The Hardest Thing

Author: Janet (SkyGirl5)

Genre: S/V, AU

Summary: When meeting her husband Peter's former best friend for the first time, Sydney feels something click immediately. Soon Michael Vaughn is becoming her best friend as well, but will her feelings stop there?

Disclaimer: Sydney, Vaughn, etc are properties of JJ Abrams and ABC.

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Chapters 1-10 // Chapters 11 - 20 + Epilogue

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Chapter 1

“Syd! Come on! We’re going to be late!” Peter Tucker called to his wife. They should have left ten minutes ago according to Peter’s overly punctual schedule. He hated tardiness above all else but, sadly, his wife did not share this viewpoint. He could count the number of times she had been on time during their marriage on just one hand. Luckily, though, Sydney’s lateness was one of her worst qualities, so Peter could overlook it.

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” she groaned, stumbling out of the bedroom still cramming a shoe onto her foot as her long brown hair flopped down into her face. Once both shoes were on properly, she stood up straight and flattened her hair with her palms. Giving herself a quick glance in the mirror on the wall, she approved of her appearance (though she did not have much choice due to Peter’s tapping foot) and hurried quickly towards the front door of their apartment. “Alright already let’s go,” she said as she hurried past him.

The married duo was on their way to lunch on that Saturday, but they would not be eating alone. Instead, they would be dining with an old friend of Peter’s, whom he had not seen since his last days of college. This man, Michael Vaughn, was Peter’s roommate all four years of school and his best friend of the time. After school was over, the two of them moved to opposite ends of the country and lost touch, but after seven years of separation, Michael had finally moved nearby, so the three of them were getting together. Though Sydney had never met Michael face to face, she had seen many pictures of him and felt like she knew him from the stories Peter told, making meeting him in person highly anticipated.

Once in the car, Sydney noticed her husband fidgeting a lot more than usual, tapping on the steering wheel, playing with the window, and changing channels on the radio. Smiling softly she reached over and patted his arm, asking in a patronizing tone, “Excited to see your little friend?”

Peter gave her a look; he never appreciated her teasing. “As a matter of fact I am. I mean I haven’t talked to him in so long…I wonder if he’s changed…,” Peter mused aloud.

“Probably,” Sydney said. Peter looked over her slightly curious. “Well haven’t you changed since you were twenty-one Pete? I have,” she said.

“Yeah I guess,” Peter shrugged slightly. Then the two of them fell silent for the remainder of their drive to Tony’s Bistro, the restaurant where they would be eating.

Fifteen minutes later they parked along the street out front and Sydney climbed out of the car. While her husband was putting money in the parking meter, Sydney immediately spotted Michael standing outside the restaurant leaning up against its brick wall, his hands stuffed in his pockets and one of his feet up against the wall behind him. Though the pictures she had seen were at least seven years old, she recognized his bed-messy blonde hair and brilliant green eyes right away. Swallowing hard as her eyes dipped towards her feet, she struggled to remind herself that she was married and needed to ignore her fluttering heart.

“Pete! That can’t be you Captain Carrots!” Michael called out as he approached them. He pulled Peter into a rough hug as the two men grinned broadly.

“And yet it is Dirt Bag,” Peter laughed.

“Captain Carrots and Dirt Bag? Classy,” Sydney said giving them a thumbs up, though she was obviously joking.

Both men laughed as Peter reached out for Sydney’s hand. “Michael this is my wife, Sydney.”

Sydney smiled and extended her hand to ‘Dirt Bag’ and they shook, exchanging hellos. “It’s nice to finally meet you,” Sydney added.

“Nice to meet you, too. Carrots over here didn’t do you justice. What are you talking about Pete? She’s more than just okay looking,” Michael said to his friend, shaking his head disapprovingly. Sydney laughed, getting the joke, where as Peter looked rather offended.

“I didn’t say-”

“Relax I’m joking,” Michael rolled his eyes. “Let’s go eat! I’m starved.”

“Yeah come on Carrots,” Sydney smiled at her husband. He gave her a slightly miffed look while Michael laughed. “Where’d that come from anyway?”

“He has reddish hair,” Michael explained simply. “Plus he always ate carrot sticks in college and we said that his hair was red-orange because he ate the carrot sticks.”

“I see…and here I though you were just reading a bit too much Anne of Green Gables,” Sydney smiled at him.

“What does that have to do with anything?” Peter asked, confused.

“The main character has orange hair and this boy who is mean to her calls her Carrots and she hates it,” Michael explained. The husband and wife looked at him in shock. He blushed slightly defending himself, “We had to read it in school.”

“I’m sure you did,” Sydney smiled at him. Then the three of them fell into silence as the hostess inside the restaurant seated them and passed out the menus. When the waitress asked for their drink orders, Sydney ordered her usual ice tea, then mumbled once the waitress had gone, “Oh I shouldn’t have done that…I can’t stand ice tea without mint leaves….”

Michael made an almost choking noise. “That’s how I drink it!”

Sydney looked up to him and laughed with surprise. “Really?” Michael nodded with a smile and Sydney caught Peter rolling his eyes out of the corner of her eye.

“So how long have you guys been married?” Michael asked them, still perusing his menu.

Peter smiled over at his wife. “Not quite six months yet.”

“Five and a half months,” Sydney clarified, reaching over the table and squeezing her husband’s hand.

“Good to know you guys aren’t still in that gross post-honeymoon phase of marriage,” Michael said, though he was obviously kidding them. Sydney clucked her tongue at him before turning back to her menu. It was definitely going to be an interesting lunch.



Chapter 2

“So, Michael, what made you move here after being in California all those years?” Sydney asked just as their entrées arrived.

Before answering the question, Michael looked down at Sydney’s plate and laughed. “I can’t believe you ordered a grilled cheese sandwich.”

Sydney blushed slightly as she ripped her grilled cheese in half, letting the cheese from one half ooze out onto the other. “I like grilled cheese,” she said simply.

“Well we all like grilled cheese – it’s just not something you order at a restaurant off the kids menu,” he laughed. Sydney merely shrugged as she reached for the ketchup bottle. “Anyway I just felt like I needed a change, you know? I grew up here and was sick of being here so I went out there, but then after a while I got sick of being out there too, so I decided to give home another try. I quit my job, moved here and called up my old friend,” Michael smiled at Peter before biting into the sandwich on his plate.

Peter put his knife down across his salad plate as he shook his head at Michael. “Came out here with no plan, hmm? That’s typical,” Peter commented.

“Excuse me Mr. I have my life planned out until the day I die, but some of us don’t need to be organized to the point of psychotic,” Michael told him. Sydney stifled a laugh at this and both men looked up to her. “See,” Michael smiled proudly.

“So,” Sydney said, clearing her throat and changing the subject, “you don’t have a job yet?”

“I’ve got a few prospects and some good recommendations. It shouldn’t be too much longer ‘til I’m back at the grind again,” he said.

For the next fifteen minutes conversation flowed on between Sydney and Michael, who, as it turned out, had much in common. Michael, like Sydney, had pursued a degree in English. Unlike Sydney, who used her degree to become a teacher, Michael minored in business and used those combined degrees to work in the publishing field. He had been an editor and a publicist for a well-known national firm in his internship days, but liked editing the best. Sydney found this career fascinating and the two of them chatted about it until it was clear Peter, a science teacher, was quickly growing suicidal.

“So do you guys, like, work at the same school or something? Is that how you met?” Michael asked to change their conversation line.

“No, we work in the same district,” Peter told him.

“I work at the middle school – seventh grade English – and Peter teaches Physics at the high school,” Sydney explained further. “We ran into each other in the parking lot – literally,” Sydney chuckled. “Peter rear ended me.”

