Cute as a Button

Author: Janet (SkyGirl5)

Genre: S/V, AU

Summary: In the small town of Button, Maine not much goes unnoticed by the townsfolk. Least of all the newest addition to the town: a young man named Michael Vaughn, who seems to be very interested in keeping to himself. One town member, flower shop owner Sydney Bristow, tries to be receptive of their new neighbor, but will it work? And just why does Michael seem so sad?

Disclaimer: Sydney, Vaughn, etc are properties of JJ Abrams and ABC.

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Chapters 1-10 // Chapters 11 - 20 + Epilogue

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Chapter 11

The next morning when Sydney opened her eyes and immediately found that Michael was watching her with his piercing green eyes, she almost jumped, shocked there was someone else in bed with her. Then she remembered that it was not a dream and that Michael really was beside her because they were together. “Morning,” she yawned to him while stretching out her back and arms.

“Morning to you,” he said softly. “Sleep well?”

“I did actually,” she told him happily. “You?”

“Definitely – this is the first night I haven’t had a cat weighing me down,” he told her seriously. Sydney laughed softly before stretching her arms above her head once more and leaving them there, resting up against the headboard. When she did this, Michael chuckled softly and notably turned his eyes towards the ceiling. “Um, Syd, I can see your, um…”

“OH GOD!” she gasped when she realized what part of her body was exposed to him. With her stretching combined with the large neck and loose fitting straps of her tank top she had inadvertently flashed Michael. Quickly she remedied the situation by slinking down beneath the covers, all the while turning bright pink. “I can’t believe that happened,” she whimpered before sinking all the way under the sheets so that only the top of her head was visible.

“Syd its fine – I didn’t even see anything,” he assured her with a laugh.

“You pointed it out!”

“It’s not a big deal…besides, I’m probably gonna see ‘em anyway, right?” he asked, hoping his question was not too presumptuous.

“Not anymore!” she insisted.

“Syd! C’mon you’re blowing this out of proportion,” he said, trying to pull the sheet away from her so that he could see her face. “I’ll flash you if you want…”

“Don’t bother,” she sighed, pulling the sheet away. “I already saw your man-nipples when you were washing your car last summer.”

“Man nipples?” he questioned with a raised eyebrow. She merely shrugged. “Okay then… this definitely has been the most interesting way I’ve woken up in a while…”

Sydney laughed softly. “Yeah me too… actually, it’s been a really long time since I’ve woken up beside anyone – a really really long time… so long I don’t actually remember when the last time it was… definitely over a year ago…”

“Wow,” Michael commented. “But it’s the same with me; haven’t shared a bed with anyone in almost a year and a half probably maybe even since I moved here…”

Sydney sat upright, shocked. “You haven’t had sex with anyone since you moved to Button?!”

“What? No… I said I haven’t shared a bed with anyone,” he clarified.

“Oh I was talking about sex…,” she sighed.

Michael nodded, understanding her clarification. While he had not been dating and thus not been having sex recently, he had definitely done so since his move to Button. Recently, though, he had been too preoccupied surprising his feelings for Sydney to think about anyone or anything else.

Feeling the need for a bit more sleep, he tucked his head back down into his pillow and reached out his arm to drape across Sydney’s waist. She let out a contented sigh before resting her hand gently atop of his. Lying together, they fell back asleep for a short twenty minute catnap before waking up once more. That time, when Michael opened his eyes, Sydney was the one staring at him.

“Hi again,” he laughed softly.

“Hi,” she echoed. “I guess we should get up soon… you know, since it’s a stupid Saturday and we have to open our stupid stores…”

“Gee, Syd, sound more bitter,” he challenged with a slight laugh. She made a face at him. “Hey at least your store is only open until one… mine is open ‘til five.”

“You realize that you could actually change that,” she pointed out.

“Yeah but then I feel bad… I mean, what if they need a hammer or something?”

“Then they’ll go to the Home Depot twenty minutes away,” Sydney told him with a slight laugh. “Besides, how many hammer emergencies are there?”

“Oh you’d be surprised…,” he told her dramatically. Again, she laughed. “Anyway I guess I should go and feed Snickers…but before I do – would you like to have our first real date tonight?” he asked with a large grin.

“Sure,” she said, grinning as well. “How ‘bout I make you dinner since I have my whole afternoon free?”

“Sounds perfect,” he said before giving her a quick kiss. Then, he rolled over and slid out of bed, picking up his discarded track pants from the night before. As he was putting on his shoes and socks he noticed something peculiar he had not the previous evening.

On the side of Sydney’s bed towards the rest of her apartment, she had a nightstand with a lamp, clock and box of tissues on top. This was not the unusual part. What was unusual was that the nightstand was not up against the wall. Well it was, but the wall was actually a door. “Syd…don’t you use that closet?” he asked with total confusion, pointing to the door behind the nightstand.

“It’s not a closet,” she said casually. “There’s nothing behind there.”

Michael’s brow furrowed. “How can there be nothing behind the door?”

“Because there’s nothing behind the door… it’s just drywall; it’s been like that since I moved here.”

“Really?” he asked with extreme curiosity. Needing to see for himself, he walked over to the wall and carefully slid the nightstand away, being mindful of the lamp and electrical cords. Then, he pulled open the door to find exactly what Sydney told him: drywall painted the same color as the walls in Sydney’s room. This begged one very large question – why was the door there at all?

“So strange…,” he commented to himself. As he stared at the wall, he began thinking about his own apartment. After all, the building in which he and Sydney lived was a duplex and the wall the faux door was on was the common wall between his and Sydney’s apartment. A minute of staring later, he realized something in his apartment that corresponded with the seemingly random door.

Taking a step towards the wall in the doorframe, he ran his hands gently across it. He placed his ear to the wall, but heard nothing. Then he knocked on it and still heard nothing. “Michael what are you doing?” Sydney asked with a slight groan. The words had hardly left her mouth when Michael drew his arm back and then snapped it forward quickly, punching a hole right in the drywall. “MICHAEL!” she shrieked, sitting bolt upright in bed. “You just punched a hole in the wall!!! What the hell’s the matter with you?!”

“Don’t you see? They connect,” he stated, shaking out his hand slightly. “In my apartment there’s a really noticeable difference in the drywall around this area. Whoever had this place before us probably used this as one large apartment, so there was a door connecting them.”

“That still doesn’t explain why you just ruined my wall,” she said with obvious annoyance.

“’cause I wanted to see if I was right,” he said simply. Then he turned his attention towards the hole and picked some of the broken drywall pieces from it. “Look you can see through… I scared Snickers to death!” he said proudly as he peered through the hole to see the cat standing up on his bed, fur standing on end, looking terrified.

“Oh I see, so you made a peephole you could spy through, like the ones in between the girls’ and boys’ locker rooms in high school,” she said with obvious irritation.

“No…,” he said, backing away at her dangerous tone. Really, he had not thought the situation through when he punched the whole in the wall. “I’ll fix it…”

“Good,” she said sharply.



Chapter 12

Michael left quickly after punching the hole in Sydney’s bedroom wall, not wanting to stick around and have their very first fight less than twelve hours after their relationship commenced. Once he was gone, Sydney hurried to the bathroom to shower, change, and get ready for the day so she would not be late opening up her shop. As she was choosing her clothes, she was once again reminded and once again annoyed by Michael’s obvious lack of respect for her wall. To keep herself from being too mad, though, by deciding that most likely Michael was not thinking well enough that early in the morning to properly weigh the actions he was about to make.

Later that morning, Sydney was busy in the flower shop as she always was on Saturday morning. In her long experience as a flower retailer, she had come to learn that everyone who did not have time to purchase flowers during the week did so on Saturday mornings and that percentage of the population was a great one. She was filling orders and ringing up items on the cash register so quickly she hardly had time to breathe, which was why she was almost disappointed when she noticed Michael walk in to her shop. She definitely did not have time to talk about the hole in her wall at that moment.

