Extreme Ghostbusters: If That's What You Want

Part 3

"BETH! What the hell are you doing?"

"I'm making breakfast," Beth said defensively.

"Well stop making breakfast." Kylie marched through the kitchen doorway and snatched the two slices of bread from Beth's hands, and then pointedly dropped them into the toaster herself. "I'll make breakfast. You're a guest."

"But it seems the least I can do after you let me stay last night."

"Come on, Beth, I said you were welcome to stay. How did you sleep?"

"Terrible. Not because of the couch," she added hastily. "The couch was really, really comfortable."

"It's ok, I understand." Kylie touched her arm. "What are you going to do next?"

"I don't know."

"Hey babe," said Kylie, as Eduardo entered the room.

"Hey. Hi, Beth." Eduardo moved up behind Kylie and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. "I love you," he said, and kissed her on the cheek.

"What's with you?" asked Kylie.

"Nothing."

"Have you done somethi-?"

"No."

"Are you ok? You seem weird."

"Thanks." Eduardo let go of her, and went to fill a glass of water at the sink. "Maybe it's just what married life does to you."

"What?" Beth reacted.

Eduardo looked at her. "We, um, got married," he said blankly.

"You got what?"

"Look it up," muttered Kylie.

"When?" asked Beth.

"Yesterday," Eduardo told her.

"Yester… – oh, you should have said! I wouldn't have asked to stay the night if I'd known."

"Why not?" Kylie asked innocently.

"Well because… because you might have wanted to… why didn't you tell me?"

"Yeah, why didn't you tell her?" added Eduardo.

"Well, you just broke up with Carl," said Kylie. "I didn't want to sound smug."

"Oh, honey, that's ok." Beth took two steps towards Kylie and embraced her warmly. "Congratulations! This is wonderful news!"

"Nothing's changed," said Kylie. "You don't have to treat it like a big deal."

"But it is a big deal." Beth let Kylie go, and went to hug Eduardo. "Aww, I can't believe you're all grown up and you got married!"

"He's been all grown up and cohabiting with me for years," Kylie pointed out. "Our first child is five. Speaking of which, I'd better go get them out of bed."

When Kylie had left the room, Beth said to Eduardo, "I can stay with the girls today if you want me to. Chita can practise her reading on me, and I'll take them to Pizza Hut or somewhere for lunch."

Eduardo winced. "Don't talk to me about Pizza Hut."

"Why not?"

"Never mind, forget it. The girls love spending time with you, Beth, but you don't have to do us any favours if you want to go home and talk to Carl."

"Oh." Beth looked at her feet. "That."

"I can't imagine you two not being together. I can barely remember life before you."

"Yeah," Beth smiled indulgently. "I remember the first time Carl took me home to meet you guys. You were so little and cute! You didn't like me very much, I think."

"I was like Rose – I had to warm up to people," said Eduardo. "I love you now. I really do. We all love you, Carl included. You know that, don't you?"

"How was he when you saw him yesterday?"

"Terrible. He really wants you back, Beth, and he said he's prepared to change whatever it is that's making you unhappy."

"Well… maybe I should talk to him."

"Do you still love him?"

"Yes. I don't know why, but I do."

"Well then."

"Eddie." Kylie reappeared in the doorway. "Can you go and deal with Rose? She's being a pain in the ass and refusing to speak English."

Eduardo offered an encouraging smile and gave Beth's arm a gentle squeeze, and then went to see to Rose.

"He's good like that, isn't he?" said Beth, sitting down heavily at the small round table in the middle of the room. "Carl never used to deal with Kevin, except to yell at him. Once he woke me up to tell me that a button on Kev's romper suit was undone."

Kylie blinked in disbelief. "Are you kidding?"

"No. He does things like that." She sighed deeply. "It doesn't make sense. I know they're pretty much different generations, but they were still raised in the same home by the same parents. Why is Eduardo so much more… more…?"

"Maybe it's me," Kylie said tentatively. "He knows I'm not prepared to be the kind of wife his mother was. If I was someone else… who knows?"

