"You said that I wouldn't have to do anything for this little plan of yours, but keep my mouth shut," Cameron complained. "And now I have to come along and help play matchmaker."

"I told you I'd make it up to you. I'll give you three things that you want to do because I know how much you are against me 'interfering' in this. So what ever you want to do this weekend, we will," Amanda said and reached over to straighten his tie.

"Oh, I'm gonna think of something that I want to do and something that you'll hate," Cameron said and loosened his tie after Amanda tightened it just a little. They went into the Harbor Club and Paulina looked up and waved them over. Joe and her were standing near the bar having a cocktail before dinner. Amanda and Cameron walked over to them and just as they were half way in, Amanda felt a hand on her shoulder and jumped a mile. Cameron turned around and Matt looked at Amanda.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," Matt said as he planted a kiss on her cheek. "How's it going Cameron?" He asked as the two shook hands.

"Fine, not bad at all," Cameron said and watched Amanda out of the corner of his eye. She was shaking ever so slightly and her eyes were wider than usual, but she she was trying to cover it up.

"Well, you did scare me, but no more than usual," Amanda said and hoped her voice was level and not as jumpy as she felt. Matt had scared her, but that was only part of the problem. She had not slept well the past few nights. When she had drifted off to sleep, nightmares had been quick to come and wake her with cold sweat and the tinglely feeling on the back of her neck. And having to have enough control over herself so not to let anyone see how much this whole incident with Josie had effected her, was exhausting as well.

"What's the special occasion?" Matt asked as soon as he had greeted his other sister and brother-in-law. "Dinner at the Harbor Club. Pretty snazzy." Matt looked around and saw that both Paulina and Amanda were not meeting his eyes. "What is it?" he asked, laughing slightly and not really suspecting anything.

"Well, its like this, Matt," Amanda began and then her eye was drawn to the door when she saw Jen walk in. "Excuse me for a minute," she said as she went to the door and greeted the girl. "Jen? Hi, I'm Amanda and I'm so glad that you could come."

"Thank you." Jen said. She was a pretty girl, about 5'6 with long red hair. She wore a blue swing dress and little make-up. "I'm a little nervous about this whole thing. I've never been set up before."

"Well you and my brother will get along just fine then," Amanda said. "He still doesn't know about you, but don't worry, I'm sure you'll hit it off."

"Is that him, the one with the light brown hair? He's quite the looker. I'm sure that we'll get along just fine," Jen asked, looking over at Cameron.

"NO, that's not him. That's my husband," Amanda said flatly. "He's the one with the blonde hair."

"Ooo, a blonde, great," Jen said, flushing at her pass at Amanda's guy. "He looks like he's just my type." And the two walked over to meet the others.

"Everybody, I would like you to meet Jen. Jen this is Paulina my sister, her husband Joe, Cameron, my husband and this," Amanda said, pulling her brother over slightly, "is Matthew, my baby brother."

"Hello everybody, it's nice to meet you," said Jen. "Matthew, so very nice to meet you."

"Likewise Jen," Matt said, smiling all the while, but Amanda could tell that he was feeling like he's been ambushed. He turned to Amanda and she could tell that he was going to ask to speak to her privately so Amanda interrupted before he could.

"I see our table's ready. Why don't we all sit down and get to know one another?" Amanda said smoothly and reluctantly, Matt followed everyone else to the table. When they were all seated and a bottle of wine had been ordered, Amanda turned to Jen and started a conversation. "So, Jen, tells us a little bit about yourself."

"Well, I just left my job as executive consultant for Safeguard Banking and now I'm head of public relations for the Chicago White Sox," Jen said.

"Wow, impressive isn't it guys?" Paulina asked. "So what else?"

The conversation went on and on, and despite himself, Matt found himself getting more and more drawn into the conversion with Jen. He couldn't help but notice that she was a very, very attractive woman who had a lot in common with him. It was right after dinner was ordered, Matt asked Jen to dance. They went out to the floor along with Joe and Paulina, while Cameron and Amanda stayed at the table to talk for a minute.

"See? Now, don't I know how to pick 'em?" Amanda said turning to Cameron. "I told you this would all work out."

"Easy there Matchmaker. The night is still young," Cameron said. "There could be a lot of stuff up with this girl that we don't know yet."

"Cameron, you know if you don't shut up and stop putting down my brilliant idea," Amanda started to say.

"I thought it was Paulina's idea," Cameron pointed out smirking.

