When Daisy awoke the next morning, she was surprised to see the room already filled with sunlight. Not yet fully awake, and also loath to break away from Gladstone's embrace, she tilted her head in a way that she could see the clock… and groaned.

"Gladstone, wake up," she said, gently shaking him awake. "It's 9:30."

Gladstone groaned as well. "That early?"

"You mean that late."

"No, I mean that early."

Daisy smiled. "Well, normal people are usually up before this."

"Even on a Saturday?"

"Yes, even on a Saturday."

Gladstone finally smiled back at her. "Well, that's why I thank my lucky stars that I'm not normal." He kissed her on the shoulder and released his hold on her, Daisy somewhat reluctantly releasing her hold on him as well. He rolled over and out of bed, stretching. "Since I'm up, I guess I'll take my shower now. You can have it when I'm done. While you're waiting, feel free to go to the kitchen and have breakfast, I should have… some…" He paused and thought for a moment. "There should be some food in there. If not, just wait for me and I'll get you some. Oh, and…" He grabbed his bathrobe from a chair and threw it to her. "You might want to wear this."

Daisy grabbed it, suddenly remembering that all she was wearing was the diamond necklace. "Thanks."

He made his way into the bathroom, and she stood up, stretching before tying on the robe and walking to the kitchen, desperately trying to avoid thinking of just what she had done. But that was all but impossible—her mind seemed to have it on constant replay, wanting to relive the ecstasy over and over again.

As she could have guessed, Gladstone had been striving for his own pleasure first and foremost, guiding her hands and legs to where he had wanted them. Not that it hadn't been pleasurable for Daisy as well, but that had been merely a side-effect, an added bonus to the intended goal.

But what Daisy couldn't stop thinking of was the after.

They had laid on the bed, breathing heavily, their energies spent. Gladstone's head rested on Daisy's chest, moving up and down with her breathing. Suddenly, as if a child noticing a shiny new toy for the first time, he brought his hands to her left breast and laid them on top of it, but gently, with no obvious sexual undertones. Daisy looked at him, a bit confused, but his expression was that of a surprised, delighted child.

It's my heartbeat, Daisy suddenly realized. He's mesmerized by… my heartbeat.

He looked up at her, his wonderment now directed at her eyes, and her heart suddenly started to thump faster, her stomach bunching up in knots, her limbs shaking, and she let out a shaky exhale that wordlessly let him know the effect he had on her. For she had realized right then, that, for reasons that stemmed more from the fact that she was the one thing he wanted that he actually had to make an effort to get, more from the fact that she was yet another way he could one-up his cousin, even more from the fact that she was just pretty…

…she realized that he loved her. In his own strange way, he loved her.

But what had made her shake even more was her realization that, in her own strange way, she loved him too.

Damn love triangles, she thought to herself, opening the refrigerator. I almost wish I was one of the ones fighting on the OUTSIDE, and not the central force INSIDE the triangle…

She opened the door to the refrigerator, to find it depressingly empty. Sighing, but not all that surprised, she rummaged through the cupboards—still nothing.

She plopped down at the kitchen table, grabbing the paper (yesterday's) that was lying there, and tried to get herself to focus on news she had already read.

Far easier said than done.

It was because I had had a lot to drink, Daisy convinced herself, ignoring a nagging reminder that she really hadn't had that much. It was because I was caught up in the moment, I was lonely, I wanted companionship, all that… I just wasn't thinking clearly. It meant nothing. Nothing at all.

Except… it had meant something. That was the whole problem.

She growled, angry at herself for making this so complicated, and grabbed a pencil and tore the paper open to the crossword puzzle.

Of COURSE it should be complicated. Don't you realize you just cheated on your boyfriend—you just slept with his cousin, for goodness sake!

"Not listening," Daisy snarled to herself.

Right, not listening—just talking to yourself. Admit it, you just like attention, and you'll take it from whoever will give it to you.

"Not. Listening." Daisy's voice was sharper and terser that time, clearly giving the order to her conscience to shut its trap.

You're a whore.

"I am not," she whispered. "I… I just have two boyfriends, that's all."

Oh God. I give up. You're impossible.

