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 (Chapter 2 version):
1) If you read chapter 1 and you weren't satisfied, I'm really sorry.
2) Chapter 2 is more or less a different POV of the 1st chapter but shares next to nothing with the 1st chapter.
3) This fiction came literally pouring out of me while I had to study and write for more pressing matters.
4) Perhaps some of you have had the same experience like Miranda but never managed to get your Gary.
I certainly didn't but I've got a great best friend for fifteen years now. That's what inspired the fluff I suppose.
5) I've never aimed to write a good fanfiction, I've just loved the process of solidifying my daydreams into writing.
6) The kids may seem way too many but I took the inspiration from another Miranda fanfiction and from my neighbour who gloated over having six grandchildren. My mortification was beyond belief and so I thought that it would be hilarious.
7) Last Edited 14/11/2016.
Chapter 2
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Gary
The restaurant was buzzing with energy this evening and he could not have been more content. When the committee had expressed the desire to use a local establishment in the same county as the university to hold the 20th year reunion since his and Miranda's class graduation, it had been a great opportunity to spike up the profits a bit. Years of hard work had paid off and the place was booming. Actually business was so well that they had managed to expand their business with two more small establishments in Bristol and Wick. Yes, he could really see the irony at that. Wick!
When they decided to take this step and risk it all Miranda had simply joked that if they were going to expand why not do it far and wide to the two edges of the UK? It seemed crazy but it actually, against all odds had worked. They had called him a fool but he simply trusted his wife's silliness. It was that silliness that found him today a stable business owner, father of six and as happy as he ever dared to believe in his darkest hours.
"So Preston! Tell us how did you make it?" Peter slurred slightly while leaning on the bar.
"Meaning?" he asked feigning to be clueless.
"I remember that you left like your pants were on fire after the graduation" his old teammate huffed.
"Years abroad I heard Malaysia and Asia in general. So what made you quit all that and get a restaurant? You never seemed the guy who would hide himself away in the kitchen!" Peter drawled and emphatically looked the rest of the Field Hockey team which nodded in agreement.
Gary Preston was indeed a mystery to them. Great player, fast and reliable during their games and practice. Absent from parties and social life in general. Wild yet uncommonly mild at times.
"Well, I wouldn't say that now Peter! How can you forget the awesome muffins you used to sneak from his sport's bag during practice for over two years!" Flynn reprimanded offhandedly.
"That was you!?" Gary fumed gobsmacked.
"Oh yeah… Now they were a piece of heaven let me tell you! And if I could nick one every once in while mate, that was entirely your fault!" Peter dismissed him.
"How so?" Gary asked still gripping the counter as he felt a bit wobbly from that piece of information.
"You had a locker! You didn't use it. Therefore it was fair game. Where did you think the muffins were disappearing to? The elvish muffin world? Seriously mate!" Peter chastised.
"Oh God!" Gary groaned and poured himself a stronger drink leaving the unfinished beer to the small sink.
"I feared that mate!" Flynn shot at Peter.
"What?" Peter now had started to get annoyed over a bunch of long gone muffins.
"I believe that Gary here had a very solid reason for leaving his sports bag at the bleachers." the stocky guy looked knowingly his old teammate.
"And he achieved that purpose Flynn" Tom sniggered at the rush of memories.
"How can you be so sure?" Gary throatily inquired due to the burn of his strong drink.
"Easily. Peter, how did you found the taste of the muffins?" Tom requested without caring to look at the boastful ex-captain.
"Best savoury muffins of all time!" Peter proclaimed with a momentary clarity.
"Never thought you made them, though. I believed it was a girlfriend or something. You had a lot chasing you around at that time. Remember?" he said while wiggling his eyebrows in an attempt to convey a meaningful dirty secret.
"See?" Tom pointed out.
"How did you know?" Gary stared at him with squinted eyes.
"Well, I may or may have not caught her smelling of chocolate…"
"Or raspberry…" Matt supplemented
"Blubbery..." Tom continued.
"Cinnamon and Sugar..." Matt offered his input again.
"And of course Vanilla and Rum while ogling you from afar. Sweet in general and God you were creative with those muffins." he offered in a noncommittal way.
