Part 5
"Hello Neighbor!" Harm said when Mac opened the door still in her nightgown and bathrobe. "Happy Valentines day."
"Happy Valentines day," Mac mumbled still rather sleepily. "Your ward has been up since six o'clock this morning trying out every single outfit there is in her wardrobe. She comes in to show me every single one and then she runs back and puts on another. I'm starting to agree with you, she really shouldn't be allowed to see that boy."
"Well, you're the one who talked me into it," Harm said and smiled mischievously. Mattie had returned home from school the previous Monday very excited. The boy that she'd been interested in since she'd come to the school had asked her to go and see a movie with her this Saturday, which was Valentines day. A long discussion between all three of them had taken place until Harm had finally agreed to let her go.
He was very grateful to have Mac to talk to and have her help him with knowing how to deal with Mattie sometimes. He had realized that the help that she gave which was most important was the fact that he didn't feel like he was the only one who was parenting Mattie and making all of the decisions. That was actually a lot more important than Mac sometimes making sure that Mattie had done her homework or dropping her off at school. Their argument a couple of weeks earlier had led them to trying to be more attentive to each other, however it was hard when you were living as close to each other as they were not to go on each other's nerves from time to time. They had both lived alone for such a long time, the adjustment still needed to take some more time.
"I was just going to start making breakfast. Have you eaten?" Mac asked and turned towards the kitchen.
"No," Harm answered.
"You were hoping to get some of my Saturday-pancakes," Mac accused him. Every Saturday she made pancakes and after inviting Mattie and Harm to eat with her once she had found herself with two guests for breakfast every Saturday ever since. At the beginning Mattie had eaten breakfast with Harm at his apartment and Mac had had her cup of coffee alone in hers. Since the incident and argument two weeks ago, they had just gotten closer and done even more things together. Mac would now come over to Harm's apartment in the morning once she was ready and then they would leave together for work.
Mac had in the time that had passed since realized even more what had caused her emotional behavior that week. The biggest part of her adult life she had lived alone and therefore been able to be alone and deal with her anger and other emotions mostly without anyone else seeing. She had just shut everyone else out when she got into that mood, although Harm had of course had to deal with her temper at times anyway, but that wasn't a possibility anymore. Harm and Mattie were always around and she needed to learn to control and work through her anger more and apologize when she despite that took it out on someone undeserving. So far that had worked really well.
The incident had made Harm realize that even though he felt like he wasn't completely alone with the responsibility of Mattie, he shouldn't put the same obligations on Mac as were on him. If neither one of them could do something, he was the one who needed to find a way to resolve the situation, not Mac.
Harm followed Mac into the kitchen and watched her starting to turn on the heat of the stove and put some oil in the pan. Just before she was going to put some of the mix into the pan there was a knock on the door.
"You're expecting someone?" Harm asked her.
"No," Mac shook her head. She had no idea who could be at the door. She motioned for Harm to take over the pancake-making and he did so.
Three minutes later Mac returned her arms holding a large bouquet with red roses and her eyes filled with joy and happiness. In the middle of her face was a radiant smile.
"You've got a secret admirer," Harm smiled at her. It was obvious that she was thrilled with the flowers.
"Not so secret, there was a card. They're from Webb, he says he wishes he was here," Mac explained. She once again stuck her nose into the roses and took in their wonderful scent. The exact words of the card had been: I wish I was always where you are. Take care of those roses and I'll be home before they're gone.
"Do you want me to get a vase for them?" Harm asked. He had just turned the pancake over.
"Yes, that would be nice of you," Mac told him.
He soon returned with the vase and since she was working with the pancakes again he put water and her flowers in it.
"You miss him," Harm stated.
"Of course. I wish he was here... But now I've got you and Mattie when he's gone so I guess it's alright anyway," Mac said and smiled. The truth was some days she hardly even thought about Webb.
Mac was finished with the pancakes and Mattie, now in her normal jeans and t-shirt, joined them in the kitchen.
"So when are we leaving tonight?" Mac asked the other two.
"You're both coming?" Mattie asked disbelieving.
