"I thought I smelled honeysuckle when we were in the coffee shop." Amanda smiled when they sat down on a bench near a bush filled with yellow blossoms. She thought a walk in the park would stretch out her calf muscle which cramped up earlier, but after walking only five or so minutes it started to act up again. She asked Billy if they could sit down for a minute.

"Let me see your leg?" Billy gestured with his hand.

Amanda stretched her leg out in front of her. Billy patted his thigh, "Put it here."

"For a more thorough examination I suppose Doctor Abbott? You looked at my leg earlier."

"I played about four different sports, I may not be a doctor, but I know what I'm talking about when it comes to cramps and pulled muscles. Put your leg here."

Amanda complied turning sideways on the bench so her legs were on Billy's lap.

"I'll never understand why women torture themselves with these contraptions." He took off her heels and placed them on the bench next to him.

"Says the guy who is like seven feet tall..." Amanda stopped talking and almost gasped when Billy ran his hands up and down her legs. Not just the one that was injured. Both of them! Her skin tingled and her entire body came alive and felt all sparkly under his touch. Then his long fingers dug into the flesh where she had the cramp, massaging the muscles.

"Oh my that does feel good," she practically moaned.

"I told you, I know what I'm talking about," Billy said with a smirk, his attention focused on massaging her legs.

"Sooo this is a really beautiful park," she said, trying to start a casual conversation to quell the tiny ache of arousal she was starting to feel as Billy continued the massage. She chastised herself. He was just being nice. "Thank you for bringing me here. I'll come here to do my work sometimes. Seems befitting since I feel I'm working on Katherine Chancellor's behalf."

"No comment," Billy said. Now he was massaging the healthy leg, not that Amanda was going to complain, of course. The man had magic in his fingers and she couldn't keep her mind from wandering.

Billy's phone rang. He reached into his breast pocket retrieving his cell while one hand remained on her legs. From his side of the conversation Amanda could tell he was talking to his mother. How awkward! Amanda thought about removing her legs from his lap, but Billy kept up his therapeutic massage-with one hand-and she could not bring herself to move away. After a few minutes, he ended the call.

"My mother and Devon are scrambling to get in touch with Tucker's acquaintances." Billy had both hands back on her now and it felt so good. "They also contacted everyone else who had been mentioned in the will. All leads turned up empty. They are trying to figure out who could possibly be contesting Katherine's last wishes and don't believe it's Chance. Not that I'm getting involved in any of this or taking sides. In fact that is the last thing I'm going to say. Now I'm out of it."

"Right, you're Switzerland," Amanda said.

"I'm not taking sides. I like you and I like Devon. Of course I like you in a completely different way."

"Really, in what kind of a way do you like me?"

Billy smiled. The conversation was going in the right direction. She friendzoned him last night, but today was a new day. They were both sober and he had his hands on her soft, smooth gorgeous legs. Her skirt had risen to mid thigh. "First of all," he started to say when her phone rang. She swung her legs away from him so she could rummage through her bag. She pulled out her phone and looked at the caller. "Billy, excuse me, I have to take this. It's my friend and she's been worried about me since last night."

Carefully hiding his disappointment that their intimate moment was interrupted, he nodded and stood. "Alright. Sounds good. I'll be right back," he said and left Amanda to her conversation. When he returned about fifteen minutes later, he had two ice cream cones.

"Vanilla ice cream with sprinkles. How did you guess, this was my favorite?" She beamed accepting the cone from him. She was finished with her conversation and her shoes were back on.

"You told me last night. You said the only vanilla you liked was on top of a cone."

"Ugh," Amanda groaned."I cannot believe I said those things to your face. If a hole in the ground opened up right now. I'd dive right it in. I am SO embarrassed."

"Don't be. You didn't hurt my feelings. I thought you were adorable actually. You let me know your reservations in regards to going out on a date with me. I had to respect that."

"Were you asking?"

"I didn't get around to it. You cut me off at the pass."

"So how did we end up in bed, if I was voicing all of these objections?"

"It's a funny story actually," Billy said and reflected back to the night before. It started out as probably one of the worst nights of his life. All he wanted to do was to take a drive so he could think. He didn't know where he wanted to go, but one thing he knew for sure was that he did not want to be around Victoria. They didn't have a fight exactly, but they exchanged words and were most definitely done. He told her she stifled him and she said he would never measure up to her true hero, Victor Newman.

His entire life was in shambles. His career was nonexistent and his relationship with Victoria was over. Then somehow, randomly, he found himself in a part of town he never visited in front of a dive bar. He went inside thinking he'd have a drink and go home-as in the Abbott family home.

But then he saw her.

Like his mother and Devon he was surprised to come in contact with an exact replica of Hilary, but he wasn't shocked beyond belief or on the verge of fainting. They looked alike, but so what? He'd known more than one set of identical twins who he could not tell apart. And he knew Hilary was gone, so she had to be someone completely different. She said her name was Kim, she asked him for ID, he bought her a drink and that's around when the lights went out. Everyone had their cellphones out and was using them for light when the police arrived saying they were requesting everyone stay indoors for the duration of the storm, which might be for hours.

"You're married?" Amanda interrupted the story.

"No, committed, now separated."

"Only since last night?"

"Yes. Do you want to know what else happened?"

"I'm bracing myself to be royally embarrassed but proceed," Amanda waved her hand giving him the go ahead as she continued to enjoy her ice cream cone.

