This story is "series 2" of the "Asian Braces" story, which I published over in the Club /Braces Stories & Braces Special (English) forum. As many of you won't have seen that story, here's a quick recap of what happened.


Danny Jones, 25, is a technical support & installation engineer at an engineering company, but also gives training on the company's equipment. He was recently sent to Asia, where he visited a company, and gave a week of training following by a week of helping the customer configure their equipment. A third week was spent travelling.


While he was there, he ordered several lots of fake braces, from a couple of braces shops. He wasn't actually planning on buying anywhere near as much as he did, but the prices were so low, he felt it was stupid not to use the chance to 'stock up'.... as it was very unlikely he'd ever get the chance again. Here's my story notes:

Braces shop 1:

- standard brackets; "Lovely shiny clear plastic! Clasps over the molars, with headgear tubes on them. A wire from the clasp all the way around, with brackets on every tooth. Small supporting wires, just behind the canines"

- twin blocks

- HG: an Interlandi, a neck strap, two high-pulls (one in bright yellow), and a couple of facebows. Plus a variety of spare ligatures, power-chain and elastics

Braces shop 2:

- wrap around blue retainers

- minimal plate for facemask
"The plate was actually quite small, in that it went between my main molars, but there was no plastic in the center beyond my small molars. The plastic went at the side almost as far as my canines. There were adam's clasps with the longer side-wires (for the elastics to hook on to) soldered to them on my molars, and there were small c-clasps coming around from the back of my small molars. Mei had extended the wires both from the c-clasps and the adam's clasps across (and thus inside) the plastic plate, to add strength"

- blue wide face mask, red single rod face mask

- brackets / herbst / tongue crib
"the metal started at the canines (where the herbst attached) and clipped onto the next two teeth, my pre-molars, as well. At the front, as well as some plastic on the inside of my front teeth, there was a very obvious metal expander module, with wires going across to my lower canines. There was plastic all around the inside of my teeth, with adam's clasps over my rear molars. And of course, all the way from the clasps, through the herbst attachments and around my front teeth were large metal brackets. And where the lower part of the herbst attached to my canines, it did not look at all fake, it looked exactly like pictures I'd seen of real herbst appliances.
the upper appliance to look at. If you removed the plastic from the appliance, then it would look just like a real appliance: metal around the two premolars and first molar, where the herbst attachment point was. Between those bits of metal she had soldered a metal expander, and to the front of the expander was a rather large and obvious tongue crib soldered in place. Again, there was an archwire with brackets"

"The clever thing about these appliances, compared to my other fake brackets, was that there was no need for the tiny supporting wires behind my canines, as the rather more substantial metal around the teeth did a far better job. Like on the lower appliance, there were adam's clasps on the rear molars, and plastic all around, but mainly to the front of the appliance, I was guessing to hold it in place in my mouth."

"some of the brackets had hooks on, for elastics."

- lip bumpers

- spare simple brackets (going away gift)


Mei will pop up in this series, so let me explain about her: when Danny went to the second braces shop, the 'receptionist / manager' didn't speak great English, so Mei, a lady in her late 20's, spoke with Danny. She is actually one of the Dental Technicians, trained in the US (so excellent English - very convenient!) and was able to chat with Danny and ended up making him some nice braces. She also likes braces (which is why she became a dental tech), and ended up wearing some fakes when she was with Danny. She & Danny had an affair for a week or two, while he was over in Asia, in fact she joined him for part of the third week while he was travelling around.

Here is Danny's comments from when he first met her:

"How would I describe Mei? In her late 20s. An inch shorter than Suki, but with a much bigger 'frame'. You know how people have different sized bodies... Suki is really slim, I'm kinda in the middle, but Mei was larger than me. Good sized hips, wide shoulders. But not noticeably overweight. A cute round face, with a nice nose, and a haircut I've seen on many asian girls: basically a bob, with straight hair at the sides, and a fringe. I mean, all she needed was a pair of those round glasses, and she would be so stereotypically asian!

Her smile had revealed a nice set of straight teeth, but sadly for me, no hint of braces."


Needless to say, he had many opportunities whilst over in Asia to wear his various braces, plus single and double facebows with various headgears, and a couple of different facemasks!


