All the usual disclaimers apply for this fanfiction. Meaning not mine, just for fun and such fun, such fun
Before you start reading please consider the following:
1) This was written in just one day. About 15.000 words in one day that is.
2) It was supposed to be a one-shot and then the site and my furious typing decided to prove me wrong.
3) I had no plans on ever posting it but I decided to do it anyway. There are so very few longish Miranda fics.
4) It has been properly edited to the best of my ability but English is not my native language.
5) I'm not good at writing stories but I do love to do it. In reality, I excel in academic writing.
6) My favourite chapters are Gary's (2nd chapter) and the incident outside the pub (3rd chapter section two I believe)
7) I don't expect many views. I expect no reviews to suddenly appear in my inbox and finally I believe that this story will not be noticed much.
8) This fiction is not about an emotionally lingering Miranda but about Gary. The first chapter was a necessary evil but I enjoyed writing it nonetheless.
9) First Editing 14/11/2016
Chapter 1
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Miranda
"Hiiiii! I remember you! The dropped trousers girl!" an uncommonly high pitched voice draw her out of her quite revery.
"How are you doing? Twenty years, can you even believe it! " she mused in a frankly disturbing sweet voice.
Miranda had successfully managed to occupy the hidden corner of the area and had managed to remained undisturbed for the majority of the event. It was the added bonus of being the wife of the owner she supposed. The places she could comfortably retreat and hide, in this restaurant were more enough and thus with that in mind, she had accepted to Gary's proposal to not just host the event but also attend it.
"Twenty already, huh? Who knew?" she mimicked her peacefulness' hijacker tonne of pointless cheerfulness, while she unconsciously tried to distance herself.
"And so many of us did good if you know what I mean" she practically purred while scanning the bar.
Without waiting for her reply, even though Miranda had none to give, the woman settled comfortably on the chair next to her. She crossed her legs and absently tapped her perfectly manicured nails to the soft cream coloured tablecloth, Miranda had picked for formal functions a few mere months before this torturous evening.
That tapping. It is really remarkable how such a simple detail had Miranda's eyes widening on realisation on who was now sitting next to her. Florence Grantham. If she wasn't already skittish with the proximity of the perfectly proportioned woman across her, she certainly was now.
Florence Grantham was undoubtedly the most well-sought classmate of her year in social gatherings, clubs and of course at the wild parties she always tended to avoid, much to the obvious dismay of Gary. She was the unattainable perfection and she damn well knew it. That was what made dear old Florence, Miranda's personal nightmare.
"So what do you do now Tenty?" Florence inquired while still sizing the men of at the bar.
"Excuse me?" she couldn't get the meaning of this 'tenty'.
"Oh don't be shy now dear!" Florence turned abruptly to face her with a wicked grin gracing her admittedly flawless face. High cheekbones, graced by dark blond curls and gorgeous captivating green eyes. That could summarise for Miranda the beast which seemed ready to devour her. And not in the good Gary-like way.
"Alice told me all about that small incident a few years ago." she practically chirped with amusement.
"A size tenty are we now? Not that I want to be offensive or anything dear but perhaps a few years ago but now? Now, it seems like you might have gone up a few numbers." Florence critically gazed her filling form.
"It comes with birthing children and all that, I guess" Miranda growled her. Her self-esteem for this evening seemed to have travelled back twenty years, from the moment the first guest of the event passed through the restaurant's threshold. And yet for this particular subject, she felt like she could not shrivel in a corner and simply take it.
"Children!" Florence exclaimed loudly.
"I got two boys. One from each marriage that is. My eldest will attend Eaton next fall. His certainly a smart one" she proudly stated and leant on to add with a wink "They both got that from me".
Miranda shifted on her sit, only for the rubber cushion underneath her to let out a very embarrassing sound. Florence of course raised an eyebrow and thankfully grew a bit the distance between them.
"Miranda!" a joyous chorus claimed their attention, while two men approached each with a drink in hand.
"Matthew Decker and Thomas Beynon aren't you looking jolly this evening!" Florence stood to embrace each while lingering more on Tom's well fitted and obviously more expensive suit.
Both men appeared to be sobering up pretty quickly to Florence's welcome. Moreover, Miranda would have sworn that Tom shuddered as if violated while he tactfully took shelter by her side and behind Matt.
"Well, nice chatting with you Miranda." Florence leant over her to place a chaste kiss on Miranda's rosy cheek. Yet before she made her way out of what previously was a quiet and comforting corner, she whispered inaudibly for the other's ears: "Yummy alert behind the counter".
