A/N: Wow, so much love for the last chapter that it almost made me want to just end it there and say, "happily ever after," but unfortunately, I couldn't, because even though they kissed, the story isn't over just yet. Keep in mind there is a means to an end people, means to an end (plus a planned sequel).

Please leave a review. :)

He slowly broke away and looked at her face. It was that moment that he saw her face. Truly saw her face. It was like one of those epiphanies that a person had when they make some great discovery. Touching his lips to hers, feeling her soft breath pass from her body to his, it had been an epiphany of epic proportions. How come he hadn't been kissing her sooner? Jesus did it feel good.

"I need to pick up my dry cleaning," she mumbled, "I mean, you know, it's sitting there, mingling with those other clothes, and dry cleaning, I mean, why is it so strict? Why aren't we allowed to do our own laundry, it's like we have to succumb to these higher powers. Why do we even buy stuff that needs to be dry cleaned? I mean, it's only a bunch of hassle anyways."

"I don't know, only my suits are dry clean only."

"Suits, suits are nice. My dad wears suits all the time, so does Shane. You know, it's quite the fashion statement. I don't wear suits because I'm not a guy, but yeah, if I were a guy I'd wear suits, I might wear a suit for you actually. Yeah, I might, I mean, that's what we were going to do, that's what I was planning to do, at least I think it was, was it?"

"I kissed you," he said.

"Yes, you kissed me, that's what that was. My brain got a little bit fuzzy right there and I thought I was having one of those out-of-body experiences. You know, it was almost Twilight Zone right there. It was like, I expected Robert Stack, or whatever that guy's name was that did Twilight Zone to come out and start asking silly questions like are we in a parallel dimension where it's ok for guys to kiss their girl best friends days before their wedding."

"Wedding, fuck, there's still a wedding," Chris muttered, his hands still on the sides of her face, holding her there. He looked down and saw her in the dress that she was going to wear as his "best woman."

"Well yeah, that ring you put on the blonde bombshell's finger, that's pretty indicative of this commitment you made to her. Now, maybe this was pre-wedding jitters, at which point I'd have to say you were nervous about this wedding. Which is understandable, perfectly understandable given the circumstances. Its almost poetic you know, like on Gilmore Girls once, Lorelai was going marry Max, but then she talked to Luke, who she loves, and then she didn't marry Max. Oh my God, I'm Luke, and you're Lorelai, but I don't love you….unless I LOVE YOU! Oh my God, Snooks do I love you?"

"I'm not sure I can answer that Stephers…"

"Yeah, I need to talk to my best friend, oh my God, you're him too! I'm screwed, I have nobody to talk to, I'm lost, oh my God, do I love you? I like you, but do I like you like that. Chris what the hell did you do to me? Did you give me like truth serum?"

"You called me Chris," he said, a little surprised. When talking to him directly, she hadn't called him Chris in almost three years.

"I did," she said, suddenly with no words to say, "I called you Chris…this is worse than I thought. Snooks, what are we going to do? You're getting married and I'm…wearing a dress for you."

"I can't marry Trish," he said suddenly, "I simply can't."

"Do NOT put pressure on me, it'll ruin my figure. Pressure goes straight to your hips."

"Stephers, I KISSED YOU!"

"Whoa there cowboy, calm yourself down," Stephanie said, looking around to people who were milling about, "I know what you did, I was there…except for the out-of-body experience part of me, but that part was watching the kiss very attentively. Almost too attentively, it was kind of stalker-ish if you ask me, but who am I to argue with myself?"

"Stephers, this doesn't discount the fact that I kissed you!"

"I know that," she hissed. "But what am I supposed to do, hop into my time machine and go back in time and conveniently step out of the way when you're going for my lips?"

"Yes, that's what you're supposed to do, you just have to find like a telephone booth or something like Bill and Ted."

"I can't change what you did! I didn't expect you to do that you know? I mean, I was just standing there, minding my own business wondering about the dress I was wearing to YOUR wedding and all of a sudden you're all over me like white on rice or like…brown on chocolate or something."

"I don't know what came over me," Chris said frantically. "I don't know, it was like, I think my brain actually left my body, I think that I am the first case of a person's brain just completely leaving their body. That has to be it, I mean, I don't kiss you."

