Chapter Four: A Night at the Opera - Part 2
From the time they got up the following morning, John and Maria were busy getting ready for the upcoming evening. Finding a dress was no problem for Maria; she already knew the exact outfit she wanted, but had no idea how she wanted her hair to look. So she spent the day in front of the bathroom mirror, fixing her auburn locks into different styles and then asking John for his opinion.
John, however, was of little or no help; he - naturally - didn't know anything about current women's hairstyles, and was too busy perfecting the placement of ribbons and medals on his formal dress uniform. He wasn't very committed to this task, either; it was the weekend and college football was on TV. Maria giggled when she looked in the bedroom and found John standing by his closet door and screaming at the small 13-inch television on his dresser at - in his opinion, anyway - a bad call made by the referee in the game he was watching.
The opera started at eight, but everyone was requested to be there by seven-thirty at the latest. It was an thirty-minute drive to the opera house, and John wanted to be there by seven, so the two started getting ready around five-thirty. John decided to be a gentleman and let Maria have the bedroom to dress in, while he took his uniform and crowded into the bathroom.
Ever the fast dresser, John was ready before Maria and went out to the living room to wait for her. Finally, he heard the bedroom door open and footsteps coming down the hall, and he stood up right before she entered the room.
When Maria came into the living room, John's jaw nearly hit the floor. She was absolutely beautiful. Her gown was a deep forest green with matching emerald jewelry and pumps, and her outfit was completed by the addition of long white opera gloves. She'd put eyeliner around her eyes, giving her appearance a slightly sultry look, and her auburn hair was done up in an attractive twist.
For her part, Maria barely restrained herself from drooling when she saw John. As expected for a Marine officer, his formal dress uniform was immaculate, complete down to white gloves. About the only thing missing from it was a dress saber. She knew right then and there she'd fallen for John, and fallen hard. The two gazed at each other, neither able to move or speak.
The intimate moment was broken by a knock on the door. John blinked dazedly as though trying to figure out what the noise was before it finally registered with his brain that someone was at the door.
"I'll be right back," he murmured softly, and the redhead merely nodded absently.
Maria heard him open the door and exchange greetings with another male voice. Seconds later, he was back, with Randy in tow.
"Maria, this is Captain Randy Orton, my best friend and second-in-command. Randy, this my date Maria."
The redhead smiled brightly, and Randy put on his best charming smile, actually leaning over to kiss her hand while John watched him with an 'are-you-serious?' look on his face.
"Pleasure to meet you, Maria," Randy stated. "John's a very lucky man."
"And he knows it," John put in, causing Randy to smirk and Maria to smile brightly at him. The three sat in the living room and made small talk for a few minutes before another knock at the door interrupted them. Maria got up and headed for the door as fast as she dared in her new heels.
"The moment of truth arrives," Randy muttered softly - as the two heard Maria open the door and two sets of female voices squeal ecstatically - causing John to roll his eyes.
"Relax, man...she probably looks all right."
They stood as the girls' voices grew louder, signaling their imminent return, and were stunned when the girls entered the room.
'All right' didn't even touch how pretty Stacy was. The young woman had long blonde hair, a supermodel's body, deep, soulful eyes, a mischievous smile, and legs that went on forever could be seen through the slit up the side of her deep rose strapless evening gown.
"Holy crap..." John trailed off, totally blown away.
"I owe you for this, man," Randy muttered. "I owe you big time."
Stacy seemed quite taken with Randy, who was all but drooling over the leggy blonde, to the point of actually tripping over his words, which Stacy seemed to find fairly amusing. The group took John's car to the opera house, and Stacy chattered away in the back seat while Randy hung on every word - or at least pretended to - and Maria and John stole quick glances at each other in the front seat.
Upon arrival at the opera house, they headed inside after John got his car keys back from the valet, and joined the group of Marines in the lobby. Maria and Stacy were introduced to John and Randy's Division Commander, Major General Vince McMahon, the Division XO, Brigadier General Theodore Long, and General McMahon's aide, Lieutenant Colonel Shane McMahon.
The two then met John's direct CO, his Brigade Commander, Colonel Ric Flair, the Brigade XO, Lieutenant Colonel Shawn Michaels and his wife Mickie, as well as the Brigade Sergeant Major, Sergeant Major Roderick Piper.
John also pointed out the other Battalion Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Hunter Helmsley and his wife Stephanie, and Helmsley's senior NCO, Sergeant Major Paul Wight and his wife, in addition to Helmsley's three Company Commanders, Captains Matt and Jeff Hardy and Phil Brooks. Brooks and the Hardy brothers had dates of their own, three beautiful Marine Captains whom John identified as Captains Wilson, Massaro, and Michelle.
John then met up with his own Company Commanders, Captains Rhodes, London, and Kendrick, all of whom had dates, and who - like most of the men - looked as though they desperately wanted to be somewhere else.