“Good morning,” he said, just as pleasantly as ever. “How’s business?”

“Um… busy,” she said simply.

“Well I was actually hoping to order some flowers,” he said. Sydney looked over at him with a curious eyebrow raised. “Yeah, it’s amazing actually. I always seem to screw up relationships and this one I think I screwed up within the first twenty-four hours, which is the worst possible thing I could have done because I really love this girl, you know? So I was hopping to send her an apologetic bouquet…to apologize for…doing that thing that I did. Have any suggestions?”

A soft smile crossed Sydney’s face but she tried to hide it. “Well… you might want to find out if this girl even likes flowers, or if she has seen more than enough to last ten thousand lifetimes,” she said with a rather pointed look.

Michael laughed softly. “Dually noted… have any other suggestions?”

“Hmm… I think you’re going to have to figure this one out on your own,” she said. “Just think about what she likes.”

“You, um,” he began, lowering his voice significantly, “you don’t happen to have any idea what that would be since I am genuinely hopeless.”

“Well at least you admit it,” she laughed softly. He gave her a sheepish look. “All women like chocolate.”

“Right, yes of course. Thanks,” he winked before quickly leaving the shop. Sydney could not help but laugh softly and shake her head as she watched him go.

~*~

Later that day, after closing up her shop and putting some newly delivered flowers away in refrigerator cases, Sydney headed out to the grocery store to shop at lightening speed. She purchased only the items she knew she would need that night to make dinner for herself and Michael. Once she was through, she rushed home and began to put their meal together.

At a cooking lull, she took a break to change into clothes a bit nicer than the ones she had been cooking in. As she was changing, she heard some peculiar scraping noises coming through the door behind her nightstand – the door that was not really a door at all. She was confused at first, but then quickly shook off her confusion as Michael repairing the drywall on his side of the door. Smiling softly that her “I’m incredibly angry, but not really all that much,” routine had worked, she returned to the kitchen to boil vegetables for their meal.

Twenty minutes later it was just past six o’clock and their meal was officially ready. Sydney glanced down at her watch and wondered where Michael was. Usually, he was very prompt. Then again, she supposed, perhaps fixing the drywall had taken more time than he anticipated and he was still getting ready. Just as she was about to put their meal back in the oven to keep it warm, she heard a knock. Interestingly, though, this knock did not come from the main door of her apartment. It came from someplace else, but she was not sure where.

A moment later, she heard the knock again along with the muffled sound of her name being called out. It was then she realized that the knock was coming from her bedroom. Apparently, Michael had not fixed the drywall if there was still a hole large enough for him to knock though.

Slightly peeved, Sydney stomped her way into her bedroom, pulled the nightstand away from the wall and whipped open the door to find a most surprising slight. Instead of a mostly perfect wall with a hole at eye-level through which Michael was peering, she came face-to-face with his entire body through a gnarled edge hole right in the center of her wall. A squeak of horrified disbelief escaped her lips. “Michael!!! What did you do?! You were supposed to fix this!”

He cringed. “I know and I can explain this,” he told her carefully. He stepped into her apartment though the wall-slash-door, tracking some of the white drywall dust with him. He was just about to turn around and shut the door when Snickers paraded in behind him, obviously enjoying the new gateway to explore. “Okay, so I was thinking maybe we shouldn’t go public with our relationship right away. I mean, you know as well as I do how crazy this town can be – we’ll never get any peace! We should just keep a low profile for a while as we’re working things out.”

“Okay…,” she agreed slowly. “But that doesn’t explain the giant hole in my apartment!”

“Ah,” Michael held up his index finger indicating there was some logic behind his insane actions. “If we want a low profile we certainly can’t do that by going into each other’s apartments at all hours of the day and night. You know someone will notice that, figure it out, and it’ll spread like wildfire through town. BUT if we use this door, they’ll never know,” he smiled proudly at his devious discovery. Sydney gave him a skeptical look so he decided to change courses with his explanations.

“Okay, how about this. I brought you gifts! This is for the hole I punched this morning,” he said, handing over a king sized 3 Musketeers bar, which he knew to be her favorite. “And this is for the bigger hole,” he said, handing over a small black velvet box obviously from a jewelry store.

Sydney took both items cautiously. She put the candy down on her bed and opened up the black box to find a beautiful pair of earrings she had been admiring for months. “Oh Michael! This is too much!” she exclaimed immediately.

“Well that is a very large hole,” he said with a slight laugh, pointing behind him. Still, she looked very hesitant. “Oh c’mon Syd – I’ve seen you look at those earrings displayed in Karen’s shop window like every time you walk past there. I know you like them.”

“Of course I like them, but I never bought them because they were too expensive,” he said firmly before shutting the case and trying to give it back to him. Michael refused, though, holding up his hands as he took two steps back from her.

“No they’re not,” he insisted. “Besides, I got ‘em with a discount after I promised to do some repairs around Karen’s shop. Don’t worry about it.”

Sydney grumbled rather begrudgingly and opened the case once more to put her new earrings on instead of the plain silver hoops she was wearing. “Thank you very much, but I’m still not so sure about that hole,” she said with a sideways glance towards it.

“Then let me convince you of it over dinner,” he smiled happily. Then, he turned his attention to the floor, where Snickers was stepping cautiously around chunks of fallen drywall. “Go on, get back,” he encouraged, blocking the feline’s path with his foot.

“Oh he can stay; its fine. He’s not going to hurt anything,” Sydney assured Michael. Then, she led the way into the other room where their meal was waiting for them.



Chapter 13

“So explain to me again your little theory about the door?” she questioned after laying out all their food onto her small kitchen table.

“Okay so assume for a second that, in theory, I spend the night over here again on a weeknight when we both have to get up early to open our stores. Well, that means I would have to get up here go downstairs, walk outside to my place, and then walk back upstairs.”

“Obviously,” Sydney jumped in.

“Right, but in doing that I could be seen… and there’s no way to logically explain to any of these crazy townies why I was in your apartment at seven in the morning without the obvious answer that we had spent the night together. If they find out that, they’ll find out we’re dating, and an uproar will ensue. I mean remember what happened when that pancake house lady was dating that dude from the bank last year and then they broke up– you would have thought the world ended!”

Sydney laughed softly at the recollection of that absurd event. “Right. I totally agree with you on the keeping it from the town idea, but just…the door…”

“Right, so if we have the door, I’d never have to go outside to get back to my apartment. You would come out of yours in the morning, I would come out of mine and no one would be any the wiser,” he smiled proudly.

“Okay…,” she said slowly, still thinking on that point. She completely understood what he was saying; it made perfect sense and easily fit with their secrecy plan. Still, there were issues… “I guess I’m just concerned you know? I mean, I’ll never like have privacy. It’ll be like going back to gym class; I’ll have to change my clothes in the bathroom…”

“No Sydney, no of course not,” he assured her quickly. “I’d never just use that door and barge in whenever I wanted. I’d just use it… you know, in the mornings or when we have like a date or something. You can even keep the nightstand in front of it to make sure I stay out.”

Sydney smiled softly at this. “Well… I guess we could try it for a little while. I mean, if I say no now or in a week you’d still have to re-drywall the whole thing so I guess we may as well test it out.”

“Excellent,” he smiled happily. “Speaking of excellent this meal is amazing Syd,” he told her, changing their conversation line.

Laughing softly, Sydney blushed. “No it’s not it’s just…food.”

“Good food,” he promised her with a smile.

“So, um,” she paused, trying to think about what they should talk about while they ate. “How are things at the hardware store?”

“Well I just got a shipment of power drills in today,” he said in a dramatic tone.

Sydney laughed softly. “Oohh power tools…for your…tool belt,” she laughed softly.”

“Um yea except a power drill wouldn’t fit in your tool belt…”

Sydney shrugged indifferently. “I don’t even know what a tool belt is.”

He looked up at her, his mouth gaping open. “Please tell me you’re joking.”

She laughed softly. “Yes, I was exaggerating, but I really don’t know anything about screw drivers, nails, hammers and all that crap… I’m your typical female.”

