Luke had no idea why Grace would help his problem. He wasn't particularly planning on meeting with her. They hadn't seen each other in years, and no doubt there would be old tensions lurking.

Helen volunteered to call Grace. After the phone call, she announced that Grace would be attending the barbeque, that had a scheduled start of five o'clock.

Five o'clock rolled around, ad it was time for the invited guests to start arriving at the Girardi residence. First to arrive was a couple of Will's work colleagues, and was quickly followed by some of Helen's friends, Fiona and Gloria, and Fiona's daughter Heidi.

After fifteen minutes, about twenty people had arrived, but Luke hadn't seen Grace. The doorbell rang, and Luke proceeded to answer it. Standing in the door was a slim, tall, blond woman, wearing and expensive looking dressy top, over neat black trousers. On her feet were sparkly green shoes with three inch heels. Luke's stare then traveled back to the woman's face, and realised that it was Grace.

"Grace," he breathed.

Grace gave out an impossibly fake smile, and flashed her artificially whitened teeth at Luke, through her bright red lips. "Hello, Luke" she said calmly.

Luke led Grace inside, to catch up. She explained that she took a university course in psychology. Grace told Luke that about two years ago she struck a deal with a publisher in London, who put her book on the public market. Luke found it so hard to believe that Grace had become so commercialized. She sat in a very ladylike fashion and spoke impeccably, using only Luke's first name. No Girardi or geek.

"Anyway, now I live in Arcadia Hills, with my maid. So what have you been up to? Your mother told me that you needed some sort of help."

Luke felt a little dumbfounded and it took him a moment to answer. He explained how he was now a GP, but didn't want to say anything about his money problems. He wasn't about to ask her for seventeen thousand dollars. But Grace was unrelenting. "What is it you want?"

Luke stared at her, unable to tell her. It would be so wrong to ask her for the money. It would be alright if he hadn't gone away, but if he hadn't he wouldn't need to ask. Their conversation or lack there of, was interrupted by Will, announcing that tea was ready. Grace and Luke accepted the call as a way to avoid the awkward silences.

Outside, most of the people were already eating. Grace and Luke tucked in. Meanwhile, Kevin was helping himself to a large portion of salad. He was finally beginning to put on some weight. As he was spooning the tomato onto his plate, he felt something bump into his arm, sending the soggy salad flying.

He looked up and saw a pretty blond girl looking down at him, blushing furiously, and apologizing quickly.

"No, no, it's okay," he said calmly.

The girl continued to apologise, until Kevin decided enough was enough and broke her off by saying loudly over her words, "It's OKAY!"

The girl then took a deep breath, and said once, "I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it,"

"See, I'm really clumsy, and I am constantly bumping into things, and I didn't see you there," the girl flustered on, "I mean, I should look where I'm going."

Kevin looked at the girl, still deciding whether to laugh or just roll away.

"Sorry, you probably think I'm a fool. Oh, I do this all the time. Put myself in awkward situations, that is. I'm Heidi by the way," she said putting a petite hand out in front of Kevin.

Kevin shook Heidi's hand carefully, just to make sure she didn't accidentally knock the bowl of lettuce onto his lap. "I'm Kevin. You're Fiona's daughter, right?"

Heidi nodded and in the meantime, was also waving a fork around dangerously. Kevin ushered her towards the nearest chair before she poked someone's eye out.

She sat down, and Kevin moved a chair, and parked beside her. "Who are you here with?" she asked politely, whilst spilling tomato sauce on her shirt.

"Oh, I'm Helen and Will's son," he said mechanically.

"Oh, okay. How old are you?" she asked, rather out of the blue.

"Twenty-seven,"

As it turned out, Heidi was twenty-six.

"Wow, we must have almost been at high school at the same time then," Kevin quickly explained that he went to school in Arizona.

The two were deeply engrossed in conversation by the end of the night. The same could not be said about Luke and Grace. They were sitting next to each other, but didn't share a word. Grace just sat and nibbled on her lettuce and carrot, what she used to call rabbit food, and Luke just pushed his food around with his fork.

Helen saved Luke form silence once again, this time to hand over the phone.

Luke took the phone, and said hello.

"Girardi, we know where you are. We're coming to get our money in three days. You better have it," said the voice on the other end of the line before they hung up.

Luke held the phone to his face, in complete shock. It took him a full five minutes to recover, and head back outside. He saw Grace talking on her mobile phone rather aggressively.

He waited until she put down the phone before approaching her. He was preparing to ask her. He sat next to her, but before he could say anything, she launched into a speech about stupid employees and useless accountants.

He never said asked her after that. The opportunity didn't come. He wasn't sure that seeing Grace was such a good idea. He didn't know what his mother was thinking. He couldn't just ask his high school sweet heart for thousands of dollars. He just couldn't.

But as he saw Grace walk out the door later that night, he didn't know what other choice he had.