"And he hasn't changed now that you've married him," Beth ploughed on. "He still treats you like he always did. He still does his share of housework and looking after the kids. He hasn't suddenly started bossing you around and expecting you to cook his dinner and… you know… whenever he feels like it, and then not even bothering to… to… It's not fair. Why can't I be more like you?"

"Like me? Beth, come on," said Kylie. "There's nothing wrong with you."

"There is. I'm a doormat."

"Well, not anymore. You're not putting up with it. You've left."

"So what do I do now? I can't leave him for good. I don't even have a job, and I'll never get one now because I haven't worked for nineteen years!"

"Beth, come on, don't talk like that." Kylie sat down next to her, again touching her arm. "We'll find you a job."

Beth looked at her. "We?"

"I'll help you."

Beth looked dubious, but didn't get a chance to say any more, because Eduardo walked in at that moment with Conchita and Rose.

"Sorry," Kylie said to her daughters. "I haven't quite finished breakfast yet."

Beth suddenly got to her feet, proclaiming, "I'll do it."

"No," said Kylie, "I'll do it. You can help," she added, looking at Eduardo, just to make it absolutely clear that she was not to be solely responsible for all culinary activity from now on. "Why don't you girls play with Beth so she doesn't get bored while she waits?"

"I heard you telling her you'd help her leave Carlos, you know," Eduardo said, very quietly, because Beth had only gone as far as the living room.

"And?" retorted Kylie.

"I thought you were going to butt out."

"She's my friend." Kylie got to her feet. "If her husband is making her unhappy and she wants to leave him, of course I'm going to help her."

"It isn't what she wants. She told me she still loves him."

"Well then obviously she won't leave, will she? Why are you still getting at me? You said yourself she'll figure it out."

"It can't bode well for us," Eduardo said slowly, "that you're trying to break up my brother's marriage just hours after marrying me."

"Bullshit," snapped Kylie. "Our marriage isn't going to be anything like theirs, as long as you keep all those promises you made me."

"So anything that goes wrong will be my fault, will it?"

"I didn't say that."

"You did."

"I didn't! What the hell is wrong with you?"

"I don't like you trying to break up my family."

"I am not trying to break up your goddamn family!" Kylie squeaked incredulously. "And anyway, whose benefit is all of this for? I know you're not thinking about Carl's feelings – no one hates him more than you do."

"I am thinking," said Eduardo, "about Beth."

"No you're not. You're thinking about yourself."

"I'm not. Their marriage is no more of my goddamn business than it is yours."

"Ok, so butt out."

"I'm not butting in."

"You are," said Kylie. "You've been telling her to go back to him. You don't even seem to care that he treats her like a slave and he's making her miserable."

"Of course I care. And I think they can work it out."

"Well I think you're wrong. There is absolutely no way she should go back to him."

"Why? Because you wouldn't go back to him? Beth isn't you, Kylie, and she's perfectly capable of making her own decisions."

"She asked for my advice, you know," bristled Kylie. "I'm only trying to help, and you have absolutely no right to tell me what I can and can't say."

"I'm not - "

"Oh yes you are. Is this how it's going to be from now on? I'm supposed to be seen and not heard? When I asked you to marry me, you promised me you weren't going to change."

"Kylie," said Eduardo. "You're overreacting. I have to be allowed to disagree with you without being accused of… of… just what are you accusing me of?"

Kylie felt tears pricking the backs of her eyes, and turned her back on him. "Oh, I don't know," she admitted. "It just feels like you're treating me differently now that I'm your wife."

"Wife isn't a dirty word, Kylie. And I'm not treating you differently."

"You are. You refused to make love to me last night" – oops, she really hadn't meant to throw that in his face – "and now you're telling me off for giving advice that you don't agree with. Because that isn't your idea of what a wife should be, is it!"

Eduardo scowled. "Kylie. I am not my father, and I'm not my brother."

"Yeah, I've heard that before."

"I'm nothing like either of them. And I'd never try to make you be anything you didn't want to be. I thought you knew that."

