A/N: So I decided against doing the next day and instead did Michael's POV of the night :)

Michael was devastated.

He felt hurt, used, betrayed and not a little angry.

To say that Simon was the last person he wanted to see on his doorstep that evening would have been an understatement. Well, perhaps not the last person, he reflected, having Jim Taggart witness his humiliation would have been pure torture. As it was Michael dreaded having to face him the next morning and explain what happened.

"I'm all ready engaged"

The words had been like a slap in the face. He still couldn't quite wrap his mind around that concept: that he had simply been a fling. She had 'never meant for him to get hurt,' he would love to know how she had planned to pull that off.

Though perhaps the greatest wound had been to his pride, how was he going to able to face everyone tomorrow and explain that he'd not only been rejected but duped? He couldn't believe that after all their history together he still knew so little about her, and she didn't know him at all. How could she think he wouldn't take it seriously?

He eyed the phone that sat nearby, contemplating calling Jackie. He needed someone to talk to and he knew that she would be unfailingly sympathetic. She was a good listener and he could take some comfort in the fact that she knew him and would understand.

That was another thing that had rankled, how Gemma couldn't seem to grasp the fact that he was angry or even understand why he was. How selfish could someone be? he mused.

He had loved her once, had thought he loved her still, but this revelation had caused that love to melt away like snow. He had never loved Gemma, just loved the woman he had thought she was.

Again he eyed to phone, if he had been so mistaken in Gemma was it possible he was mistaken about Jackie as well? He shook the thought away, almost as quickly as it had come. He had seen Jackie at both her best and her worst and found something to admire in her in both states.

He picked up the receiver, perhaps he would call Jackie. He was in desperate need of her understanding and dry humour. He was about to begin typing in her number when he noticed the time.

12:00am.

Probably not the best idea to wake her now, he decided, replacing the receiver. Besides, he didn't want to run the risk of Simon, who was sleeping in the next room, overhearing his conversation. He was essentially a private man, yet another reason to dread going in to work tomorrow and having his private life put on display.

He would talk to Jackie tomorrow, he decided as he climbed into bed.

That decision made he drifted off into a fitful sleep.

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A/N: Well, the title was supposed to refer to the last line of the first chapter but I guess now it's more relevant to what "almost" happened :) ttfn! xo