"You know, I think I'm gonna fill out one of those forms for me," Amanda said. "Maybe I'll be able to find someone who truly appreciates my talents."

"Come on, let's dance and you can tell me what your looking for in a soulmate," Cameron said and helped Amanda out of her chair. They went to the dance floor and began to dance along with the music. Although she was enjoying the song and the motion, Amanda couldn't help but watch her brother and Jen over her husband's shoulder.

"See, look? Their having a great time out there together. Do you hear wedding bells?" Amanda asked.

"Would you stop staring at them?" Cameron said as he spun Amanda around so she was no longer able to gawk at her brother. He kept her that way despite her protests and she finally settled down and just assumed defeat. Cameron, after a while, just glanced over at the couple and could see that they were enjoying each other's company and Cameron was glad. Matt was a nice guy and he deserved to be happy, and Amanda was happy thinking that she was responsible for that happiness. They continued dancing until the waiter came and told them that their salads were waiting for them at the table. They all went back and sat down once again to talk.

"So, Matt, how are things going down at work?" Amanda asked, not wanting to seem to eager to show how much she was putting on this whole meeting with Jen and her brother.

"Fine, although things haven't been as smooth since you left down there Amanda," Matt replied cutting up his lettuce. "Are you enjoying the transition from your old job to your new one Jen?"

"Excuse me," Jen said addressing the waiter. "Do you think I could have another smaller plate for my roll and such? Thank you. Sorry Matt, what? Oh, my new job. It's different. But I think I'm going to enjoy the challenge of learning a whole new area of my career field and such."

"Well, that's great," Amanda said and the conversation went on to various topics among the smaller groups that were at the table. The waiter brought Jen her extra plate and on that she put on her tomatoes and cucumbers. Amanda smiled at the way that Matt was watching her and turned to Cameron to say with a look 'I told you so,' but Cameron wasn't looking at Amanda. His fork was halfway to his mouth and he was staring at Jen. Amanda turned to see what he was gazing at and when she turned around, she got an eyeful. In fact, at the same time, so did Matt, Joe and Paulina.

Jen was holding in her hand, one of the biggest spiders Amanda had ever seen in her life. It was in the palm of her hand and she set it down on the extra plate that she had placed her tomatoes and cucumbers. Jen looked up and saw everyone looking at her and her little friend.

"Oh, you all don't mind if Chester stays and dines with us. You see I was telling him all about the evening tonight and he promised to be quiet if I let him come along. So he's been a good boy and I thought he should be let out to play for a while. People are so afraid of spiders these days. None of my spiders ever so much as said a nasty word to me ever," Jen said as she stroked the hairy body of the tarantula.

"Um, you have more than one spider?" Joe asked, eyeing warily the eight legged friend who had joined the party so oddly.

"Oh, I have about 20 at the time. It was so funny, when I got home, I went to turn on the TV and the remote was totally encased in a web," Jen laughed at the memory.

"Oh, one of them got out by mistake?" Amanda asked, sensing disaster coming.

"Oh no, I let my spiders roam around the house as much as they like. I don't believe in caging them. We live together as snug as bugs in the rug," Jen picked up Chester and held him close to her face. "So Paulina, how old did you say your son was?" Jen asked all the while breaking off a piece of bread and feeding her pet.

"Oh my God," Cameron said as he yanked off his tie and threw it on the chair followed by his coat. "That was painful to watch."

"It wasn't that bad at all," Amanda retorted, irritated that the plan had not worked out.

"Amanda, the only way that it could have been worse was if she would have stood up and said she was really a man or something," Cameron said.

"Why do you say that? She had an interesting hobby is all," Amanda said.

"She was a freak who believed the insects she lived with talked to her," Cameron replied exasperated. He started to talk some more, but there was a knock on the door and Amanda opened it up to see her angry brother standing there.

"You want to tell me what that was tonight?" Matt said. "I agree to have dinner with my two sister and their husbands and I get ambushed by Spiderwoman!"

"Paulina and I just thought that maybe you might be lonely and need a push," Amanda said, backing up into the room.

"You and Paulina thought," Matt asked. "Did you ever think about what I thought and what I wanted?"

"We just wanted to..." Amanda began.

"Well, next time, don't want to," Matt shouted and stormed off.

Amanda turned around with tears in her eyes and looked at Cameron. He knew that she really did mean well with this whole thing. Cameron sighed and picked up his car keys and went after Matt.

