Childhood Friendships
Lifelong Connections
by Mistress Anna

Carrie leaned over to point out a picture and ask a question of Hunter with her portable. He was awake, just quiet, maybe trying to shake his headache?

He looked at the two cars she had displayed. It didn’t matter to him, as long as it got him where he needed to go. He pointed to the blue one; he wasn’t even sure what it was. Hunter looked over her head at his friend catching his eye, smiling. He was amazed at her attention to details on things that didn’t really have any impact on her. She was tapping away on her portable. He didn’t know how she did it, everything was so small. But he now knew they were getting two cars. She probably had that figured out before they even got to the airport, he thought. He used to wonder how she managed to reserve cars for him or Ric without having their driver’s license or credit card numbers. She told him recently that she kept all kinds of interesting info in her portable; his info was just a small piece of it. Carrie had asked him for it once a long time ago for something and she had kept that info so she didn’t have to ask again. He knew it was safe with her.

He was trying to relax and help the tension ease. He was looking forward to seeing Nan today. He hoped she was feeling better. He worried when she was ill and he wasn’t there to ensure she followed doctor’s orders. He wasn’t sure what tonight’s show would bring. They had a few new moves and sequences they had talked about and wanted to try. They would blow the roof off the place and have a great time doing it. The fans would get their money’s worth tonight, he thought.

David had been worrying too. His wife had said the baby wasn’t responding to treatment like the doctors had hoped. Shit, he felt so helpless. He knew her job was much harder than his; she had to hold down the fort, in spite of everything, while he was away every week. He asked her last night if she wanted him to come off the road for a while, so he could help. She had told him in no uncertain terms to continue working. He wasn’t sure how long he could. Concentration was required while working in the ring, to keep yourself and your partner safe. Damn, why did he have to marry such a stubborn woman? She’s one of the very few who can stand up to you, and that’s one of the million reasons you love her, he thought. He looked over to the top of the small woman’s head next to him and thought about the only other woman who could stand up to him. He wondered if she knew what was happening at home. He thought she might, which would explain the surly reaction to Hunter’s question this morning. He was glad she had agreed to this request long ago. He knew he’d have been lost without her help. The guys helped him every way they could, but she was able to anticipate problems, usually before he knew about them. His schedule was so hectic right now that he wasn’t sure which way was up or what day it was half the time. She made sure he got to all of his obligations on time, filled in any info she knew for him and was his buffer when dealing with the office. He had no idea where she got some of the information, but it was rarely wrong. She also kept his time free for family obligations, since the office tended to forget about that stuff. There were no words to describe how grateful he and his wife were to her. He didn’t know if he was ever going to be able to repay her. Whenever he’d attempt to talk about anything remotely close to it, she’d wave him away and say, “That’s what families are for”. She went way above and beyond that, but he was glad she did, for all of their sakes. He smiled to himself as he remembered his first encounter with his wife’s sister.

***

They had only been dating a few months at the time and were still learning all kinds of things about each other. His then girlfriend has been insistent that her sister meet him. He wasn’t sure what the big deal was, but he’d humor her, as he did in most things. The closer it got to the time to meet her, the more nervous he got. It had become very important to him to make a good impression. His girlfriend had told him a lot about her sister. She was an MIT graduate, moved around a lot, wasn’t married, had never been married, no kids, did something with the internet, and had been a student of some kind of martial arts for years. A very eclectic mix for one person, he remembered. They had a younger brother that everyone still called Weasel, even though his name was Wesley. He hadn’t met him yet either, first the sister, then the rest she had said. The mysterious sister was involved in some national cause and ended up working with a lot of government types. There were also a lot of unanswered questions and incomplete answers that she wouldn’t provide yet. All of the info about the mysterious sister was absorbed and he had an image in his mind of a geeky, too earthy and natural, female ball buster.

The mysterious sister had been in town for a few days getting reacquainted with her family before he could meet her. His schedule didn’t have weekends off at the time. Smiling to himself, he thought that hadn’t changed much.

The plan was organized by his girlfriend. He knew the sister had been told nothing about him other than his name, but he had a lot of info about her. It seemed a strange way to do it to him at the time, but he went along with it. The plan was that he would sit at the reserved table in the restaurant and they would meet him there for dinner. His girlfriend had thought having a table and a meal would give nervous hands something to do. The only problem was he was so nervous by then he thought he was going to be sick. He was at the table, drinking water after water trying to keep his stomach from betraying him. He was dressed in the clothing his girlfriend had picked for him, casual slacks and a nice polo that almost fit. She was good at that, he thought.

