It was just started to grow dark and the stars were starting to come out. Acting quickly to keep the atmosphere, Cairo ran around and lit dozens and dozens of candles that were placed around her backyard. Then she turned out the white lights that she had strung up earlier. The effect was spectacular. The soft wind would cause the candles to flicker, sending rays of candlelight dancing around peoples faces, casting an eerie glow over everyone's features.

The hired DJ had a mellow sounding voice and played super romantic music, and you could not get Robbie and Lacey to stop dancing. They had been inseparable since they had been pronounced man and wife.

Cairo sat down next to Nick, who was watching the happy couple, the only people dancing.

"That has to be the perfect picture of human love," Cairo commented, directing her gaze towards the two entwined figures.

"Always the writer, Kay. That was so poetic…But you can tell they were meant for each other. It's as obvious as anything," Nick said, turning to meet her gaze. Another slow song came on.

"Not dancing, Nick? I figured you'd want to show off your amazing technique," Cairo said, eyes sparkling with anticipation at his expected reaction.

"Low blow, Kay. You know I'm not the best dancer. I frustrate the choreographer to tears, the poor woman," Nick said, sounding indignant.

"Relax, Carter. Even you couldn't mess up slow dancing. All you do is sway to the music," she said.

"Well then, how about it, Kay? Wanna dance?" he said, standing up and offering her his hand.

"What about Veronica? Shouldn't you ask her?" Cairo said.

"She's in the bathroom. Come on, Kay. You practically challenged me to show you that I'm not completely inept when it comes to dancing," he said, smiling.

"Challenged? I don't remember that! And I did not say you were inept!" she exclaimed, taking his hand. He led her out onto the dance floor and wrapped his arms around her. They swayed slowly to the music. Growing more comfortable with him, Cairo leaned her head against his chest and closed the small gap between the two of them. Sighing happily at her warm reaction, Nick rest his head atop of hers.

Lacey and Rob, who had stopped dancing when they noticed that they were no longer the only ones taking advantage of the music, stood aside and watched the two of them dancing.

Why are you torturing yourself like this, Cairo? Why did you have to dance with him? You seriously need some help, Cairo lectured herself. She lifted her head and looked up at Nick. He was smiling lightly, but not only with his mouth, but his eyes were smiling too. It had been awhile since Cairo had seen that. Locked in each other's gaze, they were oblivious to everything else.

And everyone else. Neither of them noticed that not all of their audience was watching on happily. No, there was one observer who was very upset with what she saw.

"So, that little bitch thinks she can steal my Nicky while I'm in the bathroom? I'll have to teach her a little lesson; you don't try to steal my boyfriend and try to get away with it," Veronica whispered vehemently to herself. She was not at all pleased with the scene before her.

"But what can I do to get to the little writer?" she asked herself. She turned around and saw the answer to her question. "It's brilliant."

She walked back outside. First of all, I should break up that all to heart warming display, she thought to herself.

"Nicky! Nicky!" she said. Cairo sighed and let go of Nick and turned around. And was surprised to see that all of the other guests at the wedding were watching the two of them dancing. She blushed furiously at their pointed glances, and turned around to find Lacey, while Nick walked dejectedly over to Veronica.

* * * *

"Thank you again for coming, Beth," Lacey said, hugging Cairo's cousin.

"It was great to see you again, Lacey, and it was a beautiful wedding," Beth said, returning the hug and then turning to walk to her car.

Beth was the last guest to leave, except of course Nick and Veronica. After closing the door, Lacey turned around and sighed. She had changed out of her wedding dress and was just waiting for Rob to finish their last minute packing.

"You guys have such a weird flight time," Cairo commented.

"Yeah, 1 a.m. wasn't the best time for our flight, but that gets us to New York in time to catch our flight to France. I'm going to France," Lacey cooed, disbelieving.

"I know, you're going to enjoy it! Make sure to get some postcards for your favorite wedding host, Lacey," Cairo said. Lacey hugged her as Rob came down the stairs, carrying their bags. Cairo walked them out to their rental car and said a long tearful goodbye to her best friend.

"Thank you so much for everything, Kay. No sister could have done a better job," Lacey said, getting into the car. Cairo just smiled and waved as they drove away, but she was really touched by the first time Lacey had called her a sister.

She walked exhaustedly back into her house.

"So, Carrie, what is this thing?" Veronica said. She was standing by Cairo's desk, glass of wine in hand, pointing to Cairo's laptop.

"That's my computer. Haven't you ever seen a laptop? And my name is Cairo, not Carrie," Cairo said grumpily. She was exhausted; she had been up since the crack of dawn preparing for the wedding.

