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 11

“Hey, shifty would you chill out over there? You’re driving me nuts!” Michael called out. He was referring to Sydney, who was sitting on the chair beside the couch he was seated on. The two of them were watching a movie on Saturday afternoon while Peter was off attending a science lecture. In the half hour Michael had been at the Tucker’s apartment, Sydney had not been still for more than two minutes at a time. She was constantly shifting around in her chair, presumably trying to make herself more comfortable.

“Sorry,” she said, blushing slightly. “Peter’s chair is like the most uncomfortable thing ever. I feel like I’m sitting on boulders,” she grunted, shifting her position once more.

“Then why don’t you sit over here,” Michael gestured towards the couch cushion beside him. “I don’t have cooties; I promise.”

Laughing softly, Sydney stood up from the hard-as-a-rock chair and arched her spine, letting her vertebra snap back into their proper position. Then, she walked over to the sofa. She picked up a pillow and set it up against Michael’s leg before lying down on the sofa with her head on the pillow and her feet dangling over the arm of the sofa.

Michael rolled his eyes slightly at this. “Comfy princess?” he teased.

“Very,” she sighed happily. The two of them fell into silence as they turned their attention back to the screen. The movie playing there involved a wedding and, in that scene in particular, the bride was hyperventilating and panicking about never being able to sleep with anyone else besides her husband ever again. In theory, of course.

“Did you freak out like that?” Michael asked Sydney softly.

“Like what?” she sighed.

“The no sex with anyone else thing…”

“Oh…no, no I don’t think so; it never crossed my mind,” Sydney told him honestly. “Peter and I were only engaged for about six weeks before we got married, so there wasn’t much time for freaking out; we were busy.”

“Only six weeks?” Michael asked in surprise. “Surely not Captain Carrots, man who moves slower than dinosaurs.”

Sydney laughed softly. “Well, we had a little pregnancy scare and so Peter wanted to get married ASAP so his family wouldn’t find out we were having sex.”

“Were you? Pregnant I mean…”

“Yes don’t you see my baby? Isn’t she cute?” Sydney rolled her eyes.

Michael prodded her in the ribs causing her to squeal softly. “I was serious, jerk.”

“No, no I wasn’t…at first I had a mild case of the flu and then all the wedding stress caused the rest of my fake pregnancy symptoms,” she explained, looking up to him from her position with her head practically in her lap. He nodded in understanding. “What about you mister? Does the whole one person for the rest of your life concept freak you out?”

Michael did not answer for a few moments and appeared to be seriously thinking about his answer to the question. “No, I don’t think so. I mean, with the wrong person it would…but if I found the right person it wouldn’t because I wouldn’t want to be with anyone else, you know?” he said, looking down to her.

“Yeah,” Sydney said quietly, rolling over to face the TV instead of looking up at him. After a few moments Sydney noticed Michael’s hand was still resting on her side where he had poked her before and his fingertips were lightly dancing across the fabric of her shirt. It did not tickle; it was giving her chills, though, but either way, she didn’t want him to move.

Another fifteen minutes passed in silence before the bride on the screen who had earlier been upset about getting married was engaging in a moments-before-the-wedding fling with a groomsman. Quickly realizing that the scene they were watching was the reason (or one of the reasons) why the movie they were watching had an R rating, Sydney snatched up the remote and hit the fast forward button.

“Whoa, whoa what are you doing!?” Michael asked, trying to pull the remote from her hands.

Not wanting to reveal the true reason of how awkward it would be to watch a sex scene with Michael, a man not her husband, while her head was essentially resting in his lap, Sydney made up a lie quickly. “I just don’t want you to get overly stimulated porn-y. You can see her breasts,” Sydney gestured towards the screen with the remote.

“That’s exactly why I wanna see it – gimmie!” he reached for the remote, but Sydney pulled it away quickly.

“No!” she laughed. “That’s disgusting Michael stop! Stop!” she whined. Soon they were wrestling for the remote, batting each other’s limbs away as they scrambled on the couch. At one point, Sydney fell to the ground and Michael tumbled along with her since he was still trying to pull the remote from her grasp. When they landed on the carpet, Sydney’s hands were above her head, holding the remote as far away from Michael as possible. Michael was on top of her, his hands reaching towards hers. This position resulted in their faces being smashed together. They lay there for a moment, frozen with their foreheads together and their noses side by side making their lips only inches apart, both of them breathing heavily.

Just as quickly as it happened, it ended as Michael stood up, clearing his throat as he did so. “I just remembered,” he mumbled, “that I, um, need to, um, go…” Then, without another word, he crammed his shoes on his feet and left quickly.

Sydney, who was still on the ground at that point, rolled over onto her stomach and smashed her face down onto the pillow that had fallen along with them. She let out a loud scream of frustration into it before muttering, “That was not good…definitely not good…” So many ‘not good’ situations arose in the previous five minutes she was not sure which was worse: the fact that she and Michael had essentially been wrestling and enjoying it too, the fact that when they landed on the carpet there was a moment where Sydney thought Michael was going to kiss her or the fact that in that same moment Sydney wished that Michael had kissed her.

After obsessing for most of the remaining part of the afternoon, Sydney decided the best way to deal with the situation was not to deal with it at all and forget it ever happened. After all, it was simply an accident and it would never happen again.



Chapter 12

After the incident on the couch, or, rather, the floor beside the couch, Sydney and Michael avoided each other’s presence for a few days until it seemed they mutually yet silently agreed to forget the whole thing ever happened. Still, they were careful not to create similar situations and steered clear of one another unless Peter was there as well. One thing they did do, though, was converse over the phone. One evening Michael called Sydney to ask her assistance in removing a stain from one of his shirts and the two ended up talking for over an hour. The same thing happened two nights later except that time Michael’s phone call did not start with an ulterior motive. Both times when Peter asked Sydney who she had been speaking with, she told him it was her sister.

The first time she said this, the lie escaped without her realizing. After all, their call began entirely innocently and would cause Peter no reason for alarm. Still, Sydney felt compelled to lie for some reason and by the time the words were out, it was too late. The second time, though, Sydney had escaped into the bedroom while Peter was in the kitchen. This was something she often did while talking to her sister, to keep their conversation more private, so when she did it with Michael she thought nothing of it until a few days later when the guilt began to eat her up. She then made a promise to herself that if she spoke to Michael again, she would tell Peter the truth about who she was on the phone with, but she never did.

Sydney’s birthday fell in the middle of April, but she never liked to make a big deal about it. Sure, she enjoyed a party for her eighteenth and twenty-first milestone birthdays and she was looking forward to one for her thirtieth, but twenty-eight seemed like such an insignificant year there was no point in celebrating. Due to her feelings on celebrating or, rather, lack there of Peter decided against the surprise party Michael offered up. Instead, he was only going to get a small cake for the two of them, but Michael was more than welcome to come if he wanted. Michael turned down the invitation, though, not wanting to intrude and become the third wheel. He still wanted to give Sydney a present, though, and decided stopping by the school on the afternoon of her birthday was the best way to do this.

When Michael arrived in the doorway to Sydney’s classroom that afternoon, he poised his hand to knock on the door, but stopped short at the sight of her desk. He almost had to laugh at the fact that he could barely see Sydney through the balloons and flowers surrounding her. She clearly was well liked by her colleges or students, or perhaps both.

“There’s the birthday girl,” he said, grin across his face.

Sydney ducked her head underneath the balloons floating around her and smiled at him. “Hey Michael, come on in.”

“Thanks…I almost didn’t see you through the jungle,” he said, pointing towards her flowers.”

“Oh,” Sydney laughed softly. “Well these are from Peter…and those are from my dad and these are from the other teachers and then those are from my second period class,” she said finally gesturing towards the balloons.

