Dark And Light

Making The Most Of It

“I could no longer stand being with the old folks,” said Jed coming into the house. Mia didn’t know what to say, she was gobsmacked, she couldn’t talk as she watched Jed enter the house.

Mia had forgotten all about him, he knew the ins and outs of Maddy, how on earth was she going to pull this one off?

“Hey, you’re quiet, you OK?” Said Jed looking at her.

“I have a bit of a sore throat,” she said putting her hand up to her throat, “nothing much…I just…I feel a little… weird today,” she said to him. She hadn’t noticed his eyes before but it had been a long time ago since she’d last seen him. They were huge, dark brown and he had long dark thick black eyelashes. I’d kill for those lashes she thought and his hair was darker, black almost and hanging in front of his face. He was slimmer too and he had quite a chiselled jaw she noticed with a slightly darker shading than she remembered. Must be where he shaved now she thought.

Jed was now a man it seemed and he looked good. He had this dark T-shirt on that was quite tight around his arms and she could see the muscles at the tops of his arms.

Did Jed work out?

Mia doubted it, and that definitely didn’t sound like Jed’s thing at all, working out. His arms must be naturally muscular.

Suddenly she felt plain in front of him, bare and plain but he didn’t seem to notice, didn’t look her up and down as if she was different. To him this was normal and he must see Maddy dressed like this every day.

“So… been busy? No actually, don’t answer that,” he said, “but you’re not looking as tired as you did before. Fancy a beer?” He said going to the fridge.

Help yourself why don’t you thought Mia. How often did he invite himself in here for god’s sake?

“Actually I’ve a client coming any moment, I’ve finished his website. It was for a building firm.”

“So you finished that website, I thought you were going to turn it down, you said it would be boring and you were sick of boring.” Said Jed turning to her with a frown on his face after he’d closed the door of the fridge.

“Hey did you ever get to meet up with Mia?” Asked Jed going to the drawer with the bottle opener.

“Um… yeah, she came here.”

“So… what’s she like now? I bet she’s still the same, she’ll never change Maddy, Mia will always…”

Just then the doorbell went and Jed didn’t finish his sentence. What on earth had he been about to say about her?

“That’ll be my client,” Mia said.

“I’ll go through to the living room while you see him and put on the TV. See you when you’re done and I’ve got a couple of movies for us to watch later and I’ll get the Chinese tonight, my treat seeing as I’ve not seen you for ages,” he said going off into the living room as she answered the door.

**

“He was so pleased with it,” said Mia as she entered the living room after her client had gone.

“Why do you sound so surprised? You know all there is to know about web design. Anyway it’s been years since you sounded so excited over a job. Did you fancy the guy or something?” He said, his feet up on the coffee table.

“Of course not,” said Mia blushing and walking back out of the room quickly in case Jed had seen her. Fuck, when was the last time she’d blushed. She never realised that Jed had such long legs and they were really prominent in his skinny jeans, he had the right legs for them, not like some guys she’d seen whose legs were just too skinny, with no muscle tone whatsoever.

“Get us another beer Mads,” shouted Jed from the living room.

“OK,” she said grabbing herself one also and putting the cold beer bottle to her face because suddenly she felt flushed, flushed and hot because she wondered if Jed had caught her looking, had he noticed her eyes travelling to the front of his jeans that were so tight she could almost see everything and it made her feel weird all of a sudden.

What was she playing at?

She’d known Jed ever since they were kids, years ago and had never thought of him in this way, she’d met tons of good looking guys, models, all beautiful people, pop stars, rock stars, people like this Mint Dirnt that who was so damn attractive.

So why was she getting flustered over some kid with skinny jeans, tight t-shirt and floppy hair that probably hadn’t even seen a comb that day.

She took a deep breath and went back into the Living Room, pink faced but guessing that Jed wouldn’t notice because she was pretending to be Maddy after all and to Jed, Maddy was just a friend.

She had to keep this up for just a few more weeks then she could get back into her world where she could finally meet up with this Mike guy and live the high life.

But that evening as they watched a couple of movies and ate Chinese, she’d never laughed so much as she had in a long time and Jed asked if she was on something and she just replied that she was taking some medication for her sore throat to throw him off the scent.

“You don’t usually laugh at my jokes Mads,” he said shovelling egg-fried rice into his mouth. Just keep taking the medication, I like it when you laugh.” He said smiling and letting the rice fall out of his mouth.

“It makes you look better.” He said with a grin and those dark brown eyes that she couldn’t stop looking at seemed to sparkle.

She didn’t want to go home just yet, she wasn’t ready, she was enjoying herself too much.

**

He was there at the door of the restaurant, waiting for her as the black taxi drew up in front of him. He looked so good in what he wore, he always did have good taste in clothes she thought, apart from his golf attire which brought a smile to her face as she remembered some of his golf outfits from the internet. He was wearing what was definitely an expensive pair of jeans with a crisp white shirt with the sleeves rolled up revealing his very toned forearms. Maddy glanced away to pay the driver because she didn’t want to be caught looking.