"You don't? Then what the hell was that little thing back there?" she asked snarkily, pointing around with her finger. "Oh God, what if I secretly love you or something?"

"YOU secretly love ME?" Chris asked with a scoff. "Hello, I was the one who kissed you, if anything and anyone loves someone secretly, it's ME that secretly loves YOU!"

"Do you?"

"Do I what?"

"I don't know, what to go get Mexican food or go chasing puppies at the part, what do you think, do you secretly love me?"

"No," Chris said quickly.

"Well I don't secretly love you," she protested. "I think that you were like…I don't know, maybe it was like a Pavlovian thing. You know, like when you ring the bell, the dog does something. Maybe you saw the dress, though blonde bombshell and you kissed me, you're just like a dog Snooks."

"Nerves?"

"Yes!" Stephanie said, pointing right in his face. "You have nerves, because you love the blonde bombshell right?"

"I love her, yes," Chris said definitively. "I love her very much, and I want to marry her. I asked her."

"See, you're just…I don't know, but the kiss, it was a mistake, we both agree on that right?" Stephanie said, looking at Chris imploringly. She didn't want to have an awkward relationship with Chris, that was the last thing in the world she wanted. She was kind of scared that he was in love with her or something, because Stephanie wasn't in love with Chris. Sure, she loved him as a friend and once upon a time, she had had a crush on him, but once that crush had faded, so had any romantic feelings she had for Chris. She was not willing to sacrifice the best thing she had in the world for something that might tear that all down.

"Yeah, it was a…mistake. It was like that Snickers commercial where the guy painted 'Chefs' on the field instead of the 'Chiefs,' it's like that, exactly like that, except this involved our lips."

"And your tongue," she added, then shook her hands in defense, "I mean, we might as well shoot for accuracy."

"We'll just file this away under things we can laugh at when we're seventy-five and in the nursing home having wheelchair races," Chris told her.

"Yeah Snooks, we'll look back on this and laugh, because this whole thing is completely laughable."

"It is," he chuckled. "It was like kissing my sister if you know, my sister wasn't related to me and she was my best friend."

"I'd say it was like kissing Shane, but I've never kissed Shane and I would imagine robot's lips are cold, if robot's indeed have lips, but with all the technology today, I'm surprised that robots can't grow their own hair."

"Maybe robots like the bald look, you know, cool metal and all that," Chris said, starting to forget about the kiss already.

"See, this is good, this is banter, this is what we do, this is who we are, not people who make out in the middle of the mall like two crazed, oversexed teenagers. I mean, I haven't acted like a teenager since yesterday," Stephanie said proudly.

"Obviously I got carried away. I mean, I'm getting married in a month to a really great chick, you think she's a great chick, right Stephers?"

"She's a great chick, and this meant absolutely nothing," Stephanie said, "and I'm going to change out of this so that I can buy it, right, because this is what I'm wearing Snooks, right? I mean, from the impression that I got from you, the whole, wow and kissing thing, I'm thinking that this is the keeper."

"It's the keeper, it's like…the Grand Slam of dresses, definitely," Chris said, giving her the thumbs up.

"I'll be back then," she said walking off.

When she was out of sight, Chris let out a breath that he had been holding inward for a while now. He looked around, as if everyone could see him, as if he were exposed. He didn't know what exactly had compelled him to kiss Stephanie, but it was like, it was like gravity had decided that instead of pulling him towards the core of the Earth, Stephanie had become the center of the universe and he was pulled towards her lips.

It wasn't even the dress she was wearing. Stephanie had worn many dresses for him, Chris had even seen her in her underwear, it was just, there was something, and he couldn't place his finger on it. He didn't love Stephanie, he knew that, or at least he wasn't in love with her. If he were in love with Stephanie, he would be with Stephanie. At least that's what his brain told him, and his brain was usually right, it was the smartest thing in his body.

Maybe he just had to get this out. Trish had been right it seemed. A guy and a girl couldn't be just friends for every long. At some point, they had to face whatever tension there was between them and he had to admit that this was at least a load off his mind. He had gotten it off his chest and now he knew that there was nothing more than friendship between him and Stephanie. There could never be anything more than friendship with Stephanie.

