NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: Just to clarify, my Punk muse is circa 2008, with the long hair and just a few tats. I found him uber-hot during that time, and that's the Punk I use in my stories. BTW, this pool scene is more than a little familiar because I borrowed it from my story Into The Dark.I figured that the game would be interactive, and a safe place for Anna to get to know her crush a little better. I tweaked it a bit so that it would fit Anna's backstory (check it out on my profile if you have a chance).
Chapter Three
Yes! He's here! And he looks so festive! Anna wanted to shout and jump for joy at the sight of Bradshaw in tight faded jeans and a flannel shirt in red and green plaid. He was currently clearing the pool table while Jay stood with a sheepish grin on his face and the cue stick in his hand. Evan looked on, shaking his head and trying hard to keep a straight face.
"Who taught you to play pool, Jay?" Bradshaw asked, good-naturedly, as a small crowd of guests chuckled. "Stevie Wonder could have played better than you."
"Stevie Wonder would have kicked my ass!" Jay fired back as he set his cue stick on the now cleared table. "Someone save me."
Anna approached the table cautiously. "Mind if I join in?"
Bradshaw glanced over and smiled. "Fine by me. You'll wanna watch your head." He pointed towards the ceiling. An antique style Tiffany lamp with the old-style Pepsi logo hung just a few feet from the table. "That lamp above the table's a bit low. I almost hit my head on it a couple times. Wanna do 8-ball?"
Stay calm, don't make an ass of yourself. It was all Anna could do to keep from jumping up and down like a sugared up nine year old at a sleepover. She picked up Jay's cue stick and chalked up the end of it. "Works for me, but I get to break."
A tiny smile pricked up her lips as she watched Bradshaw chalk up his pool stick. So far,so good, she thought happily. Don't screw this up! Be patient, and don't act desperate.
Bradshaw racked the billiard balls up, and Anna set up the cue ball. Leaning over the table, she drew back the cue stick and let it go. The ball cracked against its target, and the balls went scattering. Several of the balls hit the rails.
"Nice break," Bradshaw said simply, as a few guests gravitated towards the pool table to watch.
"She's no slouch," Jay nodded back, setting his half-empty bottle of beer on the edge of the pool table.
"Stripes or solids?" Anna asked.
"I want stripes. I seem to play better when I get the stripes."
"Fine by me."
Anna put away the 4 and 1 ball before she scratched. Bradshaw put away the 14-ball with a nice little shot from a difficult angle. "You're good," Anna remarked, as the ball rolled into the pocket. "I would have missed that shot."
"Who taught you how to play?"
"I taught myself. My parents and I frequented this bar and grill when I was a kid. There was a pool table downstairs, and I watched everyone play. Pretty soon, I started fiddling around, and the rest is history."
"Where you from?"
"Missouri. Springfield."
"What brought you here?"
"I have family who lives here. My aunt and uncle live in Sanford."
"You go to college?"
"Yeah. University of Missouri in Columbia. Got my Bachelor's in Office Administration. I figured it would help me get a good job. And I didn't want to move out of state to get a good education."
"You look too young to have a Bachelor's Degree."
"I was seventeen. Youngest graduating senior."
With his attention diverted, Bradshaw didn't strike the cue ball hard enough, so the 11-ball missed the corner pocket. Biting back an expletive, he glanced up at his opponent.
"I didn't see that," she said. "Take another shot."
"Thanks. But I wanna beat you fairly."
"You may be eating those words when I put the 8-ball in," Anna smirked, inwardly kicking herself for sounding too cocky. "You got some catching up to do."
"We'll see about that."
Bradshaw put away the 10-ball in the left corner pocket before he scratched trying to hit the 13-ball. Anna put away the 1 and 6 balls before she scratched. She and her new friend wound up matching each other shot for shot.
"Hey, she's gonna kick your ass, Dude!" exclaimed Evan, who was watching the game along with Jay and the gathered crowd.
Finally, the 12-ball, the 2-ball and the 8-ball were the only ones left on the table. It was Bradshaw's turn to shoot, and he aimed for the 12-ball. Slowly, deliberately, he pulled the tip of his cue stick back, then released. The cue ball hit the 2-ball with a nice crack and zoomed towards the end of the table before ricocheting off and rolling towards the side rails. It continued to travel towards the side pocket on the left, but its momentum was fading quickly.
"Come on, come on!" he hissed through his teeth, as if he could get the ball to move faster through sheer will. It didn't work, and the 12-ball crawled to a stop less than an inch from the pocket. "Oh, dammit!" he exclaimed, as the small crowd groaned in disappointment.
A sly smile spread across Anna's lips as he approached the 2-ball. "Tough break," she said kindly. She aimed carefully and fired the remaining solid ball into the corner pocket on the left.