“Jerk,” Michael shot at him, though he had a smile on his face.

Peter’s expression hardened. “The sun was in my eyes.”

“Suuuure,” Sydney and Michael teased in unison before exchanging laughs. “Anyway,” Sydney continued, “he took me to an apologetic lunch and…that was almost two years ago,” she shrugged simply.

“Sweet,” Michael smiled.

“What about you? Any girlfriends to speak of?” Sydney asked him. Peter gave a suspicious snorting noise that Michael ignored, but it caused Sydney to give him a strange look.

“Michael doesn’t have girlfriends,” Peter explained, “he has flavors of the week.”

“In college I did. I’ve had a few girlfriends, but none currently,” Michael told Sydney.

“Maybe I’ll have to fix you up with a nice teacher then,” Sydney told him with a smile. Michael scrunched up his nose. “What’s the matter? Don’t like teachers?”

“Not really…they just remind me of high school which sucked,” Michael said. Sydney shrugged innocently; it was only a suggestion.

The three of them continued their conversation for the next hour until they finally paid the check since the waiters were glaring at them, a clear sign they needed to vacate the premises. “This was really fun; I had a great time,” Michael said, though he was looking at Sydney the whole time he spoke.

“So did I. We should do it again,” Sydney suggested, glancing over to her husband, who merely shrugged before mumbling a, ‘Yeah, I guess.’ “Great,” Sydney smiled, “we’ll keep in touch.” She extended her hand to Michael to say goodbye, but as he shook it he also gave her a kiss on the cheek that made her giggle.

When Sydney and Peter arrived back at their car, they found that their parking meter had expired and they had a parking ticket because of it. This, of course, only added to Peter’s sour mood. “Stuipd ticket… stupid Michael,” Peter muttered.

“What’s the matter?” Sydney asked cautiously.

Peter glared down the sidewalk at the disappearing frame of Michael. “I never liked that guy…”

“What are you, insane?! You talked about Michael constantly; he was your best friend!” Sydney insisted.

“Used to be,” Peter clarified. “He hasn’t changed at all…he’s still cracking jokes and…”

“Is this because he took a few shots at you?” Sydney asked knowingly. Peter grumbled under his breath. “They were harmless! Michael is very funny.”

“You think that because you two have the same odd sense of humor.”

“Um, no,” Sydney said, “we have a sense of humor.” Peter gave her a look. “Oh come on – you don’t and you know it.”

“Humor is for children,” Peter said simply as he pulled their car out into traffic. Sydney looked out the window and rolled her eyes. If she had to pick one quality about peter she liked the least it would have been his lack of sense of humor hands down. He did not even have a little tiny sense of humor; he had nothing, nada, zip, zilch. In fact, if possible, his sense of humor was negative. That was one thing she’d never understand.

“We have to hang out with him again, though,” Sydney said. Peter grumbled once more. “Oh come on! He doesn’t know anyone else here and he is your friend. What’s it gonna kill you to have him over for dinner or… take him bowling or something?”

Peter gave his wife a curious look. “When’s the last time you went bowling?!”

Sydney shrugged. “Ages ago – but I was just suggesting something fun to do where the main entertainment didn’t rely on conversation and teasing.”

“Oh,” Peter said shortly. “Yeah I guess that’d be okay… as long as we don’t have to hang out with him every week…what?!” he asked at the look she was giving him.

“Nothing,” Sydney sighed, looking back out the window. She had no idea why he was acting so strange.



Chapter 3

At the startling sound of a doorbell ringing, Sydney nearly dropped the burning hot dish in her hand. Instead she cursed under her breath and rushed over to the table with it, setting it down before it burned right through to her skin. “Can you get that Pete?” she called out to her husband. Peter grunted and grumbled under his breath as he left his spot on the sofa to go to their front door. His displeasure stemmed simply from the identity of their dinner guest: Michael Vaughn.

Rolling her eyes slightly, Sydney turned back to the stove. She had no idea why her husband was suddenly so hostile when it came to his former best friend. Though she tried to bring up the subject a few times, Peter always changed it quickly, so she was stuck playing mediator between them. For the life of her, she could not understand the situation. After all, she liked hanging out with Michael on the three occasions they had done so. Sure, he, like her, enjoyed his fair share of teasing, but if Peter put up with that from her, why would he not put up with it from Michael? He must have put up with it during their college years as well, which befuddled Sydney even further.

“Hey Sydney,” Michael smiled as he walked into the kitchen. His voice caused Sydney to turn around, momentarily letting go of the spoon she was stirring the spaghetti sauce with, and smile at him. She greeted him with a light hug before turning back to the stove so she did not ruin their meal at the last minute. “Smells great,” Michael told her.

“Thanks,” Sydney said. When she heard the feet of the chairs squeaking against the wooden floor, she glanced over at her shoulder to see her husband with gritted teeth glaring at Michael, who unknowingly sat in his usual seat. Sydney cringed inwardly and turned back to the table. One of Peter’s strangest quirks was his lack of acceptance of people sitting in “his” seat. Of course the seat did not technically belong to him, but he claimed whatever seat he usually sat at as his own. Should anyone sit in “his” seat, they were usually asked to vacate said seat by him in a not always kind manner.

Sydney held her breath as she dumped the spaghetti noodles from their pot and into a strainer letting the steam rise around her. She was waiting for Peter to strike, but he never did. Instead, he sat in the seat next to Michael, which was usually Sydney’s seat (but of course she did not care). She could hear him seething just by the way he slumped himself into the chair, the noise of the chair feet against the floor mixing with Peter’s short exhale. Sydney knew immediately she needed to pick a conversation topic and stick to it, quick.

“So, Michael, do you have all your boxes unpacked?” she asked. Of course she knew the answer to this question to be yes; he had told her the previous week that he unpacked his last box, but it was the only thing she could come up with on the spur of the moment.

“Um, yes; I told you last week that I had,” Michael said to her.

“Oh,” Sydney tried to laugh it off as best as possible, “Sorry, forgot.”

“That’s okay,” he smiled at her. Sydney smiled back before quickly moving their meal over to the table, hoping everyone would be too busy eating to notice the awkward tension emanating from Peter’s side of the table.

After their first lunch with Michael, Sydney and Peter had dined with him once more the following weekend before the three of them went to an outdoor beginning of fall festival together. Unfortunately, that incident had been the worst yet after Sydney and Michael became a bit carried away teasing Peter about his lack of success with the games they were playing. It was then Sydney decided sharing meals was best; if Peter was too silent it could easily be excused as him simply focusing on his meal rather then the true reason of his purposeful rudeness towards Michael.

“So,” Sydney cleared her throat and turned to Michael after four and a half minutes of seemingly endless silence, “when do you start your new job?”

“Monday,” he said with a single head nod. “I’m excited. Believe it or not I’ve actually missed working. I’ve been so bored!” he laughed slightly.

“Probably running out of money too,” Peter muttered in a tone that made Sydney wonder whether he wanted to be heard or not.

“Well, sort of. I’m not too bad off, but I wouldn’t want to be jobless for too much longer,” Michael said with a slight laugh.

For the rest of the meal Sydney and Michael conversed easily while Peter scowled down at his plate. Finally, he could take it no longer and said in a very short tone, “Excuse me I have papers to grade.” He then stood up so quickly his chair nearly toppled over before he pushed his empty plate onto the counter and disappeared into the bedroom.

Michael gave Sydney a very questioning look once he was gone, but she tried to shrug it off as best she could. After all, she could not have told him the problem even if she knew the answer; she had no idea why Peter was being so ridiculous. Clearing her throat from nerves, Sydney moved her own plate to the sink before lowering Peter’s plate into it as well. A moment later, Michael appeared beside her with his plate in hand. “Thanks,” Sydney mumbled quietly.

