Disclaimer: I don't own anything regarding "The O.C." nor am I affiliated with any of the cast and characters used in the story. Anyone or anything that you don't recognize is mine, and anyone and anything else that you do recognize is not mine.

Against All Odds
Chapter 8 – Chinese Food, Fortune Cookies, Etc.

Over the next couple of weeks, Summer provided Seth with his own personal tour of the city. They watched another Broadway show Avenue Q.

"Cohen, I think this show is more suited to your comedic view of life."

"I'm glad you're finally taking my interests into account."

"Didn't I do that last time?"

"Look at you being all funny."

"As long as I'm laughing at you, then funny is fine by me."

He personally wasn't a big fan of puppets, but the show was great, and there certainly was no crying on his part. One morning, Summer gave him a wake-up call and urged him to jog with her in Central Park.

"You need to work out, Cohen."

"But it's five-thirty in the morning," Seth mumbled. "Besides, I do that enough by walking around this big city."

"Please? You don't want me running around alone now, do you?"

"I thought you had some pepper spray with you."

"I gave it to you, remember?"

"Oh, that's right."

"I'll see you in ten minutes."

As much as it wore him out that morning, he had to admit that it was quite a scenic excursion, with just the right amount of green and red and orange and yellow put together. They even came back a couple of days later, blanket in tow and everything, to have a nice, little picnic. Seth challenged Summer to a harmless, one-on-one Frisbee competition. He came out the victor, but only by a small margin.

"You did pretty well for a girl."

"Shut it, Cohen!" Summer exclaimed, punching his arm.

"Ow!" he cried. "That was a mighty punch for such a little person."

Seth cried out again when Summer gave him another dose of pain.

"What's up with the punches today? In case you didn't know, I'm not your personal punching bag."

"If you keep talking, you might as well be."

"I didn't know munchkins can be so cruel."

Instead of punching him, Summer kicked him in the shins.

"Now I'm a punching bag and a soccer ball?" he said, trying to rub the pain away.

"One more word from you, and you're going to be a baseball."

Summer also managed to drag him to a couple of museums. The Metropolitan Museum of Art was not bad. He liked the Guggenheim Museum better, but mostly because it was a lot smaller. Overall, however, he thought it was boring and a waste of his time.

"You just don't have the sophistication to appreciate art."

"I appreciate comic books. They have some nice art there."

"But it's not the same."

"To each his own… or her own."

Aside from the museums, he had a rude awakening regarding food. Before Summer came along, all he ate were pizza and some Chinese food. While they were good and everything, it was certainly getting old eating the same old thing over and over again. Since then, he has eaten French, Italian, Thai, Turkish, Japanese, Indian, Korean, Vietnamese, and even Sri Lankan food.

"Here are some words of wisdom for you, Cohen," Summer started. "Everywhere you go and wherever it may be, you are almost always guaranteed a terrific meal."

Probably one of his favorite activities during their tour was people watching. They claimed a spot at a café in Soho and just looked around.

"Summer, I never thought that you would engage in such activity."

"It's actually quite entertaining," Summer told him. "To top it off, it's also one of the cheapest spectator sports."

"So what now?"

"Simply watch the human zoo parade forth."

"You are a weird creature, Summer Roberts, but I like you."

"That's because I'm your only friend around here."

"I should be offended, but not really because as sad as that sounds, that is actually true."

"Okay, over to your right is a zebra," Summer said as she singled out a Foot Locker employee running. "He looks like he is being chased by a lion."

"He must be late for a very important date."

"With those clothes on, forget it."

During nights when they didn't have anything planned, they just called each other over the phone to talk about their day for hours. They even watched a few movies over the phone, exchanging comments when the mood was right. For the most part, the movies were classic ones starring Bogart, Stewart, Hepburn, and all the greats of yesteryear.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"No, Summer, I am not crying."

"I wasn't going to ask that," Summer smiled through tears of her own. "But for the record, I still think that you're lying."

"So what were you going to ask?"