“Clearly,” he laughed softly. Before their conversation could continue their meal was interrupted by Snickers, who had sniffed his way into the kitchen, probably at the scent of their meal which consisted in part of chicken. He settled at Michael’s feet before looking up at him and meowing softly. “No, go away,” Michael said rather harshly.

“Awww,” Sydney half laughed in a pitiful tone. “C’mere Snickers I’ll share with you,” she assured him. She retrieved a small bowl from the kitchen cabinets before returning to her seat, cutting up a piece of chicken, and then putting it on the floor for Michael’s pet. “You’re so cruel to him.”

“He’s a cat; he eats cat food,” Michael said simply.

“Aww but chicken is cat food!” Sydney insisted. Michael rolled his eyes slightly. “Boy you don’t seem to like him very much… why do you have him anyway?”

“I needed a companion; I hated coming home to an empty house. When I was working full time as a nurse, I had twelve hour shifts that were jam-packed, so there was no way I could come home and feed or walk a dog. Cats are self-sufficient for the most part anyway. And I do like him,” he assured her. “When he was a kitten he was all cute and playful… now he’s seven and starting to become a bitter old man who sleeps all day.”

Sydney laughed loudly. “A bitter old man? Isn’t seven supposed to be middle-aged for a cat?”

“Probably,” Michael said with a slight shrug. “So what are you gonna do tomorrow?”

“Oh I don’t know…,” she sighed slightly. “I need to do laundry… and I also have to make up a few flower baskets that will be delivered Monday morning… Why? What are you doing?”

“Dunno… I need to do some accounting work for the hardware store and then maybe I’ll try and work on smoothing out our door,” he said with a slight laugh. “I was just kinda pulling away the drywall with my hands before to see what would happen.”

“Obviously,” Sydney said dryly, giving him a pointed look. He gave her a rather sheepish one in return before concentrating intently on the meal resting atop his plate.

After finishing dinner, Michael offered to wash the dishes since Sydney had been kind enough to prepare their meal. She agreed and stood with him in the kitchen as he did so. Then, the two of them moved to the couch where the use of their lips turned to other activities besides talking.

By the end of the evening, they both agreed that their first date had been utterly perfect. They agreed to make some sort of plans for the following day, too, but Sydney needed to find out how long it took her to finish up her floral designs before she could commit to definite plans. As they were parting, Michael agreed to use the telephone as a means of communication instead of the doorway connecting their apartments. He was just about to exit through that door, though, when he remembered a certain furry companion that he would be needing on his side of the door.

“Where did that cat go?!” Michael grumbled as he got down on his knees to peer beneath Sydney’s bed.

“Oh Michael look,” Sydney laughed when she found Snicker’s resting place. He had buried himself in the haphazard covers of her bed and was completely asleep.

“Aw man I’m sorry,” Michael groaned as he picked up the limp feline, who was very unhappy at being pried away from his comfortable position.

“It’s fine I don’t care,” she promised him. Then, with another quick kiss, they said goodnight and returned to their respective sides of the hole in the wall.



Chapter 14

On Sunday morning, Sydney arose at eight thirty in the morning to get ready for the day. This, of course, was much earlier than she would have liked to sleep, but she wanted to get started with her Sunday chores in hopes of having some time to spare that she could spend with Michael. In her mind, spending time with Michael beat sleeping in any day of the week. At least, it did in that early, still giddy, phase of their relationship.

After vacuuming and dusting while waiting for a load of laundry to be done, Sydney went down to the flower shop to begin work on the bouquets needing to be delivered the following day. When Sydney first began her shop nearly a decade earlier, she was practically terrified at the concept of having to create her own beautiful bouquets of flowers to sell to shop patrons. True, she had taken a few courses on flower arranging, but was not very confident in her skill.

The very first time she made a flower arrangement it was so awful that she was convinced she would have to shut her shop even before it opened. As time progressed, though, making floral creations became like second nature to her. Ten years later, she could practically do them in her sleep, which was a good thing considering the long hours she spent making them.

After spending more time than she would have liked to on her bouquets, Sydney quickly ran down the street to the diner to pick herself up some lunch. When she returned to her apartment to eat, she began hearing strange noises from the apartment next door causing her to wonder what Michael was up to. It took her most of the way through her meal to remember he was supposed to be “fixing” the hole in the wall.

She picked up her cell phone and pressed the appropriate speed dial number that corresponded to calling Michael’s phone. She let it ring about eight times before hanging up, figuring Michael was not going to answer. She then realized that he probably could not hear his phone due to the noise he was making with regards to the drywall he was cutting or sanding or fixing in some other way Sydney could not comprehend.

After putting away her meal, Sydney went to investigate the situation in her bedroom. When she pulled away the nightstand, she noticed tiny white flakes filtering their way through the cracks around the sides and bottom of the drawer. Slightly annoyed by this, she almost went to retrieve a vacuum to clean them up, but figured there would only be more until the project was over, so there was no sense cleaning up in the middle of it.

She debated her next course of action for a moment before knocking on the door, hoping to get Michael’s attention. This did not work the first time, so she tried again still with no avail. Finally, she pulled the door open to find Michael, shirtless, wearing protective eye goggles and covered in a significant amount of white dust. “My, my, this is a pleasant sight…”

“Jeez Syd you scared the crap outta me,” Michael said, jumping back slightly.

“Well you weren’t answering your phone and you didn’t hear when I knocked on the door – twice,” she informed him.

“Hello – that’s ‘cause I’m using a sander,” he said, holding up the tool in his hand. Sydney shrugged indifferently, not knowing the difference between a sander, a power saw or a hammer really.

“Where is Snickers?” she asked, taking note of his bedroom, which was draped in plastic sheeting and, simply put, a disaster area.

“Oh he’s out in the other room cowering under the sofa… but I’m almost done making noise,” he assured her. Then he stood and gestured to the door frame. “See isn’t it nice and smooth?”

“It’s beautiful,” she said, obviously teasing. He made a face at her and she giggled. “You look so funny like that.”

“You mean covered in dust? Yeah I assumed as much,” he laughed softly. “How was your morning?”

“Flowery,” she said simply.

“Right,” he laughed again. “Why don’t you shut this door so I can finish and keep the mess on this side… then I’m going to shower and clean this mess up and then you can sit with me while I put some temporary framework on this hole since it’s kind of rough and I don’t want either of us – or Snickers – to scratch ourselves.”

“Sounds like a plan to me; see you in a bit,” Sydney said before shutting the door.

The sounds of the sanding tool could be heard for another ten minutes before another mechanical sound – most notably that of a vacuum – could be heard. As these activities were taking place next-door, Sydney continued with her house hold laundry duties before settling down on her bed with the book she was currently reading to wait for Michael.

She had nearly finished the novel by the time she heard a knock on their joint door. After making the page she was reading, she slid off the bed and opened the door to find Michael looking much cleaner in a t-shirt and stained jeans examining a piece of raw wood framing in his hand. Sydney noted that he looked extraordinarily sexy with a loose tool belt slung on his hips and the potential for hard labor so nearby. Though there was one thing detracting from his attractiveness: the amount of stubble on his jaw line.

“Michael,” Sydney sighed sadly as she sat down on her bed. “We need to talk.”

“Uh oh,” he said, glancing briefly at her before looking back at the wood in his hand. “Isn’t it a bit too early in our relationship for that phrase?”

“Well it doesn’t have to do with our relationship per say… it has to do with your beard.”

“I don’t have a beard,” he said flatly, looking to her with confusion.

“Yes you do,” she grimaced, pointing to her own chin. “You have stuff…”

“Stuff?” he repeated with confusion.

“Yes, stubbly stuff,” she clarified. “You always have it and it’s yucky. You need to be clean shaven.”

“Is this a request or a demand?” he raised an eyebrow at her.

“Think of it as… a strong suggestion.”

