Patrick reached out as if Zoe wasn't there. As if he thought she was a ghost. Zoe stumbled back unsure of what Patrick was trying to accomplish. She then realized that he didn't know if she was actually there or not, like she was just a figment of his imagination.

She wasn't.

Zoe grabbed Patricks bloody knuckles in her warm, soft hand. Patrick was so caught up in the simplicity of her embrace that he didn't realize she was dragging him into the bathroom. Next step she was grabbing paper towels. When she turned back to Patrick he was smiling. He could see the edges of her mouth twitch, but never enough to be filed under a smile.

Zoe put the paper towel under some water. Some medic should be doing this she thought to herself, but then she couldn't memorize the way Patrick was looking at her. Like she was his fixation, like he wouldn't let her leave.

He wouldn't.

"Zoe I need to talk to you," Zoe looked up from cleaning the cuts and scrapes of Patrick knuckles and looked him the eyes. His beautiful eyes. She nodded her head and he proceeded, "I didn't cheat on you."

This caught Zoe's attention. She stopped tending to Patricks injury and pierced through his soul with her hopeful eyes. Hopeful he was telling the truth. Hopeful he still loved her. Hopeful he would never let her walk out the door again.

Patrick saw the hope in Zoe's eyes, which then flickered to anger, and finally to sadness. Just like that. Three raw, and powerful emotions. Three emotions that would break him. But he was already broken.

"Patrick I don't know what you're saying." Zoe knew exactly what he was saying. He didn't cheat on her. What she wanted to know was why people had told her so. Patrick couldn't explain everything to her so he explained his love.

"When I first saw you at that bar it was like my heart stopped beating. I had been searching and yearning for things unknown and the second my eyes landed on yours I knew I had found what I was searching for. I had found you. And we had something good. Some strong and powerful. We had love. And i know sound soft right now but I love you Zoe. To the moon and back." Patrick could tell she was taken aback. She had expected an explanation, not a confession. Her face was white, her eyes brimmed full with tears, her fingers touching his skin. They were fire and ice. Patrick knew it too, but they were so perfect together.

Zoe dropped the paper towel, looked Patrick in the eye once more, wiped a tear he hadn't known had fallen, something so simple yet it made him question the moments of life. Every moment he ever had was question by such a little thing. A caring, sweet, thing. Zoe held her hand there, kissed Patrick on the forehead. He could feel her tears streaming down her face by the wetness plopping against his head. He didn't mind. She was here.

But Zoe let go. She knew better than to fool herself and fall in love with Patrick again. Well who was she kidding she was still in love with him, she just hadn't admitted it to herself. She never would. She walked towards the door, opened it and could hear Patrick sigh. What he had said had been enough for her. She would've done anything he had said right then and there in that bathroom, but she didn't. She was leaving behind the only thing she ever loved wholeheartedly, but also the one thing that broke her to pieces. Pieces she was just starting to glue back together with Tyler.

Tyler.

Zoe was halfway out of the building when Patrick grabbed her wrist and she snapped her head back. She hadn't known he had been following, her heartbeat was the only thing she could hear.

"What do you want me to do Patrick?" Zoe said letting the tears fall.

"I want you to pick me, choose me, for gods sake love me!" Patrick was firing on all cylinders. If he let Zoe walk out the arena door he would never see her again. If that was his fate he would let her go eventually, but he didn't believe that was his fate. He believed her was going to love Zoe until he died, whether or not she loved him back. Zoe couldn't conjour up any words. She had swallowed her tongue. She needed to go home. To sleep. To think. She loved Patrick, yes, but she also loved Tyler. She couldn't leave him in the dust after alls he's done for her. But Patrick was standing there vulnerable begging for her to love him. He just didn't know she actually did love him. That any day, any hour, she would pick him, but for some inefficient reason she wasn't picking him in that second. She was picking herself.

Zoe picked her dignity up off the floor, looked at Patrick one last time, and walked out the arena doors. She didn't say anything. He didn't say anything. It was swift. And painful. Patricks heart had broken into a thousand pieces, Zoe's into a million. But she walked with her head held high and heart in her hands, hopeful Patrick would follow her out of the building and beg for her love, get on his knees and pray for her to go home with him.

He didn't.

------------------

Tyler had been sitting at the hotel waiting for Zoe to come so they could leave for Boston. He was well aware where she was, he just hoped she would come back to him.

She did.

Eyes full of tears, mascara smeared across her face and a broken heart in hand. He wouldn't ask questions. She had come back to him. He didn't care if she still loved Patrick in that moment, because she had come back to him.

"I packed your things," tyler said wrapping Zoe into his embrace, "are you ready to go?"

Zoe couldn't produce even the slightest nod, much less a response. Everything she ever wanted was right here, wrapping her up making her feel loved, it just wasn't the person she wanted to be wrapped up in in that moment. She loved Tyler. She loved Patrick. She hated herself. She did the only thing someone could do in that moment. She went with her gut, not her heart.

She looked up at Tyler and nodded her head "yes." He smiled, grabbing their bags. Walking out to the airport.

Out of Chicago.

Zoe couldn't do it thought. She was too conflicted at heart. She had to make a choice. She had to choose someone to love. Someone to have her heart forever.

She let Tyler leave with a disappointed look smeared across his face. She wasn't choosing Patrick. She wasn't choosing Tyler. She was choosing her heart.

--------

Zoe sat with a mug in hand on her front porch back home. Michaela was going on and on about how pretty it was this time of year. Andrea was drinking her tea staring out at the water. Zoe was thinking. Thinking about everything.

So far she had 15 missed calls from Tyler and 10 from Patrick. She had made a choice over her weekend getaway. Her heart healing getaway. She just didn't know how to execute her plan just yet. It had been a simple choice in actuality. She loved him and to her it was as simple as that. Not that she didn't love the other one to. It was that she pictured her life with him. Simple and sweet. Their own little forever, forever. She pictured their wedding day and their kids. She pictured their house and grandkids and little lessons they would teach each other. She would love him and he would love her, just like he did throughout everything that had happened.

"I'm getting on a plane today."

Michaela and Andrea stopped what they were doing and looked at the girl who was slowly becoming their best friend again.

"I'm not telling either of you to where though, but I made my choice." Zoe looked at her friends, smiles creeping up along their faces. They had an inkling and no they couldn't be sure if they were right but if they Zoe like they thought they did, then they were right.

Zoe walked inside from the front porch, put her mug in the sink, grabbed her suitcase and walked towards the car. Michaela and Andrea watched her leave before doing the same thing, they were headed back to Chicago today, they didn't know if they would see Zoe there when they got home or not.

"Wanna bet on who she picks?" Michaela asked halfway through the car ride to the airport. Andrea looked at Michaela and said, "I think we're both betting on the same person Mic."

----------

Zoe walk up his steps. Heart in her hands as usual, hoping he still loved her. Hoping he was even home. She didn't know his schedule and asking around would mean others would know who she had picked.

The snow frosted his place nicely. His own winter wonderland. Zoe hoped he didn't have company, she prayed he would hear her out.

Zoe knocked on his door.

She had this whole speech planned. She was ready and prepared for anything that happened. She heard footsteps, they were moving as fast as her heart was beating.

He opened the door, and everything Zoe had practiced went out the window. She looked him one final time before speaking.

"It's you."

Notes

;) leave your guesses in the comments

xoxo