One of the problems when you write a story, especially a longer story, is that the characters sit around in your brain... that happened with Jenny, and is why she got included in the "Asian Braces" story.
In this case, it's a more minor character, and I started to wonder "what if.....". Whilst the story have a few "separators" in it, I'm posting it as a single short story. As you read it, see how quickly you work out who she actually is... all is revealed at the end!
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Dave was at the supermarket, doing his weekly shopping, just like he did on most Saturday mornings. He had already selected the fresh vegetables he wanted, picked up a couple of tins of tomatoes, as well as chosen a couple of packs of biscuits. He was currently in the frozen food aisle, selecting some ice cream, plus getting some frozen meat, for a casserole later in the week. Oh, yes, and pizzas.
The supermarket was fairly busy, so there were plenty of people around. He was getting near the end of his shop: he still needed to grab some bits from the bakery, but the next aisle was the booze aisle.
Linda was also doing her shopping at the supermarket. Like Dave, she was single, and currently living in a small modern flat by herself. She used to share a house with 2 other girls, but almost a year ago decided that she wanted to be by herself.
Linda had also been selecting some fresh vegetables. She didn't need any tinned tomatoes this week (she still had some in the cupboard), but had also picked up some biscuits and some crisps. And like Dave, she had just been down the frozen food aisle, and was now turning into the booze aisle. Whilst the shop was generally busy, the booze aisle was a bit quieter.
She had grabbed a couple of 4-packs of lager, which she had put into her trolley, then found three 4- packs of ale, and was currently looking at the wines.
"Looks like you're stocking up for a party" said Dave, who had picked up a couple of bottles of nice beers, and was about get himself a bottle of wine.
"Nah, just being prepared for when my friends come around" replied Linda
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It's a week later, and Dave is once again doing his shopping at the supermarket. He was looking at the fresh pizzas, when a voice to his right says "Hello again....".
Dave turned to his right, and recognised the girl he'd briefly chatted with the previous week, on the booze aisle "Oh, hi.... come to stock up on the booze again then?" he said with a smile.
Linda was already looking at him, but she suddenly started paying more attention: she could swear she just saw braces on his teeth! A tiny shiver went down her spine.
"Funnily enough, yes I am, my friends came around and we almost drunk the lot!". Dave smiled once again, letting Linda confirm that yes, he DID have braces... at least on his top teeth.
Dave took the pizza he wanted, and put it into his trolley, then moved off to continue his shopping. It was a couple of aisles later, by the tinned food, when they met again. Nothing was said this time, they just smiled politely at each other, Linda with her normal smile, and Dave with his sparkly metallic smile.
Linda had reached the booze aisle, and had decided to just get a 12-pack of lagers, and a 12-pack of beers, ready for when her friends came around again!
As Dave came into the booze aisle, he saw Linda putting the 12-pack of beer on top of the pack of lagers. "Another non-party?" asked Dave.
"Yeah, my friends can knock it back, I'm hoping this lot might last a couple of weeks!". Dave was actually a bit jealous: whilst he did have a few friends, they weren't the sort who would come around for the evening, and have a drink. Dave picked up a couple of bottles of "Doom Bar" beer, and put them into his trolley, and ended up following Linda down the next aisle.
"We must stop meeting like this!" said Dave when he caught up with her near the end of the aisle.
"So, I'm guessing that I've now bumped into you a couple of times now, that you usually do your shopping on a Saturday morning?"
"Oh my, is it THAT obvious? But yes, I do. What about you?"
"It depends"
"Oh, on what?"
"Well, if I'm actually at home for a start. Or how late I was out on the Friday night... and if I'm hung over!". Dave thought that was amusing, and smiled widely, letting Linda see his slightly crooked teeth, with metal brackets both top and bottom.
For the next 10 minutes, as they continued their shopping, they walked together, chatting. Linda tried hard to look at Dave a bit more: he seemed to be pretty good looking, albeit a little bit on the shy side. At the same time, Dave was looking at Linda, who was pretty good looking, but he had already decided that there was no way he could ever manage to chat her up. Dave wasn't all that good with girls, it had been a couple of years since he'd had a proper girlfriend.
They were approaching the checkout, where there were slight queues. Linda went to checkout #27, Dave went to #28. Linda was trying to calm herself down after seeing Dave's braces: she didn't really know why, but she found guys with braces to be strangely attractive. She now knew that Dave came shopping every Saturday morning, but knowing her luck, it would mean that she maybe wouldn't manage to see him again for many weeks. She needed to do something NOW!
Linda had her shopping packed, and was ready to go, and she could see Dave, at the adjacent checkout, was still packing. Linda pushed her trolley out of the way, to allow the next person through, then went over to Dave.
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"Need a hand?" she asked.
"Oh, thanks....". Linda helped Dave to finish off putting his shopping into his bags, and then he paid for it all.
"Hey" said Linda, "would you like to have a coffee with me?". To be honest, this wasn't the normal thing that Linda would do, but those braces were having an effect on her. 'please say yes!... please say yes!' thought Linda.