To Kylie's astonishment, he was the first to storm out. He barged past her into the living room, and she heard him talking in a low voice to Beth and the girls moments before the front door clicked shut.

"Oh no!" exclaimed Kylie, charging into the room. "Where did he go?"

"He said he'd be back soon," volunteered Conchita.

"What's going on?" asked Beth. "I haven't been causing problems, have I?"

"No, Beth, it's nothing to do with you." Ok, perhaps it was lie, but only a small one. Beth may have been catalytic in that little spat, but it was hardly her fault. "It's just… I don't even know."

x x x

Eduardo went straight to the firehouse. Only now did he realise that he had yet to see his friends since the trip to Mexico, so distracted had he been by the previous day's events.

"Hey, Eddie," Garrett was the first to greet him. "Where's your wife?"

"At home."

"Oh, too bad. I wanted to piss her off by calling her 'Eddie's wife' all day."

"We got married," snapped Eduardo. "How is that a joke?"

"Um…"

"Are you ok?" Roland jumped in.

"Yeah, fine," Eduardo muttered, not very convincingly.

"Well, anyway," said Roland, not wishing to pry, "have you noticed anything unusual at home? We've had reports of a few disturbances in your area. Nothing major," he added reassuringly.

"Really?" asked Eduardo. "I haven't noticed anything. Since when?"

"Yesterday evening."

"I was a bit distracted yesterday. I got married, and Beth walked out on Carlos."

"How ironic," remarked Garrett.

"They'll work it out."

"Yeah, well, I gotta say I don't envy her being married to your brother."

"Look," said Eduardo, "he treats her all right. Obviously they've had some problems lately, but they can work it out." He paused. "What kind of disturbances?"

"A couple of sightings of a ghostly apparition," said Roland. "One guy described a young woman in Victorian dress. He lives in your apartment block, actually."

"There's a ghost in my apartment block?"

"Perhaps."

"Maybe I should go home."

"Why? Because your wife and daughters are there?" asked Garrett. "Don't be so sexist, Eddie – they can handle themselves."

Eduardo scowled. "Can't you take anything seriously?"

"I don't see the point in taking things seriously. My marriage is built on a solid foundation of laughter, and I'm as happy as Larry. You, on the other hand, don't seem very chipper for a man who just married the love of his life. You and Ky had a bust-up already, didn't you?"

"It's nothing major."

"What did you do?"

"Why do you assume it's something I did?"

"Well whatever it's about," Roland interrupted hastily, "you can make it up to her when we go to your apartment block. You shouldn't have come in early, Eduardo – we're going to check it out in a few minutes. Actually I was trying to call you."

"You were? Did Kylie pick up?"

"Yeah. She was kind of snappy, though – said she had stuff to do."

"Ugh." Eduardo slapped his forehead. "Nombre de Dios, what crap is she putting into Beth's head now?"

x x x

Kylie was no longer with Beth. She was with Leonard. She didn't want to discuss her marriage with Beth at a time like this; she couldn't talk to anyone at the firehouse because she knew Eduardo would be hanging around there, and her father was working (which Leonard no longer did). She wasn't at all sure that she would have gone to Steve, given the choice, but that seemed fairly academic now.

"I've known him for almost exactly nine years," said Kylie. "I wasn't at all sure about him to start off with, but I wouldn't have married him if I wasn't sure about him now. Maybe I'm just being paranoid."

"Maybe," said Leonard, who obviously had no idea what to say.

Circling Kylie's mind was her first meeting with Leonard, also some nine years ago. She had felt something akin to attraction then, though now she thought it was probably nothing more than affection. He was a sweet guy, vulnerable yet brave enough to quit his job and see where the wind took him, and full of regret that he hadn't found that special someone to share his life with. And he was old enough to be her father. What was it, Kylie wondered, with her and much older men?

And Eduardo – what had he been? Surly, immature, unable to admit even to himself that he was seething with jealousy when Kylie had lured that ghost bride out of the mirror by threatening to kiss Leonard… "My financial needs are sooooo neglected." She cringed inwardly. It was astonishing, some of the things you could come out with when you were eighteen and had a crush.

