"Hi, this is Shelby at the front reception desk." The unfamiliar female voice said over the line. 

"Hi, Shelby." Kristen greeted her.  "What can I do for you?"

"You have a visitor." Shelby informed Kristen.  "I wasn't sure if you wanted me to send them back to the offices or if you wanted to come out here."

"A visitor?" Kristen asked.  "Who..." she paused, wondering who it could be.  Her heart flipped when she thought about Chris.  Could he have decided to just drop by the hospital again to see her?  They had talked for almost two hours over dinner last night, though she couldn't remember anything they'd talked about except for his basketball plans.  Their conversation had been silly and inconsequential but it made Kristen smile.  She loved the fact that she could spend time with a guy and completely lose track of time talking about stupid stuff.  She'd never been able to talk to Kevin about the pros and cons of pirates versus ninjas--and which would win in a battle--or whether Honey Smacks or Lucky Charms were the best cereal ever made.  Chris made her laugh.  He made her forget about all the stress involving her divorce and he made her feel like she was the most interesting person he had ever talked to, even though she knew she wasn't.  How could she be?  He had met and talked with people all over the world.  There was no way that she was the most interesting, but that didn't stop her from smiling. 

"Kristen?" Shelby questioned at Kristen's prolonged silence.

"Yes?" Kristen answered absently--a goofy grin on her face as she continued to think about the man accidently run into a few weeks ago and who was slowly but surely beginning to bring her out of the funk she'd been in the last six months. 

"Did you want me to send--" Shelby began, but Kristen cut her off.

"Oh!  I'm sorry.  Uhm..." Kristen ran her fingers through her hair.  "No, I'll come out.  Tell him I'll be there in a minute." She said then quickly hung up--not giving Shelby time to answer.  Reaching into the bottom drawer of her desk Kristen pulled out her purse.  Setting the bag on her lap she rummaged through it searching for her chap stick.  Pulling out the small tube she applied a generous layer to her lips, returned her purse to the drawer and left her office.  Had she grabbed her cell phone before leaving she would have received the text that Chris sent her, realized that he was not the one waiting for her in the waiting room, and might have been more prepared for who it was that had come to see her.    

Kristen pulled up short, her smile falling as she entered the front reception area.  "Andrea?" She asked as the redhead stood and took a step towards her.  "Wha--" she looked at the woman who stood in front of her.  The woman that up until six months ago had been one of her closest friends.  The woman who had been her roommate the first two years of college.  The woman who had slept with her husband.

She hadn't seen or spoken to Andrea since this whole nightmare that had become her life had started. She had gone through almost every emotion imaginable from grief to anger to betrayal to resentment to feelings of inadequacy and wondering what it was she could have done better.  She had slowly come to the point of realizing that even though this was a life lesson she hadn't ever wanted to learn, she was glad it had happened.  She didn't know how long she would have gone on looking like an idiot--playing the part of the devoted wife--while Kevin continued to work his way through every woman, it seemed, in the country.   She never thought about what she would do if she ever saw Andrea again. 

The thought of running into "the other woman" had been too much for Kristen to contemplate, so she didn't have a plan on what she was going to say or what she was going to do.  Naively she assumed that she would be angry--livid, even--and was tempted to turn and tell Shelby to have security on standby but as she stood there looking at the woman she had once known, but who now seemed like nothing more than a stranger, Kristen was perplexed. The anger was there, to be sure-and she would like nothing more than to give Andrea a black eye at the moment--but overshadowing the anger was a sense of gratitude for the woman.  Without her incredible act of betrayal, Kristen might have gone years before finally coming to her senses and finding out what her husband was up to. 

"What are you doing here?" Kristen finally asked, breaking the tense and awkward silence between them. 

"I wanted to..." Andrea hesitated.  Kristen saw the fear and trepidation in the other woman's green eyes.  "I wanted to apologize." Andrea finally said, looking back up at Kristen.  She reached up and tucked some of her hair behind her ear.  "I know, it probably sounds trite, but...I feel awful about everything that's happened and I..." she paused again.  "I just wanted to tell you how sorry I am.  For what I did."

