5

The next couple of days were awkward between Steve and Chrissy. He tried to talk to her every chance he could, and she avoided him every time. Steve kept thinking, Okay, I called her my friend, but that was a complete accident. I never meant anything by it. I love her, for God's sake. It's not like I intentionally said that. I have to talk to her and clear this up.

Not only did Steve feel completely guilty about his bad word choice, but now he was realizing just what a huge part of his life Chrissy had become. Usually, they talked on the phone a couple of times a day. Now, his phone stayed silent except for work calls. Steve, Chrissy, and Sarah usually had dinner together every night, most of the time with her cooking. Now, however, he'd found himself eating very little or even skipping meals. Despite the fact that he and Chrissy had only been able to sleep beside one another a few times since the warehouse incident, he felt extremely lonely when he fell into bed and stared at the ceiling. Everything about his life was changing now that she had shut him out, and he hated it.

Steve sent her several text messages over the course of those two days. Most of them read something like this:

I'm sorry about what I said. I didn't mean it. You are much more to me than a friend. Please talk to me. I love you.

Each one of the texts went unanswered. Steve grew extremely frustrated. Was my making a mistake on defining our relationship that bad of a mistake? I guess I didn't realize. He knew that if she didn't start talking to him soon, he was going to have to go to extreme measures to get her to talk to him. The idea didn't really appeal to him, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

By day three, the frustration was really getting to Steve, so he decided to confide in Danny about the situation. He hoped that Danny might have some insight and be able to help him.

Danny informed Steve, "Well, I hate to tell you this, Steve, but calling a girl you've slept in the same bed with a 'friend' is not exactly a small offense to a woman."

Steve sighed, "I know that, but Chrissy won't even talk to me."

Danny nodded, "Yeah, and it sounds like she's taken your definition of the relationship seriously."

Steve's stomach dropped, "What do you mean?"

"Chrissy asked me out this afternoon."

"What! She told me she didn't have the hots for you!"

"I don't know what to tell you, Steve. All I know is that she called me this afternoon and wanted to know if I wanted to go out with her this evening."

"To which, of course, you said no."

"See, that's the thing, Steve. I didn't say no. In fact, I took Chrissy up on her invitation."

"What! Danny, that's my girlfriend!"

"Maybe if you'd said that three days ago, we wouldn't be in this mess."

"Promise me you won't do anything with her."

"I can't do that."

"Why the hell not?"

"Chrissy was pretty adamant that this is a real date."

"Where are you having dinner?"

"Who said we're having dinner? Chrissy invited me over to her place. She never said anything about dinner."

Steve felt bile rising in his throat. Chrissy really asked out my best friend? Is this her idea of revenge? Okay, I really didn't mean anything by this friend thing. God, I even apologized to her. Now, I really have to figure out how to get her to listen to me.

Lori chuckled as she listened to the conversation. Steve's little girlfriend isn't so interested in him anymore, I see. I guess she was smart enough to see that she didn't have a chance with him. However, I think a few final touches need to be done to insure that she doesn't come back, and I think I know just the trick.

Despite the fact that Chrissy had felt pretty confident when she'd called Danny and confided to him about her plan to make Steve rethink his "friend" comment, as she slid into a short black dress with slinky straps, she felt worry setting in. There was no way Steve was just going to sit at home and twiddle his thumbs while Danny was with her on a date. She knew he would be watching her somehow. She wondered what he might think when he saw them together. What if Steve took this seriously and really thought she wanted to date Danny? All she really wanted to do was make him realize how his referring to her as a friend made her feel. Maybe this was stupid after all.

The doorbell rang. Well, I guess it's too late to turn back now. Hopefully, Steve will see that we need to define our relationship. I love him. It killed me when he sent me those text messages, but I just can't solve this via text. I can't talk to him about it yet, either. I just want him to get a taste of our "friendship" and see if it changes his mind.

Chrissy scurried to the door and opened it. Danny stood on the other side, a bouquet of roses in his hand. She couldn't help but notice how good he looked tonight, dressed in a blue and white striped shirt and black pants. He couldn't rival Steve, and she definitely wasn't attracted to him, but tonight was all about appearances.