“Well I hope you won’t mind one more little thing,” he said, holding out a pink paper wrapped package to her.

“Oh,” Sydney cocked her head to the side and gave Michael a warm smile. “You didn’t have to get me anything,” she sighed. She then took the package and sat down in one of her student desk chairs while Michael did the same. She untied the white ribbon around it first before carefully opening the paper and slipping it off the package. Inside was a plain white box and, when she opened it, she found a book. Not just any book either. The book was an early edition of The Velveteen Rabbit, Sydney’s favorite book. As she traced the cover softly with her fingers, tears welled in her eyes. Michael, seeing this, began to panic.

“Oh no…it wasn’t supposed to make you cry,” he said, cringing slightly.

“No, no,” Sydney said as she looked up to him, sniffing back her tears. “This is good, really good. Thank you Michael, thank you so much. Ho-how did you know?”

“You told me it was your favorite book and when I was here before I noticed it wasn’t back there so I’ve been looking for it…I found that in a bookstore in New York and I drove there to get it,” he told her.

Sydney looked at him in shock. “You did not!”

Michael laughed softly. “Yeah, I did; last weekend.”

Sydney glanced down at the book once more before looking over to Michael and saying in the most genuine tone she could muster, “Thank you, thank you so much Michael.”

“Of course,” he told her before he kissed her forehead softly. Then, he bid her goodbye, stating he needed to get to the grocery store before going home.

After he had gone, Sydney sat at that desk for almost ten minuets, marveling at his thoughtfulness before she was finally able to collect herself enough to go back to her desk and finish grading tests on To Kill a Mocking Bird.

Later that night, after enjoying the cake Peter bought her, Sydney was lying in bed trying to fall asleep. As she drifted off into slumber she began to dream. In her dream, she was back in her classroom earlier that day and Michael was giving her the book all over again. Instead of thanking him with the smile she had earlier that day, though, Sydney leaned over and gave him a kiss, not a simple peck either. Soon the two of them were going at it right there on the desks of her classroom, knocking them every which way as they stripped off each other’s clothing.

As the dream filtered out of her memory, Sydney awoke with a start to find herself tangled up in the sheets. Apparently she had been writhing both in the dream world and in the real world. She threw the covers back as best she could before rushing to the bathroom and letting cool water run over her hands. She then brought her hands up to her face and dabbed them across her cheeks and forehead and then down onto the back of her neck. Still breathing rather heavily, she glanced up at her reflection in the mirror and exhaled the only word she could think of, “Shit…”



Chapter 13

Two days after her birthday, Sydney had obsessed herself into an impossible corner. She needed to come clean with someone, anyone, but the problem was she was too afraid to admit her feelings even to herself. She tried ignoring them once more, but when Michael came over for dinner she had such difficulty restraining herself from pouncing on him while he was eating peas, she knew that suppressing her emotions was only making it worse and causing a very dangerous situation. Finally, she made plans to spend Saturday with her sister, where she would most likely make the hardest admission of her life.

“So where do you wanna go sis? Pottery Barn? The Gap? OH! Mani-Pedi?!” Nadia asked excitedly when her sister arrived at her apartment at noon on Saturday.

“Well, actually, I was hoping we could talk about my big, huge major-ass problem,” Sydney said with a slight cringe.

“Big, huge, major-ass problem?” Nadia repeated in a questioning manner.

Sydney nodded, cringing even more. “I think…okay…I-I think I’m…I think-”

“Syd!” Nadia cut off her sister’s stammering.

“I think I’m in love with someone,” Sydney said so quickly that the words meshed together and Nadia was not sure she heard her right at first.

“You think you’re in love with someone,” Nadia repeated slowly. Sydney nodded, biting her bottom lip. “And this would be a problem because…the person your in love with is not your husband?” Nadia questioned. Again, Sydney nodded. “Oh no…”

“Oh yes!” Sydney wailed.

“Oh no!” Nadia repeated. “Well who the hell is it?! Oh no – it’s Michael isn’t it!” Nadia gasped. Sydney wailed and smashed her head into the table they were sitting at. “I knew it!” Nadia shouted.

“Naaaadiiiiiaaaaaa,” Sydney whined. “Help me!”

“Okay, okay deep breath,” Nadia said, taking one herself. “Now why is it exactly that you think you’re in love with him?”

“I don’t know…I don’t know!” Sydney groaned. “I just…well, it started on my birthday. He gave me this early edition copy of The Velveteen Rabbit an-”

“Aww, Gramma,” Nadia chimed in with a sigh. The reason the girls loved that book so much was that their beloved grandmother would always read it to them before they went to sleep.

“Yeah,” Sydney smiled. “And I was crying because I thought of her and it was just such a great gift – he went all the way to New York to get it for me! And then…then I went home and Peter gave me this bracelet and… and I don’t know... I mean, it’s a beautiful bracelet but compared to the book it just seemed like nothing…” Sydney sighed. Nadia nodded in understanding.

The girls were silent for a few minutes before Sydney admitted, “We haven’t had sex in over a month…Peter and I…”

“Why?” Nadia asked.

Sydney looked guilty down at the table. “’cause every time we do I either think about Michael or…well, the last time we did I was just laying there thinking, ‘Oh I should call Michael after this…I wonder what he’s doing…’”

“Ouch,” Nadia cringed.

“I KNOW!”

“So I guess I’m correct in assuming the last time we had a conversation about your sex life you weren’t imagining Orlando Bloom,” Nadia said. Sydney shook her head solemnly. “Okay…okay so why else do you love Michael?”

“I just… I do. We get along so well and he’s become like my best friend…I can’t wait to hang out with him and…and when I get home I don’t want to tell Peter about my day I want to call Michael and tell him about it… We hang out and dance in a parking lot,” she said with a soft smile, recalling their night at the movies. “And he gives me these looks and I just…they make me feel good, he makes me feel good…,” she let her voice drift off as she looked up at her sister.

“Damn girl,” Nadia said, sounding almost tearful, “you’ve got it bad!”

“I know! But I’m married! Married! Married to Peter…I can’t be in love with Michael…”

“You can and you are,” Nadia told her.

“But I don’t want to hurt Peter,” Sydney told her adamantly. “I love him…”

“But not like you love Michael,” Nadia finished for her. It took Sydney about ten seconds but she finally shook her head, agreeing with what Nadia had said. “Look Syd, if you want my advice you have to talk to Michael and find out where he stands with this. I mean, if he loves you too then…”

“Then I’ll get a divorce,” Sydney said bitterly.

“Then you’ll be happy,” Nadia corrected. Sydney gave her an uncertain look. “Come on Syd, can you honestly say that if Michael disappeared tomorrow you could go back to being happy with Peter?”

“No,” Sydney said quietly. “Not anymore…I just…I guess we were never happy. I was never happy I was just…content.”

“Well I coulda told you that,” Nadia muttered. Sydney looked at her in shock. “Well he’s so… boring… I mean, the man doesn’t like movies for Christ sakes!” Sydney couldn’t help but laugh at this; it was true.

“Come on sis,” Nadia reached over and squeezed her sister’s hand. “Let’s go get those mani-pedi; I think you could use it.” Sydney nodded and stood from the table, she definitely could.

After a rather relaxing afternoon gossiping with her sister at a day spa, Sydney returned home. The moment she spotted Peter screwing in a light bulb in their kitchen ceiling, she ached with guilt. The thought of hurting him made her feel positively awful, yet, at the same time, staying with him but not wanting to was hurting the both of them. She could see it in his eyes that he wondered what was wrong with her. After all, not making love for almost six weeks was not a usual occurrence in their relationship and, quite frankly, Sydney was running out of excuses as to why she was uninterested in a physical relationship with her husband. Nadia had been one hundred percent right; Sydney needed to speak with Michael and the sooner the better. Maybe talking with him about his feelings would give her clarity on her own feelings. As much as she was dreading a conversation in which Michael could tell her he had no feelings for her whatsoever, that conversation had to happen; they could not go on without something changing for too much longer.