So after 3 weeks working and having fun over in Asia, Danny has returned back to London. He had a couple of extra days off to get over the jet-lag, and is now back at work. We'll be following his braces-wearing adventures as he goes out with his braces, and also decides whether to take the big step of wearing his fake braces, pretending he's having real treatment.


(It might be a week or so before I start posting this story, please be patient)

Yes, definitely waiting. I enjoyed this one.

Chapter 2

I had a bit of fun on Saturday: I put in the expander / brackets / herbst / tongue crib appliance, and caught a bus then a tube to the big shopping centre: the likelihood of meeting someone I knew there was, hopefully, close to zero. I had considered wearing my brackets and headgear, but decided that would be asking for trouble! The first thing for me to work out was the logistics of putting the braces in? I could put them in at home, and keep my mouth shut for a while. I could put them in after getting off the bus, but before getting on eth tube: all I would have needed for that was a quiet corner to put them in. Or I could have waited till I got to the shopping centre, and pop in the loos there.

In the end I decided to take the risk of putting them it at home: that was the simplest, and to be honest, the most exciting! The bus stop was close to where I live, and luckily there was noone else at the bus stop! I sat upstairs at the front: not only does that give you some great views, it's less likely anyone will come close to me, and thus possibly see my braces.

The tube station is a mile or so from home, so I felt a bit less worried about being seen: so much so that, while I was on the platform waiting for the train to arrive, I saw a girl, in her teens I would guess. She was looking at her phone, with a bit of a smile on her face, and I could see that she had braces. Without thinking, I smiled back at her.... just as she happened to look up, allowing her to see my braces. Wow, talk about suddenly being nervous! I closed my mouth as naturally as I could, and looked away: rule 1 of travelling on public transport in London: avoid contact if possible. Rule 2: avoid eye contact. Rule three: you are not allowed to talk to a stranger. Travelling on the tube can get a bit lonely at times!

The tube arrived a few minutes later, and I got on: it was busy, but not over busy, and I managed to get a seat. I looked around, just to be sure there was noone on the train that I recognised... finally I was able to let my mouth relax a bit, let my lips part a little, and hold my head up, all in the hope that someone might glance at me, and see the illicit metal on my mouth.

Once at the large shopping centre, I felt a lot more relaxed. I was one of thousands of anonymous people there. It was quite a way from where I lived, so the likelihood of meeting someone I knew was very low. I felt happy, so opened my mouth a little more as I walked around.

Of course, my main problem was that whilst I had worn these braces several times, I'd not really practised speaking that much with them in, so if anyone asked (and I was actually able to give an understandable reply!) I would simply have to say that I had only got them fitted that week.

It's very hard to artificially smile naturally! Obviously, I wanted people to actually SEE my braces, but whilst you can easily do a small smile (which shows very little), I somehow needed to make my smile bigger. I gave up after a few attempts, that I felt probably looked more like snarls than smiles. Instead, I just enjoyed my mainly-window-shopping, and smiling at things I liked or thought amusing. Like those amazing Lego models in the window of the Lego shop!

I went into Pr*m*rk, and had a look around, and found a few items of cheap clothing, and walked over to the checkouts, where, being a Saturday, there was quite a queue... one that zigs & zags a couple of times (just like all those queues I'd been in at the various airports, but not quite so big!). I kinda hoped for something nice to happen while I was queueing, but it didn't.

Finally, I got to the cashier, where I put my items on the desk, for the girl to scan. She was a teenager, so I'm guessing worked just at the weekends. I think she must have spotted my metalwork, because she smiled, showing some nice braces on her teeth, allowing me to smile back... after all, we were both in that 'braces club', weren't we?

"Would you like a bag?" she asked me. Damn, I was going to have to speak, something which was actually quite scary!

"Yeshth pweathshe!" I replied. Goddamn it, that tongue cwib maketh it tho hard to thpeak! Just speaking those two words sent shivers of panic and enjoyment through me! Of course, my lisping made it clear to the cashier girl that I had something more in my mouth than just simple brackets - which is what I guess she had. So I smiled, with my mouth open, hoping that she might look inside my mouth, and at least catch a glimpse of my tongue crib.

