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toxic_cornSeries: Your Boyfriend Snorts Cocaine, Mary Anne
Title: Chapter Five (5/12)
Authors:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
toxic_corn and nutmeg610
Disclaimer: Chad and Mary Anne belong to ABC, Ann M. Martin, and Scholastic Books repsectively. We humbly apologize for this.
Summary: Mary Anne has left Stoneybrook behind to attend UCLA. She loves living with Dawn and Tigger, working at a local day care, and spending time with Logan. But lately Logan's been changing and not for the better. What will happen when Logan's erratic behavior gets to be too much and the older LAPD officer starts getting closer?!
Notes: Sorry for the dreadful summary; I was going for a style. This is a Day Break/Baby-Sitter's Club crossover fic we dreamed up one night because we're insane. If you're brave enough to give this a try, good on you. And if you avoid it, well, we understand. :)
Catch up on earlier chapters and check out Nutmeg's bitchin' banner at the organizational post.
CHAPTER FIVE
Sometimes I strongly suspect the story of my life was written by one of those screen writers specializing in screwball romantic comedies from the ‘40s.
- excerpt from the diary of Mary Anne Spier
After a solid fifteen minutes of weeping, Mary Anne calmed down long enough to tell Dawn the whole story. Dawn winced and patted her step-sister’s back, handing her tissues when she got to describing the ride home.
“It could’ve been worse,” Dawn commented at the end.
Mary Anne boggled. “Were you not listening for the last twenty minutes? It was a disaster!”
“Yes, but he said he’d like to see you again,” Dawn pointed out.
“That was before I ran away in tears.” Mary Anne buried her head in his hands. “God, I’m such an idiot!”
“Mary Anne, you’re not an idiot,” Dawn said, gently. “You got overwhelmed and I think he gets that. You should call him and-”
“Oh, right, because that went so well last time,” Mary Anne said with uncharacteristic bitterness, making Dawn frown.
“So you have an easier time talking to him in person?” Dawn asked.
Mary Anne thought about it. “Well, it’s not what I’d call ‘easy’ but it’s not as bad as it is on the phone.”
“Well, okay,” Dawn said as if it was all settled. “Go see him in person, like at his workplace, since you know where it is.”
“I don’t want to interrupt him while he’s working,” Mary Anne muttered, wiping her face with a tissue.
“So just quickly ask him if he wants to have lunch or something if he looks busy,” Dawn said. “You like him, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Mary Anne whispered.
Dawn wrapped her arm around her step-sister’s neck, giving her a hug. “Then go get him.”
~*~
Monday morning, Mary Anne’s first class was cancelled so she spent the drive to the station practicing what she’d say to Chad. Everything ended up sounding stupid and she eventually gave up. Maybe something would come to mind when she saw him.
Or maybe a meteor would hit the earth; that could be a great conversation-starter.
She spent a few minutes out in the car working up her nerve before climbing out and heading into the station. The place was a flurry of activity and Mary Anne froze in place for a second, not wanting to get swept off somewhere opposite of where she needed to go. Internal Affairs, Internal Affairs, she needed to get to Internal Affairs…
“Excuse me,” she asked the desk sergeant.
The harried man looked up from scribbling onto a pad, phone cradled between his shoulder and his ear. He held up a finger and she waited until he’d finished his conversation.
“How can I help you, dear?” the older man asked.
“Can you tell me where I can find Internal Affairs?”
The man raised his eyebrows. “What’s a sweet young thing like you want with Internal Affairs?”
Mary Anne blushed. “I’d like to see Chad Shelten.”
If possible, the man’s eyebrows went higher. “You’d be the only one, Ms…?”
“Spier. Mary Anne Spier.”
“Well, Ms. Mary Anne Spier, you can find Internal Affairs on the sixth floor. And if you ever change your mind about Shelten, I’m right here.” He gave her a friendly wink and Mary Anne smiled back at him before heading to the elevators.
The man’s disarming attitude had worked to calm her down a little but she still had to wipe her sweaty palms on her jeans a few times before reaching the sixth floor.
“Excuse me?” she asked the nearest cop. “Could you please tell me which office is Chad Shelten’s?”
“It’s that one.” The cop pointed. “But the bastard isn’t in.”