Chapter 14

One sleepless night filled with dread and uncertainty was more than enough for Sydney to realize she needed to talk with Michael as soon as possible. Sunday morning at eleven, when Sydney figured Michael would be awake, she called him and asked if it was alright if she visited him later that afternoon. She left out the dreaded phrase, ‘we need to talk’ so as not to freak him out any more, knowing the rather rattled tone of her voice probably confused him enough as it was. After bidding Peter goodbye, Sydney got into her car and began to drive, almost turning around twice before she reached Michael’s apartment complex. There, she parked her car and trembled her way up to his front door.

“What’s up Syd?” Michael asked as he let her inside his apartment. “You sounded kinda weird on the phone.”

“Well, I, um, I needed to talk to you about something,” she said carefully, her heart practically beating its way up into her throat. Michael nodded though he had a very curious look on his face. Sighing, Sydney walked over to his sofa and sat down on it, folding her hands in her lap. When she felt Michael sit beside her she took a few deep breaths before speaking.

“See…well see the thing is that lately I,” she paused to take another deep breath, all the while concentrating intently on her hands, unable to meet his eyes when she admitted her feelings, fearing his reaction would be negative. “Lately I’ve been having these…these feelings…for you a-and I think I’m in love with you…so, um, yeah that’s…that.” She exhaled a long breath and was convinced Michael could hear her heart beating because to her it was deafeningly loud.

For a solid thirty seconds, Michael said nothing, causing Sydney to practically sweat right through her clothes. Finally, he reached over and picked up her hands in his. Much to her surprise, he brought her knuckles up to his lips and kissed them. With this, Sydney looked up to Michael, terrified about what he was about to say. “I..,.” he began painfully slow, “I am so in love with you it’s ridiculous,” he laughed, smile spreading across his face.

Sydney laughed too, relief flooding her body and bringing tears to her eyes. “Really? Really, really?!” she asked.

“Really,” Michael grinned.

“Oh this is so-” she was about to say ‘wonderful,’ until she caught sight of the wedding ring on her left hand and her heart sunk from her throat down into her shoes. “…terrible… I mean, it’s good – really good, but really terrible because I’m-”

“Married,” Michael said sadly, dropping her hands from his grasp.

“Yes,” Sydney said grimly as she pulled her hands back to her lap. “See the thing is I… I’m just…I’m confused I guess…I don’t know. This all started when we were watching that movie and we fell off the couch and…and I wanted you to kiss me,” she laughed nervously, knowing her cheeks were turning pink.

Michael gave her a sheepish smile. “It’s been a little longer for me.” She gave him a curious look and he laughed, “Like since I met you…back in September.”

“Oh Michael,” Sydney sighed, reaching over and stroking his face softly. He nuzzled his cheek into her hand before kissing her palm. “This is just…hard… I mean, there’s Peter and…God, I don’t know,” she groaned as she covered her face with her hands. She breathed heavily in that position for a few minutes before she sat up straight and looked Michael in the eye. “I think you should kiss me,” she said rather bluntly.

“What?!” Michael gasped, notably leaning away from her.

“Well it’s just…if you kiss me maybe I’ll have a better idea about what’s going on…I don’t know. Let’s just try, okay?” she asked hopefully. With a rather wary expression, Michael nodded and leaned towards her. Sydney closed her eyes and leaned in towards Michael, who, in turn did the same, leaning towards her. When their lips met, neither of them moved an inch, which resulted in them being frozen, hardly touching, for almost a solid minute before Sydney pulled back quickly, turning tomato red.

“This is ridiculous,” she laughed. “I mean, we’re adults and it’s just a kiss. We can do this,” she said firmly.

“Right,” Michael agreed. The two of them leaned in once more, but their lips didn’t even touch before they both jumped back, cursing themselves silently. “Okay I think we’re over thinking this. Why don’t you um…lay down on the couch,” Michael suggested.

Sydney looked at him with a strange expression. “I said kiss me not have sex with me.”

Michael gave her an annoyed look. “Just do it.” Sighing, Sydney did as he asked. Michael slid off the couch so she had enough room to lie down. Once she was in a flat position, Michael instructed her to close her eyes as he sat down on the very edge of the cushions right next to her hip. She did as he asked again and after her eyes were closed, Michael leaned down and cautiously lowered his lips to hers, giving her a kiss very reminiscent of her favorite Disney movie, Sleeping Beauty, with his hands resting one on her hip and the other softly against her neck. Sydney lifted her head ever so slightly to further lean into their first proper kiss.

After a minute, Michael pulled back just enough to meet her eyes as he stroked her cheek with the pad of his thumb. “That was…,” he whispered.

“Yeah,” Sydney whispered back with a smile. Slowly she sat up as Michael leaned back, giving her space to sit up properly. The two of them stared at each other for fifteen seconds before diving back into another kiss, this one the most heated of them all with Sydney’s hands running through Michael’s hair and his fingertips digging into the flesh at her waist. It was Michael who had an attack of conscious and stopped them before they did something they’d truly regret.

“Wait, stop, wait,” he managed through Sydney’s attacking lips.

“Okay,” she croaked out, forcing herself back against the couch cushions. “Sorry that was just really...”

“I know,” Michael smiled. The two of them shared a soft laugh before slitting properly on the couch and linking their fingers together. “So…”

“So I need to talk to Peter…and figure out what the hell I’m going to do,” she said, combing her fingers through her hair and practically tearing it out from pure dread. She looked over to Michael tentatively and said, “It’s, um, going to take me a few days to work up the courage to do that so…”

“Right, of course,” Michael nodded. “Just, uh, call me and let me know what you…”

“Yeah…I’m gonna go,” she said, standing from the couch. Michael nodded again and stood as well. They shared a soft smile before Sydney slipped past him and left his apartment, trying to figure out how the hell she was going to tell her husband she’d fallen in love with another man.

~*~

It took Sydney until Wednesday to work up the courage to tell Peter the truth. On Wednesday morning when she awoke, she could barely look at herself in the mirror from pure guilt. This made her realize she had no choice but to tell him, but she didn’t want to do it on a weeknight when he had to go to school the next day, so she waited until Friday, which nearly killed her. After work on Friday, though, she pulled Peter aside as soon as he came home and she sat him down.

“I need to tell you something…and it’s not easy for me to say,” she said. Then she continued without bothering to look up at his expression. “I fell…I fell in love with someone…else,” she told him timidly before slowly raising her eyes to find, not surprisingly, a horrified expression on his face.

Peter was silent for a shockingly long time. In fact, at one point, Sydney was unsure he was even breathing. Finally he managed to croak, “Love…someone…else.”

“Yes,” Sydney nodded.

“Who…”

“Michael…”

“Oh,” Peter swallowed hard. At that point, he stood from the sofa and began to pace around their apartment. “So…so you…you’ve been…you’ve been having an-an affair with Michael?!” Peter demanded, fury showing in his voice by the time he was able to get the full sentence out.

“NO!” Sydney said, shooting to her feet. “No, no, no! Not an affair – absolutely not. Michael and I have never slept together.”

“Have you kissed him?” Peter asked.

A guilty expression crossed Sydney’s face. “But it was just one time!” she defended. “Okay…twice, but it was in a row so that’s like just one time and I’m going to shut up now,” she mumbled at the expression on his face.

“So…,” Peter began, but then he fell silent for a solid minute. “So you fell in love with Michael…and you kissed him…”

“Yes,” Sydney confirmed with a guilty gulp.

“And Michael…?”

“Loves me too,” Sydney said quietly.

