Chapter 9
By: msbball8 aka Calli
To: Gabby Montez
From: Taylor McKessie
Subject: Calm down
He is not gay. Alright? That is just Sharpay. She's just messing with your head. She's bored. Jack Lorton won't leave his wife for her, Jason is still mooning over you, and Sharpay has nothing better to do than torture you. You are just playing right into her hands by getting all upset like this.
Now are we going to the noon or five-thirty class tomorrow?
Tay
P.S.: I don't have to tell you how much I hate this, right? This exercise thing? I mean, in case you didn't know. I hate it. I really hate sweating. It's not natural. It really isn't.
To: Taylor McKessie
From: Gabby Montez
Subject: But that would explain...
why he didn't try to kiss me, or put his arm around me, or anything! He's gay!
And I offered to go with him the next time he goes to visit his aunt in the hospital.
God, I must seem like the biggest nagging idiot in the world!
Gabby
P.S.: Let's go to the noon class so we can get it over with. I know you hate it, Taylor, but it's good for you. And sweating is natural. People have been doing it for thousands of years.
To: Gabby Montez
From: Taylor McKessie
Subject: Are you...
suffering a psychotic breakdown?
First of all, he's not gay.
Secondly, even if he was gay, your saying you want to go with him to see his comatose aunt is hardly nagging. It's actually very nice.
I told you not to listen to Sharpay.
Remember the chenille bedspread? Remember when you saw him feeding the dog Alpo right on the bedspread? Would a gay man ever do that to chenille?
Tay
To: Taylor McKessie
From: Gabby Montez
Subject: Oh
Yes. You're right. No gay man would ever abuse chenille in that manner.
Thank God I have you in my life, Taylor.
Gabby
P.S.: But if he isn't gay, how come he hasn't emailed me back? I wrote him ages ago about some tropical depressions, and they've already been upgraded to storms!
To: Troy Evans
From: Dylan Bolton
Subject: Oh for God's sake...
Just call the girl, would you? While you're sitting around beating yourself up, some other man could be stealing her from right out from under your nose!
Don't worry, the Ryan Evans stuff will work itself out. You wouldn't believe some of the lies Dylan told me when we first started going out...foremost of which was that he went out with Angelina Jolie. He just didn't mention that it was when she happened to be on the same ferry he was taking to Catalina.
Yeah, he "went out" with her alright.
Oh, and you grandmother showed me a picture of the Alyssa girl, whom your brother insists was the most beautiful woman he has ever known: Hello, somebody call the pound, I think there's a pit bull on the loose—
And here comes Dylan. He's screaming something about grilled cheese and why I don't get my own e-mail account, and why mush I keep raiding his, and now he's trying to shove me out of this chair, even though I am seven months pregnant with his unborn son, oh and not to mention the mother of his two daughters.
Megan
To: Troy Evans
From: Dylan Bolton
Subject: Go away
I just want you to know that while you are burdening my wife with your half-assed problems—all of which, by the way, are of your own making—everything here is going to pieces. I just had to make the girls their lunch and the cheese dripped out into the toaster oven all over everything and started a fire.
So all I have to say to you is get your own wife already and stop bothering mine.
Dylan
To: Troy Evans
From: Dylan Bolton
Subject: HI, UNCLE TROY
IT'S US, LYNSEI AND JENNA. MOMMY AND DADDY ARE HAVING A BIG FIGHT OVER WHAT YOU SHOULD DO ABOUT THE BROWNHEADED LADY. MOMMY SAYS YOU SHOULD CALL HER UP AND ASK HER TO DINNER. DADDY SAYS YOU NEED THERAPY.
IF YOU MARRY THE BROWNHEADED LADY, WILL SHE BE OUR AUNT?
WHEN ARE YOU COMING TO SEE US? WE MISS YOU. WE HAVE BEEN VERY GOOD. EVERY TIME THAT VEIN IN DADDY'S HEAD STARTS TO TURN PURPLE WE SING THE SONG YOU TAUGHT US, JUST LIKE YOU SAID TO. YOU KNOW WHICH SONG. THE ONE ABOUT DIARRHEA.
WELL, WE HAVE TO GO. DADDY SAYS TO GET OFF HIS DESK.
WRITE SOON!!!
LOVE,
LYNSEI AND JENNA
To: Gabby Montez
From: Troy Evans
Subject: Baseball-sized hail, and other weather anomalies
Dear Gabriella,
Sorry it took me so long to get back to you. I had some business that needed tending to. But it looks like it's all more or less in order now—at least, as much as it can be for the moment.
It's sweet of you to offer to visit my aunt with me, but you really don't have to.
Wait. Stop. I know what you're going to say.
So to cut you off at the pass, might I suggest that we do it tomorrow night, if you don't already have plans?
And I think I will take this opportunity to discuss something that has been bugging my conscience heavily since we met: the great debt I owe you for saving my aunt's life.
Stop. Again, I know what you're going to say. But the fact of the matter is, you did exactly that. The police told me so.
So although it is rather inadequate means of expressing my immense gratitude and appreciation of what you did, I was hoping that you'd let me take you out to dinner some night. And since I know how deeply this will offend you Southern sensibilities, I am prepared for you to pick the restaurant, lest you worry that I might choose a place destined to bankrupt me.
Think it over and let me know. As you are aware, my evenings are, thanks to Buffy, quite free to eleven.
Sincerely,
Troy
P.S.: Did you see that thing on the Weather Channel last night? Why is it that people who attempt to drive through flash-flood swollen rivers in their SUV's always end up being the people who don't know how to swim?
