They're Playing Our Song:
You Had Time
By C.
Disclaimer: ABC owns 'em. The subtitle is from Ani Di Franco's "You Had Time"; the lullaby is "Look for the Silver Lining" written by Jerome Kern.
AN: I don't know if they made mention of what car Liza drives, but the time of meeting Jake in the woods - wasn't it a black Jag? ('Cause there was that shot of MW standing by it in this amazing caramel colored coat) Once again – THANK YOU to Becky who takes my slobbery mess and makes them all pretty!
You are a china shop
And i am a bull
I guess everything is timing
I guess everything's been said
-You Had Time
Thursday, November 27, 2003 – 7.12 pm
Mia shook the snow from her hair as she waited for the door to open before her. She could hear everyone inside laughing and talking and for the hundredth time that night, she wished she had accepted the Martin's invitation to spend Thanksgiving with them. Instead, she had chosen to go with Liza to the Chandler spectacle known as a family dinner. Eventually the door was opened by Ruth Martin in an apron and Mia was pulled into the warm house filled with laughter and light.
"Mia, I'm so glad you decided to come after all!" Ruth exclaimed, hugging the woman before her tightly.
"Actually ..." Mia began sheepishly, "I can't stay - Liza's waiting outside with Colby - we're on our way to Adam's."
"Let's hope they give you a program to keep all the ex-wives straight," Tad called out, emerging from the now smoke-filled kitchen. "Mom, I think that you'd better fix whatever dad did in there."
"Well maybe you can join us for dessert, I made that pie you loved so much -" A metallic CRASH interrupted her thoughts and at once Ruth took off for the kitchen. "Joe!" At once, there was another crash from the dining room and then a distinctly feminine and familiar "It's all right" belonging to a woman Mia more than suspected was Krystal.
Mia's eyes met Tad's, and widened with this tidbit of knowledge.
"So," Tad began, breaking the silence looming over them "What brings you yonder?" he asked, sitting himself on the back of the armchair.
"These." She held out a large manila envelope - "They're the papers you needed."
"Thanks." He took them, watching her eyes carefully, "What? You're looking at me funny."
"Am I?"
"You are, Mia, so just spit it out and don't choke on it."
"Nothing. I should go; Liza's waiting for me."
"She's here?"
"Waiting in the car. So..."
"Thanks for the files - I appreciate it."
"No prob-"
"Mia -" Ruth rushed out. "Thank goodness you haven't left, come into the kitchen, Joe wants to say hi."
"I should really be going - Liza's outside."
"Nonsense, she can wait another minute. Come in." Ruth grabbed Mia's hand and led her into the kitchen, leaving Tad alone.
Liza was outside. That very thought enraged and delighted him - as well as brought out a million and one other emotions. He hadn't seen her since that evening at SOS when she had kissed him. Whenever he would ask about her, Mia would just reply that Chandler Enterprises kept her busy. Whenever he called her, she would never pick up, never call back. So eventually he stopped asking and stopped calling. And now she was outside. He pushed himself up off the armchair and went to the window, peeking through the curtains. There was her car - the black Jaguar with tinted windows. He grabbed his jacket and slipped out the door calling out, "I'll be right back". He lightly jogged across his snowy lawn and pulled up in front of Liza's window. She was turned around, talking to Colby - he couldn't quite make out the words, but he heard their familiar voices mingled with music from the radio. Colby noticed him standing at once and waved, prompting Liza to turn around. After a moment's pause, she rolled down her window and smiled. "Happy Thanksgiving," she offered.
The silence loomed above them and eye contact was avoided at all costs. "Mia'll be a moment - she just went to say hi to my dad."
"Ok"
"Ok"
More silence.
"After two weeks of nothing - all I get is a Happy Thanksgiving??" Tad exploded, waiting for an answer which came in the form of Liza's window rolling up and her jumping out of the car and slamming the door. "Two weeks, Liza, of you not calling me back and ignoring me! And now all I get is a Happy Thanksgiving?"
"I thought it was best, Tad -" she began sharply, her words taking on a hardened tone, "One of us has to think."
"About what?" Their voices were ringing clearly in the cold air and spreading as far as the wind could carry it.
"About THIS," she indicated to the space between them with her hands.
"What's this?" Tad asked, mocking her actions by flailing his limbs.
"What's going on?" a third voice asked. There stood Opal on the porch, shivering. "Tad come back inside, Joe's asking where you keep the gravy boat."
"It's in the buffet," he yelled, not wanting to be interrupted.
