ASHLEY: 

      "Do you really want me to come, babe?" I inquire. "I mean, are you sure it won't be weird having me along, since you were almost married to their son?"

      Steph's voice comes through the bathroom door, replying, "Yes, I'm sure I want you to come with us. They understand that I've moved on with my life since Philip, and they're cool with it. They still mean a lot to me, and they really want to meet you, since I've talked so much about you to Talia. And if you remember, Shane and Dori are coming along, too, so Jamie will have someone close to his age to talk to, so you won't be the only one who doesn't know many people."

      "Okay, if it's that important to you, I'll be glad to tag along. I just need to finish up in here, and then I'll be ready."

      "Sounds great, babe!" she practically chirps. "And stop worrying. Just be yourself, and they'll love you."

      I hear her leave the room, so I turn my attention back to the flat-iron and finish getting my hair in order. I spend a bit more time on it than usual, and also double-check my clothes in the mirror when I go back into the bedroom, because I definitely want to look my best today. Steph's friends from London are in town for the next few days, and she's asked me to come along on their outing to Disneyland and get acquainted with everyone. 

      They arrived yesterday morning and checked into a hotel near the airport, She'd told them several times that they were welcome to stay here, but they said that they thought it would be better to be there, where they could nap off the jet lag without disrupting anyone else's routine. Then she and Alice spent some time with them last night, while I hung out and watched a basketball game with Lylah and Macy until she got home. But today, the three of us are going along with them, and she's also invited Midori and Shane to go with us, so her little nephew will have someone to play with, and to go with on the rides that the grown-ups can't go on.

      I finally head out to find Steph, and find Macy and Lylah standing in the archway that leads from the living room to the hallway. As I get closer I hear Lylah say, "Well, if we'd known this was gonna happen, we could've just bought one, and saved some money."

      I see that they're looking down at something, so I move to the side to peek around them, and see Mickey sleeping in his bed, with Sinatra curled up under his chin, resting his head on Mickey's shoulder. They've become great friends over the past couple of weeks, but this is the first time I've seen them sharing the same bed, so I inquire, "When did this become a thing?"

      "Last night, apparently," Macy responds. "Sinatra was in our room when we went to bed, but Lylah said he wanted out when she got up to use the bathroom, and we found them like this when we got up. They came to the kitchen with me to get their breakfast, then headed back here to sack out again."

      The doorbell rings, and we turn around in time to see Steph rocketing toward the door, flinging it open to have a small boy wrap himself around her knees. "Auntie Steffy!" he crows, winding his arms around her neck as she picks him up. "I's ready to go see Peter Pan and Dumbo now! Hurry, let's go!"

      "Slow down there, sweetie," she replies, dropping a kiss on the end of his nose. "We're still waiting for my little buddy Shane and his mom to get here. I told you they were coming so you'd have somebody your size to play with, don't you remember?"

      "Oh, yeah. So I has somebody to ride the pwane's wif, and the other stuffs you and Mummy and Daddy is too big to ride wif me. I 'members now."

      The door opens further, and as several other people file in, I recognize the first one as the woman I saw during the Skype call Steph took the night we watched the movie here. She's followed by a lanky red-haired guy who seems to be about my age, and then an older couple steps inside and closes the door. Steph sets the boy down and hugs everyone, then motions them into the room where the rest of us are standing. "I think you all remember Macy and Lylah from when they visited me in London," she says to them before walking over to take hold of my hand. "But now I'd like to introduce you to my boyfriend, Ashley. Ash, this is my friend Talia Langley, her husband Simon, and her parents, Henry and Adele Grantham-Kemp." Then she leans down, sweeps the little boy up again, and says, "And this is my other best guy, Jamie."

      Talia looks me over for a minute, without saying anything, then turns to Steph and declares, "Well, you certainly weren't exaggerating. He is quite the attention grabber, isn't he?"

      I feel the blood rising up into my face as Steph replies, "Yes, he's definitely that, but you'll see that there's a lot more to him than that. You should know me well enough to know that I'm not going to date someone just because they're eye candy."

      The younger guy moves forward and extends his hand to me. "Hello then, mate. I'm Simon, it's good to meet you." I shake his hand, then the older man comes over, and I repeat the process with him.

      Jamie is just leaning on Steph's shoulder watching everything, but then he sort of startles me by blurting out, "If him is your boyfriend now, is you gonna gets married wif him, Auntie Steffy?"

      "I don't know that yet, Lovebug," she tells him. "He hasn't been my boyfriend for very long, so we have to wait and see. Remember, your uncle was my boyfriend for a pretty long time before we thought we wanted to get married."

      "That's right, kiddo," I add. "We've only been boyfriend and girlfriend for about a month, and it takes a little longer than that to know if you want to marry somebody. But I can tell you that I like your auntie very much, and I enjoy spending time with her, so I won't say that it might not happen someday."

      The kid is just looking at me, like he's sizing me up, when we hear his mom call out, "Simon! You have to come see this, you'll be absolutely gobsmacked!"