"Yeah," Harm said. He had talked to Mac about that yesterday. The two of them were going to drive Mattie over to Rick's house and talk with his parents and then they would drive the two teenagers to the mall where they were going to see a movie. Harm and Mac hadn't quite decided what to do with their night after that. Rick's parents were going to pick them up after the movie.
"I told Rick we would be there by half past six, so maybe leaving at six o'clock or so," Mattie suggested.
"Sounds good," Harm agreed.
"So what are you going to do?" Mattie asked. She had been so riled up about her date that she hadn't tried to find out what the two adults in her life were doing the most romantic day of the year.
"Well, I'm going to give my ward a ride to her date and that includes finding out if this is a person I'm going to let her actually go on that date with," Harm answered her.
"Same goes for me," Mac added.
"You're not funny. You know that wasn't what I meant," Mattie complained "You seriously don't have any dates. You are so pathetic."
"Mattie," Harm warned her. In their household it was common to make fun of each other and good-natured ironies were often used. However Harm was also aware that he needed to out some boundaries in there as well.
"Sorry," Mattie said. Since they had all finished eating breakfast they started cleaning up together. The day was going to be dedicated to picking out the things of the apartment that they didn't want to keep there. Last weekend when Mac had walked into her large couch for the fifty-eleventh time, she had decided that this was it. Now she wanted some more space and the easiest way seemed to be to remove some of the unnecessary furniture.
Mattie had been quite appalled by the idea of cleaning and moving things on Valentine's day, but she had been forced to budge for the less romantically adjusted adults.
They had just parked the car in front of the house where Rick and his parents lived.
"You won't embarrass me now, right?" Mattie asked very concerned.
"No, we won't," Mac assured her.
They walked up to the door together and Mattie knocked on the door. It wasn't long until it was opened by a fifty-something petite woman with long curly hair.
"Hello. It's nice to meet you," Mrs Jones, Rick's mother, said and reached out the hand first to Mattie and then to Mac and Harm.
"It's nice to meet you, too," Harm said.
"I've heard so much good about your beautiful daughter," Mrs Jones said "You must be so proud of her."
"Mom," Rick who had now also showed up protested.
"We're not..." Harm started saying. Mac caught Mattie's eyes and saw something she recognized from her own childhood and youth.
"We are very proud of her," Mac said and put her hand on Mattie's shoulder. It wasn't a lie, they were indeed very proud of Mattie and besides that, they were treating her like their daughter so it should be OK if someone thought of them like that. "We've heard many nice things about your son too."
Mattie was so grateful to Mac for not bringing up her whole history that she let the heard-many-nice-things-comment slide for this time. Rick of course knew that she wasn't living with her real parents, but he didn't know the whole story yet.
"Rick's father is out of town on business, so I'll be the one picking them up later," Mrs Jones explained.
"OK," Harm said. He decided to accept not being completely truthful about their real relationships. It had to be up to Mattie when she wanted to tell them about her mother and father.
Mac and Harm had just dropped Mattie and Rick off by the cinema with strong admonitions to call if there was a problem and they should pick them up early instead.
"That one sure wasn't talking a lot," Harm commented as they started driving away again. Other than Hello Rick hadn't said a word to either Mac or Harm voluntarily. When he'd been asked a question he'd answered it with as few words as possible.
"Oh Harm. He was just nervous," Mac said.
Now they were faced with the problem of how they were going to spend the rest of the evening. Both were in the mood for company, but neither one wanted to go somewhere where they'd be mistaken as a couple out celebrating the special day. Mac suggested renting some movies and watch at home and Harm agreed that that sounded nice.
"On a day like this you'd think you'd let the woman pick the movie," the old man at the counter said to Harm when they stood at the counter each with a movie of their choice in their hands. "That often makes the day more enjoyable to us men too."
"I doubt that will have any affect on my day," Harm mumbled. They paid and left the store.
"Is it impossible for a man and a woman to walk into a store together without being just friends?" Harm asked Mac.
"What? Is the idea of us being anything more that offensive to you?" Mac said and smiled mischievously at him. At times she would also be annoyed with the fact that their 8 year friendship was always taken for something else, something more. Even the two of them had thought that there had to be more between the two of them, but right now she was taking it all with a smile.
