A/N: I do not own the obvious. And I really love and appreciate my reviewers as well as everyone who adds this story to their alerts or favorites. Unfortunately, Knit 'n' Lit, my Pride and Prejudice story has a stronger following, so I'm trying to update that one more frequently. But I do love this story and all of you. And I hope that you enjoy the adventures/misadventures of Emma and Andrew.

Before I really knew what was happening, it was mid-February. Holden went back to Arizona in mid-January because his mother needed his help with their Arts for Social Change program. My arm healed and was out of the cast two days after Valentine's Day. I spent Valentine's Day watching movies with Halley, Jessie, and Andrew; it was interesting, to say the least. We kept Jessie around the show until my arm healed. But we decided to keep bringing her back once a week for "The Vegetarian Corner." We even cooked a vegetarian Valentine's Day meal together. It was inspired by a Middle Eastern theme-hummus, grape leaves etc. Even Andrew liked it; the boy can have class and good taste when he wants to.

Halley, despite the fact that I thought she was interested in Holden, was acting almost flirtatiously with Andrew. And that confused me. A few months ago, she was terrified of him. But now she was making special coffee runs for him and buying him his favorite pastries. He, of course, was sending her to A Modern Cup of Joe, which just happens to be where Robby Martin works. And Robby Martin is Andrew's cousin. Andrew has always thought that Robby had a much better chance of winning Halley's heart than Ethan ever did. I disagreed with Andrew, but he'd turned out to be right. Unfortunately, what's done is done and we can't change the past. Robby and Halley aren't going to get together-no matter how many times Andrew sends Halley to A Modern Cup of Joe.

Nina was five months pregnant and desperately trying to avoid Rowan who had finally gotten a job as a nurse. But now she wanted to help Nina through her pregnancy with her "professional experience and expertise." Nina wasn't very interested because she was using a midwife and a doula, hoping for a more natural experience. "I'm not going to be drugged up," she told me over lunch one day. "I will remember this baby's birth."

She was expecting a girl and I was thrilled beyond belief. I was already knitting a baby blanket and baby booties and a million other little oddments for the baby. "Your daughter will be just another niece for me. Emma and Carson are so far away, so it'll be nice to have a niece who is closer to home."

Nina grinned. "Charlie and I were hoping that you and Holden would be the baby's godparents. It would just be so perfect."

I smiled. "We'd love to. Well, okay, I would love to. I can't speak for your stepson."

"Charlie already asked him and he agreed, of course. He says that he doesn't believe in God but that if we want it, he'll do anything to make us happy. He's a little eccentric, but I like him."

"He is your stepson. It's good for you to like him."

She laughed. "He's a sweetheart. He's been so kind to you."

"He sends me roses once a week, even though he's gone."

"How romantic," she sighed. "What kind of roses are they?"

"One single long-stemmed pink rose weekly and for Valentine's Day, he sent me one dozen pink roses," I replied. "They're fair trade and organic."

"That's Holden for you. He thinks that giving women roses is a man's duty."

"They're lovely roses, but Nina, you and I both know that roses aren't my favorite flowers. I'm a daisy girl."

"Then tell him."

"And I don't like pink. And Andrew knows all of this. Neen, he comments on it every freaking time he sees one of those damn pink roses. I love the sentiment behind them but I hate that Andrew mocks them. And I hate that Andrew knows what I want better than Holden does."

Nina patted my hand. "Sweetie, I'll talk to Charlie and ask him to straighten things out with Holden. We'll just tell him that you prefer purple gerbera daisies to pink roses. I'm sure things will straighten out easily."

I smiled. "I'd really like it. I don't know how to tell him that I appreciate the thought but I don't like pink or roses. I'm a redhead, Neen. I can't do pink."

"Lies," she said. "Your hair is auburn; isn't that what you're always telling Andrew?"

"Auburn is merely a shade of red."

"Try pink sometime, Em. I bet you of all people could rock it out."

"Halley is always telling me that I'm serious hot-stuff and I need to branch out beyond purple."

"You wear more colors than purple!"

"I know! That's what I said. Look at me right now." I was wearing dark wash skinny jeans, green chucks, a dark green tunic sweater, and a black beaded scarf.

"No purple whatsoever," Nina replied with an approving smile. "I, on the other hand, am wearing purple." She was wearing skinny jeans, boots, and a purple tunic/maternity top.