     We turn to see her standing in the archway, looking into the hall, and everyone hurries over to see what she's pointing at. When Simon steps around her, his eyebrows shoot up and he exclaims, "Bloody hell, Steph! How did you ever manage this?" 

      When everyone can see that they're looking at Mickey and Sinatra, she snickers and replies, "I didn't 'manage' anything, they made friends with each other all by themselves. Mickey's a bit different than the dogs you're used to, dude, he loves pretty much anything and anybody. From what I understand, he was at the shelter for almost six months before I got him, and they said he never so much as growled at any of the other animals, let alone a person."

      "Puppy!" Jamie shrieks, starting to wriggle in Steph's arms. "And a kitty, too! Can I stroke them, Auntie Steffy? Pleeeeease?"

      "Well, that's kind of up to them, but I don't think they'll mind if you can do it without yelling," she tells him. "That might scare them, and kitties sometimes scratch people when they're scared. And Mickey is big enough to knock you over and hurt you, even if he doesn't mean to."

      "I can be twiet," he agrees, so she puts him down, and he starts tiptoeing toward them, almost whispering, "Here, puppy! Come here, kitty!"

      Mickey's head pops up, and as soon as he sees Jamie moving toward him, he stands up and basically leaps out of the bed, going into his play-crouch position, with his tail going like a metronome. But surprisingly, instead of bouncing around in circles like he does with the rest of us, he stays this way until Jamie reaches him, then sort of nuzzles him with his nose and rolls over to expose his belly, as Sinatra ambles over and winds himself in circles around Jamie's legs.

      "Well, it looks like he's used to children," Henry observes. "He's obviously been trained how to behave with them. You've got yourself a good one here, Stephanie."

      The doorbell rings, and Macy goes off to answer it, coming back a minute or so later with Midori and Shane. Steph introduces them to everyone, and then Shane darts over to join Jamie in playing with the animals. After a few seconds, Shane steps back and says, "Steph'nie, what happens to your doggie? He gots a big ouchie on his face."

      She nods, and says, "Yes, I know he does. The house he used to live in caught on fire, and he got burned trying to save his kitty friend. It doesn't hurt him anymore, but his fur isn't ever going to grow back there, so it's always going to look that way."

      "But the kitty not burnded," Jamie points out.

      "No, love, it wasn't this kitty. The other kitty got hurt too much, and the doctor had to make him go to sleep," Steph explains.

       "Oh, so he goed to Heaben, like Angus when the lorry runned over him," Jamie states. "Poor kitty. But doggy gots a new fwend now, so he won'ts be sad." Then he pauses, seeming to just now notice Shane, and says, "Hello, then. My name is James Michael Langley, but Mummy and Daddy calls me Jamie. What's yours?"

      A big grin spreads across Shane's face, and he exclaims, "I gots Michael, too, 'cause it's my grandy's name! I's Shane Michael Ojeda, and I's four. How old is you?"

      They start chatting away like they're lifelong friends as they play with the animals, and by the time we get everything ready to head out for Disneyland, they're both insisting on riding together in the car. So we end up taking Midori, Talia, and Simon along in Steph's Highlander, with the boy's carseats strapped into the rear fold-out seat, and the grandparents ride with Macy and Lylah. I offer to drive so she's free to chat with her guests, and as we make our way onto the interstate, I hear her ask, "So, how is everything going with Philip and Cyndee? Has she driven him completely insane yet?"

      "You could say that, I suppose," Talia responds. "From what we've heard from Nick Holmwood, Phil's spent the past week or so utterly legless, since he caught her in the kip with Ronald Neale."

      "You can't be serious!" Steph shrieks, nearly wiping out my right eardrum. "Ronald Neale is Henry's age! And he looks like a fat Harpo Marx!"

      "Yes, but he's also nearly as wealthy as Richard Branson," Simon responds wryly. "Somehow, I doubt that a bad haircut and a paunch are enough of a deterrent to keep the wench from trying to work herself into his bank account." 

      "Considering the fact that she basically has a cash register where her heart should be, I doubt that she'd care if the dude was in an iron lung," I comment. 

      "You know Cyndee, then?" Talia queries.

      "Unfortunately, yes. I made the mistake of dating her for a few weeks about nine years ago," I acknowledge. "Got myself royally screwed over in the process, too, because I was too stupid to listen when people warned me about her. So I guess I can't really blame anyone but myself."

      "Neither can my brother," Talia retorts. "We had all heard stories about how badly she treated Steph, and practically anyone else she's ever met, and he's admitted that he knew exactly who she was before he started mucking about with her. So I think he may have a bit of difficulty finding sympathy from anyone now that she's done precisely what everyone's been expecting all along."

      "Well, now that the topic has come up, you may as well tell her the rest," Simon prompts. "Might help to avoid some awkward moments when we get to the park."

