April 8th, 2009 mattdaddy
Previous segments of the story can be found here
Trying to get a hold of himself, Matt fixed a cup of coffee and attracted the waitresses attention. The woman was older, and looked to be fairly disgruntled that he had come in and interrupted her nap in the kitchen. He smiled nervously and her demeanor seem to soften, the motherly side of her winning out seeing this young man sitting here nervously.
“Meeting someone?” she asked.
“Yes” he responded excitedly.
“This can’t be a first date” she started, her expression bemused. She stopped and smiled truly when she read the expression on his face.
“Actually yeah, it is.” he began, but his breath caught in his throat. He had been looking forward to this moment since the first glance at the sushi bar several hours before. Time seemed to slow, like in one of those corny commercials, as she practically burst through the door, her gaze swinging back and forth until her eyes met his. He stood up to make sure she could see him, a bit unnecessary since the only ones in the restaurant were Matt, the waitress, and Fae. She was in the middle of pulling a tie out of her hair, shaking it loose around her shoulders as she walked towards him. Identical smiles lit both their faces as she moved down the aisle and stopped to stand in front of him. It was obvious that neither of them knew what to do next.
He slowly raised his hand in front of him smiling. ”Hi, I’m Matt. I don’t think we’ve been formally introduced.” The grin on his face was mischevous, reinforcing the fact that he felt and was acting like he was back in high school. She ignored the hand and slid up close, her hands cupping his face, slowly moving into a soft kiss. It lasted only a moment, but the touch of her lips sent a rush through his body. She moved back and smiled.
“Been wanting to do that for hours.” she said winking at him, her grin mirroring his from a moment ago, his face now slack with surprise. She took his hand and shook it, “Hi Matt, I”m Fae. Now I think we’ve been formally introduced.” He shook his head slightly, as if waking from a dream, his grin spreading quickly across his face.
“Would you like some coffee? Something to eat?” He said, gesturing for her to sit in the booth. She looked to the woman and said, “Coffee please” and sat down. Matt turned his attention to the woman who was standing there, her eyebrows arched, holding back a smile. ”Could you bring some extra creamers?” he asked and slid in the booth across from Fae.
“Can I ask a favor?” she said, her eyes sparkling with something he couldn’t read.
“Sure” he said, leaning forward.
“Can you kiss me again? That was yummy!” she said, practically dancing in her seat.
He simply smiled and leaned forward, where she met him in the middle of the table. This kiss was a bit longer, but still fairly decent, even for 3am at a diner. IT just felt right. The suppleness of her lips, the way she tilted her head, the way she had of resting her fingers on his cheek. She pulled back slowly, her eyes opening as she leaned back into her seat. ”Yeah, that’s what I thought” she breathed.
“Thought” he asked curiously.
“Yeah, I knew you’d be a great kisser when I saw you …GOD, was it only yesterday?” she said, her eyebrows shooting up. She pushed her hair behind her ears as the waitress brought another cup and a plateful of creamers. Grabbing the pot on the table, she poured a cup for Fae and said, “I’m guessing you’ll need a few minutes.”
They both nodded as she put the pot down on the table and turned away, walking back towards the kitchen. Matt could see her standing at a prep station near the other side of the restaurant, visible enough so they could see her, but hidden enough to allow them privacy. He turned his attention back to the woman in front of him. The first thing he noticed was that her cheeks were still fairly pink, and not from make up. She rubbed her hands together and shrugged down deeper into her coat.
“Are you cold?” he asked.
“Yeah, a little. I’m in a dress for dancing, and my convertible is still waiting for a part so I can finally bring the top up on it. So until then, I have to drive around, freezing my BUTT off!”
“Ah, that’s why you had your hair up” he said.
“Yeah. I was trying for one of those “I can’t believe it’s not butter” moments when I came in, taking my hair out and shaking it luxuriously” she emoted dramatically. Then she giggled, “How did I do?”
