Chapter Four: Return

2 Years Later

It had been 2 years since she had learned that Michael had gone to France and she had long since decided to move on. Except, she couldn't move on. She knew it was dumb, since she had been the one to squash anything that might have happened between them. If it weren't for her, Michael wouldn't have moved to France. He probably still have gone to France since his mother was ill, but maybe… maybe if she hadn't been so stupid… if she hadn't run out on him after spending that night at his house… maybe he would've taken her to France with him. For about 2 weeks after she learned he was gone, she spent most of her time at home, eating ice cream and taking long showers to wash away her tears and pain. After that, it finally sank in that he was gone. She thought about the irony of it all. When he'd asked her out on a real dinner date, she'd turned him down thinking that she didn't have the feelings for him. And now two years later, she was still thinking about him. Her feelings had always been there. She had just chosen to ignore them at the worst possible time.

Sydney's brain couldn't have been farther away as she searched her closet for wrapping paper. Where was it? She needed to wrap the picture frames and she needed to do it fast, before she was late for dinner at Bridgette's house. She absentminded glanced at the clock. She had an hour left to find the stupid wrapping paper and get ready. She gave a frustrated sigh and stuck the frames in a fancy bag with some tissue paper. She didn't have time to go scavenger hunt for some wrapping paper. She dressed in a black skirt and a sleeveless black top and began applying her makeup. Bridgette had insisted that it was casual and that Sydney need not to bring a gift, but Sydney knew better. It would be a feast. As for the gift, Bridgette's new house would be huge, and nobody could have enough picture frames. Bridgette's family was perfect and Sydney loved being friends with them. It always cheered her up and gave her a warm feeling no matter what. She still remembered how exactly she had become friends with Michael's sister and her family.

Sydney walked slowly through the park, trying to sort out her thoughts. It had been about a month since she had gone to Michael's house only to find that he was gone, it was a little disappointing that he hadn't thought of her at all when he left. But then again, she had run out of his house. He had every reason to be mad. Her thoughts disappeared as she realized someone was calling her name. She looked up and noticed, Michael's sister, Bridgette, and her daughter, Olivia waving at her. She walked over. "Hi."

"Hi, Sydney right?" Bridgette hoped that she hadn't gotten the name wrong.

"Yeah. Bridgette and Olivia. Hi!" Sydney smiled and waved at Olivia who was looking at her with her eyes wide open.

"Hi Miss Sydney. Are you a friend of Uncle Michael?" Olivia said his name slowly as if she was afraid that Sydney wouldn't understand.

Sydney laughed and told Bridgette, "Uncle makes him sound old. Olivia is so adorable."

"Yea, well, I keep telling him that one of these days he should meet a nice girl and settle down. I always tease him about turning old. So what are you doing this afternoon? Olivia's friends are coming over and I could use a hand and some company. I could pay you for helping me babysit, if you want." Bridgette smiled at her hopefully as Olivia added, "Please Miss Sydney, I have lots of friends."

Sydney laughed. "You don't have to pay me, I love kids. I'm a teacher and I don't have anything to do anyway. Are you still staying at Michael's house?" Saying his name gave her a slight pang in her stomach. She wished that she could take everything rude she had said to him back.

"Yeah we are, our new house is still being built and we sold our old house, so Mike was generous enough to let us live in his house for the time he's in France. How long did you know each other?" Bridgette asked as they walked in the direction of Michael's house. Bridgette was oblivious to the fact that something more was going on between Sydney and Michael. She had thought that maybe they had been dating, but Michael wouldn't just leave his girlfriend without any kind of notice, even if they had been through a fight of some sort.

"Oh, just little more than a year," Sydney answered vaguely as she watched Olivia skip ahead of the two adults. "How's your mom?" Sydney didn't want to talk about Michael.

"She's okay. Just a little pneumonia, but she's healthy for her age. Michael's okay in France, too. Although, when I talked to him he sounded a little preoccupied. I mentioned that you stopped by, but he didn't really say anything." Bridgette stopped in front of Michael's house and pulled her keys out.

"Oh. That's good." Sydney couldn't really think of anything to say. She followed Olivia and Bridgette into the house. Olivia insisted on giving a tour even though Sydney said that she had been there before.

"This is MY room. It used to be Uncle Mike's but he let me have it." Olivia's room was relatively neat with some toys on the floor. There were colorful drawings hung on the walls. Sydney guessed Olivia had drawn them; they were very creative. "This is Mommy and Daddy's room. It's boring." Sydney recognized the room as Michael's old guest room, the one that she had stayed in. "This is a bathroom and that's another one. This is the balcony. I can't go there unless Mommy or Daddy is there cause they think I will fall over the side." Sydney laughed as Bridgette nodded her head and Olivia pouted. "And this is the living room and eating room and kitchen." Olivia pointed at the two main rooms in the house plus the kitchen. "You can talk to Mommy. I'm going to take a nap until my friends come."

Sydney sat down on the couch as Bridgette went to get some tea. The room looked relatively the same as the last time she had been there, except there were more pictures of Olivia and Bridgette and her husband. There was one picture, resting on the bookshelf, of Bridgette's family, Michael, and his mother. Sydney smiled wistfully. They looked like a great happy family. The only family she had was her dad, whom she hardly ever talked to, much less saw. Bridgette came back with the tea and the two of them sat on the couch and talked for a while, Sydney said as little as possible about Michael, but they did learn about each other's families.