"Are you paying by cash?" she asked me. Damn her, why didn't she just ask if I was using a card, I could have managed a simple 'yes' to that.

"Cang I pay by carg pweathshe?" I replied. Another shiver of excitement went through me. She finished putting my clothes into one of the brown paper carrier bags, then pressed a couple of buttons on the till.

"Ok, can you insert your card and type in your PIN please". I already had my card in my hand, so inserted it, and entered my PIN. Phew, it was accepted. I waited till it said 'please remove your card', and removed my card. She handed me the brown paper carrier bag.

"Thsank you" I said as I took it from her. She gave me a lovely smile as I walked away... I wondered what was actually going through her mind.

That had been both a scary and exhilarating experience, but compared to my next 'conversation', quite tame.

It was getting close to lunchtime, and I fancied a snack. I know I should have gone into one of the places where you just pick up the food you want, then just ask for your drink. But no, I stupidly went into a nicer café, where someone came to the table to take your order. I sat down, and took a look at the menu. I had to think carefully about what I might be able to eat - stupidly, I'd not actually tried eating with these braces. Yes, I had tried drinking some water, and that was difficult enough. I needed something that didn't need much biting or chewing. So bacon sandwiches (and most other sandwiches!) would be out. So would cheese on toast, a favourite of mine. For goodness sake, how DO people with double expanders and a tongue crib actually manage to eat enough food?

I spotted that they did scones... now they crumbled, and I could easily take small bites of those.

"Good afternoon, sir, have you chosen what you'd like yet?"

"Cang I have a bwack amewicango coffee... ang a shshcone, pweathshe". Ok, having a small lisp is fun, but this was awkward. Ok, so it actually was fun too, but in a far more embarrassing way. The waitress looked at me strangely, I wasn't sure if she was thinking 'poor guy' or 'what an assh*le!'.

"Anything else, or is that it?" she asked

"Zhatsh awll, thsankthsh!" I manged to reply. The problem speaking was caused by a combination of the metal in my mouth: the lower and upper expanders, and mainly that tongue crib. Mei had warned me how hard it was, at least at first, to speak with a tongue crib. And it didn't help that she had made it a 'not so nice' tongue crib, thus making it so much harder to speak!

The coffee and the scone arrived a few minutes later. I took a sip of the coffee... it was far too hot, of course, but I still had a small amount of liquid in my mouth that I needed to swallow. I leant my had back a little, so the liquid naturally went towards my throat, then somehow managed to swallow it. Not easy, but it worked.

So, what about the scone? I put a very small amount of butter and jam on it (sadly, no cream....), then bit off a small amount. Yes, it crumbled nicely in my mouth, then I started producing saliva, which started to turn the crumbly scone into a sort of paste, which of course went everywhere it shouldn't in my mouth. Having the herbsts didn't help, as the rods just made more space in my cheeks for the gooey mess to hide.

There wasn't a lot I could do about it (ok, so yes, I COULD have removed the braces, but that would have been SOOOO embarrassing and awkward!), so I took small bites of the scone, then tried to use a bit of coffee to help swish things around in my mouth. It helped - a little!

By the time I had finally finished the scone (which took at least five times longer than it normally would), I had bits of scone stuck on my braces and my expanders. I paid my bill, then went to the toilets, which were the 'open' sort.... so a single cubicle, two urinals, and a pair of sinks, which rather ruled out the possibility of having some guaranteed privacy. So, not being able to remove the braces, I had to do the best I could with the toothbrush I had remembered to bring with me. I was actually right in the middle of brushing when a couple of teenagers came in, and clearly saw my braces. They went to the urinals and I could clearly hear one of them say something like 'he's a bit old for braces...'. Oh, the joys of 'having braces' in your mid 20's!

Nothing much else happened whilst at the shopping centre, so I made my way back onto the tube, then had to wait about 15 minutes for the bus to arrive. Like before, I sat upstairs at the front. The journey was again quite boring, and as we left the previous stop, I got up, and turned around to walk back the few feet to the stairs, when I saw someone I recognised, from work, sitting a few rows further back. They had also seen me. Normally I would have probably smiled at them, and waved, but today, I kept my mouth firmly closed, and just waved!

