Elizabeth Delmas walked purposefully, eyes covered by only the best sunglasses money could buy. Her husband, Herve Pichon, was one of the top computer what you call it's in all of France. Therefore, she was quite wealthy; and considering how much her husband adored her, he never disagreed when she said she needed that new one thousand dollar handbag. Opening the doors to the loud, overly crowded daycare she frequently dropped her child off at, she paused at a sight she had not seen in quite some time.
"Ulrich?" Said man turned to look at her, a slight grimace marking his features as he set his eyes on his old stalker.
"Oh, Sissi. It's just great to see you." He said, and Sissi smiled. Of course it was great to see her, who wouldn't want to be in her presence?
"I take it you're here to pick up your's and Yumi's brat-I mean, bundle of joy?" Sissi smiled, taking a seat next to where Ulrich sat on the lone bench in the overly colorful lobby. Last that Sissi had seen Ulrich, the two of them still ran around their feelings and had yet to proclaim their annoyingly obvious love. Despite that, the only conclusion she could come to regarding why Ulrich would be here in the first place would be that they had come together at some point. It had been nearly 15 years since they'd graduated after all, and if they still were running around each other that was quite pathetic.
"No, actually." He began, and Sissi was quite surprised by that. "I'm actually here to pick up mine and Odd's bundle of joy." Now that, she was not expecting.
"I'm sorry, your's and Odd's?" She asked, an annoyed yet shocked tinge to her voice. She couldn't believe her ears. Everyone in the school knew that the second Yumi was out of the picture, it was supposed to be herself next in line. Yet someone, the scrawny blonde with no sense of humor managed to beat her to her one true love? Oh, she bet Yumi felt about as good as she did.
"Yeah. Mine and Odd's." He said back to her, rolling his eyes. "Just to fill you in since I can see the corks turning in there, we've been married for 12 years, dating for 17. Yumi and I were never going to work out, that was obvious. 2 of those years were a secret little fling that we didn't know what to do with, until I finally figured out that I didn't love Yumi at all. We adopted our daughter 4 years ago from Italy. Caught up?" He finished, and Sissi was beyond stunned. He had been married to Odd for 12 years? She always knew they'd most likely stay friends, but hardly the ones that kept in touch except for special events. "What about you then? Who'd you end up with?" He asked, giving a small wave to a tiny blonde headed girl playing with a pile of blocks in the corner of the room. To her utter horror, the small girl was sitting next to her own son, talking excitedly as they shared the blocks between them.
"Herve, he makes a lot of money." She shrugged, hoping that her son would not notice her. She hardly wanted Ulrich to know that his and Odd's daughter made friends with her own son. She could hardly stand watching the German pine over Yumi, the last thing she wanted was Odd and Ulrich's child wanting to schedule playdates. That would mean dealing with not only a smitten Ulrich, but a happily married one as well.
"Didn't think you'd ever end up with Herve." Ulrich chuckled, and Sissi shrugged her shoulders again.
"Like I said, money. He gets me the best of the best, and to me that's worth the annoying voice and gross pimples." Ulrich chuckled at that again, shaking his head. Sissi watches as Ulrich's daughter gave her son a small hug before running out into the waiting room, arms open wide for a hug from her father. Ulrich smiled brightly and stood, wrapping his still strong looking arms around the little girl.
"Vati, look what I made for daddy." She said, showing Ulrich a horribly drawn picture of a dog. The ugly dog that once inhabited Odd and Ulrich's shared bedroom. She genuinely wondered if the thing was still alive, after all, it had been many years.
"Oh mein liebes kind, daddy's going to love it." Ulrich said, and the little girl's face lit up.
"Are you going to introduce me then, Ulrich dear?" She said, enjoying the way the brunette's jaw clenched up a little bit.
"Hello, I'm Sofie." The blonde girl said, waving happily at Sissi. Definitely took more after Odd than Ulrich, Sissi decided.
"Hello, Sofie. I'm Sissi, I went to school with your dad." She said, and Sofie's mouth fell open as she looked over to her father.
"Wow, that's awesome!" She said. Yes, she reminded Sissi a lot of Odd. "Do you like my picture?" Sofie showed the black haired woman, and despite the fact she truly thought the drawing was less than acceptable, she couldn't stand the thought of that smile leaving the girl's face.
"I love it." Sissi smiled, and Sofie gazed back at her happily.
"Momma?" Sissi heard. She looked down and saw her son tugging at her dress, eyes tired and worn out. "I want to take a nap." He said. Sissi bent down and picked him up, placing a small kiss on his forehead.
"It's still light outside. How can you be sleepy?" Sofie asked, genuinely seeming confused. She must be a joy to get into bed at night, Sissi thought.
"You have too much batteries." Sissi's son said tiredly, resting his head on his mother's shoulder. Ulrich chuckled, shaking his head.
"I always said that about Odd." Ulrich said. Sissi nodded in agreement.
"She's just like him." Sissi said.
"You haven't seen her angry." Ulrich smiled, and Sissi laughed lightly. Oh, she knew how crazy Ulrich got when he didn't get his own way. "Well, I'm going to head out. Odd has a screening for his new film tonight and I don't want to be late." Ulrich said as he gathered his messenger bag and his own daughter's backpack.
"Yeah I better get going too." Sissi responded, pulling her car keys out of her pocket. The two walked side by side out of the daycare, not saying a word until they both got to their respective cars.
"If you ever want to schedule a playdate, let me know." Ulrich winked, and Sofie clapped excitedly at the idea.
"Yeah! Michael's funny, he reminds me a lot of uncle Jeremy. He talks as funny as him." Sofie said, and Ulrich burst into laughter.
"I take it Herve rubbed off on him with his computer lingo?" Ulrich asked, and Sissi sighed audibly.
"I tried to get him to talk like a normal child, but his first word was analog!" Sissi said, throwing her hands about in exasperation.
"Oh my. Bring him around to Jeremy and Aelita's sometime. I'm sure Herve would love to have Jeremy teach him more accurate ways of operating a computer. Their son's only 2 and he can already wipe an entire hard drive clean." Ulrich said, sitting down in the driver's seat of his own car. Sissi rolled her eyes.
"Oh please, Herve was always better than Jeremy!" She said, pausing to look at Ulrich's smug smirk. "What? It's true!"
"Uh huh. Have a good night, Sissi." Ulrich said, shutting his door and starting his car. Sissi sat stunned in her own driver's seat, completely shocked by the day's events. Not only was Ulrich not with Yumi but with Odd, but he invited her to hang out with them. Okay, she invited her son to hang out with their daughter, but it really was the same thing. She guessed seeing a happily married Ulrich wouldn't be too bad. After all, who said she couldn't sway him anymore?