She gave him a startled look. “Where is he?”
“Probably off being a bastard.” The cop took off, looking annoyed and Mary Anne bit her lip, unsure of what to do. Should she wait outside for him or go in and take a seat, or would that be too presumptuous?
“Mary Anne?” Someone tapped her shoulder and she found herself face to face with Brett. “I thought that was you. I’m Brett Hopper, we met on Friday.”
“Yes, I remember.” Mary Anne shifted away from him, starting to feel her distress from that night again.
Brett at least had the grace to look ashamed of himself. “Look, I just wanted to apologize to you for that. It was out of line of me to have said what I did. I hope it didn’t spoil your evening.” He took a good look at her face and his shoulders slumped. “And I can tell that it did. I’m sorry, it wasn’t anything personal against you, it’s just that Chad and I don’t get along that well.”
“I did sense some tension between you,” Mary Anne joked with a wobbly smile.
He laughed. “Maybe just a little. We didn’t like each other much when we were partners, either, but lately since he’s been trying to sabotage my relationship with Rita it’s gotten-”
Mary Anne’s face fell.
“Oh god.” Brett rubbed at his eyes. “I can’t believe I’m… Look, I shouldn’t have said that.”
Had Chad known Rita was going to be at the restaurant that night? In a city of millions, what was the likelihood of running into someone you knew at a restaurant? Mary Anne had yet to see the same faces around campus every day. Was Chad using her to make Rita jealous? Judging by the look on the woman’s face, how not-okay she’d been with the thought of Mary Anne as Chad’s date, it had worked.
“I’m sorry,” Brett was saying when she came out of her thoughts. “Were you here to meet Chad?”
“I- I was, now I’m not so…” she cleared her throat and shook her head. “No, I’m not. Have a nice day, Detective Hopper. Is it detective?”
“It is,” Brett said, not looking happy.
She nodded and headed to the elevators, rubbing her arms. This had been such a stupid idea.
~*~
Chad nearly spilled his styrofoam cup of coffee when he saw Mary Anne outside the elevators. What was she doing here? A wild burst of joy at the thought of her coming to see him prevented him from saying anything for a moment.
But then the doors opened and she stepped onto the elevator. She was leaving.
“Mary Anne!” he called. “Mary- Hey, hold that elevator!” He dashed to the doors just in time for them to close in his face. “Damn it!” He gave the closed doors a punch and then started impatiently pushing the down button until another elevator opened up.
And of course, because he was in a hurry and whatever deity ruled the universe had a sense of humor, the elevator stopped on every floor the whole way down. He wasn’t terribly surprised that there was no sign of Mary Anne, but he was still disappointed.
“Hey, Shelten! You see that girl of yours?” Nathan the desk sergeant waved him over.
“Did you see her?” Chad asked.
“Yeah. Cute girl. Kind of left in a hurry, though. She looked like a student, did she have a class or something to get to?”
“Probably, yeah, she-” An idea stopped him short. “Hey, do you know any good florists around here?”
“What?”
“Any good- Never mind.”
~*~
Mary Anne heaved a sigh of relief. Her last class of the day was finally over and she’d gotten an A on the exam she’d been worried about. She’d had to study for it while upset over the Chad Shelten debacle and been concerned that maybe she wasn’t absorbing the material as well as a result.
She held the paper up to look at it once more in triumph then lowered it in time to see…. Chad Shelten. Chad Shelten outside her classroom. Chad Shelten outside her classroom holding a bouquet of white roses.
Maybe he wasn’t…? She looked behind her and automatically felt ridiculous. Right, like he was making the rounds of all the female students in her western civ class.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, looking at him uncertainly.
“Bringing you flowers,” he said, holding them out. “See?”
“Well, yes, I see that, but… I don’t…”
“Oh, are you allergic?” He started to pull them back, worriedly.
Mary Anne shook her head. “I just don’t see how I deserve flowers is all. After the way I acted.”
He frowned, puzzled. “The way you acted? What do you mean? I’m the one who acted like a jerk.”
She blushed. “You weren’t that big of a jerk. For you, you were actually very sweet.”
“Thanks.” He paused and thought that over. “I think.”
