The walk to the park seemed to go by way too fast. He was nervous; the sweat stains on his bright yellow polo shirt had nothing to do with the humidity sitting heavy in the air.

He was worried about what he would find at the park apart from the usual playground equipment and overdressed moms. He couldn't help but wonder if Alaina would be pissed that he missed their date, if you could call it that. At the same time he didn't think she had any right to be upset that he stayed on vacation an extra day but he felt the need to explain himself nonetheless.

"It's hot today Daddy," Olivia said, resting her head on her father's shoulder.

"It's beautiful," Nick nodded, looking down at the little girl who was completely decked out in Disney Princess pink from the top of her ball cap to the tips of her sneakers, "You just remember to tell me if you start to feel too hot okay?" he reminded her for the second time that day, giving her a pat on the bottom. He certainly didn't want a repeat of the little bought of heatstroke she'd had before, no matter what the outcome of that day had been.

Olivia nodded her head and wrapped her hands tighter around her father's neck as if she barely noticed the increase in temperature as she did so.

"One of these days I'm gonna make you carry me," Nick threatened playfully as they walked through the wrought iron gate into the sprawling green of the park, the playground set towards the back behind walking trails.

"Daddy, don't be silly," Olivia deadpanned and Nick had to hold back his laughter at her boldness, "Is Benji here?" she asked, finally lifting her head off her father's shoulder to have a look around the playground.

Nick followed her stare, taking his own look around the park. He didn't see them anywhere and he wasn't sure if he she be worried or scared. From the way he'd seen Alaina act over the past few days he was wondering if she was at his house right now trying to figure out where they were. As far as he knew she didn't know where he lived but stranger things had happened; after all he didn't think she knew where their beach house was either.

"Well?" the impatient little girl requested, patting her father's shoulder eagerly.

"I don't think he's here baby," Nick said sadly, lowering his little pink companion to the gravel path, "I'll play with you though."

Olivia looked up to her dad, over to the playground and back up to her dad while she contemplated her decision, "No thank you. Let's go to Benji's house and get him so he knows it's time to play."

Nick sighed heavily and eyed his little girl. He had a feeling that she was going to give him that kind of response, "What if Benji is sick?" he asked, "We can't just go over and disrupt him."

"Well if he's sick we need to bring him soup," Olivia had an answer ready for whatever her father was prepared to throw out at her.

Another sigh from the blonde man and he continued to look down at the equally as blonde girl, "Maybe he doesn't want soup? Maybe he's at the mall?"

Olivia huffed and shook her head, he obviously didn't understand the severity of the situation, "C'mon Daddy, let's go," she said and grabbed a hold of his hand. She yanked him back in the direction of the entrance on a mission to find out why Benji would be absent from the park.

Nick had no other option but to give in. There was nothing he could do when she got like this; if he said yes she knew she could get away with it next time she wanted something but had he said no she would have made him feel like the worst father in the world, pure scum of the earth. So as per usual he gave in, and let her lead him back out of the park and up half a block before she reached up to be carried, and he picked her up to lug her the rest of the way to Alaina's less-than-humble abode.

The sweating got worse as the neighbourhood got ritzier and he was worried that he'd be a hot, stinky, sweaty mess when they got to the door but he was going to have to face Alaina eventually. It wasn't as if they'd had a fight, and it wasn't as if they were really in a relationship but the way she had reacted on the weekend had him on high alert. He didn't think he was as nervous about seeing her as he was about their secret getting out.

"Here we are," he said, not as much to Olivia as for his own reassurance as they stood in front of the large wooden door. Nick firmly grabbed onto the door knocker with his free hand and smacked it against the supporting brass, hearing the thump resonate throughout the house.

It didn't take long before the door swung open and a dishevelled looking Alaina stood in front of them.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, not expecting company.

"Olivia wanted to play with Benji... you weren't at the park..." Nick stuttered, not quite as bold and confident facing her as he had anticipated he would be.

Alaina wiped stray hair that had fallen out of her ponytail away from her eyes and took a deep breath, "We were planning on going later, and I'm doing some housework. We didn't think you would be there, at the park, since you didn't show yesterday."

Nick scoffed and hiked Olivia a little higher on his hip, "We decided to stay an extra day. I don't have to check in with you, you know!"

"I know! I know!" Alaina dismissed him, not wanting to get into an argument out on her front porch where all of her neighbours could see. With a sigh she moved to open the door wider, motioning the two of them into the house.

"Thank you," he muttered as they passed by her and into the foyer, "I'm surprised you don't have a maid."

"I do," Alaina replied curtly, firmly closing the door and not providing any further details, "Benji is upstairs playing in his room," she told Olivia before instructing the girl to head on up.

Nick watched his pink angel make her way up the sprawling staircase before turning back to Alaina, "So what's the deal?"

"What do you mean?" Alaina questioned, letting him follow her into her study where she had left a glass of iced tea sitting on the desk.

"What was with showing up like that? On the weekend, I mean."

"I told you," Alaina shrugged, "I had to see you. I missed you."

"You can't follow me around like that! What if my wife had seen you?" he asked, putting his hands firmly on his hips as he watched her pensively sip on her drink.

Again she shrugged, "You could always tell her the truth!"

"The truth?!" he laughed, "Oh honey this is my good friend Alaina... how do we know each other? Oh, well we're fucking you see!"

"Don't be so crass," she shook her head in disgust.

