As the Jordan Hill song would say, "Every now and then we find a special friend, who never lets us down.  Who understands it all, reaches out each time we fall.  You're the best friend that I've found..."  In the case of Chris and Eve, that saying holds true more often than not.  Chris may be viewed as a schemer and a bad guy, but with Eve he had a heart of gold and in being Eve Lambert, well, there is just bound to be adventure and heartbreak crossing her path as Eve seems to find it.  However when Eve is at the end of her rope, regardless, there is always Chris.  Now some might say that may have to do with his sneaky, slimy manipulative nature, but in the same breath perhaps it has to do with more.  Chris and Eve have an unspoken love for one another despite the fact that they have never been more than friends.

Love, you say?  One might ask as it hardly seems appropriate a word for those two, but if you would take a long hard look and a step back, you'd see two characters that emerged from the intitial canvas and grew over the years with one another.  Chris Ramsey, the sneaky, manipulative conman found his match in pal Eve Lambert when he allowed her access to the one place no other woman or person we've yet to see has been, his heart.  Time and time again he's pushed his own needs aside in the hopes of making life comfortable for her.  He's sacrificed in ways Eve has never imagined, nor in my opinion will she ever truly know about.  Chris has loved her for so very long without the unspoken words, but it goes beyond your average run of the mill romantic, passionate, burning, wild, impulsive love.  What he has for his best friend runs much deeper and is perhaps more profound.

Over the years we viewers have watched as Eve has gone through heartbreak after endless heartbreak only to return to the shoulder she'd cried on in the past.  Her heart has been shattered when love evaded her time and time again.  This circumstance is no different as she's faced with the idea of being without the man she loves, the one she believes she was meant to love.  However in her darkest hour, there is always hope and this time it comes yet again in the form of Chris Ramsey.

Time and time again the writers have teased the fans by playing with the obvious chemistry with these two characters over the years.  It's no surprise that as sweeps approaches that Chris is actively involved in Eve's story.  Yes, one might say that he's been pushed so far into the back that the idea of having Chris in a story is just a tease, but if you take a long, hard look at history, you'll see other periods in sweeps where it worked to have this dynamic duo together.  For example the period when they pulled off the 'fake breakup' with Kevin and Eve.  It gave Kevin and Lucy fans a glimmer of hope at the reunion along with long time Chris and Eve fans something to hold onto.  For so long we'd seen Chris loving Eve from afar and with him putting her first yet again, fans were left to wonder where it would head.  Could there be romance in their future or would they remain as just friends?

Just friends....that phrase almost seems redundant in this particular case as the writers (the various ones) over the years have built upon the true, real nature between these two people.  They have a bond, a connection that both characters are yet to have established with any other character.  Yes, Chris may have fallen for Julie, but his heart was always with Eve and while Eve may believe Ian is the great love of her life, I believe that Chris is her soulmate.  Maybe not her sexual romantic soulmate, but he has an insight on Eve Lambert that no other has been able to achieve.  Yes, Ian may have loved her in a great many lifetimes and perhaps for a great many more, but Chris has understood her and remained loyal to her in this one.  He is her true blue friend and would do anything to ensure her happiness.  It is his love for Eve that really, truly makes him human and it is her obliviousness to his emotion that makes her clueless to what his heart has been unable to tell her.  Will Eve ever see the truth behind Chris' heart?  Unlikely, but at the same time what they do have is something beautiful, special in it's own light and if ever there was something real, it was Chris and Eve.  

Of course if Eve and Ian continue to have the distance between them and she can't find a way to make it work with her 'soulmate' perhaps it's time she listened to the old adage, "Don't marry the one you love, marry the one who loves you.." in her case, I think she couldn't go wrong.