“Well of course he does,” Peter muttered. Sydney looked down towards her feet. “So…so why are you telling me this Sydney? What’s your point? What are you going to do now, hmm? What are you going to do?”



Chapter 15

When Michael opened his door on Friday evening to find Sydney at his doorstep, he had to admit he was rather surprised. Her hair was a wreck, yet she was still wearing her work clothes, and her eyes were red and puffy. “Hi,” she said in a hoarse tone.

Michael leaned against the door and swallowed hard, he had a feeling the next two minutes were either going to be very good or very, very bad. “Hi,” he echoed in a soft tone. “Did you talk to Peter?” he asked, knowing that was most likely the reason for her disheveled appearance, assuming her sister or parents had not been in some sort of tragic accident.

“Yeah,” she sniffed, brushing some hair out of her eyes. “It was…it was really hard… the hardest thing I ever had to do, actually,” she told him rather tearfully.

“Making the choice,” Michael said with a knowing nod.

“NO,” Sydney told him in an almost amused voice. He looked up to her and saw in her eyes a lighter expression. “No, the choice was easy, one of the easiest decisions I’ve ever made,” she told him. His brow wrinkled with confusion, wondering if the decision was easy, what had been hard. It appeared Sydney heard his thoughts, for only a moment later she continued.

“The hardest thing was asking Peter for a divorce,” she said. Then, with a soft smile she took a step towards the center of the doorway to reveal the large duffle bag she had over her left shoulder. “Can I sleep on your couch tonight?” she asked as her smile turned rather sheepish.

Michael let out a very relieved breath that came out as a soft laugh as he pulled her into a tight hug. She buried her face in his neck as he kissed the top of her head a few times before releasing her and taking the bag from her shoulder. “Here let me take this… have you eaten anything yet?”

Sydney shook her head. “I was too busy listening to Peter yell at me. It was lucky I packed the bag before I told him; I don’t think he would have let me back in the bedroom…”

Michael cringed. “He was mad huh?”

Sydney gave him a look. “How would you feel if you were in his place?” she asked. Michael gave a conceding nod and a look meaning, ‘Good point.’ He set her bag down beside his couch before leading the way into the kitchen and pulling out the box of pizza he’d ordered for his own dinner from the refrigerator. He offered to heat it up, but Sydney told him not to bother; the box had only been in the refrigerator for a few minutes and lukewarm pizza was just fine, especially when she was starving.

After she was done eating, Sydney went over to her bag on the floor and began to rummage through the belongings she had thrown together. She packed at such a break-neck pace when she arrived home she hardly remembered what she had thrown together. “I may need to stay a couple days,” she told Michael as she dug through the bag. “I mean, I don’t know how fast I can find an apartment and Nadia’s place is too far away from work; so is my parent’s…I guess I could get a hotel room if-”

“You’ll do no such thing,” Michael told her. “You’ll stay here, in the bedroom.”

Sydney gave him a concerned look. “But I don’t want to kick you out of-”

Michael cut her off by pressing a finger to her lips. “You’ll stay here in the bedroom,” he repeated with a smile. Sydney smiled back at him as she slipped her arms around his waist and gave him a tight hug.

“Thank you,” she sighed into his chest.

“Of course,” he said in return. When Sydney pulled out of their hug she leaned up and gave him a brief kiss. That simple kiss quickly turned into a much more heated one as Michael’s hands traveled from her back to her neck and through her hair, causing chills all the way down her spine.

Upon realizing she was enjoying their closeness a bit too much, Sydney pulled back and said breathlessly, “Wait. I don’t think we should…I mean, I haven’t even called a lawyer yet and I want something to happen between us but it can’t, not until I’m a bit further along in the divorce process,” she told him. In theory, she would have waited until her divorce was finalized before she and Michael became an official couple, but she feared that could take a very long time. She was far too rational to believe she could wait a year or six months or even a month before crossing a physical barrier with Michael, but she knew she had to hold out as long as she possibly could.

“That’s fine,” Michael said. He moved his hands to her hips and pushed her a comfortable distance away from him. “We’ll just stay friends. Completely platonic friends,” he said. The mere thought of that killed him but he had no choice; he didn’t want to make Sydney uncomfortable in any way.

“Well,” Sydney smiled, taking a step closer to him. “We can be friends who kiss each other.”

Michael grinned. “That works too.” After giving Sydney a quick kiss, Michael pulled her down into his lap on the sofa. She let out a soft giggle as she looped her arms around his neck and gave him another, longer kiss.

“Kissing you is so much better than I imagined,” she sighed against his cheek before giving him a kiss there.

“Tell me about it,” Michael said softly. The two of them remained rather silent for the rest of the evening, only talking occasionally about the movie they were watching on TV. When they decided to go to bed, Sydney took her turn in the bathroom first and, when she was finished, she found Michael arranging a blanket and some pillows on the couch for himself. A soft smile crossed her face as she approached the couch, picked up Michael’s pillow and walked into his bedroom with it.

“What are you doing you thief!” he grumbled as he followed her into the bedroom. He found her placing the pillow back on his side of the bed so he repeated his question minus the thief comment.

“Stay with me, in here, please,” she requested softly. When he looked hesitant she added, “Please? I never got to sleep beside you and I want to.”

Michael could not deny the exceedingly beautiful look on her face so, after he’d taken his turn brushing his teeth, he slipped in bed beside her, giving her a gentle kiss goodnight. “I love you Sydney,” he said.

“I love you, too,” she sighed before snuggling up to him, ready for a long, peaceful night’s sleep.



Chapter 16

First thing on Saturday morning, Sydney used the newspaper and phone book to search for two very important things: a divorce lawyer and an apartment. She started with the lawyer, figuring that would be the easier and less frustrating of the two. Within an hour she found a lawyer and made an appointment with him for Wednesday afternoon (Wednesday was a half day at school so she was able to escape work early for the meeting). Next, she got down to the task of finding an apartment, which turned out to be very frustrating and difficult.

Sydney had hoped that since the end of April was drawing nearer, people would be moving out of apartments at the end of the month, meaning she would be able to find one to move into. Unfortunately for her, people were moving out, however their soon-to-be vacated apartments were already spoken for. She was able to find two apartments she could have moved into, but they were out of her price range.

Noting her frustration, Michael offered to let her stay there as long as she liked. While Sydney appreciated this and would have loved to take him up on that offer, the idea of having divorce papers sent to Michael’s apartment and then Peter finding out about it…well, that would not make her situation any easier. Michael suggested that she send the divorce papers to her sister’s place, which Sydney planned on doing anyway, but still, living with Michael was just too dangerous of an idea in more ways than one.

By the end of the day, Sydney was able to secure herself an apartment that she unfortunately could not move into until the middle of May, which left her homeless for twenty days. She had no choice but to stay with Michael in that time since no other residence was available to her besides a hotel, which Michael refused to let her go to. Then again, at times Michael’s cheeky grin and jokes about jumping in on her in the shower made her wish she had gone to a hotel.

The beginning of the next week was blissful for Sydney. She was able to catch a glimpse of what her life would be like living with Michael as not only her best friend, but as (hopefully) her husband as well. She quickly found that sleeping beside him, sharing every meal and most of the evening with him was something she would most definitely enjoy. Come Wednesday, though, her chipper mood vanished when she met with the man who would be her divorce lawyer.

The first question the lawyer asked her was one she expected: why did she want a divorce? On the surface, this answer was very simple: she had fallen in love with another man and, while she cared about her husband, she no longer saw them happy together. However, in the eyes of the law, nothing was ever simple. When the lawyer asked her if she had committed adultery, she, of course, said she hadn’t though she had to admit she was not quite sure the lawyer believed her. He then advised her to remove all her belongings from her apartment as quickly as possible since in his experience he found the longer they remained the more likely they were to be thrown away or burned. He then gave her many papers to fill out and sent her on her way with a checklist of things they needed to discuss at their next meeting the following week.