“That’s a demand,” he said factually. She smiled innocently. “Fine,” he sighed pathetically. “I’ll shave… but I’m not going to like it!”

“No one said you had to,” she grinned. He rolled his eyes slightly at her before picking up his hammer and a nail and attempting to affix the trim onto the now smooth drywall edge. “This is nice, you and I…hanging out in our new joint bedroom…”

“Newly joint bedroom, hmm? Doesn’t that mean I get to watch you change and stuff?” he smiled wickedly.

“I thought we covered this…”

“Yeah I know, I was just hoping you changed your mind,” he winked.

“Sorry,” she shook her head, though she really wasn’t sorry at all.

“Darn…”



Chapter 15

For the next week, Sydney and Michael continued to date in secret thanks to the hole in the joint wall of their apartment. They were actually amazed at how easy it was – both being together as a romantic couple and sneaking around without anyone noticing. Actually, sneaking around was so easy (thanks to the secret door) that they actually had trouble remembering they were not to act like a couple in public. This led to a few accidental slip-ups which, thankfully, went unnoticed by the town’s residents.

On Monday, Michael insisted upon making dinner for the two of them to return the favor of Sydney making their dinner on Saturday night. Plus, he was still trying to earn brownie points back from the hole in the wall situation. Unfortunately for him, his meal did not turn out quite as he planned. Actually, it turned out the exact opposite of how he planned it to be.

When Michael was still in his teen years, he had absolutely no use for cooking skills since he lived at home and his mother prepared all the food in their house. As he entered his twenties, he moved out on his own and thus was forced to find something to eat on his own. Of course, at this point he was working long hours as either an EMT or a nurse, so he would merely grab something at the hospital or purchase takeout. Rarely did he make something himself short of grilling a burger on his George Forman.

Though he grew tired of take out practically seven days a week for years at a time he neither had the time nor discipline to learn cooking skills of his own. After his father’s death and the commencement of his hardware store career, he decided to give cooking a try. Many, many failed attempts later, he came up with several meals that he was actually good at – okay, decent at – creating.

One of these such meals was a nice roast chicken with seasonings and potatoes and carrots on the side. Since, in his opinion anyway, this was his best meal, he decided to make it for Sydney. Unfortunately, he became cocky in his belief that nothing could go wrong with the meal and he ended up setting the oven at the wrong temperature – one hundred degrees higher than it needed to be. Needless to say, their chicken was very well done to the point of charred.

While Michael was positively horrified that he had made his second major relationship mistake within the third day of their relationship, Sydney found the entire thing very amusing. After all, he had gone to great efforts to make their meal very nice and special. Just because he accidentally set the oven temperature incorrectly did not take away too much from the value of his gesture.

Determined to prove that he had at least some cooking skills other than peeling and boiling vegetables, Michael tried once again two nights later to create a meal for them that time using his old standby: the George Foreman. Their burgers turned out perfectly and Michael restored faith in himself while earning a congratulatory back rub from Sydney.

During the other days of that week, Sydney and Michael shared lunch together in the back of the hardware store, which was a better environment in which to eat than the flower shop. Of course, Sydney did not mind being surrounded by roses and tulips and whatever other flowers she owned; she was used to it. Michael, on the other hand, was nauseated by the mixing smells to the point where he could not eat within range of them. Thus, the hardware store was their only alternative.

By Saturday the two of them were tired of staying inside for their dates, yet they still had the dilemma of keeping their relationship secret from the town. It took Sydney a surprising amount of time to realize the simple solution to their problem. Before their first kiss a week earlier, they were friends – best friends – who frequently went out together on outings that would never have been considered dates; they were simply two friends hanging out. They went to movies together and to town events and no one thought anything else of it, which meant they could continue to do these things and as long as they did not kiss or appear to obviously gooey-eyed no one would be any the wiser.

Michael decided that the two of them should go to a movie since there was a new action feature playing at the local cinema he was interested in seeing. Of course, the term ‘new’ was a very relative one. Since Button only had a small theater with one screen, they had to wait a significant amount of time before they were able to see newly released movies. Actually, they practically had to wait until they were available to rent on DVD. Then again, Button did not have a video rental store either. Needless to say, if a Button resident was interested in seeing a movie on opening weekend for the rest of the country, they needed to go to the larger cinema a few towns over.

The mid-afternoon showing of the flick was at best half full. Of course, the theater was very small so half full really only meant twelve to fifteen people. Sydney and Michael chose a seat in the back away from most of the other movie patrons, so they were able to hold hands in the dark theater without being noticed. As usual, Sydney made comments all throughout the movie, earning her a few sideways annoyed glances from Michael. She just couldn’t help it; she was one of those people who felt compelled to talk about the movie during the movie and Michael was not.

After the movie, which they both agreed was incredibly well done, was over, Michael asked Sydney what she wanted to do, and she stated that she wanted to go home and heat up some leftovers for their dinner. Michael agreed to this and they set off walking towards their duplex. Of course, in order to go home together, they needed to part ways down on the porch and then reconvene up in Sydney’s bedroom thanks to the faux door, which was actually working out rather well for the two of them.

“So what do you want to do now?” Michael asked as he leaned against the doorframe.

With a soft smile on her face, Sydney reached out and took Michael’s hand. Then, she sat down on the edge of her bed, ushering for him to do the same. “Actually, I was hoping we could talk about something – nothing bad I promise,” she assured him. He nodded, giving her an intrigued look. “Well it’s just… this past week has been really great Michael – really amazing actually. Much better than I would have ever dreamt it to be.”

“I happen to agree,” he jumped in with a smile. She smiled back.

“And I was thinking about us and our relationship and how I love you and all… and see the thing is – I usually wait for a while in a relationship until, you know, we take it to that next level because I really want to make sure the guy is someone who I want to share my whole self with, you know? I don’t want to jump in bed with just anybody…”

“Right Sydney I totally understand that. I would never pressure you; I’m not pressuring you,” he said. He was genuinely confused as to why she was bringing this topic up since sex had not been discussed at all in their relationship. Of course, since they had only been technically together a week, that really was not all that much of a surprise.

“I know, but,” she continued with a slightly larger smile, “I’ve actually known for a long time that you’re someone who I wanted to share everything with so…if you want to…,” she let her voice drift off as she batted her eyelashes towards him.

“What seriously!?” Michael half gasped at her implication. She gave a sheepish nod and a hopeful smile. “Well, um, yeah…yeah that sounds like it would be something we could…” but he did not finish his sentence; it was cut off with a kiss.



Chapter 16

Laying in Michael’s embrace, Sydney did not even care all that much that she was growing progressively more starving by the minute; she never wanted to move ever again. Even when her stomach made an alarmingly loud growling noise, she did not move. She simply laughed it off softly and shared a smile with Michael. After just twenty minutes, though, their peaceful oasis was interrupted by Snickers, floating up onto the bed and landing with a soft crunch of the covers at their feet.

“Oh you,” Michael grumbled, nudging the cat with his foot, or trying to anyway. Snickers merely ignored it and meowed up to the two adults. Then, slowly, he stepped over all the wrinkles and bumps in the covers until he had reached one of Sydney’s hands. He promptly flopped himself down on top of it, rolled over and began to purr, obviously wanting attention.

“Aww he missed us!” Sydney exclaimed as she scratched Snicker’s ears.

“More like he’s reminding us that it’s his dinner time and his food bowls are empty,” Michael pointed out. As Sydney continued to rub Snickers’ head and neck, Michael reluctantly rolled out of bed and pulled on his boxers and khaki shorts. He then called out to his pet as he made his way through the door and into his apartment. Snicker’s quickly followed when sounds of a can opener could be heard.

A few minutes later, Michael returned and slid onto “his” side of the bed. He leaned down and gave Sydney a long kiss before whispering, “Hey.”

“Hey,” she giggled in return. “I guess I should get up now.”

“Probably,” he smiled.

She went to slide out of the bed, but stopped and looked up at him curiously. “Are you going to watch me?”

“You watched me!”