"I can't find it - show me," she shouted back, ignoring Liza. Sighing, Tad tossed Liza one last look and left, muttering a 'Happy Thanksgiving' over his shoulder.
Rather than calming down by the time he made it to his house, he was even more enraged by what had happened, or rather, not happened with Liza. He expected apologies and excuses, not random hand-flailing. Storming through his door, he almost bumped into Mia who was slipping into her jacket in a rush. "Is she freaking out?" she asked, struggling to get her arm in the right sleeve. "She's freaking out, right? She didn't want to be late and..." Mia leaned over and gave Tad a quick peck on the cheek, said "Happy Turkey Day" and raced out the door, slamming it in her wake only to turn on her heel and throw it open again, "Oh, I forgot, Liza knew your family exchanges gifts tonight so she wanted me to pass this along." She slipped something out of her pocket and tossed it at him. "By-ye," she teased, smiling, closing the door for a second time, leaving Tad alone with his first Christmas gift of the season. He stared at the package in his hand long and hard, as if he could see through the paper and into the intention behind it. It was a silver wrapped jewelry box with gunmetal ribbon, very masculine and very x-ray vision proof. "Tad?" a voice asked, prompting him to turn around, "What's wrong?" Krystal asked with a concerned expression painted across her face and an apron around her waist. "Wrong? Nothing's wrong, why?" "You're just standing there looking at your hand. What is it?" Her eyes perked up at the box, "Is it for me? Can I open it?" "This?" he asked, holding it up. "It's nothing, forget it." He slipped the box into his pocket, promising to open it at a time which allowed him more privacy. "What smells so good?"
Thursday, November 27, 2003 – 10.38 pm
Winifred quickly led him up the backstairs – if Mr. Chandler knew he was in his house, he'd have a fit, he never hide his hatred of Tad Martin, but there was something sincere and honest about Mr. Martin that she loved, (And it was this sincerity, and not the winks he'd toss in her direction every so often that she loved she told herself). "She's just putting Colby to bed now," she explained, whispering as she led him through the darkened passage towards the open door at the end of the hall with pink tinted light and soft voices spilling out. "I can just wait here," he responded, settling in a chair against the opposite wall, "Thanks Winifred, and Happy Thanksgiving." Wishing him the same, she began to pick her way through the darkened hall once again. Tad realized that from this position, if he stretched a little to the left, he'd be able to make out Colby lying in her bed, with Liza sitting beside her. They had just finished a book that was being placed back on the night stand and Colby was begging for her song, winding up the music box beside her bed. After a sigh and a smile, Liza turned the lights off and indulged her daughter who followed along a beat behind: "Look for the silver lining, When ever a cloud appears in the blue..." Surprised by the warmth and strength of her voice as she sang the sorrowful song, Tad's curiosity was peaked – what else didn't he know about his best friend? Based on her actions these past couple of weeks, it seemed that everything was new to him. "Remember somewhere the sun is shining, and so the right thing to do, as make it shine for you; a heart full of joy and gladness, will always banish sadness and strife, so always look for the silver lining, and try to find the sunny side of life." By this time, Colby's voice had died off and though he couldn't quite see her, he heard Liza shift and arrange the covers over Colby and make her way out of the room, her back to him as she eased the door shut. "Liza?" he whispered, hoping not to startle her. "Its Tad". She froze a moment and then turned around, trying to meet his eyes with a steely glance, if she could only find his eyes. "What do you want?" "I wanted to say thank you." "It was nothing." She slipped past his seat and made her way down the hall. "It was." He rose, walking after her, "Can we talk?" "I thought we already did that once?" she asked. "It didn't quite work out." "Just 5 minutes, I have something for you." "I don't want it." "You don't know what it is yet." "I still don't want it." "You're acting like you're Colby's age Liza, come on." "If she gets to act like she's my age, it's only fair." "I give up!" Frustrated, Tad grabbed his companion's arm and dragged her down the back stairs with him and out the side door which led to the patio, lit only by the miniature Christmas lights wrapped around the railing. From here, all the sounds from the dinner party could be heard lightly, as if everything was moving in a speed apart from them. Standing face to face and eye to eye, a tense moment passed between the two before the silence was broken. "What do you want, Tad?" "To say thank you." He brushed off part of the steps leading down into the gardens and sat himself down. "Want a seat?" Chin out and eyes set, Liza responded firmly, "No," which in Tad Martin's addled mind obviously meant, "Sure, I'd love to," because