Risking Heartbreak

Melanie looked around the kitchen of her new house and let out a sigh. It had only taken three hours to get everything moved from her apartment to the house but unpacking was proving to be a much longer process. Her parents and brothers had left early that afternoon and had left her, Erica, and Angela alone with the pile of boxes. It was four forty when they were finally finishing up the kitchen. “I’m never moving again. How’d I accumulate this much shit?” Melanie worked on getting the silverware put up.

“You know I was wondering the same thing,” Erica said as she worked on getting the glasses put away.

Melanie looked over at Erica with narrowed eyes. “Like you’ve got room to talk. I’ve seen your place and I’ve seen your closet. You’ve got more shit than I do.”

Angela laughed and cut open another box. “I’m agreeing with Melanie on this one. You do have more.”

“You can both shut up. So are you finally gonna tell us why you were too busy to hang out with us last night?” Erica pulled the second to last glass out of the box.

“I had a date.”

“With who?” Angela looked directly at Melanie with a grin. She watched as Melanie looked down into the drawer in an attempt to conceal the pink that had crept into her cheeks.

“Does it matter?” Erica asked. “As long as she’s working at getting over what happened with Richard.”

Feeling irritated, Angela asked, “Aren’t you having dinner with your boyfriend and his parents at six?”

Erica looked at the clock. “Crap! Sorry, Mel, I gotta go.”

“Thanks for helping,” Melanie said as she watched Erica grab her purse and rush out the door.

Angela waited a few minutes before repeating her earlier question. “Who was your date with.”

A sheepish smile spread across Melanie’s lips. “Richard.”

“I knew it! I knew it, I knew it, I knew it! Was it the first date?”

“Third actually.”

"And you’re just now telling me?”

“Well I needed to tell my parents.”

“Oh yeah. How’d they react?”

“Mom looked like I grew two more heads and Dad threw a phone book across his office. But they’re going to try to understand that this is something I feel like I need to do. I wasn’t going to ask them to be happy about it or anything like that. I don’t want to think of how Dad would have reacted if I'd asked him to be happy about it.”

“I’m willing to bet he would have thrown more than a phone book. So when are you seeing Richard again?”

“Tonight. He’s going to come over here around seven for dinner.”

Angela looked around the kitchen and laughed. "I'm guessing you're going to go pick something up instead of cooking."

"Looks like I don't really get much of a choice. It would be a lot quicker to do that than go to the grocery store and then come back and cook."

"Well lets see how much we can get done before you have to go get prepared for your date. Lucky bitch."

Melanie burst into laughter for well over a minute. "That right there is why we're friends."

Angela grinned. "Because who else is gonna call you a lucky bitch to your face right?"

"Exactly."

***

As soon as Angela left, Melanie went to go make a quick trip to the grocery store and to pick up dinner. She had barely gotten the items from the store put up and the food out of the bag it had been in when she heard a knock on her front door. She lifted her wrist and looked at her watch; two minutes after seven. A smile tugged at her lips and she went to open the door.

"Hey, Richard," She said as she pulled the door open.

"Hi." He placed a kiss on her lips.

"I hope you feel like barbecue," She smiled as soon as the quick kiss was over. "I didn't have time to go to the store and cook so I went and picked some up."

"That sounds good. Looks like you got a lot unpacked today."

"Yeah but not as much as I expected. I sorta underestimated how long it would take and how much stuff I actually had. Moving wasn't this much of a pain in the ass last time but I had a lot less stuff then. So what'd you do today?" Melanie grabbed two plates out of the cabinet and then moved to grab utensils.

"I spent pretty much all day at the shop. How'd seeing your parents go?"

"Good all things considered. They didn't seem as upset about it today so I guess it isn't going to be that bad after they get used to it. Have you talked to Dad?"

A chuckle escaped Richard's lips. "No and I figure it will be at least a few days before I talk to him. I understand his side too. I mean I know he has to absolutely hate the idea of his best friend dating his daughter."

"I'm gonna try and talk to him more sometime during the week and see if I can get him to see our side of things a little better. You want a beer?"

"That'd be great."

"I'll grab you one in a second." Melanie sat her plate onto the table before going back to the refrigerator. When she returned to the table she had two bottles in her hands. She sat one down by her plate and handed the second one to Richard.

"Thank you. So I guess you aren't scared of getting drinking and doing something you regret anymore."

Melanie smiled. "Well I don't think either of us will be anywhere near drunk. I mean you have to drive home and I have to unpack the rest of this stuff tomorrow."

"You have a good point. But this is the first time you've had anything to drink."

"Maybe I trust my self-control more tonight."

He grinned at her and they continued with their dinner. Melanie was glad to have something other than the mountain of boxes she still needed to unpack to focus on. She was also happy to have the chance to spend more time with Richard free from the awkwardness that had plagued them during dinner the night before.