“How’d it go?” Michael asked cautiously when Sydney arrived home. She let out a low moan and flopped down on the sofa face first. “That good, huh?”

“It’s just,” she sighed as she rolled over onto her back. Michael crouched down beside her and began taking off her shoes as she spoke. “You know how you hear that lawyers – especially divorce lawyers are slimy, scummy people? Well this guy is definitely creepy.”

Michael grimaced. “Maybe you should find another lawyer…”

“No,” she sighed. “I don’t think it will be that bad – expensive as hell, but not that bad. Even this guy said that…he said it’ll be easy, whatever that means.”

“Easy?” Michael questioned.

“Yeah, look at that list,” she said, pointing towards the pamphlet sticking out of the top of her purse. “Things that complicate divorce are children – which we obviously don’t have; mortgages – but we pay rent month to month so, again, don’t have that; joint credit card and bank accounts but we don’t have those either. Everything is separate.”

“You don’t have a joint bank account?” Michael asked, sounding a little surprised.

“No,” Sydney said with a casual hand wave. “Peter didn’t want to get one until we were married…and then after we were married I brought it up once but he said we’d do it later…and then I just forgot about it. We alternated months making out rent checks…we alternated buying groceries…it was pretty even so…,” Sydney said with a slight shrug. “And it’s not like either one of us would make alimony payments – we’ve worked at the same school district for like the same amount of time so we make virtually the same amount of money…unless – oh no!” Sydney gasped as she sat up. “Do you think Peter will make me pay him for like… emotional damages?”

Michael gave Sydney a look. “Doubtful. Peter really isn’t that type of guy. I mean, sure he’s pissed right now but I’m sure he’ll chill out after he breaks the heels off one of your shoes or something,” Michael laughed, though he was joking. This comment, though reminded Sydney about what her lawyer had said and she quickly reached for her phone and dialed her sister’s number. As much as she wanted Michael’s help in packing up her things from her former apartment, that was simply a recipe for disaster.

“Oh well if it isn’t my sister,” Nadia answered her phone with an annoyed tone. “What the hell is up?! I haven’t heard from you in like forever! So did you sleep with Michael or what?”

“No I did not sleep with Michael,” Sydney rolled her eyes while looking over to Michael. He gave her a curious look and Sydney mouthed to him the name of her sister. Michael then nodded in understanding and left her alone to talk. “I am on his couch though.”

“Why?” Nadia asked.

“I asked Peter for a divorce…”

“Nice,” Nadia laughed. “When was this?”

“Friday. Listen, Nad, you busy this weekend? I gotta get my crap out of my old apartment and I can’t take Michael back there – Peter might kill him,” Sydney said with concern. One thing Peter had made very clear during their argument on Friday night was his desire to never lay eyes on his former best friend again.

“Sure I’m there…but, uh, where are we taking your stuff?” she asked. Sydney then explained that for the time being they were merely getting the remainder of her clothes, toiletries and a few personal items. She was not sure what would become of her chest of drawers of the other furniture she and Peter had bought together, but at that point it did not even matter; she had no place to put it. After hanging up with her sister, Sydney quickly called Peter and left a message, asking what time would be best for him to come and retrieve her belongings. Then, she walked into the kitchen to find Michael looking rather sad as he leaned against the kitchen counter.

“Divorce sucks, huh?” he said rather grimly.

Sydney walked over and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. “Not enough for me not to be with you,” she told him. He then gave her a soft smile and a kiss.



Chapter 17

“So where’s Peter at?” Nadia asked her sister as they walked into Sydney’s former place of residence on Saturday morning.

“Not here…why?”

“Just wondering if he was going to jump out and shoot you so I could duck,” Nadia winked at her. Sydney rolled her eyes. Peter had opted not to be there for his soon to be ex-wife to come and collect her belongings. She couldn’t blame him for this; in fact, she was glad he was not going to be there and make their awkward situation any more awkward.

“You do the bathroom while I get the stuff in here,” Sydney said, gesturing towards the bedroom.

“Okay…,” Nadia said slowly, “but how will I know what’s yours?”

Sydney gave her sister a blank look. “Tampons mine; shaving cream his – honestly Nad, it scares me when you ask stuff like that.”

Nadia simply shrugged before disappearing into the bathroom, duffle bag in hand. Sydney took her duffle bag into the bedroom and went straight for her chest of drawers to get the remainder of her underwear and other assorted clothing. Only ten minutes passed before she heard a loud snort from Nadia. “Syd, Peter’s got a porno magazine in here… bet he’s been using it a lot lately!”

“Nadia that’s gross,” Sydney called back to her.

“Looks like he really liked this centerfold model…damn her breasts are huge…”

“NADIA!” Sydney shouted. She could hear Nadia snickering and shook her head as she turned back to her packing.

“You know,” Nadia said a few minutes later when she appeared in the bedroom doorway. “You should get a boob job Syd – your boobs are kinda tiny.”

“For your information, Nadia,” Sydney began in an annoyed tone, “I happen to think my boobs are just fine – Michael thinks so too,” she said proudly.

A smirk crossed Nadia’s face. “Seen ‘em, has he?”

Sydney turned slightly pink as she turned away from her sister. “No,” she said quietly, cursing herself for even bringing up the topic. There had been an incident with Michael stealing one of her bras and…well, Nadia did not need to know about that.

“Come on Syd – even Mom got a boob job.”

“Mom did not get a boob job! She got a lump removed and – OH GOD!” she gasped suddenly. “Mom…Dad…they don’t know about the divorce!”

Nadia broke into hysterical laughter at the mental image of that conversation. “Oh man, can I come? It’s been a while since I’ve seen Dad have an aneurism.”

“Nadia this isn’t funny!”

“Yeah, actually it is,” Nadia chucked. For the first time, she wasn’t going to be the daughter her parents were disappointed in. “Just tell ‘em Peter cheated on you…it’s not really a lie either – he did cheat…with Miss February,” she laughed.

“Nad I’m not gonna lie…I’ll just have to face the music…and their disappointment,” Sydney sighed. “But you absolutely cannot come.”

“Damnit,” Nadia groaned before going back to the bathroom.

~*~

After packing up as much as she needed from her apartment, Sydney called her parents to ask if it would be alright to go over to their house for their dinner tonight. The Bristow’s, who hadn’t seen their daughter since the weekend before her birthday, agreed and Sydney went home to change. As she was going through her belongings, scrutinizing what would be appropriate to wear to break her parents’ hearts, Michael was watching her from the doorway. Of course Sydney was not overly thrilled about him watching her while she changed her clothes, but that was less annoying than the whining puppy dog noises he was making from behind the closed door earlier that evening.

“What do you think?” she asked his opinion of a black shirt and khaki skirt combination. After receiving a thumbs up from Michael she turned back to the mirror, scrutinizing her appearance. “Nadia says I need a boob job,” she said as she attempted to make cleavage when there was none to make.

“What? Why? Your breasts are perfect,” Michael told her.

Sydney turned and gave him a dangerous look. “Seen them, have you?”

Michael sighed and gave her a very serious expression. “I guess now is the best time to tell you that…there are cameras in the shower.”

He was so serious that Sydney could not help but burst out into such hysterical laughter she had to sit down on the bed for support. Michael, too, joined in her laughter until she threw a shoe at him. “You’re such a perv!”

“Hey! There aren’t really cameras in there…though I don’t think I’d be opposed to installing them,” he grinned. Sydney shook her head at him as she walked out the door to head to her parents’.