“Need help?” Michael offered.

“Oh you don’t…,” but Sydney’s voice drifted off as she realized Michael was already assisting her with the dish washing task. “Thanks,” she smiled when they were done, “it’s nice to have help every once in a while.”

“Sure,” Michael assured her. “So do you have papers to grade too or…?”

“Oh I do but-”

“Then I’ll go,” Michael said quickly.

“Oh you don’t have to. I mean, I don’t want to throw you out,” Sydney said, following him towards the door.

“Trust me, you’re not. ‘Night Sydney,” Michael said. Then he slipped out the front door.

Once he was gone, Sydney practically growled under her breath. This growl was directed towards her husband who was not in the room, but she intended on speaking with him as soon as she was finished putting their leftovers away properly. After tossing left over noodles and pasta sauce rather roughly into Tupperware containers, Sydney stomped her way into the bedroom and paused right inside the door, hand on her hip. “What’s the deal?” she demanded when he husband did not look up from the lab reports he was grading.

Without looking up from his lap, Peter sighed in a perturbed tone. “Well I wasn’t feeling very well; all the flirting was making me nauseous.”

“Flirting?!” Sydney practically choked with shock, having not expected that comment in the least from him. “Who was flirting?”

That time Peter looked up, peering at her over his glasses. “Um, you… and Michael.”

“WHAT?!” Sydney screeched with indignation. “I was not flirting.”

Peter gave her a look before imitating her previous actions in a high-pitched tone. “Oh Michael, let me bat my eyelashes at you and then touch your arm to see how strong you are!”

“Please,” Sydney rolled her eyes. “I was doing no such thing.”

“Yes you were,” Peter said seriously, turning back to his grading.

“No,” Sydney said in a casual tone, but in her mind she was panicking. Had she been flirting without realizing it? She would never flirt intentionally but sometimes flirting slipped out unconsciously without realizing, especially in the presence of a wonderful, attractive man such as Michael. Scanning her memory, she went through their dinner conversation and came up with nothing that, to her, appeared to be flirting. “Look whatever you saw – I wasn’t doing it on purpose. You’re my husband, remember? What’s your deal with Michael anyway?” Sydney asked.

“You flirt with him,” Peter said simply.

“I do not!”

“Yes, you do,” Peter told her seriously.

Sydney groaned in frustration. “I don’t mean it! It’s subconscious…I…I’ll try and stop it, okay?” she sighed. Peter shrugged in an indifferent manner that made Sydney only more agitated. “Peter!”

“Okay, fine, whatever,” Peter said before adjusting his glasses and focusing more intently on his paper grading. Sighing, Sydney left the bedroom, though she still maintained she had not been flirting.



Chapter 4

In the next few weeks, Sydney tried her best to steer clear of Michael as much as possible, even stooping as low as ignoring his phone calls all together, which made her feel like a terrible person. She could not help it though; she needed to let Peter’s anger boil down to a simmer before she contacted him again. Through their marriage and relationship before that, Peter had never been the jealous type, though he seemed to be very jealous of the relationship forming between Sydney and Michael. On one hand, Sydney thought that maybe it was because Michael used to be Peter’s best friend and he was quickly becoming a close friend of Sydney’s, but she was not sure that was the real cause. Something else she wondered about was the teasing relationship she had with Michael, something she knew Peter could never tolerate or understand.

Finally, after almost two weeks without contact, the guilt was eating Sydney up inside and she had to speak with Michael. She apologized to him with a lame excuse, stating work as the reason for her lack of communication. Michael seemed to believe her and was sympathetic of her situation, for he too was busy with his new job, but his understanding did not ease any of Sydney’s guilt and she invited Michael over to dinner once more.

During that meal, she was very conscious of her actions, trying not to flirt in any way possible. Though this, at times, came off as rather hostile behavior and resulted in a few strange looks from Michael. On the bright side, though, Peter’s attitude was much less menacing and even borderline friendly. Peter’s attitude change did not make Sydney feel any better for it was hard enough for her to act that way during one meal; continuing on that way would have been impossible.

Luckily for her, Peter seemed to calm down about the whole situation after Sydney proved herself able to keep her flirtatious energy in check. With this knowledge, Sydney refrained from starting an argument about his sudden strange attitudes and decided a drop in the subject was the best course of action.

In late October, a little over a month since Michael moved back to town, the trio finally got around to going bowling together at, shockingly, Peter’s suggestion. When one evening Peter brought up the subject of going bowling with Michael, Sydney was utterly floored; she could hardly even utter out a positive response. Once her shock wore off though, she hopefully decided Peter had finally exited his very childish stage. However, she had not been entirely correct in that decision; Peter had ulterior motives for the bowling get together.

When Sydney saw her sister walk into the bowling alley they were waiting in she was utterly floored at the coincidence. Separated by only eighteen months, the Bristow sisters had always been best friends and never hated one another as some siblings do. In fact, they rarely fought at all save a few childhood arguments over a misplaced pair of shoes or a favorite sweater. Sadly, they did not get together as much as they would have liked, especially while Nadia was in college half-way across the country. When she graduated, though, she moved much closer to home, but a solid forty minutes still divided them.

“Nadia, what are you doing here?” Sydney laughed happily as she stood, ready to give her sibling a warm hug.

A confused expression crossed Nadia’s face. “What do you mean? Peter invited me,” she said.

Sydney wore a perplexed expression as well until her husband’s smirk enlightened her to his devious plan. “I cannot believe you!” she snapped at him.

“What?” Peter and Nadia asked in unison, Peter sounding very innocent while Nadia seemed only more confused.

“You’re setting Nadia up with Michael!” Sydney accused him.

“WHAT?!” Nadia screeched. “Who’s Michael? He told me he wanted to hang out with his sister-in-law!” she said before glaring at Peter.

Peter gulped slightly, realizing he had done the one thing he swore he would never do upon marrying Sydney: angering both Bristow sisters at once, a terrible offence that could potentially result in a fate worse than death. “I just…I thought it would be nice for the two of them to meet,” he stammered.

Sydney gave her husband a suspicious look; his motives could not be that innocent. She had a sinking suspicion he set Michael up with Nadia so he would focus his flirtatious energy on her instead of Sydney. This was an interesting and potentially effective (albeit very dangerous) bait and switch, for the sisters were very similar, both physically and personality wise. Either way, she could not have been more annoyed that he did not pass his little scheme by her before putting it into action.

“Hey guys,” Michael said cheerfully as he walked into the alley. “Ready for some oh,” he paused when he spotted Nadia. “Are you Sydney’s sister?”

“How’d you know?” Sydney asked, wondering if Peter had so kindly bothered to tip his friend up to the little set up.

“Um…I have eyes?” Michael said in more of a question fashion. Sydney laughed softly at this. Michael shook his head at her before introducing himself to Sydney’s sister. The two of them shook hands before Michael asked, “So what are you doing here? You going to play with us?”

Nadia nodded and tucked a long strand of her black hair behind her ear. “If you don’t mind.”

“No, not at all. This way we can play two on two,” he smiled. “So what’ll it be? Guys versus girls or us trying to kick their asses,” Michael said, gesturing towards the married couple.

“Better make it that one; Sydney likes it best when she can compete with me,” Nadia winked. Sydney clicked her tongue while giving her sister a light shove. “I’m just kidding,” she smiled innocently before walking over to the shoe rental counter. The four of them traded in their shoes as Peter complained that wearing rented bowling shoes meant he needed to throw out his socks afterwards. Sadly, Sydney knew he would do exactly that as soon as they arrived home. After putting on their bowling shoes they paid for their game and then went to choose from the many multicolored balls available to them in the alley.

