Nice updates, thanks for sharing!

(Personally though, I'd love to read the lisp more than just imagine it. I can imagine it's annoying to type, but from a readers (or more specifically my) perspective, it would add even more to the story )

Presumably you meant to say ‘not’ ?! (Or perhaps you didn’t !...)

Great reading.
Its now getting interesting to guess who could possibly pop up next.!

So, today's chapter happens maybe a week or two after the last one...

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Chapter 57

Abbie


Today was Tuesday. Ok, I guess it still IS Tuesday for a few more hours. Work was a bit hectic today, not one specific thing, just a whole load of little things that just needed sorting out. But finally I was home. I'd messaged Janice to see what she was up to (whilst I hoped she was free, I also hoped that she was out with another guy!)

Whilst I waited for her reply, I was looking at my dating app once again, to see if there's been anyone new joined in my area: there were indeed a couple of faces I'd not seen before. One looked quite nice, kinda familiar (but if you look at enough faces, some will always appear to be familiar!), her name was Abbie. From what I could see in the picture, she had dark shoulder length hair with a fringe (which I find quite attractive), and didn't seem to wear too much makeup, again, a positive.

I looked at her details: 24, a secretary / administrator, and because my distance filter was quite low, clearly lived somewhere near. I swiped up on her (ok, for those who don't know, swipe right = yes, swipe up = YES!!!), and instantly got told that we were a match!

I sent her a message in the app, telling her which bit of London I worked in, and suggested that, if she happened to work in the area, would she like to meet at the park in town one lunchtime? I've done that with a couple of girls now, they seem to like the fact that it's a public place, and nicely informal. And a limited time, which both people can probably put up with!

Ten minutes later, I had a reply from Janice: "Sorry, going out on a second date with a guy from the app....", to which I replied: "No probs, have a great evening!"

To be honest, I didn't really fancy cooking tonight, so walked up to the shops, and decided to eat in at the curry place. Ok, so it cost a bit more than a take-away, but it was nice to not just be sat at home entirely by myself. While I was eating my curry, my phone pinged: it seems Abbie DOES work close to me, and would love to meet up with me, how about tomorrow?. Of course, I messaged back, saying that would be fine, and if I were getting sandwiches and a drink for both of us, what would she like? I also took a picture of me alone in the curry house, and sent it.

My curry took about 15 minutes longer to eat, as we were exchanging messages, but it was fun. And I had a date for lunch tomorrow.

---

We had arranged to meet at 12:40. I knew a nice sandwich shop that was on the way to the park, so I'd texted my order through, which meant when I arrived there at about 12:30, it was waiting for me. I got to the park just before 12:40, and waited just inside the entrance, where we had agreed to meet. It should be no problem recognising each other, as we'd both seen pictures of each other. (ok, yeah, so some girls use other girl's pics, but they are hardly going to be willing to meet up straight away if they have done that!)

A couple of minutes later, Abbie arrived. I looked at her: she seemed familiar. I noticed that she was also looking at me, as if she recognised me.

"Hi Abbie!...". Abbie was a tiny bit smaller than me.... I'm 5ft 8ins, so I'd guess she was 5ft 6in. As in her picture, she was quite slim, with quite dark hair, down to her shoulders with a fringe. Carefully applied makeup, and smartly dressed in a simple dress. (Whilst it all looked simple, I guessed she had spent ages that morning trying to work out what to wear, and also spent some time making sure her makeup looked good). A fairly plain ring on the third finger of her right hand, and a simple pendant around her neck. As she smiled, I could see a lovely set of straight white teeth... the sort of teeth that shout out 'I had braces as a teenager, and I still wear my retainers to keep them straight!'

"Hello Danny! Nice to meet you..". As it was still early in the lunch hour, we were able to find a park bench that had a couple of spaces, and I passed her her lunch.

"Thank you, Danny."

"My pleasure! Abbie, I'm not quite sure how to say this, but you look familiar.... have we met before?"

"Now that I see you in person, I now realise exactly who you are, and yes, we have met before" she replied. I was thinking hard to work out where we had met, but I couldn't work it out.

"Ok... so where have we met then?" 

"Well, I'm a secretary / administrator, and I work at Kings Square Chambers - I believe that you know the place quite well?". Know it? I'd been there so many times! It's where Amanda works! Talk about 'it's a small world'! So I had probably seen her once or twice 'in passing', which explained why she looked quite so familiar. "I hope that's not going to be a problem for us?" she added.