"I don't really know what to tell you, Kylie," Leonard went on. "I've never been married – I don't know what it's supposed to be like."

"It isn't 'supposed to be like' anything. People say, don't they, 'you have to work at these things', but I never understood why. I mean, if you're married, and you actually have to put yourself out to make it work… well, that doesn't sound like a very good marriage to me." She looked directly at him. "Does that sound naïve?"

"No," said Leonard. "That sounds perfectly reasonable."

"I'm sorry," Kylie said suddenly. "There's nothing more annoying than women who sit and rabbit about their stupid boyfriend-slash-husband problems."

"They aren't stupid problems, Kylie."

"Yes they are. I am being paranoid. I just had this crazy idea that he'd turn into his brother, and I started seeing things that weren't there." She paused, and wondered what that look he was giving her meant. She dropped her eyes. "I should go."

x x x

Eduardo became fairly anxious when all of the PKE trails in his neighbourhood led directly to his apartment block. He grew considerably more anxious when he found himself standing outside his own front door.

"Somebody should probably question the neighbours," said Roland. "Eduardo, would you like to…?"

"I'd rather not," said Eduardo. He got on all right with his neighbours, but at that particular moment he was anxious to check on his family. "You do it. They're all nice people. Number thirty-two is a little crazy and number twenty-nine's dog will probably try to have sex with you, but they're ok."

"Right," said Roland. "Thanks for the warning."

Garrett followed Eduardo into the apartment, and the first person they saw was Beth. She was on the sofa with the girls, Conchita reading aloud from a simple chapter book while Rose examined the pictures with obvious disinterest.

"Beth, what are you still doing here?" asked Eduardo.

"I'm babysitting."

"Why? Where's Kylie?"

"She went out. She said she was going to see someone."

"Who?"

"I don't know, she didn't say."

"Why not?"

"I don't know." Beth eyed Garrett and Eduardo, both armed to the back teeth and in full uniform. "What's going on?"

"There's a ghost here," Garrett told her matter-of-factly.

Conchita looked around dubiously. "There is?"

"It's probably invisible, sweetie," Garrett said patronisingly.

"Beth," said Eduardo, "you should go. Would you be able to take the girls with you?"

"Of course," said Beth, standing up immediately. "I'll take them to my place."

"You wanted to go home and talk to Carl anyway… didn't you?"

"Yeah, I did."

"I really appreciate this, Beth," said Eduardo. "Kylie and/or I will be over to collect them… later. It's very good of you," he added. "I really, really appreciate it."

"It's fine," Beth replied breezily. "I don't mind."

She, Conchita and Rose had cleared out within five minutes, by which time Garrett was turning the kitchen upside-down trying to locate this Victorian-looking ghost.

"Are these things malfunctioning or something?" he asked irritably, frowning at his PKE meter. "According to these readings there's got to be a ghost in this place, but no one seems to have noticed anything."

Eduardo looked up from the note he was writing for Kylie, explaining why she would come back to find the apartment evacuated. "It's probably invisible," he said dryly.

"Yeah, but even so," said Garrett. "I mean, you'd think Pagan would be on edge or something."

"Where is Pagan?" Eduardo wondered, and immediately set off to look for him. He quickly located the cat crouching behind the toilet with his hackles raised. Right, so he was on edge. Someone in the apartment had noticed this elusive ghost.

"Where's the ghost, Pagan?" asked Eduardo. It was astonishing how quickly he had got into the habit of talking to Kylie's cat; he'd begun doing it almost on a daily basis within a month of the start of their romantic relationship. It was ridiculous, he knew, because obviously Pagan couldn't answer him, and on this particular occasion a PKE meter would surely be a much more reliable source of information. Eduardo unhooked the device from his belt and followed the trail.

Ok, so there was a ghost in his bedroom. That was different. Eduardo ventured cautiously in, proton gun at the ready, and looked around. He was in no way sensing anything out of the ordinary in there. He dropped his guard slightly, wondering what the hell he was supposed to do next. He couldn't shoot something he couldn't see.