"Here, you mean?" replied Dave. To be honest, Dave was rather surprised at the invitation, he never got invitations like that. From a girl.
"Yes, we can just put our trollies into the lockers".
They parked their trollies, and went up to the cafe, where Linda bought them both a coffee. They found a table, and sat down.
"I'm Linda by the way.."
"Oh, hi Linda, I'm Dave." 'ok, so what do I say next' thought Dave. "So, Linda, what do you do?" seemed to be an easy option.
Linda thought quickly. There was no way she could actually tell him what she did now, and thus who she actually was. So maybe she should just tell him most of the truth, and just leave out what happened a few weeks ago. "I'm a session musician" she replied.
"Oh, ok, so what instruments do you play then?"
"Mainly guitars... bass, electric, acoustic. I also sometimes sing backing vocals."
"So what sort of stuff do you play on?"
"It's a mix. Sometimes its recording something for a TV program or a film. There's also a load of adverts. Then there's recording backing tracks for vocal artists: I did a short tour with a group of other session musicians last year for one fairly well-known performer. So, what about you, Dave?"
"Nowhere near as glamorous as that: I'm an accountant"
"Don't put yourself down, Dave, me and a load of others need guys like you to make sure we don't pay too much tax!"
"Yeah, I guess so, although I don't do that sort of thing, I do work for larger businesses. But you're right about the tax!"
The ice was broken, and they had a nice chat. Of course, as they chatted, Linda was carefully looking at his braces. One of Linda's 'friends' actually had braces, but she was a female friend, and she wasn't really into girls. Anyway, she had a boyfriend... oops, no, a fiance! So whilst she enjoyed seeing her braces, it just didn't have the same effect as seeing a GUY with metal on their teeth!
They continued chatting as they drank their coffees. Dave started to relax as he discovered that Linda was actually quite a normal sort of girl. And Linda definitely had the hots for Dave, something to do with the metal in his mouth.
"Hey, want to swap numbers?" asked Linda as they finished their coffees.
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Over the next couple of weeks, Linda and Dave got together a few times. They met for coffee. Had lunch together one day. Went out to the pub a couple of times. Linda had, of course, taken the opportunity to look at Dave's braces. What they hadn't done yet was go back to either Dave's or Linda's place.
Of course, in between occasionally meeting up with Dave, Linda had met up with her friends, and had actually stayed over with one of her friends for a couple of days.
So, it was Wednesday, and Dave and Linda had met up at a simple bistro for dinner. They had just finished eating, and were deciding whether to have coffees.
"You're welcome to come back to my place for coffee and a chat... and no, I'm not trying to get you into bed!" said Dave. Whilst in the past, Linda had been quite happy to get intimate with guys at the drop of a hat, her current changed circumstances meant that she was actually very happy to take things slowly.
So, back at Dave's place, they made some coffee, and sat together on his settee. Whilst initially, Linda had been attracted to Dave's braces (and still WAS attracted to them, of course), she was slowly getting to know Dave, and liked what she saw. Unlike her last boyfriend, he wasn't the sort of person who would ever be the life and soul of the party, he was a lot more gentle and passive.
Linda was looking at Dave, and he turned to look at her. She took the opportunity to lean over towards him, and for the first time, put her lips to his, and kissed him gently on his lips. As their lips parted, Dave smiled, letting Linda see his braces close up. She leaned over again, and this time she slipped her tongue between his lips, and for the first time ever, felt what it was like to run her tongue over a set of metal brackets: needless to say, it was an amazingly nice experience.
There didn't seem to be anything special about Dave's braces: Dave's teeth were slightly crooked, which meant either his initial problem wasn't that bad, or it was bad, but he'd had the braces for quite a while. His were medium-sized brackets, quite typical of the sort of braces you'd see on adults.
Over the next few minutes, they continued to kiss, and her tongue took the opportunity to explore his braces further.
"You like my braces, don't you?" said Dave gently a few minutes later. Linda was a bit embarrassed.
"Is it that obvious?" she replied.
"Sort of, but don't feel bad about it. It's no worse than me saying, for example...". He paused, and looked at Linda, then put his hand up to one of her ears. ".. that I like your ear studs. Or if you had them, that I liked your glasses. Or maybe a tattoo, or your hairstyle." Linda had never really thought about it like that before, she had just thought that liking braces was a bit weird. The more time she spent with Dave, the more she was enjoying being with him. "And while maybe it was my braces that first attracted you to me, I'm rather hoping that our relationship is now based on a bit more than that!" continued Dave.
"Yeah, definitely" replied Linda. "So how long you had them?"
"Umm... must be about 4 months now"
"How's it been having them? Any comments at work?"
"Well, they were a bit sore for the first couple of weeks, both on the teeth themselves, and on my cheeks. People don't seem to care much about braces, I think they have become sufficiently commonplace now, kinda like piercings and that sort of thing. Got some nice support from one of the girls at work: she has braces too, and when I first got them, she gave me some useful hints and tips."
