Fiona shook her head. "This is ridiculous!" she exclaimed. She crossed her arms and walked over to my sofa. I'd called her to my room once I'd closed App-Thetic and showed her the email. "Why do they need to retrain you?"

"Because I'm now a 'call center specialist' that will be taking calls for every part of Vitality," I told her. "I guess it calls for knowing how to give people a bigger runaround than I already do." She rolled her eyes and I grinned at her, knowing that was her opinion of all 'help centers'.

She shook her head at me and then gave me a weird look. I opened my mouth to ask her what was wrong, but she cut me off with, "You're surprisingly happy for someone who just found out their best friend likes them and you told them you didn't feel the same. I thought you said you were sad or something like that?"

I frowned. "I was actually trying to forget that, so thanks for bringing it up."

Her eyes widened. "Forget it? Why are you trying to forget it? It's not something you can just put in your rear view and keep driving through life without a backwards glance!"

I stood up and narrowed my eyes at her. "I might lose Kyle, but I think we both know I won't. We agreed that after this next show we're putting the series on hiatus and then I'm going to Dallas. By the time we have to be together in person again things will be better. Now get out of my room before I get mad, Fiona."

She wrinkles her nose at me, but still does as I requested. Once she's gone, I feel like all the air goes out of me. I deflate onto my office chair. Truth be told, I was sad over things with Kyle. I hoped nothing would change between us, but I had a feeling things would. They had to. If they didn't, how much would anything between us have meant? It would feel like nothing. It would have meant nothing and I hoped it would have meant something.

I shook my head. I knew Kyle. He meant what he said and, even though we'd eventually be okay, there were going to be awkward moments, and maybe even some moments he couldn't handle. Like if I started dating someone else.

With a sigh, I reopened App-Thetic and saw a message waiting for me.

S: Awesome! Who is it?

L: Me.

There was a long pause before he responded.

S: Are you serious?

L: Yes. Why would I lie about that?

S: Why are you going there?

L: I told you - I work for Life Bar, and they just got bought out by Vitality. Dunno why.
L: So since I do their customer service I'm supposed to be retrained for general customer service for both companies.

S: When did this happen?

L: They're being bought this week. I found out yesterday, but I just got the email about all this tonight.

There was another long pause.

S: Really.
S: You'll need a place to stay, right?

L: Probably... Why?

S: I know of a place you can stay, but you won't be able to tell anyone about it.

L: Why not?

S: I'll explain later.

L: Okay...

I waited for a response, but I didn't get one. Eventually, I went ahead and began to research for the next show. But about twenty minutes later I find myself distracted by my thoughts about the training and Shawn's offer of a place to stay. Curiosity began eating at me and I gave up trying to do anything.

---

Saturday seemed to take forever to arrive. I fell into the monotony of a routine: Wake up at 5:50, set up and start work at 6, meet Fiona for lunch, go home, chat with Shawn, go for a walk, and meet Fiona at the gym where we work out for an hour before either grabbing dinner on the way home or ordering in once we got home. By Saturday I was beginning to get bored.

It's not that I don't like routines, but when the routine is repeated every single day, it gets old. I looked forward to leaving, but I didn't know how to approach that subject with Kyle. Sure, we'd agreed to put the show on hiatus, so I was pretty sure things would be okay, but still.

While I got ready for our show, I began thinking again about Shawn's offer. We hadn't talked about it since that night - we mainly talked about food preferences and TV shows we liked when we were kids - but I had to make plans tonight. My information packet was sitting on my desk and I had to tell them where I was staying or if they needed to provide that for me.

I was staring at my lipstick choices when someone knocked on my door. "Yeah?" I called.

"It's me," Kyle responded. "Can I come in?"

"Sure." I picked up a red lipstick I felt meshed with my eye makeup and began applying it. When Kyle walked in I felt more than saw him watching me. Once it was on, I stood, checked my outfit and makeup one last time, and faced Kyle. "Well? What do you think? I think this is a pretty good look for our last show for a while."

I was wearing a black top and a gold-color satin jacket over a black skirt with gold sequins and gold sandals. My eye makeup was a spotlight smokey-eye with gold glitter. To be honest, my look was more homecoming than internet video, but I felt it was only right.

Kyle chuckled lightly. "Looks great. Kinda makes me feel a little under-dressed, though." He holds his arms out to the side, allowing me to take in his black dress pants and a black dress shirt with a gold pattern tucked into his slacks with the top few buttons undone, giving him an air of being casual after working some kind of posh job all day.

"Looks great to me," I said, giving him a smile I hoped appeared more genuine than it was. If the look on his face was anything to go by, it wasn't.

"What's wrong?" he asked like the great friend he was and right at this moment I kind of selfishly wished he wasn't.

I shook my head. "After, okay? It's nothing bad, I promise. It's just work related. Like, my other job."

He nodded and sat down on the sofa. "Okay," he said slowly. "Why can't you tell me now?"

