In another life, a man loved a woman; A woman who believed vanity was what would get her all she wanted in the world.

While the man knew that all he wanted in life was the woman, and nothing less.

'You'll regret everything; One step, and you'll regret it all.'

Harold Bright sat in a black leather chair that was sitting in the office of his firm. In another place in time, he could have been doing the same as his father before him. Instead, he had chosen to become a lawyer. One that was getting a headache more the woman spoke to him. "I have been with you through a divorce after divorce...the least you could do is a promise that I won't have to ever deal with another."

Tanya stood dumbfounded by what he had said to her. Even if he had a point, who was she to make such a promise to him?

"You have got to be kidding, Harry. I can't even promise you I won't be buying shoes after this."

There was a faint smile from the man as he sat back in his seat. "You came all this way to torture me, haven't you?"

A grin spread across the woman's face as she began toward him. "I came to tell you that you don't have to worry about Robert." There was something strange about the way she spoke to him. He'd been her lawyer for twenty years, even with the time they shared over those years. Harry hadn't ever dared cross the line Tanya was about to try to step over.

She had gotten to the leather chair in front of Harry. Her legs touching the front of it as she had parted them to let the lawyer's legs sit between hers.

"I'm aware...he called me this morning wanting to settle everything."

The divorce case had been going on for close to a year. After the couple had finally decided to end it all, Harry had gone through everything with them. Just as he had Tanya's past marriages, he was the one person always constant in her life.

He knew so much about the woman he felt he could write a biography. She was a vain but truly confident woman who wanted everything; Yet had nothing she truly wanted in life. The money she had from her former marriages proved she could have it all.

It was just never enough for her to stay satisfied.

"He blames you, you know?" Tanya asks as she stares down at the man; She watches every move he makes. Even intrigued by the fact he keeps eyeing her up as she's standing there.

"Oh, he blames the 'gay cunt' who knows nothing about your life?" It was true Harry had gotten into it with Robert Leigh enough times that he came close to stepping away from the case. Though he had, had his reasons for disliking the man long before the divorce started up.

"When did he ever call you that?" She asks as Harry reaches out to tug at the woman's dress; Pulling it down to cover one of her legs that showed more than the other. "New years, when I showed up with Gerald. He was drunk..." It wasn't a defense as there was more to the story. "Robert was trying to tell someone that you weren't 'putting out' so I snapped."

Tanya's brow raised, confused as to why this conversation had taken place. "Was this, this was after..." She was trying not to say but Harry nodded knowing what she was asking.

"Yes, and the 'gay cunt' defended the brave woman."

There was a brief moment of hesitance in Tanya's mind as she dared to lean towards the man; One of her legs bending to let her knee sit off to one side of Harry. "It's not exactly your place to defend me outside of the courtroom." She mused as she let an arm outreach and settle just off the side of his head on the back of the chair.

"Seduction isn't necessary, Tanya...you're getting everything you wanted."

There was an instant that the brunette told herself she was wrong. She knew very well that Harry was a man who had shared his bed with other men. It wasn't unknown to her even if he kept his personal life private, but she knew once he had loved a woman. Once upon a time, she also knew there was something between them.

A decade or so was a long time to still be harboring feelings; There were just moments she believes that the young man was still there. After all those years and those times, she pulled away from him. She truly hoped he was still in there.

Past;

'You're telling me that is your natural hair color?'

A man pulled at the hair of a woman who shrieked and slapped him on the shoulder. 'Harold, you bastard, why do you make everything so difficult!?'

Rosie was cackling as she watched the two people going at each other. She couldn't believe how much they fought. It was like watching a Tom and Jerry cartoon come to life before her. 'Can't you two just get along for once!?'

'When Tanya gets over herself, is when I'll be a better man.'

Harry mocks before he began to play on the guitar in his hands. 'One of us is crying, one of us is lying...In a lonely bed; Staring at the ceiling!' As soon as Tanya realized what she heard, she tossed her brush at Harry's head and caused him to slip off the stool where he had been seated.

'You, old, daft bird!'

'Nine years is not old; You are just too young to ride and won't accept it!'

Rosie covered her mouth trying not to laugh anymore at what was going on between them. 'You two need to just get it over with or settle the dispute as to which has their knickers in a wad.' Harry chuckles at what the woman said just before he tries to pick himself up and sit back down on the chair.

'I believe the problem is; That I've tried...but she just won't let me.'

Present Day;

The lawyer had pressed himself back further in the chair as the woman stood over him. If anyone saw them together it would seem as though the man was uncomfortable and trying not to push her away from him.

"What are you doing, Tanya?" Harry asks as he tilts his head staring up at the woman. "It's, really, not necessary to be where you are." He was trying to make her choose to move away from him. Something he had done more often than he liked to remember, but there was always a deeper reason behind it.

"I want to be where I am, Harry...I don't want to be anywhere else."

Tanya places a hand on the man's chest, and she can feel the shutter of a breath. One he had been holding for a good moment as she was over him.