~*~

“Sydney, sweetheart, it’s so wonderful to see you,” her father, Jack, greeted her with a warm hug. Sydney hugged him back and then hugged her mother in turn before following them into the kitchen. “You said on the phone you needed to speak with us about something?” her father asked.

Sydney nodded and took a deep breath. “Peter and I are getting a divorce.”

Both of her parent’s expressions turned horrified. “What?! What happened? Did he cheat on you?!” her father demanded in a furious tone.

“No, no of course not,” Sydney shook her head. “It was me; I filed for divorce from him.”

“What? Why?” her mother asked.

Sydney lowered her eyes to the ground as she shuffled her feet against the kitchen floor. “Well…I sort of…fell in love with somebody else,” she mumbled.

Once more her parents gasped, that time, though, their gasps were notably of the disapproving nature. “Sydney,” her mother said with a disgusted tongue click. “I thought we taught you better than that.”

“I didn’t have an affair with him, Mom – I love him,” Sydney told her. Then she went on to explain how Michael had come into her life eight months earlier and how the two of them had quickly become close friends. Then, as she and Michael grew together, she and Peter grew apart. “I really love him, you guys; I really, really do.”

Her parents sighed and exchanged looks. “Well,” her father began. “Truth be told, we did feel like you and Peter rushed into things…”

“And we do want you to be happy sweetheart,” her mother added.

“Michael makes me happy Mom, he does,” Sydney smiled at her.

“Well that’s good dear,” her mother smiled. “Do you need a place to stay for the summer?”

“Oh no; I’m moving into an apartment on the fifteenth. I already moved my stuff out of Peter’s so…,” Sydney shrugged.

“Where are you staying now?” her father asked. Sydney bit her bottom lip and lowered her eyes to the ground. “Sydney Anne! You’re starting a relationship with this man when you haven’t even started your divorce yet?!”

“NO!” Sydney defended. “For starters, I have met with a lawyer, but I told Michael nothing could happen between us until my divorce was further along. I just needed a place to stay that was close to school; I’m sleeping on his couch,” she told her parents. This, of course, was a lie, but a little one that would get her out of a very painful premarital sex lecture.

“I see,” her father said in a short tone.

“Michael and I won’t be rushing into things,” Sydney assured them. “We’re going to take things slow, but Michael is the right guy for me, I know it. He’s so much better for me than Peter and… I dunno, I mean, stuff happens for a reason, right? And I never would have met Michael if it hadn’t been for Peter so…things worked out alright,” she told them, and she truly believed it too.



Chapter 18

For the next month, things went very well for Sydney. She moved into her new apartment and though it was a slightly lower standard of living than she was used to, it was good enough. As Michael pointed out rather hopefully, maybe she would not be living there too long anyway. This comment of course received a gagging noise from Nadia, who was helping her sister move. The only problem with Sydney’s apartment was that she had no furniture, being that it was all at Peter’s. She was forced to dip into her savings to buy a TV, couch, kitchen table and chairs set and, most importantly, a mattress to sleep on. This meant that with her lack of bed frame to put the mattress on, sparse furnishings and large plastic bins for clothes storage, her small apartment quickly became (as Michael dubbed it) The House of Ghetto. Sydney could not care though, she did not have any other choice.

As May drew to a close so did the academic year meaning Sydney was swamped with work until the year was officially over. This was actually a good thing, considering it took her mind off her teeny living space and her impending divorce. In actuality, though, the divorce wasn’t nearly as bad as she thought it would be. She and Peter were very amicable about dividing up the few belongings that needed to be divided up and, though the whole process would take a few months, it was going as smooth as it possibly could.

Once school was over, Sydney decided that the project she needed to accomplish with all her free time that summer was reorganizing her suddenly disheveled life. She was going to remove all the rest of her belongings from her old apartment, including the chest of drawers Peter was letting her have and then she would get down to the business of setting up her new apartment. She did not want to get too comfortable in it, though. After all, who knew what the end of the summer would bring after three months of spending as much time with Michael as possible.

During the third week in June, Sydney was over at Michael’s apartment making him dinner before he came home from work. She had a key from when she lived there temporarily and upon moving out she tried to give it back, but he refused to take it ‘just in case’ as he said. When Michael arrived home, he gave her a greeting kiss on the cheek before going into his bedroom to change his clothes. He reemerged dressed in more comfortable attire and the two of them sat down to eat the meal Sydney created.

“I’m telling you – I’m gonna hire you as a cook this summer. This is so good,” Michael told her.

“Thanks,” Sydney smiled at him. “You know, you could hire me to teach you to cook,” she suggested. He grimaced and shook his head, making her laugh. After they ate, Michael did the dishes while Sydney relaxed on the couch, or so he thought. As it turned out, she was not exactly relaxing more like…creating an atmosphere.

When Michael came out of the kitchen to find Sydney wearing what he definitely would have classified as sexy pajamas he laughed asking, “What are you doing?”

“Well remember how I told you I didn’t want us to have a real relationship until after I was divorced?” she asked. Michael nodded, intrigued by where this conversation line was headed. “Well that’s not working out so well for me – it’s been over four months since I had sex and I’m horny damnit!”

Michael couldn’t help but laugh. “Four months huh?”

“Yes four. Peter and I didn’t have sex for the last few months of our marriage…”

“Clearly,” he laughed. They then stared at each other for a moment before Sydney gave Michael a rather impatient look. “Oh it’s just so romantic,” he sighed, obviously teasing her. “but okay, ‘s not like I’m gonna turn down sex – it’s been practically a year for me!”

“A year?!” Sydney asked.

Michael shrugged. “Roughly. However long it’s been since I moved here…I…I didn’t really feel like dating when I was all, you know, in love with you,” he admitted.

Sydney sauntered over to him, smile across her face. “Well we’ll have to fix that,” she said before pulling him into a searing kiss. She backed her way towards the bedroom, still kissing Michael and trying to pull his shirt up over his head. Once that was gone, she broke their kiss only long enough to remove her own shirt and bra with haste.

“Gee Syd, you wanna slow it down a bit?” Michael laughed, only half joking.

“We’ll go slower next time,” she told him before pulling him back into a kiss.

~*~

After making love, Sydney and Michael were laying amongst the sheets that were in utter disarray from their hasty activities. Sydney was lying on her back with her head resting on a pillow while Michael was lying on his side beside her, propped up on his elbow, occasionally kissing her shoulder or lips softly. When he saw an amused smile playing on her lips he asked, “So how do I rate?” She gave him a rather stunned look and he continued with a laugh, “Please, I know you were comparing me.”

Sydney let out a soft giggle as she turned slightly pink. “Well you’ll be happy to know Michael Vaughn that you have easily achieved the top spot, even if we were a little rushed.”

“Really?” Michael asked in a deep tone, obviously sounding proud.

“Yes really,” she smiled at him.

“Sweet,” he grinned before kissing her. “So in what way am I better? I’m just trying to learn what’s good and what’s not…”

“Well for starters you didn’t talk,” Sydney said in a rather exasperated tone.

“Peter,” Michael said knowingly. Sydney looked over at him with a rather shocked expression, wondering how he knew. “He used to mutter to himself while doing homework so I just assumed…”

“Yes well it was…something,” Sydney rolled her eyes.

“What’d he do?” Michael laughed.

“Well it was just like…,” she paused to roll over on top of him, pretending to be Peter for a demonstration. She then proceeded to mock her soon to be ex in a deep tone. “Oh yeah man doin’ great man yea, yeah that’s it. I bet she loved that! Yes she did yeah great job…honestly it was like being a spectator on the side of a soccer field,” Sydney rolled her eyes, flopping back onto her side of the bed. Meanwhile, Michael was in hysterics with tears practically streaming down his face.

“Tell me he didn’t actually do that,” he laughed.