To: Taylor McKessie
From: Gabby Montez
Subject: He wrote back!
And he asked me out.
Well, sort of. I guess it's more of a pity/thank you type thing instead of an actual date.
But maybe if I get just the right dress...
You're the restaurant expert. Which one should I pick?
Gabby
To: Gabby Montez
From: Taylor McKessie
Subject: You aren't going to...
be able to pay your rent next month if you keep buying stuff to impress this guy.
I have a wonderful idea! Wear something you already own. He cant possibly have seen you in everything you own already. He only moved in a couple of weeks ago, and I know you have ten million skirts.
Here's another idea: Why don't the two of you stop by Rano's? That way, Chad and I can get a look at him and let you know what we think.
Just a thought.
Tay
To: Taylor McKessie
From: Gabby Montez
Subject: Ha!
What do you think I am? Stupid? We aren't going anywhere near Rano's. Not in a million years.
Gabby
To: Gabby Montez
From: Chad Danforth
Subject: So we're just not good enough for you, huh?
I guess when it comes to fine dining, you really know who your friends are. I mean, evidently, you have some kind of prejudice against my restaurant (A/N: Chad owns a restaurant.) that I never knew about till now.
And yet whenever I've offered to have my chef cook up his famous chicken paillard, you've never turned him down. Could it be that all this time, you've merely been humoring me?
What about Taylor? She's not really your best friend, is she?
You probably have some fancy other best friend tucked away for emergencies, don't you?
It's all becoming clear now.
Chad
To: Chad Danforth
From: Gabby Montez
Subject: You know good and well
why I don't want to go to your restaurant. I don't care to be gawked at by my best friend and her boyfriend!
And you know it.
You really are insufferable, you know that? It's a good thing that your chef's such a good cook—and that you're so good-looking, too, of course.
Gabby ;-)
To: Gabby Montez
From: Sharpay Baylor
Subject: Dinner
Honey, are you mad? You simply have got to make him take you to Le Meilleur. There just isn't anywhere else worthwhile.
And it isn't as if he cant afford it. My God, Ryan Evans made a fortune photographing that Sarah creature for that Revlon campaign.
After all, you did give that women CPR. For that he owes you something from at least Tiffany's.
XXXOOO
Sharpay
To: Gabby Montez
From: Dave Matusi
Subject: Corner bistro
That's where you make the guy take you. Best burgers in the city. Plus you can watch the game while you eat.
Dave
To: Gabby Montez
From: Jimmy Chu
Subject: How can you even
think of going anywhere else but Peking Duck House? You know, it's the best Peking duck in the city.
Jim
To: Gabby Montez
From: Zeke Taylor
Subject: Gaydar
Taylor passed me your friend Troy's latest e-mail, which I guess you forwarded to her, and I can say clearly, speaking as a homosexual, that this man is straight. No gay man I know would ever let the woman choose the restaurant, even if she did save his aunt's life.
Make him take you to Rano's. Taylor and I and the rest of the gang are going to sit at the bar and pretend we don't know you. Puh-lease make him take you to Rano's....
Y'all have a nice time and be sure to practice safe sex, you hear?
Zeke
To: Taylor McKessie
From: Gabby Montez
Subject: For the love of God...
would you please stop telling everyone who works here about my personal life? It is so humiliating! Zeke Taylor from Programming just e-mailed me. And if Programming knows, you know it''s only a matter of time before it gets down to Art. And what if someone in Art knows Ryan Evans, and tells him how everybody in Features is talking about him?
I mean, my God, what are you trying to do?
Gabby
To: Sharpay Baylor, Chad Danforth, Zeke Taylor, Dave Matusi, Jimmy Chu
From: Taylor McKessie
Subject: Gabby
Alright everybody, lay off her. We're just making her nervous.
I really mean that, Sharpay, so don't even think about another ladies' room ambush.
Tay
P.S.: Besides, you know she cant keep a secret to save her life. She'll blab about where they're going eventually, and the we'll have her. ;-)
To: Troy Evans
From: Gabby Montez
Subject: Dinner
Dear Troy,
Hi! It's really sweet of you to offer to take me to dinner, but you really don't have to.
I was happy to do what I did for your aunt. I only wish I could've done more for her.
But if you really insist, I honestly don't care where we go to dinner.
Well, that's not true, there is one place I really DON'T want to go, and that's Rano's. Anywhere else is fine. Why don't you surprise me?
See you back on the fifteenth floor tonight at six (ICU visiting hours are only from sis-thirty to seven)?
Gabby
To: Gabby Montez
From: Troy Evans
Subject: Dinner
You got it.
I'll make reservations for eight. I hope you know what you're doing, however, letting me choose the restaurant. I am very partial to entrails, you know.
Troy
To: Troy Evans
From: Gabby Montez
Subject: I don't believe you
You're just trying to scare me.
I grew up on a farm. We had guts on toast every morning for breakfast.
Gabby
To: Gabby Montez
From: Troy Evans
Subject: Now you're
scaring me.
See you at six.
Troy
Ok, I swore to myself that I was going to get this chapter out today. I've worked on it for the past 3 days on and off. I will try and get as many updates out in the next day and a half as I can. We leave on Tuesday to head on down to Texas…..not looking forward to the 16 hour drive….with my HUGE golden retriever taking up 3/4 of the back seat….FUN!!!(Sarcasm).
I'm home Monday so you'll probably be getting updates unless my mom piles on the housework…
Well, how was this chapter??? Let me know by reviewing!!!! Pwease :)
Calli :)