"Good." She took a deep breath, formulating arguments should her conscience return. Really, it was good of her to finally give Gladstone what he wanted! She had been leading him on—along with Donald—since the sixth grade, for goodness sake! It really wasn't fair to him to flirt with him as much as she had with Donald, and yet give Donald the lion's share of the rewards. Now she had slept with both of them, putting them once again on more or less equal footing. Besides, Donald was out of the country—he'd never know! There was no way he could ever find out, in fact, because for Donald to find out would be incredibly unlucky to Gladstone, and nothing unlucky ever happened to him. Oh yes, everything was equal, everything was fine. Things would continue on as they did before.

Daisy sighed, dropping the pencil, not even pretending to work on the crossword puzzle anymore. "But is that a good thing?" she murmured helplessly.

Had all she accomplished was to run around in circles? For awhile now, her relationship with Donald had felt serious to her, even though the two of them never vocalized any change. It was because Donald couldn't commit, she knew perfectly well. But what had she done now if not just doubled the problem? Gladstone was even worse at commitment than Donald was.

"I should have walked away," she sighed. She should have walked away all the way back in the sixth grade, back when this had all started—when those two cute boys in her math class had taken notice of her and she, relishing the attention, played along with both of them.

It really is my own fault, then, she thought to herself sadly. It's my own fault because… I have just as much of an ego as they do—maybe as big as both of theirs combined! I crave attention above all else.

"It's more than that," she said softly. "I crave… I crave being loved." Well, great going, now you're loved by and in love with two different people. How does that feel?

She grabbed the pencil again and brought it down forcefully to the crossword puzzle again. "Four letter word for misery—LOVE," she said aloud, scrawling it in. She then dropped the pencil again, glaring defiantly at the paper.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Gladstone had entered the room. Daisy jerked up in surprise. He looked mildly concerned, one eyebrow raised, the feathers on his head perfectly curled, his jacket perfectly pressed, looking every bit the fashionable dandy that he always did… how the hell did he do it?

"You—don't have any food," Daisy spat out. Which was the least of her worries at this moment, but it was the only one she would dare admit to him.

"No food? Impossible." He swung open the fridge.

"All you have in there is jelly," Daisy said. "And you don't have any bread to make toast. I checked."

"Well then, I'll get you some." He opened the window above the sink and leaned out expectantly. Daisy also leaned over expectantly, knowing that by some inexplicable stroke of luck he'd get the bread, but still wanting to see exactly how this would happen.

The rumble of a delivery truck indicated that they wouldn't have to wait long. It drove right past the house, not stopping, but it did hit a pothole conveniently situated in the road just outside the window. A loaf of bread came flying out of the truck and into Gladstone's outstretched hands. He handed it to Daisy. "Anything else?"

Daisy couldn't help but smile. "Well, an orange would be nice…"

Gladstone leaned out the window again, just in time to see a second delivery truck, this one filled with produce, immediately behind the first. It too hit the pothole, and two oranges flew out of the truck and again into his hands.

"I only wanted one," said Daisy.

Gladstone smirked, tossing one of the oranges to her. "This one's for me," he said, indicating the one he kept. He sat down at the table and began to unpeel it, somehow breaking the peel with just his fingers.

Daisy stood up and went to the refrigerator, pulling out the jelly. "Uh, Gladstone, I hate to be a bother, but…"

Gladstone sighed. "What now? Are you going to make me lean out the window again?"

Daisy rolled her eyes, although she felt the corners of her beak once again tug up into a smile. "Lord forbid you actually have to go to the store and buy your food."

"Hey, sometimes I do have to!" Gladstone protested. "Luckily I usually find money along the way to buy it, although it's such a pain to carry the groceries back!"

"You might have to today," said Daisy, putting the jelly along with two butter knives on the table. "We need milk."

"What's wrong with tap water?"

"Gladstone!"

"Alright, alright!" He sighed and moved to get out of his chair, but the sound of yet another delivery truck, along with voices from outside, stopped him.

"Farmer Jones," a voice cried, "you're plum crazy to transport your milk in an open-air truck like that! Don't you know it'll go bad?"

"No it won't! My cartons are thermos-quality, and besides, it's not that long of a drive from my farm to the store! Buying a freezer-on-wheels just isn't worth the money!"

