Matt quickly found Gabby outside, only ever being two steps behind her as she tried to walk away from him.
"Gabby," Matt called out to her for what felt like the hundredth time but this time she actually stopped and turned around to look at him, and he could see the tears in her eyes and he hated himself for knowing that he put them there.
Gabby stopped running and turned around to face Matt. She knew they needed to finish their conversation -in fact, she had hoped they would get to talk while she was here about everything- but that didn't mean it hurt any less.
When Matt caught up to her he start back where they left off, "Why didn't you tell me Gabby?"
"I don't know. I didn't want to influence your decision or take the chance that you wouldn't come to the fundraiser if you knew. I missed you Matt, I still miss you and regardless of the answer I was going to get that night, I wanted to spend as much time with you as I could in case it was the last time." Gabby said through tears.
Matt could feel his heart breaking in his chest. If he hadn't been just a coward they could have been together this entire time, he could have saved them both so much heartbreak. "Gabby I-"
"You don't have to say anything Matt, you made your choice pretty clear. I just want you to know that I don't regret anything that happened between us. Regardless of if you do." And with that Gabby moved to keep walking away.
But Matt didn't let her get that far, quickly reaching out to grab her hand and stop her from leaving again. "Gabby you can't just keep dropping this information on me and not letting me say anything back. Just give me a second to process this, please."
Gabby nodded, knowing he was right. She'd be running from him for so long and while she wasn't ready to have her heart broken to pieces again, she knew it wasn't fair of her to not let him speak.
Realizing she wasn't going to run again he dropped her hand, not wanting to make her uncomfortable with the contact. "Nothing happened between me and Brett until long after we were over. I would never have done that to you Gabby. And I need you to believe that. I never even looked at another woman when we were together and not until the divorce papers were signed did I even try to move on. But Brett and me didn't happen till long after you came back. I'm not proud of it but after our last phone call, that's when Brett and I started. I was convinced I was finally over you, that, because that call was so casual and didn't cause my head to spin it, meant I was over you. But I was wrong Gabby. As soon as I saw you today, I knew I had never gotten over you. Even just talking to the Darden boys, I can see you in them and when they ask about you I never know what to say to that. I know we obviously have a lot to talk about and that this isn't going to be easy but if you still want this, then so do I. I'm ready to give us another shot, and I'm so sorry it took me so long to figure that out."
"What about Brett?"
"Another thing I'm not proud of but we just broke up maybe an hour ago. I'd been wanting to end it for a while, but it didn't feel right doing it over the phone. But we're done." Matt said taking a step closer to Gabby and holding her hand, hoping she didn't step away. When she squeezed his hand back he continued. "So what do you think? Want to go out on a date me with?"