Miranda only managed to take a glimpse of Florence taking a place on a stool across from Gary who was serving some drinks to his old Field Hockey teammates. Now this was an unsettling feeling she had there. And yet after seven years of marriage, she could only smile with his boyish grin and push out Florence's intentions for the night.
"So Miranda!" Matt's deep voice rumbled pleasantly. His mop of a hair had descended quite a bit in the past two decades but not his warm and ever-welcoming disposition.
"Five boys and a little lady! Our mate has certainly been keeping you busy." he teased in good-nature.
"What can I say boys, I'm irresistible." Miranda snickered along with them.
These two were her kind of mates. Back in the university days, these two along with Gary. they were known as the Devilish Trio. Always in mischief, yet always innocent enough to not get into real trouble. What also made them adorable was their gentleman ways which they seemed to always use around her. Of course as all good mates inappropriate references always resurfaced after a pint or two.
To this day she remembered Matt as her buddy in research for all things weird and complicated in their Sociology 101 class. Tom on the other hand, was the quiet type. He would just grace her with his presence and more than once he had caught him winking to the ladies along with a swoon-worthy smirk. A man of few words but certainly of plenty numbers - read math - or stairs. From both of which she has a sort of habit to not be able to manage well. Come to think of it, they were always looming over her as her personal bodyguards back then and for that, she would always be grateful to them.
"You certainly are one heck of a lady Miranda" Tom admitted with a sip of his drink.
"But we always knew, did we not Tom?" Matt asked absently.
Tom flashed him a winning smile and crossed his legs while relishing to the quietness of Miranda's favourite corner.
"You know… Back then all the university knew that you had a thing for Gary." he hummed over his half empty glass.
"What!" Miranda shrieked.
Her face was surely exploring several new shades of the colour red, which even Clive would not have been able to name fast enough. Although the temperature seemed to rise, her hands seemed to take a dive to the coldest possible depths of the abyss.
"It's not like you could hide it love!" Matt laughed. "Everyone knew, aside from our clueless boy of course."
"He was always a bit thick in the matters of love if you ask me" Tom snorted.
"True, true…" all three admitted to their amusement.
Gary was known to be a walking disaster for all things which contained emotions. Something that up to this day slightly bothered Miranda. The time he needed to process his emotions and feelings overall, was unbearably long. As for to act on them? Well, that took ages indeed. Only her and their children seemed to have an immediate process and action of love as of late.
"And yet he fell fast and hard for her, whether he knew it or not, that very first day." Matt seemed to recall a very funny incident as he gulped down some more of his drink.
Miranda's interest peeked at that moment. Their time back at the university was not something they recalled or discussed often, but Gary whenever was willing to talk about that time, he did it with great fondness and a hint of tenderness.
"Do tell…" she playfully pleaded.
"Well you know…" Tom began and his eyes drew shut trying to remember as much as possible from that time twenty years ago.
"First it was the flute." Matt reminded him.
"Ah yes, the flute and then the Karaoke club" Tom added while grunting in a manner that could only be expressed as a painful memory.
"And then, of course, the book and that blasted bookmark, remember Tom? Neon green!" Matt sniggered spluttering his last gulp of ale.
"He still has it I believe…" Tom absently said and handed Matt his handkerchief while rolling his eyes at the antics of his now probably tipsy mate.
"How can you tell? It's been years Tommy boy!" Matt asked Tom in obvious disbelief.
"Come on mate! You can't count your drinks but you can't also notice Gary's notebook behind the counter?" Tom exclaimed in exasperation while winking to a frozen for words Miranda.
"Ya kidding!" Matt raised from his chair and took a better look towards the bar. Surely enough his eyes glinted and shook his head before sitting back down.
"Bloody head over heals I'm telling you." he said and proceeded on taking some of Tom's drink into his glass.
Miranda could not comprehend what the flute, the karaoke or the bookmark meant. In all reality, she could only recall her first meeting with Gary after the door's library was pulled and had her falling all over him. There was certainly a book and as far back as she could remember, that moment had sealed her everlasting crush on Gary.
"Matt" Tom halted his buddy when a suspicion crippled at the edge of his still sober mind.
"Matt!" he firmly called again, nudging this time his friend and causing the last of his friend's stolen drink to spill all over his crisp white shirt. Thank God for undershirts says I.
