"Carly, that's awesome! Congrats!" Freddie Bensen stood in his three-room apartment, phone shoved between his head and shoulder, chopping vegetables that were tasteless and dull, not to mention unheard of. He often found himself amazed at how much his life had changed in the past year and a half.

"Yeah, you'd really like him, Freddie. You're the second person that I've told."

"Oh." He couldn't keep himself from wondering about the person she told first.

"I can't get a hold of Sam…" Freddie felt his eyebrows naturally rise.

"Oh." It was all he could sum up into words at this point. Nothing else seemed to suit him right.

"That's all you have to say? Oh?" he rolled his eyes, pushing the edge of his knife further into his now browning foreign vegetable.

"Well what am I supposed to say? I'm in Chicago, you're in Seattle, we can't spend our time worrying about her."

"Freddie!"

"What?"

"I'm getting married and you don't think it's necessary for Sam to know?"

"When did I say that?"

"So if Sam's my bridesmaid, you won't come to my wedding?"

"I never said that! Of course I'd come, I'm not a kid for crying out loud!"

"Good, because we're all adults and we all deserve to respect each other after all these years of friendship."

"I know that."

He did know that. He just didn't know how he could respect someone who just left him. "Would you help me get a hold of her then?" Freddie gulped, holding a bowl under the counter top with one hand and scooping the chopped mixture with the next.

"No." he swung a fork from the edge of the counter and seated himself on the couch. Carly was silent for a while, and Freddie could have sworn that he heard some sniffling on the other end.

"Please. I know you guys went through a lot…"

"Carly, you don't know the half of it. I'm sorry but I promised myself I wouldn't be stuck in her shit ever again and that's one promise that I'm going to keep." Carly was silent again, but Freddie couldn't bring himself to feel any sympathy for her. She had no idea what he had to go through to get over Sam and he wasn't about to jeopardize his hard work all over again.

"I'm sorry. I have to go."

"Love you, Freddie."

"Love you, too. Bye." Freddie regretted to admit that he was relieved when he hung up on Carly. This was supposed to be a happy time in her life, and yet…

How could she expect him to be happy when she was achieving all of the things he would never have with Sam?