That kiss had been kind of hot though, now that he had a clear head to think about it. He had only kissed Stephanie when they were working and those had been planned so meticulously that he hadn't even thought about what it was like to kiss her. It had always just been work and they had had a good laugh about it after it was over. But this had been a real kiss, this had been an involved and real kiss.

She had tasted so different from what she thought she was going to taste like. He thought for sure she would taste like candy, but she didn't, she tasted like strawberries and something else so distinctly Stephanie. He licked his lips a little, trying to savor the way her mouth felt on his, the way her tongue moved across his with expertise. Where the hell had Stephanie learned to kiss that well? Chris had known her for years and had never seen her even kiss a guy like that, when had she even learned to kiss like that? She had been something else, and he almost wanted to kiss her again just so that he could taste her and feel her.

But it couldn't go any farther. He loved Stephanie with all his heart and believed her to be the other half of his soul, or something cheesy like that. It was like, when he was created, they had taken half of him away, and then six years later, they had put that other half into Stephanie and they were here today because one didn't go without the other. He loved her, but he couldn't say he was IN love with her and that was a big difference. He was in love with Trish, he was going to marry Trish and that was a promise that he had made to the blonde. He had proposed and he was going to marry her.

Stephanie put her hands over Chris's eyes, "Guess who?"

"Um…The Easter Bunny?"

"No…close though…"

"The Tooth Fairy?"

"Ding, ding, ding," Stephanie said as she uncovered his eyes. "So I guess the whole suit thing is a no-go, you just want me to be in a dress…or does the blonde bombshell want me in a dress because she doesn't want me to act like a guy."

"I want you in a dress, that dress," Chris said, pointing to the garment in her hand. "Besides, it's not like it's an all day thing, it's for my wedding, you can dress up one time for me when I'm getting married."

"Are you excited about it Snooks? Do you stay up at night and imagine just how it's going to be? Do you picture yourself shoving cake into Trish's face and then her getting mad and throwing cake at you and setting off a massive food fight that will end when someone knocks the ice sculpture over, causing someone to fall and trip and break their leg?"

"Yes, I pictured just that," Chris said drolly. "Stephers, I am excited. What's not to be excited about? I get to marry the second most beautiful woman in the world."

"Second?"

"Well you know you're always first baby," Chris said as he took the dress from her. "This is my treat, it's for my wedding, so I'm going to pay for it, I think that's only fair."

"You don't have to do that," she said, trying to grab the dress back.

"I insist."

"I desist," Stephanie said with a smirk. "Or something like that. I want to pay for it, so let my pay for it."

"No," Chris told her. "It's my wedding."

"But your boobs aren't going to be the ones holding up that top," Stephanie informed him, "so give me the dress or nobody gets hurt."

"You'll get hurt all right," Chris said, slapping her on the ass.

"Oh, that's molestation, I'm going to have you arrested and then you'll go to jail and instead of marrying Trish, you'll be marry some guy named Zeke in the middle of your prison cell."

"You'd bail me out," Chris said, leaning in close.

"Shows what you know," Stephanie told him. "So are you going to let me pay for the dress?"

"Are pigs going to fly today?"

"Well, I read the weather forecast and they said their was a 30 chance of pigs flying today, so yeah, there is a good chance. Don't worry, I have an umbrella in the car just in case one of them falls onto us, cause you know, their wings might get tired."

"I'm paying and that's final."

"Oh, you're so scary," Stephanie said with a laugh. "Fine, but don't say I didn't offer."

"You did, and I refused, end of story, end of discussion."

"Wow, the blonde bombshell has no idea what she's in for," Stephanie sing-songed. "You two will be great together though, G-R-E-A-T, great, like a cheer or something."

"Oh yeah, don't do any cheers at our wedding."

"Don't worry, I'll be the most proper girl ever, I'll make my parents proud for once, okay, never, they'll never be proud of me."

"Stephers, about earlier, the entire kiss thing, I mean, you know, we don't…it's just," Chris rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

"I get it, don't worry about it, it's forgotten…"