"Forget it. It's really lame. I shouldn't be talking to you about this. This is more of a Marissa-territory type topic."

"I know I'm not Marissa, but you can talk to me, so just spit it out."

"Do you think anyone could ever love me as much as Rick loved Ilsa?" she asked, referring to the main characters of Casablanca.

"Are you serious?" Seth said incredulously. "That's a stupid question."

"Why?" she asked, her voice taking in a tone of sadness. "Because you don't think anyone could love me that much?"

"Summer, that's crazy talk," Seth told her. "There are hundreds… Thousands of guys out there who could, would, and should love you as much as Rick loves Ilsa."

"You really mean that?"

"Of course I mean it," he said, his voice getting emotional. "Summer, you are the most awesome girl in the world. Hands down. No arguments about it. Probably even the whole universe. Any guy would be insane not to fall in love with you."

"I guess every male on this Earth must be crazy then."

"Well, you still have eight more planets and the rest of outer space."

"Thanks Cohen," she managed to laugh.

"I was just kidding."

"No, I meant thanks for the pep talk, even if it wasn't the whole truth."

"Hey, don't worry about it. And for the record, I meant every word that I said."

"You are the nicest guy, you know that?"

"Finally, a compliment from you towards me," he said. "So tell me, Summer. Do you consider me your best friend now?"

"You still don't sleep with Ryan."

"I'll take that as a no," Seth laughed. "So I'm still your good friend Seth Cohen?"

"No, actually, you're my back-up best friend now."

"Nice," Seth smiled, even though she couldn't see him. "I finally got a promotion."

"I'm getting tired, Cohen. I think I should go to sleep now."

"Sweet dreams, Summer," Seth told her. "And don't worry about that whole thing. Every thing will fall into place for you."

"Sweet dreams, Seth."

It was probably the best two weeks that he has had in years. Too bad it only lasted that long. Both Summer and him had a lot of business affairs to take care of for the next week, so they decided to take a little break from their outings and meet up later in the week.

"Is this the worst day ever or what?" he said as he put the umbrella aside. "I hate crappy weather."

"So do I, sir."

"Do I have any messages?"

"You have a quite a bunch, Mr. Cohen," his secretary said. "You have two from Mr. Nichol, one from Tony Martinez, and one from Craig Winthrop."

"Well, that's just fantastic," he said sarcastically. "Are you sure that's all?"

"Are you okay, Mr. Cohen? You seem to be in a bad mood."

"That's very insightful of you, Jessica. What next? Are you going to tell me that I'm emitting a negative energy? Or better yet, how my aura is looking at the moment?"

"No sir," she looked down, embarrassed and hurt at Seth's reaction.

"Let's just hope this day goes by quickly without any disruptions."

"What an ass!" Jessica said under her breath when Seth went into his office. "What did he eat this morning? What did he eat all week?"

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Seth has been filling out paperwork for most of the day. It was almost noon, meaning that he had been working on them for two hours. The early part of his morning was spent squabbling with Caleb and getting into shouting matches with a few contractors. He was a little more civil with potential clients, although he will probably receive another earful from Caleb after he mistakenly insulted some big-shot owner of some big-shot company. All in all, it has been the same old pattern for the past week.

"Mr. Cohen, someone is out here to see you." Jessica informed him.

"Did you just come in here without knocking?" Seth said in almost a pitch close to yelling.

"I did knock, sir."

"Well, didn't I tell you that I didn't want any interruptions?" Seth said. "Why doesn't anyone listen to me nowadays?"

"Did I catch you at a bad time?" the guest said, poking her head through the door.

"Summer, hey," Seth exclaimed as he stood up, a smile plastered on his face. "Come in."

"But you just…" Jessica said, now confused more than ever. "Nevermind."

Seth didn't even notice that she left until he heard the door close. He gave Summer a small wave before picking up the paper on his desk and stacking them together. He ran his fingers through his hair, mostly to calm himself down than to tame it. He knew that Summer was waiting for an explanation for that sudden outburst not too long ago, but at least it wasn't as bad as the first one.

