“So, what’s all this about you and Fenny setting each other up?” Greg asked around a mouthful of fries as he carefully pulled a pickle out of his Big Mac.

“Fen and I were talking last night,” Gina explained, “and I figured if she and Brad could just talk things through without you or Ritza or anyone else in the way, maybe they could work things out. I knew Fen wasn’t gonna take things into her own hands, and I arranged to meet both of them at some stupid little diner, only I didn’t show up. So, now they should be talking.”

“Or killing each other,” Greg mused.

“I never thought of that,” she said. “I think they’ll be ok though.”

He nodded. “So then how did I end up buying you lunch?”

“Guess Fenny and Brad figured out what happened, and she worked out the ingenious plan. I’ll have to give her hell the next time I see her,” Gina mused.

“What is it you two are talking about all the time?” Greg still wasn’t sure he was comfortable with the idea of those particular women being friendly.

“You,” Gina smirked, watching him squirm a bit. “She’s got this crazy idea in her head that we like each other.”

“Her and the rest of the general public,” Greg grumbled with a roll of his eyes.

“And we know how much attention you pay to public opinion,” she grinned.

“Depends on what public,” he shrugged. “I don’t trust the general public as far as I could throw ‘em. Too many rednecks and bleach-blondes.”

“Which parts of the public do you trust then?”

“The public I know, the people who I’m sure their synapses are properly connected, y’know.”

“So, like your friends on the show.”

“Right, I value their opinions.”

“The people that think you and I spend every spare moment shagging in dark corners.”

Greg opened his mouth and closed it again to scowl at her. He and Gina both devoted a moment to their hamburgers.

“You think Brad and Fenny are gonna get back together, huh?” he asked.

“Yeah, I do.”

“I don’t think I buy it,” Greg said, shaking his head. “I was there when he found out about me, and he looked pretty damn crushed.”

“She told me he kissed her when they talked before,” Gina announced with a smile.

“Really?” he said, pleased. “Well, that was before the Whose Catfight is it Anyway show, right?”

“Yeah…”

“You don’t think maybe he’d get mad at Fenny for screaming at Ritza? He seemed pretty upset.”

“I don’t think he’s too mad,” Gina answered hopefully. “What is it he sees in her? Ritza I mean.”

“Honestly? No clue. Maybe he reached out for the first pretty thing he could find after Fenny. Maybe it started ‘cause he was afraid of her, like we all were at the time, didn’t want to say no to her, and then just decided he liked getting laid.”

Gina nodded. “I figured it’s just a sex thing, too. Nothing to stop him from going back to Fenny, right?”

“I don’t know, Ritza might be kind of attached. And you have to remember the fact that she’s had guns to more than one person’s head. I don’t care if it was her sister’s idea, that bitch freaks me out!”

“You think she’d do something drastic if Brad tried to dump her?”

Greg shrugged. “I know one thing, though—I’m real happy my love life’s working out better than Sherwood’s.”

“You call what you have a love life?” Gina scorned with a short chuckle. “A troubled marriage, a sordid affair with you friend’s girl, eating bland burgers with the likes of me?”

“Sounds pretty steamy to me,” Greg replied with what may have been a glint of something in his eye, but it was dampened quickly when a toddler that had wandered off unnoticed bit him in the leg. “Aaugh, what the fuck! Don’t you have a mother or a keeper or something? Damn it, that hurt! When’s the last time you got your rabies shot, you disease-ridden monster, little bastard…”

The child, his distraught mother, and the rest of her clutch of children were halfway across the parking lot when Greg finally ended his diatribe.

“Guess that answers the question, ‘Why don’t you have any kids, Greg?’” Gina mused.

“You want me to bite your thigh? I bet I could make you scream too.” The teenagers seated behind him snickered to themselves as Gina raised her eyebrows. “You know what I mean,” he growled.

“No, Greg, tell me, please, what do you mean?” she teased gleefully.

The teens were still giggling.

“I’m leaving,” Greg announced as he gathered his garbage and limped towards the door.

“Let’s go somewhere,” Fenny said as she and Brad came up for air. She glanced around a moment to get her bearings, grabbed his hand, and dragged him down the street.

“Like where?” Brad asked, following obediently in her wake.

“Isn’t there a park just around the corner over here?” She dashed across the street, heedless of the blinking red hand of the traffic signal, and they made their way through a parking lot towards the small, welcoming patch of green. They passed the picnic tables and headed for the small theatre area in the center, where two young boys were giving an impromptu performance of what Fenny could only assume was an Eminem song. She perched, cross-legged, on a bench to face him as he sat next to her. “So, talk,” she said.

“Like rational adults?”

“I’ll try.”

He took a deep breath. “The simple truth is I love you. Regardless of Greg, regardless of Ritza.”

“Then why did you—”

“I left you because you hurt me, and at the time, the feeling of betrayal was stronger than the feeling of love.”

“And Ritza?”

“I thought we weren’t going to mention her.”

“I have to know why you two got together, what she means to you.”

“Maybe it was a rebound thing,” Brad shrugged. “I wanted to feel loved again, I needed someone I could direct all the love I still had at…. A lot of stuff happened in Australia, and it all seemed to make some sort of sense at the time. Started off as a mistake, really, then became almost a joke, and before I knew it, we were pretty serious.”