Kristen lifted one brow as she looked at Andrea in disbelief.  "You wanted to apologize?" She asked incredulously.  "Couldn't you have just sent a text?" She asked.  "Or an email?" Kristen's voice rose in volume as her irritation and anger quickly overshadowed any gratitude she may have felt for Andrea.  "Why did you come to my work--in the middle of the day--to apologize to me about sleeping with my husband?!" She exclaimed.  The few other people sitting in the waiting room looked up in interest.  The soap opera playing on the television set up in the corner was forgotten in the face of this real-life drama unfolding.  Kristen felt her cheeks warm slightly in humiliation and embarrassment, and clenched her jaw tightly as she fought to control her anger.  She folded her arms across her chest to keep herself from reaching out and slapping Andrea. 

"It's hard to express emotion through an email." Andrea replied.  "And a text...look, can we take this somewhere a little more private?" She asked, looking around at all the people watching them closely. 

"I'm working, Andrea." Kristen replied in irritation.  "Hence the reason you're here at the hospital right now."  She threw up her arms in exasperation.  "I can't believe you came here to interrupt my work day to apologize to me and now you want me to take time off of work so we can go somewhere more private to talk!  I mean, really?  Are you kidding me?  Did you even think this plan through, or did you just wake up this morning and decide to do it like you decided to do my husband?" Out of the corner of her eye Kristen saw two elderly women lean over and begin whispering excitedly to each other-no doubt about what Kristen had just said.  "You know, that's always been your problem, Andrea.  You never think things through.  You just do whatever the hell you want to do-screw the consequences.  This is great!" She exclaimed sarcastically.  "First you ruined my marriage, and now you've ruined my job.  Now all these people know about the shambles my life is in right now and are whispering to each other about how crazy I am!" She put her arms out to indicate the audience they had.

"We don't think you're crazy." One of the white-haired women spoke up from her chair.  Her companion shook her head in agreement.  "Don't stop because of us!  You go right on ahead and let her have it." She continued, cheering Kristen on.

"I can't believe you came here like this." Kristen hissed as she turned back to Andrea.  The two little, old ladies leaned forward slightly in their chairs as Kristen lowered her voice.   "It's not bad enough I have to see and deal with Kevin this afternoon but you had to come in and ruin my morning as well?"  Kristen shook her head.  "I don't want to see you or talk to you again.  We're through.  You did what you did and it's over now.  You made your choice and now you're going to have to live with the consequences like I am." She turned to leave.

"Kris--"

"Why?" Kristen asked, turning around to face Andrea once again.  The other woman took a step back at the look of fury on Kristen's face.  "Why?  That's the question I've been asking myself for the last six months.  Why did you do it?  Why did you sleep with him?"

Andrea sighed as she looked down at the floor again.  Well, at least she has the decency to at least appear to be contrite. Kristen scoffed internally-she'd give her points for that.  "I don't know." Andrea finally answered.

"You don't know?" Kristen replied.  "You don't know?!  What the hell do you mean, you don't know?!" She practically screamed.  The rational part of her brain knew she was going to regret this-that this whole incident was going to be reported to the powers that be and she was going to get reprimanded for allowing her personal life to affect her professional life but right now she didn't care.  Right now the rational part of her brain was being beat into submission by the irrational side--the side that was out for blood.  "How do you justify sleeping with someone else's husband?  How does that become something that is okay to do?  I don't understand."

"Kevin is--"

"I don't want to hear what Kevin is." Kristen cut her off.  "I want to know about you." She said folding her arms across her chest again.  "I know what Kevin is but I didn't know what you were.  How could you?"  She asked.  "How could you do this to me?"

Andrea sighed. "I didn't just wake up one day and think to myself, ‘oh, I think I'll go sleep with Kevin today.'  That's not how it happened." She shook her head.  "Other things led up to it."

"Other things?" Kristen questioned.  "What other things?"

"He found me online last year." Andrea replied.  "He friended me on Facebook and we...we chatted and emailed back a forth for a few months."

"This is why I've told my granddaughter not to put her information on the internet." Came the whispered comment from the two women keeping a close eye on Kristen and Andrea.

"Facebook?" Kristen asked.  Andrea nodded.  "How do a few chats and some emails add up to you jumping into bed together?"

"The emails led to some phone calls." Andrea continued--unable to meet her eyes anymore.  Kristen could see the stain of embarrassment on the woman's face as she was being forced to admit all of this in front of an audience and Kristen felt a smug sense of satisfaction in seeing this.  For all the hell that she was being put through because of her, Andrea deserved to feel a sense of humiliation for what she had done.  "We talked." Andrea said.  "Sometimes for hours.  I thought...I thought he just needed a friend.  He sounded so depressed some days but by the end of our conversations he was always laughing.  I thought I was helping."