All in all the evening was actually rather enjoyable for all parties. Sydney in particular found it interesting since she knew full well that Michael was not even close to her sister’s type. Of course that did not mean Nadia would dislike Michael; quite the opposite in fact. Michael simply was not dating material in her viewpoint.

At one point during the evening, Sydney dragged her sister to the bathroom and briefed her on Peter’s jealousy situation before politely asking her to show some interest in Michael just to appease her crazy husband. Nadia agreed but threatened that Sydney would have to face the consequences if Michael asked her out. Luckily, he did not. Sydney suspected that he too got wind of the set up situation.

“I think that went really well, don’t you? The four of us should go out again sometime,” Peter said with a grin across his face as he and Sydney were on their way home.

Sydney hesitated before responding to this. On one hand, she could flat out lie and encourage the situation just to appease Peter’s jealousy even further. That, however, would only succeed in getting herself in trouble with her sister, who would not be happy about having to spend many evenings in the future with their little double date gang. On the other hand, she could tell the truth and risk Peter reverting back to his jealous ways when he was so close to coming out of them. In the end, Sydney decided the latter, honest route was the best since Nadia’s feelings, or, rather, lack there of for Michael would come out eventually anyway.

“Well, to be honest, Michael isn’t really Nadia’s type,” Sydney told him.

“What?” Peter asked, almost laughing off Sydney’s suggestion as absurd. “They got along great tonight!”

Deciding against revealing her little deal with Nadia, Sydney said cautiously, “Well…yeah. I’m sure Nadia and Michael could be friends, but that’s as far as it would go. Nadia doesn’t like funny guys that much. She’s into more brooding intellectual types…its odd,” Sydney said with a slight grimace. She had yet to enjoy the company of any of Nadia’s serious boyfriends. Quite frankly, a lot of them disturbed her.

“Oh well, it was worth a shot,” Peter shrugged innocently. Sydney sighed and rested her head against the window, hoping that Peter would not take too many more ‘shots’ at setting up his friend on a date, especially if she had to go along with it.



Chapter 5

Lucky for Sydney’s mental sanity, Peter did not set Michael up on any more dates, at least none Sydney knew about. In fact, Peter seemed to be back to being best friends with Michael, or at least closer to best friends then he had been since Michael arrived. Sydney had no idea what spurred his change but she was certainly not going to question it.

Starting at the beginning of November, both Sydney and Peter were very busy with their class work, wanting to get their students exposed to as much information as possible before the Thanksgiving holidays. It was a well known fact that students, especially those of middle school and high school age, did not enjoy putting much effort into their school work in the short two weeks between Thanksgiving break and Christmas break. To them, it was simply a bridge of time during which they had to count down the days until they were off school once more. Naturally, teachers did not share this viewpoint, but motivating the students was hard enough already, they took it into account and tried to jam pack the most fact-filled lessons before the Thanksgiving holiday.

Due to this factor, Sydney and Peter had little time to spend with Michael, but they were able to plan a nice party for his twenty-ninth birthday. It was Sydney who suggested the birthday party idea in the first place, but Peter added to this notion by saying a surprise party would be even better. Apparently, he and a few other friends threw Michael a surprise party their senior year of college and Michael loved it, so, naturally, Peter assumed he would love another one. What Peter failed to take into account was the fact that Michael was not overly excited about turning twenty-nine. Actually, he was downright depressed about it. In Michael’s mind twenty-nine meant only one year until he was thirty, which, apparently, was the year his life would end. Though both Sydney and Peter found his attitude a little melodramatic, they tried to make the best of their party anyway, but it was no use; Michael just was not in a party mood. He did appreciate their gesture, though, and thanked them for their efforts.

Shortly after the party, which was held a week and a half before Michael’s actual birthday to maintain its surprise element, Sydney and Peter left to spend Thanksgiving with Peter’s family. In order to maintain a peaceful existence with both families, they alternated holidays spending Thanksgiving with the Tuckers and Christmas with the Bristow’s one year and then switching the next. That way, each family was able to spend time together and Sydney and Peter were not stuffed full of holiday food by having two Thanksgivings and two Christmases.

During the first week in December, Sydney was enjoying a quiet evening alone in her apartment. As much as she loved being able to sit around with her husband in the evenings, being alone was always a nice change of pace. For that evening, she had big plans. After eating her favorite take-out dinner, she was going to relax in a warm bubble bath before retreating to bed to fall asleep with a good book. Her plans were foiled, though, with the ringing of the telephone. Sydney almost did not answer it, but thinking it was Peter, she picked it up.

“Hey Syd, it’s Michael, is Peter there?”

“Um, no he’s at some science fair thing with two of his students. He won’t be back until late tomorrow,” Sydney told him.

“Oh…oh alright…”

“Was there something you needed?” Sydney questioned at Michael’s rather disappointed tone. With a sigh, Michael told her that he did not need anything, but he was looking for some company (and help) while he unpacked things in his apartment. “Unpack? I thought you finished?” Sydney asked with utmost confusion.

“No, no I moved again two days ago. See, when I first moved here I only had a three month lease and that expired so I moved to a place closer to my work so I didn’t have to drive like forty minutes every day,” he explained.

“Ohhh,” Sydney sighed. “Well, um, I can help you if you want… I mean, I’m not doing anything.”

“You sure?”

“Sure,” Sydney smiled into the phone. “Just give me your address.”

~*~

“Okay, this place is definitely nicer than the other one,” Sydney commented as she walked into Michael’s new place.

Michael laughed. “That’s because I went for cheap before. Seriously, though, do you know how much moving again sucks?”

“A lot probably,” Sydney laughed. She and Michael chatted about the pains of packing and unpacking for a few minutes before Michael informed her that he was working on arranging his kitchen and she was welcome to unpack anything she wanted. “Mind if I do your clothes? Something tells me they’ll be neater if I fold them and put them away,” she winked.

Michael laughed. “Something tells me you’re right. Go for it.” Sydney gave him a smile before walking into the bedroom to find duffle bags and boxes labeled clothes waiting to be unpacked. In the duffle bag, she found suits still on their hanger that Michael had apparently just crammed in there with haste. Rolling her eyes slightly, Sydney tried to smooth them out as best as possible before putting them away. The suit jackets and pants were not too hideously wrinkled, but Sydney figured that was because they had only been in the bag for a day or so, not giving them much chance to become permanently distorted.

After the suits were done, Sydney moved onto a box that held socks and belts and ties, which were also very wrinkled. As she was neatly putting his sox in his drawers and organizing them by color, Michael appeared in the doorway, offering her a drink. “No thanks, I’m good,” she responded. Michael nodded and peered into the drawer with a slight laugh.

“You realize those are gonna stay that way for, like, a day, right?”

“Yes,” she smiled, “but I can’t stop myself; I like things this way because otherwise I can’t find anything I need.”

“Good point,” Michael laughed, knowing that was often his problem. With that, he left, and Sydney opened up another box. Upon realizing this box contained Michael’s underwear, Sydney decided it was best to let him unpack that one, but not before she was able to get a good look into the box. She noticed that Michael had a very interesting array of underwear ranging from plain blue boxers to boxers with cartoon characters on them to boxer briefs to surprisingly small black briefs that she would have mocked him for had she not been distracted by the items beside the underwear. It appeared Sydney had come across Michael’s porn stash. A smirk on her face, she picked up two of the magazines and one of the videotapes (that was tragically unlabeled) and walked out into the kitchen.

“My, my, my now this is interesting reading,” she said as she fakely leafed through the magazine, making sure to glance up at Michael every few seconds. It took him a moment to realize what she had, but when he did his face turned pink and he rushed forward.

