"...Please just tell me that you're just pulling my leg here." The young woman groaned as she gripped a handful of her curly jet-black locks and gave them an aggravated tug. "Please."

Frankie opened her mouth, and for a moment it looked like she was about to say something. However, after searching in vain for a suitable reply, she finally shut her lips tight, shuffled nervously on top of her stool and just gave an embarrassed shrug, much to her friend's obvious dismay.

"No." Kathy whined as she started to shake her head. "No...oh, c'mon, no! No, no, no, no! There's no way you actually mean any of this right now, right?"

"Kath, I-" Frankie finally found her voice, but was rapidly cut off by her friend's relentless bombardment of protest.

"This...this is just a joke, right? Some terrible, awful joke...right?" she asked hopefully. "Honestly, I will get down on my knees right now and beg if that's what it's going to take for you to admit it."

"It's not a joke!" the now irritated redhead insisted snappily. Almost immediately Kathy buried her face in her arms atop the countertop and let out an over-dramatic moan of dismay that echoed throughout Foster's expansive kitchen.

"Ohhhhh, you have got to be kidding me." She grumbled. "Can you at least lie and tell me that this is just a bad start to your new stand-up act?"

"Kathy!" Frankie said pleadingly. "C'mon, can you just knock it off for a few seconds? I really need you to be serious here."

"Serious? Serious? Oh, for the love of..." Kathy took another sip of coffee before continuing to voice her skyrocketing disbelief. "How on earth did you really expect me to be serious about this? If you think this counts as anything even vaguely resembling an actual problem, then you are totally mist-"

"But I-"

"No."

"I-"

"Nope"

"Ka-"

"No!" Kathy kept stubbornly interrupting, until finally Frankie managed to sputter out in one frustrated breath,

"!"

This got the other woman to go silent for a moment, even if it was just because she needed some time to decipher the cluster of words. Seizing her opportunity, Frankie attempted to grab the reins of the discussion again. "I think that Rudy-"

"And you are both fine." Kathy finished definitively with an annoyed scowl, now just barely tolerating the discussion at this point "For once in your life, everything is completely fine."

"No, we are not." Frankie persisted stubbornly, as her friend rolled her eyes and took another sip of her drink. "I told you, there is something else going on here-"

"How?" he bewildered friend begged. "How can you even say that? You've been so happy with...well, everything! It's all just been going so well for you two."

"Yeah, but..." Frankie paused, all-too aware of how absurd she was about to sound. "Actually, when I really think about it, now it kinda feels like it's going...almost too well."

The silence that followed was almost deafening. Kathy looked so stunned that it looked like her jaw was going to hit the floor and end up in the cellar.

"...What in the world is wrong with you?" she finally found her voice again. "Are you half-Grinch on your mother's side? Now since when did you start hating happiness?"

Frankie began to fidget with her ponytail and frowned apologetically. So far, she had done a pretty poor job of trying to garner much sympathy. "I'm sorry, there's no better way to say that-"

"Earth to Miss Frances Bridgett Foster, you're being totally and completely cockamamie here. Has it ever occurred to you that you may actually have the right to enjoy yourself in life?"

"I know..." the redheaded woman groaned. "But...I dunno...maybe I really have just gotten so up in my own head about nothing, but..."

She trailed off, and for a minute she just chewed softly on her lower lip and gazed at the muddled reflection in her coffee. Finally, she took a long, deep breath before continuing somberly. "But I can't help it. I feel like something could be wrong...and now I only feel that even more so because almost everything else has been almost been too good to be true."

Kathy was just about to respond with another snappy comeback, but managed some self-restraint once she saw the deep worry lining her friend's expression. She shook her head softened her tone a bit. "Can't you just accept that you're going out with someone nice for once? So maybe he really just doesn't want you going out of you way to grab him lunch. So what? Is this really worth stressing over?"

"Yesterday was only part of it! Trust me, I really, really want to just leave it at that, and be done with all these stupid suspicions." Frankie declared, looking frustrated. "But I can't. I mean, everything was so great at first that I didn't think about it, but come on and just think about it for a moment. First of, he is keeping something from me-"

"You just think that." The other woman fired back with a quick counterpoint, to which the redhead only rolled her eyes as she continued.

"He is, I know it. And now it's all kind of starting making sense. Yes, everything else has been great...but how much of that is he actually being honest about? How do I know he's not just saying some things to throw me off? I know what he tells me, but...well, think about it, just who genuinely is perfectly okay with someone like me?"

"Oh c'mon, give him some credit Miss Ultra-Suspcious." Kathy argued gently. "Are you still worried about the whole 'twenty-three and already a mom' thing? In case you forgot, he and I are social workers. Our entire jobs are based off dealing with less than orthodox family situations. He's known that since day one."

"Okay, well that I can understand." Frankie conceded. "But what happens when you take Mac out of the picture? What do you have left?"