At first the bar was silent as everyone was listening to the wind howl outside until the owner announced that drinks were on the house. The place went crazy. There were about 30 patrons in the bar and someone offered a playlist they had saved on their phone for music. Candles were placed on tables. The festive atmosphere returned and was even buoyed by a sense of camaraderie. By the time the lights came back on later, everyone in the bar was pretty much hammered. Billy offered to call a cab for Kim, but she said she couldn't remember her address. Then the police came back and said the road he needed to take to get home was impassable due to a fallen tree. The bar was closing and it was still raining outside. Billy wasn't sure what to do, so he found a nearby motel and took Kim there. They were both wet from the rain, so he gave her the t-shirt he was wearing which had remained dry.

"But you surely had on more than a t-shirt when you came to the bar," Amanda interrupted Billy's narrative again. "What happened to your outer shirt? Why were you naked from the waist up this morning?"

"I'm getting to that," Billy stated. "If you'll let me finish the story.

"Okay...Okay…" Amanda fell silent again.

Billy had every intention of leaving her in the motel room alone. But every time he tried to leave, she would follow him to the door saying she was coming with him.

"Oh God, I remember that." Amanda slapped a hand to her cheek as the as the image of herself running around Billy's t-shirt surfaced,

"Billy don't go, you just got here," she said and dissolved into giggles.

"I've been trying to leave for the last hour, Kim. We both had way too much to drink. I shouldn't be here. This is not a good idea"

She stood on her tip toes and wrapped her arms around his neck. "But you have sucha cute dimple. You can go, leave the dimple here with me." More giggles. "You're in really good shape," she pressed against him and felt his bicep. "Oohhh you're so strong."

"Geez," Billy swept his eyes skyward in exasperation and walked her back to the bed while she still clung to him. "You need to sleep this off. I shouldn't have let you drink so much. You told me you weren't a light weight."

"How much do you weigh?" She was feeling his shoulders now. "How tall are you? You're so tall and handsome, if you weren't a white guy, I'd totally..."

"Enough," Billy said before he started to laugh too.

"So first I go on an anti-white man rant, then I throw myself at you. Oh My God. Where are holes in the ground when you need one. I've never been so humiliated in my life. I guess I drank so much because of the storm and the free drinks and I was nervous about today too."

"We were talking and having a good time like everyone else in the bar who was riding out the storm. Don't worry about it. It was funny."

"You still haven't told me what happened to your shirt."

"You threw up on it so I had to rinse it out in the sink."

"Oh my God," Amanda moaned and reached for her pocketbook to look for her wallet. "This just gets worse and worse. I'll replace the shirt, pay for dry cleaning and the motel room. How much can I give you?"

"Don't worry about it."

"I made a complete nuisance out of myself. I insulted you in how many different ways?"

"It wasn't that bad. In fact, I should be thanking you."

"How do you figure? It sounds like I was a royal pain in the ass."

Billy gazed at her thoughtfully for a moment. He told her his entire story last night as they were getting plastered. And he wasn't sure how he felt now that she could barely remember any of it. He debated what he should share in the light of day now that they were both sober. "I was in such a bad state last night before I met you," he said deciding to be completely honest. "If I didn't have you to talk to and then take care of, I don't know what I would have done. I was so grateful. But when I woke up and realized you had run out on me, I was disappointed that I was not able to thank you for what you did for me. As fate would have it, here's my second chance. So thank you."

Amanda didn't respond right away, diverting her eyes away from him instead gazing at a family picnicking in the park. "Well, I'm glad my shenanigans were good for something. And thank you for taking care of me. You could have taken advantage but you didn't. You're a good person, Billy Abbott."

"No, I'm not actually not a good person. That's why I'm currently separated. But I do have some boundaries"

"Well, you're alright with me." Amanda bumped her elbow against his in a gesture that reminded him of the friendship box she'd put him in.

"For a white man?" Billy cocked an eyebrow at her and chuckled at the abashed look on her face."You know what I was wondering?"

"What's that?"

"Is your middle name at least Kim?"

"Nope."

"So I have to get used to calling you Amanda."

"I'm afraid so."

"You give me a false name but then had the gall to ask me for ID." He stood and offered her his arm.

She shrugged before she rose from the bench entwining her arm with his and they continued to walk through the park. He smiled down at her "You were really good with keeping your identity a secret. You even said your name was Kim when you got up on a table and sang that Chaka Khan song."

"Oh crap. I vaguely, vaguely recall that".

"You weren't half bad." They strolled by a vine covered gazebo that was often used as a bandstand during outdoor summer concerts.

"That was some night. But I made such a fool of myself, maybe it's a blessing I don't fully remember."

Her not remembering put them in an odd place. He was basically still a stranger to her, but he felt that they were more. Maybe one day she would remember. An alternative was to create new memories. "Hey, there's a little independent movie theater near here that shows old classic films," he said. "If you're not doing anything, do you want to see if they're playing something interesting?"

"You're not working today? Going into an office?"

"I'm in between gigs right now."

"Okay then, but let the movie be my treat since I ruined your shirt."

"How about you spring for the popcorn."

"Oh alright, but I am going to pay you back for the shirt and the excellent leg massage. I pay all of my debts."

"Maybe one day I'll think of something you can do for me. Since we're going to be neighbors maybe I'll stop by to borrow a cup of sugar. So make sure you always have some extra on hand just in case." He winked at her and Amanda blushed. Her reaction pleased him. His goal right now, one of them anyway, was to escape the friendzone as quickly as possible, but not so fast that he alarmed her.

"Wait a minute, you'd drag all the way from 3303 Humpton Road to the Grand Phoenix for a cup of sugar?"

"You don't remember throwing up on me, but you remember my address. I'm impressed." Billy laughed. "I've decided to stay at the Grand Phoenix for a while until I figure out next steps. Job and all of that."

When they reached the building a few blocks from the park which housed a combination, bookstore, cafe and movie theater they discovered that a double feature was about to start. Chance Encounter and Strangers on a Train. Without saying a word, they exchanged glances and went inside.