Luke was running late, what else was new. His impromptu meeting at the firm lasted longer than expected and he hardly had enough time to shower and change before dinner. He arrived at his friends’ apartment twenty minutes later than he planned.

Before Luke could even knock on the door, it swung open. Standing in the doorway was his best friend. Her brown hair was pulled into a messy ponytail and she was giving him her patented ‘you’re late’ look.

“You’re late!” She said, one hand on her hip, the other on the door knob.

“I’m always late, Dee. Now are you going to let me in, I’m hungry?” Luke asked.

“I don’t know...”

“Dani, babe, let the man in, you know he hasn’t had a proper meal since the last time he came over.” A voice called from behind her.

“See, your husband thinks you should let me in so...”

“Fine, fine come in.” Dani smiled widely and pulled Luke in for a hug. She stood on her tip-toes to kiss him on the cheek.

“Thanks Dee. So what are we eating for dinner?” He asked seating himself on the couch.

“Is food the only thing you think about? No ‘hi Dee,’ or ‘how’s my godson Dee.’ It’s just ‘what’s for dinner Dee.’ Sometimes I wonder how we are even friends.”

“Well, since you greeted me with a lovely ‘you’re late’ and you send me pictures of AJ every time he even blinks, I thought food was a good topic to broach.” Luke laughed. He and Dani had been friends since college.

Dani shook her head. “Fine, you win. We are having food, cooked food.” She smirked.

“Really Dee, I had no idea, thought we were going to eat chairs.”

“Well, Alex is cooking tonight,” Dani said,  “and I’m not allowed in the kitchen when the master is at work,” she yelled.

“Hey, you always want to add unnecessary seasonings when you come in the kitchen.” Alex said wiping his hands on the half apron he wore and joining the two friends in the living room.

Luke stood up and walked over to shake Alex’s hand. “How’s it going Alex?”

“Wait, that’s not fair. He,” Dani gestured to her husband, “gets a ‘how’s it going?’”

“Yes, because I like him more, and he’s nicer to me.”

Alex shook his head and smiled. The two of them had an interesting relationship. When Dani first told him her best friend was a guy ten years ago, Alex was worried her best friend would get in the way. But he soon realized Dani and Luke were more like siblings than best friends. And over the years, he began to value Luke’s friendship to the point where Alex considered him his best friend second only to his wife.

“Things are going good. The restaurant is doing extremely well. In fact I’m trying out a new recipe on you two tonight.”

“I’m sure it will be good.” Luke said. “Hey Dee, where is AJ anyway?”

“So now you’re concerned about my toddler?” Dani laughed.

“I asked right?”

“He’s in his room,” Dani said. “I’ll go get him, he should be up from his nap now.”

“It’s kind of late for a nap isn’t it.”

“Yes well someone didn’t put the little guy down earlier like they were supposed to,” Alex said leaving the room to check on the food.

While his friends were out of the room, Luke looked at pictures he had seen a thousand times. The two of them made the oddest looking couple. Dani was pale, very pale and had fairly long, thick brown hair. Alex was the complete opposite. He had dark skin that made ladies swoon whenever he and Luke went out together and a very shiny bald head. But what was on the outside did not matter to the two of them; it never had. Luke knew that Dani and Alex were perfect for each other, and he was always happy to be around them.

“Look who’s here AJ,” Dani said interrupting Luke’s thoughts.

“There’s my favorite toddler,” Luke said meeting Dani in the middle of the room.

AJ reached his small hands toward Luke who took the one-year-old into his arms and immediately began to play with him.

“I think Lucas, you need one.” Dani said crossing her arms.

“You’re funny.”

“Come on Luke, I know you want kids. We just have to find you the right lady friend to have them with.”

“Dani, you are forever trying to fix me up with someone.” Luke said.

“I am not. I just want you to be happy.”

“I’m happy, and it will happen when it happens Dee. You can’t rush fate.”

“You and your fate thing.The women fate has brought you to so far are annoying gold-digging skanks. Sometimes Luke you have to make things happen.”

“Dee I don’t date skanks,” said Luke

“Sorry to interrupt your conversation but dinner is served.” Alex said coming out of the kitchen, now apron-less.