"No, of course that idea isn't offensive to me. It's just a bit annoying, that's all."
"Just think about it. Once I'm old and wrinkly and have lost all there was of my figure, people are going to think that you have more important things to do than to plot to get into my pants."
"Maac," Harm protested loudly and the color of his face changed slightly.
"I didn't say you were, I just said that people thought you were. Or is this whole neighbor/roommate thing just a way for you to get closer to me?" Mac joked.
"Of course I want to be close to you," Harm said seriously hoping that she'd see how important she was to him.
"I want to be close to you to, Harm," Mac said and gone were all the laughter from her voice, she was also completely honest and serious.
"Are you cold?" Harm asked when he saw Mac wrap the blanket she had found on the couch even tighter around her body. They were about halfway through Dancer in the Dark, Mac's choice, and they were sitting at opposite parts of the couch. While watching the previous movie they had eaten some Chinese take-out, but now they had been sitting silently just enjoying the movie.
"A little bit," Mac admitted.
"Scoot over and we can share some body heat," Harm suggested.
"You make it sound so inviting," Mac rolled her eyes, but she started to prepare herself to move over anyway.
"I'm not the one who's cold."
"Good point."
Mac sat down right beside Harm and leaned in against his chest. Harm tucked his arm around her and made sure that the blanket was back in place.
"Better?" he asked a couple of minutes later.
"Very."
Half an hour later Mattie knocked on the door and walked into the apartment.
"Hey, "Harm said and released his hand from around Mac's body to turn off the video. "How was it?"
"It was fun," Mattie said and her eyes told both of them that it had been more than just fun "You can turn the video back on, I just wanted to let you know that I was home."
"OK," Mac said "I'm glad you had good time and I'll get it all out of you tomorrow."
"You can try," Mattie challenged her and laughed as she turned around to go to her apartment.
"Good night, Mattie," Harm said "So are we going to finish watching the movie?"
"Yeah, or would you rather that I leave now?"
"No, I want to finish it."
"Good," she said and reclaimed her spot on the couch leaning on him and he soon put his arm back around her. It was still rather chilly to her.
TBC
"Hello Neighbor!" Harm said when Mac opened the door still in her nightgown and bathrobe. "Happy Valentines day."
"Happy Valentines day," Mac mumbled still rather sleepily. "Your ward has been up since six o'clock this morning trying out every single outfit there is in her wardrobe. She comes in to show me every single one and then she runs back and puts on another. I'm starting to agree with you, she really shouldn't be allowed to see that boy."
"Well, you're the one who talked me into it," Harm said and smiled mischievously. Mattie had returned home from school the previous Monday very excited. The boy that she'd been interested in since she'd come to the school had asked her to go and see a movie with her this Saturday, which was Valentines day. A long discussion between all three of them had taken place until Harm had finally agreed to let her go.
He was very grateful to have Mac to talk to and have her help him with knowing how to deal with Mattie sometimes. He had realized that the help that she gave which was most important was the fact that he didn't feel like he was the only one who was parenting Mattie and making all of the decisions. That was actually a lot more important than Mac sometimes making sure that Mattie had done her homework or dropping her off at school. Their argument a couple of weeks earlier had led them to trying to be more attentive to each other, however it was hard when you were living as close to each other as they were not to go on each other's nerves from time to time. They had both lived alone for such a long time, the adjustment still needed to take some more time.
"I was just going to start making breakfast. Have you eaten?" Mac asked and turned towards the kitchen.
"No," Harm answered.
"You were hoping to get some of my Saturday-pancakes," Mac accused him. Every Saturday she made pancakes and after inviting Mattie and Harm to eat with her once she had found herself with two guests for breakfast every Saturday ever since. At the beginning Mattie had eaten breakfast with Harm at his apartment and Mac had had her cup of coffee alone in hers. Since the incident and argument two weeks ago, they had just gotten closer and done even more things together. Mac would now come over to Harm's apartment in the morning once she was ready and then they would leave together for work.
