But here is the new chappy and I hope you like it.
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He'd asked Loren to go with him...
She'd been at his apartment again, that Friday evening, helping Sergei acclimate and explain things about this to-him-new way of thinking and life.
Which consisted of them watching TV, from news reports to shows, with Loren explaining terms and phrases to him and the way of thinking. Sergei was still having troubles with the latter since Americans are so different from Europeans, it's like they are aliens. It is unlikely that Europeans and Americans will ever understand each other as they are so different, with nothing incommon. And thus being suddenly thrust into such a foreign and new environment, with no common ground or anything similar to base it on, Sergei was having severe problems acclimating and even figuring out what the basic reason and motivation behind actions, thinking and words was.
It was a slow process, but it definitely looked like Loren wasn't going to give up and Harm had found a whole new respect for her.
Harm always found it absolutely fascinating to observe their interactions because, not only did he find out how women looked on things, but it also gave him the opportunity to find out how Loren interpreted specific words, actions, sentences,... it gave him a clue of who the WOMAN, not the officer, was.
Harm had spent the off-duty hours of that day, before Loren had come over, doing the washing when he'd noticed that his civilian clothes, the few that he had, were in quite a bad shape. And old too. He had to wince when he saw something bright orange glaring back at him and the realization that it was still from the 80's did nothing for him.
Lately he'd been becoming increasingly aware of getting older, he was almost 40, and in his opinion had nothing to show for his life, except medals, accolades, good fitrep and the people he'd helped. No love, no wife, no children, no family, no house, no life. And such a blaring reminder of just how stagnant and unsuccessful he was, was not appreciated.
He was desperately in need of new clothes and he dreaded just the prospect of shopping for them.
He'd despaired at the thought that he would have to enter Hell, as he called shopping malls, again and the prospect of being hit on by sales ladies, again, did not sit well.
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In his younger years he had enjoyed the attention from the female members of the species, but, as he grew older, that had slowly changed.
He'd become uncomfortable at the, sometimes very aggressive, appreciation and come-ons from the female employees (once from even a male one, which made him damn uncomfortable and was the cause why he'd never visited that store again) and dreaded any chance of being exposed to it again.
The cause for this change was the fact that he was either in a committed relationship or, the story of the last few years, in a limbo with Mac and keeping himself single for the case that they would finally find a way to each other.
He'd been doing what he could towards that goal since she'd returned from USS Guadalcanal, inviting her to romantic dinners at his home, cooking for her, but Mac either didn't seem to realize what it was all about (he had thought that using his best plates and utensils, dimming the lights and and positioning candles on the table would clue her in on the fact. It had worked in the past with Diane, Annie, Jordan and Renee... Just not with Mac. At this he really had to wonder just how all of her ex-es had treated her, since she obviously was so unfamiliar with this concept that she didn't recognize it, and how had they had they managed to keep her, without showing this appreciation of her as a lover. The thought of just how cheap she had sold herself, just not to be alone, left a bitter taste in his mouth) or she wouldn't accept anything less than those three stupid words and was acting dumb.
Words she had never been willing to say first, yet expected of him to say them, even while she was involved with another man. Words she had practically demanded while not giving him not even a little insurance that she would reciprocate, that she wouldn't laugh in his face, or tell him he's too late and go back to Brumby.
This lack of insurance, that he wouldn't expose his heart without it getting broken, was the reason why he guarded it so carefully and why he never gave in first.
Because of the lack of any positive reaction to these romantic dinners and her increasingly distant behaviour since Bud's accident, Harm had given up hope.
He was moving on, healing after the latest hit to his heart, and thus he was not ready for another relationship, nor to be hit on by strange women.
And that was another perk to bringing Loren with him.
Not only would she give him the female opinion on the clothes, but her mere presence there would keep those other women at bay.
Prevent them from doing something.
Loren was Sergei's girlfriend, at least that was what Harm had gleaned from the amount of time the two spent together, and Harm definitely didn't have any romantic designs on her, even if she wasn't dating Sergei.
But, even if he didn't have that kind of designs on her, that didn't mean that he wouldn't be appreciating and taking full advantage of the fact that, while she was there with him, those salesladies wouldn't be hitting on him or passing him over their phone numbers.
He just hoped Loren would never catch on to his reasons, cause he would never live it down.
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