Disclaimer: I don't own 'em…

I dropped the plain white envelope on the table in front of her and stood nervously off to the side with my hands in my pockets. I was immediately second guessing my idea of handing them to her myself, wishing instead that I had just slipped them into her locker so that she could discover them without knowing who had left them.

Who was I kidding? She'd have dusted the damn envelope and ran the prints. And then I'd be in even deeper shit with her because I should have known that she'd be competent enough to print it. Hell, she'd probably even contact the ticket booth and find out how the tickets were paid for and then run the credit card number to find out it belonged to me. And then…I was pulled from my musings by her voice.

"What's this?"

I was fidgeting as I looked down at the blonde who was now holding the envelope I had debated giving her for weeks.

"Those are tickets," I answered flatly as I removed my hands from my pockets and crossed my arms over my chest.

She pulled the three tickets out of the plain white package and rolled her eyes. "I know that, Sara. I'm not stupid—no matter what Lindsey seems to think."

She read the writing on one ticket and then fanned them out. "You bought tickets for "Love" at the Mirage? Do you have any idea how expensive these are? What were you thinking?"

The incredulous look she shot me revealed that she obviously didn't know why I had bought them—or that she did and she was really pissed off. I decided to go with 'didn't know why I had bought them.'

"Remember last year for Lindsey's birthday? She wanted to go and you told her that there was no way you could afford the tickets? Well, I ordered them a while back—for her birthday."

I had ordered them when I thought that 'we' would take her for her birthday. I wasn't about to add that part though. Things had mellowed considerably between us in the last few weeks and I didn't want to do anything to upset the apple-cart again.

She touched her fingers to the top of each ticket, counting them off, "One, two, three. There are three tickets here, Sara."

Her eyes locked onto mine and I felt like I was suffocating. There was definitely a lack of oxygen in the room. I knew what she was wondering—or fearing. She was worried that I was trying to insinuate myself into her life—to take part in Lindsey's birthday.

"Just tell her they're from you, okay? Take her. Let her take a friend or you can take someone," I held my hands up to silence her so I could finish speaking. "She really wanted to go. And I know you did, too. Just go and have a good time. Please? Just…just take them, okay?"

She dropped her gaze and sighed heavily. I knew she was thinking—trying to decide what to do. I didn't want to give her an opportunity to respond, so I quickly turned on my heel and left the break room.

XXX

I was heading back into work that night when my cell rang.

"Sidle."

"Oh, my god, Sara! You didn't even call me to wish me a happy birthday," said the enthusiastic blonde on the other end of the line.

I was smiling in spite of myself. "I'm sorry, kiddo. I, uh, got tied up with work."

"Yeah, yeah. I had the best night ever."

I could hear the smile in her voice. "Did you? What did your mom do for your birthday that has you all keyed up?"

"She only got me the best birthday present—EVER! She bought tickets to see "Love" and she let bring Cameron along with us."

Cameron was Lindsey's latest girl-crush. I know I'm probably exaggerating, but there were hundreds of photos of the two of them on both her MySpace and Facebook page. And I know teens are a little more fluid with their sexuality than they were when I was her age, but some of their poses…a bit compromising if I must say so. She better hope that her mom never sees some of those photos or there's no way she'll be able to talk her way out of the grounding that Cath will lay on her.

Inside, my heart was swelling to know that Lindsey enjoyed her birthday so much. I was also torn because I had planned to be a part of it. Daily I had regretted ending things with Cath, but none as much as I was at this moment.

"I'm glad you had such a good time—and that Cameron was with you. Look, I'm almost at the lab, so I have to go, okay? You can fill me in later?" I was on the verge of tears and knew that if I didn't get off the phone quickly, I'd end up crying like a blubbering idiot. My voice had already cracked with the last thing I said to her.

I could tell she had cupped her hand over the phone when she whispered, "Thank you, Sara. Lova ya."

She had barely ended the call when the tears began to flow.