The friends sat down at the table and began their meal. “So, Dee how was that meeting you were telling me about?” Luke asked.

“It went very well. Jade wants me to help head up PR for her foundation.”

“That sounds like a great opportunity.” Luke said.

“Yeah it does. How did she find you anyway, you weren’t actively searching for a job?” Alex asked.

“It kind of just happened. She said she was calling around and apparently my name popped up a number of times, so she googled me, liked my credentials and offered me a job.” Dani explained as she fed AJ.

“See fate.” Luke smiled.

“No, not fate. It was luck and the fact that I am brilliant.”

“My wife is brilliant,” Alex smiled.

Luke shook his head, “so what is her foundation for?”

“She’s still in the planning process. She said she wanted to make sure to get me on board from the beginning. Jade said there’s so much she wants to do, she just needs some help narrowing it down. She also said she’s going to try and convince one of her friends to work with me as well.”

“Look at you, doing big things.” Luke smiled.

“Luke, how was you’re trip?” Alex asked.

“Uneventful, well the whole Iceland part of it was.”

“Uneventful? I thought Iceland was supposed to be gorgeous?” Dani asked.

“I’ve been there so many times now, I wouldn’t mind if I never saw the country again.” Luke took a sip of wine. “Dee do you remember Cassie Mitchell from college?”

“Yeah, the three of us kind of ousted that guy from our row.” Dani laughed. “What about her?”

“I sat next to her on the flight from Iceland.”

“Really, what’s she doing now?”

“She was writing songs but she said she’s not really doing anything right now.” Luke said.

“Who’s Cassie again?” Alex asked trying to keep up with the conversation.

“We went to college with her. Luke had multiple classes with her; I just had the one.”

“So what are you talking about. You ‘ousted’ a guy from your row.”

“Well there was this guy,” Luke started

“He was older, smelled like cigarettes and was way too into the class. He always had some comment and ugh, he was just annoying.” Dani clarified.

“Anyway, he always sat between me and Dani. We didn’t like it. I always came late, Dani was right on time but Cassie, Cassie always arrived early.”

“She felt the same way about the guy as we did.”

“Yeah, so we convinced her to move the chairs around so there was never enough room for him to sit with us, in our little group. It was a pretty brilliant idea.” Luke said leaning back in his chair.

Dani smiled and AJ made a noise lifting his hands in the air trying to gain someones attention.

“You guys were nefarious.” Alex said.

“We didn’t like him, babe. We had to do something.”

“Right.” Alex said gathering dishes.

“I’m going to go give AJ a bath and leave you two to your customary ‘manly’ talk.” Dani got up, picked up AJ and left the room.

Luke grabbed the remaining dishes and brought them into the kitchen where Alex was putting away left overs.

“I think you have a winner on your hands, as far as the recipe goes.”

“You think so?”

“I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t mean it.”

“That’s good to know,” Alex said. “So, this Cassie that you sat with on the airplane, any romantic feelings for her?”

“No, first of all I practically just met her. And she seems like she has a lot going on. But it would be nice to catch up with her. We weren’t really friends in college, but when we did talk we had interesting conversations. That and she remembered me.”

“Guess, you weren’t forgettable to her then.”

“I guess not.”

“So was it fate? You sitting next to her?” Alex asked.

“I think so. I feel like I need to help her. Granted I didn’t really know her that well, but she didn’t seem like the person I remembered.”

“Was she attractive?”

“Alex, seriously.”

“Yes, seriously. I want to know if she was hot.” Alex said getting two beers from the refrigerator.

“I mean yeah, there’s something about her that is extremely attractive, but she’s not my usual type.”

“Yeah your type is model-like gold-diggers.”

“Hey my last girlfriend was not that bad, she was smart.” Luke defended as the two of them walked into the living room and sat down.

“Comparatively smart. You know Luke, maybe fate isn’t all its cracked up to be. The last few girlfriends you brought over were not winners and you said ‘fate led you to them.’”

“I was just misinterpreting the signs. This time, I know I’m supposed to help her. I just... I can’t explain it Alex but Cassie needs my help.”

“And if she doesn’t want it?’

“She needs it.”

“Right, but what if she doesn’t want it. What will you do then?”

“I’m sure fate will step in. It always does.” Luke smiled.