But then he did see her. Just briefly, and only from the shoulders upwards, so he could not confirm her supposed Victorian style of dress. She was in the mirror, or in front of it – it was hard to tell which. Eduardo only saw her for a moment, but he noticed that she was pretty. She had beautiful hair and an unreadable smile on her face. Then she vanished, leaving behind only a faint mist around the mirror.

Eduardo reacted by readying his gun as soon as he saw the face in the mirror, but in the moment it had gone he suddenly found himself under some sort of hypnosis. The mirror was showing him something… the mist was clearing slightly to reveal Kylie and, eventually, Leonard.

"No, don't go." Eduardo couldn't see them too clearly, but he saw that Leonard had grabbed Kylie's arm. "Do you really want to go back to him?"

A moment later he was kissing her, and then suddenly the two figures in the image seemed to merge into one. Afterwards, even if he had wanted to, Eduardo never could have described what he was seeing. It was somehow euphemistic and filthy at the same time: something like a tasteful montage of fleeting body parts, writhing like liquid to a soundtrack of gasps and sighs and moans he knew only too well. And then, just to make absolutely sure he got the picture, he saw rapture on her face as she called out, "Leonard!"

The sounds and images began to subside, but anger and despair were rising in Eduardo like a tidal wave that if left to itself would –

"Eddie, what are you doing in here?"

Eduardo snapped out of it. "Huh?"

"What's the matter with you?" Garrett went on irritably. "What's going on here? My PKE meter was adamant that I should come in here, but whatever it was seems to have gone now, so where the hell is it? Didn't you see anything?"

"Um." Eduardo sat down heavily on the end of the bed. "The mirror was… doing something."

"Really?" Garrett wheeled his way over to the mirror. "What?"

"It was just… being weird."

"In what way weird?"

"Does it matter?" snapped Eduardo.

"Er, well, maybe," Garrett said sarcastically. "But look, I'm only getting residual traces. There doesn't seem to be any kind of trail leading from this room. Where did the damn thing go? It must have just disappeared."

"I saw it," said Eduardo.

"You what?" Garrett returned irritably. "Why didn't you blast it?"

"I didn't have time. She was gone as soon as I set eyes on her."

"Well… what did it look like?"

"I don't know. Young. Pretty. Translucent. She had nice hair."

"Right. Good. That should be plenty to go on," muttered Garrett.

Roland arrived then, and immediately noticed Eduardo. "Are you all right?" he asked. "You look like you're about to throw up or something."

"I feel a little bit sick," Eduardo confessed.

"Maybe you'd better lie down. Take your proton pack off – that can't be doing you any good. Here, I'll open the window," which he duly did. "Do you need, like, a bucket or anything?"

"No," said Eduardo. "No, no, I'm fine."

"You just said you felt sick."

"I do."

"Well you look terrible. You're obviously not well – you'll have to stay home. Oh, wait, there's a ghost here…"

"There isn't," said Garrett. "It seems to have gone."

"Gone?" Roland looked disappointed. "How can it just be gone?"

"I don't know, but I can't pick up its trail," Garrett told him. "And we can't leave Eddie here – he's the only one who saw anything."

"I told you what I saw," Eduardo said irritably. "The ghost of some girl – I only saw her face: young, pretty, nice hair. She was smiling. Not in a good way or a bad way."

"What about the mirror?" pressed Garrett. "You said something about the mirror."

"I… I saw…"

"What?" asked Roland.

"Nothing. Mist. Shapes. Movement. Nothing I can describe."

"None of your neighbours described anything like that. In fact I didn't get anything we didn't already know from the calls. You'd better stay here, Eduardo. Garrett and I will try again to pick up this ghost's trail, and then we'll see what happens."

"Call the firehouse, Eddie," advised Garrett, "with your description. Egon can get onto that in the meantime."

"And feel better," Roland added kindly.

x x x

It was only Sally. Constantine, still clutching the little doll, breathed out.

"Shouldn't you be resting?"