“It was perfect, let me tell you. Took my breath away” he emoted a bit dramatically, but he knew they both knew it wasn’t an act and that there was definitely something between them. Normally in a situation like this, he would retreat and shut down, avoiding the subject. Matt was not good at putting himself out there, or opening himself up to knew experiences. The problem with that was, that seemed to be all he was doing with this woman. He looked at her in amazement, not understanding how he had gotten to this moment. Sitting across from a beautiful woman who obviously thought he was at least attractive and possibly a little charming. He shook his head in wonderment.
“What” she said, a smile playing across her face as she lifted the menu.
“This kind of thing just doesn’t happen to me. I mean you always think that it only happens in movies or in books, but I don’t meet people this easily and feel comfortable this quickly. Please don’t get the wrong impression, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with it, I’m just very surprised at myself.” He said the last, picking up his menu and practically hiding behind it.
She lifted her hand and pulled the menu down, her face serious as she looked into his eyes. She noticed that they were a very dark brown, something she could almost drown in. Her smile slowly got bigger and bigger as his did the same. ”Me neither champ. I haven’t had a date in over two years, and suddenly, I’m back in college flirting with a cute guy who takes my breath away. How about we just suspend the worrying about what we normally do, and just talk and have breakfast?”
He nodded, his mouth opening and shutting once more.
“What” she said, knowing he wanted to say something.
“Can I ask a favor now?” he said, leaning forward, she knew, for a kiss. She raised her hand to his face and gently kissed him, breathing in his smell, her eyes open this time, seeing the depths of his dark brown eyes up close. ”Definitely drownable” she thought to herself and lost herself for a moment in what could be called nothing else but the ‘perfect kiss’.
He pulled back first this time, a smile lighting his face as he said, “Yep, that was yummy.”
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April 2nd, 2009 mattdaddy
Previous Installations of the story
A car horn brought his attention away from the mysterious woman and back to the road he was driving down. After saying goodbye to Terri, he had sat in his car, trying not to giggle. He waved at her as she pulled out of the lot, a small part of him feeling bad for taking her away from her family, but another small part of him understanding that she had a wonderful man at home who just got what a good woman she was, and how wonderful she had been with him. He was not sure he would be able to do the same, and respected Rich for it all the more.
Shaking his head and concentrating on driving, he managed to make it home all in one piece. Locking his car and jogging up the few steps to his front door, he unlocked it and went inside. The grandfather clock chimed softly as he walked in, he glanced at the clock and noticed it was 11pm. Hanging up his jacket and dropping his keys into a dish on a dresser in the hallway, he stepped out of his shoes and into his apartment.
“UGH!” he said out loud. There was a pizza box on the coffee table, soda cans and coffee mugs on the side table, and the carpet hadn’t looked like it had seen a vacuum in months. He nodded determinedly, “Change changes things” he thought to himself, referring to his whole outlook. Picking up the pizza box, he walked into the kitchen and took the trashbag out of the garbage can threw it inside the bag, pushing down the garbage to make more room.
Walking back out into the living room, he filled his hands with empty and half-empty cans, bringing them into the kitchen and upending them into the sink to drain. He pulled the back into the living room and swept the worst of the crumbs from the coffee and side tables, stopping briefly to examine a stain on the side table that looked an awful lot like dried up mayo. “Oh Eww” he exclaimed disgustedly.
Wiping the rest of the smaller crumbs into the bag, not really caring if they made it in, he cleared off the tables and put the garbage bag by the front door. The dining room was fairly clean except for the dust he could physically see on the mantle, chandelier and table. Running a hand across the table, he kicked up enough dust to cause him to cough and sneeze. Shaking his head and laughing to himself, he stripped off the hoodie and tshirt he was wearing, went into the kitchen to grab the oxyclean and a roll of paper towels, he murmured”Look out house, we’ll see what you’re really made of.”