"Oh, so this is where you write all of your creations?" Veronica said, her tone bordering on mockery. Cairo nodded. Veronica started to walked away when she suddenly tripped over the chair that was right in front of her. She fell forwards, towards the desk, the hand holding the wine glass the closest to the computer.

Time seemed to freeze. Cairo lunged forward, sensing what was about to happen, but to far away to stop it. Veronica dropped the glass, its contents pouring onto the exposed keyboard of her laptop. Cairo screamed.

"Oh my god!! Tell me that did not just happen!" Cairo screamed, running toward her desk. Her worse fear was realized, the computer was on. She didn't know how, but it was on. She unplugged it as fast as she could, but the damage done was evident. It had short circuited, there was no hope of saving it.

"You little bitch! My novel…My novel was on that!" Cairo screamed, shaking with contained rage. Nick, seeing his girlfriend's life was in danger, dove forward and helped Veronica to her feet.

"Kay," he said cautiously. "Kay, it was an accident, she didn't mean it."

"I could loose everything, do you realize that? Her little accident could have just caused me almost five months of my life! My work Nick, my book! It was on there and now it's ruined!" she yelled.

"Kay, it was an accident. Please stop yelling," Nick said.

"An accident? That was not an accident! It's just too convenient for her!" Cairo yelled, her suspicions escaping before she had a chance to contain them.

"Kay, you can't be serious. Why would she purposely try to destroy your novel? It doesn't make sense, Kay," Nick said, trying to reason.

"Because she hates me! I don't know why, but I don't think that this was an accident. It was just to perfectly staged! Can't you see that, Nick?" Cairo demanded.

"Kay, you're obviously upset, and not thinking clearly. Just calm down and you'll realize that this is nonsense," Nick said. There was a moment of silence as Cairo tried to collect herself, which was difficult considering her incredible rage and disbelief that Nick was taking Veronica's side.

"Get her out of my house," Cairo said, perfectly calm. Nick stared at her for a moment longer and then dragged Veronica, who for once was speechless, out the door.

Nick watched Veronica drive away and sighed and turned around and walked towards Cairo. She was standing in the door way, with a stoney look on her face. He walked tentatively over to her.

"Kay, listen," he tried to say when she cut him off.

"It was backed up. I remeber backing it up on a disk the last time I saved it," she said.

"I am so relieved. I'll replace your laptop, whatever it takes, Kay. I am sorry this happened," Nick said.

"So am I. Because now I know who you really are, Nick. I know that when you make a promise, I shouldn't listen to it, or believe that it will actually come true," she said, her voice trembling.

"What are you talking about Kay?" Nick asked, baffled.

"You once promised me that you would be there for me, always. But you weren't tonight. You chose her over me!" Cairo said, her voice trembling.

"Kay, you call that breaking a promise? You were being ridiculous! She didn't purposely sabotage your story, it was an accident," he said, over come with worry, worry that he would loose her, turning it into anger.

"Why are you with her?" Cairo burst out, her control breaking. She was emotionally exhausted and it was effecting her self-control.

"Kay, I told you there was a reason. I guess now is the best time to hear it. I found her one night, on the bus. She was drunk out of her mind, and she had a bottle of pills in her hand. I assumed that she was going to down the whole bottle, so I took them away from her, and made sure she fell asleep in her own bed. The next day, she told everyone that we were together, and I didn't have the heart to contradict her," he said.

"That's your excuse? That's why you're with her?" Cairo demanded.

"Yes, Kay. That's the only reason," he assured her. He was starting to feel relief, she was calming down. Maybe they could still work things out.

"So because she felt sorry for herself one night and was going to swallow a bottle of pills, that's why you broke your promise? I honestly believed you Nick. I thought I could count on you to be there for me," Cairo said quietly.

"I wasn't there for you? What about you Kay? You didn't call for months! After the way you tore out of the hotel room, I thought that you were mad at me, so I waited and waited for you to call me. Why did you leave me?" he yelled, his resolve breaking.

"I was scared...I couldn't..." she trailed off, tears welling in her eyes.

"Scared of what, Kay? Scared to admit that someone fell in love with you? Well, I'm sorry, but it happened," he yelled, bearing his heart for her. She gasped and her tears overflowed.

"No...no, you don't know what you're talking about. You shouldn't say things you don't mean!" she said, her voice shaking as the weight of what he'd said sunk in.

"What are you so scared of?" he demanded.

"Do you know what it's like to loose the first person you ever loved, only to find out that they never loved you? It tears your soul apart Nick. And you ask me why I can't...I can't hear this. I can't listen to more lies," she screamed. An intense moment of silence followed as Nick watched her, like a wounded puppy. He had finally told her how he felt, and she had thrown his words back in his face.

"If that's what you think of me, if you honestly think that I would lie to you after what Brad did to you, if you think that I would do to you what he did, then you don't know me at all," he said slowly.