A/N: Thanks so much for the reviews and everything, I really appreciate them! I thought this would be a two-parter, but it's stretching itself out. I'm going to try to keep it under 5 chapters, but we'll see. Hope you enjoy and continue to review! :)

"Do you want me to hire her back?"

Chris just had to laugh. Leave it to Stephanie to completely miss the point. She was an incredibly warm, open person, but damn, sometimes, she just could not read people. He was the type who generally wore their heart on their sleeve, leaving every emotion out there, but she still couldn't read him. So much time had passed, but she was still oblivious, and the only response he had at the moment was laughter.

"I don't even get a hello?" he asked her.

"No time for that," she dismissed and he scoffed just a tiny bit. "If it's such a big deal to you, I'll hire her back."

"You really don't get it, do you?" Chris asked her. "It was never about wanting her to be hired back, Stephanie."

"Then what is it?" Stephanie asked. "I can't make it right if I don't know what you want. I mean, I guess I could hire her back and give in to her demands. They aren't that big a deal."

"Stephanie, did you fire her even a little bit because of what happened between me and her?" Chris inquired after her. She'd not admitted that outright the last time they spoke, but he knew the truth. He just wanted to hear her say it, wanted her to admit it.

"So what if I did?" she answered defensively. It wasn't an admission, but it was probably as close to one as he was going to get. "Look, I'll hire her back, okay, just…I don't know, don't be mad at me over it."

"Stephanie…"

"I wasn't even aware that you still cared about her," Stephanie told him, and he could hear the jealousy in her voice.

Stephanie was so predictable sometimes, and yet, so unpredictable at other times. He could read some of her emotions as if they were written on her face, but when it came to the inner-workings of her mind, he was completely clueless. If he could read her mind though, if he could figure out what it would take to change her mind about everything, but as it stood, she was as far away from him now as she had ever been.

He looked down, his eyes resting on his wedding ring. He said once that he'd gotten Jessica's name tattooed on his hand because he kept losing his wedding ring. It wasn't true. He had his wedding ring, knew where it was at all times. But he hadn't worn it for over a year. He'd tucked it away, tucked her away, and didn't think about her. He had one mission in mind, just one, to get Stephanie to admit that it was supposed to be them. That the two of them were the ones who got the happy ending.

It didn't work out that way, but then, real life is not like the movies. There isn't any fate or karma or anything like that. Sure, he believed in God, but that had nothing to do with this. God was not going to swoop in and push them together. He'd worked hard enough for her, and yet, it hadn't been enough. It might never be enough. He was foolish. He knew that now, but still, he tried, every so often he tried. He'd gone back to that drawer, grabbed that ring, and he'd slipped it back on, but it was temporary. It was just a ring, and if she gave him any indication, he would slip it off for the final time.

She'd never given him any indication.

That was the worst of it. He'd been with her, numerous times, she'd called out his name in passion, again numerous times, but still, there was never a moment where she had given him any kind of hope for the future. That was probably what broke him the most. That was probably what drove him straight into the easy arms of Barbie Blank. Stephanie, for all the emotions she elicited out of him, never seemed one to give any emotion. Sure, they fought, but when it came down to, dare he say it, love, she was a closed book. So he had no choice but to move on. He was not a guy who kept going after a clear lost cause.

Okay, that was a lie, he clearly went after lost causes.

"You are so far gone," he told her.

"What are you talking about?"

"I don't care about her," Chris explained. "I don't even care what happens to her, she'll land on her feet—"

"Or on her back," Stephanie muttered, and the smirk that graced Chris's face could probably make any panty drop.

"Catty, I like it," Chris told her, and he could nearly see her cheeks flush in embarrassment. That sentence was clearly not meant for his ears. "What I'm saying, what I wanted to know, what I do know now is the why of it. That's all, but I think it's pretty clear now that it was a vindictive move on your part."

"Like I told you—"

"Yes, I know what you told me, but we both know that's not it," Chris sighed, not wanting to take the conversation in this direction. It would be so much easier if he could just cut Stephanie McMahon completely out of his life. He could have a neat, little, curvy shape cut out of his life. Except you couldn't cut something out of your heart when it took up so much of it. It would only leave a gaping, messy, bloody hole in its stead. "Stephanie, if you calling me was only to rehash a lot of things we've already rehashed, save it, I don't want to hear it."

"I'm not trying to rehash everything. I was just…trying to make it right." She sounded pathetic then, her voice hitching at the end. This was an attempt to make things right? Did she even know what was wrong? Sometimes he really didn't think she did, but if she did, then this was a lame attempt, and worthless to him.

"This is your idea of making things right?" he just came right out and said it. "You think that everything that's passed, everything we've been through, you think that all of that can be solved by…hiring Barbie back? A girl who I didn't even care about when I was dating her."