Mac had in the time that had passed since realized even more what had caused her emotional behavior that week. The biggest part of her adult life she had lived alone and therefore been able to be alone and deal with her anger and other emotions mostly without anyone else seeing. She had just shut everyone else out when she got into that mood, although Harm had of course had to deal with her temper at times anyway, but that wasn't a possibility anymore. Harm and Mattie were always around and she needed to learn to control and work through her anger more and apologize when she despite that took it out on someone undeserving. So far that had worked really well.
The incident had made Harm realize that even though he felt like he wasn't completely alone with the responsibility of Mattie, he shouldn't put the same obligations on Mac as were on him. If neither one of them could do something, he was the one who needed to find a way to resolve the situation, not Mac.
Harm followed Mac into the kitchen and watched her starting to turn on the heat of the stove and put some oil in the pan. Just before she was going to put some of the mix into the pan there was a knock on the door.
"You're expecting someone?" Harm asked her.
"No," Mac shook her head. She had no idea who could be at the door. She motioned for Harm to take over the pancake-making and he did so.
Three minutes later Mac returned her arms holding a large bouquet with red roses and her eyes filled with joy and happiness. In the middle of her face was a radiant smile.
"You've got a secret admirer," Harm smiled at her. It was obvious that she was thrilled with the flowers.
"Not so secret, there was a card. They're from Webb, he says he wishes he was here," Mac explained. She once again stuck her nose into the roses and took in their wonderful scent. The exact words of the card had been: I wish I was always where you are. Take care of those roses and I'll be home before they're gone.
"Do you want me to get a vase for them?" Harm asked. He had just turned the pancake over.
"Yes, that would be nice of you," Mac told him.
He soon returned with the vase and since she was working with the pancakes again he put water and her flowers in it.
"You miss him," Harm stated.
"Of course. I wish he was here... But now I've got you and Mattie when he's gone so I guess it's alright anyway," Mac said and smiled. The truth was some days she hardly even thought about Webb.
Mac was finished with the pancakes and Mattie, now in her normal jeans and t-shirt, joined them in the kitchen.
"So when are we leaving tonight?" Mac asked the other two.
"You're both coming?" Mattie asked disbelieving.
"Yeah," Harm said. He had talked to Mac about that yesterday. The two of them were going to drive Mattie over to Rick's house and talk with his parents and then they would drive the two teenagers to the mall where they were going to see a movie. Harm and Mac hadn't quite decided what to do with their night after that. Rick's parents were going to pick them up after the movie.
"I told Rick we would be there by half past six, so maybe leaving at six o'clock or so," Mattie suggested.
"Sounds good," Harm agreed.
"So what are you going to do?" Mattie asked. She had been so riled up about her date that she hadn't tried to find out what the two adults in her life were doing the most romantic day of the year.
"Well, I'm going to give my ward a ride to her date and that includes finding out if this is a person I'm going to let her actually go on that date with," Harm answered her.
"Same goes for me," Mac added.
"You're not funny. You know that wasn't what I meant," Mattie complained "You seriously don't have any dates. You are so pathetic."
"Mattie," Harm warned her. In their household it was common to make fun of each other and good-natured ironies were often used. However Harm was also aware that he needed to out some boundaries in there as well.
"Sorry," Mattie said. Since they had all finished eating breakfast they started cleaning up together. The day was going to be dedicated to picking out the things of the apartment that they didn't want to keep there. Last weekend when Mac had walked into her large couch for the fifty-eleventh time, she had decided that this was it. Now she wanted some more space and the easiest way seemed to be to remove some of the unnecessary furniture.
Mattie had been quite appalled by the idea of cleaning and moving things on Valentine's day, but she had been forced to budge for the less romantically adjusted adults.
They had just parked the car in front of the house where Rick and his parents lived.
"You won't embarrass me now, right?" Mattie asked very concerned.
"No, we won't," Mac assured her.
They walked up to the door together and Mattie knocked on the door. It wasn't long until it was opened by a fifty-something petite woman with long curly hair.
"Hello. It's nice to meet you," Mrs Jones, Rick's mother, said and reached out the hand first to Mattie and then to Mac and Harm.
"It's nice to meet you, too," Harm said.
"I've heard so much good about your beautiful daughter," Mrs Jones said "You must be so proud of her."
"Mom," Rick who had now also showed up protested.