“Touché,” she conceded with a soft laugh.

Once they were both fully dressed, they walked into Sydney’s kitchen, where she began pulling out containers of left over food from the refrigerator and placing them on the counter. She put one container in her microwave and entered the appropriate power setting and time before walking over to Michael, who was seated at the kitchen table, and sitting down on his thigh, wrapping her arms around his neck. “So I was thinking that door really isn’t such a bad idea after all…”

“Oh yeah?” he smiled at her.

“Well yeah. It’s a good idea actually, because this way if we’re spending the night over here we can leave the door open and Snickers can come in and stay with us…”

“Great,” he groaned.

“Aw you love him,” Sydney laughed softly.

“Kinda… but what makes you naturally assume I’m going to be spending the night over here; what about my bedroom?”

“Mine’s better,” she said simply. Then she quickly stood when the microwave’s timer chimed.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa wait – yours is better?! What does that mean?!” he demanded.

“Okay, fine,” she grumbled slightly in submission. “I have a think about sleeping in other people’s beds okay?”

“A thing?!”

“Yes a thing,” she repeated. “I just… I don’t know when the sheets have been washed or what was done on them… it’s my only quirk I swear!” she defended. Michael gave her a strange look but agreed with a sigh that they could spend their together nights in her bedroom; there was no sense arguing.

A few minutes later their meal was heated up and the two of them sat down to eat. By that point, Snickers had finished his cat food meal and was meowing at their feet, obviously hoping for something better. Michael ignored him while Sydney offered some of her meal, but Snickers was uninterested and he walked off to find someplace to sleep.

“So I was thinking,” Michael began in between bites of food. “I haven’t been on any sort of vacation since I moved here… maybe we should go on one just for a long weekend or something maybe to the beach…”

“Oh yeah that would be nice… I’d have to plan pretty far in advance though; if I have to close the shop I don’t want flowers lying around rotting,” Sydney told him.

“Who says you have to close the shop? Can’t you get that assistant girl to help out?” Michael questioned.

Sydney gave a disbelieving laugh. “As if I’d trust her to do that. I might be able to get my mom to do it, though, now that school’s out… I mean, I doubt she could put together a flower bouquet, but she could at least open and close the store and drop off the cash at the bank.”

“Great,” he smiled.

“Wait a second – how are we going to explain this to the town? I mean, they’ll definitely notice if both our shops are closed at the same time; I doubt we can talk our way out of that.”

“So we won’t,” Michael said simply. “We’ll just make something up…like you’re going to some conference thing and I’m tagging along because I haven’t gotten out of this town for two years.”

“A flower conference?” she raised an eyebrow, making it sound as though that was the most ridiculous thing in the world, which it was.

Michael shrugged. “We’ll figure something out.”

After eating dinner, Sydney set to work on washing their dinner plates and the empty Tupperware containers while Michael returned to his apartment to do some laundry. When he left, he did not shut the door in Sydney’s bedroom behind him, mostly because he was not sure in which apartment Snickers was and did not want him to be accidentally locked in Sydney’s apartment away from his food, water, and litter box.

Standing at her kitchen sink, Sydney could very faintly hear Michael muttering to his laundry basket over something, which she found very amusing. Suddenly, it all hit her. She was in a relationship with Michael – a relationship – and a serious one at that. Even though it had only been a week and a day, she already knew their relationship would be a significant one. It was practically impossible for it not to be. After all, they were already best friends and they already loved each other. Everything else would simply fall into place when the time was right.

Later that night, when Sydney was finally getting ready for bed, she found that Snickers was already curled up in the center of her bed fast asleep. “It’s like he already knows,” Sydney laughed softly to Michael, who was brushing his teeth.

“Of course,” Michael mumbled through the toothbrush. “He likes your bed better than mine because your covers are all cushy…”

“Right because your mattress is made of steel,” she rolled her eyes.

“Well you know what I meant,” Michael said. After shutting off the light in his bathroom, he crossed into Sydney’s apartment, walked up behind her and put his arms around her waist. Then he leaned down and kissed the back of her neck in a very sensual manner.

“Michael,” Sydney giggled deeply.

“Yes?” he questioned, moving his kisses further up her neck.

“We already did this today…”

“So? It’s new…and fun…,” he said in between kisses.

“Once is enough for one day,” she told him seriously. He pulled back and gave her a rather horrified look, trying to gauge whether or not she was joking. “This might be another one of my quirks…,” she cringed slightly.

“Wait your serious?! Only once a day!?” he asked with mild shock. She shrugged and nodded. “WHY?!”

“I dunno… I guess I’ve never been in the mood enough to do it more than once in a day… How often do you have sex multiple times in one day?” she asked.

“Well I’m not saying we have to have sex ten times a day every day for the rest of our lives – but this is a special occasion,” he told her, trying to keep the agitation in his voice at minimum.

She smiled and patted his cheek in a rather patronizing manner. “G’night Michael.” He grumbled at her before slinking over to the bed, muttering underneath his breath.



Chapter 17

For the next month, things continued perfectly for Sydney and Michael. They ate at least one meal a day together, sometimes two if they had an extra long lunch hour to share together. Also, they were spending every night together, which meant that the secret door between their two apartments was almost never closed. Actually, the door turned out to be a wonderful addition to their relationship since it enabled them to keep their relationship a secret from Button thus enabled a stress free slide from friends to lovers.

On the one month anniversary of their first kiss, Sydney gave Michael a rather unusual gift: a can of wood stain and two paint brushes, all “borrowed” from his store inventory. Naturally, Michael was very confused at first with these presents until Sydney explained her reasoning. She felt guilty for being so negative when Michael initially punched and chopped a hole in the wall of her apartment, so to make up for this she was showing him a sign of her approval. She wanted him to stain the rough wood framing on his side of the door so as to make it all seem a bit more permanent and approved of by her.

Once he understood it, Michael appreciated this gesture, but insisted that Sydney assist him in the wood staining task so it would be a fun project for the two of them. While Sydney hesitated to use the words “fun” and “project” in the same sentence, she did agree to help. Of course, as soon as they had begun staining, Michael quickly regretted this invitation since, as it turned out, Sydney severely lacked painting and staining skills. He quickly and politely removed the brush from her hand and forced her to sit on his bed and watch along with Snickers.

Late one night towards the middle of the summer, just over six weeks into their relationship, Sydney and Michael were fast asleep in her apartment with Snickers at their feet. Since it was nearly one o’clock in the morning and they needed to get up early to work the next day, they had been asleep for several hours and never would have expected any visitors at such a time. Thus, when there was a knock at Sydney’s apartment door, neither Michael nor Sydney woke up to hear it. They did, however, awake, when a loud laughter filled the room.

“Wuz goin’ on?” Sydney mumbled sleepily as she tried to sit up.

“Oh my god, this is awesome! You’re secretly having sex and you have a secret door!! You’re my freakin’ idol!” Nadia’s laughter filled the room.

“Oh god Nadia,” Sydney groaned loudly as she rubbed her hands over her face. “What time is it?”

“I dunno, one something…so, how are you,” she said casually as she sat down on the bed beside Michael’s feet, grinning at the two guilty bed occupants.

Sydney grumbled and pushed herself up into a sitting position. “Okay, you got me – us, you got us.”

“Awesome! Am I the first to find out?!” Nadia asked. Both Michael and Sydney nodded as they yawned in unison. “Sweet! How long has this been going on?”

“Six weeks,” Sydney mumbled.

“Niiice!! And you’re already having sex!! Oh Syddie I taught you so well!” Nadia said, reaching over to pat her sister’s leg playfully.

“Great, did you come here to tell me that?” Sydney asked dryly.

“No…”

“Then can we freakin’ get back to sleep?!” Sydney demanded.

“No! Oh my god Syd! I know its late! But I have something I have to talk about with you!” Nadia exclaimed, sounding shockingly upset for having been laughing only moments earlier. “There’s something wrong with Neil!”

“Is he alright? Is he hurt?” Sydney asked quickly.