"You know what the problem with women is?" a slightly drunk Matt asked Cameron. The two were perched side by side on bar stools at the pub. Cameron had caught up to Matt and the two had gone out for a beer. Well one beer had led to 5 for Matt. Cameron, being the driver (and somewhat afraid of what Amanda would do to him if he came home drunk) had kept himself totally sober.

"No what?" Cameron asked, reaching for a few pretzels from the bowl on the bar.

"They don't listen to what your saying and they read into way to much what they think your not saying," Matt said, partially slurring his words. "You know the one women who never does that to me?"

"Who?" Cameron asked, trying to listen to Matt and looking at the hockey scores that were on the TV at the bar.

"Cantonata."

"Who?" Cameron repeated.

"You know Jen went on and on tonight about her spiders and how they talk to her and stuff. And then she went on and on about how this whole thing would make a great chapter for her Michael Rickrod story or whatever that stupid story she was writing for that fan fiction page. After the spider things, when she cornered me into dancing again, she went on and on about how she had to write this into her story for her soap opera, "Another Time' or something," Matt said shaking his head.

"People actually do that? Write further on then the TV show goes? How pathetic can you get?" Cameron asked, shaking his head in disbelief as well. He finished his beer and looked back at Matt. "So who is this Cantonata? Are you interested in her or something?"

Matt shook his head and finished his beer as well. "I don't know who she is, but I know that I want to be with her and there's nothing I can do about it."

"What are you talking about?" Cameron asked.

"Okay, now don't tell Amanda and don't laugh," Matt started out. "Maybe it's just because I'm on the rebound from Lila and stuff, but...." And with that, Matt went into the whole thing about Cantonata and how they met. When he finished, Cameron had not so much as snickered at the odd story. Instead he offered some advice.

"Look I've heard of stranger things happening with people. I mean look at your sister and I. I hated her and she hated me and now we're married. How much weirder can you get then our story. So in the end this thing with the on-line girl isn't so different. Just ask her if she wants to meet or talk on the phone," Cameron said.

"But what if she lives in Moscow or something?" Matt replied, feeling really glad that he was getting objective advice about the whole situation.

"Well, you'll never know if you don't ask," Cameron said. "Nothing ever happens if you don't show up or try."

It had been two weeks since Matt and Cameron had sat on the pub stools and talked. Thanksgiving had come and gone. The entire family and attended including Tucker and Gary. It had been strained between the three brothers, but other then that there had been no real contact made by Tucker towards either of his brothers. Amanda had made a little head way with him though. She happened upon him out on the patio after Thanksgiving dinner and had been amazed to see the sketch book that he had accomplished in his life. Sketches of people, places anything that this boy could see, he could obviously sketch. Amanda had expressed interest and had shown him the Cory art room in the house. She had told him that he was welcome to come when ever he felt like it and there had been evidence in the room that he had been there, although, no one had ever seen him.

Matt, took his chat with Cameron to heart. He had spent much time on the computer talking to Cantonata and they had formed a solid friendship. It was tonight that he was going to get up the courage to ask her if she wanted to meet. He had chickened out all of the other time, but tonight was it.

CANTONATA: So as I was saying.. that's just the way the ball bounces.

Matt bit his lip and shrugged. Here goes nothing.

SHARK: If I ask you something, do you promise not to freak out or anything?

CANTONATA: I promise.

SHARK: Well, I was wondering, since we've gotten along so well and stuff that maybe we should possibly meet or something.

Matt watched the screen for a while and Cantonata did not reply. Matt held his breath and was just about to write on the screen that he was only joking, when he got his reply.

CANTONATA: Let's do it.

SHARK: Are you sure? I mean, I don't want to pressure you into anything.

CANTONATA: Now, I'm going to say something to you that you have to promise not to laugh. I consider you my close friend. I know I've never met you or anything, but we've been talking into the wee hours of the morning for weeks now. I want to take the chance and meet you.

Matt was just thrilled at this time that he was talking on the computer and she couldn't hear the yell of joy he let out.

SHARK: Okay, so let me come to you then. Tell me where you live and we'll meet at a very public place so we both feel okay and secure and such.

CANTONATA: I live in New York City. The best place I can think of would be Rockafellar Center. That's a nice place to go to and meet.

Matt and Cantonata arranged the date and time. Today was December 17. They would meet on the 19th at 3:00. They would both be wearing red scarves and be sitting at the hot chocolate stand. There were no strings attached. If some one decided to back out, then it would be fine and no reason would need to be given. It was all set. In another half hour, they logged out and Matt left with enormous butterflies in his stomach about the upcoming meeting.