Good to see this one being continued.

Chapter 5

Saturday


I very much wanted to wear my headgear out in public when I went out to do my shopping at the local supermarket. My main worry was to do with meeting people I knew from work: they knew that I had only 'got my braces' on Wednesday after work, so might question why I was already wearing headgear in public. The good news is that, in the year plus of living here, I've never seen anyone from work locally. Yes, I might bump into someone else I knew, but they wouldn't know when I had 'got my braces', so whilst seeing me in headgear might seem a bit odd, I could actually use the old 'I'm wearing it to catch up on my hours' story.

I would only wear an upper facebow, but I needed to decide what headgear to wear: I had, of course, a choice of a neck-strap, a high-pull, and an Interlandi. If I really wanted to stand out, I could wear my yellow high-pull! In the end, I decided to go for the more sedate dark blue high-pull.

I'd had my breakfast (I decided to eat breakfast without my braces!), and had showered and brushed my teeth and braces, so before I put my braces back into my mouth, I inserted one of my facebows into my top appliance. Then it was a matter of making sure my hair was ok, putting the high-pull on my head, then pulling very slightly on the force modules I hooked the headgear onto the ends of my facebow. As I normally did, the pressure was the lowest I could get away with, whilst still having some actual positive pressure... without some pressure, as I moved my head, the headgear could go slack, and not look right.

I could feel my heart pumping as I opened the front door: this was the first time I had worn my headgear in public since I'd been back in London. Yes, I'd worn my headgear out in public quite a bit when over in Asia: in fact, in my third week, when I was 'on holiday', I wore some form of headgear quite a bit. But out in Asia, hardly anyone knew me, and while I was travelling, the only person that knew me and saw me was Mei, and she had actually made half of my braces! But in London, I knew quite a few people, some of whom could easily just happen to be at the shops. the good news is that they didn't know that I officially got my braces a couple of days ago.

I started by walking to the local supermarket, where I usually did my main weekly shopping. The couple of roads near my house were quiet, but as I got closer to the main road, with the many shops, there were people around. Once on the actual main road, there were quite a few people around (not surprising, as it was a shopping area on a Saturday morning!)... people who might look at me and stare embarrassingly at me and my headgear. I could tell that my heart rate was up, so was my breathing rate.... I was scared.

So why the heck do I do things like go out in my fake braces and headgear? Well, because all that worry and stress, and elevated breathing and heart rates were actually quite a turn on! The possibility that I could walk straight into someone I knew was incredibly scary... and such fun at the same time!

My eyes scanned around, hoping to spot someone looking at me, but I was sadly disappointed: everyone was busy doing their own thing. Of course, in London, we have such an ethnic mix of people, so things like turbans and hijabs are now quite 'normal', so people just don't look at others.

It was really only when I walked past the security guard standing by the entrance in the supermarket that I spotted him looking at me, with a slight smile on his face. I felt a tiny shiver go down my spine... that was a good start!

Now that I was inside the store, people were not just walking past me.... however, they were very much in their own 'bubbles', looking for the cheese, the cereals, the coffee, the milk. I decided I needed to interact with the staff, so went to the deli counter. Guy in his early 20's came over to me.

"Yes, sir, what can I get you?" he asked, looking straight at me. At my face. At my headgear. A shiver went through me.

"Ah, can I have a vanilla slice please?". He used some tongs to put one into a bag, and passed it over to me.

"Anything else?" he asked, once again looking at me. I think I saw him trying to suppress a slight smile.

"No thanks" I replied.

I continued to walk around the store, and asked a couple of different members of store staff where to find things, purely to see if there would be any reaction to my headgear. It was only when I asked a third member of staff, a teenager who I guess worked weekends, and who herself had braces. She smiled when she looked up at me, showing me her large NHS brackets. I asked her where to find 'popping corn', and as she lead me there, she quietly commented "rather you than me wearing that headgear!".

"I'm several hours down on my wear this week, so I need to catch up a bit" I lied in reply. It felt so good to talk about my braces!

