Author's Note: Sorry, I planned to update sooner, but I've been very busy with other things. So, finally, here's the next chapter. I hope you enjoy, and when you do, please review!

Chapter Three - A Lube Change

She closed the refrigerator door and smiled. Tony had told her exactly what to get for the weekend. He had promised to cook an Italian menu for their anniversary. She opened the bottle of red wine to let it breathe and put the champagne on ice to let it cool. When she was done in the kitchen she would go to her bedroom and change. She had bought a beautiful new dress and had been to the hairdresser, who had pinned her blond hair up exactly the way he liked it. She was in a good mood. The last year hadn't always been easy with him, but she loved him from the bottom of her heart and wanted to spend the rest of her life with him.

Kathleen sighed. What took him so long? He had promised to come as soon as his chores at his working place were done. The problem was that his working place was also his home, so he wasn't as hellbent on leaving his work as normal people would be. Her boyfriend really had a peculiar job, and an even more peculiar relationship to his employer. Kathleen had noticed it right from the start. Angela had invited her the day after their first night together, clueless that Tony was much closer to her than to the rest of the study group. Angela had welcomed her perfectly, had been polite and hospitable. That had changed abruptly after she had talked to Tony in the kitchen. They had spent only five minutes in there, but when Tony had returned he had been contrite and unwilling to openly show his affection anymore. The complete opposite to the passionate lover he had been the night before. And when Angela had come out of the kitchen somewhat later, after the rest of their study group had arrived, she hadn't managed much more than a hasty 'Hello everyone'. All of her poise had been gone, she had seemed confused and shocked. And sad, very sad. She had paced through the living room as if she was on the run from something. Later Kathleen had realized that she had been fleeing from her, her housekeeper's new girlfriend.

Some time later, Kathleen had learned that Angela's affection for Tony was not only one-sided. Tony talked a lot about his boss in front of her, always only speaking very highly of his so-called employer. Though he never made a pretense that they were friends - close friends, very close friends even - Kathleen sometimes asked herself whether they had ever slept with each other. Tony kept denying it, but she wasn't so sure whether he could be trusted with this. They lived under the same roof for more than six years; a healthy young man and an attractive young woman. They shared their everyday life, sat together at the breakfast table in their nightwear, had been on vacation together. They raised their respective kids with each other. Well, fortunately all that had come to an end since Tony and she were a couple. He sat at her breakfast table now, in his PJs and sometimes even without wearing a top. They had been on holidays in Florida together. They hadn't been able to afford to go to Mexico or Jamaica to a fancy resort, since Angela hadn't been paying for it understandably, but they had had a good time. The only sphere which remained Angela's was parenting, for Kathleen didn't have any children. Not yet.

Kathleen had been dreaming of a family ever since her early childhood. Her mother had died when she was a little girl, and her father, a grumpy army general, had been away in action around the world most of the time. So she had been brought up by her aunt, an unmarried, cold-hearted woman, who hadn't been able to replace her beloved mother. Every time she had slept over at one of her friends' house, she had enjoyed the warming atmosphere of a family life, with lots of people and the dinner table, chatting and laughing. Since then, she had longed for her own little family. As a kid, she had dreamt about a handsome prince, who would ride by on a beautiful black stallion, pull her up on his horse, and take her to his castle where they would live happily ever after. After she had grown up, she wanted to find herself a man who would love and cherish her, who would take care of her, and who would built the family with her she so badly missed when she had been a kid. With meeting Tony, Kathleen believed she had found the perfect guy. The man she had always dreamt about - strong and masculine, yet caring and warm.

She was very much in love. She was on cloud nine and enjoyed her relationship to the fullest. But she wasn't stupid. She knew that in most relationships there was always one party whose feelings were stronger, deeper, and more sincere. And she knew for sure that she was this party in her relationship to Tony. She took their relationship much more serious than he did. She was a woman after all, and could feel than Tony wasn't as deeply involved as she was. Which would've have been okay, if the reason for it hadn't been another woman. But it was. And Angela was that woman, Kathleen knew. And it scared her. Angela had a lot to offer. Although she was a bit older than Kathleen, she was a very desireable woman - slender figure, fine facial features, blond long hair. She was well-educated, self-sufficient, and affluent. Kathleen was impressed by Angela's career, by the way she had fought her way through the men's business world until she was successful with her own advertising agency. She was intimidated by her. She felt Angela was playing in a different league. But she also felt that this could be working to her advantage, because Angela not only played out of her league, but out of Tony's as well.