"Come on, miss the ball, miss the ball," Bradshaw whispered.
"Sorry, but this is an easy shot," Anna said, as she fired the 8-ball into the right side pocket.
The small crowd burst into cheers and applause, impressed by the well played game. Anna, caught up in the celebration, happily jumped up and back from the the table. Unfortunately, she brushed up against Jay's beer bottle with her wristlet purse and sent it clattering to the floor. The bottle was aluminum, which didn't break, but it landed right next to Anna's foot.
"Watch out!" Jay exclaimed, just as Anna stumbled backwards over the bottle.
Everything happened at once. As Anna stumbled backwards, the cue stick she was still holding shot up and caught the hanging lamp, knocking out several pieces of glass. Panicked, Anna tried to move her stick out of the way, but succeeded only in yanking the lamp off of its hook, sending it crashing to the table. The guests scattered as glass rained down over the felt covered tabletop.
"Oh, no!" In her haste to get out of the way, Anna jumped backwards and stepped on the top of Bradshaw's foot. Gasping, she whipped around and caught Bradshaw in the face with the fake mistletoe on her headband. Bradshaw stepped backwards, his hand covering his face.
Anna glanced around, completely mortified. What had started out with so much promise had ended in disaster. Unable to face anyone, or say anything, Anna dropped the cue stick and fled into the nearest room she saw, the downstairs bathroom. Clutching the side of the bathroom sink, Anna willed herself to take deep, even breaths. The last thing she wanted to do was hyperventilate. Once she'd steadied herself, she realized that her cheeks were damp, and she looked at herself in the mirror.
"Oh, not now!" Anna whined. Her face was tearstained, and a couple of tears were trundling down her cheek. More were in her eyes, waiting to be shed. Her makeup was about to die.
Anna dampened a washrag with cool water and dabbed it on her face to catch the tears and clean up the stains on her face. She then pulled the makeup she'd brought with her out of her wristlet purse and proceeded to salvage what she could. A stroke of blush here, a dab of lip gloss there, and a touch of eyeliner and powder, and she looked presentable again.
A knock on the door interrupted Anna as she was putting away her things. "Who is it?"
"It's Stephanie. Can I come in?"
"Lemme unlock the door first." Anna unlocked the door and plunked down onto the closed toilet seat, her head down in embarrassment.
Stephanie stepped into the bathroom and put her hand on Anna's shoulder. "You okay, Hun?"
"About as okay as can be expected." Anna lifted her head. "Did anyone get hurt out there?"
Stephanie shook her head. "Naah. Nobody got hurt. Just a bunch of broken glass on the pool table. I cleaned it all up."
"Oh, God!" Anna sniffed. "The last few minutes. You can't describe them without using the word cluster somewhere!"
Stephanie smirked. "Oh, I wouldn't go that far."
"I broke your lamp! And that looked like an antique! I broke your antique! I'm such a klutz!"
"It was an accident, Anna. Everyone knows that."
"But your poor lamp! I'll pay for it Stephanie, I promise-"
Stephanie laughed softly. "We got it at Walmart a couple years ago. We'll just get a new one. I knew Mark hung it too low. I tried to tell him that someone would break it while playing pool. But he didn't listen." A pause. "Oh, ummm...Phil wanted me to tell you that he and JoMo want to spend the night. And, since it's late, I wanted to ask if you wanted to stay over as well. Mark and I didn't want you to drive home tonight by yourself."
"That's nice of you guys, thanks."
"Stephanie! Glad I could hunt you down!"
Stephanie and Anna glanced in the doorway at a breathless Lita. She was wearing her coat and holding her purse. "Lita! Are you guys leaving so soon?"
Lita shook her head, apologetic. "We have to, we're sorry. Jeff just called. Addy's blood pressure spiked, and Dr. Nora's rushing him in for an emergency C-section. We're gonna drop Tiara off at Gil and Sharon's, and then we're heading right over to Fayetteville so we can be with Jeff and Adam. Jay and Evan are saying their good-byes, and they're heading over as well—you know that Adam and Jay are practically brothers—so I guess we're all heading out."
"Awww. Sorry you can't stay longer," sighed Anna.
"I wish we could."
"Well, we're glad you came over," Stephanie gave Lita a kind hug. "Have a safe trip. Keep us posted."
"We will. Have a good night, Anna."
"Thanks. I will."
Stephanie and Anna looked at each other and shrugged.
"Well, it looks like the party's winding down," Stephanie remarked. "I should start cleaning stuff up so we won't have a mess tomorrow morning."
"I've got nothing better to do right now," Anna sighed. "Mind if I help?"
~~~MKMKMKMK~~~
Stephanie, Anna, and a few other guests made short work of the cleanup. By the time they were finished, most everyone had left, save for the handful of guests Mark and Stephanie had offered to put up for the night.