The rest of my supermarket shop was uneventful, even the guy on the checkout managed to neither smile nor comment. After that, I had a bit of a wander around the other shops: I think I might have caught one or two people sneakily looking my way, but that's as far as it went. Eventually, I walked back home with my shopping.

Back home, I took my high-pull headgear off, then took my braces out of my mouth, leaving the upper facebow in the braces. It felt very strange to not have braces in my mouth, but at the same time it was nice to have a short break from them. Wearing these braces so much really makes me understand and appreciate what people with real braces go through.

----

Early that afternoon I had a call from a girl I knew, she asked if I fancied joining her and a few others that evening - it was her friend's birthday - and they were going out for a Chinese meal. Whilst I had eaten several meals over in Asia with my braces in, and a smaller number back here in England, I was still a little apprehensive. However, I knew that Chinese food tended to be fairly easy to eat - besides, I actually like Chinese food - so I said yes.

Chapter 7

<A fairly boring week... and then there's Saturday>


Sunday lunch was good, Sonya's boyfriend, Will, joined us. Whilst Sonya and Janice shared a flat, they didn't actually socialise together all that much. I had had a shower, changed, and brushed my teeth and braces before returning for lunch, and ate my lunch with my braces in. Sonya made a brief comment about my braces, and Janice kept my secret.

The following week at work was fairly normal and uninteresting, although a couple of other people did briefly comment about my having braces.

On Wednesday, after I got home, I decided to take out my fake brackets, and put in my twin-blocks - I do like them, there's so much plastic to them: not only does the plastic go over the occlusal surfaces of many of my molars, it also covers the front teeth of both my lowers and uppers, stopping just below the balls of the many ball clasps. I chose something very soft to eat, and actually ate with them in, which was not easy. I took them out to brush my teeth and braces, but then put them back into my mouth, and subsequently slept in them too. I've only ever slept in my twin-blocks once before, and like then, it felt very nice waking up with a mouth full of plastic.


I was feeling a bit bored on Thursday, so after work I called Janice, and asked if she fancied going out to see a film. We had a pleasant evening together, and on the way back, we chatted.

"Maybe we should try getting together again?" I suggested "Maybe it will work second time around."

"You obviously have a short memory... so no thank you! Danny, I really like spending time with you, being with you, and occasionally 'doing things together in the bedroom', but I cherish the fact that we also have a load of time apart. That's what screwed us up last time, being too close to each other, too much of the time"

"Yeah, I guess so. It's just that... well, things get a bit lonely at times..."

"Yeah, I know what you mean, and I'm happy to be there for you, same as you've been there for me on a few occasions I've needed it". She slipped her arm around me as we waited for the bus to arrive. Yes, definitely a strange relationship!

When we got off the bus, neither offered the other 'a coffee'... it was a week day, and it was getting late, so we went our own ways.


Finally, it got to Saturday. Now, last weekend, I went to the local shops, at the top of my road, whilst wearing my headgear. This weekend I decided I would go into town, and wear my headgear there. There would be loads more people, and a much higher chance of meeting someone I knew. The thought was both scary as hell, and exciting!

I've been 'wearing my braces with night-time headgear wear for just over a week now. The reality of it is that I wore some sort of braces to bed on 7 of the 9 nights, and I actually slept in my Interlandi headgear one night too, and I will admit that I was surprised quite how disrupting to my sleep it was. Anyway, if I were doing it for real, then I'd be up to full-night headgear wear by now, so claiming to be 'low on my hours' was actually quite easy, especially as I'd been out with Janice on Thursday evening.

Janice... yes, I do like her, but she was right the other night: things don't work for us if we see too much of each other. About 9 months ago, we decided to see if 'being a couple' would work for us. We saw each other pretty much every day, and after 3 weeks, we had a bit of an argument, after which we sat down and chatted about things, and realised that, whilst we both had feelings for the other, and feel really comfortable in each other's company, we simply didn't work as a couple.

But there were times when one of us either needed or wanted company, and at those times, the other would do their best to be there. All of which is a bit of a shame, as she's a very sexy lady, great to talk to, and is exactly the sort of girl I'd like to settle down with.