"Hey, watch out for that—"

BUMP!

"—pothole!"

Even though Gladstone wasn't even at the window, the carton of milk still flew perfectly through the open window and landed right in the middle of the table, not upsetting anything else set there.

Gladstone smiled smugly, settling back down in his chair. "Well. Lucky me," he quipped.

Daisy quickly closed her mouth—once again, her jaw had nearly dropped all the way to the table. "And if I said I wanted authentic Thai food, would a delivery truck from Asia somehow find its way in front of your house and hit that pothole too?"

"Don't be silly," said Gladstone. "It would come from a plane that had to empty some of its cargo, more likely."

"Oh, of course," said Daisy sarcastically. "Forgive me for not being logical."

"Well, it's early yet," said Gladstone in all seriousness.

"You're impossible," she said.

He looked honestly confused by that sentence. "Impossible? How so?"

"Because you're—" She had started off harshly, but stopped herself short when she looked him in the eyes; he looking back at her confused, a little hurt, the orange he had inexplicably obtained poised in his hand, already half-eaten.

"…perfect," she finished in defeat.

He laughed.

"And you're not so bad yourself."

…………

Daisy had eaten, showered, and freshened up quickly, and now Gladstone was walking her back to her house. She walked somewhat quickly, her head down, focusing on the sidewalk, not wanting Gladstone to see her expression… although Gladstone probably wouldn't have paid much attention to her, anyway. He too was looking at the sidewalk, and was periodically finding money and trinkets scattered on the ground. They all seemed to be on his side of the sidewalk, Daisy noted. Not that she was at all surprised.

But she couldn't put this off forever, she knew.

"Gladstone, I… I need to be honest with you," she began.

"Another dollar bill! Someone's wallet must have bust open or something—"

Daisy grabbed the back of Gladstone's jacket and yanked his head up from examining the sidewalk. He gave a yelp of surprise, but Daisy didn't loosen her grip. "Would you stop being lucky for just five minutes and listen to me?"

"You're kidding, right?"

Daisy almost lost her patience completely, making a move with her free hand as if to slap Gladstone. He grabbed her wrist in midair, though, stopping her before she could actually hit him. She struggled against him, fuming, but her anger slowly easing by degrees.

"I'm sorry, really," Gladstone said quickly, and surprisingly sincerely. "I'll listen. I can't stop being lucky, but I can stop looking at the ground."

"Thank you." She started walking again, and Gladstone followed, his grip on her wrist easing and sliding down so that his hand was now in hers. She looked at him again, surprised that he was actually keeping his word and not looking at the sidewalk, his gaze instead fixed attentively at her.

Their eyes met. Daisy paused, her heart starting to thump again. This would be so much easier if he really was just a narcissistic, selfish braggart. He was all that, of course… but starting last night, she was beginning to realize that there was more to him than all that and his astounding luck.

"I just want you to know," she finally blurted out, "that I'm lonely, I'm desperate, I was caught up in the moment last night and acting on impulse, and… just don't read too much into it, alright? Please don't read too much into it."

He stared at her, his mouth agape, perhaps for the first time in his life truly speechless. Daisy turned her head away from him. "I'm sorry, I… it's just that…" She turned back to him. "I had an amazing time with you. And I meant… everything… everything that I did and said, I really did mean it…"

"I… I don't understand," Gladstone said.

Daisy sighed and resumed walking, Gladstone again walking with her, their hands still joined. "What I mean is that I shouldn't get involved with you like this… I can't… I mean…" She gave him a small, apologetic smile. "There is Donald."

They walked in silence for a few moments.

"Yes," Gladstone finally muttered, breaking the silence. "There is Donald. And that's what I don't understand."

"Surely you must know how I feel for him," said Daisy.

"You really love him, then, don't you?" said Gladstone, looking back up at her. Daisy looked back at him, surprised to hear no real malice in his voice.

"I… yes," she said softly. It seemed strange to say it aloud… she honestly couldn't remember ever saying it aloud to Donald, at any rate. Their love for each other was something both of them knew was there, and something that didn't need saying.