“No, no he’s not hurt. It’s…,” she paused and sighed dramatically, “his penis!”

“Well that’s my cue,” Michael said before clearing his throat. He quickly slid from bed, having never been more thankful that he put on his boxers and t-shirt before falling asleep that night. He shuffled his way out of Sydney’s bedroom, closing the secret door behind him, before collapsing in his own bed to try and fall back to sleep.

With Michael gone, Nadia crawled up on his side of the bed and stuck her feet underneath the covers. “Syyyyd,” she whined, “I don’t know what to do!”

“Because of Neil’s penis…?” Sydney asked slowly.

“Yes!! There’s something wrong with it!”

“Nadia I really don’t think this is something you should be talking to me about… perhaps a doctor would be able to give you better insight into his…problem,” she said with a slight gulp. “I mean, there are medications…”

“What?! No, his penis isn’t broken – it has a thing!”

“His penis has a thing?” Sydney asked dryly.

“Yes!! I saw it when he was changing this evening and I freaked out!! There’s a thing on it!! Oh god, what if its herpes?! WHAT IF HE GAVE ME HERPES?! Oh my god, that means he’s cheating on me!! Why would he cheat on me Sydney?! Why?!” Nadia demanded, wailing as she fell forward into her sister’s lap.

“Nadia, did you ever think that you’re blowing this way out of proportion? I mean, maybe you didn’t see what you think you saw… maybe it was something else.”

“What could it have been?!” she demanded loudly.

“I don’t know Nad, but its too late to talk about it now. How about you just stay here tonight and… and we’ll talk about it tomorrow at breakfast okay?” Sydney suggested.

“Okay,” Nadia sighed dramatically. Sydney patted her back gently before sliding out of bed and shuffling her way towards the secret door. “So you and Michael, huh?” Nadia interjected with a smirk before Sydney could leave the bedroom.

“Tomorrow,” Sydney insisted, holding up a hand to stop anymore sexual related comments from coming out of her sister’s mouth. She just about had her hand on the door when Nadia stopped her once more, pointing with a grimace towards Snickers, who was barely alert at that point. Sydney picked up the limp feline before caring him into Michael’s room and putting him down on the bed, where he immediately curled up.

Grumbling slightly, Sydney climbed up onto the free side of the bed and curled up into Michael’s embrace. “You should be glad you don’t have a sister…”

“I am, I am” he mumbled before kissing her shoulder and quickly falling back to sleep.



Chapter 18

The next morning, Sydney was forced to wake at a very unpleasant hour due to the harsh beeping emanating from Michael’s alarm clock. Thanks to Nadia’s impromptu visit, she had not gotten nearly enough sleep. Sadly, the world continued turning and she needed to get up and shower so she could open her shop.

By the time Sydney forced herself from bed, Michael was already in the kitchen feeding Snickers his morning bowl of milk. She groggily shuffled her way to the secret door and opened it to hear sounds of her sister’s heavy breathing. Grumbling slightly at the princess who got to sleep in, she made her way to her own bathroom to shower.

Twenty minutes later as she was beginning to blow dry her hair, Sydney heard what sounded like hammering. Confused, she shut off her blow dryer and found that it was not hammering, but Nadia pounding on the bathroom door with both of her fists. “Do you mind?!” she demanded when Sydney opened the door. “I’m trying to freakin’ sleep!”

“Well I was trying to freakin’ sleep at one a.m. when you woke me up with your penis woes so deal with it,” Sydney retorted before switching her blow dryer back on. Nadia made a face at her before shuffling her way back to bed.

Once done blow drying and changing into her clothes for the day, Sydney walked into her kitchen to find Nadia yawning in front of a pot of brewing coffee. Ignoring her sister for the moment, she walked over to the cabinets above her refrigerator and pulled out a box of Pop Tarts. She took one for herself before placing the box on the counter so that Nadia could have one if she wished. “So what happened last night?” Sydney asked.

“I told you. Neil’s penis-”

“I know, I know,” Sydney cut her off with a grimace. It really was too early in the morning for penis-related talk. “But what happened after you saw it?”

“Oh well I waited until Neil fell asleep and then I snuck out and came here,” Nadia told her. “I was too freaked to do anything else!”

“Did you even call him? Won’t Neil be worried when he wakes up and you’re gone without any notice whatsoever?” Sydney questioned. Nadia merely shrugged. “That’s a great relationship you’ve got there, Nad.”

“It is a good relationship!! Except for that thing! What am I gonna dooooo?!” she whined.

“Here’s a novel idea – ask him what it is.”

Nadia’s expression fell slightly. “Well I guess I could… but if he’s cheating on me I’m sooo gonna go all Lorena Bobbit on his ass.”

“Good to know,” Sydney laughed softly to herself. She then walked over to pour herself a cup of coffee before returning to the kitchen table to finish her pop tart. When she sat down once more, Nadia was grinning broadly at her. “What?” she asked, mildly nervous.

“Nothin’… just you and Michael,” she giggled. Sydney blushed slightly and looked down toward the table. “C’mon, c’mon! Tell me everything.”

“What’s there to tell?” Sydney asked evasively.

“TONS! When did you first get together? When was your first kiss? Who initiated it? How long have you been having sex? Is it any good?” Nadia fired questions rapidly.

Sydney laughed at the last one. “Of course its good – why wouldn’t it be?” Nadia merely shrugged. “Anyway if you must know we…,” she paused to exhale heavily, not quite believing she was going to reveal this to her little sister and have to listen to her gloat. “We got together after your engagement party…when I went out on the porch to look for him we sorta kissed or rather, he kissed me,” she admitted with a dorky smile.

“Oh my god I knew it!” Nadia squealed. “See, you have me to thank for your bliss.”

“Right,” Sydney rolled her eyes. As much as she hated to admit it, Nadia did have a point. If she had not made her drunken observations, Michael surely would not have kissed her that night and they would not have admitted their feelings for one another. Actually, Sydney was not sure if those admissions ever would have happened, due to their mutual uncertainty on the issue. So, unfortunately, she did have Nadia to thank for everything wonderful that had happened in her life in the previous two months.

“So anyway once we kissed we admitted that we both loved one another and we sorta started dating,” she laughed softly.

“But what about that secret passage way you got there? I mean…that door has always been in your bedroom…,” Nadia said with slight confusion.

“I know, but I didn’t know it was a door! I mean, obviously I knew it was a door, but I didn’t realize it led to Michael’s room until he put his fist through it!”

“He put his fist through it?” Nadia asked with a snort.

“Yeah,” Sydney sighed with an eye roll. “I was pissed at him and even more pissed when he cut out that door hole, but it all worked out for the best.”

“Because you can keep your lovin’ a secret from the town,” Nadia concluded with an evil grin.

“Well yes…but no – we can keep everything a secret from them – sex, kissing, dinner dates, et cetera,” Sydney said.

“You know that I’m not going to keep it a secret, right?” she asked with a slight laugh.

“Nadia!”

“Oh come on Syd – this is too juicy! Its too good. Besides, what are you gonna do? Keep it a secret forever? Even when you get pregnant just shrug it off as fat and then, finally, when you pop the kid out you’re like, ‘oh yea its Michael’s – we had sex through the hole in our apartment wall.’”

“NADIA!” Sydney screeched again. Her sister merely smiled innocently. “Okay, fine, we have to tell the town…but let me tell Mom and Dad first. I promise this week Michael and I will go over there for dinner and tell them anything, but until then you keep your mouth shut or I swear to god I’ll tell them Neil has herpes and he gave it to you.”

“That’s cruel… but oh my god - WHAT IF HE DID?!” Nadia burst out, nearly in tears.

“Relax you’re fine,” Sydney rolled her eyes.



Chapter 19

When Nadia finally left after obsessing for another twenty minutes about Neil’s neither region, Sydney was finally able to open her flower shop – late, much to the displeasure of some of her patrons. She managed to catch up with her work by noon, though, at which point she closed up shop for her lunch break. After grabbing a sandwich, she headed over to the hardware store to pose her dilemma to Michael.

