Well, it was 3:2 for B:A, but a late vote for A made it equal!
A and B are both similar, and I'm sure would have lead to a similar outcomes: with Chris at work, unless they met straight after work, Chris would end up taking the braces home anyway, giving him the chance to.... heck, read the story!
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Chapter 2
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You have chosen option (b): call 'JP later on this evening, once he's had a good chance to 'examine' the retainers further...
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I had to wait till I was home before I was able to look at the retainers again: when I got back to the office, there was yet another panic in full swing! At least the guys hadn't called me, they let me have my lunch break: thanks guys, I'll return the favour sometime!
Back home, I slipped into the bathroom (locking to door of course) then opened the retainer case once more. I wasn't planning to do anything with the retainers except briefly rinse them. I nervously opened the retainer case and spent a few seconds staring once more at the pair of retainers, which, of course, gave me some 'good feelings'. Then I had another sniff of them, but realised that the slight odour that was there before had gone. I set the water to warm, then used my toothbrush to quickly clean the retainers. Whilst I could have cleaned them with toothpaste, to REALLY clean them, that would have left a noticeable smell of its own, which might have caused questions to be asked later on. With the retainers rinsed off, I used my towel to dry them, then put them back into their pink case, which I returned to my pocket.
I left the bathroom, and went into my bedroom, locked my door, then I sat down on my bed (I lived in a shared house, so wanted to be somewhere I had some privacy...), and pulled the pink retainer case from my pocket once more, opened it again, ... I took the retainers out of the case again, putting the case on my bedside table. I now had plenty of time to look at the retainers in more detail: the upper plate was lovely and shiny and smooth... in fact, so was the lower one, but with it being smaller, it wasn't as obvious.
So, as I said before, these retainers are the style that we seem to have in England: Adams clasps on the front molars, and a labial wire across the six front teeth, with that lovely 'loop' over the canines. I so wished these were my own retainers!
Ever since I was a kid, I've not only had a thing for braces, but have wished that I needed braces. Sadly my teeth were amazingly straight, so I never got them, but I still wondered what it would have been like. So, now I had the perfect opportunity to find out: I opened my mouth, and put the upper retainer into my mouth, running my tongue gently over the smooth plastic of the upper plate, pushing it gently up into my palate. Whilst it didn't actually fit, it wasn't that far out: whilst I couldn't get the clasps to fit over my molars, I was able to get the labial wire over my front teeth. I ran my tonge over the smooth plastic once more: boy, it felt so good!
Having had a certain level of success with the upper retainer, I tried the lower one in too: again the clasps didn't quite fit, but I got the labial wire just along the edge of my lower teeth, then ran my tongue over the smooth plastic: mmm, nice. I realised that the slight odour that was there before had gone.
I lay back on my bed and relaxed, savouring the experience of having a pair of retainers in my mouth.
15 minutes later, having 'savoured the experience', I decided that it was time to call 'JP' to tell her (as I said before, with it being a pink case, I was 98% sure it would be a girl!) that I'd found her retainers. I sat on my bed, with the retainer case (with retainers) on the adjacent table, opened so I could see the phone number, I also had a pen and paper ready, in case I needed to write anything down.
I typed the phone number into my phone, and pressed the green 'call' button. After a few seconds I could hear the ringing tone, then about 15 seconds later, the call was answered (which in itself was good, as there was the possibility that 'JP' might just ignore calls from unknown numbers).
"Hello, who is this?" asked a girls voice quite politely. When I say 'girl', my immediate feeling that this was either an older teen, or maybe even a young adult.
"Oh, hello, you don't know me, my name is Chris. I believe you might have lost a pink retainer case with some retainers inside..." I replied.
"Oh, thank goodness for that! And thank you SO much for calling. Out of interest, where did you find them?"
"Well, I'm guessing you sat down on one of the park benches for your lunch: they were to the side and to the rear of the bench - I'm kinda guessing it might have fallen out of a bag?"
"Ah, yes, that would make sense... you're right, I did stop there for my lunch. Oh, I'm Hannah by the way." The more she spoke, the more convinced I was that she was an adult.
"Hi there, Hannah! Well, it's very lucky you had your phone number inside the case!"
"Yeah, that was my flatmate's idea, and I'm now so glad I did that!"
"So, I guess you need to get your retainers back... Look, I live in Eastleigh, you're more than welcome to come over and collect them tonight."
"Ah, that could be a problem: I live in Woolston, and I don't have a car, I just use the bus. Plus my flatmate who DOES have a car is out tonight..."
Your next decision... Does Chris:
(a) suggest meeting in the park the following lunchtime?
(b) suggest she comes over another evening, when her flatmate can give her a lift? or
(c) offer to drive over and deliver Hannah's retainers tonight?