"Helping?" Kristen replied in disbelief.  "Don't you think ‘helping' would have been letting me know if you thought my husband was depressed?"

"He told me you guys were having problems." She confessed.  "And I thought--"

"You thought that the way to help us get through our problems was for you to have lengthy phone calls with my husband?" Kristen questioned.  "How the hell does that make sense?"

"I didn't say any of this makes sense." Andrea countered as she growled in frustration as she pushed a hand through her hair.  "Look, Kristen.  I came here wanting to apologize.  I realize now that what I did was wrong.  I never should have let it go as far as it did and I'm sorry."

"Why now?" Kristen countered.  "Why are you coming here and telling me this now?  It's been six months, Andrea!" She exclaimed.  "Why are you just now coming to the realization that what you did was wrong?"  Andrea didn't reply right away and Kristen watched her closely--realization dawning.  "He's moved on, hasn't he?" She asked.  Andrea's eyes dropped giving Kristen her answer.  She chuckled bitterly.  "That's what happened, isn't it?" She questioned.  "He's moved on to someone else and now you're all alone and the guilt and regret is eating you up inside, isn't it?" She moved a step closer to Andrea.  "He left and you realized that whatever he told you--whatever he made you believe--wasn't true.  He's gone and now you're alone again.  How does it feel?" She asked.  "How does it feel to find out you've been played by a master manipulator?  How does it feel to know you've lost a friend forever because you were too stupid to realize that what you were doing was wrong?"

"Kristen, I--"

"We're through, Andrea." Kristen stated firmly.  "I never want to see you again, or speak to you.  While part of me is glad that this whole situation has forced me to see Kevin's true character, I don't know if I can ever forgive you for your part in it."  She turned to leave.  "And if you don't leave in the next two minutes, I'm going to call security and have you escorted out." With that she squared her shoulders and continued walked away--the applause coming from her elderly cheerleaders following her as she turned the corner towards her office.

Once out of sight and earshot of the patients sitting in the waiting room, Kristen stopped and leaned heavily against the wall beside her.  Her hands were shaking and her knees felt like jell-o.  She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths as she tried to calm her racing heart and the anger still coursing through her.  She couldn't believe that Andrea had just shown up like she had and tried to apologize for what she'd done. 

Apologize! Kristen fumed as she straightened and continued down the hall towards her office.  As if a few simple words would fix everything that's gone wrong in my life!  Walking back into her office, Kristen sat down heavily in her chair, put her elbows up on the desk and scrubbed her hands over her face.  She lowered her hands as she blew out a breath--hating the fact that she was beginning to feel guilty about how she had just acted and treated Andrea.  Kristen had never been one that was confrontational or nasty to people and the little angel on her shoulder was pricking her conscience--reminding her about how mean she had just been to the woman. 

"Damn it!" She muttered.  "I should not be feeling guilty about all of this!" She exclaimed-talking aloud to no one but herself.  "She's the one who-oooh!" She growled, leaning back in her chair.  "Damn it, Kevin, why?" She questioned.  "Why did you--"

"Kristen?"

Kristen gasped in surprise and turned quickly in her chair as Amie suddenly appeared, standing in the doorway.  "Amie!" She exclaimed.  "I was just...talking...to myself..." she stammered. 

Amie grinned as she folded her arms and leaned against the door jam.  "Sounds like you were cursing someone." She remarked.  "And if it's who I think it is that you're cursing, I want in!"  Kristen sighed as she swiveled around in her chair.  "Was, uh..." Amie paused and Kristen looked over at her friend.  "I hate to ask, but was that who I thought it was out front?" She asked gesturing with her thumb over her shoulder.  Kristen nodded.  Amie came and sat down on the corner of the desk.  "Interesting turn of events this morning."  She remarked.  "How did it go?" She asked.

"Did you not just hear me cursing in here?" Kristen asked with a chuckle.  Amie smiled. "She came to apologize." Kristen replied with a roll of her eyes as she looked down at her hands in her lap. 