"You are such a cute pregnant lady," I told her. "I hope I'm half as cute as you are when I'm pregnant."

"I thought you were never going to get married or have children."

I shrugged. "I might be reconsidering. But I don't need to get married. I need a man like a fish needs a bicycle."

"But maybe you'll meet someone you want," she said with a teasing glint in her eye.

"And then I'll have beautiful babies."

"I have no doubt that you and a Certain Someone will make absolutely beautiful babies."

I laughed and took a sip of coffee. "Shall we get back to work? Andrew will probably send Halley out looking for me if I'm not back in my office soon."

When I got back to my office, Andrew was sitting at my desk watching videos on my laptop. "You've got to see this Italian Soccer Practice video," he told me when I walked in. "It's priceless."

I laughed. "Andy, you know that I introduced you to that video three years ago."

"Shut up. I'm busy laughing."

I shook my head and came to lean over his shoulder. "This one is great. Dude, find the Adidas commercials from the 2006 World Cup."

"The Jose plus ten ones?" he asked. "I love those."

"Are we really playing around online at work again? We have real jobs that need doing."

"Red, you're no fun at all."

I swatted the side of his head. "All right, Jimmy Stewart, if you say so, but fun or not, we do need to earn our keep around here. After all, we need to stay on top in the ratings."

"The Today Show emailed; they want you to fly to New York and be their guest chef the first Friday of May."

"Are you serious?" I asked. "That would be great."

"You can't bring Jessie."

"That's all right. I'm sure that someday she'll get there on her own. But it'll be great publicity for the show and for the restaurant."

He nodded. "So you want to do it?"

"Of course I do."

"You can only take me with you to New York. Matt and Meredith will be there with you so you don't need Joyce and Nina and everyone. Plus, Nina will be too pregnant to fly then."

"You're blunt, Jimmy."

Andrew rolled his eyes. "You're ridiculous, Red."

"And you love me for it," I replied. "Now get out of my chair."

"As you wish," he said, standing up.

As I sat down, I looked at him. "Where's Halley?"

"She went out to get me a chai latte. Apparently, she doesn't know that we can make those in the kitchen."

"You asked her to go get you one? You're horrible."

"No, no, no, calm down, Red," he said, sounding far too much like Cary Grant from The Philadelphia Story. "She came into my office and said that she was going over to A Modern Cup of Joe to get herself a latte. She offered to pick something up for me while she was out. I said that I would really like a chai latte. I never actually asked her to buy me one."

I laughed. "Cute, but you'd better pay her for it."

"Oh I will. And then I'm going to introduce her to the state-of-the-art espresso machine in the kitchen."

"How sweet of you," I replied. "Make sure to tell her that we have soy milk and skim milk in the fridge."

"Oh I will. I'll also tell her that you keep the fixings for mochas in the fridge and cupboards."

"I'm smart. Now get out of my office so I can work."

The following Tuesday, Halley brought a bouquet of one dozen pink gerbera daisies into my office. "They're from Holden," she said putting them on my desk. "I got excited and opened the envelope. I forgot that you don't need me to do that anymore."

"Well, please hand it over," I said. My voice betrayed a note of testiness but that was because she had given Andrew his own personal pan of brownies. Honestly, she was supposed to be in love with Holden, not Andrew; Andrew was far too good for someone like Halley. She was silly and didn't know or care who Cary Grant was.

I took the note from her hand and she sat down opposite my desk, eagerly awaiting my reaction. To a lovely lady, I'm sorry for continually sending flowers that you associate with your mother's funeral. I hope that these lovely daisies will serve as an appropriate apology. Yours ever, Holden

"Isn't it lovely?" Halley asked.

"It's very nice," I replied. But pink roses don't remind me of my mother's funeral. I just don't like them. There were white lilies at my mother's funeral-nothing pink and certainly no roses.

"He's so romantic. Emma, are you going to marry him?"

I laughed. "I've only known him for two months. I can't make my mind up about him just yet."

"But he sends you flowers."

"But I'm sure that I'm not the object of his affections. I'm far too independent for him. He needs a calmer, gentler spirit." Someone more like you, I added mentally.

"But he's so handsome and he's so kind to you. No one has ever sent me flowers. And the roses are so pretty. And these daisies are really nice too."