Before leaving, Nadia had given her sister exactly five days to reveal to their parents and thus the town Sydney’s relationship with Michael. If she did not comply with this, Nadia would tell everyone that Michael and Sydney had been having an affair for years thanks to their secret door. While she knew revealing their romantic status was inevitable, Sydney had no intensions of ever letting anyone find out about the doorway between her apartment and Michael’s; that simply opened up a can of worms too large for her to handle.

Michael agreed with her on both points: it was time to tell the town about them and keeping their door secret was a must; however, he was not particularly excited about dinner with Sydney’s parents, during which they would reveal their love for one another. Of course, his concerns were completely unfounded. Sydney’s parents had always liked Michael, ever since he moved to Button. He was always pleasant and respectful to them anytime they were in the same room and thus they had no reason to dislike him. Somehow, though, Michael got it in his head that the second Sydney’s father found out the two of them were dating, he would run Michael out of town with pitchforks and blazing arrows.

Naturally, Sydney assured Michael that he was being ridiculous. Never once in Button’s history had they driven a town member out with pitchforks and blazing arrows. In fact, she was not sure if anyone within the town limits actually owned a pitchfork let alone a quiver. Besides those facts, her parents already liked him and there was no reason for them to break this trend.

After she had Michael’s agreement that he would go to dinner at her parents’ house, Sydney called her mother to complete the plan. Of course, her mother was instantly curious as to why Sydney was requesting that Michael join them for dinner, but Sydney promised that all would be explained at the meal. Until then, she would just have to remain in the dark.

“Oh my god, I’m actually sweating to death,” Michael groaned as he examined his reflection in the mirror only to find a few droplets of perspiration seeping through his blue button-up shirt.

“Michael, you’re insane,” Sydney called through their secret door. “You’re nervous for nothing.”

“Not nothing!” he called back. “What if your parents decide I’m not a suitable man for you to date?”

“And why would they say that?” Sydney raised and eyebrow to him. He shrugged his shoulders and mumbled something incoherent under his breath. “See you have no good reason! Now let’s just go, alright?”

“Fine,” he sighed. “But I’m totally blaming you if I have to move out of town!”

~*~

“Michael, it’s nice to see you again. I hope you’re doing well,” Sydney’s father greeted the two of them as they walked up the Bristow’s driveway. He was apparently given the task of watering his wife’s flowers, which were quickly drying out in the very hot, dry summer weather they were having.

“I am. And you?” Michael asked as he quickly wiped the sweat off his palms before extending his hand to shake the elder man’s.

“Doin’ fine, just fine. I believe Irina has dinner almost ready so you should go on in; I’ll be there in just a moment,” he smiled. Michael and Sydney nodded before stepping past him and up onto the porch, where they entered the house. Michael gave a similar nervous greeting to Sydney’s mother, who eyed him very suspiciously, obviously unable to take the suspense as to why they were there together for dinner. Unfortunately for her, Sydney did not plan on revealing their secret until after their meal was over.

Through dinner they chatted pleasantly about their respective businesses. Sydney’s father asked Michael about his hardware store, and they compared notes about the success of such businesses in Button especially in the day and age of Wal-Mart and other such superstores. All in all, their dinner was actually very pleasant, and it reaffirmed the fact that Michael had nothing to worry about; Sydney’s parents loved him. Or, at least liked him enough not to run him out of town with a flaming object.

As the dessert and coffee were being served, Sydney cleared her throat slightly and glanced over to Michael, who immediate went a shade paler; it was now or never. “Actually, Mom, Dad, Michael and I came here tonight to tell you something…you see we’ve sort of been a couple for a while now – ever since Nadia’s engagement party, anyway, and-”

“A couple?” Sydney’s mother cut her off with an anxious smile.

“Yes,” Sydney said, reaching beside her and picking up Michael’s hand. “A couple.”

“Wait a second… you two have been dating for two months?” Jack asked with obvious confusion as he glanced over at his wife. Their thoughts at that moment were very obvious; they were wondering how it was possible for them to have not known about Sydney and Michael’s relationship, especially if they were dating.

“Well, kind of,” Sydney said, exchanging soft laughs with Michael. “We’ve been dating in. We have dinner at either my place or Michael’s and we eat lunch in the back of our shops so no one will see us.”

“You did this on purpose?” Sydney’s mother asked with a half laugh.

“Yep,” Michael chimed in. “We knew that the whole town would find out in a matter of…minutes, really, and we didn’t want that pressure; we wanted to be able to take our relationship at our own pace and test out the waters so to speak.”

“And…you’ve done this?” Jack asked.

“Yes, we have,” Sydney beamed over to Michael. “We’re happy and in love and we’re ready to tell everyone about it.”

“Well…,” Jack paused to glance over at his wife who chimed in with, “That’s wonderful! We’re very happy for the two of you.”

“Thanks Mom, we’re happy too,” Sydney smiled.

~*~

“And you were worried for nothing!” Sydney proclaimed as soon as they left her parents house that evening.

“Yeah, yeah,” Michael grumbled slightly. Sydney beamed at him as she linked her arm with his. “We still have the town to worry about, you know?”

“Yeah,” she sighed. “I mean, it’s obvious that the next week is totally going to suck…and we’ll probably have to stop using our door…”

“What do you mean stop using the door?!” Michael asked with total confusion.

“Well think about it – people will notice if they never see you walking outside from your apartment to mine. That’s not logical in a dating sense. If they see that – or rather don’t see that, they’ll wonder and probably figure something fishy is going on. You’re just going to have to walk around to the outside every once in a while.”

Michael groaned loudly. “But I don’t wanna do that… I mean, I’m sleepy enough when I wake up in the morning… I don’t wanna have to walk all the way downstairs, outside, and then all the way back up to end up two feet away…”

“Well no we wouldn’t do that… they can’t let you spend the night or we’ll have those church elders on our doorstep preaching about Biblical ways and such,” Sydney said seriously.

“Ah yea good point… damn why do we have to live in such a freak town?”

“I don’t know,” Sydney laughed honestly.



Chapter 20

As they expected, practically all of Button knew about Sydney and Michael’s relationship by noon the day after their dinner at her parents. Neither of them had a moments peace all day long with everyone coming in to congratulate them on their relationship. Surprisingly (at least to Sydney and Michael, who, up until two months earlier, were completely oblivious to their mutual attraction), most everyone in Button was well aware of Sydney’s feelings for Michael and vice versa. They expressed their happiness that the two of them had “finally” gotten together.

If there was one collective characteristic about ninety-nine percent of Button residence it was undoubtedly their love for good gossip or, in this case, good truths. Even more so than that, it was the details that sustained them, not the superficial facts. Keeping with this, Sydney and Michael were asked time and time again how they admitted their true feelings for one another and the simple, “Well it just sort of happened,” answer would not suffice.

Michael, clearly the more private of the two, flat our refused to answer such queries. In his mind, their relationship was one hundred percent private and, save the unpleasant intrusion of Sydney’s sister, no one would ever find out about their bedroom habits or anything else for that matter. The fact that they were a dating couple was public knowledge, anything else…well, the nosy town residents would just have to formulate their own ideas.

Sydney, on the other hand, was willing to reveal that the two connected at least on some part, at her sister’s engagement party. Naturally, this caused shock and awe, wondering how they had been so surreptitious for so long. Really, though, they were scolding themselves for not noticing something clearly right beneath their noses. Sydney merely shrugged off these questions, not wanting to let anything slip about their secret door. How they managed to date without anyone finding out would just have to remain a great mystery.

By the time the end of the day rolled around, both Sydney and Michael were exhausted from all the extra traffic in their stores. In fact, they were ready to take out a half page ad in the Button Register to explain their tale just so they did not have to rehash the same few lines over for the eight-seventh time. Their only salvation from feeling like they needed to flee the town was that they knew all the hubbub would die down eventually and when that happens they were free to be a normal, ordinary couple…that the whole town watched constantly.