Three and a half hours later, he stood in his front hall, holding the handle of a long broom that he had used to get dust and spiderwebs from the corners of the vaulted ceiling in his dining room. He was physically exhausted, his eyes stung, and his hands hurt. But the whole house smelled like the one back home. His mother, an un-denying neat freak, couldn’t have done better. Well, maybe a little. Looking at the clock, seeing it was 2:30am, he put the cleaning products away, took the trash outside, and went upstairs to take a shower.
He took a step into his bathroom before he retreated back into his bedroom. The indicator light on his blackberry was red. “Great, another process failed” he sighed, referring to the work he had done to migrate some data for accounting. Pulling it out and scrolling it up to the current messages, he saw it wasn’t the generic system email, but something from ladyfae@hotmail.com.
He opened it and waited for Outlook to display the message before realizing it was a message from her. It read:
Matt,
Turned out to be a chore after all, they’re drunk and I’m sober. Don’t feel like dancing, would rather talk to you.
Wish I had gone to B&N with ya!
Fae
He looked at the time stamp and realized it had only been sent 15 minutes ago. He quickly replied:
Fae,
I hear you, I usually get designated to be the driver. B&N wasn’t the same without you. Up for brunch tomorrow?
M@
He held his breath as he hit send. He was so glad he had given her his card and she had thought to reach out using his email from work. He hit refresh 10 or 11 times before he realized that she had either put it away or turned it off.
“Oh well” he said, sighing, but happily. He put the phone on his dresser and grabbed a towel from the closet in the hall. As he walked into his bathroom, he checked the indicator light and it was green, no messages. He wiggled his eyebrows and brought the phone in the bathroom, putting it on a shelf by the shower door. He turned on the water, got in, closed the sliding glass door and checked the light again. Still green. Soaping up his now sweaty and cleaning product soaked skin, he washed quickly and rinsed even more so. He rinsed the last of the soap from his back and shoulders and turned the water off.
As he slid the door open and grabbed his towel, he noticed the light had turned red again.
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March 28th, 2009 mattdaddy
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Reaching into his jacket, he felt the billfold of his wallet. Inside he knew that he had a business card or two. “Just go over there you dolt!” he told himself, but he knew that even though he had her interest, he just wasn’t that brave. Still holding her eyes, he pulled out the card obviously, took a pen from the front counter and wrote on the back of the card. He smiled at her and turned to the man seating guests.
“Do you see the strawberry blond woman at the bar staring at me?” He saw him look over his shoulder and nod once. “Would you find a way to give this to her without her friends noticing?” Matt handed the card to him with a ten dollar bill folded under it.
“They’ll never know” he said smiling.
The man walked back towards the kitchen and Matt glanced back over his shoulder. Feeling daring, he found he still had her gaze, and winked at her. Suppressing the maniac laughter at his spur of the moment plan, he went out the door. He walked to his car and got in it, starting it up. Pulling out of the spot, he drove out of the parking lot and waited for traffic to clear to turn onto the street. His cell buzzed.
“This is Matt” he said, wincing as he realized he was answering like he would at work. He hadn’t recognized the number.
“This is Fae” said the voice. He closed his eyes, smiling. Not only was she beautiful, but her voice was perfect. Soft and lower than he was used to, not sexy, but definitely flirty. “I got your note and while I definitely appreciate the gesture, I really can’t leave right now.” He had written, You look like you’ve heard this story a million times already, let me know if I can rescue you by inviting you for coffee at the Barnes and Noble up the street. He couldn’t understand what was coming over him, but a louder part of him was becoming more persuasive in saying “GO FOR IT!” That of course, didn’t include walking up to three women obviously out for a girls night out and introducing himself. Getting more outgoing? Yes. That bold? No way.
“Yes, hun, I’ll be right there. Sorry. We’re getting ready to leave and I would LOVE to invite you, but men are not allowed tonight, it’s Jenny’s pre-bachellorette party.”
