“You told him,” Gina sighed.

“I’ll pay you back for the call,” Fenny said as she leaned her head against the back of the couch and looked up towards the ceiling.

“And he forgave you.”

“I told him straight out, ‘I fucked a surfer,’ and what does he say? He’s a bigger idiot and he misses me and he wants me to come home.”

“Then why are you upset?”

“Why does he have to be so damn perfect all the time, huh?” Fenny demanded angrily. “I mean when he’s not going around doing stupid things.”

“Fen, you’re not making any sense,” Gina announced.

Fenny frowned at her. “Do you think he’s too good for me?” she asked. “I mean he’s done nothing but forgive me and be wonderful, and I’ve spent most of my time being angry at him for some reason or another. I just can’t help but feel maybe I don’t deserve him.”

Gina smiled at her. “If there’s any two people on the planet who deserve each other, it’s you and Brad. I don’t think any other people would ever understand you guys as well as you understand each other. You’d drive any other man mental.”

“Speaking of mental men,” Fenny smiled and nodded towards the kitchen, where Gina turned to see Paul sticking his head into the room. He quickly slipped back into the kitchen and the girls rolled their eyes at him. “Sorry if I interrupted something.”

“Oh, only the possibility of sex, nothing new,” Gina smirked.

“So you’ve made up then?” Fenny asked.

Gina nodded and grinned giddily. “It’s our anniversary, and I forgot.”

“Really?” Fenny smiled. “Well happy anniversary then.”

“Thanks. So, are you heading home soon or are you gonna hang around for a while, snag another surfer, maybe a backpacker or two?”

“Shut up,” Fenny grumbled as she tried to glower over a smile. “Need I remind you of your various romps with a certain Mister Proops?”

“Need I remind you of yours?” Gina countered.

“Let’s not go there,” Fenny chuckled.

“So, going home?” Gina asked.

Fenny sighed. “Yeah, I think so. I really think that, you know, Brad and I need to work things out, somehow, try anyway. And Australia’s certainly not doing me any good. What’re you gonna do?”

“I dunno,” Gina shrugged. “Haven’t thought that far ahead.”

“You go ahead and think,” Fenny said, “or celebrate your anniversary or whatever it is you were planning on doing. I’m gonna go to bed.”

“Night Fen,” Gina chimed.

“Night. Good night Pauly, and happy anniversary,” she called towards the kitchen.

“What about the tea?” he asked dejectedly.

“You don’t need my help to drink tea,” she smiled. “I’m sure you’ll find a good use for it.”

He shrugged and she disappeared into her bedroom. “Are things back to normal yet?” Paul asked as he wandered into the living room with two cups of tea.

“When have things ever been normal?” she asked.

“Good point.”

Brad realized the bagel he was munching on for breakfast was stale, but decided it didn’t matter so kept eating until someone knocked on the door. He abandoned the bagel and the mid-morning news to answer it and wasn’t sure what to think when he found Greg standing outside his apartment. “Hey,” he said.

“The kid still around?” Greg asked.

“No, back with her mother,” Brad explained as Greg wandered inside.

“Thank god for that.”

“So, what’s up?”

“What do you mean, what’s up?” Greg asked angrily. “Can’t a guy visit his pal without something having to be up?”

“In all the time I’ve known you, I don’t think you’ve ever just dropped in for a ‘visit’ without something being wrong or you wanting something.”

“I got lonely,” Greg murmured as he sat on the couch.

“And you want me to amuse you?” Brad asked, taking his spot on the couch again and taking another bite out of his breakfast.

“You heard from the girls?”

“Fenny called me earlier.”

“And?” Greg asked hopefully.

“She didn’t say anything about Gina.”

“Oh.” He nodded. “What did she say?”

“She called to tell me she had sex with a surfer.”

“She what?”

“Yeah,” Brad sighed.

“And?” Greg prompted.

“And what? I hardly think I can get mad at her for having a one night stand after, well, let’s see, I let a homicidal maniac move in with me and I got another woman pregnant.”

“You mean you don’t care?” Greg gasped.

Brad looked at him sternly. “This coming from Mr. Monogamy.”

Greg folded his arms across his chest in response.

“It’s not that I don’t care, I’m just so tired of fighting, man, really. She could have called me up and told me she fucked a whole soccer team twice and there’s not a lot I could’ve done about it. I asked her to come home.”

“Is she?”

“Dunno.”

“Do you think Gina would come back with her?”

Brad closed his eyes and shook his head. “Proops, man, you have to get off this Gina thing. She’s gone home with her husband. I think you lost her.”

“I don’t believe that,” Greg huffed.

“You’re delusional.”

“Every time I told her I’d leave her alone so she could be with Paul she told me she didn’t want that.”

“Yeah, but that was in Australia, before she and Paul got back together, when we were all so fucked up we didn’t know what we were doing.”

“But when I showed up at her place a week or two ago, the first thing we did was make love.”

“When’s the last time the two of you did anything other than have sex and fight?” Brad asked pointedly.