"Yes, Vanilla and Rum is her favourite on Fridays" he hummed pleasantly to his old friend.
"So you got the girl then?" Flynn interrupted them.
"Sure he did. He would be a fool if he did not!" Tom looked affronted to the mere idea of Gary not accomplishing what he had set to do over two decades ago.
"You did right?" Tom asked again consciously now that they had not talked about that subject yet. It was always a very sensitive matter for Gary and Father above he was as ungraceful with the whole wooing thing for all the years he knew him.
Matt set aside his second ale for the night and leant to the bar to hear his old mate's reply. This was a question which always eaten him up when he was recalling the good old uni days. What had happened? Time between friends is never easy and so both him and Tom had missed a large part of Gary's life since he ventured alone to Asia after their graduation. Up until recently, they both would have sworn that he had settled somewhere, miles away embracing the Buddhist teachings. So sure they were of his inability to find anything close to what he seemed to have experienced during his university days. Dumb and clueless he would tell you if you asked him, and he would know being schoolmates from the third to the fifth grade.
"I did" Gary smiled with little reserve to his company.
"Managed to man up seven years ago actually. She is still the same enthralling creature you saw in that music room 24 years ago." he gently entrusted them with the information.
"I certainly believe that my dear friend. I certainly believe that" Tom exhaled in obvious relief.
"And so will you let us in your current life?" Matt pressed with his boyish twinkle eyes begging for more information.
"Yeah sure… Short version? Yeah, let me think how it goes…" Gary gathered his thoughts and took a sip from his forgotten drink. He coughed at the sudden burn and set it aside behind him. This would have been better suited for a small tap. Changing between drinks was a bad habit of his.
Gary pulled a coaster and set the small tap beer next to him and grimaced a bit when he saw that half of the Field Hockey team was also waiting to be updated on his life story.
"Met again at around 34 and married a couple of years later. Not an easy task to be achieved if you ask me." he would always admit his defeat at the difficulties to curve his emotions and entrusting them to her hands before their wedding.
"And…?" Flynn drawled.
"And we are happily married for the past 7 years." he hastily concluded not wanting to share more intimate details with the majority of his old teammates.
"Children? I have a 12-year-old daughter by the way. Unfortunately divorced now, but remarried to a sweetheart for the past three years or so." Matt slightly pushed him to open up.
"A blessing I'm telling you!" he added when he saw Tom rolling his eyes. Tom always had an inexplicable fear of children but he would never admit openly that his girlfriend's daughter had a strong grip over his whole being. The things he would do for her puppy eyes should have been illegal for grown men as himself.
Gary cleared his throat a bit and enjoyed some of his drink before shaking his head in defeat.
"You will not find a more love-sated husband and father and that's all I'm telling you" he revealed with a small smile.
"Gary…" Tom and Flynn warned together. Matt had resorted looking the ceiling in exasperation. Nothing was ever easy with that man.
"Okay, okay we have six-" Gary gave in but the usual pleasure of sharing the existence of his children always soothed him.
"Six! Blimey mate!" Peter boomed in marvel.
Tom lost his footing off the foot stool, spilt some of his drink on the counter in the process and openly gawked his old roommate. Then he mechanically patted poor Matt in order to aid him to cough the ale out of his lungs.
Gary had turned into that brilliant shed of red which he knew his wife overly loved. It was rare to happen as very little fazed him -commonly his dear wife- and resulted to this colouring. I was his wife's input which made embarrassment such an intimate act for him. Thus, he had to get rid it now as soon as possible.
"Five boys and a little lady. Two sets of twins in there for your information." he added in order to avoid any more embarrassing questions now that their wispiness had started to intensify with each gulp of alcohol.
"Five boys… You are almost half-way from your own Hockey team, or any team on the matter!" Peter gushed at the improbable thought according to Gary. His boys as energetic as they were they seemed to take after their mother's adorable clumsiness. And yet Cliff and Richard were a few mere weeks old so nothing was definite yet.
"Well our family is not inclined to any kind of sport as much as to running around like loons" Gary interjected.
