"He broke off the engagement with Mindy? Are…are you sure?" Holly asked.
"...yes," Gilly said, clearly trying very hard to suppress the "you idiot" at the end of that sentence.
She kept talking but Holly had stopped paying attention. Her head was spinning and she didn't know what to do.
Finally, Holly stood up and said, "I'm taking the rest of the day off. Probably tomorrow, too" and walked past a very stunned Gilly.
Roger was already off the phone but she could see him in his office. She walked over and knocked on the open door.
"Do you have a minute?" she asked.
"Sure, come on in," he said, barely looking up from the paperwork he was doing. She closed the door and leaned against it.
He waited a few seconds and then looked up. "Are we…playing that game where the first person to talk loses? If so, you need to tell me before it starts."
It broke the tension and she laughed. "No. You're horrible at that game."
"Then what's on your mind?"
"I heard about you and Mindy. I'm sorry. And I'm sorry for most of what I said to you the last time we talked. I was angry and a lot of it was unfair. I…I think we hurt each other a lot of the time and I don't want to keep doing that."
"I don't want to have this discussion here."
"I understand. Do you maybe want to come over tonight? I took the rest of the day off."
"Sure," he said. "We can go now then."
They took separate cars and once they arrived, he went to sit down and she got them drinks.
"If we're going to do this, we need to actually do it," Holly said. "We need to be honest with each other; we're not usually good at that but we were able to do it that night. So…why did you break off the engagement?"
"Mindy was right the first time; we wouldn't work out. She's sweet but so young and…I wasn't thinking. I care about her, but I don't love her. I know I told you I did, but she was just a distraction. I think we could've maybe been happy together, but…Acapulco."
"I think that Ross and I could have been happy, too. But Acapulco."
"I've never loved anyone the way I love you. I know we've got so much history to work through and I don't know if we even CAN get past everything that's happened. But I want to try."
"I want to apologize for the plan with Alex. I had my reasons for doing it, but it was so wrong of me. And I'm sorry for what I said when I told you I knew that you and Mindy were engaged. I was cruel and I don't want to be that person anymore. I made hating you my entire personality and I'm so tired of fighting."
He shook his head. "Don't apologize to me. Our history was all my fault. I was horrible to you. I cheated on you, I hurt you and I raped you. I undermined you with Chrissy. I took everything I could. I did all of it. You were so young and I just hurt you over and over."
"WE were so young," Holly said. "We didn't know what we were doing and I think we just reached a point where it felt like neither of us wanted to be the one to give; it would have felt like losing. But maybe we can do better now. I think we can. I hope we can."
They just looked at each other for a minute and then he kissed her.
"I don't deserve this," Roger said.
"You don't deserve someone loving you?"
Roger's eyes widened. "You…?"
Holly didn't mean to say it and wasn't particularly happy she had, but she didn't take it back. "I do. Since we're being completely honest now."
"Then I don't deserve you loving me."
The look on his face broke Holly's heart. She reached out and stroked his cheek. "It's true either way. And I don't want you talking like that about someone I love."
She stood up and took his hand. "C'mon. I think we've bared our souls enough for one day."
"Second best offer I've had all day."