Tom turned his eyes to her and studied her once more before his frown deepened and turned over to their swearing companion.
"Blimey, she really doesn't know…" he declared in astonishment.
Matt's slightly glazed eyes trained firstly at Tom and then to her only for his eyebrows to almost comically disappear to his now deeply wrinkled forehead.
Miranda once more felt like she was in one of these awkward moments and yet for once she wasn't the one who had caused it. At least she hoped she had not. Fragments of her past with Gary were apparently a mystery to her.
Gary was still behind the counter serving and chattering with people who came up to him randomly while the Field Hockey team now rather tipsy, jested over some distantly familiar game cheers and short songs. She would perhaps have been on the same stool Florence was occupying now if it had not been for the lingering discomfort of the long removed forty stapled stitches at her lower abdomen a couple of weeks ago. Yet in all truth, even without the need for a comfy armchair and a cushion at the restaurant's corner, she doubted that she would have actually been comfortable to sit in the open during the 20th year since their university reunion this evening.
Most of what she was expecting was already happening. Most of their classmates were now in a loose and relaxed mood due to the alcohol, old clubs and teams were renewing the comrade ties even twenty years past their last game, Queen-bees now turned cougars were showing their claws at the most eligible men and as always she was left as unnoticed as she was back in the day. And speaking of cougars, Florence had a disturbing predatory look set on her poor Gary who to her trained eye, had started to fidget and distance himself from that part of the bar.
Tom, who even after all this time could read Miranda easily, came to the realisation that his old roommate was still as insecure as the day he had trained his eyes on the retreating form of that quirky but adorable girl, Gary's words mind you, not his, although they certainly rang true. Following her gaze, he spotted the issue rather effortlessly and signed.
"The Devil to the rescue I suppose." he chuckled and winked to Miranda while getting up to leave their little hideout.
"Darling" he bid her farewell and when he reached the bar he seemed to throw a few pleasantries to Florence which certainly worked as Miranda saw Gary relaxing and poor Tom grimacing when he ordered a double.
A deep amber double scotch was delivered quickly in Tom's ringed fingers. She watched in in a mixture of fascination and amusement as he nursed his drink for courage and in an unfathomable way of diplomacy and seduction he passed a swooning Florence to the bulky ex-captain of the Field Hockey team. With the task completed he met her eyes and cheekily send her a raspberry before he turned his attention to his drink and encompassed Gary to a hushed conversation.
Across her, Matt had been lost in his own thoughts and played with the brim of his now empty glass.
"Gary at first glance seems like the person who hesitates to take action and who needs time to grow a backbone." he softly began.
"Perhaps it was due to what happened with his old man. Let me tell you he was a nasty one. At elementary I've seen shades of purple which I never thought they existed. Never told him I knew, though..." Matt exhaled gravely.
Miranda aware of that part of the story and it was a subject which had born many of Gary's insecurities over the years. And yet he had grown to embarrass the said insecurities and had turned out to be a good partner, a good father and a great man overall.
"I know, but is there a point to even talk about this?" she questioned him. She believed that this matter required great delicacy and when she and Gary had stumbled upon it, it had been dealt with utmost care and even some visits to her ever tolerant psychiatrist Antony.
"I'm not going to delve into this love, I just want to say this. I'm not going to pretend to know everything but I know how it began." he whispered softly as if a great secret was bestowed to her at that moment.
"I'll not claiming that he knew what that emotion was for him before you even met him, Tommy boy and I had no clue either until way down the road." he admitted and he fixed his baby blue eyes on her.
"What I can tell you with certainty is that even now, 20 years later he might be frightful on how deep this was running for him before you even tumbled him on the ground that day."
The bewilderment only grew from there for Miranda. For perhaps the millionth time tonight she sought out Gary's form from across the restaurant and for the first time, he met her eyes with his intensely dark orbs. Tom was still speaking to him on a confiding matter and probably only for Gary's ears to hear. Still Gary's attention was solely on her. The moments of adoration from her husband were certainly not far and in between.
He was a man who was open to affection whether he gave or received it. And yet there were instances when she was perplexed with something silly or when she was focused on their brood when fleetingly she had caught him staring at her with an almost unbelievably deeper short of emotion. Love, affection, adoration, tenderness even lust could not parallel this emotion's depthness and for the first time he didn't turn his gaze in haste elsewhere but it appeared like he was stripping it in all its rawness for her to not only see, but evaluate and examine while taking her time to do so.
TBC