After dinner Richard offered to help Melanie unpack some of the boxes cluttering her living room. At first she turned the offer down but he persisted and she gave in. She quickly sorted through the boxes, deciding what she wanted where.

All of the freestanding shelves and media towers she’d had in her apartment had been moved over to the house and had already been moved into the rooms where she wanted them. She’d decided to put most of them in the den, where she’d also had her television and sectional sofa placed.

“Okay, all these boxes are the ones that need to go to the den and these ones can stay here.”

“What all are you going to put in here?”

“I’m not sure yet. I need to go furniture shopping sometime soon so I can get some in here soon.” Melanie lifted a box and headed towards the den with Richard right behind her. It took them multiple trips between the two rooms to get all the boxes moved to the den.

After getting the all the boxes moved to the den, Melanie sliced all the boxes open to make sure of what was in each of them. Richard watched as she silently sorted through each one. She shuffled the boxes around to where she wanted the contents placed and looked up at Richard with a smile. “Remember, I said you didn’t have to do this.”

Richard laughed. “I know. Where do you want to start?”

“These boxes over here. It doesn’t matter how it goes onto the shelves just as long as its all there. I’ll rearrange later.”

As soon as Richard began helping Melanie pull the contents from the boxes he realized what it all was. He’d known that she watched a lot of sports on television but he hadn’t been sure how big of a fan she really was until that moment. “You have a lot of sports memorabilia.”

“You sound surprised.” She pulled a binder out of one of the boxes and placed it onto the bottom self. “All these binders are full of trading cards from when I was a teenager." She placed the other binders with the first one. "I don’t think it is really that surprising since I grew up with four guys.”

“I knew you watched a lot of sports I just didn’t realize you had this much sports stuff. I know you’re a Cowboys fan but there is a lot more than football stuff here. What other sports do you like?”

“Baseball, hockey, basketball and NASCAR.”

“Any you don’t watch?”

“Golf, tennis, valleyball.” Melanie grinned. "I'll watch Indy Car races but I don't really have anyone I root for. F1, on the other hand, I have zero interest in."

"I'd ask about you but I remember you and Dad always rooting for the same teams."

For around fifteen minutes, Richard and Melanie fell into silence. Melanie was trying to determine if it was a good time to ask the questions that had been on her mind for the last week. Many of the questions she wanted answers to were about things in his past that she wasn't sure he wanted to talk about. Richard, on the other hand, was thinking about exactly how interesting the situation they'd found themselves in was. He was also thinking about how much had changed in such a short amount of time.

A part of him was still struggling to figure out what had happened with Melanie. He still had no idea what had changed or why things had come on out of no where. The other part of him was just relieved to no longer be attempting to kill whatever was going on. He was enjoying spending time with Melanie and he was fairly certain she felt the same.

"What are you thinking so hard about over there?" Melanie broke the silence.

"Just how much things have changed in a short amount of time."

"No kidding. Twenty-six years of you being just my parents' best friend and of me being just your best friends' daughter pretty much gone in minutes. But I like it."

"With the exception of how unhappy your parents are about it?"

"Surprisingly enough that doesn't bother me that much. I mean I wasn't expecting them to be happy about it but at least they're trying to understand this is something I need to give a try. Do you not like it?"

"No, I like it. I like it a lot so far. I'm just wondering how much shit we're gonna end up catching for it."

"Well I told Angela today."

"What'd she have to say about it?"

"She was thrilled when I told her. She'd been advocating that I give this a try since I told her about the night at the bar. She even called me a lucky bitch."

Richard couldn't stop himself from laughing. "Why'd she say that?"

"Don't you dare repeat this to anyone because she'll kill me if she finds out I told you. She thinks you're hot and she has for a while. We've all known for about three years but we think she'd been thinking it longer than that," Melanie paused for a moment before continuing. "You know what? Lets forget trying to get this crap unpacked. You want to watch a movie instead?"

"Tired of unpacking already?"

"Incredibly so. All my movies are in those boxes over there," Melanie pointed to the open boxes lined up beside the media towers. "What do you feel like watching?"

After picking a movie out, both Richard and Melanie settled onto the couch in the darkened den. It wasn't long before Melanie leaned against Richard's side with her mind running wild. She wondered if the position would bother him or if he wouldn't care. For a moment she thought about how she should have asked him first instead of just doing it. Her thoughts settled down when she felt his arm come around her shoulders.

Richard liked the feeling of Melanie pressed against his side. It felt a little different to have her that close to him in that position but he still liked it. He felt that she was tense at first and he figured it was because she feared he wouldn't like her being that close to him, but as soon as his arm went around her shoulders he felt her relax.

They both knew they were going to have to start asking more questions to satisfy their own curiosity soon. Melanie had questions about Richard's past that she want answers to. Likewise, Richard had questions about Melanie's past that he wanted answers to as well. But as they watched the movies and enjoyed each other's company neither of them were willing to begin asking questions.