Chapter 42

They walked back inside and headed to the table where her friends were at. Sidney let Karen in first then slid in beside her putting his arm around her shoulders. Stacy poured Karen a shot and gave it to her.

"Since it's a special occasion, you want one Sid?"

"Sure why not."

They all raised their glasses for a toast to Karen and downed the shots.

"Ok, enough of toasting to me. I think we've established it's my birthday so stop it."

"So, you've got your friends and boyfriend here helping you celebrate, what else do you want for your birthday Kiki?"

Karen sat there for a minute and thought about what could make this night more memorable than it already was. "I want to dance with the man I love" she said looking directly at Sidney.

"Baby, you know I don't dance."

"I know you don't dance to fast songs, but I know you'll dance to a slow one with me." Karen leans in and kisses his neck "please? One dance to my favorite song?"

"I can't say no to that. Alright, let's go."

Sidney gets up and holds out his hand for Karen to take. He helps her out of the booth and leads her to the dance floor. Natalie got up and went to the jukebox and pulled up her song. Sidney held her tightly to his body and began to sway to the music once it started.

One look in your eyes and there I see
Just what you mean to me
Here in my heart I believe
Your love is all I'll ever need
Holdin' you close through the night
I need you, yeah

I look in your eyes and there I see
What happiness really means
The love that we share makes life so sweet
Together we'll always be
This pledge of love feels so right
And, ooh, I need you

Here and now
I promise to love faithfully [Faithfully]
You're all I need
Here and now
I vow to be one with thee [You and me], hey
Your love is all [I need] I need

Say, yeah, yeah...

When I look in your eyes, there I'll see
All that a love should really be
And I need you more and more each day
Nothin' can take your love away
More than I dare to dream
I need you

Here and now
I promise to love faithfully [Faithfully]
You're all I need
Here and now
I vow to be one with thee [You and me], yeah
Your love is all I need

[Starting here] Ooh, and I'm starting now
I believe [I believe in love], I believe
[Starting here] I'm starting right here
[Starting now] Right now because I believe in your love
So I'm glad to take the vow

Here and now, oh
I promise to love faithfully [Faithfully]
You're all I need
Here and now, yeah
I vow to be one with thee [You and me], yeah
Your love is all I need

I, hey...yeah...yeah...hey...
Uh, hey...I-I, love is all I need
Ooh...ooh...yeah...
Yeah...yeah...hey...yeah...yeah...
Love is all I need
Ooh...ooh...
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Oh
Hey...yeah
Hey...yeah

(AN - Song by Luther Vandross and prehaps still one of the greatest love songs of all time. Plus I think it just fits their love perfectly)

As the song ended, Sidney had captured Karen's lips in a passionate kiss and continued it as everyone cheered them on. Karen broke away blushing but when she looked at Sidney, she could tell his face was a little red as well. They went to go sit down but everyone left them alone.

"Why do I think that was planned?" Sidney asked her as he put his arm around her again and pulled her close to him.

"Probably because it was and I had nothing to do with it."

Sidney leaned in and started kissing her neck "I don't doubt that you did baby, but I'm glad they left us alone."

"Mmm, me too. You do realize it's been at least 17 days since we've last been together?"

"That long huh? Well I guess we need to do something about that. How much longer do we need to stay here?"

"Alright my children" Pops said into the microphone they had for Karoke "it's almost 3a and the bar is now closed. Karen, baby girl, Happy Birthday and I hope it was a good one, but you guys are wearing me out. It's time to go home."

Karen motioned for Sidney to get up so she could. When she got out of the booth, she walked over to Pops and hugged him "thank you for hosting my party. You are the best."

"I know dear child, anything for you. Besides, you keep bringing Penguins to honor my establishment and I may have to make you a partner."

"I may have to get that in writing. Night Pops" she said hugging him again.

After everyone left, Karen and her friends helped clean up a little and got her presents in her car. Stacy and everyone had a couple hotel rooms to go to, but Sheril, Diane and Natalie would be at Karen's. She hoped Sidney didn't mind that there would be others in the house, it just meant they'd have to be quiet. Diane drove Karen's car since she wasn't drinking as much and Sidney insisted that Karen went with him, not like she would have told him otherwise. They all got home safely and Karen told them to leave everything in the car and she would get it later. When they got in the house, Natalie and Diane shared the one guest room downstairs and Sheril took the one upstairs. Karen stood in the living room and just staring into space until Sidney brought her out of her thoughts by wrapping his arms around her waist.

"What's on your mind baby?"

"Just that this night could have ended differently."

"I know. But I think we both like how it turned out."

"Yeah but I still need to ask this" she said turning around in his arms "even with Stacy calling you, would you still have gone home?"

"Probably" he saw Karen look away but he brought her face back to his "baby, whether it was your birthday or not, yes there was a good chance I would have gone home with my dad. But after talking to Stacy and she said a few things that made me realize it would have hurt you more by just leaving. I know I was stupid for shutting you out but I couldn't leave for two months without seeing you and Stacy made me see that."

"She's never going to let you live that down, you know?"

"I know, but it's worth it. It's not that I wanted to throw everything we had away, I just couldn't handle coming so close then losing the Cup. You just got tangled up in there and when I wanted to go home and try to forget this last round, you got pushed aside with it."

"Well I'm glad that you changed you mind, eventhough I only get you until Tuesday afternoon."

"Don't you need to work?"

"Not until Wednesday. Cabela's lets us have our birthday off with out being penalized for taking it off but since I have like 300 hours of vacation time saved up, I took off Monday, well today and tomorrow and will get paid for it."

"So then we can stay in bed for as long as we want?"

"As long as we want."

"Then why are we still standing here."

Sidney picked her up and carried her upstairs to her bedroom. He put her down beside the bed and kissed her.

"Um, I think we might want to shut the door."

"Why? Feeling shy?"

"No I just don't think we need an audience once we get going."

"As much as I wouldn't mind that, you're probably right" Sidney said walking over to shut the door, locking it.

"Hold on there sparky, you wouldn't mind an audience?"

"Were pretty good, why not let others watch."

"Um, because you're insane."

"Yeah well that just means you're rubbing off on me and in a good way" he said coming back over to her.