Disclaimer: see chapter 1

She glared at him over the top of her magazine, wishing he would just disappear. He kept trying to talk to her while she ate. Finally, after she couldn't take the blabbering anymore, she picked up the magazine she had already read a couple of times and planted it in front of her face, hoping he would take the hint. Unfortunately, he seemed to be more thick-headed than usual tonight and the passive-aggressive route didn't seem to be working.

"Kendall?"

She flipped the page over and kept reading, hoping he would fall into a magically appearing hole.

"Kendall, I would really appreciate it if you would stop ignoring me." She glared at him over the top of her page again, not saying a word. "Can I get you anything? Are you still hungry? Erica said you barely ate lunch and you didn't bring a lot home for dinner. Can I get you something else to eat?"

"You hungry? You want some dinner? What do you feel like?"

"Hmm."

"Chinese, Japanese? Vietnamese, Swedish food?"

She loved it when he got playful like this. Not many people got to see this side of him.

"Fried litchi nuts?"

"What? Wait, what is this with you and the whole litchi nut thing?"

"It's -- it's a sad, involved story from when I was a little boy, but this -- it's your craving, so you go ahead."

"My craving, yeah. Well, unfortunately, my doctor won't let me have what I'm really craving."

"You'll get that soon enough, but what can I do for you right now?"

"Ok, I'm going to go out on a limb here and ask for one more huge favor."

"Name it."

"Don't be so quick to say yes. It involves Bianca – "

"That's fine."

"And my mother."

"Nah. It's -- that's not good. Nah, that's -- ok, I'm still game."

"Ok, ok, good, because it's not really that big of a deal. I've just changed my mind, and I'll let you know that I'm going to change my mind quite a bit these days."

"Mm-hmm."

"So I -- I don't want to hide us anymore. I don't think I can if -- if I tried. I -- I have not felt this good in forever, and I can't -- can't stop smiling, and even Bianca says that I have this goofy smile on my face all the time, and it's all because of you. So I really -- I couldn't even think of a good lie to cover for this."

"Right, right, right, because if we smile in front of your mother, she'd think that my plot to destroy the world is working."

"Well, this is not your "plot to destroy the world" smile. This is all heart."

"It's all because of you."

She just smiled, remembering the smile on his face and the way he willing to brave anything for her.

"So, I take it that smiles means yes?" His voice broke her out of her reverie. She threw her magazine on the table and pushed herself off the couch. She walked over the window and stared up at the sky, listening to the thunder rumble in the distance, seeing the first raindrops fall down her window, down his window. His condo was still dark. 'He must still be at dinner' she thought to herself.

"Kendall, could you please…" She couldn't take it anymore. She screamed as loud as she could, effectively shutting him up. "Get out, Ryan. I mean it, go home and annoy Erin or Jonathan or go find Julia to bug."

Ryan got off the couch and came over and stood next to her. She never took her eyes off of Zach's condo window. "I thought you wanted a buffer."

"I changed my mind. Get out!"

"Kendall, you can't seriously be contemplating going back to…" She shoved him as hard as she could and made her way over to the door. She threw it open and took a few steps outside, ignoring the rain. "GET THE HELL OUT RYAN!"

TBC…