“Pre?” Matt said, wondering.
“Yes. We wanted a night just the three of us before we had to hang out with the people we HAD to hand out with, if you know what I mean.” He truly felt as if she was wanting to spend time with him, but couldn’t. He’d been blown off before, but this didn’t feel like it. He took heart.
“Totally understand where you’re coming from. You three been friends for a while now?”
“Since college, but we have to invite her sisters and neither Amy or I can stand Jenny’s sisters, so it’s gonna be a chore. Can I call you sometime? I obviously have your number, and I know you drive a red Acura. You should probably pull out, there’s a big truck headed your way.” she giggled as I turned around and saw her standing by the entrance, the big truck obstructing my view of her in the short black dress she was wearing.
“Please do, Fae. I look forward to hearing from you” he said, waving to her out the window and pulling out onto the street.
“Okay. Ciao, Matt.” she said, and hung up.
Driving along, Matt felt like he was 15, and had just asked his first girl out. The butterflies in his stomach were fluttering all over the place and he had trouble focusing on the road. The Barnes and Noble signed loomed over to his right so he turned into the parking lot and pulled into a space. His breathing was a bit labored and fast. He looked in the mirror and saw a stranger grinning widely at him, the man breaking out into almost hysterical laughter as he saw his reflection in the mirror.
Holding his stomach and laughing, he couldn’t believe the man in the mirror was him. That guy looked happy. That guy didn’t look like he’d spent so much of his time moping and being depressed. That guy looked like there was something to look forward to. He gradually got his laughter under control, while strangers moving around the car looked at him strangely. His cell buzzed again.
Instantly, he froze looking at the numbers, but it was a number he recognized. It was Terri.
“Matt, I just realized we should be out celebrating your test! Is it too late to take you out to dinner??” She sounded upset.
“Terri…let me just tell you about the last 15 minutes…” and proceeded to begin his tale. When he got to the part where he described the woman at the bar, Terri stopped him.
“WAIT!” she demanded.
“What?” he said.
“Where are you? Are you with her?”
“No, I’m sitting in the parking lot of the Barnes and Noble on Route 22″
“I know where it is, I’ll be there in 10 minutes. I don’t want to hear the rest of this story without seeing the look on your face. I can tell your cheeks are hurting from smiling so much just from the tone in your voice. I’ll be right there.”
The phone went dead and for the second time that night, the second time in a very long time, Matt laughed long and hard.
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March 25th, 2009 mattdaddy
look here for the explanation
look here for part 1
look here for part 2
***********************
Still brimming with excitement, he hung up the phone. “Matty” he chuckled to himself. “Well, it’s better than Matthew” he mused out loud. Drying off his hair and throwing the towel into the hamper in the corner of his room, “Two Points” he thought to himself as he made the shot.
“God I’m starving” he said.
“Who am I talking to?” he thought to himself, walking to the drawer and pulling out a pair of jeans and sliding them on. “Ugh” he groaned, the weight of the last several hours finally brimming over the dam of his excitement and elation. Only 2 months into his forties, Matt had been experiencing more aches and pains lately, but then again, after the accident and about 20 years of being a couch potato, what could he expect? Slipping the jeans over his hips and fastening them, he winced in anticipation of how much pulling the shirt over his head was going to ache. Surprisingly, it wasn’t too bad as he pulled on a t-shirt and his brown Jedi hoodie. He smiled as he recalled his girlfriend at the time just not getting how a 38 yr old man would wear a hoodie, much less one with a Jedi symbol on it. Understanding from that point that it wasn’t worth getting into anything further with a woman who didn’t like Star Wars, he hadn’t thought twice of his decision to break up with her.