"That's not right, Chris," she admonished him, and he couldn't believe she had the nerve. She knew what Barbie was to him, right? He'd told her, he'd yelled it at her, but it was like her brain refused to believe a word he said. This woman, she was an exasperation, that's what she was.

"You're actually trying to make me feel bad for not caring about a woman who meant next to nothing to me."

"I heard you were torn up when you broke up," Stephanie told him, and he laughed, a deep laugh, one that reached every bit of him.

"Seriously? You…you are amazing, you know that, amazingly blind," Chris finished. "I can't believe. Damn it, Stephanie…" He didn't want to get mad at her, but sometimes, all she did was push every button he had.

"What?" she asked.

"Do you even hear me when I talk to you or is it just a bunch of mangled syllables that make no sense?"

"I don't understand what you're getting at," she told him confusedly.

"I wasn't upset about…I wasn't upset about Barbie, okay, seriously, I was not upset about her. Why do you make me do things like this? Why do you insist on making me the guy who has to pour out everything when I get nothing in return from you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I was upset because you were pregnant," Chris told her.

"Oh," Stephanie said, "but…"

"Do not even ask why, Stephanie," Chris could sense the words coming out of her mouth, and he needed her to stop right now before he said something he'd regret. "Don't you even dare ask me the why."

"We hadn't been together in a long time."

"You just don't get it, do you? Stephanie, you're not this stupid," he told her. "You aren't, and you know what I mean. You know what I mean, but you refuse to see it because if you looked at it, if you looked at everything that was real between the two of us, I think it would scare the shit out of you."

There was a long pause on the other end of the line. "What would make you happy, Chris?"

It was such a simply worded question with an answer that would take him years to unfold. He'd been trying for years to make himself happy, but she refused to give in, instead ignoring what was so clear to him. She felt it. He knew she felt it at the very least. Even if she couldn't articulate herself the way he did, she could at least feel what was between them.

Was an affair messy? Absolutely it was. He knew that going into it, but he'd already been in love with her. He'd loved her without touching her. He'd loved her without knowing the way her lips felt against his aching skin. He knew all of that, but he'd still not resisted her when they fell together. Was he ashamed of his affair? Yes, he was ashamed it took an affair to finally get what his heart had been looking for his entire life, but he didn't regret her. He didn't regret the way she made him feel. So what would make him happy?

Her…just her.

He couldn't say that though. She'd hang up on him. Her feelings were something that got in the way. When she felt too much, she pulled away. "You don't want to hear what would make me happy, Stephanie. Not to mention, what would make me happy is not something you'd be able to give me."

"Why don't you give me the benefit of the doubt?"

"You honestly want me to answer that?" he asked her in disbelief and with a little bit of sarcasm sprinkled in there. "You want me to tell you why I can't give you the benefit of the doubt that you can handle what I have to say? Because I've tried for years to tell you exactly what would make me happy. I've told you in every way possible, I've exhausted words trying to tell you what would make me happy, but every time I try to say it, you know what I get back? Nothing. So give me one good reason why I should ever, ever give you the benefit of the doubt?"

"Maybe I'm ready to hear it now," she told him in a small voice.

"No, I don't think you are," Chris said. "If you were, I think you'd be standing in front of me. I don't think or want to believe you'd do it over the phone. I would think I deserve more than that."

"I'm not trying anything," Stephanie said, "I'm not trying to hurt you."

She sounded so vulnerable Chris wished he could reach into the phone, but no, he resolved himself. This was only going to hurt him again. She was only going to hurt him again. "Stephanie, look, I'm going to lay it out there for you, and you can do with the information what you want, understood?"

"Okay," she answered tentatively, probably unsure of where he was going to go with this.

"I've told you so many times how much I love you, and it holds true. Barbie meant nothing to me, you know this, but yet, you refuse to believe it, to the point where you get giddy to fire her, yes, giddy because I know you. I know affairs aren't supposed to be a long-term thing. They're supposed to be a fling, something to satisfy you when your partner doesn't, but that's not what it is between us. You know it's not. You have broken me, Stephanie, that's why I keep coming back, hoping something has changed, but it never does. I've come to a reluctant acceptance of that, but then here you are, doing things that prove what you feel for me isn't just a fling that we had some time ago. But I can't do this, Stephanie. I can't have you calling me, asking how you can fix it, asking what makes me happy. I've laid it out there for you, Steph, it's in your court, it's always been in your court."

"I'm sorry."

"You always are," Chris told her without malice. He was simply stating the truth. "You're so scared, Stephanie, so scared, and I feel sorry for you. I feel sorry that you have to live life in such a way where your fear guides you through it. I love you, I love you, but I can live without you."

Another long pause. "I've got to go, Chris."

"I understand," he told her. "I'll see you around, Stephanie."

"Yeah, I'll see you around."