"Just like I said yesterday," said Gladstone. "You always did like him better than me. But I figured… I figured that someday I'd finally have you, that you were just one of those things I had to wait for… and I had to wait a really long time," he added vehemently. "So last night, I thought that my waiting finally paid off, I was finally lucky with you! But now I have to wait more, either that… either that or there's someone better than you out there and I'm supposed to be with her. Hard to imagine that being true, though," he mumbled.

Daisy looked at him, quizzically, touched, amused, but also a little sadly. His reliance on his luck was almost a setback in this circumstance. "Maybe this is just meant to teach you that you can't wait for love to happen, you have to make it happen."

To her surprise, he returned the quizzical stare. "Did you say love?"

Daisy's heart stopped beating for a split second. Damn. She hadn't intended on revealing that to him.

"And now you know why I can't continue on with you like this," she finally sighed in resignation. "I don't want to hurt Donald… and I don't want to hurt you, either."

"But Donald doesn't have to know!" said Gladstone. "He's out of the country, right?"

"That doesn't make this right, Gladstone! An affair is still an affair!"

"But back in high school, it was perfectly alright for you to bounce between the two of us with no real commitment to either, right?" He was smirking at her, almost sardonically.

"I'm committed to Donald now," Daisy snapped in retort.

"Does that mean your relationship with him is different from when we were younger? I mean, it wasn't all that long ago that you dated me, and Donald was right there! Turning a very alarming shade of red, I might add."

"For your information—" But Daisy stopped right there. Yes, she said she and Donald had been dating for a number of years now. But what was the day they counted as their anniversary? A day of one of their normal dates—dinner, fighting, a movie, more fighting, and then some more fighting before they suddenly kissed in the movie theater parking lot. And it wasn't even their first kiss, either. But it was enough to make Daisy remark, "Does this mean we're dating?" and Donald to nod dumbly in agreement. Besides that one statement, their relationship hadn't changed much at all… they saw each other more, and started sleeping together, but even that was more often than not on the verge of hate sex, their frequent anger at each other bubbling over into the most basic and instinctual of violent desires.

"I… I can't believe I've gotten myself into this," Daisy moaned helplessly.

"Daisy. Daisy. Stop. Don't fall over." Gladstone held her gently by the shoulders and turned her around to face him, Daisy surprised to discover that they were already at her front door. "Look, you said it yourself, you enjoyed your time with me, right?"

"Yes—"

"You're glad you ran into me yesterday?"

"Yes—"

"Do you regret anything you've done in the last twenty-four hours?"

She froze, the words caught in her throat. "N-no," she finally murmured. "The only thing I regret is that I spent four hours watching TV yesterday afternoon…"

"Well then, just calm down, take a few deep breaths… you're thinking about this way too much. Don't you understand that you deserve to be happy? That you shouldn't just sit around all day and feel sorry for yourself? And I can make you happy. I can make you happy more than anyone else in the world."

"That's quite the claim," Daisy murmured, although realizing that Gladstone actually had the means to back that assertion up.

Gladstone suddenly leaned in very close to her. "So when Donald's in town, and if he makes you happy, then by all means, do whatever you want with him—I think you're crazy, but for goodness sake, just stop feeling guilty about this! You never did before. And when he's not in town, don't deny yourself what you want."

Daisy didn't have time to respond, because right after he finished speaking, he kissed her, and although her knees started buckling and shivers starting running down her spine, she still found her arms had made their way around his neck, her hands on the back of his head, pulling him in even closer.

After a few seconds he pulled away, Daisy quickly taking a step back as well.

"Well, um… thank you for the date, Gladstone," Daisy finally said, nervously wringing her hands.

Gladstone slowly smiled at her. "I… can hear your heart beating from here."

Daisy flung a hand over her chest, embarrassed, trying to stifle the sound.

"Thank you for the date," Gladstone continued. "My waiting paid off, at least for now." And with one last smile, he turned and ambled off, but not without looking back at her and remarking, "Enjoy your necklace and snow globe. Next time I see you, I'll have something else for you."

"You… you bastard," Daisy said helplessly.

Gladstone said nothing to that, only broadening his smile before turning back around and continuing on the sidewalk back home—stopping along the way to pick up something; more money, no doubt.

Daisy watched him go, one hand still on her heart, the other gently fingering the diamond necklace still around her neck.