“I still don’t know why you’re here.” When he held up the flowers and opened his mouth, she cut him off. “Yes, I see the flowers! But how did you know where my class was?”
His eyes lit up, proud to recount the tale. “Well, I went to student services and flashed my badge and asked in my serious ‘cop voice’ where the registrar was. Then I went there and flashed them my badge and said it was an urgent matter of state that I know where you are at this time. So they looked it up on your schedule and told me where to find the building. Then I drove here.” He smiled, proudly.
Mary Anne stared at him. “You have my home phone. Why didn’t you just call Dawn and ask?”
Chad opened his mouth, paused, then closed it glumly as he looked around trying to come up with something. He gave her a sheepish look. “Because that would have made too much sense?” He shrugged. “Oh well, this way was more exciting.”
Mary Anne started to smile, but stopped when she remembered she was supposed to be angry with him. “So what happened to waiting until I called you, letting me decide what I wanted?”
“Oh, no I’m- I mean, I am waiting for you to decide, I just…” He held out the flowers again. “This is just to say ‘I’m sorry’ again, about our date and that I’m really not as much of an ass as I first appear to be.”
His smile was so charming that she found herself accepting the flowers. “I actually stopped by the station to see you, today,” she admitted.
“Yeah, I saw you, called out to you actually, as you got in the elevator. I thought you were ignoring me, so I tried to catch up, but my elevator had to stop on every damn floor on the way down, so I missed you when I got out.”
She frowned. “I didn’t hear you, otherwise I would’ve stopped.”
“Oh, well, that explains that. Uh, why’d you come to see me?” He tried to appear casual, not at all hopeful.
“Well, I wanted to apologize to you for being… well, before I say anything else, can I ask you something?”
He shrugged. “Sure.”
She looked at him carefully, assessing his reaction. “Did you know Rita and Brett were going to be at the restaurant?”
Chad’s eyebrow rose. “Uh, nooo. I took you there because it’s my favorite restaurant.” He cleared his throat, awkwardly. “It’s one of Rita’s too, and I guess she picked it for their date.”
Relieved, Mary Anne let out the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. “Oh, okay. It just seemed strange in a city this size something like that would happen…”
“Well, yeah,” Chad agreed. “But I mean, I don’t live that far away from there, and like I said, she likes that place…” He trailed off, looking thoughtful. “Wait, you thought I wanted to go there so we’d run into them? Why would I want to do that?”
Alarmed, Mary Anne found herself babbling. “Well I-! I didn’t think that until… well, I didn’t want to believe it but I hardly know you and Brett said-”
“Whoa! Brett? When’d you talk to Brett?” His nostrils flared.
She took a frightened step back. “At the station.”
Seeing how he was affecting her, he tried to relax. “Right. So what’d he say about me?”
“That…” she searched his face. “Are you going to get mad?”
Anger boiled inside him as he tried not to clench his teeth. “No.”
Not buying that response for a second, she said, “Then how about I just believe he was lying and we let it go?”
Chad sighed. “Seems odd you’d believe him over me, when you know him even less than me.” He paused again to keep his anger in check. “But let me take a stab at this; he said I was an arrogant ass who’s trying to win Rita back from him. How’s that? Pretty close?”
“Except for the arrogant ass part, pretty much. Yeah.” Too guilty to look at him, she stared down at the ground. “I didn’t want to believe it but…” She sighed. “I guess it’s just easier to believe the worst of people. I’m sorry, Chad.”
“It’s… fine. I mean, well, think about it. If you were in my shoes. Your wife leaves you and around a month later you hear through the grapevine that she’s dating your former partner. Doesn’t that seem a bit fishy to you? Out of all the people in L.A. they could have dated, they pick each other.” He shrugged sadly. “Can you blame me for thinking he stole her away? It took some time to get over.”
Right, like he was over it. She felt worse for bringing it up, now. “That would be hard, yeah.”
“So yeah,” Chad muttered. “Anways, here we go sliding downhill again. Look, I just wanted to bring you those and say ‘I’m sorry’ which I’ve done, so I guess I won’t take up any more of your time.” He moved to leave.
“Wait!”
He paused. “Yeah?”
