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Limbo

On Top Of The World

DAWN:

I stand in the door of my closet, looking at my clothes and wondering what to wear. "Oh, good grief, since when do you have so much trouble making up your mind?" Evie blurts from the end of my bed, where she's been since I came out of the shower.

"I couldn't tell ya, but right now I have no clue what to wear," I reply, as I decide to step away from the closet and brush my hair while I think.

"Well, where is he taking you? Do you need to wear a dress, or what?"

"I honestly don't know, we didn't exactly discuss that."

She sits up and reaches out to grab my phone off the nightstand, holding it out to me. "I assume you got his number, so why don'tcha just call and ask him?" she suggests. "Because if you don't, you'll prolly still be standing here in your robe when he gets here."

"That's probably a good idea, kiddo. Thanks for the suggestion," I take the phone and dial his number, walking back to the closet as I wait.

He answers before the second ring is even finished. "Hi there, hon! Everything okay? We are still on for tonight, aren't we?"

I'm a little surprised by how worried he sounds, and I say, "Of course we are! I just had a question for you, that's all. We didn't talk about exactly what we were going to do tonight, so I'm having a little trouble figuring out what to wear. Did you have anything specific in mind?"

"Y'know what? I was so stoked that you actually agreed to go out with me that I didn't actually think that far ahead," he admits. "So I guess it's too late to get a reservation anywhere tonight. Is there anything you particularly want to do, or somewhere you'd like to go?"

"You know the area a lot better than I do, so I'll let you actually make the plan this time," I tell him. "Just tell me what to wear."

I don't hear anything for a minute, then he says, "Then maybe we should fix that. I actually have a couple of places I'd like to show you, so we can just dress comfortably. Sound good to you?"

"That sounds great! That way there's no pressure on either of us, and we can just relax and get better acquainted. So I'll see you at six, then?"

"Most definitely! I'll let you go finish getting ready then. See ya soon, darlin'!"

I end the call, pull a pair of jeans out of the closet, and start rummaging through my dresser until I find my favorite Aerosmith T-shirt. I finish getting dressed, then put on a pair of lavender-colored Reeboks and some silver hoop earrings. "Okay, I think I'm ready now," I tell Evie, and she pops up off of my bed.

"Can I fix your hair?" she asks. "My friend Laci taught me how to do a really neat braid before she had to move to Texas last year, and it'd look really cool on you. Please?"

She's so excited about the idea that I don't have the heart to say no, so she heads for the door, shouting behind her, "We can't do it in here, I need a chair I can walk around. Grab your hairbrush and meet me in the living room!"

I get my brush, along with a patchwork cross-body bag that sort of matches my shoes, and head downstairs, where Evie has dragged one of the dining room chairs into the living room. She dashes past me and says, "Sit there, I'll be right back! I have to find some clippies."

I see that Jed and Aunt Wendy are also there, and she appears to be a bit stressed. "Is everything okay?" I ask her, and she lets out a sigh.

"Are you sure you want to do this, sweetie?" she queries.

"If I wasn't, I wouldn't be doing it," I answer. "And why are you even asking me that, anyway?"

"Well, when you came home and told us about your date, I sort of, well,... Googled him," she admits. "You do know that he's quite a bit older than you, don't you?"

"Yeah, a little over nine years. So what? That's just a little over a year more than the difference between the two of you."

"If it was just that, I wouldn't be worried," she continues. "But there's all the partying, and the tattoos..."

"Which have absolutely nothing to do with what kind of person he is," I retort. "When the guys finally figured out that I was in the house, he was the first one who offered to try to help me, and kind of talked the rest of them into going along. He's smart, and funny, and sweet, and he's definitely not afraid to work. So I don't see why you're kicking up such a fuss before you've ever even met him!"

Jed just sort of raises an eyebrow at her, not saying anything, and she says, "I'm not saying that he's a bad person, just maybe a bit too... wild for you. I mean, don't you think you might be better off dating someone a bit more... clean-cut?"

Her jaw drops when we all hear Evie say, "You mean like Mommy did? Victor was what my English teacher used to call a 'wolf in sheep's clothing', and that didn't exactly work out real well for any of us, did it? So maybe Sissy has the right idea."

"The kid makes a pretty good point, babe," Jed observes. "You know the old saying, 'Don't judge a book by its cover'. And Dawn has a pretty good head on her shoulders, so I'm willing to give the guy the benefit of the doubt." Then he turns his head to look at me, and goes on. "For now, anyway. But if it turns out that she was right to be worried, he and I will be having a serious conversation. Among other things."

She throws up her hands and says, "Okay, you win! I guess you're right, I should actually get to know him before I make any assumptions. You were planning to have him come in, and not just dash out the door when he gets here, weren't you?"

"Of course! If I wasn't, we could have just gone straight from Amy's house."

She lets the subject drop, and I sit down so Evie can play around with my hair. It ends up being very cool, because she does it in a fishtail braid, but keeps two strips of hair at the top of my head separate, and twists the two pieces, laying them down the center of the braid, and fastening them together at the end.

Once she finishes, we just sit and watch TV until the doorbell rings. Evie shoots up like she's been shot out of a cannon and bolts for the door before any of us can even move, then a few seconds later yells, "Sissy, your date is here!"

"Well, don't just make him stand there, bring him in!" Jed yells back, and they walk into the room a couple of seconds later. He gives me a big smile, and I get up from the couch and meet him in the middle of the room.

He drops a kiss on my cheek, and says, "Hey there, darlin'. Love your hair, that's a good look for you."

Evie grins, and says, "See, I told you it would look cool, didn't I?"