My mind raced for an appropriate answer that he'd accept. "Because I'm super nervous about the show tonight and I kind of just wanna get it all over with before we settle down for a more casual discussion of our lives," I told him, not caring that I kind of sounded like I was rambling. Hopefully, he'd believe me. He knew I rambled sometimes when I got nervous, so maybe he'd attribute that to the show, not that I was afraid of his reaction when I explained I'd soon be going away for a little while.

And that I'd be staying with strangers when I left.

We began the show, and everything was fine. The debate was great, and when we opened it for comments, several of them were asking why we were so dressed up. I smiled wider so that the frown looking for a home wouldn't find one on my face.

"Looks like you won, Kyle," I said.

"Yes!" he bellowed, smiling so hard his eyes closed as he raised his arms above his head.

Now came the hardest part of the show. "Now, I saw that some of you noticed we went all out on our outfits today. Truth is we just wanted to give you a treat." I winked and Kyle chuckled. I gave him a quick glance, my smile a little more genuine. "No, but seriously, we're wearing this for a very special reason. I think you noticed that I haven't asked for another debate topic. Reason is that we're putting this show on an indefinite hiatus. We're not ending the show, so don't panic. We're just saying we don't know when we'll make another one of these, but it won't be for a while. Maybe a long while.

"As for why, well, it's personal. There's things in our personal lives we need to address and I've got some things that's going to keep me really busy for a long time." I could feel Kyle looking at me, and I suddenly regretted not telling him before the video. "It's nothing you need to worry about, but we just need a break for now. Just know we love all of you guys and we appreciate each and every one of you. Without you, we wouldn't be where we are. We'll still upload videos individually - vlog-type videos - whenever we get the chance, which probably won't be very regular. There's just not going to be a He Said She Said for now."

Kyle sat up straight and nodded. "We just need some time, but when we come back - and we fully intend to come back - it'll be full steam ahead for this series. Don't worry."

"So thank you guys for watching us and sticking around or if you're brand new to these videos thank you for watching and we hope you've enjoyed the journey so far. I hope you'll still be here for the ride when we come back. In the meantime, thank you guys and I hope you have a great day." I gave a solemn wave and waited for Kyle's signal.

"We're off," he said. I sighed and slumped, tipping my head back. He waited a few seconds and made sure we were off. "Okay, so what's this about you being really busy?"

"When you left the other night I checked my email and found an email from Life Bar. Vitality is buying them out, changing my shift, and sending me to Dallas for training. I'll probably be gone for a week." I tried to keep my voice and everything breezy.

Kyle tilted his head a little to the side. "Oh, okay. Did they give you a room down there?"

I shook my head immediately, trying to get this part over with. I knew he'd call me crazy. "No, but I made plans to stay down there with a friend off the internet."

He just looked at me a moment through slightly narrowed eyes. "Who?"

"Trina."

He's quiet for a minute. "I've never heard you talk about her. Did you meet her recently?"

"Kind of, yeah." This was as far as I'd gotten when I was thinking up things to tell him. Past this, I was going to have to wing it and hope for the best.

"So you don't really know her."

"I know she's a good person." My first outright lie. Honestly, I didn't know her well enough to know that for certain.

"But where does she live? What kind of a place is she staying in? Does she have a roommate? Does she still live with her parents? Is the neighborhood good?"

I stood. "You're not my mom."

He stood. "I'm not trying to be."

"Then stop acting like it!" It was possibly the first time I'd raised my voice at him while we were upset. Possibly even our first proper argument.

"I'm just worried about you!"

"You don't have to be! We both live with a friend and we can both make our own decisions on where we go and what we do. I don't get onto you whenever you go visit someone and sleep on their floor, so why are you getting onto me about it?"

"That's different." He shuffles his feet, obviously nervous all of a sudden.

"How is it-" I shut my mouth as my brain supplies an answer: He has a crush on you - maybe even more than a crush. I shake my head. "Never mind. Look, Kyle," I said, my tone softer and, hopefully, warmer. "You need to trust me to make good decisions. If things don't work out, you know you'll be the first one I call and I know that you'll be there waiting for me, because I trust you."

His shoulders drooped slightly. "I do trust you. I just don't want anything to happen to you."

I stepped closer and rested a hand on his shoulder. "I'll be fine, Kyle. Okay? I promise. Nothing will happen to me."

He sighed and ran a hand down his face. "Okay," he said quietly after a moment. He held out his arms in question, and I gave him a hug. "Let me know when you're leaving, okay? I want to see you off."

"Of course," I said, my tone implying he was crazy to think I wouldn't. I pulled away and gave him a smile. "Want to take a picture to commemorate the last show?"

He smiled back and pulled out his phone. As we took the picture together, I felt the gravity of this moment pressing down on me. I'd always wondered what it would be like when we ended the show, and, even though this is just a break, everything felt wrong and sad and heavy. It's a lot more emotion than I would have thought I'd feel.

But then, this show had been our baby for years now. I hated that we'd be split up for any time and unable to do the show. Yet, at the same time, I was glad. It would give Kyle time to sort out his feelings for me, and it would give me time to have a little ... adventure.

Maybe Dallas wasn't too far, and maybe training wasn't all that exciting, but I couldn't wait until I found out what my 'mission' would be.