“Gimmie that!”

“Nope,” she laughed as she ran around to the other side of the sofa, letting the other magazine and videotape fall onto the cushions. Holding the magazine in front of her she continued to leaf. “Now this is interesting… they have a crossword puzzle in here. I wonder if it’s a dirty crossword,” she paused to read one of the clues, “YEP! And you filled it in too,” she giggled.

“Gimmie!” Michael shouted, lunging at her. She dodged him by hopping over the coffee table, laughing all the way. Michael lunged again and she tossed the magazine at him to escape. Then, she jumped over the couch, snatching the videotape on the way.

“Now I wonder,” she said as she turned the tape over, examining it, “is this a homemade tape?”

Michael’s pink face turned tomato red and he actually looked concerned. “No, but you should give that to me.”

“Oh but why? We should watch it!” Sydney suggested. She tried to make her way towards the VCR, but Michael stopped her, grabbing her around the waist and hoisting her over his shoulder upside down causing her to scream loudly. “Put me down!”

“Give me the tape,” Michael countered. Once he heard the tape drop to the ground he set Sydney upright and snatched it away before she could get it. Then, he went into the bedroom to retrieve the rest of his secret stash.

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of, you know; everybody has some,” Sydney told him simply as she leaned against the door to his bedroom.

“Oh I’m sure you have tons,” he said in a mocking tone.

“Well,” a sly smile crossed her face. Michael looked over to her, jaw agape, and she giggled. “It’s not porn porn… more like an instructional video that was a gift and I just never threw it away…”

Michael looked at her in shock for a solid few seconds before saying, “Damn. Why the hell didn’t I have an English teacher like you when I was in middle school!”

Sydney laughed loudly. “I’m not an ordinary English teacher that’s for sure.”

“No, you’re not, which begs the question – what are you doing with Captain Carrots anyway? You’re so … normal.”

“Peter is normal,” Sydney said. Michael gave her a, ‘Yeah, right!’ look. “Okay…he can be normal and he’s… I dunno,” she sighed as she walked over and sat on the edge of his bed. “When we met I really needed someone like him in my life – someone steady, someone who I could trust. I’d just got out of an abusive relationship an-”

“Someone hit you?!” Michael asked in a tone that sounded as though he was ready to go find a pair of brass knuckles and beat someone up.

“No – verbally abusive, not physical,” Sydney clarified. “Anyway… Peter and I fell in love and…here we are,” she laughed softly with a shrug.

“Well I guess Peter’s an okay guy…,” Michael said casually. Sydney rolled her eyes slightly. “Anyway I should get back to unpacking – stay out of my porn,” he warned her as he headed towards the door.

Sydney laughed. “I’ll try.”



Chapter 6

“Hey honey,” Sydney greeted her husband with a hug and a kiss when he arrived home the following evening, “how was the science fair?”

“Great! Abby’s project won second place,” Peter told her with a smile. “How was your evening alone? Enjoy your bath?”

“Oh I didn’t take it; I went over to Michael’s to help him unpack,” she said. Then she had to restrain herself from gasping and clapping her hand over her mouth in horror at what she had just admitted. Quickly, she tried to revise her comment before Peter’s expression grew any more dangerous. “Well, um, see Michael called looking for you because he wanted help and then I offered to help so I went over and helped him unpack his clothes and CDs and stuff,” she explained.

“So… it was just you and him in his apartment?” Peter questioned, folding his arms over his chest.

“Oh my god – it was! I must have forgotten about the law that prohibits women and men to be alone together!” she said in a horrified tone, obviously mocking him.

“Sydney this isn’t funny,” Peter snapped.

“Jeez what’s the big deal? I just went over to help my friend unpack some stuff – is that a crime?” she asked as she walked away and into the kitchen, hoping to relieve some tension by creating some distance between them.

“No, of course not, but that ‘friend,’” peter said with air quotes, “happens to be Michael.”

“You’re not turning into a jealous, untrustworthy husband, are you Peter?” Sydney questioned in a dangerous tone.

Peter softened his hard look. “No… of course I trust you. I trust you completely. I don’t trust him…”

“What does that even mean?! What do you think, he’s going to rape me or something? That doesn’t make any sense, Peter. Michael wouldn’t do that and even if he did make a pass at me or something – which I don’t think he would – but even if he did I’m perfectly capable of saying, ‘I’m sorry, Michael, but I’m married.’ Don’t you think so?” she asked.

“Of course,” Peter mumbled.

“Then what’s the problem?” she asked.

“Nothing,” Peter sighed. “Nothing, okay? Nothing it’s just…you get along better with Michael than you do with me...,” he admitted quietly.

“What?!” Sydney laughed. “That’s ridiculous,” she said. Peter gave her a look. “Okay…so Michael and I get along – that makes him my friend and he’s your friend too, which is a good thing, isn’t it?”

“Well…yeah…”

“Peter,” Sydney said softly as she walked over and put her arms around him. “I love you, remember? Just because Michael is my friend and I like him as a friend doesn’t mean I want to jump him, okay? So please, please stop freaking out about this, alright?”

“Alright,” Peter agreed before kissing her gently. “Oh you know what we should do after school’s out next week? Go away for a weekend…relax…maybe do some last minute shopping?”

A smile spread across Sydney’s face. “Sounds good to me.”

~*~

The weekend following Sydney’s assistance with Michael’s unpacking, she and Peter went on their two-night getaway that turned out to be very nice and exactly what they needed. The week following that since they were both going to be home Sydney and Peter planned on painting their kitchen. They only finished one wall when Peter announced that if he had to smell any more paint fumes he was going to be sick, which left Sydney with the task of finishing the painting job while he went someplace else to escape the fumes. Though this annoyed her slightly, she had no choice; she could not force him to be ill nor could she live with a half painted kitchen.

After another twenty minutes of boring painting, Sydney heard the apartment doorbell ring. Thinking it was Peter and he had forgotten his key, Sydney set her paint brush down over the paint can and went to open the door. Instead of Peter, though, she found Michael. “Hey…shouldn’t you be working?” she asked.

“Lunch break,” he said simply. Then, after sniffing the air he added, “Are you painting?”

“Yes,” she groaned, “alone too. Peter left.”

“He left you? Bastard. Was it for another woman? A man?!” Michael asked, though an amused grin was cracking through his serious expression.

Sydney rolled her eyes. “No, retard. The paint fumes were making him sick…”

“Pansy,” Michael muttered. “Need help?”

“Well that would be nice but I don’t want you to get your nice clothes painty,” Sydney said with a scrunched up nose.

“Need company then?” he offered.

“Sure, but I wouldn’t want you to get a headache too,” she winked.

“Psh,” Michael gave a flippant noise, “like I’d get a headache from paint fumes. I might get a little high but…”

Sydney laughed. “Oh yeah that’s just what we need – you going back to work high as a kite.”

“Hey it’d make work more interesting…speaking of, though – did Peter ever tell you about the time we all tried pot in college?” Michael asked as he sat down at the kitchen table.

“What?! No! What happened?” Sydney asked.

“Peter started coughing so hard we thought we were gonna have to take him to the ER,” Michael laughed. Sydney laughed slightly too, completely able to envision that in her mind. “It didn’t really do much to us though… then again, we didn’t smoke all that much either.”

“Good to know,” Sydney commented before turning back to her painting.

“What about you? Were you a goodie two shoes or a rebel?” he asked.

Sydney smiled over her shoulder. “What do you think?”

“Hmm,” Michael paused to ponder. “I think you were a closet rebel, wishing you could do stuff like get piss drunk and smoke lots of pot but too afraid to put those wishes into action.”

