"I can't believe it's you!" said Regina, stepping towards Ashley with her long legs, wrapping her arms around her in a tight hug, a small amount of the champagne in her slim flute sloshing onto Ashley's bare shoulder.

"Same here!" said Ashley, still stunned.

Regina ended her embrace, stepping away from Ashley and giving her a good once over. Ashley did the same, noticing that Regina still had the knockout figure that she had when they were friends, her curves and ample breasts poured into the elegant, black gown she was wearing.

"Damn, girl, you got hot!" Regina said, her green eyes wide, her copper-red hair straight and shiny.

"Thanks," said Ashley, feeling suddenly awkward.

"Oh my God, it's so good to see you," said Regina, shaking her head before taking a sip of her drink. "It's been, what, four years?"

"Something like that," she said through a tight, forced smile.

This is the last thing I needed tonight, said Ashley. Figures I couldn't have bumped into Regina the day before today, when I didn't have to lie about being engaged to her ex-fiancée.

"I just…can't believe you're here!" she said, shaking her head again. "I mean, I didn't think that, well, this was your kind of scene."

"What, rich and successful people?" asked Ashley.

"No, I mean, well, fancy, uptight types. You were always a more…casual kind of girl."

Well, this definitely seems like your type of place, thought Ashley. Plenty of rich guys to sink your teeth into.

"Things can change," said Ashley.

"Indeed they can."

"So, who are you here with?" asked Ashley, eager to get the subject off of herself.

"Oh, my fiancé," she said, looking through the glass doors, trying to spot him. "His name's Richard Townsend; a brilliant finance manager out of London. We're here so he can hobnob with these Silicon Valley captains of industry; there's just so much money in this area. Anyway, we just bought an apartment in the West Village that you just have to come see some time."

"I'd love to," said Ashley.

"And you? What brings you here?"

Oh, shit, thought Ashley. No way to get around this; might as well just rip the Band-Aid right off.

"Um, well, I'm actually engaged, too."

"Oh really?" Regina said, her sparkling green eyes widening once again. "And who's the lucky man?"

"Um, you know him, actually."

Ashley took in a deep breath.

"It's Scott Everest."

As soon as the last syllable left her mouth, the color drained completely from Regina's already-pale face.

"Who?" she asked, as though she misheard the name.

"It's Scott. That Scott."

"You're engaged to Scott Everest? Are you fucking kidding me?"

The eyes of the other guests on the terrace flicked over to Regina. Ashley's skin went red.

"After what that asshole put me through, you just went right behind my back and got engaged to him?"

Regina's eyes boiled with anger. Ashley wondered if she might just take her apart limb-from-limb right then and there on the terrace.

"Well, you guys had been out of contact for a while. We bumped into each other at a coffee shop in Haight, and we just hit it off."

Regina shook her head. "That's not the kind of shit that friends do to each other, you know."

"Well, it's not like you and I were still in contact! I hadn't seen you for years! How long, exactly, do you get to claim some guy you were engaged to like that? Five years? A decade?"

Ashley was surprised at how heated she was getting; she was acting as though she actually were engaged to Scott.

Maybe a career on stage is something to think about if this gig doesn't pan out, she thought.

"I don't know! It's just…" said Regina, defeated.

Regina leaned back against the stone barrier, her eyes downcast.

"He was just such a jerk, you know?" she said, her voice taking on the tone of a child who had finally accepted that she wasn't getting her way.

Regina downed the rest of her wine and crossed her arms under her ample bosom. Not knowing what else to do, Ashley took a place next to her against the stone barrier. Casting a furtive glance around the area, she was relieved to see that the attention seemed to be off of them.

"You never did say what exactly it was that Scott did to you," said Ashley.

"Because it was so stupid," she said, sound more and more a petulant teenager.

"Well, let's hear it."

Regina swiped another glass of wine off of a passing server's tray. Finishing her own, Ashley did the same.

"It's that little brat of a daughter of his," said Regina.

"Olivia," said Ashley, curious as to where this was going.

“She was, I don't know, six at the time? And she was just a little monster. She never listened to me, she never showed me any respect. And her mom, Scott's ex-wife died of cancer or something, so this kid was around all the time."

"Anyway, one night Scott was out at some meeting or something and I had to watch her. And, like usual, she was being out of control. It might've been because I had a glass of wine or two, but my patience was extra thin. So, anyway, she was doing her little bratty act, and I kept telling her to cut it out. And she wouldn't listen. Not only that, she was doing it worse the more I told her to cut it out. So, finally, I got up gave her a little slap across the face, and grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her until she quit."

"You slapped her?" asked Ashley, her tone disbelieving.

"Like, barely," said Regina. "It was just a tap. But, of course, she had to be a brat about that, too. And of course, right then is when Scott came home. She was crying and whining, telling Scott what happened. He took her to bed, then asked me if it was true, that I hit Olivia. And I was like, yeah, I did. You know? Because someone's gotta discipline that kid."

"But Scott wasn't having any of it. The next day, he told me that the engagement was off. And I was like, ‘just like that?' And he was like, ‘yeah, just like that.’ He got me an apartment for a few months, sent my things off, and that was it. He broke off our relationship over something as stupid as that."

Pretty telling that Regina still doesn't think what she did was a big deal, thought Ashley. Was she always this self-centered?

"That's…um, too bad."

"I know, right?" asked Regina, her voice indignant, as though she were describing a terrible injustice. "And what was worse is that not even a month after we were done he was already out with those airheads that were always flirting with him. It's like I didn't even matter!"

Ashley looked down at Regina's drink and saw that she was already nearly done with this one, too.

"But whatever," she said, wiping away a tear with the tip of her index finger, "I don't have to deal with that asshole anymore. My new man's just as rich, and you know what? He respects me. And he doesn't have any kids to deal with. So, as far as I'm concerned, Scott's all your problem to deal with."

She downed the rest of her drink, Ashley noting the wine's dulling effect; Regina's typically sparkling green eyes now had a dimmed sheen.

"But," said Regina, sticking a finger towards Ashley, the digit wobbling a bit, "you can't change a tiger's stripes, or whatever that expression is. He was a womanizer when I met him, and he'll be a womanizer when he's married to you. Men like him don't settle down, you know. And why would they? Girls are just throwing themselves at them. Only a matter of time before they give in…"

Ashley opened her mouth to respond, but before she could, the door to the terrace opened.

It was Scott.

Standing at the door, a glass of bubbling wine in his hand, he regarded the meeting of the two women with his usual nonplussed demeanor.

"Regina," he said.

"Scott," she said, her voice laced with venom. "Speak of the goddamn devil."

"Was I interrupting something?"

"Nope," said Regina. "All done."

With that, Regina stormed on unsteady feet past Scott, blowing past him and rushing back into the house. Ashley stood still for a moment, having a hard time believing what she'd just taken part in.

"You girls get a chance to catch up?" asked Scott, his tone wry.

"Something like that."