"Looks like somebody didn't eat their happy flakes this morning," Summer took a seat on one of the leather couches available.

"I'm sorry about that," Seth said. "It just hasn't been a good day."

"Or a good week from what I heard."

"What are you talking about?"

"She warned me before coming in that I should probably stay away. She said that you have been in a bad mood all week."

"Why would she say that?" Seth said, annoyed. "She had no business telling you anything. What is her problem?"

"What is your problem?" she retorted, her tone almost matching his.

He was about to say something to his defense, but he realized that she was right.

"What's going on?" Summer asked, walking over towards him. "You've been acting very… un-Seth like."

"I don't know what's going on," he said, walking away from her towards the couch. "It's been a rough week. My stress and anxiety are skyrocketing."

"Tell me about it," Summer said. "You didn't have to be rude though."

"I know, and I'm sorry."

"Not to me, to her," Summer gestured towards the door.

"I guess I've been a little harsh on her lately. I'm beginning to act and sound like my grandfather."

"Heaven forbid! Don't ever go down that path. You won't get any woman to go out with you, unless of course it's the Julie Cooper type."

"Nothing like a Julie Cooper threat to make a man want to change," Seth laughed. "So what are you doing here?"

"I brought Chinese," she said excitedly, showing him the bag. "I figured you'd be hungry by now."

"Why didn't you call? I could have met up with you somewhere."

"I had a business issue to take care of three blocks away, so I figured you could use a little surprise and some mu shu pork."

"This is great! I thought I'd have to miss out on lunch again."

"What did you say?"

"I said this is great."

"No, the other part."

"I didn't say anything."

"That part with missing out on lunch," Summer pointed out. "Have you not been eating?"

"Of course I have," he said. "Don't be silly. I've eaten snacks and dinner and more snacks."

"Seth!" she hit him on the arm

"What? That hurt."

"That is really not healthy."

"I'm fine."

"What would your mother say?"

"She'd probably reprimand me and hit me harder than you did, although I don't think that's humanly possible."

"What am I going to do with you, Cohen? You're driving me crazy."

"That's okay," Seth smiled. "I have enough money to get you into the best insane asylum in town."

"Trouser it, Cohen, or you get no food."

"But see, that would just be the opposite of what you're trying to make me do."

"Why do you have to be such a smart ass?"

"To torture pretty women like yourself," he winked at her.

"Eat your food."

"Aye aye, Captain!" Seth gave her a salute, causing her to crack a smile.

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"You're really good with the chopsticks."

Seth and Summer were both sitting on the floor with the food around them.

"You have no idea," Summer said. "Not only can I eat with them, but I can use them with my hair and such."

"Indeed, Summer, that is quite a talent you got there," Seth rolled his eyes.

"Did I mention that I can gouge people's eyes with these things? In fact, my favorite target are Jewish boys with Jew-fros."

"That sounded like a threat."

"Are you a Jewish boy with a Jew-fro?"

"Hmm, let me check," Seth said, pretending to check out his hair. "I would have to say that I am."

"Then yes, that was a threat, so shut it," she tried to be serious, but eventually burst out laughing. "Your face was just classic."

"I do get that a lot. They say that I'm a Jewish Julius Caesar."

"Maybe if you put on more muscles and had your hair styled different, but I'm totally not seeing the resemblance there."

"Well, at least I'm not dead, right?"

"For now."

"Okay, enough with the threats already," Seth grinned at her. "How's your work going?"

"It's been great. We have more clients now, so I'm totally busy and everything, but that's the why I like it."

"I still can't believe you're into interior decorating. My mom would have been so proud of you."

"At least there's one parent that's proud of me," she said, suddenly her mood changing.

"What's the matter?" he asked, although he had a pretty good guess.

"It's just my dad, you know. He wanted me to be doing something else. He came to my graduation and everything, but after the big dinner and the presents, he just left. He wanted me to move back to Newport, you know, but I couldn't do that."

"I'm really sorry."

"It's not your fault."