“Well you’re half right,” Sydney told him. “While I never had desires to smoke pot or do any other sort of illegal narcotics I did wish I was a bit more comfortable in the partying scene. I’m not a good drunk, though – I’m a depressing one. I get all quiet and shy…it’s bad.”

“Oh that sucks. Peter’s a bad drunk too…but only ‘cause he can’t hold his liquor and ends up puking everywhere.”

“Sadly I know,” Sydney said with a sigh recalling her husband’s bachelor party which, thankfully, was a few nights before their wedding instead of the night before.

Sydney and Michael chatted for another half an hour before he left, needing to get back to work. Once he was gone, Sydney finished the kitchen painting quickly and made sure to open all the windows and turn on three fans while she took a shower. Of course, this made the apartment practically glacial, but it removed most of the unpleasant paint odor so by the time Peter arrived home he was no longer nauseous.

“Looks great honey. Thanks,” he said, kissing her gently.

“Sure it was fine…fun actually,” she said with a soft smile recalling her conversation with Michael.

“Great. Want to collect your back massage now?” he asked with a grin. Sydney nodded vigorously; she never turned down a back massage.



Chapter 7

Christmas at the Bristow residence was an interesting event that year, especially with thick-headed Peter talking up Michael to Nadia for practically all of Christmas Eve. It appeared he had either forgotten about Sydney’s comments on the subject or was ignoring them completely because he would not stop until Sydney gave him a deadly glare. Naturally, due to the endless conversation on the subject, Sydney’s parents grew curious as to who Michael was and Sydney was forced to explain how he’d come into their lives. Then Sydney’s mother, who at times could be more stubborn than Peter, suggested that Nadia go out with such a ‘nice young man.’ This only succeeded in infuriating Nadia even more than she already was by Peter’s irritation. Needless to say they did not have a very merry Christmas.

For New Years, Michael decided to have a party of his own in his new apartment to celebrate the fact that he was finally unpacked for the second time around. The party wasn’t a very large event; it only consisted of Sydney, Peter, three of Michael’s coworkers from his job and a few people who lived nearby him whom he’d become friends with, but it was nice nonetheless.

Shortly before midnight, Sydney made her way out to the balcony of Michael’s apartment. Even though it was rather cold outside, she needed an escape from the party atmosphere. She leaned against the railing while watching the neighbors set off fireworks for almost five minutes before she heard someone else step out onto the patio. Turning around, she saw it was Michael, who smiled at her.

“Whatcha doin’ out here?” he asked.

“Oh well Peter and that neighbor of yours, Melanie, were talking about physics and boring me to death. I came out here to jump,” she told him seriously.

Michael laughed. “Well now we can’t have that. I’ll have to stay out here and keep you on suicide watch.”

“Alright,” she smiled at him. “This is a really great party you’ve got here,” she said.

“You think so? It’s kinda lame… well, not lame exactly, but lame compared to the ones I threw in college….”

Sydney shook her head. “Whatever made you so wild?” she wondered aloud.

“My dead sexy good looks,” he deadpanned. Sydney snorted with laughter. “No I dunno… the crowds I hung out with in high school and it continued on to college until it finally fizzled out when I realized I actually had to be an adult.”

“Ah yes being an adult…sucks doesn’t it?” she laughed. Michael nodded in agreement. Sydney was just about to say something else when she heard the partygoers inside begin to count down from ten. “Oh…I guess I should go kiss my husband at midnight.”

“Who’s gonna kiss me?!” he asked in a helpless tone.

Sydney rolled her eyes before taking a step away, but then she froze for a moment. She turned back and kissed him on the cheek, catching him completely off guard. “Happy New Year Michael,” she said softly before slipping back inside.

~*~

Much too quickly for her wishes, Sydney was back at school ready to start a brand new semester with her students. Unfortunately for both she and her students, that semester was the one in which they would be writing a research paper. Naturally, the students loathed this task and Sydney was not every fond of it either, due to the high volume of complaining it brought out in her students.

One afternoon after school was over, Sydney was sitting at her desk reviewing topic proposals for the research papers. When she heard a knock at her classroom door and looked up to see who it was, she was stunned to see Michael. “How’d you get in here?!” she laughed, knowing the school’s usually tight security.

“Told ‘em I was your brother,” he said simply. “I felt the need to come back and get a little education. Maybe I’ll get better grades this time,” he said with a smile as he sat down in one of the student desks.

“I thought you did well in English,” Sydney said with a raised eyebrow.

“Oh I did – in high school and college. Before then I didn’t really apply myself; I was lucky to scrap by with a B minus.”

“Ah well you could always write a research paper on,” Sydney paused to read from the paper in front of her, “the differences in comics and stuff between here and Japan.”

Michael laughed. “It doesn’t actually say ‘and stuff’ does it?”

“Sadly…”

“Well I’m glad to say I was never that bad,” Michael sighed.

“So what brings you here anyway?” Sydney asked.

Michael shrugged. “I was bored…ooh check out all these books,” Michael said in an intrigued tone as he headed towards the back of Sydney’s classroom. On the back shelf, there was a stack of books that looked rather worn from a distance. Up close, Michael saw they were very old early editions of classic novels. “Where’d you get these?” he asked.

“Lot’s of places,” she said. “I collect them...well, actually a lot of them are my mom’s. My dad’s job takes him all over the world so he used to buy her a book on every trip… I took an interest in them, so she gave them to me,” Sydney explained to him.

“That’s really cool…I wish I had something I collected,” Michael said.

“You do,” Sydney told him. He gave her a confused look. “You have that box of porn!” she grinned. He made a mocking face at her before turning back to the pile of books. He scanned the titles for a few minutes before walking back across the room to Sydney’s desk where he began rearranging the stapler, hole punch, tissue box and other items atop it.

“What are you doing?” Sydney asked, obviously annoyed.

“Nothin’,” he said with a cheeky grin.

“Stop, stop that,” she said, smacking his hands away. “You’re worse than my students.”

“Are you going to give me detention?” he asked. His tone made his comment sound much dirtier than it should have and resulted in Sydney glaring at him. “Sorry, I’ll stop now.”

“Good,” she said simply. “I need to finish this before I go home and make dinner – meatloaf just like they serve in the cafeteria.”

“Yuck,” Michael scrunched up his nose in disgust. “Why does Pete put up with you?”

“I was joking!” she laughed. “Unless of course you were coming for dinner – then I was serious…”

“Cruel,” he muttered.



Chapter 8

In the next few weeks, Sydney and Michael spent a surprising amount of time together. In addition to the two times Michael ate dinner at the Tucker residence, Sydney and Michael went shopping twice. Or rather, Sydney dragged Michael shopping for things he needed but was incapable of picking out for himself.

The first shopping excursion resulted when Sydney saw Michael wearing black shoes with a brown belt and nearly had a fit. Michael then went on to explain that his brown shoes had been covered in grossness (the word he used) and had to be thrown out and he, apparently, was incapable of finding new ones. Peter spoke in his defense, stating that it was true; he could not shop for items of clothing if his life depended on it. Rolling her eyes, Sydney volunteered to take him with her since she needed to find some items at the mall as well. Their shopping outing did not go as smoothly as Sydney anticipated, though she may have been a bit optimistic given Michael’s gender. She assumed he would not mind running her two errands before they looked for his shoes, but apparently the first errand resulted in Michael being near death, so Sydney was forced to forgo her second errand to just buy his shoes and go home so Michael could recuperate in front of the television.

The second shopping outing was far less painful than the first due to the fact that they were not shopping for clothes or shoes or something of the wearable nature. Apparently the microwave Michael was using was one he had during college and his parents used before that. Not surprisingly, it died and he was in need of a new one, but naturally did not know how to pick one. Sydney, who had just purchased a new microwave when she got married, volunteered to help him make an educated selection.

