The One Where The Lines Get Kinda Blurry

The One With Two Wrongs & No Right

Four weeks. Four long, difficult, emotional weeks had passed since Jen had last seen David. She had barely even spoken to him on the phone as he was busy in Chicago and also off meeting with film studios about various projects they were interested in hiring him for. And she was hurting. She missed him, she missed him like crazy. She found herself craving his touch, his lips, his hands. She was only human and she missed the sex, the connection, that feeling of closeness with another human being. How long had it been now? Over five months. Five painful, challenging, arduous months since she had last been in his arms.... in his bed. And there were another six weeks to get through before she even got to see him again.  They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, and it's true it does, but absence can also bring clarity. Somewhere within that ten-week time frame, there was a shift. Only a small one, but it was a shift nonetheless. A shift that would have ramifications for years and years to come.

At least she had this film to keep her occupied a lot of the time. She had signed on to do a fairly low budget movie called Picture Perfect that had been brought to her attention by her father. Filming had started a couple of weeks ago and it was due to complete a couple of weeks after she returned to Friends so her schedule was going to be tightly packed. It was Wednesday morning and she peeled herself out of bed extra early as she had a long day of filming ahead, but first there was a meeting with another studio about another movie they wanted her to audition for. At 8.17am she hopped in her car and by 9.03am she was sat in the impressive looking reception of a senior Executive Producer waiting to be called into his office. She had been waiting another 10 minutes when a door opened and in walked a guy, his back turned to her as he went over to the reception desk. He was about 6ft tall, curly-ish hair and he seemed vaguely familiar. She soon knew why as he turned around. It was Tate.

They made polite conversation for a few moments before Jen felt the need to offer him some kind of explanation for the way she had just left him a voicemail saying thanks for a lovely night but I actually can't see you again. She was half way through explaining that she had been in a complicated personal place at the time when she was called into her meeting. "Meet me for dinner later and you can fill me in properly?" he had suggested. And she agreed. She didn't hesitate, she didn't think, she just agreed.

A second date with Tate. She hadn't seen that coming but actually she was quite looking forward to it. She had enjoyed her first date with him much more than she thought she would have done and he did genuinely seem like a good guy. Plus, maybe he had been at the studios for the same reason she had, and if there was a possibility of them working together then she thought she at least owed him some kind of explanation for the way she had acted.

So, by 9.30pm that evening she found herself sat in a small Italian restaurant, eating pasta and trying to explain in the vaguest possible terms to him that she had been seeing someone and that she was still hoping it would work out with them, but that also she was glad she was here with him and she was very much enjoying her evening. He had admitted that he was sad to get her message as he had really enjoyed their first date, but that he absolutely understood and thanked her for her honesty.

"Look I don't want to get in the middle of something complicated" Tate said as they stood by her car at the end of the evening, "but I really like you, and if you did want something less complicated, even if it's just a casual thing, then..... well, hi!" he added with a little wave.

It would have been so easy to say no. So easy to walk away and return home to think of David all night. David who she wasn't going to see again for weeks, and even then it would be limited and restricted by all their rules and agreements. Her heart said no, it's David you love and David you want. But her voice spoke yes. "Yes, actually I would like that. Nothing too heavy or intense, but let's go on one or two dates and see what happens...."