"Steve, honey, I'm not comfortable with..."

"That's OK, Syd," Steve said, "You can do other things. Like, I don't know, why don't you trade Taylor a kiss."

Taylor rolled her eyes. Sydney's innocent act only went so far when her boyfriend was the famously frisky Steve. But Sydney wasn't going to skip her opportunity to skip out. She stood up and planted a little peck on Taylor's cheek.

She looked kind of proud of herself, as if she'd actually done something instead of wussing out. Whatever. Taylor had them all right where she wanted them.

*

Tim sat with his arms crossed and tried to stay as unnoticeable as possible....