Mary Anne took a deep breath. “Look, I’m really, really, really sorry about the scene I made at the restaurant. It was… childish. I know you were only trying to make me feel better and I appreciate it, really. I’m just not that good at confrontations like that, or being put on the spot.” She laughed sadly, with a trace of embarrassment. “I once ran away from a surprise birthday party my friends threw for me.”
Chad laughed lightly. “Oh, wow. Ok, I know now to never try and surprise you. But you didn’t run away when I surprised you with flowers, so that’s a good sign, huh?”
She looked at the flowers. “Can… can I make it up to you?”
He gave her a look of surprise. “You mean our date?”
“Yeah.” She smiled shyly at him. “I was thinking that maybe on Saturday we can go on a picnic? I know this great park that’s just a block from your station; I’ve taken the kids I watch there lots of times. I… I could bring food and we could… try again?”
This was what he’d been hoping she’d come to see him about, but he scrutinized her carefully. “Only if it’s because you really want to and not because you feel like you have to make it up to me, okay? There’s nothing to forgive.” He smiled charmingly. “And if you’re offering to bring the food, of course I’ll be there.”
“Chad, this is very hard for me, could you please say yes so we can decide on a time?” Mary Anne asked, gently.
He nodded seriously. “Yes. Time?”
“Is one okay?”
“Hmmm… one…” He pondered his non-existent schedule to make it look like he had a social life. “Yeah, one’s great. Should I pick you up or meet you there?”
“I’ll meet you there.” She leaned forward conspiratorially, eyes sparkling. “Sometimes a woman would rather meet her date than have him pick her up.”
He grinned, delighted. “So I’ve heard. A very wise man must’ve told you that.”
“He likes to think he is.” She started to walk away. “’Bye, Chad.”
“Well, he’s got a fancy education but he doesn’t like to brag about it!” he called after her, then smiled to himself. “’Bye, Mary Anne.”
She turned to walk backwards and gave him a wave while grinning, then continued on her merry way.
He chuckled, watching her go, then stuck his hands in his suit pants’ pockets and strolled away.
******
If you want to see Mary Anne in her prom dress, check out the prettiful manip Nutmeg made!
******
< Chapter Four : Chapter Six >
Title: Chapter Five (5/12)
Authors:
toxic_corn and nutmeg610Disclaimer: Chad and Mary Anne belong to ABC, Ann M. Martin, and Scholastic Books repsectively. We humbly apologize for this.
Summary: Mary Anne has left Stoneybrook behind to attend UCLA. She loves living with Dawn and Tigger, working at a local day care, and spending time with Logan. But lately Logan's been changing and not for the better. What will happen when Logan's erratic behavior gets to be too much and the older LAPD officer starts getting closer?!
Notes: Sorry for the dreadful summary; I was going for a style. This is a Day Break/Baby-Sitter's Club crossover fic we dreamed up one night because we're insane. If you're brave enough to give this a try, good on you. And if you avoid it, well, we understand. :)
Catch up on earlier chapters and check out Nutmeg's bitchin' banner at the organizational post.
Sometimes I strongly suspect the story of my life was written by one of those screen writers specializing in screwball romantic comedies from the ‘40s.
- excerpt from the diary of Mary Anne Spier
After a solid fifteen minutes of weeping, Mary Anne calmed down long enough to tell Dawn the whole story. Dawn winced and patted her step-sister’s back, handing her tissues when she got to describing the ride home.
“It could’ve been worse,” Dawn commented at the end.
Mary Anne boggled. “Were you not listening for the last twenty minutes? It was a disaster!”
“Yes, but he said he’d like to see you again,” Dawn pointed out.
“That was before I ran away in tears.” Mary Anne buried her head in his hands. “God, I’m such an idiot!”
“Mary Anne, you’re not an idiot,” Dawn said, gently. “You got overwhelmed and I think he gets that. You should call him and-”
“Oh, right, because that went so well last time,” Mary Anne said with uncharacteristic bitterness, making Dawn frown.
“So you have an easier time talking to him in person?” Dawn asked.
Mary Anne thought about it. “Well, it’s not what I’d call ‘easy’ but it’s not as bad as it is on the phone.”
“Well, okay,” Dawn said as if it was all settled. “Go see him in person, like at his workplace, since you know where it is.”