he brushed the step clear of snow and held out his hand to help her down. Already turning to go back inside, it was the glint of metal which caught her eye, cast off of Tad's wrist. "You opened it?" she asked, almost in awe of seeing her gift on him. "Yeah-" She took his outstretched arm and sat herself down beside him. She then took his hand in her two own and examined his wrist – indeed there was her Christmas gift, her father's platinum cufflinks with his initials (and coincidentally hers) integrated as part of the design element. "He was wearing them the first time I met him," Tad began, shifting under the not entirely unpleasant sensation of Liza unconsciously running her hands over his upturned palm. "He never took them off," she replied, adjusting them to his shirt. "These mean a lot to you, don't they?" She shrugged her shoulders and dropped his hand in her lap, wrapping her arms around her to warm up, muttering something under her breath. "What?" Tad asked, slipping one of his arms out of his sleeve, "Nothing." "No," Tad started, drawing Liza close to him and slipping half the jacket over her so that they were nuzzled together under the single jacket, "You said something." "I said," her voice murmured, as she let herself be guided by Tad to rest her head against his chest, "You mean a lot to me too." She stared down at the snow covered lawn, "Besides," she continued, her voice stronger now, "I remembered how much you liked them." They stayed like that for some time, silent and shivering and oddly content under the one jacket. "Hey-" Tad nudged her, "I have something for you too." "You didn't have to." "I know," he answered, slighted by the fact that Liza thought he reciprocated out of need rather than want. "You don't think a lot of me, do you?" he asked as a flat package appeared from out of nowhere. "It's not that, Tad," Liza began, "It's just that, you know." "Know what?" "Nothing." "That's nice, I know nothing," he smiled, the gift hovering just out of Liza's reach. "Shut up! That's not what I meant and you know it!" she grinned, snatching the package from his hand and proceeding to rip through the matte gold wrapping paper. "No 'what is it'? No 'you shouldn't have?,'" he teased watching her glee at the present – that is, until she reached the actual gift – and then the glee slowly transformed itself into something he couldn't quite place. In her defense, Liza herself didn't quite know what to feel as the stared at the gift on her lap. It was an elegant frame, black leather, holding a picture of Tad and herself almost 20 years ago. It was a picture of them at the prom. It was a picture she hadn't seen in a very long time. "Wow. I didn't expect speechlessness," Tad joked, unsure of what to say. After another silent moment passed, "Liza, say something." Finally Liza brought her head up, a smile weakly spread cross her face and a few random tears making their way down her face. "Thank you Tad. Really. Thank you." With a gentle hand, she stroked the picture beneath the glass. "You know how hard it was to find that?" he asked, unsure of what to do with the tears, "It seems every copy of this picture was destroyed by an unknown blond woman," he chuckled, wordlessly handing her a Kleenex. "Yearbooks with pages ripped out, photo albums with missing pictures, you were pretty thorough, weren't you?" he asked. "Finally, Tim Jordan - you remember him, right? - said he found a copy in his mother's photo album, although what we were doing in Tim Jordan's mother's photo album, I'll never know." "Isn't he in Seattle?" Liza asked, wiping away the tears, thankful Tad didn't mention them. "Yeah – so's his mother..." The silence crept back into their conversation and eventually Liza smiled, "I should go back in." She started shivering. "And you have a family waiting for you." He nodded and she unwrapped herself from his jacket and stood up. "Thank you for my gift, Tad." She held out her hand to help him up – but rather than rising, he tugged her back down and in an ungraceful heap, Liza landed sprawled on Tad's lap. "And Liza – you mean a lot to me, too." And with that, their lips met. Maybe this year there was a lot more to be thankful for?
Friday, November 28, 2003 – 3.24 am
"Hey Liza, you awake?" the voice on the other end asked. "Mhhhhhh." she groaned into the phone. "Good morning, Princess." "Mmmmmhhhh." "Turn on channel 7," the voice instructed her. "Tad-" Liza began, sitting upright, and struggling to find the remote "Unless it's..." Remote found and channel 7 on, Liza was silenced by the swell of the music and blinded by the grey toned light flooding the room. "Where's all your whining now?" "Shhhhh! This is a good part," Liza scolded him as she settled into her pillows. "It's the first 2 minutes!" Tad retorted, stretched out on his couch. "Are you going to talk throughout the movie, 'cause if you are, I'm hanging up!" "I'll be good." "That's a good boy," she teased.
Settled down in bed and couch, the remainder of the evening was spent like this, over the phone, watching movies and squabbling during commercial breaks until the sun came up and each of them fell asleep to the sound of the other's breathing.