"I feel fine now."

"What have you done with the baby?"

"She's with your mother. I really could have done with your help up there, Constantine."

"Hey," snapped Constantine. "I mopped up all that water and blood and whatever else was pouring out of you. I sent for the midwife, and when she didn't arrive I mopped your brow between screaming fits."

"That was really helpful, Constantine, thanks," Sally returned acidly. "And you'd scream too if you were - "

"I daresay. I actually felt sorry for you, going through all that, when I thought you were having my brother's baby."

Sally raised her eyebrows. "That's what you were accusing me of?"

"Weren't you listening?"

"No, sorry, I was a bit busy giving birth to your niece!"

"She isn't my niece!" yelled Constantine. "A month premature? That enormous thing? I hardly think so!"

"And how many newborn babies have you seen?" demanded Sally. "So she's a little bigger than you were expecting! So what? You're no expert. It doesn't mean - "

"Sally."

"I'm not finished yet! Ever since Wolf-Christian and I got engaged, you've been nothing but hostile towards me!"

"Sally!"

"And I know you thought I was… you know… before we married, which is completely untrue, but I see I shall never change your mind. But to accuse me of marrying your brother when I was already carrying - "

"Sally, you're bleeding!"

Constantine's eyes were on Sally's bare feet, which stood in a rapidly growing pool of blood that dripped heavily from between her legs and ran down her ankles.

"You have to get back to bed," said Constantine, approaching slightly closer. "The midwife will probably arrive soon if she hasn't al- "

She had to cut herself off, and catch Sally as she fell into a sudden faint.

x x x

Fidelity. Monogamy. Faithfulness. Not the same thing as faith. Funny, that. Have. Hold. Love. Cherish. Honour. Obey. Honour? It seemed the most ambiguous. Was fidelity actually specified in the wedding vows? The vows they hadn't bothered taking. Because they didn't mean anything. Wasn't that what she had said?

Infidelity. Adultery. Cheating. Why cheat? The adulterer having a straightforwardly bad nature. No way. Years and years of abuse, oppression and general unhappiness. No. Definitely not. He certainly hoped not, anyway. Getting carried away by the throes of passion ignited by the person with whom one cheats. Um… Weakness. Momentary weakness caused by emotional insecurity, caused by spouse storming out, caused by argument, caused by events strictly speaking nothing to do with previously monogamous relationship. Perhaps.

Leonard. Leonard Leonard Leonard. Why Leonard? Why not Leonard? Because she wouldn't cheat with just anyone. She wouldn't cheat. Why take the word of a mirror seriously? The mirror wasn't responsible, of course. It was the ghost. Probably. It was certainly a ghost, or something of that nature. Why would it show him that? If it wasn't true, why pick Leonard? Why not show her with, um…? Ok, maybe that was why Leonard.

Had Kylie slept with Leonard before, a little less than nine years ago? She had never given any indication of having done so, nor of not having done so. Those sounds, those looks, were playing over and over in his mind. No one could have got a reaction like that from her their first time together. Or could they? Just because he couldn't… She was older now, of course. She knew her own body better, and she almost certainly had more confidence. Perhaps she was more forthcoming about what she wanted. Or perhaps Leonard was just plain better than –

Eduardo shook his head clear. That train of thought was becoming more and more unpleasant, and it wasn't getting him anywhere. The thoughts weren't linear, of course. No one thinks in sentences. Words, images and memories tumbled around his head in every direction as he walked the streets of Manhattan.

He thought back to the first time he and Kylie had slept together. He didn't think of it with the same fondness that she did. While the memory always brought a smile to her face, it was something he generally tried to forget. What he remembered most was feeling more nervous than he had ever thought he could. He had found it near impossible to keep his hands steady at the same time as trying to work out whether or not she liked what he was doing. He didn't know how or where to touch her, and she wouldn't tell him. He just muddled through, and afterwards he was sure he had disappointed her. She wrapped her arms around him and assured him it had been wonderful, but he knew it hadn't been that wonderful.