Danny moved closer and kissed her on the cheek. He whispered, "These are for you, and Steve is parked in Kono's car on the other side of the road."

Chrissy momentarily glanced up. Sure enough, Steve was sitting not too subtly across the street in Kono's car. She didn't dare meet his gaze. At this point, she couldn't risk blowing her "date" and she couldn't bear to see the hurt on his face. Honestly, she was surprised he hadn't killed Danny when he'd found out about the date. Maybe he was exercising a little self-control.

Chrissy invited Danny in, and they quickly got down to dinner. Throughout dinner, they discussed Steve and took guesses on how long he was going to creep outside the dining room windows before he made his entrance to throttle Danny. They laughed and talked, and a few times, Danny used flirtatious moves like touching her face and touching her knee. Chrissy did her best not to shy away. All of this officially made her realize she had no romantic interest in Danny whatsoever. He was a sweet guy and a great friend, but he was not the guy she was in love with. That would be Steve, the guy who peered in the windows like a stalker, which was really starting to freak her out.

Chrissy whispered to Danny, "Are you sure Steve doesn't have any stalker tendencies? The way he's peeking in the windows is really starting to creep me out."

Danny laughed, "I don't think so, but then again, he does seem to be an expert at ducking out of sight, doesn't he?"

Chrissy replied, "Yeah. It's a little weird, and I'm starting to feel kind of bad about it."

Danny nudged her, "Are you ready for the grand finale, then?"

"I guess so. We'll have to do it sometime."

Danny leaned over and softly kissed Chrissy's lips. It took all of her willpower not to pull away. For her, kissing Danny was like kissing her brother. They had no chemistry at all. So, she decided she'd just have to pretend she was kissing Steve. It worked to some extent; at least until she heard a hard, insistent knock on her front door.

Danny broke the kiss quickly and stated, "You should get that."

Chrissy nodded and got up from the table. Trying to make Steve assume more, she slid one strap of her dress down her shoulder and mussed her hair as she opened the door.

Steve (shockingly) stood on the other side, his eyes filled with rage. He seethed, "How could you kiss him? I thought we were together!"

Chrissy retorted, "I'm not sure about that, Commander, since you decided that we're 'friends!'"

Steve shouted, "Oh, for the love of God, Chrissy, how many times do I have to tell you I'm sorry? I never meant to hurt you when I said that. I was just flustered that Lori showed up."

Chrissy shot back, "You never corrected it, though, did you? You knew you screwed up and you never bothered to mention it to her. Do you like her or something?"

"No, of course not. It's just that the last time she was here, she admitted she had feelings for me."

"And how did you respond?"

"I didn't, really. I kind of evaded the subject because I had no feelings for her at all."

"Steve, I think we should take a break for a while so we can sort all of this out."

"I see. Or is it so you can see how your relationship with New Jersey goes?"

"Danny has nothing to do with this."

"Oh, yeah, that's what it really looked like when he had his tongue halfway down your throat!"

"Jealous?"

"No. I think I'm finally seeing you for what you really are, Chrissy."

"And what is that, Steve?"

Danny ran into the room, trying to get Steve's attention, "Steve, let me try to explain."

Steve interrupted, "There's nothing to explain, Danny. Chrissy obviously isn't interested in me. She manipulated my emotions so she could humiliate me. Is it because you're so bitter over what Michael did to you that you wanted to see what it would be like to toy with a man's emotions?"

Danny grabbed Steve's arm, "Steve, stop it! This was all a set-up. Chrissy just wanted to make a point about what 'friends' is. I knew all about this. Everything was planned, including the kiss."

Steve chuckled bitterly, "You expect me to believe that, because you really looked like you were enjoying yourself, Danno."

Danny insisted, "Steve, you know I wouldn't do that to you. I'm your best friend, and she's your girlfriend. Besides, I don't feel that way about her at all and vice versa."

Steve shook his head, "I wish I could believe you, but your little performance looked a little too real to be just that."

Chrissy's eyes were filled with tears she wouldn't allow to shed, "What are you going to do?"

Steve avoided her eyes carefully, "I think you're right. We should definitely take a break."