Sydney didn't have much, but that was fine with her. She didn't need much. Growing up on the Washington coast in a lonely beach town, working quietly behind the scenes was what she was good at. Living on the beach was much less glamorous than most p...
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For the times that pass my life I'll search for the sky that she wonders by.
Chris was downing the last of his coffee when the phone rang. It was Christmas morning and he and Susan were getting ready to head over to his mom's house. "Hello?" Susan answered, being closest to the phone. "Uh, sure. Is everything okay?" Chris looked up at her as she chuckled. "Okay. Here he is." She handed him the phone, and suddenly he had a good idea of who it might be. "Sydney, please tell me your apartment isn't burning to the ground as we speak?" He smiled in to the receiver. "No, but... I fucked it up somehow. It was going fine at first but it tastes like shit and now half of it is burned to the pan." "Did you cook it on high?" There was no answer on Syd's end, just a frustrated sigh. He laughed again. "Alright. We'll stop by on our way out today and get you all sorted out." Hanging up, he turned to Sue. "Sydney burned the cranberry sauce." "I thought she didn't cook?" "She doesn't, but she tried. It didn't go so well." "Oh. She seemed pretty upset about it." "She is supposed to be bringing it to her boyfriend's parents house. It's the first time she is meeting them and she's worried they won't like her." "Ah, I see. I didn't know she had a boyfriend." "Uh, yeah. That bartender from Halloween. Lucky for Sydney, I had a feeling this was going to happen so I made some last night. We can drop it off on the way."
***
About half an hour later, Chris was knocking on Sydney's front door. She answered, looking flustered. The smell inside the small apartment was not pleasant. "Thank god... I don't know what I did wrong. I did everything just like you told- oh shit, is that what I think it is?!" The words poured out of her, and the look of relief on her face when she saw the ornate dish with perfectly pleasant looking cranberry sauce in it was amusing. Chris and Susan both laughed as they stepped in to the small entryway. "I had a gut feeling that you might need a back up, just in case. Wouldn't want Adam's perfect mommy to judge you solely on your cooking." He joked, setting the dish on the counter. "You just saved my entire life. You even put a fancy garnish on top... thank you so much. Both of you." "Where's Liz?" Chris asked, walking over to the pan on the stove to inspect the damage. "She stayed at Mitch's house last night, as usual... oh, please don't-" It was too late. Chris brought the foul tasting goopy mixture to his lips. Immediately he made a disgusted face, looking at Sydney. "Holy shit. That's really bad." "I told you." She groaned. "Seriously, what did you put in that?" "Sugar, orange juice, water, orange zest. Just like you told me." "Sydney was going to show up with canned cranberry sauce." He explained to Susan. "Ick." Susan said, making a face as well. "Show me what you used." He told her, stepping aside. With a sigh, she opened the spice cupboard and pulled out the few ingredients she had used. Chris immediately grabbed the glass jar of sugar and opened it. He dipped a finger in and brought it to his tongue. "Figured out your first problem. This is salt, not sugar." "Damn it, Liz and her stupid jars. She doesn't label any of it!" "Probably because you don't ever try to cook." "Fair point. Ugh, well... I'll probably just toss this." She threw the whole pan in the trash. There was no way in hell that she was going to take the time to scrub that burned crap off. "Probably a wise decision." Susan smiled kindly. Sydney realized just then that this was the first time that Susan had been inside her apartment. She suddenly felt embarrassed. She was just a kid compared to Susan, who owned a condo and ran her own business and had been to college. The bleak apartment screamed "broke". It was clean, at least, except for the mess she had made in the kitchen. "I really appreciate your help. I couldn't thank you enough even if I said it a million times. Adam should be here any minute and I've still got to get dressed... I'm a wreck." She said. "Yeah, we have to get going too. Merry Christmas Syd." Susan agreed, hugging her. "Thanks, you too." Chris hugged her next, squeezing her much harder than Susan had. Pulling away, he left his hands on her shoulders and looked down in to her eyes. "Merry Christmas, Sydney Lee. Good luck today." "Thank you. I'll need it." "No you won't. Just don't offer to cook anything, don't have more than two glasses of wine, and you'll do great." "Thanks. Merry Christmas." She smiled gratefully up at him as he reluctantly released her. Despite his encouraging words, he wished she wasn't going. Meeting his parents had to mean that her and Adam were getting serious, and the thought depressed him. He didn't like Adam, and he couldn't deny that he felt a lot of things for Sydney. He couldn't have her, but it didn't change the way he felt. Forcing himself to turn back to Susan, he grabbed her hand and threw one last smile Sydney's way before she shut the door behind them. "She sleeps on the floor? With a roommate?" Susan asked quietly. "Yeah. She doesn't have much, but she seems to be okay with it." "Didn't she pitch in for the van you guys bought?" "She did." "Why would she do that when she could have bought herself a mattress, at the very least?" "I dunno. She's a nice kid. Just don't tell her I told you... she doesn't like people to know." He joked, making Susan laugh.