Randy suddenly nudged John. "Look who just showed up."
The group turned to look at the entrance, and John's eyebrows raised in surprise at the sight of a Marine Major escorting a beautiful young blonde who didn't look a day over eighteen.
"Who's that?" Maria asked.
"That's Major Chris Jericho, Hunter's Battalion Exec," Randy replied. "And the young woman he's with is First Lieutenant Blank, a Supply Officer from Camp Lejune."
At that moment, they were approached by John's Sergeant Major, who looked extremely uncomfortable at being there.
"Hey, Dave," John greeted.
The Sergeant Major nodded in return, and graciously smiled when introduced to Maria and Stacy. He then looked around briefly before turning to John.
"Has Trish arrived yet?"
"We haven't seen her," Maria replied.
"You sound anxious to meet her, Dave," Randy joked, prompting a mock-glower from the Sergeant Major.
"Hardly...I just don't care much for blind dates." He sighed. "I'm gonna go get some coffee...I'll be back in a few minutes."
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Dave headed over to the refreshment stand and ordered a cup of coffee to soothe his frayed nerves. You never should've agreed to this...you never should've agreed to this, his mind kept repeating, and he started cursing the fact he hadn't listened to it in the first place and just gone to this thing solo like he'd originally planned to do, or disobeyed orders for the first time in his career and stayed home, holed up in his apartment.
He was jarred from his thoughts by someone coming to stand next to him. He turned to glance at them, and his coherent faculties seemed to instantly abandon him at the sight of the gorgeous buxom blonde in the strapless silver dress.
She noticed him gazing at her and gave him a flirtatious smile that made his knees weak.
"Hi."
"H-Hi," the Sergeant Major managed to reply, and the blonde laughed throatily at his nervousness, the husky sound turning Dave's insides to mush.
"Buy me a cup of coffee?" the blonde offered, and Dave practically did a happy dance in his mind. Of course, then he remembered he was there to meet someone, which totally killed the happy streak he had going.
"Ordinarily, I'd love to," he replied, "but I'm actually here to meet someone, and I don't want them getting the wrong idea if they see me buying another woman a drink."
The blonde raised an eyebrow. "Wow...a true gentleman. I didn't think there were any left in the world."
Dave smiled at her compliment and watched her pick her purse up off the counter.
"Maybe I'll see you during intermission," the blonde told him as she started to move off before turning back to him. "My name's Trish, by the way."
Dave's mind went into overdrive. Please don't toy with me like this, God...it's not fair.
"Actually," he said, deciding to take a chance and praying he was right, "I'd like to take you up on your offer and buy you a cup of coffee." When she gave him another mind-blowing smile and came back to the counter, he added, "I'm Dave...it's nice to meet you."
This time it was Trish's mind that went into overdrive. Maria had told her she was setting her up with a Marine Sergeant Major named Dave. The only reason she'd come over here was after seeing the stripes on the guy's sleeve.
This is Dave?! Yeeoow...Semper Fi, baby! Her mind screamed. She managed to find her voice. "Maria's friend John's friend?" she asked hopefully, and Dave nodded.
"Yeah, that's me."
Now it was Trish's turn to do a happy dance in her mind.
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After making sure everyone was present and accounted for - and Dave and Trish had joined the group, John and Randy privately drooled over Maria's other friend, and Dave had told John he also owed him big time - General McMahon led the group to their seats, He'd reserved three balconies for his officers, with six couples to a balcony.
Generals McMahon and Long, Colonel McMahon, Colonel Flair, and Sergeant Majors Piper and Wight and their wives occupied one box, the six Company Commanders another, and Colonels Michaels and Helmsley, their wives, John and Maria, Randy and Stacy, Dave and Trish, and Major Jericho and Lieutenant Blank occupied the third.
One look at the programs made quite a few of the guys swear under their breath when they saw it was a double feature: The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro. The girls - save for Lieutenant Blank, who appeared to have eyes only for her date - all seemed quite pleased with this, and eagerly awaited for the curtain to go up.
By the end of the evening, in John and Maria's box, Randy had long since fallen asleep, John and Dave were struggling to stay awake, and Mrs. Helmsley and Mrs. Michaels had long since given up trying to get their husbands to pay attention and had completely focused their attentions on the stage along with Maria, Stacy, and Trish. Colonels Helmsley and Michaels, meanwhile, had turned their chairs to face each other, and were involved in a fierce tournament of 'Go Fish'.
As for Major Jericho and his date, nobody had seen them since Lieutenant Blank had slipped out to find the ladies' room about thirty minutes after the curtain had gone up, and not two minutes had gone by before the Major followed.
When the curtain finally fell to thunderous applause, Randy jerked awake, nearly falling out of his chair as he did so, causing Stacy to giggle at him. John and Dave both awoke from light dozes and stood and applauded along with their dates, while Shawn and Hunter were still absorbed in their game.