Clearly she knew about me and Amanda, and that we had dated for several months.

"Um, I hope not.... I'll try extra hard to not let it be!". As I smiled, I could see her looking at me, and more specifically I saw her quickly glance at my retainers. She started to eat the sandwich that I had got her. "Excuse me a moment" I said. Letting Abbie see what I was doing, I pulled out my retainer box from my pocket, turned away from her, and took out my retainers, putting them into my retainer box, then turned back, and let her see me slipping it back into my pocket!

"So when did you work out who I was?" I asked, as I started on my sandwich.

"Well, when I saw your picture, it looked slightly familiar, and so did your name, so I discretely asked someone at work today what Amanda's ex's name was, and it all fell into place. Don't worry, working in the law makes you very careful what questions you ask!" she said, smiling. "Anyway, less about all that, tell me a bit about yourself, Danny". I was impressed that, despite knowing exactly who I was, and that I had dated Amanda until about 3 months ago, she didn't seem to be getting cold feet. I told her a bit about what I do, and certain parts about my trip to Asia earlier in the year.

She then told me a bit about herself, we seemed to be getting on quite well. My phone pinged, indicating some activity on the dating app..

"I recognise that sound!" said Abbie, "you should check it, it might be from some really good looking girl you've swiped right on!". I took a quick look: it was from Janice - ages ago, we had  found each others profiles, and swiped up on each other, and occasionally we would send messages via the app, just for fun.

"It's ok, it's only Janice" I said with a smile. Which is when I realised that was maybe NOT the best thing to have said. "Erm, I guess I now need to explain who Janice is, don't I?" I said, feeling a bit embarrassed. "She's my best friend, we've been friends now for about 4 years. It was her who suggested that we should both sign up to the dating app. I guess, in a way, we are each-other's wingman. Oh, and we enjoy drinking too much together!". I could have said more, but not only wasn't it appropriate right now, it would have taken me down a long rabbit-hole..... "Here, take a look at her message" - I passed the phone over to Abbie.

'Hey, if you don't have a date lined up tonight, want to come over for dinner?'

"So, what you going to tell her?"

I thought quickly. To be honest, if she was interested, it would be nice to have dinner with Abbie. "Well, I guess it depends if someone else wants to have dinner with me tonight" I replied.

Abbie still had my phone, and started typing back to Janice. I was a little worried what she was typing, but as soon as she had sent the message, she passed it back to me so I could see. It said: 'Hi Janice, sorry, but Danny has a date with me tonight - Abbie'.

A minute later, there was a reply, which I showed Abbie: 'That sounds like a good enough excuse to me - hope you both have a great evening!'

So it was that I went out for the evening with Abbie, nothing particularly special, we went to a pleasant (but not too expensive!) chain restaurant. She was nice company, pleasantly chatty, and the evening seemed to go nicely. I got the feeling that she wasn't wanting to rush things, which was fine with me.

"So, would you like to have lunch together again tomorrow?" she suggested. "My treat this time".

"Yeah, ok!"

"So what would you like me to get you to eat?"

"Ham salad or ham and cheese, something like that. Not tuna though!"

"Ok"

"Sounds like a date to me!"

"Well, thank you for tonight, you were nice company" she said, and leaned over and gave me a quick kiss on my lips. "You know, I've never actually kissed a guy with braces before...."


It wasn't late when I got home, so I gave Janice a call - she was at home too.

"Hi Danny!... how did it go tonight?" she asked me

"Very well, thank you... but you'll never guess who she is"

"Well, I'm assuming her name is Abbie, and you were clearly flirting with her at lunchtime if you let her have your phone. So who is she?"

"Well, it's not so much who she is, but where she works. She works at the same place as Amanda! It turns out that we have historically seen each other at her chambers".

"You're kidding me? So she knows that you and Amanda used to go out? Which means I guess she knows that you split up with Amanda"

"Yes on both counts. But luckily that doesn't seem to worry her"

"So, tell me all about her, and what you talked about tonight". I spent the next 45 minutes telling her about it all.

"Oh, by the way, I'm off work tomorrow, have a few things lined up to do in town, want to meet for lunch, or you meeting Abbie again?"

"Sorry, I'm meeting Abbie..."

"Ok, well let me know tomorrow afternoon if you'd like to come over for dinner".

I met Abbie for lunch: once again, we had an enjoyable time chatting. It was so nice to chat with someone who was actually able to to talk about something other than music, makeup and that sort of stuff!

"So, want to do something tonight?" I asked.