On both shopping trips Sydney and Michael laughed their way through the task at hand, mocking other shoppers and sales clerks alike. At one point Sydney was laughing so hard she could not even stand and was clinging to Michael for support. At one point, they were mistaken for a couple, which put an awkward damper on their fun. They managed to recover though and began having so much fun playing with the different microwaves they forgot they were supposed to be shopping for one.

Sydney was so busy helping her students with their research papers and Michael with his shopping dilemmas that she completely forgot about Valentine’s Day until the upcoming holiday was mentioned at a faculty meeting. At the last minute, she was forced to throw together a mini celebration for all four of her classes complete with valentines for each of her students as well as candy. Luckily, the one thing she did not have to worry about was getting a gift or a card for her husband, who positively loathed the Hallmark created holiday.

Sydney was not sure of the catalyst for Peter’s hatred of the fat cherub with heart shaped arrows; she never bothered to ask. All she knew was that Peter loathed anything and everything to do with Valentine’s Day. She did not mind all that much, though. After all, it was just any other day during which people exchanged silly cards and candy. Sure, it might have been nice to go out to a nice dinner, but they could do that any night. In fact, going out a different night sans the Valentine’s Day crowds would have actually been preferable.

That year, besides the few cards she received from her students, the only other Valentine related gift she received was from Michael. Sydney was shocked to find a large vase of pink tulips on her desk the morning of Valentine’s Day. Knowing they could not possibly be from her husband, she was curious as to who the sender was. When she found out it was from Michael, she smiled immediately at his thoughtfulness. Later on she found out from him that he merely thought of her when he was sending flowers to his mother and though she might like some as well since he was all too aware of Peter’s loathing of that day.

~*~

What Peter Tucker severely lacked in the celebration department related to Valentine’s Day, he more than made up for in his elaborate plans to celebrate their first anniversary. Sydney knew he was up to something, especially when she was informed by her husband that on the day of their anniversary, a Saturday, she was informed that she needed to vacate their apartment by ten am and not return until six pm sharp. This whole day of planning perplexed her and yet intrigued her, wondering what exactly he had come up with.

Anticipating that she was going to be gone for a long time, Sydney made plans with her sister, but that was only for an early lunch. Nadia did not have time to hang out with her elder sister all afternoon; she had a date. Sydney was concerned about how she was going to occupy herself for five hours, until Michael contacted her. She had to admit she was a little surprised Michael was not involved at least a little bit in helping Peter accomplish whatever he was planning, but she was happy just the same to have a place to go and hang out.

For most of the afternoon Sydney and Michael watched movies and played card games. Michael was shocked to find out that Sydney was an excellent poker player until she explained that she and Nadia spent many summers in their youth playing poker with one another. The two of them were having so much fun that Sydney almost forgot about the fact that she needed to leave at five twenty in order to get home in time and she was almost late.

Sydney blew into her apartment with only seconds to spare to find it entirely dark. Across the room she saw a single candle lit and began to walk towards it slowly. Unfortunately, in her intrigue, she momentarily forgot the layout of her apartment and quickly found herself flat on the floor after tripping over a magazine rack. She managed to collect herself, though and made her way to the candle. There, she found a card with instructions for her to go straight into the bathroom and change into the dress waiting for her in there. A soft smile on her face, she did as it asked.

Peter’s anniversary celebration was elegant to say the least. He had prepared by himself from scratch a wonderful meal for he and Sydney to share. Apparently, he had been taking a few cooking lessons without Sydney’s knowledge and shocked her with his talents. In addition to covering the majority of their apartment with rose petals, he bought Sydney a beautiful necklace that she loved. As would be expected, the night ended with the two of them making love on their bed; however the most peculiar thing happened to Sydney at this time.

As she was lying on the bed with Peter beside her, kissing her all over, she let her eyes drift shut. In her mind, she envisioned what was going on around her, yet in her thoughts it was not Peter kissing her stomach and caressing her legs: it was Michael. “Oh my god,” she breathed under her breath at the horrifying realization of what her subconscious was thinking. Peter, thinking her comment was relating to what he was doing to her, grinned and kissed her deeply, not even noticing that Sydney was not really kissing him back.



Chapter 9

On the night of her anniversary, Sydney did not sleep at all. Instead, she was obsessing. She tossed and turned most of the night while her husband slept soundly beside her. In that time, she wondered what she had been thinking, envisioning Michael that way. She did not want Michael in that way…did she? No, no of course not; that was preposterous. Michael was her friend and nothing more. Sure, she found him handsome, but anyone would have. She was definitely not attracted to him. Or…was she?

These thoughts consumed her for the better part of the week until she had obsessed and obsessed to the point of bordering on insanity. She knew she had to talk with somebody and there was only one person she trusted in that situation: her sister. She called Nadia on Thursday and the two sisters made plans to get together on Sunday for brunch. Nadia originally suggested going out, but Sydney knew the conversation they were going to have was one that could absolutely not be had in public, so they opted for Nadia’s apartment instead.

“So what’s the deal?” Nadia asked as she poured them both cups of coffee. “You sounded kinda frazzled on the phone.”

“I am frazzled,” Sydney sighed.

“Marriage troubles?” Nadia asked.

Sydney laughed softly. “Not exactly…it’s just…,” she was just about to begin her query when she chickened out and opted for a heavy sigh instead. Half a minute later, she tried again. “Okay so like when you’re having sex with a guy-”

“Oh boy it is a little early for this sort of conversation,” Nadia laughed, taking a long sip of her coffee.

Sydney turned slightly pink as she continued. “Well…I was just wondering have you ever pictured another guy in your mind?”

“Oh totally,” Nadia said with a casual hand wave.

“Really!?” Sydney asked hopefully. Maybe her situation was not so dire after all.

“Yeah all the time. I mean not all the time, but it happens with some guys more than others. I can’t believe you’ve never done it – but wait, was this a real person or, like, a celebrity?” she asked.

“Yeah because celebrities aren’t real people…,” Sydney rolled her eyes.

“No, that’s not what I meant by real. I meant attainable. Celebrities aren’t attainable. Like, if you’re having sex with a guy, close your eyes and pretend its Orlando Bloom there’s no harm because it’s not like you could ever actually do it with Orlando. BUT,” she said, wagging a spoon at Sydney, “if you’re fantasizing about say…the English teacher across the hall you could easily do it with him on your desk after school-”

“Nadia!” Sydney screeched.

Nadia laughed. “All I’m saying is it makes a difference, because if it is with that English teacher you may actually like him…it also matters if you wanted it to happen or it was happening.”

Sydney’s brow furrowed with confusion. “What do you mean? What’s the difference?”

Nadia took another sip of her coffee before continuing her explanation. “Well, let’s say Peter was kissing your neck, okay? So you closed your eyes and you were thinking, ‘Mmm I wonder what it would be like if Orlando was kissing my neck…’

“That’s one situation,” Nadia told her. “The other situation was if you closed your eyes and, in your mind, Orlando was kissing your neck. Which one was it?”

“The second one,” Sydney mumbled. “And it wasn’t my neck he was kissing…”

Nadia’s snorted. “Ooo so Mr. Boring has a kinky side?”

“Gross Nad, we’re not going that into detail,” Sydney said with a slight shiver. Since her sister was her best friend, there was a certain level of sharing that went on between them, but they drew the line at anything too personal.

“I’m kidding. That’s…well, it’s not that bad I suppose…when did this happen anyway?” Nadia asked.

“On our anniversary,” Sydney mumbled into her cup of coffee.

Nadia choked on the hot liquid in her mouth. “Yikes Syd! That is bad! Are you and Peter seriously having problems?”