"Apologize?" Amie asked.  "Seriously?"  Kristen nodded.  "Bitch." Amie remarked.  "Why did she come to apologize?"

"Because apparently," Kristen sat up in her chair.  "Kevin has moved on already and she's realized what she's done and what it's cost her."

"What did you do?" Amie questioned.  "Or do I not want to know?" She teased.

Kristen chuckled.  "I listened."  She bobbed her head back in forth in thought.  "Mostly." She admitted with a roll of her eyes.  "Then I got angry and told her that I never wanted to see or speak to her again and told her if she didn't leave I was going to have security escort her out."

"Good for you!" Amie exclaimed. 

"Yeah?" Kristen questioned as she looked up at the other girl.

"Yeah." Amie nodded.  "I bet it felt good to say that to her."

"For a second." Kristen agreed.

"But?" Amie questioned, sensing Kristen's hesitancy. 

"But now I feel guilty about being so mean to her!" Kristen replied as she folded her arms across the top of her desk and buried her face.  "Why do I feel guilty about being mean to the woman who slept with my husband?" She asked, her words muffled as she spoke.

"Because you're too nice a person." Amie replied.  "It's okay to be angry, Kris." She continued.  "It's okay to yell and scream and cry about what's happened.  Don't feel guilty about anything, okay?  Nothing that's happened is your fault and you don't have anything to feel guilty about."

Kristen nodded as she took a deep breath.  "I know." She said.  "I know."  Amie leaned down and put her arms around Kristen's shoulders.  Kristen returned the hug and silence fell between them for a moment as Amie sat back on the desk, until Kristen's cell phone vibrated.  She picked it up and groaned. 

"What?" Amie asked as she tucked some of her short, dark hair behind her ears.  

Kristen shook her head as she hit the button to ignore the calendar reminder that had popped up.  She had an hour before she had to be across town in order to meet with Kevin and their lawyers.  "I'm meeting with Kevin this afternoon." She replied.

"Can you cancel?" Amie asked.

"I just want this to be over, Ames." Kristen sighed.  "I'm so sick of this." She sniffed as a sudden prickling of tears caught her off guard.  "If I cancel it's just going to prolong it even more and I don't want to do that.  Why can't he just let go?" She asked-voicing the question she didn't have an answer to. 

"I don't know." Amie replied, putting her hand on Kristen's shoulder.  "I wish I had the answer you're looking for but I don't."

"It's okay." Kristen replied. "I know you don't know the answer anymore than I do.  I just..." she sighed.  "I just want to be able to move on with my life."

"Speaking of that..." Amie drawled.  "How're things going with Mr. Former Boyband?"

Kristen could help the giggle that escpaed at the thought of Chris. Instantly the anger and frustration she had been feeling dissolved.  "We went out last night." She stated.  Amie made a noise of interest and Kristen smiled, feeling her cheeks warm slightly as she thought about last night's game and dinner last night--not to mention riding on the back of the motorcycle with one of the sexiest men she'd ever met.  Kristen giggled.  Amie begged for the details and Kristen gave them to her.

"I'm so jealous!" Amie exclaimed.  "You get all the luck!" She laughed.

"Oh yeah," Kristen replied with a roll of her eyes.  "I have all the luck--hence the reason I have women who've slept with my husband coming to see me at work to apologize and almost weekly meetings with my divorce lawyer."

"But look what you've gotten out of the deal." Amie replied with a mischievous sparkle in her blue eyes.  "A hot, famous musician who likes the same crazy shit that you do!" She laughed.  "I say, do whatever the hell you have to do to get rid of slimeball Kevin so you can focus on Chris.  The best thing you can do is show Kevin you don't need him-that you're moving on without a second thought about him.  Give him back what he's been given, you know?"

Kristen nodded.  "I know." She replied.  "It's just...easier said than done sometimes.  I mean, I can be strong and independent here with you but as soon as I step into that conference room and he's sitting across the table from me it's like I forget who I am and I have a hard time putting my thoughts together.  As soon as I leave I can think of a million and a half comebacks to the comments he makes but in there?" She shook her head.  "Nothing.  I wish...I wish I could just really tell him off." She stated.  "I wish I could just walk away from all of this but I can't.  I want what's mine and he's going to give it to me, if it's the last thing I do."

"Atta, girl!" Amie cheered.  "Make him pay."   

