Homecoming blues

[Gothmaster]

(Closed for me and Landiek)

PROLOGUE

Maybe best to introduce myself before this little tale of my homecoming begins. My name is Will Harper and i am a 29 year old pilot. Or at least i was a pilot. That was when i still lived in New York. Now i am between jobs. At least that is what i call it. The town i live in now is a small one. I doubt many know it by name. The name of the town is Bowery, Colorado and it have a population of about 1500 peaple living in it and in the surrounding area. After my divorce from my high school sweetheart i was persuaded by some friends to make the move from the hectic New York to the more quiet Bowery.

I had been married to sarah since i was 20 years old. That mean i was married for 9 years. Maybe we where to young. At least we had no children to consider. Something i am very glad about now when i know we had no future together. Both Sarah and i was born and raised in Bowery and we both wanted to leave as fast as we could. Which we did.

More about me. As i said, i am 29 years old and to my knowledge i am not a bad looking guy. At least that is what my friends keep telling me. I don't really know if they are truthful or just trying to cheer me up. I wan't to think it is the first alternative but i can't be to sure. Sarah was my first and only girlfriend and late in the marriage she was a bitch. Glad to be rid of her, really i am.

Seems i get sideswiped from what i am about to tell you. More about me. I have short dark hair and blue eyes. Grey when i get angry. At least that is what peaple say when they have seen me in that state. I am 6 feet tall and weighs roughly speaking about 155 pounds. Well that is me. Better stop my rambling now or peaple may get annoyed. They may think of me as self centered and that is so not true. I just tell you this so you know who i am.

 

[Gothmaster]

Will Harper

It was a quiet night in Januari. I had been in Bowery almost two months but this was the first time i gave in to my friends to take me out. To tell the truth i would rather have stayed at home. I had gotten used to the quiet and stress free life. I stopped missing New York allready the first month and i would no way in hell move back. Bowery was my home, it had always been my home. I had been to stubborn to realise it. If i hadn't tried to save the marriage with Sarah as long as i had i may have realised it sooner. I belonged in a small town, not in a large metropol.

My two best friends Frank Howard and Tom Wilkes had tried to send me out on dates numerous times. Starting the week after i arrived. Every time i had refused. Sure, i was interrested in women but that interrest had gone when i got divorced. It is irony that i could not date while i was with Sarah. I may be many things but i am not an adulterer. That was Sarah's department. Now that i am free to do whatever i like my interrest in the opposite sex is at a minimum. I like to watch as every hot blooded guy but i haven't dated in 12 years. Not since i hooked up with Sarah and we became a couple. You can say hat i am a little rosty when it comes to the dating scene. If i saw a woman i would like to go out with i am not even sure how to approach her. I am sure the pickup lines have changed in 12 years.

If Frank and Tom hadn't been so annoying i had thought them amusing as they pointed out all single women we met. I allready regretted that i accepted to go with them to the local waterhole. The mighty stallion. That was the name of the pub. Stupid name, i know. It came from the time Bowery was breeding horses and sold them back in the 19th century.

I had mostly accepted my friends invitation to shut them up. After this i hoped they waited at least a few weeks before trying to take me out again. I loved them to death but they where best taken in small doses.

When we arrived at the place we went straight in. The place was crowded as usual on a saturday. We sat down as far in as we could at a very nice table. The lightening was dimmed so there was a cute candle on the table. There even was a small country and western band playing old sentimental love songs.

I looked around the room and then i saw her. The image froze in my mind. I knew her. Who and where had i seen her. She was so familiar to me but i just could not place her. She had red hair, falling to her shoulders and wearing a sexy black dress. I could not stop staring at her and eventually she looked up from the conversation she had with her two friends. Her eyes met mine and i knew i had seen those eyes before.

 

[landiek]

I was sitting in the local hang out singing along with the band when my ultimate favorite Patsy Cline song wafted thru the place. Without a pause my sultry timber was singing right along with the band being the envy of my small circle of friends.

"I've got your memories.. or has it got me.. I really don't know.. but I know.. it won't let me be...." I lifted the wine glass to my full delectable lips and took a sip letting go of the song to listen to Diane talk about her sister's new baby.

It was when the band started playing "Forever and Ever Amen" That I felt that tug of nostalgia in the pit of my belly. I wanted to cry as I thought about my early years, when I was young and married and naturally stupid.