"My mom died in a car accident when I was little so I only have my dad. When I was growing up, I hardly knew him, so we barely talk. Maybe occasionally, he'll call up and say, 'happy birthday' or something. Then he'll have to go back to work again, before I can invite him for dinner or lunch or coffee. Your family seems great, like you can all depend on each other." Sydney pointed at the picture resting on the bookshelf.

"Yeah, I guess so. After me and Mike lost our dad when we were little, our family just became closer I guess. Then I got married to Josh and he became just like family to them. We hardly even get to meet Mike's girlfriends. He hardly ever brings anyone to dinner. I've probably only met like one or two of his girlfriends. They were nice but I knew it wasn't going to last between them. They just weren't his type. And while he liked them, you could tell he didn't love them. When he's serious about someone, you can just tell. I'm still waiting for him to fall in love and Mother is getting impatient with him." Bridgette laughed. "I think that you two would make a good couple. You honestly never considered dating each other?"

"Well it wasn't that simple…" Sydney didn't want to talk about this at first, but Bridgette was so easy to talk to. She gave off a trusting vibe, like Sydney could spill everything and Bridgette would understand. She took a deep breath and prepared to tell her story when the phone rang.

"Hang on a sec, Sydney. Hello?" Bridgette picked up the phone. "Mike! How's France and how's mom:Pause: Good. Great. So when are you coming back home:Pause: Fine. Don't tell me," Bridgette said in a fake haughty tone. "So guess who's here?" Bridgette noticed Sydney shaking her head and mouthing not to tell him that she was here. "Actually, never mind. I was going to tell you to talk to Olivia but I remembered she's taking a nap. And her friends are coming over later. So I'll talk to you later. Ok, bye. Tell mom I said hi." Bridgette hung up the phone. "So, you want to explain what this is all about?"

"Ok…" Sydney started talking and soon told the entire story without leaving out a single detail about Danny's death, Michael, and everything that had happened between them. When she was done, she was crying.

"Oh, Sydney It's ok." Bridgette hugged Sydney and handed her some tissues.

Sydney shook her head. After that, Bridgette told her from time to time how Michael was doing. At first, she insisted that Sydney tell him how she really felt, but Sydney made her promise not to tell anyone. Bridgette had kept it, not even telling Josh about it. After a while, they stopped talking about it, because Sydney said that she had moved on. Sydney knew that Bridgette knew better, but just didn't want to bring it up because she trusted Sydney. She glanced at the clock and realized that if she didn't leave NOW, she'd be late for dinner. She gabbed the bag with Bridgette's gift and her keys and ran out the door.

When she arrived at Michael's house, Bridgette's family would be moving out the next day, Sydney noticed that neither Francie nor Will's car was there. That meant she wasn't late. She rang the doorbell and Bridgette ushered her in. Sydney laughed as she noticed that boxes filled the hall. "I got you a gift for your new house."

"Sydney, you seriously need to start listening to me. I said no gifts." Bridgette didn't take the bag, so Sydney put it on top of one of the boxes.

"I'm sure. They're picture frames. I figured you could never get enough of those. When are Francie and Will coming?"

"Oh yeah they called to say that they're running late, because Francie's car broke down, so she and Will took it to the shop and Will is driving here when they drop off Francie's broken car."

Sydney laughed. "Did Will tell you that? Because it sounds like something he would say in a hurry."

"Yes, he did."

Josh and Olivia walked in and Sydney greeted them both. The four of them sat down in the living room and waited for Francie and Will.

-

Michael stared out of the taxi window. He was back in LA after two years of living in France. He almost couldn't remember why he decided to stay so long, but then he remembered. Sydney. It was because of her. He had just wanted to get away for a while, but when Bridgette had called and said that Sydney had come looking for him, he decided to stay longer. He knew what he was doing. Running. He just ran from his problem with Sydney. Actually there was no problem. She didn't like him the way he liked her. Period. And it hurt him. But now he was over it. He hoped so at least. It wasn't like he was going to run into Sydney anytime soon. He was just going to go home and spend some time with Bridgette and Josh and Olivia. Bridgette had told him that their house was finished, so they'd be moving out soon. He recalled her saying she would be moving maybe tomorrow? That was why he decided to surprise them today. He smiled. Bridgette would be happy and Olivia would be too. He couldn't wait to see her. Olivia was about 9 now and no doubt, she'd be an adorable little girl. He paid the taxi driver as he got out and pulled his suitcase out of the trunk. He hadn't brought much luggage since he used to live in France and many of his things were still there. Michael walked up the steps and rang the doorbell.

-

The doorbell rang and Sydney said, "Finally! They're here. Will probably tried to negotiate a good deal with the auto place on fixing Francie's car." Sydney and Bridgette laughed as they went to open the door. Bridgette turned the knob and pulled the door open, ready to laugh at Francie and Will for being so late, while Sydney stood beside her holding back a giggle. When they saw who was at the door however, both their smiles were wiped away.

"Hey Bri —" Michael started until he noticed Sydney. "Syd?"

"Michael?"