"Six kids, good for you Gary but who is the lucky lady?" Flynn cut in.
"You have five mini-me's but from whom your young darling is taking after hmm?" Peter teased but Gary could detect a small amount of envy radiating from him due to Gurry having fathered five boys.
"Well, if I want, to be honest, our daughter takes after me entirely but in spirit. Lean, abnormally graceful and rather charming according to my wife. Features which came as a great relief to her and that is how we ended up with two more babies. I really wanted to have a daughter which would resemble my wife." Gary mused while accidentally revealing more of his deepest desires than he had intended to.
"Let me guess, the boys have taken after their mother's built but all your charming characteristics?" Tom quipped.
Gary chuckled while he reached for his wallet.
"Curly dark hair, longish nose, handsome boys but yeah they take after their mother…"
He found the latest picture Miranda had snapped a few weeks ago on the first night they had returned with the twins at home from the hospital. It had become an instant favourite and so it found its way to his wallet. All kids splattered all over their bed sleeping atop of his equally sleeping form and the twins nestled at the co-joined bed cradle.
"They seem… longish. I mean they are rather tall..." Flynn observed with an expert's eye.
"Good genes?" Matt mostly remarked mischievously.
"Great genes!' Gary affirmed affectionately and his eyes turned to settle at an apparently empty corner.
"Our two youngest will be 4 weeks old this very weekend." he pointed out the infants to Tom's exploring eyes over the photo he had given them.
Tom licked his lips slowly and nodded still deep in thought.
"She was always a fascinating woman. You did well, exceptionally well if I may add mate." Tom said as he simpered. He left the stool he was occupying for the past hour and softly breathed to Gary's ear only for him to hear.
"Is she here tonight?"
Gary always felt that Miranda's allure -much to the dismay of Stevie- had more than one victim and his old roommate was one of them. At least to a point, that is. Tom's interest over Miranda never reached far or she affected him to the extent it had Gary, but it was apparent that there was still a strong pull which Tom simply could not ignore. Miranda, to the few who could see beyond of what the majority was seeing, she could leave men in a trance for years. It was like a soft hum which followed you and intensified whenever she was near. For him, it had been a full body enchantment which had been his fellow companion for over two decades now.
Gary nodded and wordlessly looked over that unassumingly empty corner again. Tom hummed in acknowledgement and nudged Matt to follow him.
"Tell me now Gary, we all knew there was a certain lady back then but none knew who she actually was. Your fan club was certainly a big one" the gleam in Peter's eyes bothered him quite a bit but he kept smiling knowing fully well that the man was never able to hold his liquor.
"All in good time Captain." he joked and went back on picking the empty glasses which were left on the counter.
"Talking about fans I had a nice sized fan club as well." Peter boasted rather loudly.
"And a good number of creepy stalkers as well, if I remember correctly." Flynn added and tried to remember the numerous rather uncomfortable instances which they had to deal with after each successful match.
"Ohhh" Peter crooned in delight. "Remember Queen-Kong and the blond midget?"
Several members of the old team nodded trying to recall that odd figure which practically lived on the bleachers at their every practice. Tall, awkward and was almost always coming along with a hot blond shortie. Many had attempted to pursue the shortie but alas they were both always gone a good short while before the coach dismissed them. It was like she, no they, had no interest on socialising with them but liked the eyeful they were getting at each practice.
"That girl was a legend Peter" Daryl informed him.
"A legend of what?" he bellowed.
"Apparently she could trip over nothing and she was a bit odd. Weird how she was best mates with our Gary." Daryl told him in a form of caution when Gary made a come back from the kitchen.
"What about me?" Gary encouraged them to continue.
"Don't you remember a girl at the top bleachers?" Peter began
"Always there when we had practice and in every single game?" Flynn confirmed.
"Come on now mate! That freakishly tall girl which now Daryl tells me that she was your friend." Peter queried impatiently.
"What of her?" Gary challenged.
Peter could tell that Gary could remember exactly for who they were talking about. Looking around quickly he decided that her absence could only be a sign of a forced one-sided friendship, which belonged to their now ancient university days.