"Geez Sarah.. go say hi." Jenny suggested as she noticed the hot looking hunk at the end of the counter.

I glanced up and pushed back the lustrous mane of red hair and glanced my baby blues to the face. I knew him in an instant and almost was ready to faint from shock and dismay as he had a slight smile.

Obviously he didn't recognize me.. hell a lot of people didn't. I went from a whooping two hundred and seventy to one fifteen after my idiot phase. I also had my nose fixed and teeth redone. Believe me jagged teeth make you look retarded and gruesome.. plus I got rid of my dirty blond hair and learned to care for myself better. I was a newly crowned hottie by several men since returning to my old stomping grounds.

Of course I thoroughly regretted my affair with Thomas Mitchell.. it was nothing but a whirlwind moment that lasted over a year but in the end the divorce left me with a valued lesson on life and men that covet another man's wife. You're screwed

So there we were staring at each other like frozen in a brief distortion of time as nothing seemed to move as our eyes held each other in a non-touching embrace. Did I dare approach him? Do I say how much he makes my insides quiver with lust still after all this time?

It took about five more minutes of prodding by Jenny, Ann, and Katie to walk over to talk to Mister Hot, Tall and Stud. As I moved across the floor to the counter I noticed that he was really checking me out. Dare I lie about who I am to him?

"What cha drinking, handsome?" I asked in that Coloradian drawl.

 

[Gothmaster]

I could not take my eyes from the redhead and to my dismay both Frank and Tom laughed and teased me that i was hooked on their first try to take me out. It was embaressing really. The woman bent over in a private conversation with her girlfriends and broke our eye contact. I shrugged and went back to my drink. I am a whiskey drinker. No ice and no water. I wan't it straight as it is. I was minding my own business, drinking my whiskey and talking a word or two with my friends as i heard a voice next to me.

"What cha drinking, handsome?" I look up and there she stand with her blue eyes locked at me. She had a smile on her lips that made me nervous. Unused with female's flirting with me for such a long time. I swallow the yellow brownish liquid i have in my mouth. I smile tentativily at her as i notice that my friends suddenly had left me for another table. Typically, just when i need some moral support.

"Whiskey is my choice. And what are your drink?" I ask as i motion for her to sit and join me. My friends may be right. I need a little excitement in my life. Or i will become old and humourless. "My name is Will." She look so familiar to me. Her eyes do at least. It is so unnerving to have a name on your tongue but unable to bring it up.

 

[landiek]

"Whiskey is my choice. And what are your drink?"

"Fuzzy Navels." I replied with a slight smirk as I could tell he was trying to place me for certain. It was easy as I slipped on the stool next to him.

"My name is Will."

"Yes I know. I was amazed to see how good you look." I smiled as I asked the tender for a second round and pushed the twenty on the counter.

"I'm the other Sarah." It seemed corny to call myself that but in High School there was two Sarah's . She was popular and I well, was geeky, fat, and avoiding like the plaque.

By the look of astonishment I could tell that he didn't believe me for one second. Of course who could blame him, sometimes my own brother doesn't recognize me until we get into a shouting contest.

I guess I was like the caterpiller that turned into a butterfly in comparsion to the beauties that attended our school. I stood five six until I learned to walk properly and became two inches taller without high heels. Plus as I mentioned I lost a good deal of weight and did a major overhaul on my looks bringing myself into the circle of celebrityhood.

"Maybe you should take another drink before your jaw drops off." I teased lightly another new trait that I picked up during my transformation. Nerve I guess some would call it and me.. I called it folly but when you are in the "IN" circle you follow the rules.

 

[Gothmaster]

I felt my jaw drop as she said her name. She was Sarah. One of the girls in the click that was repeatably teased by how they looked. The nerd kids. This was an remarkable change. I could not really see this as the old Sarah i knew.

Well, to tell the truth i did not really know her back then. I did not really care to. To my defence though i never teased her like so many. I liked to think that it was not in my nature to be a bully but i think it is more that i had my own life and did not care for hers. I closed my jaw with some effort.

"No shit!" I exclaimed. "You are Sarah? Sarah Sondales?" I look at her up and down before my eyes meet hers again. "You sure have changed." What an understatement. She sure was a feast for my eyes. Still strange though that i feel attracted to Sarah Sondales. A woman i hardly knew existed when we where back in school.