So, where was I... yes, going to town in my headgear. Last week I wore my high-pull, but today I think I'm going to wear my Interlandi. The Interlandi is actually quite comfortable, especially when the pressure on the elastics is low (which is the way I wear it when wearing it for more than 10 or 20 minutes). Plus, of course, there is the 'advantage' that it is a bit more visible (and I'm guessing real headgear wearers would say that was it's biggest DISadvantage!)

So I put on my headgear and my coat, and walked up the road to the main road, where I could catch the bus into town. There were a few people on the bus, but no one really seemed to care or notice...

Town was quite busy. As last weekend, most people's attention was elsewhere. Near the bus stop was a group of teens, and I walked near them, I could see one of them pointing me out to the others, and smiling. I felt strangely embarrassed. I bet I looked quite odd, a guy in his mid 20s, wearing headgear in public. I mean, headgear is a kid's thing, and they would never, if at all possible, wear it out in public!

I went into one of those 'cheap books' shops, and had a look around. They had some permanent markers going cheap, so I grabbed a pack, and went to the checkout. There was a teenager on the till, and when she saw my headgear, she smiled, revealing a nice set of medium sized metal braces, with a couple of elastics on the front. I smiled back, letting her see my braces too.

"Two pounds, please" she said after she scanned my markers. I pulled out my card and held it over the card terminal for a couple of seconds.

"Thank you" I replied as I took my receipt and markers. A slight shiver of excitement ran through me.

I was walking along the pedestrian precinct when I heard a voice to my left. "Hi Danny!" said Janice. I turned and looked at her: I'm not quite sure who was shocked the most, me or her.

"Oh, hi there, Janice" I replied, as calmly and normally as possible.

"Nice addition to your braces there, Danny. Let me guess, you're down on your wear time and your mum insisted on you wearing it to town!". Her comment made me laugh.

"Sounds to me like you're talking from experience"

"I am actually, but only the once. God, it was sooooo embarrassing! Never did it again though."

"You had headgear as a kid? You never mentioned it last night!"

"Well, it's not the sort of thing you really want to admit to, is it? Besides, you never said anything about your headgear either!". We started walking along together. "So where did you get these braces from then? And don't you find it embarrassing wearing it?".

I explained how I'd got the braces when I was in Asia. I didn't tell her quite how many bits I'd actually bought: she already knew I was 'a bit wierd', there was no need to change that to 'completely weird'. "And yes, it is a bit embarrassing, although this isn't the first time I've worn it out in public. But that's part of the excitement of wearing it out. And I think it's a lot easier as an adult than as a teenager, all that peer-pressure has gone."

"Hey, can you drink coffee with it on?" she asked

"Why, fancy a coffee?"

"Yeah, I do.... come on...". We went into one of the larger coffee shops, and joined the queue. When you are not moving (so not in a big shop, or in the street) there's a lot more opportunity for people to see you, to look at you, and potentially stare at you if you are 'slightly out of the ordinary'. I was rather hoping that someone might be staring at me.

"Don't you worry about people looking at you, even staring at you?" asked Janice

"That's part of the fun, the slight embarrassment, slight awkwardness. It's probably no worse than if I had a strange haircut, or was a girl wearing rather revealing clothes."

By now we were at the front of the queue, and the serving guy was looking at me. "What would you like, sir?"

"A large Americano for me... Janice?"

"Can I have a flat white, please?

"Anything else?". I looked over to Janice, then back to our server. "No thanks...". I paid, and a couple of minutes later we took our coffees and sat down at a free table, which was pretty much right in the middle of the shop. I took the seat that looked to the front of the shop, so that anyone entering might see me.

"You're quite enjoying this, aren't you?"

"Well, if I wasn't, I wouldn't be wearing it!"

"Fair comment. So, can you drink the coffee with it in?"

"I have manged to drink with it in before, but it's not easy, but I intend to make a fool of myself by trying! Then I'll take it out while everyone watches". I picked up my cup, and put it up to my mouth, just in front of my facebow (I had tried drinking with it just under my facebow once before, but that was a disaster!), then pushed my lips out. Luckily this facebow fitted between my lips, so I didn't have to push my lips out all that much.... I then tipped the cup up a little, and sucked at the coffee. It would have been a bit easier if the coffee wasn't quite as hot.