I introduce him to everybody, and we hang out for a bit, having some basic conversation before he finally asks me if I'm ready to go. I grab a jacket and my bag, and start to follow him outside, but as I'm about to close the door, I hear Evie pronouncing, "See, you worry too much, Mum. He seems really nice, and he looks at Sissy the way Dad looks at you. I think he really likes her."

He opens his car door so I can get in, then gets behind the wheel and backs out of the driveway. "I thought maybe we could go grab something to eat, and then do a little sightseeing,if you're cool with that," he says. He picks up his phone and hands it to me, giving the screen a quick tap as we stop in a red light. "And I pulled up a list of restaurants that are in the area, so give those a look, and you can choose where we eat, since I've basically picked everything else."

I scan through the choices, and decide on an Italian restaurant, so he sets the GPS for the closest parking area, and we just chat about random things until we get there. We order our food, and end up sort of sampling off of each other's plates when I tell him that I've never tried eggplant parmigiana before, and he admits to the same with my toasted chicken ravioli. We talk through most of the meal, and I finally tell him that Sawyer and I had been on the verge of splitting up the night we met at the concert.

He just blinks at me a couple of times, and I can't help giggling when he asks, "So, does that mean if everything had happened after you guys filed papers, I might have actually had a shot?"

"I don't know for sure if I would have actually gone on the bus with you if I was still officially married," I tell him. "But if things had been finalized, I damn sure would have at least seriously considered it!"

We split a piece of orange mousse cake for dessert, then he pays for everything, and we head back to the car. "So, where are we going now?" I inquire.

"Well, since we're not doing fancy and stuffy tonight, I thought I'd take you out to the Santa Monica Pier," he replies. "Not only is the view on the beach totally awesome, but they have all sorts of carnival-type games, and even a Ferris Wheel, if you like that."

"I honestly couldn't tell you, I've never been on one."

He glances over at me, looking totally shocked. "You've got to be fucking kidding! I thought that everybody had ridden a Ferris Wheel at least once. Except maybe Amish people, I guess. We have to go up, hon, you need to experience it at least once."

"Okay, I guess I'm willing to give it a try."

We park a couple of blocks from the pier and walk the rest of the way, with Ash pointing out various things to me as we go. He takes me down to the beach first, reasoning that we should let our food settle a bit before we ride, just in case. It's every bit as gorgeous as he said, and we take several pictures of the water and each other with our phones, before going up to the pier itself and checking out the games. He manages to win me an adorable little stuffed cat at the dart game, and when he wins at the ring toss, I choose a tie-dye frog to take home for Evie, since she adores the bouncy little things.

Eventually, we end up on the Ferris Wheel. I'm a little weirded out at first by the way that the seats rock back and forth, but I finally manage to relax a bit, and he points out various things in the area as we go around.

"You can see for miles up here," I say. "This view is amazing, isn't it, Ash?"

"Mine definitely is," he answers, and I turn my head to see that he's looking at me, and not any of the stuff he had pointed out to me.

"Ash, be serious," I respond.

"Oh, I couldn't be more serious. I'd rather look at you than... pretty much anything else I can think of. You are probably the most beautiful woman I've ever known, and even more so since you're also intelligent, talented, thoughtful, and just a genuinely nice person. And right now, the only thing I can think of is how much I want to kiss you."

I can't stop myself from smiling as I tell him, "Well, I certainly won't try to stop you."

He smiles in return, slips an arm around me to bring me closer, and lowers his lips onto mine. This one is even more amazing than the one in Amy's driveway, and I'm actually quivering a bit when he finally moves back to look into my eyes.

"That was absolutely incredible," he whispers. "I don't think I've ever reacted this strongly to a woman before. And just to be clear, I meant what I said this morning, I will never, ever try to pressure you into anything you aren't ready for, and I don't want to scare you, but I have to be honest. I think that there's a strong possibility that I may actually be in love with you."

I reach up to run my fingers through his hair, and say, "Now why would that scare me, when I'm pretty certain that I feel the same way?"

The wheel stops then, and we're at the bottom, with the attendant ready to let us out, but it barely makes a difference. We're still on top of the world, because we have each other now, and that's what matters.



































Notes

Comments

Awesome chapter as always! Have you got Wattpad figured out yet? :)

Merelan Merelan
7/12/19

Okay cool, we'll see how things go.

Merelan Merelan
7/11/19

@Merelan
Hey there, sorry I'm a bit behind, but I had some family stuff I had to do. I'm still having difficulties with getting myself set up on Wattpad, so I'm gonna try making a completely new email account through some other server, in case the site is just incompatible with Yahoo, and see if that works. If not, I may just let Annie start posting my books on her account, but I'll get them over there before long, one way or the other. I'll be posting a new chapter here tomorrow, so the wait is almost over. Thanx for your patience, and I'll keep you posted on the Wattpad situation. :-D

Red Phoenix77 Red Phoenix77
7/11/19

@Merelan
Yeah, I guess it's a good thing that I kept a separate tab open to my own books, or I probably wouldn't have been able to update at all. And she told me that you'd contacted her, so now I know who you are on Wattpad. I've been having some issues with getting an account started, so I don't know if it's an issue with my email account, or username or what, but I'm hoping to get a friend who works with computers to come by and help me sometime this week. So I'll definitely drop you a message when I get everything up and running. Thanx! :-D

Red Phoenix77 Red Phoenix77
6/26/19

Awesome chapter as always! This site is pulling a Titanic - I can click on the other tabs like new, updated, etc., but it's showing the stories from ~6 years ago to ~3 years ago. Nothing else. I'm on Wattpad now, I sent a message to Star Elf, so I look forward to seeing you there! :)

Merelan Merelan
6/26/19