In my school years i had been with the popular kids. I even married the most popular girl. That may have been a mistake but that is life. I smile slowly towards this woman i don't know.

"How have life treated you Sarah?" By the way she look it seems she came out on top.

 

[landiek]

"No shit!" I exclaimed. "You are Sarah? Sarah Sondales?"

"In the flesh." I smiled as his face went thru a tirade of reactions. Then there was that double take as he was looking over the new me.

"You sure have changed."

"Well, there was a lot of reasons to make the difference." I admitted with another smile between sips of my drink. Yet Will, he was still good looking just as when we were younger and I still had an underlieing crush on his eyes and lips.

"How have life treated you Sarah?" By the way she look it seems she came out on top.

"Which version do you want? Long drawn out over dinner or the short version that takes maybe two dozen words?" I pushed back my hair from my face so he could see the tiny scar by the ear. "But all in all I can't complain.. what about you?"

 

[Gothmaster]

I sipped my whiskey as i was still astonished by the was she looked. It took courage for her to turn her life around. Even more so i realised as she showed me her scar. Wait a minute. Did she just ask me out to dinner or wan't me to ask her? It was a long time since i played the game men and women had always played. Don't really know if i ever played that game. A good reason to take a chance now.

"I am recently divorced. You remember Sarah Freedman." I smiled without humour. "Was married to that woman for 9 years. Was 7 happy years i think. Can't much remember a time we did not fight." I sip my whiskey surprised that i share that much with this woman. "Now i am a free man." I laugh silently. I look Sarah in her eyes. "I would love taking you out on dinner Sarah."

 

[landiek]

"I am recently divorced. You remember Sarah Freedman." He smiled without humour. "Was married to that woman for 9 years. Was 7 happy years i think. Can't much remember a time we did not fight." He sipped his whiskey. "Now I am a free man." .

"Free is an excellent prospective." I agreed

"I would love taking you out on dinner Sarah."

"So will that be now or tomorrow?" I asked in one breathe thinking about all the times I wrote poetry about this man. Even when he was chosen for the homecoming court I wrote my undying love for him until the other Sarah made a claim on him and added to my misery. But that was years ago and here was Will in the flesh looking just as tempting as he did back then.

I polished my drink and nodded to the bartender "Keep the change, please."

I looked back at Will who was taking the last swallow of his whiskey. I honestly think he was shocked that I was asking him out or that I was willing to do it now. Either way we came out ahead cause our friends would have to wait until after the date to get the "juicy " details.

 

[Gothmaster]

I smiled at Sarah. This was not going very bad for an unexperienced dater i thought to myself. Only been in the game for an hour or so and i allready had dinner plans with the sexiest woman in the pub. Maybe my luck was changing.

"Right now would be great." I said and stood up offering her my hand. "What would you like to eat? I am open for most food myself." I asked while my mind was all about eating her. It had been very long without that physical aspect of a date as well for me.

 

[landiek]

"Right now would be great." I said and stood up offering her my hand. "What would you like to eat? I am open for most food myself."

"Well there is the pizza place on fifth. The burger barn on Hamilton.. Chinese on Grant.. The steak house over in the square.. Red Lobster by the North Gate Mall... The Buffet is still standing.. the best smorgasbord in the world.. or IHOP." I chuckled as I stared a few seconds. "Did I mention that I have a horrible time choosing?"

My girls gave the thumbs up as I slipped my arm in his. God I wanted to do this for years and here he offered it to me. I felt my stomache jerk as that tingle from touching one another jolted through my back.

As we walked out the door I couldn't help but daydream about the wild nights of sex we could have had back then. I had to shake those thoughts out of my head cause I really wanted this date to be promising.

 

[Gothmaster]

Arm in arm we walked outside. This felt good. Better than it had in years. "How about hamburgers?" I said as i lead her down the street. I almost felt like a teenager again. The time of my life where i was the most happy with my Sarah. Now i was walking with a different woman, also named Sarah.

We reached the burger barn and there was only three peaple before us in the line. "You wan't to eat here or order home?" I asked her. I was quite nervous asking her that. Was it acceptable or did i just make a fool out of myself? My friends would say that without courage you gain nothing and i wanted this woman more than i could really explain. She had somehow brought back my lust for life. Not that i ever considered suicide but i had withdrawn from the world. Thanks to my friends i might be heading the right direction with this woman.

