She jumped slightly at the sound of the knock on the door. She was the one that had given Ted the week off, and it had been her that had sent him the e-mail. His arrival in her office this morning shouldn't have come as a surprise. Still, his presence caught her off guard. Now, the sight of him made her feel flustered all over again and the thick wool jacket that had felt cozy mere moments ago now felt impossibly smothering.

Her legs trembled a bit as she stood and let the jacket fall from her shoulders before laying it across the chair. "Good morning," she managed. "You want some coffee or water or …" She let her eyes move over towards the table.

Billy smiled. "No." He held up the cup in his hand. "I'm good."

The heat rushed to her face once again. "Right." She forced an uncomfortable laugh. "Of course, you already have coffee and you obviously don't need anything and …" She was rambling and if it was obvious to her, she was certain he'd noticed as well.

"I got your email." His voice was soft – friendly, but not overly so. His eyes were wary, his movements hesitant.

She couldn't blame him. This wasn't an ideal position for either of them. "Yeah," she said quietly as she made her way back to her desk. "I wanted to talk to you before the New Year started, before we had full staff back in here." She could feel her hands begin to shake a bit and she silently cursed herself. It had never been like this with them. There had always been an ease, an acceptance, an understanding. She slowly opened the desk drawer and immediately found the soft velvet box.

"I know we were supposed to have a meeting regarding the marketing pitch …"

His eyes fell instantly. "Oh. I just thought that …" He straightened, determined to salvage the little dignity that he might have left. "I mean since Kyle isn't here, I just assumed that …"

"We were supposed to have the marketing meeting," she repeated, "but that's not what this is about." She walked from behind the desk again, moving towards the sofa to sit down closer to him. "It's about this."

His eyes were fixed on the box in her hands. "What about that?"

She opened her mouth to speak, but his words stopped her.

"Wait. Don't tell me. Let me guess. You told Sir Nick that they were a gift from me and he wasn't comfortable with you keeping them, right?"

"I didn't tell Nick anything." The words were out of her mouth before she realized the gravity of the admission.

"You didn't tell him?" His eyes lit up a bit.

"I didn't see the point. There's no reason for him to know they were a gift especially when I'm not going to be keeping them." She placed the box on the sofa beside her. "I appreciate the thought, Billy. I really do and the earrings are beautiful, but I can't keep them … not with the way things are now."

He blinked. "What does that even mean? They're just earrings. What am I going to do with them? I bought them for you. You said you liked them. There's no reason for you not to wear them and enjoy them and maybe even use them to remember that we …" He stopped as he saw her eyes shift. "That's it, isn't it?" The eyes that usually shone bright – whether it be with excitement, love, joy, or anger, weren't bright today. His touch was still hesitant, but also gentle as he brushed her hand. "Phyllis," he whispered. "That's it?"

"You really want to hear me say it? Fine. Yeah, I don't want to think about it. I don't want to look at them and remember that, even though things ended really horribly, there were moments that …"

"Were magic." He let his hand linger on hers, his heart racing when she didn't pull away. He reached up to touch her face, his fingertips slowly descending down her neck to trace her collarbone. "There were more good times than bad, weren't there?" He could feel her breath, the warm flush of her skin. He knew she was fighting the pull, just as she was.

"There were," she conceded, "But Billy, we …"

"We messed up. I messed up bad. I know I did a horrible, horrible thing and if I could take it back …"

"You can't."

"I know."

"It wasn't just that." She searched his eyes. There was so much sincerity there, so much love. It would be so easy to …

"I know. It was the gambling too. I lied to you and …"

"No. I mean it wasn't just you. It was me too. I slept with Nick. I hurt you. I betrayed you and …"

"I hurt you back. We hurt each other. It was senseless and thoughtless and … but it's over now … at least for me it is, but you and Nick …" He didn't want to ask, but he had to. "What are you doing with him? Do you love him? Are you serious about him? Are the two of you gonna …?"

"I care about Nick. You know that. I always will. It's easy with him. We get each other. We have fun, but it's different. It's not … we're not … Nick isn't …" She met his eyes once again and suddenly it became clear. "He's not you."

"And he never will be." Billy waited a moment before continuing. He didn't want to push her, but in this moment, a push might be exactly what she needed. "You said you wanted to talk to me before the New Year. I'm glad you did because there's nothing else I'd rather do than start this year out with the woman I love. I can't promise you that it'll be perfect. I'm not perfect. " He ran his hand across his chest once more. "But I can promise it'll make your heart race."

She smiled finally and brought her hand to cover his. "You've always been able to deliver on that," she breathed. "And you may not be perfect, but I think you might be perfect for me."

"You still think that?" There was a part of him that was afraid she'd change her mind or worse, that this was her greatest revenge yet, her best chance to get back at him and that any moment, she'd laugh, and jerk all of this away.

"I do," she whispered. "When you love someone, they become your whole word and God help me … no matter how hard I've tried, I can't seem to stop loving you."

"Stop trying, okay?, would you?" Her tiny nod was all the encouragement he needed.

The warmth of her body grew ever closer as he leaned towards her, his lips hovering just above hers.

"Wait," she whispered. She heard and felt his frustrated sigh and she struggled to maintain her serious demeanor.

"What?" he sighed desperately. "What's wrong? Is it Nick?" He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his cell. "I'll call him right now. We'll wrap this up."

"It's not about Nick," she said quickly. "I'll handle that." She pulled back further. "It's just … maybe we should wait …until New Years. You said we could start the New Year off with …"

It was the look of pure torment on his face that broke her, his pitiful eyes were the final straw that sent her dissolving into a fit of laughter.

She had a smile on her face as he pulled her to him, a smile that remained as he kissed her passionately and ran his fingers through her hair. The smile still beamed as he finally pulled away and looked into her eyes once more.

"Don't you worry," he whispered, his hands now cradling her face. "I have a much, much better way for us to ring in the New Year."