“No, no we’re not,” Sydney assured her. “I mean…it’s the first time anything like this happened… You know what I think it was?” Sydney said quickly as a light bulb of enlightenment flashed in her mind. “Earlier that day while I was waiting for Peter to set up the whole anniversary thing, I was over at Michael’s and-”

“Whoa,” Nadia stopped her with her hands held out in front of her. “This was Michael you imagined?! Because then we have a whole ‘nother set of issues.”

“NO, no it wasn’t Michael,” Sydney lied quickly. “What I was saying was – Michael and I were watching this movie and-”

“And you imagined the guy on the screen doin’ the nasty,” Nadia finished for her. Sydney rolled her eyes slightly at her sister’s wording, but nodded her head. “Oh then it’s no big deal at all; merely one of those subconscious things. Don’t sweat it sis, it’s perfectly normal.”

“Great,” Sydney sighed with relief, momentarily ignoring the fact that she was relived at a lie. The sister’s conversation turned to Nadia’s boyfriend and though topics of that nature were almost always amusing, Sydney’s heart just wasn’t in it. Her thoughts were consumed with what Nadia had said about the issues relating to Michael being her imagination-lover.

What exactly did Nadia mean by ‘issues’? Surely she had not been implying that Sydney had feelings for Michael. No, no of course not. Sydney convinced herself that the ‘issues’ her sister was referring to was that Michael was a real individual rather than an unattainable celebrity. Michael was available to her, but, of course, Sydney would not act on that availability for many reasons the least of which being she would never have an affair with anyone. She promised herself that long before she was married.

“Syd? Syd! What’s with you? You’re like on another planet,” Nadia laughed softly.

“No, no I was just…”

“Thinking about your celebrity lover,” Nadia continued for her.

Sydney blushed slightly. “Of course not. I’m not going to think about him ever again,” she told Nadia. The only problem was she wasn’t sure that was possible.



Chapter 10

Unfortunately for Sydney and her mental sanity, she did think about Michael once more in a less than G-rated fashion. This incident occurred only a few days after her conversation with her sister, during a time when Sydney was still obsessing over the first incident. Keeping her obsession in mind, she attributed the second incident’s occurrence to her conscious thoughts constantly being on Michael. She thought (or, at least, prayed) that once she stopped obsessing over her subconscious thoughts, she would have no more Michael-in-her-dreams incidents. Luckily, she was right, at least, for a little while.

One weeknight evening when Michael was sharing dinner with the Tucker’s the trio was conversing about movies, though, really, the conversation was a little one sided. As a general rule, Peter was not a fan of movies. Sure, he could appreciate Disney movies when his little nieces were involved and he enjoyed an occasional documentary, but as for the movie that told a story…well, they made him want to gag. Sydney loved movies, but during that point in time she was trying to focus not on Michael, which meant she was doing a lot of staring at the mashed potatoes on her plate. The only person who seemed to be talking was Michael, and even he was silent at times. Finally, at the mention of one movie, Sydney finally spoke up.

“I really want to see that new on…what’s it called? Something about fog…oh! Yes! Into the Fog,” Michael said.

“Oh I want to see that too,” Sydney chimed in with a smile. Across the table, Peter began to mutter about the Hollywood-ization of America and how movies only succeeded in putting more focus on celebrities, who already received more than enough press time. “I still want to see it,” Sydney said after his rant was over.

“Wanna go? Together I mean,” Michael offered.

Sydney looked tentatively over at Peter who scoffed, “I’m not goin’ with ya…”

Sydney then turned to Michael and smiled, “I’d love to. When? Friday after work?”

Michael nodded. “It’s a date.”

~*~

On Friday Sydney rushed home from work and changed at lightening speed so she would be ready when Michael came to pick her up. At first, Sydney was concerned Peter would be upset with the two of them going out, especially after Michael had used the term date, but, in actuality, Peter seemed relieved that Sydney was not going to be dragging him along with her. In fact, Peter suggested that Sydney drag Michael to all the movies she wanted to see, including the sappy romantic comedies, but Sydney was pretty sure he was joking.

Michael arrived to pick up Sydney at six on the dot, just like he promised. Much to Sydney’s pleasant surprise, she saw that Michael was holding out a single yellow rose. “Well aren’t you sweet,” Sydney smiled at him, taking the rose.

“Eh, not really – I pulled it from your neighbor’s garden,” he told her. Sydney’s jaw dropped in shock until Michael started laughing, a clear indication he had been joking. Annoyed, Sydney elbowed him in the ribs as she followed him out to his car. “This is gonna be fun – you and me,” Michael smiled at her.

“Of course,” Sydney said, “it’s always fun when we hang out.”

At the movie theater, Michael bought tickets for both Sydney and himself before she had a chance to pull out her wallet. She protested his generosity, but he assured her that it was a thank you for saving him from being the creepy loner guy in the back with his hand down his pants. This comment only succeeded in making Sydney laugh so hard she nearly choked. Michael assured her that he had never been that guy, which she found very comforting.

“Boy it’s crowded,” Sydney commented while she and Michael were searching for two seats together. Michael nodded in agreement before he spotted a pair of seats down by the front of the theater. Neither he nor Sydney enjoyed sitting that close to the screen, but if they wanted to sit together they had no choice. They slid into the seats just as the movie began.

~*~

“So I’m fairly sure my neck will never be the same,” Sydney commented with a groan as she rubbed her aching neck. Due to the close proximity of their seats to the screen, Sydney and Michael were forced to look up the entire movie, resulting in a very painful neck cramp for the both of them.

“Tell me about it…that was a good movie though,” he said, rubbing his own neck.

“Definitely good. Thanks for goin’ with me,” Sydney said, slipping one arm through Michael’s and hugging it against her chest.

“Of course,” he smiled down at her. “You’re like…my best friend anyway. Why wouldn’t I go with you?”

Sydney blushed softly and her heart fluttered as she asked, “What? I’m your best friend?”

“Sure,” Michael said, his cheeks turning notably pink as well. “I mean…well, yeah, besides Peter and all…”

Sydney leaned up and kissed his rose colored cheek. “You’re my best friend too – well, my best guy friend. Nadia’s my best girl friend,” she told him.

“I can live with that,” Michael said. “I don’t want you sharing your chick problems with me anyway.”

“No worries Michael,” Sydney said, patting his shoulder.

On their way out of the mall and to the parking lot, they passed an ice cream shop that was having its grand opening celebration. Michael whined and begged for Sydney to go inside with him and she agreed. The ice cream selection in the store was downright strange ranging from barbeque sandwich to garlic favorite. Needless to say, Sydney and Michael did not take advantage of the free samples they were offering.

“God that was disgusting – I feel the urge to throw up just thinking about eating some of that stuff,” Sydney shivered.

“Oh I don’t know… I would have tried the cheese flavored…yeah I’m kidding,” he added at the look on Sydney’s face. “But those people dancing in the back of the place were rather interesting.”

Sydney gave him a blank expression. “They were wearing lederhosen.”

“I know,” he laughed. Then he slipped an arm around Sydney’s waist and pulled her into a dance similar to the lederhosen-clad dancers right there in the middle of the parking lot. She squealed and told him to stop but he refused until they were both laughing so hard they could barely stand.

“You’re dangerous,” she told him, still laughing as she slipped inside the car.

“I know,” he grinned.

~*~

“Did you have a nice time?” Peter asked his wife when she arrived home.

“Oh…,” Sydney said, still laughing slightly from the conversation she had just had. “Yeah it was nice.”

“Good,” Peter smiled at her. “Glad you found a movie buddy.”

“Yeah…,” Sydney said unsurely. “A movie buddy…”

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Chapters 11 - 20 + Epilogue