“Oh he totally did – every time too. I mean, the self-coaching was bad enough, but he was talking about me like I wasn’t even there! I learned to ignore it though,” she sighed.

“I’m sorry; that must have been traumatic for you,” Michael said sympathetically.

“It was the first time!” Sydney insisted before they both burst out laughing. “Okay, okay you have to tell me something now,” Sydney told him once they were through laughing.

Michael sighed before telling her about the one woman he’d been with who sneezed every time they had sex – during sex. “Gross!” Sydney commented. “Was she allergic to your cologne?”

“I don’t wear cologne,” Michael told her.

“Oh, yeah…that’s right…hmm that’s weird.”

“Yes, but you’re not weird. You’re perfect…and beautiful…and sexy…,” he listed as he began to trail kisses down her neck, across her collar bone and down her chest.

“Michael are you trying to start something?” Sydney asked with a slight moan.

“Maybe…’s it working?”

“Definitely,” she sighed before pulling him up and into a kiss.



Chapter 19

“Uuuugggggggghhhhhhh!!!!!!!” Sydney let out a loud extraordinarily frustrated and furious groan as she let herself into Michael’s apartment. She slammed the door behind her as hard as she possibly could before screaming once more, that time adding, “Men are by far the foulest most loathsome evil creatures to ever walk the planet!”

“Um,” Michael tentatively poked his head out of the kitchen. “We’re sorry…”

“Oh, not you,” she sighed before flopping down on the sofa.

Noting that her tone was much less hostile, Michael figured it was safe to emerge out of the safety of the kitchen. Cautiously, he walked into the family room and stayed at least a few feet away from her while asking the most dreaded question, “What happened?”

“That asshole Peter,” she muttered.

“Oh no,” Michael’s expression fell. “Is it about the divorce? Is he contesting it? Does he want alimony?”

“He’s sleeping with a student!” Sydney screeched.

“WHAT?!” Michael gasped.

“Oh yeah. Totally. God I’m so reviled that I was ever married to that,” she said while her entire body shivered.

“Wait, wait, wait, go back, explain I beg you,” Michael said, sitting down on the coffee table across from Sydney.

Sydney took a deep breath and began her tale. “So I’m at the mall returning those red shoes that didn’t match my dress and as I’m standing in line waiting for the totally incompetent sixteen year old sales clerk to process my return Jamie Wesley comes up behind me and is all, ‘Hi Sydney, sorry about your divorce et cetera’ – you know, the usual.”

“Right…and who is Jamie Wesley?” Michael asked.

“Oh she teaches tenth and eleventh grade English at the high school where Peter works. Anyway I told her how I was fine because I was the one who filed for divorce from him and apparently Jamie didn’t know that and she goes, ‘Oh, thank god – I thought he divorced you because of you know…that thing.’ So naturally I asked her what she was talking about and then she tells me. Apparently Peter has been spotted around with this girl – Britney, Cookie, Betty – whatever some name that gives her the IQ of a potato chip and the cup size of a Victoria’s Secret model. Anyway, she was in his homeroom last year.”

“No way!” Michael gasped.

“Absolutely,” Sydney continued. “So then the girl behind the counter chimes in and starts explaining how this seventeen year old tramp was rumored to be doing some extracurricular sextivities with more than one teacher to get grades and stuff, so it wasn’t really surprising that she ended up in bed with one of them. So then Jamie proceeds to tell me that she heard the same rumors and there was actually an inquiry made by the school district about it.”

“About Peter?!” Michael asked, utterly floored that straight-laced Peter would do such a thing, especially with one of his students.

“No, with some gym teacher. Anyway, rumor has it that Peter was all sad and lonely after I left him – which is understandable – and Cookie-Betty-Whore chummed up to him in homeroom towards the end of the year and after she graduated – BAM! My side of the bed isn’t even cold yet and she’s already in there dirtying up my pink sheets with her STDs,” Sydney said.

Michael laughed softly. “Gee, Syd, if I didn’t know you were already with an incredibly sexy guy I’d say you sounded jealous.”

“Jealous?” Sydney snorted. “Me? Jealous of Bambi who now gets to sleep beside Mr. ‘Yeah good job man you were great tonight!’ – as if. I’m just…offended that he went from me to that… I mean he clearly has no standards so what the hell was I?!”

“You were far too good for him,” Michael assured her with a smile.

Sydney smiled as well. “Thanks… This is just…really shocking.”

“No kidding…meanwhile, isn’t it illegal for him to be sleeping with the seventeen year old?” Michael asked cautiously.

“Probably…but she might be eighteen by now,” Sydney pointed out. “Whatever…I swear to god, though, if I have to see them around town I’ll vomit all over them,” she muttered. Then she sat up straight and gasped, causing Michael to jump back about a foot. “Oh no!! I’ve become that person!”

“What person?” Michael asked cautiously.

“The bitter ex wife!” Sydney wailed before smashing her face down into the sofa.

“Aw honey you’re not a bitter ex-wife…you’re not even an ex yet,” Michael told her with a slight laugh. Obviously this didn’t help Sydney any so he tried again. “Syd come on this is just a freak situation – even I’m nauseated by it… I mean, how would you feel if Peter wasn’t dating the bra model but dating this Jamie Wesley person instead?”

“Well…I’d think he had a serious English teacher fetish but I wouldn’t throw up on him…,” she said hopefully.

“See, there you go,” Michael smiled at her. Then he slid over onto the couch beside her and put his arms around her. She nuzzled her face into his neck and sighed.

“This is weird…”

“What is?”

“Being a bitter ex-wife…I mean, what happens now? Do I just never see Peter again? Bump into him at the mall and have intensely awkward conversations? Should I send him a Christmas card? A birthday card?”

“I dunno, Syd,” Michael sighed. “I guess that’s your call. A birthday card might be nice…I think it all depends on how amicable a divorce ends.”

“Yeah…oh god, it’s hitting me,” she groaned. “I’m divorced. I’m an ex wife. I’m a divorcee. I’m only two failed marriages away from being Ross on Friends!”

Michael couldn’t help but laugh. “Syd you’re blowing this way out of proportion. Do you know how many people in the world have been divorced once? Twice even? Tons. It doesn’t mean anything. It’s not like this is the 1920’s and you’re going to be branded as the loosest woman in town.”

“I guess,” she sighed, “but it still sucks.”

“Yeah…but I have a feeling the next time you get married it’s gonna stick and you won’t end up divorced again,” Michael told her.

Sydney glanced up and smiled at him as tingles filled her spine. “Oh yeah, how do you know that?”

“Dunno,” he sighed with a grin. “I just do.”



Chapter 20

Much too quickly for Sydney’s wishes, the end of summer arrived meaning she only had a precious few days before she had to be back in school teaching. She enjoyed teaching very much once she was back in the habit of doing it, it was just getting started again after almost three months off that was very difficult. During her last weekend of freedom, Sydney was dragging Michael with her while she shopped for a bed. After three months of sleeping on her mattress on the floor, she was feeling progressively more like she lived in a trailer park each day and couldn’t stand it any longer. She needed an actual bed she could climb up into instead of fall down on.

The Saturday of their shopping excursion, Sydney went over to Michael’s apartment. It was early, barely after nine o’clock, but she wanted to get started before the stores became too crowded. Naturally Michael had whined and complained about being forced to wake up so early, which was why Sydney was going over to his apartment; to make sure he was actually awake and not still asleep.

“You better be awake,” she called out a threat as she walked into his apartment.

“And a wonderful good morning to you too honey!” Michael called back in a teasing manner. Noting his voice was emanating from the bedroom, Sydney went to investigate. She saw him sitting on the end of his bed, tying up his sneakers so she waited in the doorway. She was just about to speak when she saw something horrifying atop the television on the wall opposite the foot of his bed.

