"How has the pain been since I last saw you?" Vaughn asked Francie as she sat down on the chair in his office. She smiled genuinely at him.
"Better! The pills you gave me really helped, although I'm sure my roommates are a little more grateful that it's over." She laughed, as she lay back in the chair, ready for him to take another look at her teeth.
"How come?"
"Well, apparently I kept them both awake at night, moaning about the pain!" He laughed as he took a look in her mouth.
"Yep, everything seems to be back to normal." He smiled as he wrote something down in her file. Francie sat up on the chair debating with herself about whether or not she should go ahead with the plan that she had made. She took one look at him and knew the answer. Sydney's happiness depends on me! She'll thank me eventually…
"Speaking of my roommates, we're having dinner Saturday night. You should come, that's if you don't have plans with your girlfriend or anything!" This way I get to kill two birds with one stone; I am arranging for him and Sydney to meet again, and enquiring about his relationship status! Francie was quite pleased with herself, although she knew that Sydney would kill her when she found out what she was doing.
"No, I don't have a girlfriend, but I wouldn't want to intrude on you and your friends!" Vaughn replied politely.
"Honestly it's no problem. You're new to the city and I thought it'd be a good opportunity for you to meet some new people! We're pretty harmless, well Will tends to make jokes that only he finds the comedy in them! But other than that…" She shrugged and he felt like he just couldn't say no.
He knew that she was right; he did need to meet some new people. Since he moved to Los Angeles, he hadn't made that many friends. He had Eric Weiss, who he had known while he was in New York. They had studied dentistry together at NYU, and they now both worked in the same surgery.
Francie sensed his hesitation, and pushed him further. "Come on! I'm cooking a small meal, and we'll have a couple of beers and just hang out!"
Vaughn slowly nodded, a smile forming on his face. "Sure! Sounds like fun!"
"Great!" Francie couldn't help but grin. Everything's going as planned…"So you have my address," She pointed at the file that was in his hand. "Drop by about 7:30ish!" She smiled at him and left the room.
"You actually agreed to have dinner with them?" Eric Weiss asked, as he took a bite of his hamburger. They had decided to go to McDonalds for their lunch, as neither of them had any more patients until the late afternoon.
"Yeah why not!"
"Because it's weird! You don't even know this woman and you're about to go over to her apartment for 'dinner'" He made quote signs in the air as he said dinner, but after being hit on the arm by Vaughn he quickly put his hands down.
Michael shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Weiss! It's only dinner! What's the worse that could happen?"
"Er…you could be dinner!" He yelled out, his cheeks colouring as people from other tables gave them strange looks. He smiled shyly and then focused his attention back onto his friend.
Vaughn put down his soda and stared back at him. "Oh gee, you could be exaggerating a little bit!" Weiss remained silent. "You really need to stop watching these horror films, because they are just filling your mind strange thoughts. And that's all this is, thoughts!" He stood up, throwing his trash in the nearest bin.
Saturday
Francie walked into the kitchen, ready to finish preparing the dinner. Sydney and Will were already in the kitchen, setting the table and talking amongst themselves. Francie felt quite bad for not telling them that somebody else was coming, but she knew they'd eventually get over it. I'm gonna have to set out another place while they're not looking…
She walked over to the stove and began stirring the bolognaise sauce. She glanced at the clock that was on the wall and smiled. He'll be here in a few minutes!
"Fran?" Sydney stopped laying out the plates and looked at her best friend.
"Yeah?""What's going on? Why are we not eating dinner infront of the TV like we normally do?" Will also looked at Francie, the same question playing on his mind. Francie put down the spoon and turned to face them. "Because, tonight is special!" She smiled sweetly at them.
"Yeah!" Sydney pointed at the table that they had set. "We got that."
"But what's so special about tonight?" Will asked, as he stepped towards Francie, his arms wrapping around her waist. She looked into his eyes and realized that she couldn't lie to him; she would just have to bend the truth slightly.
"I just thought that we could do something different you know. And instead of just sitting watching TV, I thought we could talk, make friends!" She quickly realised the mistake that she had made. She managed to hide it well but it was too late; Sydney heard what she had said.
"Make friends? Francie I've known you guys for years, I think it's safe to say that we're friends." Something strange is going on.Francie laughed. "Yeah I know that!" The sound of the doorbell disturbed all their thoughts, much to Francie's joy. "Er, Sydney honey, could you get that please?"
Sydney lay down the third plate on the table. "Sure." Francie couldn't help but smile as Sydney walked out of the kitchen to open the front door.
"What are you smiling at?" Will asked, confused by his girlfriend's strange behaviour.
"You'll see!"
Sydney cleared her throat as she reached the front door. She opened the door and suddenly everything fitted into place. The reason why Francie had been acting so strangely and making them have a special 'dinner' was because she had invited him. Sydney didn't know whether she was angry or annoyed. All she knew was that they were standing in the doorway smiling at each other, neither of them saying anything. Sydney looked away and opened her mouth to speak.