-tbc
You Had Time
By C.
Disclaimer: ABC owns 'em. The subtitle is from Ani Di Franco's "You Had Time"; the lullaby is "Look for the Silver Lining" written by Jerome Kern.
AN: I don't know if they made mention of what car Liza drives, but the time of meeting Jake in the woods - wasn't it a black Jag? ('Cause there was that shot of MW standing by it in this amazing caramel colored coat) Once again – THANK YOU to Becky who takes my slobbery mess and makes them all pretty!
You are a china shop
And i am a bull
I guess everything is timing
I guess everything's been said
-You Had Time
Thursday, November 27, 2003 – 7.12 pm
Mia shook the snow from her hair as she waited for the door to open before her. She could hear everyone inside laughing and talking and for the hundredth time that night, she wished she had accepted the Martin's invitation to spend Thanksgiving with them. Instead, she had chosen to go with Liza to the Chandler spectacle known as a family dinner. Eventually the door was opened by Ruth Martin in an apron and Mia was pulled into the warm house filled with laughter and light.
"Mia, I'm so glad you decided to come after all!" Ruth exclaimed, hugging the woman before her tightly.
"Actually ..." Mia began sheepishly, "I can't stay - Liza's waiting outside with Colby - we're on our way to Adam's."
"Let's hope they give you a program to keep all the ex-wives straight," Tad called out, emerging from the now smoke-filled kitchen. "Mom, I think that you'd better fix whatever dad did in there."
"Well maybe you can join us for dessert, I made that pie you loved so much -" A metallic CRASH interrupted her thoughts and at once Ruth took off for the kitchen. "Joe!" At once, there was another crash from the dining room and then a distinctly feminine and familiar "It's all right" belonging to a woman Mia more than suspected was Krystal.
Mia's eyes met Tad's, and widened with this tidbit of knowledge.
"So," Tad began, breaking the silence looming over them "What brings you yonder?" he asked, sitting himself on the back of the armchair.
"These." She held out a large manila envelope - "They're the papers you needed."
"Thanks." He took them, watching her eyes carefully, "What? You're looking at me funny."
"Am I?"
"You are, Mia, so just spit it out and don't choke on it."
"Nothing. I should go; Liza's waiting for me."
"She's here?"
"Waiting in the car. So..."
"Thanks for the files - I appreciate it."
"No prob-"
"Mia -" Ruth rushed out. "Thank goodness you haven't left, come into the kitchen, Joe wants to say hi."
"I should really be going - Liza's outside."
"Nonsense, she can wait another minute. Come in." Ruth grabbed Mia's hand and led her into the kitchen, leaving Tad alone.
Liza was outside. That very thought enraged and delighted him - as well as brought out a million and one other emotions. He hadn't seen her since that evening at SOS when she had kissed him. Whenever he would ask about her, Mia would just reply that Chandler Enterprises kept her busy. Whenever he called her, she would never pick up, never call back. So eventually he stopped asking and stopped calling. And now she was outside. He pushed himself up off the armchair and went to the window, peeking through the curtains. There was her car - the black Jaguar with tinted windows. He grabbed his jacket and slipped out the door calling out, "I'll be right back". He lightly jogged across his snowy lawn and pulled up in front of Liza's window. She was turned around, talking to Colby - he couldn't quite make out the words, but he heard their familiar voices mingled with music from the radio. Colby noticed him standing at once and waved, prompting Liza to turn around. After a moment's pause, she rolled down her window and smiled. "Happy Thanksgiving," she offered.
The silence loomed above them and eye contact was avoided at all costs. "Mia'll be a moment - she just went to say hi to my dad."
"Ok"
"Ok"
More silence.
"After two weeks of nothing - all I get is a Happy Thanksgiving??" Tad exploded, waiting for an answer which came in the form of Liza's window rolling up and her jumping out of the car and slamming the door. "Two weeks, Liza, of you not calling me back and ignoring me! And now all I get is a Happy Thanksgiving?"
"I thought it was best, Tad -" she began sharply, her words taking on a hardened tone, "One of us has to think."
"About what?" Their voices were ringing clearly in the cold air and spreading as far as the wind could carry it.
"About THIS," she indicated to the space between them with her hands.
"What's this?" Tad asked, mocking her actions by flailing his limbs.
"What's going on?" a third voice asked. There stood Opal on the porch, shivering. "Tad come back inside, Joe's asking where you keep the gravy boat."
"It's in the buffet," he yelled, not wanting to be interrupted.