Just when he thought he’d have to get up from the table and visit the restroom because the water wasn’t helping his stomach, he saw his girlfriend walk to the front door. He swallowed hard and thought, it’s show time buddy, don’t screw up. She was beautiful, radiant and sexy in a new dress. Oh god, stop that or you’ll really loose it, he remembered. She had done something different again with her hair, but it looked great. She had her head turned away from him and was laughing at what someone beside her had said. Then he noticed the stunning brunette next to her. This can’t be the “earth mother” sister, can it? She didn’t fit what he had expected at all. She was gorgeous too. She didn’t look a bit like her sister, but that wasn’t uncommon, he thought. His gaze flicked back and forth between them trying to see any similarities and didn’t really find any. His girlfriend was tall and had long straight blond hair with blue eyes. Her sister was considerably shorter and had shoulder length brown wavy, no curly hair and green eyes? Get a grip on yourself, man or you’re not going to be able to speak at all, he told himself.

They walked up to the table smiling at him. Yes, they were green alright, he saw. He made eye contact with his girlfriend and she smiled encouragingly back to him. He stood up to greet them and nearly knocked over the table in his nervous state. He rubbed his hands on his pants to make sure they weren’t too sweaty and let himself be introduced to his girlfriend’s mysteriously spectacular sister.

“Carrie, I’d like you to meet David,” she didn’t bat an eye at his size, (which was a first for him), just continued to smile at him and gave him a firm handshake.

“Nice to finally meet you David, my sister has been evil and not told me a thing about you. I hope you don’t mind if I end up asking you lots of questions, since my curiosity is killing me.”

He finally found his voice and managed to mumble out something coherent, he couldn’t remember exactly what, but it sufficed. They all sat back down, poured some more water and flipped open the menus. He could feel his girlfriend smiling at him, noting his nervousness. He took a couple of quiet, deep breaths to try to calm down and read the menu. He reached for her hand and she gave him a gentle squeeze for reassurance.

Carrie said something like, “I hope you’re hungry David”. That caught him off guard for moment and then he remembered the recent bit of news regarding her not eating meat. Truth be told, he was always hungry so he’d be happy to have whatever was on her plate she didn’t want.

The sisters spent a few minutes chatting back and forth about some changes in their old neighborhood, while reading the menu in between giggles. Sometimes they were speaking so quickly he could barely follow. This was a side to his girlfriend he’d not seen before. He liked it. Calm down man, or you’ll really loose it, he’d reminded himself.

He finally got up the nerve to say something but ended up blurting out, ”Forgive me for saying this but you’re not what I expected at all.” Oh shit, had he just said that out loud?

Blue and green eyes focused back to him. Carrie answered with a grin, “What did you expect? Some big, hairy, sandal wearing, bra burning, geek?”

“Well, yeah, kinda,” he was embarrassed to admit. Both of the ladies laughed at him.

Carrie said, “Kris, you have got to change your description of me. I can imagine what this poor man has been thinking. I have heard how you describe me to others. I don’t even recognize myself from your description.”

“Well, it’s true,” Kris insisted.

“What, the big hairy part,” Carrie questioned.

“No, the college stuff,” she clarified.

“Yeah, but you throw in all the rest and look what happens! I don’t think I’m even wearing sandals today. Not gonna talk about the bra part, if you don’t mind,” and the sisters were off again laughing and talking.

He’d made it through the initial unease and was able to sit back, watch and listen as the two sisters bantered back and forth about all kinds of topics. He added his input when asked, but mostly was just a spectator. Ah, this was going to be easy, he had thought. He smiled at their range of topics and their shorthand conversations. He understood it to mean these two talked frequently and didn’t need to say everything, in depth, all the time.

He enjoyed two heaping prime rib pieces, one for him and one from Carrie’s plate. Kris had lobster and something else, not sure what it was. He did remember that fact that she ate all of it. He had noted that Carrie didn’t touch any part of the vegetables on her plate that had been in contact with the meat. The easy chatter continued all through dinner, with only one minor glitch. His girlfriend said some remark, not sure what it was, and Carrie almost sprayed her drink over the entire table. The meal was over, the desert plates cleared before the serious question and answers started.

“I hope you enjoyed that, ‘cause this is when it gets tougher”, Carrie said to him gently. Kris looked a little less relaxed at that point.

“Yes, it was great; you ladies know how to feed a guy.” He could get used to that, he had thought to himself happily.

“That’s Kris, not me. Don’t ever think I have any clue in that area. So Kris being mean hasn’t told me anything about you, like where you work, your age, nothing. Think you’re ready?” she asked, smiling at him.

“As ready as I’ll ever be, go for it,” he said blithely. He remembered he had no idea what was coming next and might not have been so confident if he did. She had smiled at his response. He didn’t understand why at the time, but looking back he did.