I decided that I would remove my headgear.... as obviously as possible, I unhooked the two elastics from the loops on the end of the facebow, then took off my interlandi headgear, putting it onto the table. Then I gently pulled on my facebow, removing is from my mouth, and put it with my headgear on the table.

"So, was your headgear the same as this one?" I asked Janice.

"No, I just had a strap around my neck. I'm guessing you chose this one because it's a bit more visible?"

"Yes, I did, you know me too well! I actually have some neck straps, and a couple of 'high-pulls' too, so I have a choice. So, now you know my 'dirtly little secret'.... so what's yours?"

"Oh, no... no way am I telling you any of my secrets....".

We chatted as we drank our coffee. Without my headgear acting as a beacon, I was far less obvious in the coffee shop.

"Hey, want to join me on Wednesday evening? I'm going out with Sonya, and some of her friends for an Italian meal, I'm sure she won't mind you coming along."

"Yeah, ok, you know I like going out....."

Chapter 8

Thursday, daytime


I've been back in London now for about a month, and I've been wearing my (fake) brackets full time now for just on 2 weeks. Well, when I say full time, I have slept without them a couple of times, plus I do, of course, enjoy 'having some fun' with my other braces.

Last night (Wednesday) I met up with a small group of friends for a meal out at a nice Italian restaurant. There were 10 of us in total, but I didn't recognise several of them. I was sat in one of the end seats, with Janice sat opposite me. Next to Janice was Steve, someone I've vaguely known for a year or so. Sonya and Will were at the far end of the table.

But next to Steve (and thus in the middle of the 5 seats opposite me) was a girl I didn't recognise. She had lovely long red hair, was VERY pretty, and very smartly dressed. A couple of bits of nice jewellery too, I'm not talking cheap tacky stuff, it was all clearly up-market. Not too much makeup, and a lovely smile too, with lovely straight teeth.

And very definitely WAY out of my league!

We did exchange a few words, but where she was sat made any conversation a little difficult, besides, she was mainly talking to Sonya and a couple of others at the far end of the table. I did discover that her name was Amanda, and that she did live in the area.... and that was about it.

So I was quite a surprised to get a call from Janice the following day: "It seems you have an admirer"

"An admirer?"

"Remember that redhead last night, Amanda? Sat in the middle of the table, a couple of seats from me? It's come along a bit of a chain, but Sonya called me earlier, as she knew I had your number, and the message is along the lines of 'please pass this number to Danny, and ask him to call Amanda'. I'll forward it to you in a moment."

"Well, it can't be to ask me out on a date, she's way out of my league!"

"Don't underestimate yourself, Danny!... hey, maybe she fancies 'a bit of rough'?" said Janice with a laugh. We chatted for a bit, then after we finished, she sent me the number.

I'll admit, it's been a while since a girl has given me her number, and I've never had a number passed along to me like this before, it's always because I've asked her for it. I went and grabbed a coffee to calm myself, then went into an empty meeting room. After a couple of deep breaths, I called the number. It rang five times, then she answered.

"Hello, this is Amanda Spencer" said a very nice voice, but in a very formal way.

"Hi, Amanda, this is, err, Danny, we... we met briefly last night at the Italian restaurant, and.... I got a message to call you..."

"Oh, hi Danny, thanks for calling!". Her tone had instantly changed from a very formal business sort of voice, to a very much friendlier one. "We never really got a chance to talk last night, did we?... look, I was kinda wondering if you'd let me take you out for a drink tonight?".

To say I was surprised is an understatement. I've never actually been asked out by a girl before (well, apart from Janice, but she's a friend), it's always me doing the asking... and especially not one as nice as her. I mean, what did she see in me?

"Yes, sure, that would be nice.." I replied. In fact, it would be 10 times better than 'nice'.

"Oh, great... how does 7:30 at Jason's Wine Bar sound?"

"Yes, I know the place, and 7:30 will be fine"

"Look, I have to go, but I'll see you tonight. You have my number if there's any problems!"

"Ok, see you tonight!".

Wow, so I have a date tonight with a really hot redhead! I just hope I don't screw it up.

I'm glad you kept this one going and explored what happened back home.  I finally got caught up on this story yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it so far.