“What the living hell is that?!” she demanded pointing to the video camera that was disturbingly pointed directly at the bed. Michael turned slightly pale, but before he could open his mouth to attempt to explain himself Sydney smacked him on the back of the head. “You sick, sick, sick perverted man! What the hell is wrong with you?! You were going to videotape us having sex!!!!! Jesus Christ Michael if you’re that horny for porn you should really buy some – it would be much better than whatever trash you make by yourself!”

“Excuse me,” Michael said, standing up. “I was not going to tape us having sex!”

“Oh really? Then enlighten me, please, as to what, exactly, the camera is doing there,” Sydney said, folding her arms across her chest.

“Nothing…,” Michael said trying to maintain as casual an exterior as possible.

“Oh you just store it there, do you? All open and ready to use,” she snapped, her tone growing even more impatient each time he evaded her question.

“I was just taping me, okay? I swear. Look see,” he said, snatching the camera off the top of the TV. He pressed a few buttons and let Sydney look into the screen. There, she saw Michael sitting on his bed, talking or something; she could not entirely tell because Michael had pressed the rewind button so his image was moving at an unusual speed and backwards.

“Why did you do that?” she asked with utmost confusion.

“Remember on Friends how Ross video taped himself flirting with that sex story of Joey’s – you know ‘Did I ever tell you about the time I went backpacking in Europe…’?” he asked.

“You were doing that?!”

“No! That’s where I got the idea from. I gotta give a speech at work and my boss said I fidget too much but I didn’t even know I fidgeted so…”

“…if you tape yourself you’ll see it,” Sydney finished for him. Michael shrugged rather sheepishly. True, he had lied to her, but it was a plausible little white lie and considering he wasn’t using the camera for any malicious purposes he figured the lie was alright. “Fine…sorry I freaked,” she mumbled.

“It’s okay,” he laughed, putting the camera back. “I mean…it did seem very suspicious.”

“And creepy,” Sydney added. “My college roommate and her boyfriend taped each other having sex once… then they watched it while I was in the room,” she said with a slight shiver.

“Ew,” Michael grimaced.

“It wasn’t that bad…I mean, aside from the fact that I had to puncture my eardrums afterwards,” Sydney told him. Then Michael laughed, put his arm around her and led her out of his apartment so they could go shopping.

~*~

“Oh I don’t know…this is hard!” Sydney groaned. She and Michael had already visited three different stores and she had yet to pick a bed. Michael was quickly loosing his mind for, to him, all the beds looked essentially the same aside from the fact that some used darker wood than others. “Which do you like better…this one or the one we saw at the other store?”

“Which one?” Michael practically whimpered, rubbing his eyes.

“The one that really fat lady was lying on and we weren’t sure how she was going to get up,” she clarified.

“Oh…well…I dunno. They look the same to me!” he groaned. “Except I really don’t like this whitish wood,” Michael said, pointing to the bed they were standing beside.

“Oh no I don’t either; I’d order it in a different color. I’m talking about the style of the headboard,” she told him.

He gave her a blank look. He could no sooner tell the difference in the headboard styles than he could tell the difference in all the styles of women’s evening shoes. “I have an idea – how about you don’t get a bed at all.”

“Michael, we’ve been through this I-”

“I know, I know trailer park,” Michael held up his hand to stop her, “but how about this. You don’t get a bed…and you don’t pay your rent next month.”

“But then I wouldn’t have an apartment,” she said in a tone of utter confusion, obviously not catching onto his subtle expression.

“Yes, this is true…so how about you do that and then you move in with me?” he offered with a grin.

“Oh Michael,” Sydney smiled softly, rubbing her hand across his chest. “That’s so sweet but…but I don’t know if that’s a good-”

Michael cut her off with his fingertip pressed against her lips. “Hear me out, okay? You don’t like your apartment now, right? But you love my apartment and my balcony, right? So if you move in with me you’ll be happier in more ways than one…plus it’ll only be temporary.”

“It will?” Sydney raised an eyebrow at him.

“Well yeah…I was thinking that,” Michael paused to loop his arms around Sydney’s waist, “maybe around Christmas we could start looking for a house…you know…for us,” he said, kissing her lips gently.

“Oh my god,” Sydney croaked out. “You’re gonna make me cry right here in the middle of the bed store!”

“Good tears I hope,” he said with a smile.

“Yeah good tears,” she said, giving him a hug. “How’d you get so perfect, huh?”

“Oh I’m not perfect,” he assured her, “but you’re definitely a help.”

“Uh huh,” she grinned and kissed him. “I think we should go though; we’re making the other shoppers nauseous.”

“Okay,” he laughed. “So you’re not getting a bed then?”

“No…not this bed…I might get one of those beds though,” she said, pointing across the store to things that weren’t beds at all; they were cribs.

“Really? I think they might be a little small for you,” Michael said seriously. This comment earned him an eye roll and a jab in the ribs from Sydney. “I’m kidding…but I think they’d look nice…we gotta find a house for it though.”

“We will,” she smiled at him.



Epilogue

“Mom, are you and Dad gonna get a divorce?” twelve year old Karli asked her mother.

Sydney looked down at her in shock. “What?! Where would you get such an idea?”

“Well we were just talkin’ ‘bout divorce today and everyone was saying how their parents are getting divorced if they’re not already so I was just wonderin’,” Karli shrugged.

“Well your father and I are absolutely not getting a divorce,” Sydney assured her.

“Who’s getting divorced?” Michael asked as he came into the room after missing most of the conversation.

“No one,” Sydney sighed.

“I thought Aunt Nadia and Uncle Henry were getting divorced,” nine year old Brad chimed in.

“Well…yes, but you already knew about that,” Sydney said, almost laughing at the recollection of that conversation. Poor Nadia was utterly floored to find out her husband was gay. Of course the rest of the family had known or at least suspected for quite some time, but didn’t have the heart to tell her. Sadly Nadia’s divorce meant explaining to her twin six year olds what exactly Daddy was doing kissing the air conditioning repair man in the kitchen, a conversation no one looked forward to.

“Poor Gramma, did she stop crying yet?” Karli asked, referring to the fact that when Nadia announced her sad news on Easter that year, Irina had burst into tears, crying about her two daughters with failed first marriages. No matter how happy Sydney was with Michael and how happy they had been for fifteen years, her mother would never let her forget her first divorce.

“Yes actually I think she moved on to laughing,” Sydney told her.

“She should just be happy she didn’t catch Henry and Claude,” Michael said, referring to the repair man, “going at it in the kitchen.”

“She would have died then,” Sydney told him very seriously.

“Mom, is Uncle Henry still going to be our Uncle if he marries the repair man?” Brad asked.

“I suppose so,” Sydney told him. “But I don’t think you have to worry about that right now.”

“Good…kids already think I’m a freak!” he exclaimed. This fact was of course referring to his already over five foot tall frame, making him the tallest boy in his class.

“You’re not a freak,” Michael assured him. “They won’t be laughing when you kick all their as- I mean butts at basketball.”

“Awesome,” Brad said before giving his father a high five that made the two girls roll their eyes. As the two men bonded over their love of sports, Sydney turned back to the cleaning she had been doing. A smile crossed her face as she came across the videotape of Michael’s practice proposals from fifteen years earlier. Laughing softly to herself at the recollection of how she thought Michael’s intensions to be so impure, Sydney put the tape aside; it would prove for much entertainment later on when the two of them were in bed.

“Whatcha lookin for babe?” Michael asked, slipping his arms around her waist from behind.

“Nothin’,” she smiled over her shoulder at him. “Just trying to get rid of some dust.”

“Oh okay,” he said before kissing her.

This kiss elicited two very disgusted noises from their children. “Can’t you guys stop doing that?!”

“No,” Sydney and Michael said in unison. Then, they laughed.

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