John, Randy, and Dave muttered thanks about the evening finally being over while the ladies said goodbye to each other before Stephanie and Mickie turned to their husbands, who'd just begun another hand of cards.
"Come on, Colonel," Stephanie addressed her husband, "say goodnight to Shawn...you can play with him again on Monday."
Hunter Helmsley finally looked up from his hand. "But we just started another hand...can't we finish it?"
Stephanie looked at her husband as if to say, 'You're kidding me, right?'
Mickie James-Michaels simply headed for the exit, calling over her shoulder, "Shawn, the opera's over, I'm ready to go home, the kids are at my parents', and I made a trip to Vickie Secrets earlier today..."
"Right," her husband replied, turning to his friend. "Gotta go, buddy...see ya Monday."
"Lucky," Hunter muttered under his breath at his friend's retreating back as he gathered the cards and followed his own wife.
"Nah, not lucky...just smart," John stated, and Dave and Randy both agreed with him.
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The group broke up on the steps of the opera house. Dave and Trish had decided to go to an all-night diner and talk, while Randy and Stacy rode back with John and Maria to get their cars.
As John drove them back to his apartment building, Randy glanced over at the beautiful blonde sitting beside him. He wanted to get to know her better, and for the first time, he didn't mean his usual way of 'love 'em and leave 'em'.
He was saved from trying to start a conversation by Stacy quietly speaking to him.
"I had a great time tonight, Randy..." she smirked at him. "It's too bad you're tired; I would've loved to have a late dinner and get to know you better."
Score! The Captain's mind yelled. Randy managed to get over his surprise and find his voice.
"I'm not tired...I'd like to have dinner also."
Stacy grinned at his reply. "I guess that little nap you took perked you right up, huh?"
Randy nodded like a puppy eager for attention.
Stacy giggled. "In that case, why don't you follow me to my favorite restaurant once we get our cars? It's not far from here."
"Sure", Randy replied, even as his mind began doing its own happy dance.
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Upon arriving back at John's apartment building, Randy and Stacy said their goodbyes and sped off in their cars, leaving John and Maria alone. John watched the cars disappear before turning to see his lovely date sitting on the steps of his building, gazing up at the stars.
Seeing she didn't want to go inside yet, John sat down beside her. Silence reigned for a few minutes before Maria sighed disappointedly.
"I had a much-better view of the stars from Sheik Hassan's palace in the desert...when he let me out of my lamp, that is," she amended. "Of course, they didn't have a lot of tall buildings with those magic lights, either."
John turned to look at her. "'Magic lights'?" he asked confusedly.
Maria nodded. "Yeah, your apartment has them too. You walk into a room, flip a switch on the wall, and suddenly there's light!" The cute puzzled expression came over her face again. "The encyclopedia called it something, but I can't remember what it was."
John smiled at her description. "That's called 'electricity'."
He was favored with another dazzling smile. "Yeah, that's it!"
Maria was about to say something else, but ended up yawning instead. John smiled at her and got to his feet, extending his hand to help her up.
"Come on, let's get upstairs and get some sleep."
The beautiful redhead nodded sleepily and leaned on John - not that he minded one bit - as they walked inside and waited for the elevator. When they got inside the apartment, John let Maria use the bedroom to get changed, while he used the bathroom himself. He emerged dressed for bed, and carried his dress uniform on hangars into the bedroom to hang up, only to find his gorgeous roommate fast asleep on his bed.
Man, she looks like an angel, he thought briefly, before shaking his head and going to hang his uniform up. He thought about carrying Maria out to the sofa at first, but then scratched the idea, knowing she'd be much more comfortable where she currently was.
Gently, he lifted her so as to pull the covers down and put her under them, and was about to go and claim the sofa for himself when the redhead rolled over in her sleep, latching onto his arm and not letting go.
John sighed and slipped under the covers himself ignoring the little devil on his shoulder that was doing a happy dance at this unexpected turn of events. No sooner had he pulled the blankets up and gotten situated than Maria curled up next to him and laid her head on his shoulder, sighing contentedly in her sleep. Not wanting to wake her up by moving her over - not to mention the fact he really liked where Maria was - John reached over and turned off the lamp on the nightstand before closing his eyes and falling asleep himself.
Author's Note: Sorry I haven't updated in so long; the library was being incredibly anal about allowing me to use disks I brought from home. But I snuck some disks in and posted chapters just for you guys...ain't I sweet for doing that? For those of you who are fans of my story Dress Whites & Divas, don't worry; I haven't forgotten about it...I'm working on the next chapter. And watch for another WWE-themed story next month!
Also: For those who want to have a better picture of Maria's dress she wore to the opera, think of the red dress Julia Roberts wore in the movie Pretty Woman and change the color to a deep green.
R&R!
