Part Twenty-seven

"Michael Vaughn. Pleased to meet you," Michael says, shaking Ben's hand.

"Sydney. Hi," Sydney adds, setting Grace's carrier down on the kitchen table. "This is Grace. Our other two children ran off with Nick."

"She's beautiful," Ben says with a smile.

"Is your daughter here?" Sydney asks.

"Oh, no," Ben says, shaking his head with a smile. "She didn't want to spend Saturday night with her old man. You know teenagers."

"Not yet," Sydney says with a smile. "Our oldest will be seven in July, I have to say I'm glad we have awhile to wait for teenagers."

"Syd, Mike, can I get you something to drink?" Kerri jumps in. "Syd, do you think Grace would be more comfortable in her playpen?"

"I'll get her settled before we eat dinner," Sydney assures her. "And water would be great."

"Mike?" Kerri asks. "Water? Something stronger?"

"A beer would be nice, if you have one," he responds.

"Oh, I forgot to buy any," Kerri says, biting her lower lip.

"There's still a couple of bottles in the door of the fridge, Kerri," Ben tells her.

"Thanks, hon. Do you want one, too?"

"Sure, thanks."

"Dinner should be ready any minute," Kerri says, fingers flying up to twist the pearls around her neck nervously. "What do you guys want to do while we wait? Sit at the kitchen table? Should we go to the living room?"

"Here is fine, Ker," Sydney says, eyeing her friend warily. She seems so antsy, skittish. Come to think of it, her moods have been all over the place the last few times Sydney has talked to her. She wonders if she has been this way ever since the divorce, and realizes with a pang that she has no idea.

"Okay. Here," she says with a nod. "Water," she says, pointing at Sydney as if just remembering her friend's request. "And beer," she adds, pointing at Michael and Ben.

"Are you okay, Ker?" Sydney asks.

"Of course." Kerri looks a little offended by the question. "Please, Syd, Mike, sit. Ben, you too. I'll get the drinks and watch the sauce."

The others follow her directions, and Kerri goes about the business of pouring glasses of water and opening beer bottles. "Ben," she says as she does so. "Mike was at UCLA the same time we were."

"Really?" A smile crosses Ben's face. "I knew you looked familiar, man. Wait, did you take Chemistry with--"

"Chemistry? No," Michael says with a smile. "Science wasn't my strong suit."

"You look familiar, though," Ben says with a frown.

Well, Ben, his best friend had a crush on your girlfriend, but he had to wait to move in on her because you were in the picture, Sydney thinks. Who was his best friend? Oh, Eric Weiss, Ker's ex-husband. Yes, they've been best friends for years. Kerri didn't tell you? Sydney hadn't been really looking forward to this dinner by any means, but it is only now she realizes how awkward this could potentially get.

"I think maybe-- I dated a girl in the Delta Gamma house for most of my junior year," Mike says smoothly. "Did you ever--"

"Oh, yeah, Kerri was a Delta Gamma," Ben says with a grin. "That must have been where I saw you. Did Ker tell you we dated in college?"

"Yeah," Mike says. "Actually, she--"

"Mike's good friends with Eric, Ben," Kerri cuts in. "He knew me in college, he heard about you."

Sydney lets out a breath she didn't even know she was holding. Well, now that we have that out in the open…

"Yes, I heard all of Kerri's tales about the one that got away," Michael says, winking at Kerri. Kerri smiles at him, and Sydney breathes a sigh of relief. She has never appreciated Michael's ability to make anyone feel comfortable in any situation more than she does right now.

"Well, we found each other again," Ben says, looking at Kerri with sparkling eyes as Kerri distributes the drinks. "How often does that happen, right?"

"Maybe once in a lifetime," Kerri says, offering him a soft smile. They kiss gently, and Sydney can't help but smile. For all of her nervousness, maybe Kerri really is happy.

"So, Syd, what's your story?" Ben asks, as Kerri moves away to check on the sauce. "You weren't a Delta Gamma with Kerri, were you?"

"Sydney was above the whole sorority thing," Kerri calls from the stove.

Sydney stares at her friend, surprised by the faint touch of nastiness in her voice. "I wasn't in a sorority, no," she tells Ben. "But I was at UCLA, like, a million years after these guys, anyway." She says the comment lightly, but she knows damned good and well that Kerri is just a touch sensitive bout the fact that Sydney is younger than she is. And taller. And thinner. And about the fact that I have a husband who doesn't-- God, Syd, when did you turn into such a bitch?

"You trying to call me old?" Michael teases.

"Not at all, baby," Sydney assures him, giving him a warm kiss.

Ben smiles. "So you met Kerri through Michael and Eric, then?"

"Mm-hmm. It's weird," Sydney muses. "I actually met Kerri and Eric the same night I met Michael. We were all invited to the same dinner party."

"You should have seen these two," Kerri says, settling down at the table with a glass of wine. "They'd known each other, like, five minutes, and they were all over each other in front of everyone."

Sydney eyes her friend, wondering how many glasses of wine she's had. She and Michael had hit it off at that party, to be sure, but they'd hardly been all over each other. He'd walked her to her car and kissed her goodnight at the end of the night, and no one had even seen. "Well, who could keep their hands off of this one," she says, forcing a smile as she places a hand over her husband's and rubs light circles with her thumb. "I'm sure you two were the same way, when you first got together."

Ben actually bursts out laughing, and Kerri turns accusing eyes on him. "I'm sorry, honey. But remember how shy you were when we met?"

"I was nineteen!" Kerri says hotly.

Grace begins to wail then. Sydney doesn't think she's ever heard a sweeter sound.