"I love daisies," I told her. "Purple daisies are my favorite flowers."

"I love the color pink," Halley replied. Halley was wearing black dress pants, pink shoes, and a pink blouse.

"Then take the daisies home with you at the end of the day. I'm not overly attached to the gift or the giver."

"But Holden is so handsome and sweet and kind!"

"You can have him," I said, trying to sound casual. "I'm not interested."

"But you keep letting him send you flowers."

"Halley, I don't think I could stop him if I tried."

"But he's so romantic. Why don't you like him?"

I sighed. "I don't know. He's very nice to me but I just don't feel anything towards him."

Halley couldn't understand. She was the sort of girl who fell in and out of love easily. She was charmed by a pretty face and a kind smile. But I wanted more. I wanted intelligence and depth. Adventures and laughter, I wanted to see the world. Halley wasn't like that. She would be contented with living in Highbury for the rest of her life. If she never went to Paris, it wouldn't really bother her. But me, that would bother me. Despite my father's convictions that travel was the source of death and suffering, I wanted to see the world. I wanted to really go places, not just use Google Earth to look at them.

Andrew and Nina understood that. They knew me better than Halley did. But Nina still thought Holden would be a good match for me. Andrew disagreed. But they rarely agreed on things like relationships. Andrew like Charlie but Nina was always trying to set Andrew up with people-to little or no success. She'd frequently been mentioning that she thought Andrew and Jessie would be a great match but he just told her to stop listening to gossip and actually spend time with her friends. She was still dropping the occasional hint on the subject but Andrew was remaining firm in his stance that he would never date or marry a vegetarian because "I like eating dead animals."

Andrew understood me better than almost anyone else. We'd been best friends since high school and neighbors since infancy. We'd eaten sand together in the sandbox. We knew each other and we understood each other.

After that day, I started giving every bouquet of flowers (always pink gerbera daisies) that Holden sent me to Halley. And for some reason that I couldn't explain for the life of me, Jessie seemed to being nicer to me than she had been before I did this. It was probably just a random coincidence but she suddenly became much more likeable. She was actually almost fun to be around. She, Andrew, and I went out for dinner together and it was actually enjoyable. She drank beer and laughed and talked. She didn't talk much about her past but she openly admitted that she was ready to sock Rowan in the jaw. Rowan was continually suggesting that Jessie find a real profession and get out of the TV business. "I like cooking. And I enjoy working with you two. I'm happy here in Highbury with my aunt and with you. I don't need her ragging on me all the time and trying to be my best friend."

"Tell me about it," Andrew sighed. "Ethan told her that I'm his best friend so now he wants me to pretend to be his best friend. And I can't even go out and drink a beer with him or watch a football game. He'd rather drink fruity drinks with umbrellas and watch Dancing with the Stars."

"Hey now," I protested. "I watch Dancing with the Stars."

"You're a girl. I'm a dude and I watch Monday Night Football."

Jessie laughed. "You two bicker like an old married couple."

"Or two people who used to force-feed each other sand back in preschool," I said.

"Are you serious?"

Andrew laughed. "It was mostly her force-feeding me. She liked to play chef in the sandbox and I was gullible and ate whatever she fed me."

"I wasn't that bad."

"Hey, I admit that I was dumb. You were just really persuasive and I was really dumb. I've grown up a lot in the past twenty years."

"He's right," I told Jessie. "He won't eat just anything that you put in front of him anymore. You may have noticed his aversion to anything that doesn't have meat in it."

Jessie laughed. "I have, once or twice. But we did get him to eat the falafel and the vegan grape leaves on Valentine's Day."

"And he liked it, didn't he?" I teased.

"Yes, Mikey liked it," Andrew sighed, invoking the old "He likes it! Mikey likes it!" commercials for LIFE cereal.

Jessie and I both laughed. Jessie is sweet and kind, like Halley, but unlike Halley, she is smart and able to have a more intellectual conversation. I never really realized this about her before that evening. She was someone that I'd like to get to know better. And I'd like to help her get away from Rowan's efforts to take over her life. No one deserves Rowan's interference in their personal life.

