Ryan Atwood enters the LA County Courthouse and rides the elevator to the fifth floor office he shares with three other guys. Just as he is about to enter the office, he stops, stunned, because sitting in a chair next to his desk is Marissa Cooper.
"Ryan," she says as soon as she sees him. She stands. "The guys went to lunch; they said I could wait for you. I hope you don't mind." He is awestruck. His pulse quickens and his heart beats faster. She is more beautiful than he remembers. Her legs are still long and slender like a thoroughbred's and though she is as slight as ever, there is a fullness to her now that he finds sexy.
"No, no, sit down," he says as he makes his way across the room and sits behind the desk. "It's so nice to see you."
"Is it?" she asks, a feeble smile spreading across her face. "You hung up on me when I called you last week."
He blushes. "Sorry about that, I was just taken aback by what you said."
"That's okay, I should apologize. I probably should have prefaced what I said, even though I meant every word."
"What do you want from me Marissa? An affair? I'm not that kinda guy. I can't have you screwing me in the afternoon and going home to Luke at night. So if that's why you're here, you can forget it."
"No, that's not why I'm here. Look, I don't love Luke anymore, at least not as a wife should," she says, an anguished look on her face. "Don't get me wrong," she adds hastily. "He's a good guy."
"Really," Ryan says then laughs. "You almost killed yourself after he cheated on you with Holly in TJ. Now he's a good guy."
Marissa looks away. After taking a deep breath, she turns to face Ryan. "Yes, he is. Luke has changed. He's a good person. He married me even though my family was broke and disgraced. He financed my father's consulting firm when no one would do business with him. And," she pauses. "He was there for me after you unceremoniously dumped me."
He sighs. He knew this was coming; it always comes back to this. He'd broken up with Marissa because girls like her didn't end up with guys like him. Regardless of how hard he works, he can never provide her with the kind of life she deserves. Someone like Luke, on the other hand, can.
"You and I just weren't meant to be."
"But how do you know that?" Marissa asks leaning forward in the chair.
"I just do." After all, he thinks, his mother abandoned him when he was seventeen; and if your own mother doesn't love you enough to stick around, what other woman would? "And what about your daughter?" he asks as he begins playing with a pen on his desk.
"I've thought about her … a lot. As you know," she begins her voice catching. "I was devastated when my parents divorced." She looks away embarrassed. "It hurt even though I knew my mom didn't love my dad anymore. But I realize now the divorce was for the best. Now my dad has found someone who truly loves him. I don't know what to do Ryan. I want what I want and that's you but I also want to do what's best for everyone else. I definitely don't want to spend the rest of my life wondering what if," Marissa says then looks down at her hands.
Ryan can see her body shaking; he rises, walks over, and places a comforting arm around her shoulders. "What do you want me to do?" he says quietly.
"For now, I just want you to hold me."