“I’m sorry I’m late, the traffic was awful,” Maddy said going over to him. He actually bent and kissed her burning hot cheek; his lips feeling cool against her face.

“Come on, I’ve told them to hold our table,” he said as he ushered her into the restaurant. She could feel his hand on the small of her back and felt weird because of it.

They sat opposite each other and his eyes sparkled in the candlelight. Eyes that she’d seen hundreds of times in photographs but had never looked as good as at this moment.

“So where are you going to take me after this lunch?” asked Mike. “I could do with a walk along the river then how about a ride up in the London eye?”

“Why not? In fact I’ve never been on the London eye myself,” Mia said to him.

“Then how about you come to our gig this evening? Come backstage and watch and have a drink with us afterwards,” said Mike. “I’d like for you to come and see us.”

Oh my fucking god Mia thought. He was inviting me backstage to one of their concerts; it was what she had always dreamed of.

**

“I’ll see you tomorrow then,” said Jed. He’d surprised her by cleaning up the dishes and glasses that they’d used, put it all away in the cupboard just as thought he’d lived there.

It had been ages since she’d been with someone doing just normal natural things around the house. It had been her ex husband; he was the last person she had done things like that with. The one who she should never have married. He’d beaten her up the day after they’d married. She should have known that he would do something like that again because he’d done it twice before and was always apologetic afterwards but as soon as he’d done it that day she left him. She went to Jules and didn’t want to have anything to do with him ever again. She’d divorced him and apologised to all her friends and even wrote to his family to explain.

He had been rich and she’d fallen for it, the stupid girl that lived in cloud cuckoo land, the land where everyone was false and didn’t have any feelings for anyone other than themselves and she had been like that too.

“OK,” Mia said to him closing the door behind him. She’d had such a great evening with Jed, so relaxed and fun just sitting together watching a funny movie then a romantic one.

Mia switched off all the lights and pulled out some of the plugs from their sockets.

She felt contented as she snuggled down into her own bed, she didn’t feel pressurised to look good and she’d had a great evening with a guy who hadn’t tried to get in her knickers.

She thought then of Mike Dirnt who lived in that far away world that she would be going back to soon and then she thought of Jed and his chocolate brown eyes before drifting off to sleep.

**

When Maddy woke in Mia’s bed the first person she thought of was him.

Mike Dirnt.

They’d had such a great day, the best day she’d ever known. They’d walked along the riverside and had a ride on the London eye. They’d had a pod to themselves and for the hour’s journey had sat next to each other as Maddy pointed out some of the sights to Mike, laughing at stupid things every now and again.

After the ride they’d gone for a drink in one of the pubs nearby and this time she wasn’t worried about ordering a beer. They’d laughed about various things and then Mike said that they’d best get back to the hotel as he’d have to get ready for the gig.

They’d already agreed that she’d meet up with him later at the gig so he’d put her in a taxi and sent her off to the apartment so she could decide what to wear.

Why suddenly was she concerned about what to wear? She was going to a gig, no need to dress up, jeans and t-shirt would be fine but she decided she wanted to dress up a little more for Mike, may be take a better look in Mia’s wardrobe just to see what else she had in there.

So she’d found this black tank top and some expensive black trousers with some strappy shoes that looked pretty.

Pretty? What was she thinking? She didn’t care, she looked good she thought as she studied herself in the mirror and went to see what could be done with her hair.

Rummaging around she found some curlers and wrapped her hair up in them. He hair came out in bouncy glossy waves and she couldn’t help touch her bouncy hair as she put on some make up, dark eyes that she loved but this time adding a touch, well a little more than a touch of pink lip gloss that made her lips look pouty.

The concert was amazing and better than Maddy could have imagined. The boys rocked but she always knew they would as she stood backstage with Billie’s wife Adrienne, desperate to ask her so many questions that she had wanted to ask if ever she met up with her.

Then Mike came straight over after the gig, sweaty and glowing and definitely on a high. He said he was glad that she could come and put his arm loosely across her shoulders as he led her off into his dressing room.

She waited while he showered and could hear him humming to himself in the shower. He was humming Boulevard of Broken Dreams and she had to practically pinch herself that she was here and this was really happening.

She wanted to call up Jed but knew he probably wouldn’t be back from his trip. What would he say when she got back home and told him?

Home. It seemed so far away and it was such a good job that Jed wasn’t around while they were doing this. What on earth would he think about the both of them swapping roles?

What would he think about Mia being at her house?

It was definitely a good job that he wasn’t around.

He hated Mia.

I’m just going to savour this moment she thought, enjoy having a few days with Mike and when he goes off touring I’ll just go back to my own world and back to work and look back on this as just a happy memory.

Just a few more weeks and all this will be over she thought and then decided that she would make the most of it while she could, Mike was fun to be with and so were the rest of the people that she’d met this evening.

Before she knew it, it would be over and would have to get back to normal.