"Don't you remember that you were trying to scratch that guitar of yours and you would panic every time she was approaching you? Along with your group of fans you also had your own personal stalker mate!" Peter prattled over his newfound revelation, albeit a bit late by twenty years or so.
"Didn't you ask my brother to help you with a song or something you wanted back then?" Flynn said deep in thought.
"I remember it was a cheesy piece, to impress the lady I suppose but you never managed to execute your plan did you now?" he added with a surprised expression plastered on his face.
"No, I never managed to get to that point." Gary all but growled mostly to himself.
It was a time which Gary wanted to be sealed and buried for good. It was his first of the plenty cowering backtracking he would have had over Miranda. Perhaps the main reason he had bought that damn ticket and fled the country right after their graduation without ever disclosing what he was attempting to convey for over two years back then.
"But I'll hand it to you Gary, you got the girl!" Peter cried and a roar of salutes came from the rest of their teammates.
"Peter I certainly got the girl, and she was that girl!" Gary finally admitted. Up until now, he had never given into the urge to reveal his companion in life.
Neither Peter nor Flynn gave the impression that they had comprehended what Gary what so clearly implied for the first time. The rest of the group had already shipped to another era of pompous hockey songs and distantly familiar cheering mottos. Shaking his head he went back on observing the restaurant and once or twice tried to steal a glance behind the corner only to find this evening's favourite trio deeply engrossed to an easy-going conversation.
"Hey handsome!" a disturbingly familiar high pitched voice greeted him.
"Hey there…" Gary gulped as he remembered how dangerous the woman across him could be.
"Why don't you pour me a drink and then we can have a nice long chat?" she practically purred while drawling on the "long" part. That had him literally climbing the counter behind him to put as much distance as he could between them.
He remembered Florence well enough to want to run for the hills the moment he saw her entering his restaurant tonight. A cruel and close to sadistic girl back then. To the extent of reminding him another time long before Miranda or not even remotely his time at the university. Some scars run deep they say and certain people had the ability to open them raw just by looking at them. Florence was one of them. Manipulative and a common bully for the majority of her stay in the university. In reality, she had never officially graduated. Oh she had received a diploma and all but stories about her practices and reasons of leaving were still hunting the faculty.
"Gary mate, give me a neat double if you please" he heard Tom's smooth authoritative voice retrieving him from the imaginary bushes he had tried to hide into.
"Will Bowmore do?" Gary frowned at his selection.
"1971?" a delighted Tom inquired.
"25 I'm afraid…" he grimaced. He knew that Tom had an overly refined taste when it came to Scotch.
"Will have to do." Tom sighed and put the pleasing seductive mask Gary knew so well.
"Florence! Love! Where were you hiding you pretty little thing, hmmm?" he caressed her with his intoxicating presence. Gary could now only relax while Tom had bitten the bullet for him.
For the course of several minutes and soft murmurs, Tom was lost behind Florence's curls only to gently pass her to a transfixed Peter.
"How did you ever managed that?" Gary caught himself questioning him out loud.
"God-given charisma I'm afraid" Tom chuckled and gestured with two of his fingers for Gary to lean near him for a more private exchange of words.
"Gary you have been holding out with her." Tom admonished. At Gary's perplexed gaze, he rolled his eyes and hissed.
"Do I really have to spell it out? She is unaware of the flute incident or the Karaoke club. What you have to say about that dear friend of mine?" he seethed.
Tom was always the laid back rich boy. He never crossed lines, aside from getting them to bed that is but always with certain firmly planted principles known to his companions beforehand.
"Seven years of marriage Gary and she deserves at least to know that. It will not make you anything less but more than you could ever imagine. But you have to do it soon as now she has knowledge of certain instances which took place 24 years ago." Tom was giving him an ultimatum.
"Tom.." Gary croaked.
"It will be of no real consequence, at least not in a bad way mate." Tom urged him for once again forward.
"She is aware of all she is ought to, yet doesn't she deserve to know the real depth of what is running through you for over two decades now?" his devilish friend stressed.
"Tom you could have had her back then." Gary confided him something that had always tormented him. He knew that if Tom had ever wanted her, he would have never had a chance.