Sighing loudly as he lowered his now aching carcass onto his leather couch, he cursed, knowing that he was still hungry and would have to get back out of his comfortable couch. Grabbing the remote and flipping through some channels, he came across commercial after commercial for this food or this restaurant. His stomach started drowning out the commercials in it’s insistence of being filled. Smiling to himself, he flipped off the TV, painfully pushed himself out of his couch, and instead of reaching for the phone and the delivery menu, decided it was a good occasion to celebrate. He looked at the phone and was about to call Terri when he realized that
a) he didn’t want to intrude – how rude would it be to ask someone to celebrate your event and b) that he didn’t have anyone else he could call. Standing in his front hallway with the phone in his hand, Matt had the realization that Terri wasn’t just his closest friend, she was his only friend.
“Dude” he breathed softly with the thought. His emotions turned down that black corridor that he had been in for so long and he started to drop his keys back on the table. Looking at his hand, he could still see the mark from his gloves and remember the sharp strike from Sensei that caused it.
Shaking his head, he shoved away the feelings dragging him back down that path and grabbed his keys, and opening the door he turned and slammed the door with a loud, satisfying bang. He was standing there smiling at his front door when the woman living next door was walking by, her 3 year old grandson making his way uneasily down the sidewalk in front of the house. Mrs. McNally raised her eyebrows and smiled, saying “Everything okay Matt?”
His smile broadened as he turned to her and nodded, “It is now Mrs. M. Thanks!” He jumped down the steps two at a time and rushed to his car. Unlocking it and sitting in it, he wondered what was happening to him. He shook his head and started the car, backing out and heading downtown, waving to Mrs. McNally as he drove down the block. Not really knowing where he wanted to go, his subconscious decided for him. He was pulling into the parking lot of Shikoku, a japanese hibachi and sushi place he used to come to a lot. Pulling into the spot, he smiled and got out, walked in, and was greeted by a cute young girl in a full length kimono.
“Welcome sir, table for one?”
“No thank you, I’d like to sit at the sushi bar” Matt said, looking over at the area in the corner where the chefs were preparing the raw fish.
“Hai, please follow me”
*****************************************
Rather than keep writing, I’m going to stop here and let Terri continue. This is turning into an interesting experiment 
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March 21st, 2009 mattdaddy
(begins 11:06am Saturday 3/21/09 EST)
Arms aching, he unties the himo strings fastening his men, or headgear, and pulls them loose. Using one hand to hold the men and the other to pull it from around his face, he rests it on top of his kote, or gloves that have been set in front of him to one side. The ceremony inherent in Kendo is as important as the swing of the sword or the kiai, or yell, of the strike. He pulls off the soaked headcloth using it to wipe away the sweat from his face and neck. Folding it and dropping it into his men, he looks across the floor to his opponent, who is doing the same thing. She is slight, dark, and at least a foot shorter than he, and yet her composure is unruffled as she pulls the cloth from her head and folds it neatly inside her men. Taking the himo strings and placing them inside their men, they both move back into a kneeling position, hands placed lightly on their thighs. Waiting a beat and mirroring one another, they place first the left hand, then the right hand on the floor, forming a triangle and bowing over it, their necks parallel to the floor, eyes looking directly into the triangle formed by their hands.
“Arigato Gozaimashita” they say in unison. Returning to their original position, the ceremony done, the slight woman’s face bursts into a beatific smile. The man cannot help but return it, knowing that the diminuitive Sensei is happy with his sparring, and as she nods slightly, confirms his deduction that she is indeed pleased.
“Your skill has improved now that you have conquered your need to always strike hard and fast. Patience is a weapon you don’t often use Kohai” she finishes, using the term for junior student. Applause erupts behind him as all of the Senpai, or senior students, clap their approval. She nods once more, picking up her men and kote, allowing him a moment to undo his armor and pack up. It was an interesting day 3 years ago when he walked into the dojo for the first time, nervous and not knowing what to expect. His co-worker Terri had been the one to suggest it.