“Serious?” Fenny echoed.

“Well, not serious, I mean, like she came back to LA with me, she’s been staying at my place, she’s everywhere, really.”

“Do you love her?” Fenny asked cautiously.

“I don’t think so. No. Not the way I love you. I want you back, Fenny. I think I can forgive you for what you did. I believe you when you said it was the last time.”

“And Ritza?”

“I think she’s proved herself to be selfish, mean spirited, and demanding, and she’s really been getting on my nerves. She’s not the one I want; we’re not happy together. I’m not happy, anyway. We were happy, me and you, and if we put all this shit behind us, I think we could be happy again.”

Fenny smiled at him for a moment. “You’re a big sap, you know that?” she cooed as she grabbed him with one hand on either side of his face and pulled him into a kiss. Suddenly she felt weak and lightheaded with relief and contentment—had she finally managed to get her life to make sense again?

She was brought back to earth when she felt a strange vibrating sensation on her leg. She pulled her lips away from Brad’s.

“You’re vibrating,” she breathed.

“Huh?” Brad mumbled. “Oh,” he added, and shoved his hand into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone.

Brad got to his feet as he answered it. “Hey gorgeous…what? Oh, ok then…20 minutes…promise…you too,” he smiled as he ended the call.

Fenny looked at him in disbelief; she knew exactly who had called.

“Uh, that was Ritza…I have to go,” Brad announced sheepishly.

Fenny angrily got to her feet. “I take it everything you just said was bullshit, then.”

“No, of course it wasn’t,” Brad cooed as he tried to take her in his arms.

“Don’t you dare touch me,” Fenny snapped. “I don’t understand you Brad. One minute you love me, the next you’re running back to her. Call me when you grow up.”

“Fenny,” Brad whined.

Fenny didn’t even look back as she stormed out of the park. She felt emotionally drained. She had been on the greatest high and now she was sinking into a painful low. Fenny tried hard to hold back her tears but by the time she’d gotten back to her car, there was no holding them back.

“Man, you look so funny limping like that,” Gina mused as she caught up with Greg outside.

“I’m lucky that little bastard didn’t take a chunk outta me,” Greg whined.

“He only had three teeth,” Gina scorned.

“Oh, that’s right, take the kid’s side,” he huffed.

“Well he’s less of a baby than you are,” she sarced.

“Hey, I’m in a lot of pain,” he grumbled, rubbing his leg.

“Aww, poor Proopums,” she giggled.

“That’s right,” he nodded.

“Look, if it bothers you that much, you can come back to my place and I’ll take a look at it,” Gina sighed.

Greg looked slightly uncomfortable at the suggestion.

“What’s that look for? I offered to dab some cream on a bite, not give you a blow job,” Gina cussed.

“Pity,” Greg sighed.

Gina looked at Greg open-mouthed and then closed it again before he made another comment.

“Don’t you have to work?” Greg asked as Gina unlocked the door to her apartment.

“They won’t miss me…trust me,” Gina grumbled. “Ok, drop ’em,” she added with a wry smile.

Greg still looked uncomfortable.

“Don’t tell me you’ve gone all shy,” she added.

“I’ve never met anyone so desperate to get my pants off,” he mused.

“Oh, you’re so hysterical,” she sarced.

Greg began to unbuckle his belt, but stopped when his cell phone rang. Gina shrugged and disappeared into the kitchen to put the kettle on while Greg took the call. When Gina returned, Greg looked decidedly miserable.

“Who died?” she asked.

“All my hopes and dreams,” Greg replied.

“Can you narrow that down just a tad?” Gina asked.

“My wife is coming,” Greg sighed.

“Shit, you are good,” Gina mused.

Greg couldn’t help but laugh at the remark. “She’ll be back in town tomorrow.”

“Good, you guys might be able to talk. Now are you dropping those pants or do I have to do it for you?” Gina scorned.

Greg raised his eyebrows, then undid his pants.

“Sit,” Gina ordered. Greg sat himself on the couch.

“Has anyone ever told you that you’d make a great dominatrix?” Greg asked as Gina examined his thigh.

“Yes, actually,” Gina perked. “Well, you’re pretty unscathed, but it does look like you have a hickey,” she added as she sat next to him.

“Oh, my wife is gonna love that,” Greg breathed.

“Especially if you tell her it was done by a young boy,” Gina nodded.

Greg looked at Gina and cackled. “You have a dirty mind.”

“I wonder who I get that from,” Gina mused.

They looked at each other for a moment. He instinctively leant forward to kiss her, and she would have let him, too, had there not been a knock at the door.

“I better get that,” she breathed and got off the couch as fast as she could.

Gina opened the door and was surprised to see Fenny standing there with a tear-streaked face.

“Fenny, what’s happened?” Gina asked and ushered Fenny inside.

Fenny was about to tell her when she noticed Greg pulling up his pants. “I should go, you were obviously busy,” she mumbled.

“Huh? Oh no, it’s fine, I was looking at something on Greg’s thigh,” Gina mused.

“Oh yeah, that makes it sound so much better,” Greg jeered.