      Steph twists around in her seat to look at them, and I hear Talia sigh. "Yes, you're right. I know Dad was planning to have a talk with you while we were here, but I guess I'll save him the bother." She sighs again, and seems to be gathering her thoughts before she finally announces. "When he walked in on Cyndee and Ronald, she served him with divorce papers, that she'd already had drawn up. She was trying to sue him for support, and all sorts of other nonsense, but since she's caused him to lose his position at the accounting firm, he's got nothing to give her. So now she's gotten her solicitor to try to get the money from Mum and Dad. She's claiming that since they cut him off for marrying her, it qualifies as some sort of discrimination, so they owe her what he should be paying."

      "How did she cause him to lose his job?" I inquire. 

      "Well, when you catch the boss swiving your wife, usually one of two things happens," Simon remarks. "Either you roll with it, and find yourself on the fast track to a corner office, or you do what Phil did: Black his eye and threaten to call the missus."

      "Which tends to make a career change desirable, if not mandatory," I finish. "Yeah, makes sense now."

      "Tell you what," Steph interjects. "When we get back to the house, I'll call my lawyer and fill him in on the situation, and see if it would do any good for me, and maybe Macy, to give some sort of a statement about some of Cyndee's past activities. If he thinks it'd help, then whenever Henry gets done with his business thing tomorrow, we can go get it done."

      They agree to discuss it with Talia's parents later, then Steph, Midori, and I spend the rest of the drive pointing out various sights to the Londoners, and attempting to put a plan together regarding which things are most important to cover at Disney. The boys want to do everything, of course, but since they'll probably be worn out before that happens, we decide that it'll be best to hit the main attractions first, then work out to the less-important stuff if they're up for it.

      Once we actually get there, and start making our way through the park, the plan kind of falls apart, because it turns out that they have much, much more energy than the rest of us combined. They buzz around like a pair of oversized hummingbirds, wanting to try out everything, and meet every character, and I have to admit that it's actually a blast to watch them. The only time they're really still is when we decide to grab some lunch, and Shane introduces Jamie to the wonders of a corndog dipped in ketchup. And while we eat, we get to observe a very sweet exchange between the two little boys. 

      They're talking about things that Shane thinks Jamie might like to do during his visit, and when he mentions the aquarium, Jamie says, "We gots one of them in London. Auntie Steffy taked me there once, before her camed to live here."

      "Steph'nie is your auntie?" Shane inquires. "That's cool, cause she's really nice, so she would be a good auntie."

      "Her's not my for-real auntie," Jamie clarifies. "Her was gonna get married wif my's Unca Pill, so her would has been my for-real auntie, but now her am my auntie cause her's bestest fwends wif my mummy, and I love her lots and lots. But I's got my Unca Charlie ats home, and him is gonna get married wif Emma, so her wills be my for-real auntie."

      "I don't gots no aunties or uncles," Shane remarks.

      "You don't gots even one?" Jamie asks incredulously. "But everybody should has some!" He pauses for a few seconds, apparently trying to absorb this information, then he reaches out to pat Shane on the shoulder and announces, "Don't worry Shane, it's awright. We's mates now, so I will shares Auntie Steffy wif you."

      "You will?" Shane responds. "Can you really does that?"

      "Sure, her won'ts mind! You can has an auntie, and her don't has to be so much sad when I goes back home. You doesn't mind, does you, Auntie Steffy?"

      "If you're sure that's what you want to do, Lovebug, I don't mind at all," Steph informs him. "I think that you're a very sweet little boy for not wanting Shane to feel left out, and if he and his mommy are okay with it, he can call me Auntie Steffy, too, if he wants. Or he can just keep calling me Stephanie, if he likes that better, either one is fine."

      "I dunno yet," Shane replies. "I's gonna think about it, and I will tells you later. Ams that okay?"

      She assures him that it's definitely okay, and that she's fine with whichever one he chooses, then we finish up the meal shortly thereafter and let them drag us through the rest of the park for another few hours. As we're leaving the park, she insists that everyone come back to the house and let her make dinner for them, instead of going back to their hotel right away, and includes Shane and Midori in the invitation. Jamie immediately starts clamoring for something he calls "messy chicken", and she agrees, on the basis that it's simple, fast, and apparently rather tasty, since everyone else else instantly agrees with the suggestion.

      As we head back toward the house, she explains to those of us who aren't familiar that it's nothing but chicken breasts baked in a coating of brown sugar and dry Italian dressing mix, which I have to admit actually does sound pretty damn good. So when we get there, Steph and I get to work on making dinner, while everyone else hangs out in the dining room talking to us through the open doorway. It all comes together fairly quickly, and we have the chicken on the table sooner than I thought we would, along with a salad, mashed potatoes, and dinner rolls.

      The conversation is pretty lively as we eat, with Talia and Steph sharing stories of some of their "adventures" in London, both with and without Alice, and I offer up a couple of my more low-key tour stories that don't involve anything the kids shouldn't hear. Then, as I'm in the middle of telling the story of Andy trying to channel Batman onstage, I notice Lylah, Macy, and Midori, who are across the table from Steph and I, looking past us with confused expressions, as if something is behind us, so I start to turn around and check it out.

      Before I can, though, I see everyone else at the table, including Steph, freeze in their places when a voice comes from the archway, saying:

      "Well, I haven't seen things this cozy for quite awhile now. Is there room for one more?"