"Actually, in a way, it kind of was my fault," Seth said. "I mean, the guy hated me from day one. He was relieved when you started going out with Zach, being that the guy was a politician's son and all. I didn't really mind. At least your relationship with your father was great then. When we got back together, I know he hated me twice as much as he did the first time. I know I didn't make you choose, but I did give you a reason to choose, and as much as I was happy that you chose me, I still felt bad about what it did to the relationship between both of you."

"It's really not a big deal, and you shouldn't blame yourself."

"I know he wasn't too fond of me, even after we broke up again. He thinks that I'm the reason that you left, and I think deep down he hated you not being there more than you being there with me."

"He couldn't keep me there forever," Summer said. "If he loves me, he has to learn to let me go."

"He does love you, Summer."

"Well, he has a funny way of showing it."

"You miss him though, right?"

"So how are Ryan and Marissa doing?" she changed the subject.

"They're doing well," he replied, playing along as to not upset her any further. "Still engaged. Still not married. Still very much in love."

"Makes me want to vomit."

"That's nice, Summer."

Summer stuck her tongue out at him and tossed him a fortune cookie.

"So what does your fortune say?" she asked.

"Smile or you will frown," Seth said, then gave her a funny look. "That was deep. What does yours say?"

Summer smiled and eagerly read hers as Seth focused on her face. It happened for only a mere second or maybe even less, but he could swear that her expression changed from eagerness to… fear. He couldn't quite think about it more since she was suddenly all happy about it.

"Mine says that I'm going to receive a fortune cookie."

While Seth would have thought that she was lying, he had to admit that he had gotten the same fortune a couple of times himself. He always thought that some of them were weird and stupid, but it was by far the weirdest and the stupidest one that he has gotten. Noticing the she was not looking at him, Seth threw the remaining portion of his fortune cookie at her.

"Hey! What was that for?"

"I just wanted to make your fortune come true," Seth laughed, although Summer did not find it funny at all. "Oh, come on, you totally had that one coming."

As said started to get up, he felt something hit him in the middle of his forehead. He looked down to see that Summer had retaliated. He picked up the object and gave Summer a funny look.

"Summer… A broccoli… Seriously?"

"It's the best I could come up with," she shrugged. "At least I didn't throw chopsticks at you."

"I applaud you for your restraint," Seth said as he looked at his watch. "Damn! It's almost one o'clock."

"That's a sign for me to go," Summer said. "But before I do that, something has been bothering me."

"What's that?"

"These!" Summer said as she removed his glasses. "I thought you stopped wearing them."

"Well, I work well with them."

"I think these glasses alone make you stressed and anxious. The last time I've seen you with them, you were pretty much acting the same way. Even worse than today."

"Can I have them back, please?"

"Only if you swear not to wear them anymore."

"I can't promise you that, especially since I can't see well without them."

"I'll give them back to you after I leave."

"I'll walk you out then."

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When she was out of Seth's sight, she took out a crumpled paper from her pocket.

"Everything is not yet lost," she whispered to herself.

With a slight movement of her fingers, she crumpled it up some more and threw it into the nearest trash can. She was not going to delve into it much more. What's the point of overanalyzing everything? It wasn't like she had enough things to worry about.

"It meant nothing," Summer told herself as she walked out into the rain with her umbrella. "It meant nothing."

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After he walked Summer out, he saw Jessica on his way back and remembered the conversation he had with Summer regarding his rudeness.

"Isn't it a nice day?" Seth smiled.

"Sir, it's raining outside. It's cold and windy. You said so yourself that it was a crappy weather. The worst day ever to be exact."

"Oh," Seth said. "I didn't notice."

"Did you want anything else?"

"I want to apologize for what happened earlier. It was wrong of me to take my frustrations out on you."

"It's okay, sir."

"I promise it won't happen again."

Without noticing Jessica's dumbfounded look, Seth proceeded to walk into his office. He looked outside the window. It was dark, dreary, and downright depressing. Surprisingly, it didn't affect him, at least not anymore. He was actually in a good mood.