Laney Thompson first laid eyes on her Greek dreamboat on an otherwise unassuming Friday night, while out on a bar crawl with her sister. The Greek Dreamboat was Ingrid's name for him, although Laney wouldn't disagree that he was a dreamboat. That he was hers was another question. Laney knew that Andreas never belonged to her even for a moment, and sadly he never would be.
It was Ingrid's initiative that forced their first meeting. Laney felt an instant and powerful crush. Shy and reserved Laney wasn't well practiced in the arts of flirtation, but Andreas seemed to be flattered by her great skill in coy smiles and shy giggles.
But Andreas did mention his girlfriend, Gwen, on that first day. So clear lines were drawn.
He mentioned that he moved to follow Gwen and her new job after a complicated length of time together—short enough to feel sudden, but long enough that he didn't want to throw the relationship away. So he took a chance on it. They moved and moved in together at the same time. At first, it didn't feel like a mistake.
Andreas liked a lot of things about Gwen. She was overtly sexual, but in a fun playful way. She liked to walk around their studio apartment, with its big picture windows, completely naked. She liked to think the neighbors were watching. “Leave the blinds open. Let the world watch if they want, and they do want, because we are delicious together.”
They hadn't been together long enough for any strong dislikes to surface.
But Andreas didn't yet know that Gwen was sometimes insecure and relentless when she felt any hesitation on his part. She worried that he wasn't "all in" when she asked him to move with her. She got pangs of anxiety sometimes when she feared that he would break up with her. Or that he would fall in love with someone else. He was just so handsome, and such a good man. Who wouldn't fall in love with him?
Gwen hired a private detective, just to "take a peek."
All the investigator found was a work colleague, Laney. Just pastries after a late shift, maybe a couple of times. Maybe more times than he had pastries after work with his other work colleagues, but it looked perfectly friendly otherwise. Nothing to worry about.
But strong-willed Gwen had a sharp mind of her own. She wouldn't be told what she should worry about.
They'd known each other only a month, but Laney saw such a change in Andreas in that short time. When they first met, she was timid compared to his smooth confidence. But she managed to dampen her renegade crush on him, and they settled into a comfortable working friendship. On her part, at least. On his part, he only grew pensive and anxious around her. His eyes followed her around the office wherever she went.
He acted strangely opposed to helping her calibrate the lie detector test. He wanted to know ahead of time all of the questions she would ask him, and he insisted that she didn't go off script.
But he still sought her out constantly. His interest didn't feel as free and flirty as she felt toward him. His feelings felt more like a collision of intrigue and overwhelming burden. Like the burden of a decision he didn't want to make, she guessed. She wondered if there was a strong possibility that he intended to leave Gwen—maybe for her, or maybe just in general—but Laney didn't pressure him. And Andreas didn't want to tax their month-long friendship with any of his weighty life problems.
The most she would ever crack out of Andreas was a simple conversation before leaving work for a long holiday weekend.
"What are you and Gwen doing this weekend?"
"Oh, going to some bar, probably," he said. "Gwen is stalking talent night at the karaoke bar on Saturday, hoping to dig up a story on some hot new star before anyone else does. Do you do karaoke?"
Laney gasped. "Oh, goodness, no!"
"Do you dance?"
"I can waltz a little," she said.
He laughed. "Do people still do that? What do you do on dates?"
"I don't go on dates."
"Why not?"
She shrugged. "Well, I guess, because nobody ever asks me."
"Come on, Laney. There must be plenty of guys dying to take you out. You're so smart, and kind, and..." He stopped. And what? His eyes said things that his lips denied. "And… you should give yourself more credit."
He said it in a way that could have been perfectly friendly or perhaps even a sweet undercover flirt. But Andreas wasn't the type to cheat on a girlfriend, and that only made Laney love him more. So she thanked him kindly, and they went their separate ways for the weekend.
Whatever Laney felt was going on with Andreas, you better believe that Gwen felt it, too. She felt it first. And she felt it strong. The indecision in him ate away at her doubts. She put on her slinkiest negligee in his favorite color. If she couldn't land him with sex, how could she ever keep him?
“Wow, look at you.”
She shrugged, “I just wanted to feel pretty.”
“You know you're gorgeous.”
“Sometimes I do," she said. “You like your new job then? I feel like I hardly ever see you anymore.”
“I just want to make a good first impression, you know how it is.”
But there was something wrong, and she demanded to know what it was.
Gwen slid her hands over him, got closer. “I just miss you. Kiss me then, show me you miss me, too."
Gwen could be fun, surprising, erotic, and sometimes scary. Being with Gwen felt like whiplash, but it was certainly never boring.
So Andreas did kiss her. Maybe that meant he truly did love her—he knew that he didn't not love her. Or maybe it meant he hadn't yet decided whatever decision that plagued him. Or that he assumed he had more time to make up his mind. He seized the chance to put off that enormous confrontation for one more night. He made love to his girlfriend and soothed her fears.
The next morning, Gwen was in a cheerful mood. He woke up to the smell of Belgian waffles with fresh strawberry sauce. She had their whole day planned—a walk on the beach, his favorite restaurant for lunch, a movie of his choice afterward.