"All these years and you still don't get it." Tom sighed for the hundredth time that evening.
"It was never about me, even if I had ever wanted to pursue her it was always you like it was always her for you. Are you really that dense?" Tom all but scold him and took and healthy swing of his drink.
Gary felt his resolve to keep things under wraps slipping and thus leaving him as exposed as he felt that night. The first time it was a twinkle. The second time it was a forceful nudge. The third he had all but surrendered himself to the pacifying sensation of drowning. Instinctively his eyes found hers and for the first time, he uncovered before her that final layer he had so meticulously wrapped around his very soul. Minutes passed and she held his gaze in equal intensity and resolve. A small smile crept and a husky giggle-laugh escaped him. He guessed it was high time he went through with this.
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Gary
He could feel his fingers slowly slide from the well-polished wood and firmed his grip more securely. The markings of time and use had never tempted him to part from it. It was something he always kept out of view. As his teammates had said, it was something which long ago he used to scratch relentlessly in hopes that he would convey what was always left unsaid. He checked it over one last time and placed it on the now dried from spilt drinks counter.
Opting his choices he got hold of an empty bottle of Merlot and fished one of the carefully tucked away butter knifes under the counter. He made his way to the middle of the crowded restaurant and clicked repeatedly the bottle. The effect took some more time than his nerves would have wanted but soon all eyes were on him.
"I know..-. I know that it's customary for the organising committee to give a speech tonight. 20 years huh? Where the time flies?" he rhetorically asked.
"To five boys!" Peter roared from behind him and the restaurant filled with chuckles and a low chatter.
"Yes Peter, thank you, yet you forget the ladies of the family!" Gary clucked his lips in detest at the antics of his old Captain.
"I would like to thank everyone who made it tonight to this splendid gathering and of course the committee for trusting me to be your host this fine evening." he raised his empty bottle in gentle courtesy towards the now rosy-cheeked ladies of the committee.
"Finally, I would like to thank you all for the amazing years we spent together and which today we have come here to revisit in memory once more. Which reminds me…" Gary swallowed thickly and as she had taught him all these years ago, he let go himself to a free fall.
"Allow me to thank our very memorable and loved classmate, Miranda." he once again raised the empty bottle towards the corner he knew his wife was currently hiding at.
"University gave us more than we could ever hope for and certainly more than we perhaps even know of. Thank you!" he concluded his impulsive speech and grabbed the guitar from the counter. The people who tried to stop him for a chat and to clarify what was this speech all about failed to flatter his stepping towards his destination.
He found Miranda in a delectable scarlet hue and with her hands covering her nose and mouth in utter disbelief.
"You just had to rat me out" she cracked half serious and half jokingly.
He smiled impishly and felt a hand resting on his shoulder. Tom had made his way to them and patted him softly on the back.
"Miranda, I have always been honest with you" he began but halted when she raised an eyebrow.
"At least give me credit since Clive's wedding day and beyond" he smirked at her train of thought.
"20 years ago I wanted to give you something but… Well, I failed." he grimaced at his admission of failure.
"Today please allow me to give you something similar. I promise you that when we get back home tonight, settle the kids and take you in my arms before we manage two solid hours before Cliff and Richard demand our attention once more, to tell you about my… Our… First year at university." his words felt flowing with ease and Miranda allowed him to run its curse as it was apparent that he needed to not be interrupted. And yet.
"Gary, we've met during our second year." she confidently said even if she was still calculating for the possibility of being mistaken.
"Technically yes, but not really, no." he whispered and rubbed her knuckles more for his benefit than hers at the moment.
"But what I wanted to do now is to give you what I owed you for the past twenty years." he uttered in a hushed almost trembling voice.
"Back then it was a different one, but it simply didn't seem as appropriate after so many years together." his voice quivered and coughed a bit to clear as much as possible his tightened by emotion throat.
"Just know this. You were never my stalker." he chuckled at the mere idea.
"I was yours. For over a year to be precise."
For the first time in twenty-four years, he felt the same fluttering palpitation at the prospect of catching a glimpse of her. His fingers positioned themselves instinctively to the chords and met shyly her eyes.
TBC