A/N: This is basically the setup for the story and it's REALLY boring! Enjoy!
He was her husband's best friend. They were roommates in college. They spent a lot of time together. Although she was very happy with her husband, she couldn't help but notice the tension between her and Chandler. She was lost when she looked in his deep blue eyes. She felt butterflies in her stomach every time he looked at her and he talked to her. But she controlled herself. She knew she must be imagining things, maybe it was just the commitment phobia that was coming back to haunt her! She couldn't ruin her marriage. She just couldn't!
And then she got pregnant. And then, he left. Chandler did. He said he wanted a better life and that he always wanted to go to Europe. So he moved to France and she never heard from him again... Until now...
Since then, a lot had happened in her life. She had Madeline. It was the happiest day of her life. But, apparently, God thought she had enough happiness. After 3 or 4 years, her marriage started to go downhill. She and Steve were constantly fighting over little things. But they stayed together. They stayed for Madeline's sake, because they both loved her very much. Until they couldn't take it anymore. When Madeline was 11 years old they decided that she could understand a divorce.
Madeline didn't know exactly what was happening. Her time with her father was limited to two weekends a month now. He remarried. He didn't even ask for her permission! He just did it! But Madeline wasn't mad at him or anything. She just wanted to spend time with her father.
When Madeline was 13 years old, her mother got a job in New York. She could have her own restaurant there. And now Madeline had to face a very hard decision: to move with her mother to New York, or to stay in Boston with her father and his wife. She chose her mother. When he heard that, Steve got very angry, and for the first time in 2 years after the divorce, he faced his ex-wife. He had a huge fight with her and he told her that she was putting ideas in their daughter's head. He said, in the rush of the moment, that he didn't want to be part of Madeline's life anymore. That night the daughter and the mother cried themselves to sleep, holding each other. The next day, they were on a plane to New York.
Their life was now stabilizing. They were living in a beautiful apartment in the Village and everything seemed to go just fine.
Until that night, the night Madeline gave Monica that little piece of paper that brought back all the memories she was trying so hard to forget...