Her hired guy said there was nothing going on. But Gwen knew that wasn’t the full truth. She just knew it, and she was going to fight for her man. It might or might not do any good in the end, but at least she would be able to say that she tried. She could keep him happy. They were fantastic together, and she only needed to make him see it.
Andreas was a good man. He wouldn't leave her if she gave him enough reasons to stay. She just needed to give him more reasons. Tangible reasons. Living, breathing reasons. She needed an insurance policy. She was getting too old to keep starting over again.
A few weeks later, the awkwardness between Laney and Andreas reached a new high, although it took the whole three weeks for Laney to find out why. He suddenly didn't seek her out around the office anymore, and their friendly chats, when they happened, were strictly business only. Any after-work pastries they may have ever shared became going out to the bar with the whole team.
And then, just within earshot, Andreas asked one of their colleagues, "So, how's fatherhood then? The best thing ever, right? Turns out, Gwen is pregnant."
That little bombshell wasn't meant for Laney—or maybe it was. Maybe he didn't know how to tell her to her face, so he let the bomb explode in her peripheral vision instead, as if she might be spared from the fallout. If only.
Laney could be fine with this outcome if she felt that he was blindly in love with Gwen, but Laney's sharp puzzle-solving observations told her that Andreas was not blindly happy. In fact, she was sure he was exploring other options. Laney was not a pompous woman—she would never have led herself to believe Andreas had feelings for her in return if he truly had none at all.
But she also knew the thing she admired about him most, that he was a good honest man, meant that he would never leave his girlfriend with a baby on the way.
The decisions that happened next were swift and severe. Within weeks, Gwen came upon another excellent job offer at a newspaper out west, and Andreas, in a daze, willingly followed her there.
For a short while, Laney took the news hard. And she felt silly for it—she hadn't lost anything at all except a fantasy.
Her parents took her on their trip to South America to lift her spirits.
And she busied herself with work as often as she could.
It was nearly two whole years later that Laney got an email that knocked her down flat. It was an invitation to Luisa Palmer’s first birthday party. Who? Laney thought. Then she saw the names of the hosts, the birthday girl's parents, Andreas and Gwen. Intentional or not, it looked like he had sent the invitation out to his whole address book.
An hour later, he sent her a text.
Oops. Sorry, that would be a long trip for you. But I don't mean to say you were uninvited.
Nothing more. For a few minutes she tried to read more into the concept—not invited but not uninvited. Then she felt silly and took it as a simple mistake.
She wrote back.
No worries. Wow, a year old already. How exciting!
Laney spent an extra five minutes pondering that final exclamation point. She wanted to remove it because her excitement was not genuine, but she would feel petty if she did.
Later, Laney would stop at the toy store and mail a small gift.
"To Luisa, from the old gang at Lakeside PD."
It was the first time Andreas had contacted her since he left. Laney always wondered what was the hesitation. They had been friends, after all. They had been nothing but friends. And deep down, even if she ached over his choice, she did hope that he was happy and well out there.
So life for Laney had gone back to how it was before that fateful summer, except not exactly. She worked, she came home. She vacationed with her parents. Occasionally, she might let her sister drag her out to some dive bar to get drunk and not talk to men. But it wasn't really the same anymore. Now, no matter what exciting cases or wild adventures, Laney knew that something important was missing.
And today in Sierra Nova, Luisa Palmer had her first birthday. Her parents bought her a strawberry cake from a very nice artisan market. They hadn't made many new friends in town to invite to a party, but Luisa got a few gifts in the mail.
"From the old gang," Gwen noticed one of Luisa's gifts had said, and she casually inquired about whom that meant. No major drama though.
Laney was smart enough not to sign just her own name, but she wondered if Andreas recognized her handwriting. She wondered if this small gift would lift a little girl's spirits, and perhaps remind her father of some special friends he used to have once upon a time.
—
other May birthdays:
2: Joseph Booth is 52
5: Jamie Pendleton is 29
6: Liberty Blair is 10
7: Rowan Phoenix is 3
8: Clark Beech is 50
10: Monica Bachman is 57
12: Luisa Palmer is 1
14: Penelope Pickett is 4
16: Robert Kim is 53
18: Bruce Collins is 42
21: Lucy Deppiesse is 21
22: Angela Harris is 47
24: Reid Morton is 14
25: Amelia Bradshaw is 32
26: Ryanne Phoenix is 16
28: Blaine Quick is 5
29: Lara Nova is 34
31: Colt Rodriguez is 7
May anniversaries:
5/3/2056: Raymond & Deidre Sylvester, 31 years
5/13/2084: Hayden & Piper Phoenix, 3 years
5/23/2054: Bryson & Madison Riley, 33 years

health strike:
58-year-old Nehemiah Pendleton (father to Jessica and Jamie) receives his first health strike, but he's still in pretty good shape for his age.
lot deterioration:
A small mouse has moved into the cafe in the Close Mutual building in Sierra Nova. Looks like nobody's noticed their new tenant yet.
—
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