“Matt, you need to get out and get your rah rah’s out. Sitting cooped up here isn’t going to help!” she had told him the afternoon before. It had been almost a year since the accident, and while the doctors had all confirmed that physically he was fine, he was still a bit reluctant to go out and “do” anything. “You sit behind the computer all day, working on your projects, but you don’t get out at all. I know it’s winter, but you have to do SOMETHING!” He and Terri had hit it off immediately when he began working for the company several years before. He liked to think of her as the sister he never had. After the accident when he started working from home more and more, she would stop by on her way home to check up on him.
She was right, he knew, but it was simpler to be alone, and stay in. Kneeling in the dojo three years later, he was glad that he had listened to her. His senpai and kohai patted him on the back congratulating him on his testing as he began to remove the laquered breastplate, or do, and apron or tare, tying them together in one package and stowing them in his gear back with his kote, and men. The do, and tare, were a present from Terri and some of the others at work. After he had told them about the class and had been going for several weeks, they all noticed that he was getting out of the house and spending more and more time in the office instead of home alone. He knew that they listened to him rattle on about the things he learned and loved them for the fact that although he knew none of them understood half of what he was talking about, they were happy for him nonetheless.
They had all helped him come out of a long dark tunnel, and today was proof that he was on his way to whatever awaited him instead of waiting for things to come to him.
Picking up his gear bag, he walked into the locker room and changed out of his uniform back into his street clothes. He shook hands and chatted about his test with several of the people still there before making his way out to his car. Not wanting to wait until he got home, he clipped the handsfree headset to his ear and speeddialed Terri at home. Her husband picked up on the first ring.
“Hey Matt, how did the test go?” he said in a friendly voice.
“Wow, I’m about to fall over, but I wanted to tell Terri, is she around?” Matt asked carefully. He always felt like he intruded on Terri’s life, but he knew for a fact that Terri’s husband was a generous guy and loved his wife all the more for how Terri had helped him out of his hole.
He laughed, “Nope, sorry. My looney wife is out running right now.”
“Running? I’ve still got my snow tires on!” Matt blurted incredously. He carefully backed out of his spot and turned onto Main St, heading towards his apartment.
“Heh, yeah I know. I’m not sure what she was thinking. She woke up in a weird mood this morning. She always runs first thing when she’s feeling like this. I’ll have her give you a call when she gets back okay? How did you do?”
“Better than I thought, passed with flying colors” Matt said. “Thanks man, have her give me a buzz later, k?”
“Will do.”
Snow crunched under her feet as her legs warmed up…… is continued on Terri’s blog
(edit 3/22/09 – the link goes to her entry now)
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March 21st, 2009 mattdaddy
I have been wanting to write a book for a long time now. I’ve read lots of Fantasy novels and I’ve always wanted to try to write one of my own. I’ve gotten started on several, but nothing ever has come of it, or at least nothing that I feel noteworthy. Terri over at Terri Terri Quite Contrary is someone who I discovered (or is it whom?) through another blog and after going over and reading her daily posts, I put her blog in my RSS Feeds in Outlook and I read her stuff every morning while I’m trying to find the bottom of my coffee cup and my brain first thing in the morning.
One of the common themes we share on our blog is our desire to write SOMETHING. I have noticed that with working out, if my boss and I don’t guilt one another into going, we don’t go. Now I’m not suggesting I guilt Terri into writing, but I thought of something more interesting. What if I start a story – a few paragraphs of something off the top of my head, and then leave the last line open so she can continue it. I’ll put a link to her blog at the bottom so people can go to her blog and read the follow up to my post. See if we can play storyline pingpong for a while and see what becomes of it. I figure if we begin to get something going, or we finish a storyline and want to start another, we can grab each other’s posts and put them in a story section, except all in the same place. I’m kind of working this out as I write it, so if anyone has any suggestions, please comment below.
Okay, I’m just going to start writing the first storyline in a new post and see what happens. Who knows…:) Stay tuned for the first storyline.
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