Chris stood frozen, looking at him. She could see he meant it; she could see he was also a little defeated. What was actually minutes as they stood there, felt like seconds as he dropped her hands gently and reached for his helmet.
"I," She spoke and then stopped. The words 'I want you back in my life too' were what she wanted to say, but she was also scared to say that. To give him false hope. She had made a commitment to try things with another man. A good man, a man she had quickly developed big feelings for…. then this… a bombshell that again left her broken and confused.

"I'm trying. That's why I asked you to talk to me tonight. I wanted my friend back too."
"Right." He whispered. 'Friend'. He swallowed hard and looked back up at her. "I know I've over stepped and said too much. Stuff I can't take back. I know I've made you upset again. I'm sorry. I just want to be honest with you." She nodded but didn't meet his eyes. "I understand if you decide we can't be friends. If your decision that we are teammates, and nothing more still stands I will honour that. But I'm gunna go. Give you space. I'm sorry Chris, just," he paused as he slid on his helmet and straddled his bike. "Don't push me away again please."
As his bike started and he rode away, she felt the tears fall. She stood on the spot covering her face shuddering a little.

"What the hell just happened?" She whispered to herself. She glanced up to her apartment, knowing she should go back inside, clean up and call Jared like she promised. But standing in that parking lot trying to process all of that she had no idea what to do next. She stared at the road that he vanished onto moments ago and felt her heart crack a little. She had no idea he still wanted a relationship with her. She had never expected him to come to that realisation. She was so sure he was happy with Molly, and that their relationship was going to last. That pushed her to move on and find happy without him, and now this, this was a bombshell that she was completely unsure what to do with.
Slowly, she willed her feet to move, to carry her upstairs and back inside. She stood looking at his beer bottle, sitting on the table. It made her sad. Sad for their friendship. How could they move forward after that? How was she not supposed to push him away? She then felt angry. Angry that he would do this to her. Now. After she finally thought she had shit worked out. She snatched up the beer bottle and threw it aggressively in the trash. Hearing it shatter as it hit another glass bottle startled her a little, and she grimaced knowing her heart felt the same.
After about 20 minutes of staring at the wall, and pacing back and forth, she flopped onto the bed. She was lost in her thoughts, trying to decipher what her heart and head were telling her. It was her phone ringing that snapped her out of it. She sat up and grabbed it off the nightstand. It was Jared. The video call button blinked at her as she looked at her own reflection in the mirror of the wardrobe. "Shit" she muttered. Cleaning off her smudged mascara with a tissue.

"Hi!" She said with the biggest smile and not a hint of her tears and turmoil.

"Hey there," Jared smiled back at her. He was carrying his phone and walking around what must be his house. "I was missing you." He smiled a little coy.

That made Chris smile even more and blush a little. "I'm missing you too." She glanced down and rubbed her lips together. Why did he always make her so nervous? "How was the drive?" She managed.

"Oh, you know, pretty ordinary really." He seemed to sit down on a sofa as he placed the phone where she could see him and continued. "I didn't know what time you were going to call so I just thought I'd take a leap and…" Chris glanced up at the clock on the wall and it was almost 10:30pm. 'Shit' she muttered she had lost track of time after Street left,

"Sorry, I, ah, meant to, didn't mean to leave it this late," she said fumbling,

"It's okay, you're here now." He smiled.

"It's nice to hear your voice again and see you… even if you are 500miles away." Chris added with a hint of sadness in her voice.

"I know, one day at a time remember. We got this." His voice was so soothing and calming and she wished that she could just close her eyes and listen to him all day. "So, tell me, how did your talk with Street go?"

Chris swallowed hard and dropped her gaze as she thought about what to say. She remembered her words to Jared about being upfront and honest, so with a deep breath she began.

"Things, ah, took a different turn to what I was expecting, and it has really thrown me a bit,"

"Oh, really? Are you okay?" He asked, picking up a little hint of something in her voice and seeing the way she didn't look at the camera as she said it.

"Yes and no, just not sure how to help him move forward right now. I don't know what to tell him, and I usually have the BEST advice." She added sarcastically trying to laugh it off.

It made Jared chuckle slightly as he watched her, but something in all of that worried him. His gut told him there was more there. He wasn't sure whether he should push her for details or just try and distract her.

"Do you wanna tell me about it?" He asked. Chris looked up at the phone, at him sitting there watching her. He was so patient, so sweet, so understanding. She really didn't want to stuff things up by not telling him, but she was terrified of what it might mean, what he might do. What if it changed things and she lost him? She licked her bottom lip and traced her teeth slightly before she answered him.

"I, I was expecting him to need girl advice about his girlfriend Molly."

"Right the Commanders daughter." He chimed in,

"Yeah." Chris nodded, "But,"

"But?" He prompted gently.

"He um, he had already dumped her."

"Ohhhhh," Jared said sitting back a bit surprised. Suddenly his head filled with thoughts of why Street would dump his girlfriend and then want to see Chris so badly. Did he dump Molly for Chris? Jared asked himself in his head. He hated that he even thought that. The jealousy that surged through him was hard to ignore, but he took a deep breath and listened as she continued.

"So, I tried to talk to him about how to fix it, maybe it wasn't too late, thinking that now he had realised what he had done."

"Okay? and?" Jared's heart was racing as he sat listening to her trying to walk him through what happened. Chris knew this part, telling Jared all about what Street had said, would be a massive decline in their call tonight. It had the chance to ruin things. For it to turn into him pulling away or getting upset or anything really. She was scared as hell but knew she needed to be strong and just explain it to him.

"Okay, so, back when I was stuck in that rut, Street really tried to help me. I was so angry and annoyed with myself for letting myself get there to begin with though that I just exploded all our conversations into arguments and was a bitch to him again. Once I realised that, I knew I needed to apologise. I tried to explain to him before I left to go to Virginia, that I was going to put my time and energy into focusing on me, what makes me happy. Try to rebuild my life, you know… it was a speech to myself really, but still."

"Okay, I'm still following,"

"He basically, he used my speech about going after what I want and getting my happy back, to rationalise leaving Molly."