Chloe had left about an hour before. Tess was in her apartment reading a book. Even though she wasn't really reading. Her mind was moving a mile a minute, and strayed far away from the book. From Oliver to Chloe and back to Oliver.

Knock, knock

Tess sighs. "Come in, it's unlocked." The door opens and the center of her thoughts walks in. "You know, Mercy, I would be more careful. What if I was Lex?," he jokes. I look up at him.

"Then I pull out the pistol that I hide under my couch cushions," I quip. But, she wasn't lying. She actually does have a gun under the cushions. "Why don't I doubt that there's actually one under there?" She just stares blankly up at him. "Because there is," he continued. Tess laughs.

He can't help but dwell on sound of her laugh and beauty of the smile on her face. She swings her legs around to sit up straight and pats the space next to her. "I'm sure you're not here to lecture me on my safety precautions. What's up?," she asks. He walks over, rather slowly, and sits down.

Oliver returns a weak smile. "Uh oh, I know that smile.," she jokes, but the smile he had doesn't leave. Tess instantly thinks back to Chloe's story. "Hey, you can talk to me, you know?" This time she looks at him with a replica of the smile Oliver wears. He looks up. "I know. That's why I'm here."

"This could mean a million things," Tess thinks. Even though she knows she's lying to herself. She knows exactly what he's talking about. And she has to admit, she wasn't particularly keen on having this conversation.

"I'm assuming that Chloe told you what happened," he starts. Tess nods curtly. "I was wondering... I mean... how is... how would... How is she?" Tess gives a knowing and sympathetic smile. "She'll be ok," she trails off, "Why did you do it? Why? What reasoning was behind it?" Guilt flashes across his face.

He can't help but ask himself why he's here. What did he expect to say to her? How do you tell someone that you broke up with their best friend because you're in love with them? You can't, not with it going well.

He stands up and starts pacing. "Tess, I-I couldn't keep doing it to her. I couldn't keep dragging her along for the ride!" Tess gives him a puzzled look. "But that doesn't explain anything. Why'd you do it?" By this point Tess's started to yell, completely frustrated. "Because I'm in love with someone else," he yells, also exasperated.

Hearing this she calms down and just asks plain and simple,"Who?" She honestly just wants to know. "Who could top Chloe?" All of her walls are down, she wants honesty, and she's going to be completely honest, as well. He could see it.

Whether it was the look on her face, or his plain need to get it out in the open he didn't lie. He didn't skirt the question. He answered straight out,"You." He sad it broken and defeated.

He watched her face as more emotions then he could count went across her face. Then, the walls went back up. She shakes her head. "You don't mean that. Oliver, you're broken up, confused. Just..." Tess takes a deep breath. But, she doesn't continue. She makes it clear that he's supposed to leave. "I'm just going to, to go," he says. She's looking down at her lap with a fixated gaze.

He leaves, and, for more times then Tess would have liked these past couple of days, she cried. She was so unsure of everything. And in that moment that it seemed as though the whole world had finally caught up with her. After all this time of shoving her emotions behind a dam, it broke.

She cried for all the things that went wrong in her life, her dad, Meghan, Oliver the first time, Lex, everyone's mistrust of her, Zod, Chloe, Oliver again. Why is he the constant center of her thoughts? Why does he consume her? What is it about him? Unsure, it doesn't matter, he just does.

She just assumed that he was confused, maybe even lying. But, after all that time trying to convince Chloe differently, maybe she was right. And she hoped she was. She couldn't help but laugh out loud. Chloe'll never let this go.