Her friend wanted absolutely nothing more than to paint a rosy picture. Unfortunately, Frankie's expression made it all too clear that she was going to only accept one answer to her own question, and by the looks of it, it wasn't going to be pretty. "Uh..."

"Let's be honest here, okay? Long before Mac, I've never had the easiest time with boyfriends. You know why? Because just look at me. Look at all this!" she threw her arms up and pointed all about the room. "This house, and my life. I am still the girl who grew up with imaginary friends, works with imaginary friends, and...I mean, who am I kidding? Just look at all the help that the rabbit and Wilt gave grandma when I was a kid! I was practically raised by imaginary friends. Oh yeah, like that's the gal all the guys will be chasing after."

"Frankie, don't-" Kathy tried to find a half-decent counterpoint, but quickly went quiet again as she dug deep through her thoughts, only to come up bust. As much as she hated to admit it, Frankie had a point. She hadn't exactly thought too hard about this before, but then again she had never attempted to date her best friend.

Once it became obvious that the other young woman couldn't find a suitable objection, Frankie folded her arms and argued her case further. "And now let's just top that with...I don't even know where to begin. Should I start with my anger issues? Or the fact that I volunteered to become the parent about a year ago?"

"You...uh..." Kathy just grunted stupidly, completely unsure of what else to say before finally sighing in resignation. "I dunno, pick your own toppings, I guess."

"Rudy's been so sweet and understanding, but now that I'm thinking more about it..." Frankie groaned. "Now it all just seems fishy. How many guys seriously have absolutely zero reservations of any of that?"

Unsure of where to start, her friend tried again to steer the conversation in a lighter direction. As she fiddled with her mug, she attempted to start small. "Okay, so maybe you have a bit of a temper problem-"

"A bit?" Frankie let loose with bitter laugh. "If I get physical on a date, then that probably means I tried to punch someone. Guys like girls with a nice smile; not the ones with a nasty right hook. "

"Well aren't you just the model of self-confidence right now?" Kathy muttered dryly, through with trying to be comforting.

Thankfully, the sarcastic barb did just the trick. Successfully knocked down a notch, Frankie settled down a little and flashed an apologetic smile.

"Okay, I get it...but still though, you have to admit it's hard not to be worried. I get how the kid thing isn't a big deal for Rudy. But now how can I be just fine with a guy who also says all the time he doesn't care about the imaginary friend deal either, when those that thing alone has helped end almost every other relationship? It doesn't add up. Something weird is going on here. There's something that I'm missing, and-"

"Can you stop it with the pity-party here?" Kathy cut in. "I understand how you can feel a little weirded out, but I seriously don't think that it's been that bad for you."

"Wanna bet?" Frankie replied. Immediately she started to list off a hail of names all too casually. "Jessie, Aden, Peter, Zack, William, Theo, Louis-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Kathy gestured sharply, not sure what to make of any of it. "What are you-"

"Each and every one; either shot me down from the get-go, or tried to get around the imaginary friend thing with no luck." Frankie explained morosely. "Or do you want me to get even more detailed? There was Nick Swarsky in seventh grade; he found out about my crush on him, and afterwards he wouldn't even sit within two tables of me in the lunchroom. Or how about Ben O'Henessy? Remember, freshmen year at college? He took me to that cafe downtown, I told him a little bit more about myself...if took me twenty minutes before I realized he wasn't coming back from that 'bathroom break'. And then..."

"I...I..." her friend tried to interject but was at a genuine loss for words as Frankie continued to rattled off example after example, before toning it down a little.

"Don't get me wrong here. This is my home, this is my job, and this is my life. I wouldn't want to give any of it away...but it doesn't make things easy when you're trying to get a guy's number. Kids may like imaginary friends, and adults with kids like them." She explained. "But if you bring that to most of the guys that I've met, then...well, the whole thing isn't really much of a turn on."

"...No." Kathy honestly was still having trouble believing it all. "No, I...I know you've had it rough, but there couldn't...okay, there has had to be at least one guy who wasn't phased by the foster home deal. They can't have all been put off by it, could they? At least one guy?"

"There was." The caretaker said sourly, and for a moment Kathy saw a glimmer of hope as she seized hold of her opportunity.

"Hey, yeah! I remember, it was a guy who said that he loved imaginary friends, and then...oh." Kathy winced as she finally remembered. "Wait...that was...that was Dylan, right?"

"Yeah-huh." Frankie grumbled. "He wasn't the only one, but he definitely made it sound the most believable. Seriously, the only guys that have ever come out and actually said that they like imaginary friends were only lying through their teeth just so they could try and get some."

"Get some what?" came the curious reply, and unfortunately, Frankie didn't realize that the question came from directly behind her.

"Kathy, stop it with the-" recognition of the voice finally dawned far too late. Frankie froze, and for a moments just stared dead ahead with an unblinking expression of mild panic. Finally, without even turning around she answered in a quaky tone, "Uh...h-hi pal."

Put of a bit by her dismayed reaction, Mac grimaced at his guardian before inquiring meekly, "Did...did I say something wrong?"