“I don’t want to interrupt him while he’s working,” Mary Anne muttered, wiping her face with a tissue.
“So just quickly ask him if he wants to have lunch or something if he looks busy,” Dawn said. “You like him, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Mary Anne whispered.
Dawn wrapped her arm around her step-sister’s neck, giving her a hug. “Then go get him.”
Monday morning, Mary Anne’s first class was cancelled so she spent the drive to the station practicing what she’d say to Chad. Everything ended up sounding stupid and she eventually gave up. Maybe something would come to mind when she saw him.
Or maybe a meteor would hit the earth; that could be a great conversation-starter.
She spent a few minutes out in the car working up her nerve before climbing out and heading into the station. The place was a flurry of activity and Mary Anne froze in place for a second, not wanting to get swept off somewhere opposite of where she needed to go. Internal Affairs, Internal Affairs, she needed to get to Internal Affairs…
“Excuse me,” she asked the desk sergeant.
The harried man looked up from scribbling onto a pad, phone cradled between his shoulder and his ear. He held up a finger and she waited until he’d finished his conversation.
“How can I help you, dear?” the older man asked.
“Can you tell me where I can find Internal Affairs?”
The man raised his eyebrows. “What’s a sweet young thing like you want with Internal Affairs?”
Mary Anne blushed. “I’d like to see Chad Shelten.”
If possible, the man’s eyebrows went higher. “You’d be the only one, Ms…?”
“Spier. Mary Anne Spier.”
“Well, Ms. Mary Anne Spier, you can find Internal Affairs on the sixth floor. And if you ever change your mind about Shelten, I’m right here.” He gave her a friendly wink and Mary Anne smiled back at him before heading to the elevators.
The man’s disarming attitude had worked to calm her down a little but she still had to wipe her sweaty palms on her jeans a few times before reaching the sixth floor.
“Excuse me?” she asked the nearest cop. “Could you please tell me which office is Chad Shelten’s?”
“It’s that one.” The cop pointed. “But the bastard isn’t in.”
She gave him a startled look. “Where is he?”
“Probably off being a bastard.” The cop took off, looking annoyed and Mary Anne bit her lip, unsure of what to do. Should she wait outside for him or go in and take a seat, or would that be too presumptuous?
“Mary Anne?” Someone tapped her shoulder and she found herself face to face with Brett. “I thought that was you. I’m Brett Hopper, we met on Friday.”
“Yes, I remember.” Mary Anne shifted away from him, starting to feel her distress from that night again.
Brett at least had the grace to look ashamed of himself. “Look, I just wanted to apologize to you for that. It was out of line of me to have said what I did. I hope it didn’t spoil your evening.” He took a good look at her face and his shoulders slumped. “And I can tell that it did. I’m sorry, it wasn’t anything personal against you, it’s just that Chad and I don’t get along that well.”
“I did sense some tension between you,” Mary Anne joked with a wobbly smile.
He laughed. “Maybe just a little. We didn’t like each other much when we were partners, either, but lately since he’s been trying to sabotage my relationship with Rita it’s gotten-”
Mary Anne’s face fell.
“Oh god.” Brett rubbed at his eyes. “I can’t believe I’m… Look, I shouldn’t have said that.”
Had Chad known Rita was going to be at the restaurant that night? In a city of millions, what was the likelihood of running into someone you knew at a restaurant? Mary Anne had yet to see the same faces around campus every day. Was Chad using her to make Rita jealous? Judging by the look on the woman’s face, how not-okay she’d been with the thought of Mary Anne as Chad’s date, it had worked.
“I’m sorry,” Brett was saying when she came out of her thoughts. “Were you here to meet Chad?”
“I- I was, now I’m not so…” she cleared her throat and shook her head. “No, I’m not. Have a nice day, Detective Hopper. Is it detective?”
“It is,” Brett said, not looking happy.
She nodded and headed to the elevators, rubbing her arms. This had been such a stupid idea.
Chad nearly spilled his styrofoam cup of coffee when he saw Mary Anne outside the elevators. What was she doing here? A wild burst of joy at the thought of her coming to see him prevented him from saying anything for a moment.
But then the doors opened and she stepped onto the elevator. She was leaving.