"I can't find it - show me," she shouted back, ignoring Liza. Sighing, Tad tossed Liza one last look and left, muttering a 'Happy Thanksgiving' over his shoulder.
Rather than calming down by the time he made it to his house, he was even more enraged by what had happened, or rather, not happened with Liza. He expected apologies and excuses, not random hand-flailing. Storming through his door, he almost bumped into Mia who was slipping into her jacket in a rush. "Is she freaking out?" she asked, struggling to get her arm in the right sleeve. "She's freaking out, right? She didn't want to be late and..." Mia leaned over and gave Tad a quick peck on the cheek, said "Happy Turkey Day" and raced out the door, slamming it in her wake only to turn on her heel and throw it open again, "Oh, I forgot, Liza knew your family exchanges gifts tonight so she wanted me to pass this along." She slipped something out of her pocket and tossed it at him. "By-ye," she teased, smiling, closing the door for a second time, leaving Tad alone with his first Christmas gift of the season. He stared at the package in his hand long and hard, as if he could see through the paper and into the intention behind it. It was a silver wrapped jewelry box with gunmetal ribbon, very masculine and very x-ray vision proof. "Tad?" a voice asked, prompting him to turn around, "What's wrong?" Krystal asked with a concerned expression painted across her face and an apron around her waist. "Wrong? Nothing's wrong, why?" "You're just standing there looking at your hand. What is it?" Her eyes perked up at the box, "Is it for me? Can I open it?" "This?" he asked, holding it up. "It's nothing, forget it." He slipped the box into his pocket, promising to open it at a time which allowed him more privacy. "What smells so good?"
Thursday, November 27, 2003 – 10.38 pm
Winifred quickly led him up the backstairs – if Mr. Chandler knew he was in his house, he'd have a fit, he never hide his hatred of Tad Martin, but there was something sincere and honest about Mr. Martin that she loved, (And it was this sincerity, and not the winks he'd toss in her direction every so often that she loved she told herself). "She's just putting Colby to bed now," she explained, whispering as she led him through the darkened passage towards the open door at the end of the hall with pink tinted light and soft voices spilling out. "I can just wait here," he responded, settling in a chair against the opposite wall, "Thanks Winifred, and Happy Thanksgiving." Wishing him the same, she began to pick her way through the darkened hall once again. Tad realized that from this position, if he stretched a little to the left, he'd be able to make out Colby lying in her bed, with Liza sitting beside her. They had just finished a book that was being placed back on the night stand and Colby was begging for her song, winding up the music box beside her bed. After a sigh and a smile, Liza turned the lights off and indulged her daughter who followed along a beat behind: "Look for the silver lining, When ever a cloud appears in the blue..." Surprised by the warmth and strength of her voice as she sang the sorrowful song, Tad's curiosity was peaked – what else didn't he know about his best friend? Based on her actions these past couple of weeks, it seemed that everything was new to him. "Remember somewhere the sun is shining, and so the right thing to do, as make it shine for you; a heart full of joy and gladness, will always banish sadness and strife, so always look for the silver lining, and try to find the sunny side of life." By this time, Colby's voice had died off and though he couldn't quite see her, he heard Liza shift and arrange the covers over Colby and make her way out of the room, her back to him as she eased the door shut. "Liza?" he whispered, hoping not to startle her. "Its Tad". She froze a moment and then turned around, trying to meet his eyes with a steely glance, if she could only find his eyes. "What do you want?" "I wanted to say thank you." "It was nothing." She slipped past his seat and made her way down the hall. "It was." He rose, walking after her, "Can we talk?" "I thought we already did that once?" she asked. "It didn't quite work out." "Just 5 minutes, I have something for you." "I don't want it." "You don't know what it is yet." "I still don't want it." "You're acting like you're Colby's age Liza, come on." "If she gets to act like she's my age, it's only fair." "I give up!" Frustrated, Tad grabbed his companion's arm and dragged her down the back stairs with him and out the side door which led to the patio, lit only by the miniature Christmas lights wrapped around the railing. From here, all the sounds from the dinner party could be heard lightly, as if everything was moving in a speed apart from them. Standing face to face and eye to eye, a tense moment passed between the two before the silence was broken. "What do you want, Tad?" "To say thank you." He brushed off part of the steps leading down into the gardens and sat himself down. "Want a seat?" Chin out and eyes set, Liza responded firmly, "No," which in Tad Martin's addled mind obviously meant, "Sure, I'd love to," because