With their graduation coming up, Kathleen hoped that her relationship to Tony would undergo a major change. With a degree in hand and a teaching job in sight, he wouldn't be in need of his housekeeping job anymore. Samantha had already moved out of the house in Fairfield, so Kathleen wondered what could possibly hold him there. But maybe it wasn't so much a question of 'what' but rather one of 'who'. Maybe Angela offered him to stay as a tenant. But then again, teachers' salaries weren't high enough to be able to afford housing in this area of Connecticut. She hoped that having gone through college together and graduating at the same time would meld them closer together. They had accomplished this together, being driven by the same motives. Like Tony, she had dropped out of school in her teen years and had been a very eager and industrious student. Kathleen pictured Tony moving in with her, starting their life as a soon-to-be-married couple and family later on. Sometimes she was afraid that she was only building castles in the clouds, that it was more wishful thinking than a very likeable development. But she was a romantic person, madly in love, and relied on the fact that it seemed so much more unlikely for an ex-housekeeper to marry his former employer, than for two fellow students to tie the knot.

The doorbell rang and Kathleen practically jumped up and ran to open the door.

"Hi Darling, I was waiting for you. Why did you ring the bell?" She had given him a key to her apartment a few weeks ago, but he refused to use it. He insisted on ringing the bell, just like some kind of visitor. Kathleen would appreciate, if he entered her apartment with his key as if he lived there.

"Hello, Kathleen. Sorry, Angela's car badly needed a lube change," Tony explained his delay.

"Aren't there any mechanics in Fairfield who do that for a living?" Kathleen asked, a bit annoyed. Angela again, of course!

"Ah, ... well, she needed it right away. She'll be driving the Jag all the way up to Niagara Falls for an advertising convention this weekend. And I don't want her to break down somewhere on the road." There he was again, protective, caring Tony. If he only was as protective and caring about her as he was about Angela. "And it's no big deal. It's done quickly and it saves some money."

"As if she needed to save money," Kathleen mumbled.

"What was that?"

"Nothing! Nothing!" Kathleen hastened to assure. She knew that the more she accused Angela of something, the more he defended her. And she didn't feel like talking about her at all. She wanted to celebrate her first anniversary will all the frills - sparkling champagne, delicious food, and passionate lovemaking. But wait! What did he say? Angela was going to Niagara Falls for the weekend?

"Isn't she going to be at our commencement on Sunday then?" That sounded too good to be true. A look into Tony's eyes told Kathleen though that their opinions were deeply divided on this issue.

"Can you believe it? She says she has to meet this potential client at the convention, that he has a big account to assign, and that the agency is in need of it," he complained.

"So? Why is that so difficult to believe? Sounds comprehensible to me."

"But it doesn't sound comprehensible to me!" Tony argued. "How can she miss my graduation ceremony?"

"You mean our ceremony!" Kathleen insisted.

"Whatever, ..."

Kathleen felt hurt. It seemed to her that Tony regretted more that Angela wouldn't be there, than he enjoyed to spend the day with her. And there it was again, the feeling which kept on appropriating her with increased regularity the longer their relationship lasted; the feeling of being used as a stopgap until Tony finally knew what he wanted in life. Having Tony all to herself on that particular day would at least make him focus on her and only her, and that made her looking forward to that day even more.

"Come on, this will be our big day! Don't let one of Angela's clients spoil it," Kathleen tried to calm the waves.

"I don't care about Angela's client, ... well, of course I do, ... but I'm just disappointed that her business is more important to her than I am."

"Tony, she's a business owner. They always put their business in the first place and their private life comes second."

"But Angela usually isn't like that. My scholastic achievements were always very important to her. Gee, she moved heaven and hell to get me enrolled at Ridgemont, she tutored me through many classes, and she took care of the house during my internships. She supported me throughout the entire program. I don't understand why she doesn't care about the commencement at all anymore."

Tony seemed really upset and even a bit angry, but also clueless about Angela's motives. Kathleen felt like screaming 'Because of me, you idiot!' at him but kept these words to herself of course. She shook her head. Why were men just so little perceptive when it came to a woman's psyche? To her it was as clear as night follows day that the only reason why Angela had decided to be elsewhere at Tony graduation ceremony was because she, Tony's girlfriend, would be there too. She even slightly sympathised with her. She hadn't meant to destroy a relationship. It had always been one of her personal rules to not butt in an existing relationship. But then again, Tony hadn't been in a relationship with Angela when she had first met him. They obviously were having some kind of very close and intimate friendship, but Tony had more than once assured her that there was nothing between them. She knew that 'nothing' was a little understated, that there definitely was 'something' between them. It seemed as if both didn't know what exactly this 'something' consisted of.

And Kathleen most certainly didn't want them to find out.

Ever.