Greg furrowed his brows in thought. “Um…”

“And this is what you want to be the love of your life?”

“I’m not going to take relationship advice from someone whose fiancée has fled the hemisphere,” Greg huffed.

“Well at least I’ve still got a fiancée,” Brad grumbled. “Better than an ex-wife and a fantasy.”

“Better a fantasy than a kid and a ring.” Greg stood to leave. “Face it dude, you’re a fuck up.”

“And you’re a delusional asshole,” Brad countered as the door slammed shut. “Shit,” he muttered and collapsed back onto the couch.

Ring

“Genie. Genie, answer the phone.”

“You answer it, it’s closer to you.”

Ring

“But it’s not gonna be for me, no one knows I’m here.”

“Doesn’t mean you can’t answer it.”

Ring

“It could be important.”

“Could be Greg.”

“I should answer it then.”

Ring

“Hello? Yeah, just a minute. It’s for you.”

“Hello,” Gina grumbled into the phone. “Oh, hello Max.” Then, to Paul, she mouthed, “old editor.”

Paul scooted closer to her and pressed his ear against the phone, trying to hear what was going on.

“…your replacement, he isn’t working out.”

“Oh really?” Gina smiled.

“Hasn’t turned in a story worth shit since he was hired.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“There’s a press conference scheduled for seven o’clock tonight. You do a decent job with this and you can get your job back.”

“Well gee, that’s rather short notice,” Gina said gravely, and Paul tried to smother a giggle.

“Come on Coleman, we need you here.”

Her eyes went wide at the emotion in the editor’s voice. “The same position I held before I was fired?”

“Of course.”

“And a raise.”

“A what?”

“You heard me,” she smirked.

“Look, we’ll negotiate later. Just tell me you’ll do it.”

She looked over at Paul, who nodded at her. “Sure, we’ll try it out for a while, see how things go.”

“All right,” Max said gruffly. “I’ll see you in the office sometime today then.”

“Yup. Bye.”

Max hung up and she handed the phone to Paul to do the same. “Congrats,” Paul grinned.

“Oh crap, I just remembered, we were going to celebrate our anniversary,” Gina frowned.

“We can celebrate later,” Paul assured her. “You’ve got a job to get back.”

“Great timing,” she sighed.

“Well I go back to Melbourne in a week, so at least you’ll be busy.”

“I’d rather be busy with you,” she cooed and snuggled up against him. “I don’t have to stay for the whole thing…”

A horrific metallic clatter resounded suddenly through the apartment. “Fen’s up,” Paul and Gina muttered simultaneously, then smiled at each other.

“Should we get up and play host?” Paul asked.

“Maybe we should,” she sighed. “It is 10 o’clock.”

“And she might hurt herself.”

“If she goes back to LA, will you go with her?” Gina asked.

“If you want me to,” Paul answered softly. “You don’t want me to stay with you?”

“Of course I do. But I want you to go with Fen. She could use a friend. I’d go, but this may be my only chance at fulfilling employment, and you’ve got the time off. Besides,” she said with a sultry smile, “I won’t get anything done if you’re around to distract me.”

“If it’s what you want me to do, I’ll do it,” Paul sighed and kissed the side of her head.

“This is why I love you,” Gina cooed.

“I thought it was that thing I do with my tongue.”

She laughed at him. “Get up.”

With a dejected groan, Paul dragged himself out of bed, followed by Gina, and they wandered into the kitchen to find Fenny cleaning water off the floor. “Sorry,” she grimaced, “I dropped the kettle.”

“Did the phone wake you?” Gina asked.

“No, actually, I’ve been awake for about an hour. I called about plane tickets, there’s a flight out to LAX at 10:40 tonight.”

“So you’re headed home then?” Paul asked as he and Gina joined her on the floor to sop up the rest of the mess she’d made.

“Yeah, I should leave you two to…do whatever it is you do,” she smiled, “get out of your hair.”

“Well, I just got my job back at the paper,” Gina announced.

“That’s fantastic,” Fenny cheered.

“Hey look, why don’t you take Paul with you back to the States?” Gina suggested.

“Huh?” Fenny asked.

“Well, he’s got a week left of vacation,” she explained, “he doesn’t want to spend it waiting for me to come home from work. Besides, he could help you out at the theatre.”

“Do you seriously want to come with me?” Fenny asked as they finished with the floor.

“Course I do,” Paul grinned. “Genie doesn’t want me around to distract her. And I can keep you out of trouble.”

“You keep me out of trouble, ha!” Fenny teased.

“Are you insinuating something?” Paul demanded.

“You just get a kick out of wreaking havoc on my theatre company,” she announced, and he shrugged.

“Think they’ve noticed the enormous penis yet?” Gina asked as she filled the kettle again.

“Doubtful,” Fenny mused, “they’ve got the combined IQ of a sea cucumber.”

“So it’s settled then,” Paul announced. “I’m hopping off to sunny southern California with my wife’s best friend on my anniversary. Sounds like a bad soapie.”