“Mary Anne!” he called. “Mary- Hey, hold that elevator!” He dashed to the doors just in time for them to close in his face. “Damn it!” He gave the closed doors a punch and then started impatiently pushing the down button until another elevator opened up.
And of course, because he was in a hurry and whatever deity ruled the universe had a sense of humor, the elevator stopped on every floor the whole way down. He wasn’t terribly surprised that there was no sign of Mary Anne, but he was still disappointed.
“Hey, Shelten! You see that girl of yours?” Nathan the desk sergeant waved him over.
“Did you see her?” Chad asked.
“Yeah. Cute girl. Kind of left in a hurry, though. She looked like a student, did she have a class or something to get to?”
“Probably, yeah, she-” An idea stopped him short. “Hey, do you know any good florists around here?”
“What?”
“Any good- Never mind.”
Mary Anne heaved a sigh of relief. Her last class of the day was finally over and she’d gotten an A on the exam she’d been worried about. She’d had to study for it while upset over the Chad Shelten debacle and been concerned that maybe she wasn’t absorbing the material as well as a result.
She held the paper up to look at it once more in triumph then lowered it in time to see…. Chad Shelten. Chad Shelten outside her classroom. Chad Shelten outside her classroom holding a bouquet of white roses.
Maybe he wasn’t…? She looked behind her and automatically felt ridiculous. Right, like he was making the rounds of all the female students in her western civ class.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, looking at him uncertainly.
“Bringing you flowers,” he said, holding them out. “See?”
“Well, yes, I see that, but… I don’t…”
“Oh, are you allergic?” He started to pull them back, worriedly.
Mary Anne shook her head. “I just don’t see how I deserve flowers is all. After the way I acted.”
He frowned, puzzled. “The way you acted? What do you mean? I’m the one who acted like a jerk.”
She blushed. “You weren’t that big of a jerk. For you, you were actually very sweet.”
“Thanks.” He paused and thought that over. “I think.”
“I still don’t know why you’re here.” When he held up the flowers and opened his mouth, she cut him off. “Yes, I see the flowers! But how did you know where my class was?”
His eyes lit up, proud to recount the tale. “Well, I went to student services and flashed my badge and asked in my serious ‘cop voice’ where the registrar was. Then I went there and flashed them my badge and said it was an urgent matter of state that I know where you are at this time. So they looked it up on your schedule and told me where to find the building. Then I drove here.” He smiled, proudly.
Mary Anne stared at him. “You have my home phone. Why didn’t you just call Dawn and ask?”
Chad opened his mouth, paused, then closed it glumly as he looked around trying to come up with something. He gave her a sheepish look. “Because that would have made too much sense?” He shrugged. “Oh well, this way was more exciting.”
Mary Anne started to smile, but stopped when she remembered she was supposed to be angry with him. “So what happened to waiting until I called you, letting me decide what I wanted?”
“Oh, no I’m- I mean, I am waiting for you to decide, I just…” He held out the flowers again. “This is just to say ‘I’m sorry’ again, about our date and that I’m really not as much of an ass as I first appear to be.”
His smile was so charming that she found herself accepting the flowers. “I actually stopped by the station to see you, today,” she admitted.
“Yeah, I saw you, called out to you actually, as you got in the elevator. I thought you were ignoring me, so I tried to catch up, but my elevator had to stop on every damn floor on the way down, so I missed you when I got out.”
She frowned. “I didn’t hear you, otherwise I would’ve stopped.”
“Oh, well, that explains that. Uh, why’d you come to see me?” He tried to appear casual, not at all hopeful.
“Well, I wanted to apologize to you for being… well, before I say anything else, can I ask you something?”
He shrugged. “Sure.”
She looked at him carefully, assessing his reaction. “Did you know Rita and Brett were going to be at the restaurant?”
Chad’s eyebrow rose. “Uh, nooo. I took you there because it’s my favorite restaurant.” He cleared his throat, awkwardly. “It’s one of Rita’s too, and I guess she picked it for their date.”
Relieved, Mary Anne let out the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. “Oh, okay. It just seemed strange in a city this size something like that would happen…”
“Well, yeah,” Chad agreed. “But I mean, I don’t live that far away from there, and like I said, she likes that place…” He trailed off, looking thoughtful. “Wait, you thought I wanted to go there so we’d run into them? Why would I want to do that?”