"Well what do you expect?" he demanded, "I saw your car outside my beach house so my wife will notice eventually. Have you been at my house?"

Alaina's sudden blush answered his question but he waited to hear the words, "I wanted to see how you lived."

"I live in a small three bedroom house. We pay $1800 a month in rent... plus utilities. Our car payment is about $350 a month, but to be honest we splurged on it a little... I wanted cruise control, and she wanted the iPod jack. You want a list of prescriptions? How about magazine subscriptions? I can break down the number of extra channels we added to our cable if it would make you happy!"

Alaina put her hands over her ears, "Ok! Enough, already! I get the point!"

"Don't follow me around," he finished softly.

"I get it," the woman repeated, letting her hands slide down her jaw, "I was just... curious."

"What were you curious about?" Nick questioned, running a hand quickly through his hair, "I don't understand what would have been so interesting."

Alaina inhaled deeply, pressing her fingertips to her lips for a moment before locking her eyes with Nick's, "Your wife mostly, to be perfectly honest."

"What did you want to know?"

"I don't know," she shrugged, "I wondered about what she looked like, and how she acted... what you see in her."

Nick couldn't believe what he was hearing. He never imagined that he would have his barely attractive mistress wondering about the attributes of his moderately attractive wife, "Are you satisfied now that you know?"

"I never saw her," Alaina admitted, "That's why I went to your beach house. I didn't think you would see me."

"Why does it matter what she looks like?" he asked point blank, eyeing her uncertainly.

"It doesn't matter," Alaina clarified, visibly embarrassed with the line of questioning, "I just had these questions in the back of my mind. I wondered if she were prettier than I was..."

"I'm here," Nick interrupted, "It doesn't matter if she looks like Heidi Klum... I'm here!"

"I know," Alaina's hands pulled on the ends of her hair and she didn't think she'd said those two words as many times in her life as she had in the span of their conversation, "I'm sorry. I don't know what I was thinking. I just had to know what was so terrible about her that led you to this... to me."

"Nothing is terrible about her," he said, moving to sit beside her on the leather loveseat she'd perched herself on, "She's just... not in love with me."

"Do you love her?"

Nick paused, having to think long and hard about the question, "I love her," he nodded, "She gave me the greatest gift I've ever received... but I'm not sure that I was ever really in love with her."

"Are you in love with me?"

He'd dreaded this question as if it were a plague. He didn't think he could answer it without hurting her so he had to be honest, "No."

Alaina let out a woosh of air and looked up to the ceiling, "Thank God," she muttered.

Now Nick was definitely confused, "Sorry?"

"I was so worried you were going to say yes," she explained, eyes wide.

"That would be bad... if I were in love with you?"

She laughed, and nodded her head, "Well yeah it's not as if we can be in a relationship. I don't have to be in love with you to be a little jealous of your wife. After all... she's wasting your talents when they could be put to better use... on me."

Nick laughed sarcastically and pulled at his hair, "That makes no sense to me. You stress the fact that we can't be in a relationship but then turn around and tell me I should be using my so called ‘talents' on you, instead of my wife, who I am in a relationship with. You want me to be single so I can just be your secret boyfriend or something?"

"No, it just came out wrong," Alaina defended, "Can we please not fight about this? If I wanted to stand around arguing all the time I would just call my husband and get him to come home since Lord knows we're prize fighters."

Nick pursed his lips to keep from demanding an answer to his question and instead sighed, "You're absolutely right. I just need you to tell me that we'll do our best to keep this under wraps. No more coming to my house or the beach house, and following me around. I refuse to have to talk my way out of that disaster waiting to happen."

"You won't have to do that," she said but the answer gave Nick a strange feeling, "So... are you sticking around for a while?" she asked, reaching out to brush his hair behind his ear.

"I have to go," Nick told her bluntly, "There are things I need to take care of today, and Olivia still needs her nap."

"She's napped here every other day, what's different about today?" Alaina asked, wondering why Nick was suddenly cold and distant.

"I just... need to be alone this afternoon. Can you understand that?"

She nodded and Nick leaned over to kiss her temple quickly before getting up to collect his daughter and head home without another word spoken between them.

~*~

"You're quiet tonight."

Nick glanced up at the sound of Holly's soft voice, "I just don't have anything to say."

Holly pursed her lips and looked at him questionably, "That's very unlike you."

Nick shrugged and went back to the food that lay on the plate in front of him. He cut his meatloaf with the side of his fork, thinking about what was happening to his life. He would have never pictured himself in a situation where he had two women in his love life. Sure it wasn't as if things were perfect with Holly but they seemed to be making a turn for the better, and at the same time he had Alaina who seemed to have become more attached to him than he anticipated she would. She seemed at first as if the casual aspect of their "relationship" was going to be easy for her but more and more he felt her taking claim on him. It was like something out of a soap opera; his life.

Suddenly his head popped up and he dropped his fork to the table.

"Is there something wrong?" Holly wondered aloud, her voice laden with concern.

"I, uh, am going to go down into the basement for a bit," he said and without a second thought about his abandoned food moved quickly toward the door and down the stairs.

Once he was out of sight Holly sat back and smiled. She could picture him now, putting on his favourite hat (his "thinking cap") and putting himself down in front of his computer in the silence of his own subterranean vault. It had been a long time since she'd seen him act that way, since he'd been so desperate, so full of ideas. She only wondered what he was down there writing about.