After making a half-hearted attempt to find Bradshaw, Anna politely excused herself and trudged back down to the rumpus room. Scowling, she yanked the headband off her head and tossed it down on a coffee table.
"Stupid headband," she sulked, flopping down onto a loveseat. She folded her arms and sighed in disappointment, making a mental note to holler at Phil when they were back home in the morning.
Her surly mood was interrupted by her cell phone. Seeing the number, she answered it, unaware of the person stepping into the room. "Hello? Jeff, hi! Lita and Matt and everyone left like an hour ago. How are you and Adam..."
~~~MKMKMKMK~~~
"...That's great. That's one helluva birthday present. Well, I think Philly and I can swing by tomorrow, if Addy's able to have visitors. Just let us know. Okay. Yeah, okay, I'll pick up some Skittles on the way there. Thanks for calling, and congratulations again. Okay, bye."
Anna ended her phone call and set her cell phone down next to the headband. She was aware of someone in her personal space and glanced up.
"Justin!"
"Stephanie said you'd be down here," Bradshaw said, sitting down next to the young woman.
Anna felt her heart begin to flutter. "I was looking for you earlier," she muttered, blushing.
"I was in the garage with Mark looking at some new designs."
"Oh." A pause. "Jeff called. Dr. Nora delivered the baby in time. Adam had a baby girl. Natasha Tyler Hardy-Copeland. Five pounds, eleven ounces. She's in the NICU for observation because she was a month early, but she's doing great."
"How about Adam?"
"He's resting. His blood pressure stabilized, he's gonna be okay."
"That's good to know. We were all worried about him."
Anna nodded. "Hey, um...Justin, I just wanted to say I'm sorry about making such a scene earlier playing pool. I didn't hurt you with my headband, did I?"
"There's nothing you need to apologize for, and I was more startled than anything else."
"Oh, that's good. Justin, I have a confession I need to make."
"Sure."
Anna gazed down at her shoes, unable to look her crush in the eye. "Uhmm...I've been crushing on you for months, and I thought tonight would be the perfect chance for us to get to know each other. I think I've been trying too hard. I wore the headband tonight so that you'd have no choice but to kiss me." Anna sighed. "But all I really did was make an ass out of myself, and I'm really sorry. I guess I really blew it, didn't I?"
"Oh, I wouldn't say that?"
Anna lifted her head up. "What do you mean?"
"Well, you can't make someone kiss you. You could have walked through the door wearing a thousand sprigs of mistletoe and it wouldn't matter."
"Oh." Anna didn't know what to say about that. She felt a lump in her throat and swallowed hard to chase it away.
"Well..." Bradshaw continued. "What I meant to say was, you can't make someone kiss you if they want to kiss you anyway."
"Oh...oh!" Anna glanced up and suddenly realized what her crush was telling her. "Uh...Phil said that you were kinda...uhmm...crushing on me too."
Now it was Bradshaw's turn to blush. "Since I first saw you at Shannon's shop. I thought you were lovely and charming, and very sweet. The guys kinda gave me a hard time about it, but I didn't mind, because I liked you so much. I wanted to make my move, but it was too busy. You could imagine what everyone would say if I acted all starry eyed and lovesick. I wouldn't hear the end of it, especially from Mizzie."
Anna laughed. "He's impossible!"
"Wouldn't want him any other way, though. Y'know, I wanted to wait for this party to kinda die down before I did this, so..." Bradshaw lifted Anna's chin up so she could face him. Then, he lowered his face and kissed her on the lips.
Oh,wow! Anna thought. It felt like a thousand butterflies had just taken off inside of her. It wasn't a gross or sloppy kiss, but a very sweet and gentlemanly kiss that dared nothing at the moment, but promised much more in the future. It was everything Anna'd hoped it would be, and it was definitely worth waiting for.
When they finished, Bradshaw and Anna gazed at each other, their eyes sparkling, their cheeks rosy. A smile perked up Bradshaw's lips as he said, "Merry Christmas, Anna. It's good to finally meet you."
"It's good to finally meet you too."
Bradshaw stood up and helped Anna off of the couch. "Let's go upstairs. Maybe there's some trifle left over. I'd love to know who made that."
Anna leaned into Bradshaw and giggled as she picked up her fallen headband. "That was me. I'll have to make you one someday."
Happily, Anna and her crush headed upstairs. Maybe I should keep this, Anna thought, gazing fondly at the headband in her hand. After all, it worked. Not in the way I'd intended, but it worked. A little smile creased her lips as she made a mental note to give Phil a big thank you hug in the morning.
THE END
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: And there you go! My holiday contribution for this year. Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Whatever you celebrate this year—Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Ramadan, or any other holiday—I hope it's happy:)
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