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"Why does that guy have such a guilty look on his face?" Sydney asked Francie Wednesday night. The two of them had decided that they were in some serious need for girl time and so had settled down in front of Francie's television for some solid viewing and gossip.
"Yesterday Ginger told Rod that Gavin was Ruby's pimp, but Rod didn't even know that Ruby was a prostitute." Francie explained.
"Who's Gavin?"
"Ruby's father."
"Ew."
"Right." Francie reached across for a handful of popcorn. "Have you got your costume read for Saturday night?"
"Yeah." Sydney sighed.
Francie glanced at her. "You don't sound very excited."
"I'm just tired."
"And?"
"And what do you mean 'and'?"
"Syd, in a few nights time you are going to living out the greatest chick flick ever made. If I had my own spunky guy who was willing to dress up as Johnny Castle, I would be doing cartwheels."
"I am looking forward to it, it's just…"
"What?
"I just can't help but feel that things aren't all that right between Vaughn and I at the moment."
"What?" Francie exclaimed, probably a little too loudly. But she couldn't believe it. Poor old Vaughn was planning to propose and here was Sydney, feeling antsy in the relationship. "What it the world would make you think that? What made your feelings change?"
"My feelings haven't changed, but I think Vaughn's might have."
"Huh?" Francie was confused. She knew for a fact that Vaughn's feelings hadn't changed- why would Sydney be thinking that?
"Ever since school went back, I've felt like he's been distancing himself from me."
"How do you mean?"
"Well, he's been staying back at school for all these meetings everyday. What is with that? It can't be compulsory for him to attend all of them. I just don't understand why he is volunteering for all this stuff."
"Maybe he is needed at all of them." Francie put forward. She tried not to laugh. She had dropped into one of his and Ainsley's lessons, and well, to put it nicely, she had a feeling that he was going to need to attend a lot more 'meetings'.
"No." Sydney shook her head. "I'm in the same profession, Fran. This just isn't normal. I think he is trying to avoid me."
"Avoid you? Why in the world would Michael be trying to avoid you?"
"I'm not totally sure," Sydney replied. "But I think that he might be getting bored."
"Bored?"
"Yeah, we've been together nearly three years. Maybe he doesn't like the way we've settled into our lives."
Francie was bursting at the seams. Sydney was sitting there looking completely dejected and she had the one piece of information that could make everything better. But she kept her mouth shut. If she said anything, both Vaughn and Ainsley would cause her grave harm.
"Syd." Francie grabbed her hand. "I look at the two of you, and I see no signs of boredom. Michael loves you and the life you live together so much."
"I know, but I can't help-"
"Stop. Listen to me, Sydney. I see the look in his eyes when they are on you, I hear the tone of his voice when he speaks about you and I see his body language when he is near you. Michael is not bored- you are just being paranoid."
"You think?"
"I know." Francie reached across for the bowl of popcorn. "Now, let's forget about your supposed problems for a while and concentrate on Gavin and Ruby, ok?"
Vaughn came straight home after school on Thursday. He'd gotten phone call from Francie during the day and after hearing what Sydney was feeling, he decided that he no longer needed any more dance lessons. So what if he embarrassed himself on Saturday night? Sydney was a lot more important to him than his pride.
Sydney got a slight shock when she pulled up into the driveway and saw Vaughn's 4WD already parked there. She had almost convinced herself that it was a figment of her imagination, until she walked inside, looked out into the back yard and saw Vaughn rolling around on the ground with Donovan.
"Hey Syd!" he jumped up, ran across and kissed her. "Good day?"
"Not bad." Sydney replied. "No meeting today?"
"Got cancelled." Vaughn said, reaching down, picking up a tennis ball and throwing it across the yard for Donovan to fetch.
"Oh ok." Sydney couldn't help but smile.
It didn't go unnoticed by Vaughn. "What?" he asked.
"Nothing." Sydney shook her head as she wound her arm around his waist. "It was just nice to come home and find you here."
Vaughn smiled and kissed the top of her head. "There is no other place I'd rather be."
Later that night, while Sydney was in the shower, Vaughn had planned to settle down to watch is favourite sports highlights show. But he had barely sat down when the phone rang. Grumbling, he walked over to the kitchen and picked it up.
"Hello."
"Mike, its Craig"
"Oh hey, what's up?"
"Nothing much. I just wanted to ask a favour."
"Shoot."
"I was thinking about coming down this weekend to look at some apartments."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah, I thought I could come and stay Friday and Saturday night, to give me the entire weekend to search."
"Hey, if you do that you'll be able to come to Ainsley's birthday party."
"Oh yeah. Weiss told me about that." Craig paused. "Am I going to have to wear a costume?"
"Of course, Ainsley would kill you if you didn't." Vaughn replied. "So what was the favour that you wanted to ask?"
"I was wondering if I could crash at your place."
"Uh," Vaughn thought frantically. Craig couldn't stay this weekend- it would mess up all his plans. "This weekend is kind of awkward for us. What if I spoke to Will? He's got a spare room at his place. I'm sure he wouldn't mind having you crash there."
"Hey, whatever. Anywhere will be fine with me." Craig said. "Now about this party…"
"What about it?"
"Weiss told me what you are going to wear. What the hell were you thinking, man?" Craig asked, his laughter coming clear across the phone line.
Vaughn caught a glance of himself in the mirror by the front door. 'What the hell were you thinking?' The thought ran continuously through his mind. He was crazy. Agreeing to the costume- what he was planning to do after the party. He literally felt sick.
"Oh!" Sydney's gasp made him turn around. "You look fantastic." She walked up and ran a hand over his black shirt. "Just like Johnny."
"Well, you don't look too bad yourself." Vaughn said, cheekily eyeing off Sydney, her body clad in a white dress and her hair curled for the occasion.
Sydney leaned up to his ear. "Thank- you for doing this," she said, before pressing her lips into his in a soft, slow and long kiss.
"Anything for you, Syd." Vaughn whispered back, when they had broken apart, twirling one of her curls between his thumb and index finger. "Though I think, after this party, you are going to owe me big time. Especially after Weiss gets stuck into me."
"What are you talking about?" Sydney deadpanned. "I am positive that Weiss will not make any sarcastic comments about your outfit."
"Wow Syd. I never realized that you actually live in a fantasy world."
Sydney poked out her tongue and headed across to the kitchen bench to grab her bag. "Are you ready to go?"
'No.' A voice was screaming in his head. He realized that he must have taken a little longer than usual to answer, because Sydney was looking at him curiously. Quickly he spoke. "Yeah, I'm ready," he said, trying to sound nonchalant. But inside his heart was pounding and his palms were sweaty. It was going to be an interesting night.