Regrets

Goodbye Tonight

1976

Elizabeth and Barney pulled away from each other and looked at each other with fallen expressions. Those facials expressions quickly turned into a mixture of guilt and embarrassment. Neither of the two knew how to respond or what to say about the kiss... what could one say after their encounter with one another? The two meet, the two grow interest in the other romantically, the two are alone and private, they kiss. Nothing strange about that. Nothing wrong that. Nothing unusual about it.

But neither of the two felt any sparks or any sort of emotion in that kiss.

"Um," Elizabeth stuttered awkwardly.

"Yeah," Barney breathed out, "Um... maybe we should, uh, be getting' back to the house."

Before another word could said, Barneys stood up from his seat. Elizabeth nodded sheepishly as she stood up and followed him as he walked. They walked together in the direction of the house where the party was being held. Their walk was silent. Neither of the two said a word, and neither of the two could think of anything to say to the other. They were no longer in a comfortable place in their relationship- or at least what was left of it. It was clear that, because of the one kiss- in which, neither of them felt any sort of stronger attraction to the other or any kind of spark- their whole view of each other changed drastically.

All because of that one damn kiss.

Elizabeth stopped walking and gently took a hold of his forearm. "Barney, hold on," she said sheepishly.

Barney snapped his head in her direction, then turned slowly to face her, his body tensing anxiously at her touch on his arm. "Yeah?" he asked awkwardly.

"Should we talk about that kiss?"

"No." His voice was a bit stern and had a final tone to it.

She gave a saddened look at the ground, then looked desperately back up at him. "Well, we can't just pretend it didn't happen."

"Why not? People do it all the time."

"Is this really how you are, all the time?"

That's what Elizabeth didn't know about Barney- he was. Whenever he had some sort of emotional or relationship problem, he'd ignore as best as he possibly could. He'd done that for the majority of his life, and that hadn't changed one bit the entire thirty years of his life. His family and friends had gotten used to it over the years- but those who had just met him usually had trouble trying to get used to it and to be around it. This was the current conflict at hand for the blonde belle, only she was unaware of this character trait of the man she was talking to at the present moment.

"Yeah," Barney answered simply, "I am and always have been. And if you don't like, then maybe we should just avoid each other entirely!"

"Not until we talk about that kiss! It was just one kiss, it's not like we had a one night stand! Can't we just clear the air?" Elizabeth tried angrily and annoyed.

He was reluctant, but still agreed. "Fine."

She calmed down a bit. "Thank you. Look, can we agree that both us were involved in that kiss?"

"Yeah, I can agree to that."

"Ok. Did you feel... anything, in that kiss?" Elizabeth asked a bit awkwardly.

Barney looked up at her, down at the ground and let out a heavy sigh. "No," he finally answered in a quiet tone after a minute or so.

Elizabeth pushed a few strands of her blonde hair behind her ear. "Me either," she answered honestly with a heavy sigh.