"We're not..." Harm started saying. Mac caught Mattie's eyes and saw something she recognized from her own childhood and youth.
"We are very proud of her," Mac said and put her hand on Mattie's shoulder. It wasn't a lie, they were indeed very proud of Mattie and besides that, they were treating her like their daughter so it should be OK if someone thought of them like that. "We've heard many nice things about your son too."
Mattie was so grateful to Mac for not bringing up her whole history that she let the heard-many-nice-things-comment slide for this time. Rick of course knew that she wasn't living with her real parents, but he didn't know the whole story yet.
"Rick's father is out of town on business, so I'll be the one picking them up later," Mrs Jones explained.
"OK," Harm said. He decided to accept not being completely truthful about their real relationships. It had to be up to Mattie when she wanted to tell them about her mother and father.
Mac and Harm had just dropped Mattie and Rick off by the cinema with strong admonitions to call if there was a problem and they should pick them up early instead.
"That one sure wasn't talking a lot," Harm commented as they started driving away again. Other than Hello Rick hadn't said a word to either Mac or Harm voluntarily. When he'd been asked a question he'd answered it with as few words as possible.
"Oh Harm. He was just nervous," Mac said.
Now they were faced with the problem of how they were going to spend the rest of the evening. Both were in the mood for company, but neither one wanted to go somewhere where they'd be mistaken as a couple out celebrating the special day. Mac suggested renting some movies and watch at home and Harm agreed that that sounded nice.
"On a day like this you'd think you'd let the woman pick the movie," the old man at the counter said to Harm when they stood at the counter each with a movie of their choice in their hands. "That often makes the day more enjoyable to us men too."
"I doubt that will have any affect on my day," Harm mumbled. They paid and left the store.
"Is it impossible for a man and a woman to walk into a store together without being just friends?" Harm asked Mac.
"What? Is the idea of us being anything more that offensive to you?" Mac said and smiled mischievously at him. At times she would also be annoyed with the fact that their 8 year friendship was always taken for something else, something more. Even the two of them had thought that there had to be more between the two of them, but right now she was taking it all with a smile.
"No, of course that idea isn't offensive to me. It's just a bit annoying, that's all."
"Just think about it. Once I'm old and wrinkly and have lost all there was of my figure, people are going to think that you have more important things to do than to plot to get into my pants."
"Maac," Harm protested loudly and the color of his face changed slightly.
"I didn't say you were, I just said that people thought you were. Or is this whole neighbor/roommate thing just a way for you to get closer to me?" Mac joked.
"Of course I want to be close to you," Harm said seriously hoping that she'd see how important she was to him.
"I want to be close to you to, Harm," Mac said and gone were all the laughter from her voice, she was also completely honest and serious.
"Are you cold?" Harm asked when he saw Mac wrap the blanket she had found on the couch even tighter around her body. They were about halfway through Dancer in the Dark, Mac's choice, and they were sitting at opposite parts of the couch. While watching the previous movie they had eaten some Chinese take-out, but now they had been sitting silently just enjoying the movie.
"A little bit," Mac admitted.
"Scoot over and we can share some body heat," Harm suggested.
"You make it sound so inviting," Mac rolled her eyes, but she started to prepare herself to move over anyway.
"I'm not the one who's cold."
"Good point."
Mac sat down right beside Harm and leaned in against his chest. Harm tucked his arm around her and made sure that the blanket was back in place.
"Better?" he asked a couple of minutes later.
"Very."
Half an hour later Mattie knocked on the door and walked into the apartment.
"Hey, "Harm said and released his hand from around Mac's body to turn off the video. "How was it?"
"It was fun," Mattie said and her eyes told both of them that it had been more than just fun "You can turn the video back on, I just wanted to let you know that I was home."
"OK," Mac said "I'm glad you had good time and I'll get it all out of you tomorrow."
"You can try," Mattie challenged her and laughed as she turned around to go to her apartment.
"Good night, Mattie," Harm said "So are we going to finish watching the movie?"
"Yeah, or would you rather that I leave now?"
"No, I want to finish it."
"Good," she said and reclaimed her spot on the couch leaning on him and he soon put his arm back around her. It was still rather chilly to her.
TBC