"What's so different about this time?' He asks as he finally moves to settle less tensely under the woman; A hand reaching up to rest on her neck as he still stares upon Tanya's face.

"I watched you with each man; Alex, David, Robert...no matter who you married or even dated. Nothing ever wavered that you wanted anything more than what they could offer you." It was always about the money, the vanity, and the need to lavish in everything she could desire. "What's so different about this time that you feel the need to be where you are?"

"I just want the one thing they could never give me."

The man's hand moved up into the woman's hair and rested on the back of her head; Gripping slightly at the brown locks. "What is that?" He asks while she gasps at what he had done.

"They gave you everything, and yet nothing?"

Tanya frowns as her head shakes faintly in his hand. "They never could give me what you wanted to."

His face was pale at the words she spoke, and his eyes closed just as a memory that made the whole moment they were sharing uneasy.

Past;

'I'm tired of the silly games; you are just a kid, you don't even understand what love is.' Tanya thought she was so smooth, she thought that she was born to be a star. If she couldn't do it with the Dynamos she would make her worth known in other ways.

'I can't believe after all this time you are standing there and telling me you love me...you don't even know me!'

Harry Bright had confessed everything he had bottle up to a woman who couldn't even see her worth in his eyes. Though he knew that didn't matter to her, he had hoped the confession would make her see she didn't need everything she thought up to be happy in life.

'How can you disregard my feelings in such a way without just saying you don't feel the same?'

Tanya stops where she was keeping her back to the man. A smile came to her, and then she scoughs enough for the action to be vocal. 'Because what you are saying isn't even true.' She tells Harry. 'You don't love me; To love me would be to understand me...and no one does.'

Harry took a step toward the woman. 'You drink to make the world more bearable, you want your name in lights and to be dressed head to toe in clothing you could never really afford.' Tanya never moves as she can hear him moving toward her.

'You are selfish most days but would do anything for your friends, and you are a romantic even if you try to say you don't believe in the word.'

When the man got just behind the woman he reaches to grab her shoulder and turn her to him. Wrapping his arms around her quickly so she couldn't dare pull away. 'Your vanity will be your corruption, but you shouldn't seek out other's approval of what you are..." Harry takes one of his arms and moves his hand up to caress one side of her neck.

'I love you, Tanya Thorpe...I've loved you for far too long to just let you lead yourself to ruin.'

Tanya was in shock staring into the male's brown eyes. 'Please, don't do anything you will regret.' She says faint but Harry has already made up his mind. He leans down and kisses the woman without any regret for his actions; Feeling her tense under him before she began to kiss him just as much.

It was a moment that was hopefully the end of their bitterness...but it was not the last of it at all. Two weeks after, she would announce her engagement to another man and send the group into a spiral of events. That leads to the group's separation and even a child being born.

The last thing Harry would ever say to Tanya before they would meet later on in life was;

'You'll regret everything; One step, and you'll regret it all.'

Present;

"Harry, say something.."

Harry opens his eyes and stares into the woman's green. A smile, spreading across his face as he stares back at her. "So, do you regret everything yet?" Tanya's eyes went wide before slapping the man across the face, causing the glasses he was wearing the fall between them.

"I deserve that.." He responds as the woman is trying to shift to remove herself from the chair; Before she can move off him though Harry grips the back of her head and pulls her to him.

Kissing the woman and causing her to stop struggling against his strength and actions. She was shocked at first, of course, but she couldn't help herself feeling him kiss her; Tanya gripped the lapel of his blazer and held on tightly. A soft moan coming from the way it felt to kiss the man Tanya had tried her best to leave in the past.

As Harry vigorously kept on kissing the woman opening their mouths wider to deepen the intimate coupling. The woman could feel the intimacy cause her to feel lighted headed by the rush of it all.

"Mmm, stop..." Tanya murmurs as she's tapping at the man's chest. A groan escaped from Harry when he had to pull away from her. Feeling things he shouldn't have been feeling for a client of all people.

"I knew you came here to tease me." He whispers while Tanya is grinning ear to ear.

"You know why I came here; I just hope this wasn't all a waste of time."

It took a moment for Harry to think over what she just said. No matter what happened moving forward from where they were. There would be many edges that would need to smooth out. "Robert can not know about this, about us," Harry informs, and Tanya sighs at what he just said. She grabs the man's glass between them as she shifts to seat herself on his lap.

It took a moment for her to settle on Harry before she frowns. "I'll lose everything if he knows I'm sleeping with my lawyer." Bright raised a brow at what she just said. "You're not sleeping with your lawyer, and he believes me to be gay." Even if Harry defended the woman's name enough time to incriminate himself; For all Robert knew, he was still with Gerald.

"Which is a question that even I think should be asked; I've known you for a long time...besides me, you never seemed to show any interest in women."