"So why metal brackets? You could have had Invisilign or at least less obvious ceramic brackets..."
"I'm an accountant, Linda! I naturally want to get the best deal, and these were the cheapest option!". That comment made Linda laugh.
"So, I bet you'd like a proper look at my braces, wouldn't you?" said Dave with a smile, purposefully showing Linda his braces. Over the next few minutes, Linda was able to look closely at Dave's braces, then they kissed and cuddled a bit more.
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Dave and Linda went out to the pub together on Friday evening.
"Are you doing anything on Sunday Lunchtime?" asked Linda
"No.. "
"Ok, would you like to come with me for Sunday lunch with my friends?"
"Yes, I'd like that - it's about time I met some of your friends". Dave had wondered about Linda's friends. Clearly she had some: they sometimes visited her - thus the rather large amounts of beer she had bought. But she'd not yet asked him to meet up with them yet. Mind you, Dave hadn't offered to let Linda meet his friends yet either.
They agreed that Linda would pick him up at Midday on the Sunday.
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Linda arrived at Dave's just before Midday, which pleased Linda, as there was something that she needed to tell Dave. Something that maybe she should have told him before, but she kept putting it off. Now, she had no real choice, she needed to tell him.
"Oh, hi, you're a bit early... come on in.". They kissed, with Dave having no issues when Linda put her tongue into his mouth, and briefly flirted with his braces.
"Dave, before we go, we need to sit down, and I need to tell you something." She knew where the living room was, so walked through, and sat on the settee. "Come on, sit down...". Dave sat down next to Linda, and she put her arm gently around Dave, as she knew that what she was about to tell him would probably be quite a shock to him.
"Not bad I hope? I know you're not a vegan or a vegetarian, and I know you're definitely not tee-total!!...."
"I'm not sure if you'll think it's bad or good. Dave, I've not been fully truthful about who I am"
"What do you mean?"
"Ok, let's try it like this: what do you know about me?"
"Well, your name is Linda.... Linda Jacobson..."
"Yes, that's correct!"
"You like guys with braces..."
"I can't find fault with that either! And my job?"
"You're a session musician..."
"Yeah, that's the difficult bit. I WAS a session musician till about 7 weeks ago, and everything I told you about what I did was 100% true. But something happened, and I've kinda missed out what's happened to me more recently...". Linda paused, and took a big breath.
"About 8 or 9 months ago, I got a call from a friend of a friend: a well known group needed someone who played guitar to work with them, as they developed a load of new songs, something different from what they had done before. So I kind 'tried out' with them for a week, and they asked me to keep working with them for the next couple of months, which was actually quite interesting. Then I went into the recording studios with them, and after that, I went on tour with them around the UK. And halfway through the tour, they asked if I'd like to join them, as a fulltime member of the group. So when the tour finished, we announced it."
"So you're now in a band"
"Yeah, I guess I am. Although its more of a girl group".
"Oh, I know nothing about them, not my sort of thing...."
"Yeah, I know, but I'd be VERY surprised if you've not heard of them...." she said, then corrected herself ".. of us...". This was also still quite new for Linda too
Dave was a bit surprised. They had first met about 5 weeks ago, and Linda had never given a hint of this. She seemed to be a very normal girl, in her mid 20's, very down-to-earth, did her own shopping on a Saturday at the local supermarket, that sort of thing. But back to what Linda was saying... girl bands weren't really his thing.
"Well, the only girl groups I can think of are the Spice Girls - but they were from years ago - and CJD"
"Ever wondered why they have that name?" asked Linda. "It's the initials of their first names: Carol, Jenny and Dianne. Although they're not called CJD any more, it's CJDL..."
Dave suddenly remembered hearing about them in the news: a new girl had just joined the band, it must have been nearly a couple of months ago. Suddenly the penny dropped: Linda must be the 'L' in CJDL!
"You're.... you're the... the.... the new girl in CJDL, aren't you?" stammered Dave, clearly shocked.
"Yes, I am. And don't worry, I'm still trying to get used to the idea as well!". Linda hugged Dave. "And we're about to go and have Sunday lunch with the other girls in the band! You ok, Dave?"
"Yeah, I think so. It's a lot to take in... I mean, it's not every day you discover your girlfriend is... well... a mega pop-star!"
"Yeah, I'm sorry about not telling you, but it's not the sort of thing I can go around telling everyone about. To be honest, I'm only just starting to get to grips with it myself, I've only been a 'mega pop-star' for about 7 weeks."
Linda paused for a moment, to let it sink in.
"So, we're going around to Jenny's parent's place for lunch: her mum and dad are the band's mangers. They'll be there, so will Carol, Jenny with her fiancé Ben, Dianne and her boyfriend Mike, and I am sure Jenny's brother Callum will be there too."
"So, kinda in at the deep end then?" commented Dave
"Yeah, but don't worry, they are all amazingly normal people. Hey, Dave, one question before we go.."
"Go on, what's the question..."
"Should I be telling them you're my new boyfriend?"