The second time, on the same night, was much better. He was reassured when she reached for him through the darkness and started kissing him. She couldn't have been as disappointed as he suspected if she wanted to do it again. Nothing is ever as nerve-racking the second time anyway, and now he knew her expectations; the last time, he had imagined her looking forward to screaming orgasms that would shake the bed. But not this time. He was no longer fearful of disappointing her, and he evidently did just the opposite. He still remembered the joy and relief that washed over him when he heard her gasp, and felt her entire body tense for a few blissful seconds.

The morning after wasn't perfect, as he had naively hoped it would be. He awoke suddenly to the sound of an alarm clock, and wondered what the hell had happened when the noise stopped without him touching the thing. The first thing that occurred to him was, most unromantically, a flat battery. Then he felt movement beside him.

They turned over at the same time. She smiled. He smiled, relieved that she still seemed to want him there (the thought that she might suddenly change her mind just would not seem to leave him). They fell into each other's arms – again – and he said something corny. He couldn't remember now exactly what that was. Something like, "I must be dreaming." God, she probably hated that. His bladder was nearly ready to burst, and hers probably was too, but it wasn't enough to drive them out of bed just yet. They must have been kissing for about ten minutes before Kylie suddenly exclaimed, "Shit, the wedding!"

"What?" said Eduardo. He had honestly forgotten.

"The wedding," echoed Kylie, clambering out of bed and climbing into a convenient towelling robe that was hanging nearby. "You have to go home and get changed."

"What…?" and then he remembered. Astonishingly it took him until that point to remember that Egon and Janine were shortly to star in what he and Garrett were privately calling the Wedding of the Century. "Oh crap," he said, really not wanting to go to a wedding when he could be making love to this wonderful woman.

"You need to go to the bathroom, don't you?" She was feeding Pagan already. "Go on, hurry up – I have to take a shower."

Both of these things quickly happened, and when Kylie emerged from the bathroom some twenty minutes later Eduardo had just about managed to pull on his jeans.

"Are you still here?" shrieked Kylie.

"Well I was hardly going to leave without saying goodbye."

"Oh, right." She picked his t-shirt up off the floor and threw it at him. "Goodbye."

He caught the t-shirt, and then cocked an eyebrow. "Is that the best you can do?"

"Eduardo, go! You'll be late!"

"Who cares?"

"Everyone! God, why did it have to be last night? Couldn't you have come over and confessed your love to me some other evening?"

Eduardo was understandably a bit fazed by that. He must have looked hurt, because Kylie's expression softened and she walked over to him.

"I'm sorry," she said, wrapping her arms around his waist. "It's just… you know…"

She was forced to stop speaking when Eduardo started kissing her. She reciprocated for several seconds, but then prised her head back and said again, "Eduardo!" Undeterred, he moved down to her neck (she liked that, he remembered).

"Eduardo!" She slapped his arm, and this time he stopped. "You have to go!"

"Let's not."

Her eyes widened. "What?"

"Let's not go to the wedding. We can say we both spent the whole night throwing up or something."

"Eduardo!" She was clearly suppressing a laugh. "Are you saying that you'd not only be prepared to miss the wedding yourself, but you'd happily keep away one of the bridesmaids as well?"

"Yes," he said sincerely.

"You can't. We can't."

"Oh, come on. You don't really want to be a bridesmaid, do you? You don't strike me as the type."

Kylie pushed him away gently. "I have to. And you have to be there too."

There was absolutely no point in resisting, Eduardo knew. He really was willing to miss the wedding – even the absence of one of the bridesmaids shouldn't matter that much, he reasoned – but she wasn't going to budge. It would surely be better for both of them in the long run anyway, if they did their best not to incur anybody's wrath.

"Eduardo! It's you again! I don't believe it!"

Eduardo snapped out of his trip down memory lane. Incredible. Absolutely amazing. How had he managed not to see Bess for over eight years and then cross paths with her two days in a row? One his wedding day, and the next the day he was told by a supernatural being that his one and only was cheating on him.

He shook his head incredulously. "This can't be a coincidence."

To be continued…