This takes place between The All-Nighter and Ridiculous Liaisons - the end of season 6 and beginning of season 7.

"Angela, you and Tony can't keep walking around here like strangers," Mona said pointedly, "You haven't spent more than thirty seconds in a room together in a month."

"That's not true," Angela replied defensively, but when she tried to think of an example to refute her mother, she came up empty-handed. "We've just both been busy," she concluded lamely.

Mona had cornered Angela in the kitchen making a cup of tea while Tony was out to lunch with Kathleen. Sam was out with friends before leaving for her upcoming trip to Arizona, and Jonathan was collecting bug samples for an entomology class he was taking over the summer.

"You can't lie to me, dear. The tension in this house is thicker than the padding in Diane Wilmington's bra."

"Mother!"

"Well, it's true," she said stubbornly as Angela made her way to the stove when the kettle began whistling. Mona followed, refusing to let her daughter off the hook. "Are you really going to tell me you're okay? I know what Tony did hurt you …"

Angela turned off the stove, and then her head and shoulders just slumped forward in defeat. Standing in almost exactly the same spot she'd been when Tony had confessed his affair with Kathleen, she finally admitted, "He didn't just hurt me, Mother, he broke my heart, and I don't know how to get past that."

She felt her mother's hand on her shoulder, but when Angela turned around, she found that she and Mona were no longer alone in the room. Tony was standing at the swinging door.

Mona backed up toward the kitchen door and said, "I'm just going to give you two some time."

Before Angela could recover her wits, Mona was out the door, and she and Tony were facing each other across the kitchen with an ocean of silent emotions roiling between them.

"Angela," Tony began softly, but she interrupted him before he could say anything else.

"It's okay, Tony, I'm sorry you heard that. You weren't supposed to."

He took a tentative step toward her. "I'm sorry, I didn't know."

She looked at him mirthlessly, "You didn't?"

At least he had the decency to look ashamed, but before he could reply, she continued, "Never mind, it doesn't matter now. I'll be fine. I just need a little time."

"Angela, I didn't mean for this to happen."

"But it did, and I have to work through my feelings about it. But that's not your concern."

The next words he spoke terrified him, but he owed it to her to ask, "Do you want me to leave? To find someplace else to stay, at least for a while."

She took a deep breath and replied honestly, "I won't deny the thought crossed my mind, but no, I don't want you to leave. At the very least, it wouldn't be fair to Samantha and Jonathan. If …" and then she faltered. "If things change," her voice caught on the lump that was rapidly forming in her throat. The thought of him leaving to live with Kathleen was a knife through her heart. "Down the road, if things change," she repeated, "maybe that will need to happen, but I'm not going to make you leave your home just because you have a girlfriend now."

He heard the strain in her voice, and saw the pain in her eyes. And he knew it was his fault. But there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it now. Even if he broke up with Kathleen that minute, he wouldn't insult Angela by assuming she'd ever give him another chance.

"Is there anything I can do?" he asked, feeing helpless and guilty.

She met his eyes head on and said evenly, "See this through. You owe it to Kathleen, and to yourself, to give it a chance." Saying the words nearly ripped her in two, but she regained her composure. "Whatever else we might have been is beside the point now, but it's easier knowing we lost that for something real rather than a one-night stand."

As much as her words hurt, she was right. The only path was forward, to see whether being with Kathleen was what he truly wanted.

"What about you?" He wasn't sure what his place was now. Did he even have a right to ask? Was it his place to offer consolation, or should he just accept what she decided?

"You don't have worry about me, Tony." Her voice softened and she managed a small smile, "As it happens, I have a date tonight." She couldn't deny there was some small satisfaction in turning the tables on him.

"Oh." It was a very pregnant syllable. Was he relieved? Happy for her? Jealous? All of the above? "Well, that's good. Is it with Peter?"

She nodded in confirmation. "He's back in town for a while." She paused and took a breath. "This isn't the path I expected or would have chosen, but it's the one we're on. I also won't pretend that what you overheard isn't true."

He nodded solemnly. "And I won't pretend I didn't know being with Kathleen was a betrayal of what I said on vacation last summer."

"I appreciate that, Tony. But I also meant what I said the last time we talked. You're my best friend, and maybe that's what we're meant to be. If you broke up with Kathleen because of my feelings, you'd always resent me for it."

He didn't know if that were true or not, but he knew breaking up with Kathleen now was not a solution to his conflicted feelings. If he had been able to bring himself to be with Angela, they'd probably be together by now. He knew she was far more ready than he was. So, was being with Kathleen his way of setting them back into the safer territory they'd occupied before their trip to Jamaica? Was he putting the brakes on the clear path they'd been traveling over the past year? He suspected that was part of the equation, but he also didn't want to diminish his genuine feelings for Kathleen. He wasn't using her. But that didn't make knowing he'd hurt Angela any easier.

With no way to deny her assertion, he fell back on the reason he'd never been able to cross certain lines with her. "I don't deserve you, Angela," he offered solemnly.

"Maybe not," she acknowledged wryly, "but none of my other friends listen to me practice campaign pitches, spend time with Jonathan, and make me double fudge brownies."

And with shared smiles, the mood was lightened, though hardly anything either of them would call normal.

"I will put those on my to-do list," he offered. Then, after a long moment, he asked tentatively, "So are we okay, or at least a little more okay than we've been?"

Angela considered all possible scenarios for them as they moved forward and decided that not being okay wasn't helpful or healthy for anyone. Regardless of what might happen in the future, today she wasn't willing to lose her friend.

"Yeah, we're pretty okay," she agreed.

"That's good to know. … So, ah, what time is your date with Peter?"

She looked at her watch before replying, "He'll be here around five, so I have a couple of hours to finish up some work first."

Tony nodded again. "Then I'll let you get to it."

It was only at that moment Angela realized neither one of them had moved since he'd walked into the kitchen. They stood facing each other on opposite sides of the table, which seemed to act as a metaphor for both the gulf that now existed between them as well as the family ties that bound them together.

Circling around the table, Angela made her way to the door and then paused when Tony called her name.

She glanced back.

"If I don't see you, have a nice time tonight."

Sensing his sincerity, she offered back a soft, "You, too," before slipping from the room, much more at peace than she'd been an hour before when she'd entered it.

.