 

[landiek]

"How about hamburgers?" He said as he lead me down the street.

"Sounds perfect." I replied as we walked to the Burger Barn.

It was quiet outside as we walked yet I couldn't help but find myself falling in love with the face and sparkling eyes

"You want to eat here or order home?" He asked me.

"Whose home?" I asked curiously as my place was on the other side of town. Yet my belly flipped inside as the door of opportunity was right there in my face. I really wanted to grab him and kiss those lips of light pale rose that taunted the perfect kiss awaking my princess fantasy to fall deeply in love with him as well as he with me.

Once we reached the counter I smiled at Bert the clerk. "This is to go, please. I want a number six with extra ketchup and the chocolate mint shake. Oh and toss in two frosty spinners and a lovers banana split."

I grinned at Will before asking, "What are you ordering?"

 

[Gothmaster]

I felt like i had won the jackpot as she haven't rejected the idea of eating at home.

"I don't live far from here." I told her with a smile. "Better warn you though. I am a bachelor now and don't have much company there. At least not women."

We reached the counter. "This is to go, please. I want a number six with extra ketchup and the chocolate mint shake. Oh and toss in two frosty spinners and a lovers banana split." She grins at me. "What are you ordering?"

I return her grin with a smile of my own. "I will take the same as the lady."

A moment later we where on our way with two food bags.

"Just remember that i warned you." I say cheerfully as i open the door to my apartment. The apartment is a two room with a kitchen and a bathroom. No hallway to speak of. I take of my jacket and shoes and walks into what i use to call my living room. I place the bags on my one and only table. The only place to sit is a two seat sofa and my telly is rather old. The only other furniture i have there are a book stand. I turn to Sarah with a smile.

"Make yourself comfortable."

 

[landiek]

"I don't live far from here." He said with a smile. "Better warn you though. I am a bachelor now and don't have much company there. At least not women."

"Well then I won't be shocked to find laundry everywhere." I teased lightly finding his company a slice of heaven that I longed for ten years ago.
~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I will take the same as the lady."

The clerk smiled but still only gave us the two spinners and the banana split had to be three times bigger then it should have been with several extra cherries. It was another pleasant walk to Will's place.

"Just remember that i warned you." He was being rather modest.

His place was tiny and it gripped every nerve in my body not to go into a panic attack. I felt like I lived in a mansion compared to his flat. But being polite as Granny taught me to be I graciously smiled and took a seat on the sofa

"Make yourself comfortable."

I chuckled wondering if it were possible to get comfortable. "You know.. I think these were owned by Kelly Marshall's folks. I didn't realize that they were still available.. you certainly are lucky to have a roomy one."

It was true as some of my old friends lived here after high school. I slipped off my jacket and smiled at Will while he moved about the room as if scanning for any embarrassing items that might alter the chain of events.

"You might want to put the split in the freezer while we eat. " I suggested as there was lots of places on him that I would love to dribble ice cream on.

 

[Gothmaster]

I grinned at her. "Don't make fun of my apartment." I took the split and walked into the kitchen and put it in the freezer. I then walked over and took a seat next to her in the sofa. Our arms and legs could not avoid touch eachother on occations.

I opened my bag and smelled the burger and fries. "This smells wonderful. Haven't eaten fast food in ages." I unwrapps the paper around my burger and take a bite. I feel her so close to me. The aroma of her perfume arouses me more than i thought possible.

 

[landiek]

"Don't make fun of my apartment."

That grin was the same one that I fell in love with and the way his eyes lite up when he looked at you. "Well, I'll try to be good then."

When he sat beside me I could feel the tingly zaps run up my arm and leg. I could actually feel the bubble bump forming under the skin to produce rows of goosebumps. I wriggled my butt on the seat as the mere touch sparked oodles of sexual passion ideas and methods of seduction to illicit a kiss from his moist lips.

"This smells wonderful. Haven't eaten fast food in ages."

"There might have been a valid reason.. clogged arteries." I joked as our eyes met and locked for the breifest of moments but seemed like hours. I wondered if I dared to instigate the next step which would be either slip my hand between his legs or a very sensual kiss on the lips .. or course there was always the combination of the two in one fluid motion.

Of course my timing always was worst moment to make a move and true to form, I slipped my arm around his neck and leaned in for a kiss just after he took a slurp of milk shake.