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Four hours later, Kristen found herself wandering aimlessly up and down the aisles of the grocery story.  The same grocery store where she'd first run into Chris two weeks ago.  The thought had briefly crossed her mind that there was the ever-so-slight possibility that they might run into each other again, but she quickly dismissed it.  She'd gotten a random text from him earlier that morning asking how her morning was going, but he hadn't responded to her reply.  Even though she was disappointed, she reminded herself that he was busy trying to get his new group put together, and had lost track of the time.  She had wanted to call him after her run-in with Andrea and subsequent pep talk by Amie but she had had to focus on finishing a few important tasks before leaving early for her meeting with Kevin.  Whatever pep Amie had talked her into was now long gone and Kristen wanted nothing more than to just go home, crawl into bed and not come out again until Monday morning. 

She continued to walk through the store--running on autopilot.  Items somehow appearing in the basket she was pushing around though she really wasn't paying attention to what she was picking out.  Her ears suddenly tuned in to the song playing overhead and she felt a smile come to her face as a familiar voice mad her heart skip a beat and her stomach quiver slightly. 

Lying in your arms

So close together

Didn't know just what I had.

Now I toss and turn,

Cause I'm without you

How I'm missing you so bad.

Where was my head?

Where was my heart?

Now I cry alone in the dark.

I lie awake,

I drive myself crazy.

Drive myself crazy,

Thinking of you.

Made a mistake

When I let you go baby,

I drive myself crazy

Wanting you the way that I do.

She didn't realize she had begun singing along softly until someone passing her in the chip aisle gave her a funny look--which only made her sing a little louder.  The guy chuckled as he turned the corner and disappeared down the next aisle but Kristen kept singing as she turned the opposite direction and began making her way down the freezer aisle.  She continued singing along with the radio as she stopped a few feet in, opened the door in front of her, quickly grabbed a box of blueberry waffles and put them in her basket. 

Moving down the aisle she made her way towards the frozen dinners, not at all sure what she was going to make tonight.  The last thing she wanted to do was to cook anything and she was hoping she could find something that would be quick and easy, as well as at least semi-nutritious.  She stood for a moment in deep concentration, staring at the choices in front of her, for what seemed like forever. 

