but he knew better. He respected not only himself, but every woman he came into contact with more then even some of them did themselves.

So what could have possessed this woman, this crazy woman whose day of fun included suicide dives and bowling, to keep this kind of secret from him? If it hadn't been for Melissa explaining things to him in the hotel bar just minutes before, he never would have known why she had backed off the way she had. As thankful as he was that her sister at least had the gumption to tell him, he really did wish it had come from Cheryl.

What difference would it have made in the long run? She would have told you and you would have still walked away angry.

His inner voice was at it again, taking the feelings he was holding inside and twisting them around. He knew that if she had admitted right away, before they had split off from John and Lissa, that she did have a boyfriend, he wouldn't have even bothered with her. He respected relationships too much after the hell he had gone through at the end of his own with Kristin.

He hated judging people, he liked to keep his life complication free but in the last six months it seemed it was turning into anything but uncomplicated. First all of the trouble with his father and the WWE, then Kristin and now Cheryl. Was he actually deserving of having something better in his life then what he had been dealt. Was he deserved of a female that would actually not hide and keep things from him or was it at a lost cause?

Ted knew he was sounding a lot like John had when they had first started riding the road together and as much as he liked the guy, he really didn't like feeling this lost. As if nothing really was going his way.

From the time he had called Kristin that morning, to the revelation in the hotel bar, he felt nothing had gone right for him. His wife had moved on and when he had attempted to do the same thing, maybe even be happy doing it, this was the hand he was dealt, and quite frankly it sucked.

Should I really be judging what happened with Cheryl this badly? he asked himself, hoping for once that the damn nagging voice in his head would come back with an answer he could work it. But of course, his mind was silent, aside from the stirring thoughts that his entire day hadn't actually been a total loss.

He had enjoyed watching the sun and the waves on the water from the cliff and the way Cheryl had smiled when she suggested the cliff diving. Her face had been so lit up, almost like someone had flipped a really bright light bulb on in the middle of a sea of darkness. Then the bowling alley, him beating her the way he had, even though he knew it was only because he had thrown her off her game with his first strike. The kiss afterwards, none of those things had been bad.

Her running from him and not telling him the truth had been the only bad part. Thinking along those lines, he wondered if maybe he really was being too harsh about this and maybe he should try and forgive the small stuff when the bigger picture had made him so happy.

Could he really overlook what she had done?

A knock drew him from his mental conversation and he immediately jumped up to answer it, figuring that John had cut his night short to come up and do his own version of consoling. When he swung the door open though it was not his very male friend that stood on the other side, but the very girl he had been just thinking about forgiving.

Remember Ted, you are not innocent in this yourself. You deceived her about Kristin, and the hold she has on you even now.

The voice that had been silent for almost twenty minutes again wanted to pipe in with it's two cents and he found that this one time, the voice was right. He really was no better then anyone else when he had spent the time before the date trying to get back in his wife's good graces.

She was dressed differently this time, her auburn red hair now darker with what looked like a wash, and her makeup completely stripped from her face. She looked younger somehow, the way she was standing there now and before he was about to speak he realized that he had to be sure he had the right twin.

"Cheryl?"

She nodded instantly, a smile not even forming on her lips. Something that he found just didn't sit right with him. She had been smiling and laughing all day until the end, there was no reason that she couldn't be smiling now. It would set things at least a little back to normal.

"Can I come in?"

"Of course" he answered, moving out of her way to allow her entrance to his hotel room. Doing a quick scan with his eyes he realized he was thankful that the maid had already done her rounds and his room looked immaculate.

Closing the door he turned to face her as she walked as far over to the other side of the room, away from him as she could. He had no idea what she was doing here, and what she was going to say but he found that whatever it was, good or bad, he really did want to hear it.

"I'm sorry about earlier. There is something you should know."

Ted couldn't help but cut her off. He knew what she was about to say in that moment, what she should have said at the beginning of the day and he found he didn't want to hear the words poured out a second time, just as he was starting to come to terms with it from being told the first.

"You have a boyfriend. I know Cheryl."

The look of shock that radiated off her face was not missed by him. It was obvious that she hadn't expected him to know this secret and now that he apparently did, her entire game plan was thrown off kilter.

"Well okay, you know. Yes, I have a boyfriend. His name is Matt and he was at the show with me last night."

"Why didn't you tell me that?"

She shrugged and as upset as he was, as torn apart as her having a boyfriend made him feel, he found that even now, he wanted to hold her and make all of this craziness go away.

"I should have told you and I don't really have a good reason for why I didn't."

Ted just nodded before shooting another question in her direction. "So why even agree to this date at all?"

She obviously had an answer for this one right away because she started speaking and the words just flowed easily, and Ted realized, rather truthfully.

"I agreed to the date for Melissa. When she came over this morning, and explained what all of her cryptic messages meant and said that you wanted to hook up with me, John and Lissa, well I did the only thing I could do, I agreed. Melissa knew about me and Matt, at least a little bit of it, and I figured that as long as I kept this about her then everything would be fine. You and John would leave and I would go back to my life."

He couldn't exactly argue with her logic. He was leaving the next night and he had no idea when he would be returning to this town. He never did until it was planned. When he had asked for the hook-up with the twin sister, it had been started as a joke as well, a way to help John and Lissa wake up and smell what was right there in front of them. Ted hadn't planned on it turning into what it had. A really easy, good time.

"Seems like in a way we both had the same idea. So what changed?"

"You changed Teddy." she stopped then, sighing before continuing. "I had so much fun with you and when we kissed it was like the most natural thing in the world, despite me being nervous. I knew I should have told you, even then but I just couldn't. Seeing the look on your face when you opened the hotel door told me I had hurt you."

"Yes you should have told me about this before we even went on the date. But why are you really here Cheryl? It has to be more then just to say sorry."

"I drove home Teddy, and I spent time thinking, and when I was all thought out I did the one thing I should have done years ago and I called Matt. I told him the truth, the absolute truth and I did the best thing for me and in the long run, for him too."

Ted found that he didn't want to hear what she was about to say next. Surely she was going to tell him that her and Matt made a deeper commitment to one another and after the kiss they had shared and the way it felt, it was the ONE thing he did not want to hear.

"That….is what exactly?"

"That we could never be more then friends. What I felt when I kissed you, no matter what it means in the long run taught me that. I need more then Matt can give me, maybe even more then someone like you can and I deserve to have the chance to do that. So we broke up, and I broke his heart. Which then landed me here."

"So I ask you again, why are you here now?"

Again she was quick with the response. "Because despite everything I've done, to you and to Matt, I had to know something."

"And that is?" he asked, his breath speeding up, wondering just what it was that she could possibly need to know.

"If it will feel this good the second time around." it was then that she smiled and as Ted caught sight of it, and was about to comment on the change in mood, she ran across the room and planted her lips on top of his, crushing all thought process going on in his mind in the process.

He wanted to pull away and tell her that she had lied and he just couldn't overlook that, and maybe also tell her that he understood because he himself had been locked in the past the entire day with his soon to be ex Kristin, but none of that happened and he surrendered himself as he kissed her back, to just ignore it all and just feel.