he brushed the step clear of snow and held out his hand to help her down. Already turning to go back inside, it was the glint of metal which caught her eye, cast off of Tad's wrist. "You opened it?" she asked, almost in awe of seeing her gift on him. "Yeah-" She took his outstretched arm and sat herself down beside him. She then took his hand in her two own and examined his wrist – indeed there was her Christmas gift, her father's platinum cufflinks with his initials (and coincidentally hers) integrated as part of the design element. "He was wearing them the first time I met him," Tad began, shifting under the not entirely unpleasant sensation of Liza unconsciously running her hands over his upturned palm. "He never took them off," she replied, adjusting them to his shirt. "These mean a lot to you, don't they?" She shrugged her shoulders and dropped his hand in her lap, wrapping her arms around her to warm up, muttering something under her breath. "What?" Tad asked, slipping one of his arms out of his sleeve, "Nothing." "No," Tad started, drawing Liza close to him and slipping half the jacket over her so that they were nuzzled together under the single jacket, "You said something." "I said," her voice murmured, as she let herself be guided by Tad to rest her head against his chest, "You mean a lot to me too." She stared down at the snow covered lawn, "Besides," she continued, her voice stronger now, "I remembered how much you liked them." They stayed like that for some time, silent and shivering and oddly content under the one jacket. "Hey-" Tad nudged her, "I have something for you too." "You didn't have to." "I know," he answered, slighted by the fact that Liza thought he reciprocated out of need rather than want. "You don't think a lot of me, do you?" he asked as a flat package appeared from out of nowhere. "It's not that, Tad," Liza began, "It's just that, you know." "Know what?" "Nothing." "That's nice, I know nothing," he smiled, the gift hovering just out of Liza's reach. "Shut up! That's not what I meant and you know it!" she grinned, snatching the package from his hand and proceeding to rip through the matte gold wrapping paper. "No 'what is it'? No 'you shouldn't have?,'" he teased watching her glee at the present – that is, until she reached the actual gift – and then the glee slowly transformed itself into something he couldn't quite place. In her defense, Liza herself didn't quite know what to feel as the stared at the gift on her lap. It was an elegant frame, black leather, holding a picture of Tad and herself almost 20 years ago. It was a picture of them at the prom. It was a picture she hadn't seen in a very long time. "Wow. I didn't expect speechlessness," Tad joked, unsure of what to say. After another silent moment passed, "Liza, say something." Finally Liza brought her head up, a smile weakly spread cross her face and a few random tears making their way down her face. "Thank you Tad. Really. Thank you." With a gentle hand, she stroked the picture beneath the glass. "You know how hard it was to find that?" he asked, unsure of what to do with the tears, "It seems every copy of this picture was destroyed by an unknown blond woman," he chuckled, wordlessly handing her a Kleenex. "Yearbooks with pages ripped out, photo albums with missing pictures, you were pretty thorough, weren't you?" he asked. "Finally, Tim Jordan - you remember him, right? - said he found a copy in his mother's photo album, although what we were doing in Tim Jordan's mother's photo album, I'll never know." "Isn't he in Seattle?" Liza asked, wiping away the tears, thankful Tad didn't mention them. "Yeah – so's his mother..." The silence crept back into their conversation and eventually Liza smiled, "I should go back in." She started shivering. "And you have a family waiting for you." He nodded and she unwrapped herself from his jacket and stood up. "Thank you for my gift, Tad." She held out her hand to help him up – but rather than rising, he tugged her back down and in an ungraceful heap, Liza landed sprawled on Tad's lap. "And Liza – you mean a lot to me, too." And with that, their lips met. Maybe this year there was a lot more to be thankful for?
Friday, November 28, 2003 – 3.24 am
"Hey Liza, you awake?" the voice on the other end asked. "Mhhhhhh." she groaned into the phone. "Good morning, Princess." "Mmmmmhhhh." "Turn on channel 7," the voice instructed her. "Tad-" Liza began, sitting upright, and struggling to find the remote "Unless it's..." Remote found and channel 7 on, Liza was silenced by the swell of the music and blinded by the grey toned light flooding the room. "Where's all your whining now?" "Shhhhh! This is a good part," Liza scolded him as she settled into her pillows. "It's the first 2 minutes!" Tad retorted, stretched out on his couch. "Are you going to talk throughout the movie, 'cause if you are, I'm hanging up!" "I'll be good." "That's a good boy," she teased.
Settled down in bed and couch, the remainder of the evening was spent like this, over the phone, watching movies and squabbling during commercial breaks until the sun came up and each of them fell asleep to the sound of the other's breathing.
-tbc