"What?" she got off her seat, and began to hastily switch into parenting mode. "Oh...oh, no! No, everything's okay. Kathy stopped by for a little bit, and we were just talking, see?"

"Oh...okay." Mac definitely didn't very convinced by her words. However, the phony smile she had hastily plastered on rather forcibly made him quickly conclude that he really probably shouldn't press the matter further. Yet despite his above-average level of common sense, in the end he was still only a child, and this time couldn't help but let his curiosity get the upper hand for a bit. "...Frankie?"

"Yeah?"

"What does 'get some' mean?" he asked, the very picture of innocence.

Even though her friend had just been pouring out her heart only a minute earlier, Kathy couldn't help but enjoy the comically awkward situation. She bit down on her lip, but that did woefully little to muffle her snort of mirth. Frankie meanwhile just gawked blankly for a few minutes as the cogs of her mind turned furiously.

"It...it means...get some means getting some...some..." She stammered, frantically trying to cobble together a semi-believable excuse.

Meanwhile, Kathy was fast losing the battle against temptation. After making just a half-baked attempt to keep clammed up, the opportunity was just to much to resist. Still trying to stifle a wave of giggles, she grabbed a nearby jar and began adding a few more spoonfuls of its sweet, snow white contents into her coffee as she spoke up, "I think you mean to say that it means this."

"Yes!" Frankie agreed, not even thinking as she jumped on her friend's suggestion. "It means getting some sugar, just like...ackpth!"

She slapped a hand to her forehead as Kathy burst out squealing with laughter. Mac took one glance to his clearly embarrassed guardian, her tittering friend, and put two and two together; whatever he had walked in on, he hadn't made things any better.

"Yeah...all right." He replied, pretending to buy the confusing answer as the double meaning went soaring over his head.

"Okay, good." Frankie sighed in relief, glad that he was giving her a much needed pass. "You need anything, pal?"

"I was just coming in to get a snack." Moving as quick as could be, she headed to a cupboard and fetched a bag of banana chips. Once she passed them into his waiting hands, the two just stood there for a few uncomfortable moments.

"See you at dinner." Mac finally said before exiting the room, bringing the awkward moment to a badly needed end and leaving his guardian to nurse a mildly mangled ego. It wasn't helping that Kathy was stick snickering uncontrollably like a total nitwit, which in turn got her a piercing stare from the none-too-pleased redhead.

"...You are the total opposite of helpful." Frankie scowled, glaring daggers as she retook her seat. "Seriously, in the last twenty-four hours I've now become 0-2 for weird moments with my kid."

"What? Oh come on!" Kathy tittered, looking quite proud of herself. "That was golden, and you know it."

"You're not the one who still has to deal with a confused nine-year-old at the end of the day." said Frankie darkly, as her friend continued sniggering on despite her best efforts to repress it. Once she started to get a slightly better hold of herself, though, something finally dawned.

"That...that was actually too easy." She said, eyes widening in surprise. "Usually you're not so off your mommy game."

"Thank you!" the other woman gasped. "Okay, now we're finally getting somewhere. See? See how worked I am?"

"Yeah...actually, I do." Kathy had to admit, after years of friendship together Frankie usually didn't leave herself so exposed to her mischievous side. "This...this is really bugging you, isn't it?"

"That's an understatement there." Frankie groaned again, now looking like a regular poster girl for stress.

The room rapidly returned its previous somber atmosphere as Kathy attempted to sum everything up. "Okay...so this is what we have so far. You're pretty sure your guy's keeping something from you, right?"

"Yeah...and seeing how well everything else is going...I dunno, something tells me it has to be bad." Frankie muttered morosely. "I know no relationship can be a fairy tale, but for me that always seems to be twice as true. I never have it this good with anyone, not me."

"Okay, okay, we get it already. So just what am I supposed to do here?" Kathy finally asked.

"Just...just for now, see if you can figure out what' amiss here. I don't want you doing too much, but...for now, see what you can find." Frankie explained.

Kathy just stared, feeling frankly confused by these instructions. "And...why can't I just ask him?"

"Because...because even though I feel like something's wrong..." Frankie sighed. "For now, this is still the best I've ever had...and believe me, when I say that. If something's going to blow up, then let's wait a bit."

"...Okay...okay...okay." she finally relented. "I was the one who set you two up; it's only fair to do an extra bit of digging to make sure he totally checks out."

Frankie managed to crack a weak smile at her friend's words. "Really?"

"Well we work at the same place, so not like I'd be going out of my way. Besides...worst comes to worst, maybe if whatever secret he has really is a major relationship killer...well, maybe you can just settle with me." Kathy couldn't help but crack playfully in an attempt to cheer up her friend.

"Say what?" Frankie shot her a puzzled look.

"Well yeah." She said, pausing to finish her coffee before remarking cheekily, "I mean, we already argue as much as most married couples."

After pouring out more anxieties and woe than she cared to keep track of, Frankie had to admit, it felt nice to laugh a bit.