Carly stared into the foggy mirror, taking in her reflection and mentally psyching herself up. The shower had left her feeling refreshed as well as given her some time to think. Irrationality had been washed down the drain and she now knew avoidance would only make things worse, she needed to talk to Freddie.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Her mind wandered back to their interaction earlier. Freddie had been ok, she reminded herself. In fact - if his dumb comment when he had caught her walking across the room naked was anything to go by - he was much more then just ok. Her fears were, possibly, unfounded.

There was only one way to find out.

She gave herself a quick nod and headed towards the door, opening it with a confidence she definitely didn't possess.

The sight which greeted her was the opposite of the one she had left. The room was now clean and tidy, all evidence had been removed. Her discarded clothes had been folded and placed on top of her luggage. Wrappers had found their way to the trash can, the curtains were open and the bed made.

On the edge of the bed was Freddie, now dressed in yesterday's jeans and a fresh polo top. He was perched there mindlessly scrolling through his phone, clearly waiting for her. Brooke had not yet reappeared from the hotel's breakfast buffet downstairs.

When he heard the bathroom door open Freddie looked up from his phone and threw Carly a questioning look.

"Feeling better?" He asked.

A guilty sigh left Carly's mouth, of course Freddie would be here loyally waiting for her to calm down. She locked eyes with him and nodded.

"Sorry, was feeling a little overwhelmed."

Conversation between the two of them didn't pick up and flow naturally like usual and after a moment of awkward glances they both looked away. Carly remained standing in the doorway, her hands behind her back, fidgeting with the door handle. Her mind raced as she struggled to think of what to say next.

It was Freddie who broke the silence first.

"We have to talk, you know." He reached across the bed to place his phone down on the bedside table and focussed all his attention on her. "Ignoring it won't make things any easier. We don't have to talk right now, but let me know when you're ready."

Sometimes Carly would forget that they are adults now. It was easy to get caught up in childhood friendships and ignore how much the years had made them change. This wasn't one of those moments.

Damn, when did he go and grow up? Not that he had ever been particularly childish, but Carly was taken aback by the sight of him, waiting for her. He had become a strong, kind and patient man. If she was being completely honest with herself, he was rather attractive too, but perhaps that was just some lingering feelings from the night before talking.

"No time like the present I suppose." Carly stated, swallowing her fear.

"Only if you want to," Freddie reminded.

Carly shrugged, removing her hands from where they were still fidgeting with the door handle and shoving them inside her back pockets. "The drive home will be pretty weird if we don't."

Freddie pet the edge of the bed, inviting her to come and join him. She crossed the room in silence and took a seat, grabbing a cushion from the pile of pillows to rest on her lap.

They looked at each other hesitantly. Both knew this conversation was bound to change their existing dynamic in one way or another. After a few seconds, which felt like a lifetime, both began to talk at the same time.

"Last night was…"

"I don't know if…"

They laughed, the remaining tension in the room dissipating.

Carly gestured towards Freddie. "You go first."

Freddie nodded. "Is it too cheesy if I say thanks?" He asked, giving her a cheeky grin, "because, well, it was pretty good and now I can tick threesome off my bucket list. Sooo, thanks?"

Carly slapped at his arm playfully. "I can't say it was ever on mine!" she retorted.

He raised an eyebrow at her and teased back. "You jumped at the opportunity way too quickly for me to believe that."

"I'm telling the truth" she grumbled.

"Sure. " He gave her a knowing look.

"But," Freddie continued, his voice quickly taking on a much more serious tone, "I can also acknowledge that both of us are moving on from relationships at the moment."

Freddie was right. Carly had immediately fixated on him, his divorce and the implications that sleeping together had on his ability to move on. Now she realised that she had focused on him, because it was much easier than attempting to analyse her own feelings and consequent actions.

Freddie reached across her lap and took one of her hands in his. He rested their hands on top of her cushion, which she had been subconsciously picking at until that moment.

He added, "I think that both of us are feeling pretty lonely at the moment. Dating hasn't exactly been successful. Suddenly an opportunity arose to water a dry spell and we both went for it."

Carly gave a self conscious laugh, acknowledging the reality that, yep, they really had slept together, and, it seemed a lot of it stemmed from the fact that both of them were missing intimacy in their lives right now.

All at once the touch of Freddie's skin on hers was too much, she removed her hand from within Freddie's grasp and used it to rub at her face.

"Oh my god, you're right! I haven't been with anyone since Beau dumped me."

"Hey, if you think that's bad, I haven't done it since Gwen!" His faux shocked face transitioned to one of slight embarrassment "that's over a year."

"Awww, we were each other's firsts" Carly sarcastically quipped.