"How hard is it to make a decision, Kristen?" She asked herself as she put her hands on her hips.  "Chicken nuggets with corn and that stupid brownie that's either over cooked and chewy or still doughy and burns your flippin' tongue off, or fish sticks?"  A couple of teenagers passed her by, giving her a wary look and she laughed.  "Yes, that's right.  I sing along with the radio at the grocery store and talk to myself about what I want for dinner.  You got a problem with that?" She asked them.  The kids snapped their head forward and quickly walked down the aisle away from her as if they were scared she was going to start throwing things or something else crazy.  "Screw it." She said pushing her cart further down the aisle.  "I want ice cream for dinner."

~~~~~~~~~

Chris chuckled quietly to himself as he watched Kristen--listening to her scare the couple of kids that had dared to give her a weird look a moment ago.  He had swung in here on his way back from golfing with a couple of friends to pick up a few groceries.  He had intended it to be a quick stop--the sound of his own voice greeting him as he'd walked in convincing himself this was going to be a very quick stop-until he'd heard someone begin to sing along to his old song.  Curious, he had grabbed the bag of dog food he needed--slinging it up over one shoulder-and cocked his head to one side, following the sound of the woman's singing around to the next aisle.  He had stopped when he recognized the backside he was looking at.  Damn, she was hot.  It had been less than twenty-four hours since they'd seen each other but it suddenly felt like it had been a year at least.  He suddenly felt bad for ignoring her text from earlier, even though he hadn't meant to ignore it.  He had thought his phone was in his pocket.  Turned out it had slipped out when he'd gotten out of his car at the club house and he hadn't gotten her reply text from that morning until about twenty minutes ago.  He was going to respond and then had just decided to wait until he got home to call her and see what she was doing tonight and if she wanted to come over.  Now he didn't have to. 

He smiled as he followed her as indiscreetly as possible down the chip aisle--nodding in approval as she grabbed a bag of Cheetos and placed them in her cart as she continued singing along as Justin took over and sang his verse.  He pulled back slightly, hiding behind the end of the aisle as she stopped sooner than he had expected to grab some frozen waffles.  Then stood in front of the selection of pizza that the store offered as she debated with herself over what she wanted for dinner.  He had to bite his tongue to keep his laughter from giving him away but she was just so damn adorable he didn't know how much longer he could keep away from her.  When she finally huffed--vocally declaring that she was going to have ice cream for dinner-and pushed her cart towards the end of the row of freezers, Chris gave up.  He walked towards her. 

"You don't really strike me as a vanilla kind of girl." He said in reference to the box she was picking up as he lowered the bag of dog food he was carrying into her cart.  Kristen screamed out in surprise--the freezer door banging shut as she let go of the handle and looked at him wide-eyed. 

"What the hell are you doing here?!" She exclaimed, placing her hand over her chest in an effort--he assumed--to calm her now racing heart. 

He grinned as he placed his hands on the edge of the cart and leaned towards her.  "Came in to grab some dog food and beer, and found this cute little thing singing along with one of my songs playing on the radio and talking to herself."  Kristen smiled as she stood looking at him.  "I just had to introduce myself and see if she was busy tonight." He continued.  He watched as she tried to force a straight face and act the part of the uninterested stranger. 

"Well, that depends." She replied. 

"On what?" He questioned, leaning closer to her-wanting to kiss her. 

"On what you're offering." She quipped.  She put her hands on her hips.  "Whatever you got has to be better than the night I have planned." She replied, gesturing at her cart of mostly junk food. 

"I can rock your world." He replied confidently.

"Oh, I know you can." She replied under her breath with what sounded like a sigh of longing. 

Chris felt a smirk slide across his face.  "What was that?" He asked, though he'd heard her loud and clear. 

"Nothing." She replied, composing herself once again. 

He chuckled. "Come on." He said, walking towards her and taking control of the cart.  He began walking towards the front of the store.

"Where do you think you're going?"  She asked.  "I still want ice cream." She insisted, standing where he'd left her.

Chris turned around and looked at her.  "Forgive me, your majesty." He apologized and she laughed.  "I think I'm out actually, so I should probably get some more if you're coming over."

"Am I coming over?" She asked, looking at him in question.

"I thought we had this settled." He replied.

"I remember you mentioning something but I don't recall you actually asking me..." She trailed off and Chris narrowed his eyes as he looked at her. 

"Do you want to come over?" He asked.

"Yes." She replied with a happy smile.

"Good." He chuckled.  "But I don't allow vanilla ice cream in my house." He stated as he turned the cart around.

"Why not?" She asked with a laugh as he walked back to her.

"I'm morally opposed to it." He replied evenly, making her laugh even more. 

"You're crazy." She shook her head. 

"You have no idea." He responded.

"Okay, then."  She put her hands on her hips again.  "You're morally opposed to vanilla and you said I'm not a vanilla girl?" She asked.  He nodded.  "What kind of girl am I?"

"Do you really want me to answer that question?" He asked, lifting a brow and looking at her suggestively--smiling as her cheeks warmed slightly. 

"What kind of ice cream girl am I?" She clarified with a smile. 

"Hmmm..." he hummed as he stepped back and made a show of looking her up and down.  Kristen rolled her eyes though he knew she was enjoying this just as much as he was.  "Hmmm..." he hummed again as he turned and looked back at the selection of ice cream in front of him.  He looked back and forth between her and the freezer a few times to draw it out until he finally opened the door to the freezer and pulled out two pints of Ben & Jerry's.  "You look like a Peanut Butter Cup kind of girl." He replied as he stuck the two containers in the front seat of the cart. 

"What was the other one you chose?" She asked as he began walking again.  She fell in step beside him and Chris looked over at her. 

"Chubby Hubby." He replied, telling her the name of his favorite ice cream flavor.  Similar to the Peanut Butter Cup but with the addition of pretzels." He explained. 

"So, what's for dinner?" She asked as they continued shopping.

"Hmmm..." he hummed again.  "I've got some chicken we can put on the grill and I think I have a bag of salad in the fridge."

"Sounds great." She smiled as she looped her arm through his.  Chris felt his heart give a skip when she did that-the movement seeming so natural and easy between them.  They continued walking in a companionable silence as she allowed him to grab the few items he needed then stood in line at the checkout.  Finally he couldn't hold back the question that had been nagging him since he'd startled her earlier.  "Vanilla?" He asked turning to look at her and she laughed.  "Seriously?"