Jed sat back and breathed deep. He was tired. He had been tired since May but he was really tired now.

In the end he and Stanley hadn't talked much about anything significant, but spent nearly 2 hours catching up and bouncing from topic to topic, everything from basketball to Mars. Jed realized he hadn't had someone to just talk with for a while. He'd been surrounded by people and had bantered with Leo and forced Charlie into late night card games but there was always a line, a facade to maintain. Even with Leo, his best friend, he was the president first. He was just realizing he hadn't relaxed in months.

He leaned his head back and reflected on how lonely he was. Without thinking his hand picked up the phone on the table next to him and dialed the number he knew by heart.

"Hello?"

"Abbey."

"Jed?" Her voice held the tension of concern. Not only had they not seen each other since July their conversations had been few and far between, most often when Zoey had forced the phone into her mother's hand and they had stilted conversation for their daughter's sake. His calling out of the blue after 9 at night was sure to ring her alarm bells.

"It's okay, there's nothing wrong."

She was quiet on the other end of the line, "Were you trying to reach Zoey?"

"No."

"Jed." She was tired too. He could hear it in her voice. God, he missed her voice.

"I just miss you." He hadn't meant to say it out loud.

There was silence on the other end of the line. He pictured her swallowing and blinking, unsure how to respond to his uncharacteristic simplicity.

"Jed, are you sure everything is okay?"

He sighed. "Yeah. Well, mostly. Or maybe not. Leo forced me into a meeting with Stanley."

"You're calling me because your therapist told you to?" her tone was incredulous.

He let loose a rumble from his chest, "No. He and I actually didn't talk about much or have a real session. I resented that Leo set it up. I just mentioned it, because I guess it's not true that nothing is wrong if my best friend and chief of staff is springing therapists at me."

"Okay."

He sighed, eyes again falling on the picture on his desk. He fixated on it. "Tell me about your day."

"Jed. What is this? You can't just call out of the blue and pretend like..."

"I'm not pretending anything Abbey. I'm not...It's not...I just miss you and want to listen to your voice."

It was quiet on the other end of the line. When she spoke again it was a sad whisper, "Jed..."

"Please. I'm not asking...I'm not...I just want to know what you did today."

He heard her sigh and the muffled sound of movement. After what seemed to be an eternity he worried she had hung up and he had simply missed the sound of the click. He was lost in thought when she startled him back to the present, "Well I suppose you realize we're approaching the end of the apple season up here. So this morning Julie came down to help prep for the open pick this weekend and Liz brought Gus and Annie up after school to let them get a head start..."

Jed closed his eyes and smiled. As Abbey told him about Liz's endless battles with Annie and Zoey's attempts at baking Jed allowed himself to only peripherally listen to her words, instead absorbing her tone and inflection. He was feeling the tugs of sleep when she stopped.

"That's really it Jed, there's really not much more to say."

He cleared his throat. "Thank you. I know...I know, there's...between you and I; well...just thank you."

She was quiet. He knew he had to have thrown her off. "You're welcome."

"Well, I guess I'll let you get to bed." He cleared his throat, "Abbey, do you mind, if maybe I call you again later this week?"

A long pause again. "That would be fine."

"Okay. I'll talk to you then I guess..."

"Jed?" She interrupted before he could hang up.

"Yeah?"

"I miss you too."

Then there was a click and silence.