Freddie grinned at her, happy to discover that teasing each other hadn't suddenly become taboo.

"I don't know," he laughed. "From where I was it sort of looked like Brooke was your first. Guess it depends on how technical you want to get."

Brooke had had absolutely no idea of the situation she was creating when she had first suggested a threesome the night before. And, unlike the two of them, she had been able to walk away this morning without a second thought. Carly envied her.

Freddie took hold of Carly's hand again. He set it down with her palm facing up and began tracing patterns across it. Carly closed her eyes and focused on the sensation, enjoying just being with Freddie. They settled into a comfortable silence.

After a moment Freddie stopped his dance across her hand and quietly asked "can I admit something?" His confidence from earlier had disappeared.

Carly waited for him to continue, but he remained quiet. Realising he needed a little encouragement she spoke up.

"Go for it."

"I keep forgetting that Brooke was there, all I can think about is you."

He gazed at her, eyes intense. Carly promptly looked away, a light blush creeping across her cheeks.

Suddenly, he decided to go for it and tell her the true extent of his thoughts.

"At the risk of making a total fool of myself I have another admission to make." He looked down at their hands, still joined on top of the cushion and took a deep breath.

"I want to have sex with you again."

His voice sounded impressively calm considering the way his insides were jumping all over the place. "Just you." he emphasised

Carly's mouth fell open in shock. Shock at his words, but also shock at her own response to them. Relief washed over her and a slight tingle of excitement built between her legs. She would definitely need to take some time to assess her own reaction because she had not thought about Freddie this way in a very long time.

But, her heart started to race and butterflies were gathering in her stomach. She hadn't realised how much she had wanted to hear Freddie say that until the words had left his mouth.

She knew she needed to join him out on the ledge he had climbed up on and before she had a chance to register the words in her mind they fell from her lips.

"That might be something I could be open to."

It was now Freddie's turn to stare at her, dumbstruck with his jaw dropped.

"Wait, wh-what?" he stuttered.

"I said might," she teased, "and not right now."

"I'm sitting here," she continued, "suddenly trying to work through a whole bunch of feelings I didn't know I had a day ago. Right now hooking up with you is incredibly tempting and I need to work out if that temptation is linked to real feelings, or, if I'm just feeling lonely and you're an easy opportunity to make me feel loved."

Freddie nodded, understanding exactly what she meant.

"Freddie, you mean way too much to me to use you like that."

"We both need time to think," he agreed. "Make sure any decision we make is for the right reason."

Freddie's fingers resumed tracing the lines along Carly's palm and she watched their path as she spoke.

"You know how much I love you. You're family and I wouldn't be able to handle jeopardizing that."

"What do we do then?" he asked. He removed his hand from hers and shifted himself away from her, giving himself some room to think. Carly mirrored him.

"What if," Carly began after a moment. "We just wait to continue this conversation once one of us has an answer?"

Freddie's stomach sank. It was a long time ago, but they had tried that once before.

Back when they were still kids and Freddie had jumped in front of a taco truck they had agreed to talk about a relationship after any possible hero worship had subsided and that conversation had simply never happened. Freddie had felt as though he was walking on eggshells around her for almost a year as they both avoided the topic. The only thing that had mended them was time.

They were adults now, and they might be able to handle the same situation very differently, but he didn't want to risk it. Both of them could be very skilled at avoiding things.

"No" Freddie shook his head. "There's too much room to avoid the conversation entirely. We need to make sure we talk, even if we know we are going to disappoint each other."

He paused, turning his suggestion over in his mind one last time.

"We could take things super slow, test the waters, go on a couple of dates."

"Slow?" Carly asked. "Says the man with two wives before 30!"

"It'll be super casual" Freddie defended "And we can both agree that either one of us can call it off at any time, no hard feelings."

"It forces us to talk if we realise we don't want to pursue anything, and it forces us to talk if we realise we do…" Carly thought out loud as she considered his suggestion.

"Just a couple of casual dates," Freddie reinforced. " And we keep things strictly above the belt unless we decide a relationship is what we want."

"Ok." A small smirk pulled at Carly's lips.

"Ok." Freddie repeated.

They both smiled at each other as Freddie reached towards her. His hand rested below her chin and he tilted it upwards.

He waited a moment, giving her the opportunity to pull away, before closing the distance between them and lightly caught her mouth with his. Her eyes closed and they stayed put for just a moment before separating.

Glancing back at him Carly let a shy smile cross her face. Suddenly, she felt incredibly at ease.

"You do realise Millicent will never call you mom" Freddie joked.

Carly rolled her eyes at him and said something under her breath about taking things slow that he couldn't quite hear before she teased him back.

"I sure hope you aren't proposing marriage right now, Freddie Benson."