After eating half of the pizza they bought since they were in no mood to cool, Sydney and Michael retired to the couch where Michael began massaging Sydney’s shoulders. She let out a low moan of relaxation. “Is today over yet?”

“Almost,” Michael laughed softly. “At least we don’t have to deal with anymore-” He was interrupted by a knock at Sydney’s door. “-people…”

“Oh my god, who is that?!” Sydney groaned loudly with great annoyance. She was just about to get up and answer the door when she realized something very important. “Quick! Shut the door,” she hissed to Michael.

“But Snickers…,” he hesitated, pointing to the cat a few feet away, snoozing in Sydney’s comfy arm chair. Snickers really had been taking the most advantage of the secret door being open, dividing his napping time between cozy spots in both apartments.

“He’ll be fine for the few minutes it takes us to get rid of whoever this is,” Sydney said. Then, when Michael hurried towards the bedroom, she walked quickly towards the front door. They need not have worried about their guest, though; it was only Nadia.

“So I hear you guys finally told the town,” she said as she walked inside just as casually as ever.

“How’d you find out?” Sydney questioned with a raised eyebrow.

“I saw the huge banner right over Main Street saying, ‘Congrats Sydney and Michael.’”

“WHAT?!” Sydney shrieked.

Nadia snickers. “I’m kidding; Mom and Dad told me. But that’s not why I’m here. I talked to Neil,” she sighed heavily before flopping down on the couch. Preemptively, Michael began to shrink out of the room, but Nadia stopped him. “No I need a guys viewpoint!”

“No you really don’t,” Michael said quickly.

“What did Neil say?” Sydney asked.

“It’s not herpes or any other sort of STD… its just some sort of skin rash, but I don’t understand how you can get a rash there! Have you ever had a rash on yours Michael?” Nadia asked in a horrifyingly serious tone.

“Um, I think mine needs to stay out of this conversation,” he said with utmost seriousness.

“So Neil doesn’t have an STD thus he is not cheating on you. This is good news…right?” she asked with mild confusion as to why her sister was there if there was clearly no problem.

“But I’m not sure if I believe him! What if he’s lying to me and then we have sex and I get a gross disease!!!”

“Nadia, you’re going to marry Neil - that means you have to trust what he says,” Sydney informed her.

“So if Michael told you he didn’t have herpes you would believe him just like that?” Nadia questioned.

Sydney glanced briefly at Michael, whose brow was very wrinkled, before saying, “Yes of course.”

“Wow…,” Nadia said with slight amazement. “I’ll have to think about that…” Then, with that momentous conclusion, she left.

“Whyyyyy do I have a sister?” Sydney moaned.

“Because you do,” Michael laughed softly.

~*~

Thankfully for both Sydney and Michael’s sanity, the town’s excitement regarding their coupling did calm down with in a few days. By the next week, they had found something else to focus on, leaving Sydney and Michael to do whatever they pleased.

Because everyone knew about their relationship, they no longer had to worry about whether or not they were being too friendly if they were walking along Main Street. They could hold hands, laugh softly together and even kiss without anyone really noticing. That was by far the best part of the second phase of their relationship, as Sydney liked to think of it.

By the time the end of summer rolled around, nearly five months into their relationship, they were positive their relationship would go the distance. They had already survived various fights (some minor, some not so minor) and practically moving in together and yet they were still just as in love as ever.

During the first week of September Michael was working in his hardware store when one of the town members came in search of a few specific items. When in general conversation Michael asked the man why he was in need of such seemingly random items, the man informed him that he was doing some repairs around his house in preparation to sell since his wife had been transferred to a different job far away from Button. Michael commented on how sad this was that he had to move away, at which point the man suggested that maybe Michael would like to buy his house.

Initially, Michael laughed off this suggestion as a joke on the man’s part, but he was quite serious. Realizing this, Michael politely turned the man down stating that he had no use for a house. As the man was leaving he made a comment implying he thought the house would be nice for a young newly married couple, a.k.a. Sydney and Michael.

As much as he tried to shrug it off, this man’s comments stayed with Michael. True, he and Sydney had only been technically together for five months, but they had known each other for two and a half years and he knew he wanted to be with her forever so maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea just to check out the house just to see.

~*~

“Michael what are we doing here?” Sydney asked, her tone indicating mild annoyance. They were supposed to be on their way to the movies and were running late as it was. With Michael taking side trips down back roads they were never going to make it on time.

“I just need to show you something; it’s on the way I promise,” he smiled at her. She gave him a skeptical look. “C’mon, trust me.”

“Fine,” she sighed, reluctantly. Just as she was craning her neck to see further up the street, wondering where they were going, Michael stopped the car in front of a house with a sign out front that read, For Sale by Owner. “Oh I didn’t know they were moving…,” Sydney mused aloud.

“Yep. They just put the sign out yesterday but they’ve already got an offer on the house,” Michael said with a knowing smile.

“Oh yeah?” she asked casually, glancing over to him. It took her a minute to catch the implication of his oversized grin, but when she did a look of confusion crossed her face. “Wait a second… you… you put an offer on the house?”

“I may have…,” he said causally.

“But… why?!”

“Well we can’t live in our combo hole-in-the-wall apartment forever,” he laughed softly.

“We?!” she questioned, sounding surprisingly confused.

“Of course we! How could I move out without you? Besides, we need a place to settle down at when we’re married…”

“Oh my god, Michael, what the hell are you talking about?!” she demanded. At that point she was too confused by the randomness of what he was saying to be excited.

Michael laughed softly at this. “I want to marry you, goofball. I know it’s only been five months but…but it’s us. We’re…us. I want to be with you and have a family with you in that house if you like it.”

Her heart fluttering slightly, Sydney grinned. “Of course I like it.”

“So that’s a yes then?” he asked.

She leaned over and gave him a sweet kiss. “Of course it is, goofball,” she teased; he simply laughed.



Epilogue

“My god there are a lot of people out there,” Michael commented as he peered out the front window of his home to see practically half of Button’s residents on his front lawn. “I guess they took that flyer Nadia stapled on all those telephone poles seriously…”

“She’s evil,” Sydney commented from behind him as she bounced their week old son, Jamie, in her arms. Michael, of course, was referring to the joke Nadia played on the new parents announcing Jamie’s debut to the town. The flyers said that at noon on the Saturday after his birth anyone who wanted to see Jamie could collect on the Vaughn’s front lawn. Michael had laughed at this, not realizing she had put them up all over town and that people would come. Sadly, it was not very funny at all.

“I know she is, but think of it this way at least everyone will see him all at once,” Michel said softly as he approached his wife and child. The first three years of their marriage had been blissful and now, with Jamie, their happiness would only continue. He stroked one of his son’s tiny hands before giving his wife a pleading look.

“Fine,” she agreed reluctantly with a sigh. “But no one’s allowed to come up and touch him or hold him; he’s too little for that.”

“That’s fair,” Michael agreed with a head nod. He leaned down and kissed her cheek before slipping Jamie from her arms to his. Then, balancing him with one arm, Michael headed outside, where the crowed immediately silenced at his presence. “Hi everyone,” he began nervously. “This is him; Jamie Vaughn.”

“What’s his middle name?” Someone called out of the crowd.

“William,” Michael told them with a laugh.

“Where’s Sydney?!” another asked.

“She’s inside. She’s doing just fine she just didn’t feel up to seeing everyone,” Michael explained. After holding Jamie up for everyone to see, Michael went back inside.

“Are they done gawking now?” Sydney asked, picking up her son once more.

“Yes,” he laughed softly. She gave him a rather annoyed look as she tenderly stroked Jamie’s back. “Oh babe its fine; now they won’t bug us anymore.”

“Stupid town,” she grumbled before taking their son upstairs for his nap. Michael merely laughed and shook his head knowing it was the hormones making her slightly crazy, but that was alright; he loved her anyway.

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