Alarmed, Mary Anne found herself babbling. “Well I-! I didn’t think that until… well, I didn’t want to believe it but I hardly know you and Brett said-”
“Whoa! Brett? When’d you talk to Brett?” His nostrils flared.
She took a frightened step back. “At the station.”
Seeing how he was affecting her, he tried to relax. “Right. So what’d he say about me?”
“That…” she searched his face. “Are you going to get mad?”
Anger boiled inside him as he tried not to clench his teeth. “No.”
Not buying that response for a second, she said, “Then how about I just believe he was lying and we let it go?”
Chad sighed. “Seems odd you’d believe him over me, when you know him even less than me.” He paused again to keep his anger in check. “But let me take a stab at this; he said I was an arrogant ass who’s trying to win Rita back from him. How’s that? Pretty close?”
“Except for the arrogant ass part, pretty much. Yeah.” Too guilty to look at him, she stared down at the ground. “I didn’t want to believe it but…” She sighed. “I guess it’s just easier to believe the worst of people. I’m sorry, Chad.”
“It’s… fine. I mean, well, think about it. If you were in my shoes. Your wife leaves you and around a month later you hear through the grapevine that she’s dating your former partner. Doesn’t that seem a bit fishy to you? Out of all the people in L.A. they could have dated, they pick each other.” He shrugged sadly. “Can you blame me for thinking he stole her away? It took some time to get over.”
Right, like he was over it. She felt worse for bringing it up, now. “That would be hard, yeah.”
“So yeah,” Chad muttered. “Anways, here we go sliding downhill again. Look, I just wanted to bring you those and say ‘I’m sorry’ which I’ve done, so I guess I won’t take up any more of your time.” He moved to leave.
“Wait!”
He paused. “Yeah?”
Mary Anne took a deep breath. “Look, I’m really, really, really sorry about the scene I made at the restaurant. It was… childish. I know you were only trying to make me feel better and I appreciate it, really. I’m just not that good at confrontations like that, or being put on the spot.” She laughed sadly, with a trace of embarrassment. “I once ran away from a surprise birthday party my friends threw for me.”
Chad laughed lightly. “Oh, wow. Ok, I know now to never try and surprise you. But you didn’t run away when I surprised you with flowers, so that’s a good sign, huh?”
She looked at the flowers. “Can… can I make it up to you?”
He gave her a look of surprise. “You mean our date?”
“Yeah.” She smiled shyly at him. “I was thinking that maybe on Saturday we can go on a picnic? I know this great park that’s just a block from your station; I’ve taken the kids I watch there lots of times. I… I could bring food and we could… try again?”
This was what he’d been hoping she’d come to see him about, but he scrutinized her carefully. “Only if it’s because you really want to and not because you feel like you have to make it up to me, okay? There’s nothing to forgive.” He smiled charmingly. “And if you’re offering to bring the food, of course I’ll be there.”
“Chad, this is very hard for me, could you please say yes so we can decide on a time?” Mary Anne asked, gently.
He nodded seriously. “Yes. Time?”
“Is one okay?”
“Hmmm… one…” He pondered his non-existent schedule to make it look like he had a social life. “Yeah, one’s great. Should I pick you up or meet you there?”
“I’ll meet you there.” She leaned forward conspiratorially, eyes sparkling. “Sometimes a woman would rather meet her date than have him pick her up.”
He grinned, delighted. “So I’ve heard. A very wise man must’ve told you that.”
“He likes to think he is.” She started to walk away. “’Bye, Chad.”
“Well, he’s got a fancy education but he doesn’t like to brag about it!” he called after her, then smiled to himself. “’Bye, Mary Anne.”
She turned to walk backwards and gave him a wave while grinning, then continued on her merry way.
He chuckled, watching her go, then stuck his hands in his suit pants’ pockets and strolled away.
******
If you want to see Mary Anne in her prom dress, check out the prettiful manip Nutmeg made!
******
< Chapter Four : Chapter Six >
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Date: 2006-12-27 05:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-27 05:36 am (UTC)