A rainy Saturday evening in March found my father and me watching the History Channel. Halley had called and invited me to go to A Modern Cup of Joe for open-mike night with some of her friends from community college but I'd declined because I didn't really know any of them. Andrew was somewhere with Ethan, suffering most likely. Rowan was torturing Jessie. Nina and Charlie were having a date night. And I was bored. The History Channel really isn't my cup of tea. I was working on a blanket for Nina and Charlie's baby. But I really wanted to talk to someone. I missed Holden taking me out on dates. I didn't really like him but he paid attention to me. And I liked that. I liked having people notice me. So what if I'm a little egotistical or self-centered? I have my own TV show! I'm allowed to be self-centered, a least a little. I'm no diva or anything. I still make my own coffee and buy my own clothes. I'm a normal person.

But I shouldn't spend my Saturday nights at home watching the History Channel with my dad. That's more than a little bit pathetic. I'm Emma Woodhouse and I should not be home alone on a weekend. But I had no one to call and ask to rescue me.

The following Monday morning, March 22, was a long day. We had new promos to shoot for several spring shows including our annual Passover meal that we cooked in honor of Nina's Jewish heritage. It was an extraordinarily popular episode every year. Jessie offered to prepare a vegan Passover meal but Nina shot that idea down. "I'm not a vegan and one of the important parts of the episode is the use of my family's lamb recipes."

"Lamb?" Jessie repeated. "You eat the poor innocent baby lambs? But they're so cute and darling."

Nina was ordinarily a patient person. But she was six months pregnant and she was tired. Also, her family traditions were important to her. "Jessie, the Jewish people have been eating lamb as part of the Passover meal since the days of Moses. It is part of our tradition. We're not going to change just because the lambs are cute. In the real world, wolves kill the cute little lambs much more violently and painfully than we do."

"But wolves are lambs' natural predators."

"Jessie, we're not turning this into one of your animal rights' demonstrations. Survival of the fittest says kill or be killed. To uphold my place on the food chain, I'll keep eating the dead baby sheep; thank you very much."

"But you're a pregnant woman. How can you say things like that?"

"I need to eat and my daughter needs to eat. I'm simply ensuring our survival."

"You disgust me!" Jessie snapped and walked out of my office.

I looked at Andrew who just shrugged. "Tree-hugger," he muttered as the door to my office slammed shut.

Nina rested her hands on her swollen belly and sighed. "She normally seems so nice but she becomes almost psychotic when it comes to vegetarianism."

"I don't see why she couldn't do a small segment on a vegan Passover meal."

"Because she wouldn't agree to do a small segment and you know it, Emma!" Nina snapped. "She'd want to do a special episode."

"We don't have the budget for a special vegan Passover meal episode," Andrew sighed. "We already have the Easter episode and the Passover episode. And she's doing a vegan segment in the Easter episode. Frank from the network called me and told me to start keeping a closer eye on the spending for the vegan segments. Apparently, while Jessie was helping Emma, she pushed us over budget for the first time in the show's run."

"Are you serious?" I asked.

He nodded. "You, like your mom, have always preached economy. You talk about shopping at local grocery stores while she talks about Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. Now, those are both great stores. But they have repeatedly taken episodes over budget. And the network doesn't want to increase our budget. Furthermore, they're not interested in giving Jessie her own show if she keeps pushing your show over budget. To be honest, Jessie might do well to try to find a job as a chef in a restaurant again and try again with the Food Network at a later date."

"She's not going to like that idea," I said.

"I know, Red," Andrew replied. "But I don't like the idea of explaining going hundreds of dollars over budget on brands that don't sponsor the show. If you use Ocean Spray dried cranberries, Ocean Spray gives us and the network more sponsorship. But if she uses some local organic farmer, we get nothing out of that financially."

I nodded. "It's a numbers game."

"Life is a numbers game, Em. I hate it but it is. I don't want to encourage Rowan in her insistence that Jessie should leave the cooking business because Jessie shouldn't. But for now, she'd be better suited to a kitchen somewhere. She'd be a great service to a vegan restaurant somewhere."

I nodded. "But I'm not going to be the one to tell her."

He smiled. "I'll wait until after the rest of her scheduled segments are done and then talk to her about it."

"Be nice."

"Yes, mother," he replied with a smirk.

Nina rolled her eyes. "You two forgot that I was in the room again."

"Sorry," Andrew and I said in unison before bursting out in laughter-in unison, again. We know each other far too well. We really are like brother and sister.

A/N: Please review!