Bright felt solemn after what she had just said to him. She wasn't the only woman he had ever loved in his life. It was just less complicated for him to be with men when everything was said and done. "Y-you're not the only woman, and I didn't think I'd ever need to tell you this as I know you are still very much in contact with her...but," Harry felt uneasy as Tanya was staring at him with concern.

"But, what?"

"I had a brief affair with Donna Sheridan after you left to get married, and we all split up."

Tanya's mouth gaped open at what the man had confessed. Out of any other woman in the world she had never thought Harry would have been with Donna. "Y-you, and Donna?" Harry grabbed Tanya by the waist in case she tried to make another break for it. "I was young, you broke my heart, and Donna was the only other person to who I had been close." She wanted to hit him again, but she gripped his blazer in both hands glaring at the English man.

"My best friend, you slept my best friend!"

"Yes, and it was the first time I had ever been with a woman."

There was a hesitance in the woman as she slowly released the man's jacket. Tanya's lips were pursed together, but she was trying to stay calm. "S-she was your first?" She asks as if uncertain of what she had just heard.

"I had always wanted my first time to be with someone I was comfortable with and cared for enough to ever be with them...If I had my real choice, I would have chosen to be with you."

Tanya couldn't be angry at him for the past, she knew that, and yet it still hurt finding out as she did. "S-so, if you're not gay...and not straight, but want to be with me even after everything; What are you?"

"An idiot?"

She smacks him on the chest and gains a deep chuckle from Harry. "...I don't know, complicated." He answers again trying to ease the woman.

"W-what about other men?" Tanya then asks causing the man to feel she was regretting her actions already. "Man, or woman...I have always only wanted one person in my life." One of his hands reaches up to cup the left side of her face.

"I want to be with you, and I'm prepared to make us work."

Tanya felt weak because for a very long time she had wanted this. She had wanted Harry to take her away from everything but knew he wasn't the type to just take what he wanted. That was what she did, and what she was trying to do now.

"I don't want you to regret this, Harry; If you take a step into this and don't want it; If you don't want me, I need to know."

There wasn't any hesitation when Harry moved in to kiss Tanya. It was a soft but long kiss before he parted from her.

"I've loved you for fifteen years, and I still love you, Tanya Thorpe."

She was at a loss for words hearing her lawyer tell her that. If she could freely do so she would be ready to take him right then and there, but they were still in an office and not alone in the firm. "Your secretary could come through that door any moment." Tanya now decided to think, rationally as she places Harry's glasses into a pocket on his jacket.

"You came to seduce me and, then when I confess my desire for you, you want to stop?" Bright sighs before he began to push Tanya up. As well as help her up before he stood onto his feet. "Did reality come crash down too quickly?" Tanya hits him lightly before she smiles as she turns to face him, completely.

"Give me a chance, Harry." Her arms come up and wrap around his shoulder slightly. "It's been difficult for me to let myself believe that not only could I love you, but I could be worthy of your love."

A very concerned expression came to Harry as he places his hands on her waist again. "You have always been worthy of love, Tanya...and mine shouldn't matter any more than the others." She gave a nod to him before a faint smile.

"I know, but none of them have ever loved me like you."

Just as Harry wanted to lean and kiss the woman for yet another time that day; A knock came on the man's office door. It was already three pm, and he had a meeting with another client.

"I guess that is the queue to separate before we are fucking like rabbits on the leather chair." Harry's brow raised at what the woman had said.

"Was that ever an option?"

"Well, you won't know now..." Tanya answers before she leans to kiss the man quickly, just until she pulls away from him. "Maybe next time I'm in town."

"You're leaving?"

Tanya makes her way over to the man's desk to grab her purse off it. "I've got a trip to take, old friends to see." Harry knew what that meant but never dared ask about the group.

"How long?"

"A week or so...and then I want to pick this back up." As she saunters through the room toward the door. Harry digs his glasses out of the pocket of his jacket.

"If I don't hear from you by then, I'm coming after you."

He says so boldly as he places the black matte rectangular framed glasses back on his face. Following behind the woman when she got near him again to lead her out.

"Is that something you want to do; Chase me around the world just to make love to me?"

"It wouldn't be the first time I've chased a woman."

Tanya's brow arched before she chuckled at that. "Oh, you just are full of surprises." She says just to take the handle of the door to turn the item for her exit. If she didn't make the distance between Harry then she might regret not giving in to him completely; Though the question ate at her as she had open the door slightly.

"W-why didn't you chase me?"

Harry pressed the door shut and leans down to rest his head on her neck. His body was pressed; against her back as he stood directly behind Tanya.

"Because you told me not to, and I obeyed."

Tanya closed her eyes in the realization that it was always what the man had done. "Then I need you to do something for me, and I need you to wait...wait for me a little longer." Harry presses his lips to her neck before he leans up off the woman.

"I'll wait, one week...and then I'm coming after you."

Her head turns back to look at the man before she pressed her lips together. "Promises, promise." She simply replies before she moved out of the door and left for her next adventure.

With a vow in her heart to return for something more than she could ever have thought she would have.