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| Sacrificing the Pride Part 2 |
| Author: Reena Email: [email protected] Rating: uh, average, PG15 Maria, on the other hand, was still having a bad day. Liz bailed on her, and two of the couples were back together...and since Max was nowhere to be seen either, she assumed that, like most times, it was she and Michael still off... And the lousy dinner rush was not making her day any easier. Freak-o Drake from school with his smurf patched backpack was onto Mountain Dew refill number 1000 or something...and she knew her tip was going to be nonexistent from the guy who was constantly looking at her. Plus, there was no way that everyone was going to be ditching their boyfriends on Friday anymore... Basically, her life sucked. And then, just as she's trying to take a break, someone interrupts her... "I have a delivery for one of the waitresses." Maria looked up at the guy, flashing back to another time she had some hope that the flowers were for her, then dismissed the thought. "Parker? Yeah, well, she's not here." "Um, no. For DeLuca." "DeLuca? Maria DeLuca?" "Yeah." Maria looked from the flowers, to the delivery guy, back to the flowers, eyes blinking...revealing her disbelief. "Um, well, thanks." And Maria, still in shock over the flowers in front of her, gave the guy a $20 tip. Tigerlilies. Her favorite. And there was a card... Want to shop for my kitchen with me on Saturday? And her insides just went to goo. To mush. Talk about a mush factor...Michael... She looked around the Crashdown, to see if he was there...but all she saw was her friends giving her goofy grins. Probably mirroring her own goofy grin. But she couldn't help it. Not one bit. No, Liz was the one who usually got the flowers. Isabel was the one who usually got the "kissy-kissy" notes. And Tess was always laughing at something Kyle was doing. Or did. And then there was her dysfunctional relationship with the most dysfunctional alien of them all. But, he was her dysfunctional alien. He would laugh at her attempts to cook, then "voodoo" the mess away, saying "if you were in Martha's kitchen...". He knew where her tickle spot was-and would go for it...torturing her. He never cleaned up his apartment for her. Ever. He probably didn't even know when her birthday was... He was perpetually on probation... Most of the time, everyone just saw the yelling between them. The fighting. The many "on" or "off" arguments that they had. But, underneath all of that, was a guy who just knew her. Maria could barely admit to herself that he knew her. He wasn't all hands when they were alone...well, okay, sometimes...but not all the time. Sometimes, he'd sit and massage her feet after a long shift. He actually turned off hockey games, except playoffs, when she was around. He'd grab her from behind, hug her, kiss her neck, then go back to whatever he was doing. Once he even told her he "didn't get all this make-up crap. You look fine without it." Granted, it was followed by a "can we go now?", but it had her all goopy inside for the rest of the day. And now...this... He was apologizing with her favorite flowers and inviting her to shop with him for his kitchen... So where was he, then? * * Michael could still not believe the way his day was turning out. First-off of probation. Then (not always good to tune girlfriend out)-back on probation. Then, he got hoodwinked by a very forceful Liz Parker and Alex Whitman...which still had his head spinning in utter disbelief...to get flowers for his girlfriend. He was being "a guy or whatever". It was too weird for him. Way to weird. Because, judging by the goopy look on Maria's face... It's not that he wasn't thrilled to be back in her good graces...but there were going to be expectations of him... *Ring!* Michael looked around, then realized he was still carrying Isabel's cell phone. "Hello?" "Go in there and get that stupid look off of her face before she does that dance thing of hers... What? Oh, her happy dance. Happy dance? That's what you call that?" It took Michael a bit to realize that she wasn't talking to him anymore, but to Alex... "Whatever. Just get in here now." And Michael watched Isabel look straight at him through the front windows... And went in to face his way too happy girlfriend... And, being the guy that he was, also realized he was sooooooo off of probation... * * * * * |
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