“Let’s start with the basic stuff. How old are you?”

“28”

“Married?”

“No”

“Divorced?”

“Yes”

“Kids?”

“Yes”

“How many?”

“2”

“Specifics?”

“My daughter is 6 and my son is 3”

“Where are they?”

“With me”

“Why?”

“I have sole custody”

She let him sweat for a minute. Then she changed direction on him. It was nerve wracking.

“I can guess you’re not a ballet teacher, what do you do for a living?”

“I work at clubs as security”

“How long?”

“Um, I’m not sure what you’re asking?”

“How long have you been doing this and do you work at night?”

“10 years and yes”

“How did you meet…”

“Here, after work. Kris was my waitress and handled all my weird requests regarding the food. Now I know why.”

“Why is that?”

“You”

“Ah, yes. I do have food issues, and we can discuss them later if you’re up to it. How long have you been seeing Kris?”

“3 months”

“Ever been to jail?”

“Yes”

“Convicted?”

“No”

“Why is that?”

“Battery or assault charges can be a hazard of the job, sometimes. Once they sober up, they usually don’t want to press charges.”

Kris was getting restless and nervous, he wasn’t sure why. Yeah, it was odd having all these questions asked, but it made things easier too.

“Anything you’d like to ask me,” she asked with her deceptively gentle smile. He had seen it before during the evening, so knew there was more to come.

“Um, not off the top of my head no...other than how long you visiting for,” he asked mildly.

She chuckled, “Don’t worry; I won’t put you through this shit again. Not really sure, could be a couple weeks or a couple of months, it just depends.”

Someone was trying to get Kris’ attention, one of the other servers he thought. He motioned for her to follow his gaze and she finally saw the waving employee too.

“Sorry guys. If you’ll excuse me for a moment, I need to go talk to management,” as she stood up quickly and left. They both sat for a moment quietly, wondering what to do next maybe.

Carrie looked over at him and grinned, “How do you think ya did?”

“Damn you’re tough”, was out of his mouth before he ever thought about it.

She set her glass down, probably so she wouldn’t spill it, and started laughing. He couldn’t help himself; he joined in knowing that the worst was over.

“Why were you so tense today? Did I really look that mean? I tried not to be.” She was smiling at him again. It was unnerving.

“Nah, just Kris said I had to pass your inspection or I was history”, again he’d said something without even thinking. Damn, he needed to quit while he was ahead.

Her eyebrows rose in response to that bit of news, “Did she say why?”

“Something about judgment and sisters and something else; couldn’t quite get it all,” he waved his hands vaguely. They both were quiet for a moment, thinking their own thoughts.

“Do you love her?”

“Yes”

“Does she know it?”

“She should, but she might not yet.”

“So, you haven’t actually said those words to her, why” she asked pointedly.

“You and this whole thing,” he didn’t want to say anything else on that subject.

“Ah,” she understood his unspoken message loud and clear. Carrie crinkled her nose in distaste. “What do your kids think of her?”

“They think she’s fun, they get to do all kinds of fun stuff when she’s around and she cooks lots of neat food they’ll eat, which makes her very cool to them…and me….Man, I’d hate to play poker with you, that’s for sure.” He was shaking his head in wonder at the small lady opposite him.

“Why do you say that?”

“Well, you didn’t even blink when I stood up or tripped over the table and you didn’t ask me any of the questions I get asked all the time, regarding my size and shit.”

“Did you want me to”, she asked smiling at him again.

“Not really, it’s just something I’ve learned to expect from everyone I meet,” he said honestly.

Chuckling, she said. “Okay, let’s do this right so you’ll feel thoroughly abused. How tall are you?”

“6’6”

“How much do you weigh?”

“340 or so”

“Have you been a profession bodybuilder?”

“Not really, I just like to work out. I enjoy testing myself.”

“That, I can understand. How long you been doing it?”

“A little over 10 years.”

“Feel better now? Did I miss any of the other ones like how’s the weather up there or some shit,” she asked.

He grimaced, “Yeah, I get that one a lot too.”

“I do too, but for the exact opposite reason,” she reminded him.

“Yeah, I guess you would.”

“Can you imagine what the rest of the family is like, now you’ve met me?”

“Yeah, now that you mention it, I’m a little concerned that the descriptions are way off.”

They both laughed at the thought of Kris’ descriptions of the rest of the clan. Carrie managed to almost recite Kris’ exact description of Weasel, he was amazed. They both laughed over that and were still chuckling when Kris walked back to the table.

He remembered those early days with Kris with a scowl. God, he took so many showers, his roommate had started to think something was seriously wrong with him.

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