"Sorry, but Thursday is badminton. So how about we meet for lunch again tomorrow? It's actually quite a nice way to get to know someone, sitting here chatting, slightly away from the world."

Once again, as we parted, she gave me a kiss on my lips: it was a slightly bolder kiss: our lips touched, her tongue quickly pushed between my lips, and ran across my upper teeth, also feeling my retainer wire.... and then it was over. A very cheeky kiss! But I was hardly going to complain!

Oh, the tease. You don't say whether the braces are real or fake.

Chapter 59

The phone call


<ok, so we're back with Danny again...>


Abbie and I had spent our second lunchtime together this lunchtime, and things seemed to be going well between us.

I would probably give Janice a call later, see if she wanted to get together tonight, like she had suggested... after all, Abbie was going to be at badminton.

It was about 4pm when my phone rang. I pulled it out of my pocket, to discover it was Amanda, which was quite a surprise - a nice surprise - I'd not heard from her at all since we parted ways, about 3 months ago.

"Hello Amanda...."

"Hi there, Danny, how are you?". Her voice sounded slightly nervous, which kinda made sense.

"Ok, I guess. I must admit, I wasn't expecting to hear from you. How are you?"

"Yes, 'ok' kinda describes me too, I think. Look, I don't suppose, by any chance, you are currently single, and are free tonight? If so, I'd like to offer you a six hour contract!". I smiled, understanding what she meant: she needed a partner, probably for some sort of semi-formal dinner.

Ok, so I've met with Abbie for dinner and two lunches, but I don't think we're actually dating... yet! Are we? So, technically, I *am* single. And I'm not meeting Abbie tonight because she's playing badminton. And spending the evening with Amanda would actually be nice... without being nasty, I'd much rather spend an evening with Amanda than Janice, which was the other option.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I am free tonight.... so a six hour contract could be of interest to me... Some special event that you need a partner for?"

"No, nothing like that. I was just hoping you might like to come and have dinner with me somewhere". Again, I could sense a bit of nervousness in her voice.
 
"Yeah, ok, why not...". Maybe I should have mentioned that I was starting to see someone else - someone she knew. But, hey, this was an invitation for dinner, that was all.

So, I'm guessing that her relationship with the other guy didn't work out for her, otherwise I'd not be getting this call. I'm sure I would find out the details about that tonight.

"Ok, I'll book us somewhere, and I'll collect you at, say, quarter to seven?"

"Ok, that'll work for me."

I will admit that the idea of spending the evening with Amanda cheered me up greatly. Our relationship had always been surprisingly honest: the whole idea of one- and three-month contracts may sound very strange, but it made us look at our relationship carefully, helped us express our feelings for each other. While we were together, we were dedicated to each other, and when we 'ended our final contract' there was no real animosity. Plenty of sadness, but no real animosity.

So, I got home, took a shower, took out my retainers and brushed my teeth. I had decided several weeks ago that continuing to wear my fake braces could give me more issues when meeting girls, so had decided that my 'treatment' had finally finished, and now I would be having to wear Hawley retainers for 3 months... or maybe 6 months!

As it approached 6:45, I started to get nervous, like I was about to go out on a first date with Amanda.... and thinking back to my ACTUAL first date with her, I can remember I was a bit nervous back then too. And quite intimidated by Amanda!

The doorbell rang at 6:44: it was, of course, Amanda. Standing at my front door, she looked as lovely as ever, dressed as sexy as hell, smiling and showing off the fake braces Mei had got her. We looked at each other for a moment, then we had a bit of an awkward hug, which actually felt very good. I could smell the Amanda that I had got so used to, and it smelt good. Familiar. Pleasing.

We walked down to the car, and got in. Before driving off, Amanda turned to me. "Danny, before we drive off, there's something I need to say to you. Three months ago, when we.... when we ended our contract, I made a big mistake. Looking back now, I realise we had something good... something VERY good, and I completely messed that up.". She stopped a moment, and took a breath. "I'm not really sure what to say, and just saying 'I'm sorry' doesn't really seem to be enough...".

I put my hand on hers. I knew that it must have taken quite a bit of guts to actually say what she just did: Amanda wasn't one to apologise easily. "Hey, don't beat yourself up, relationships start and end all the time. Yes, I was a bit upset at the time, but I think I forgave you quite a bit ago. So 'sorry' will do me just fine! So let's go and have a nice evening together!"

Amanda smiled at me. "Thank you, Danny...". I have no doubt that, had this sort of thing happened when we were together, we would have kissed, but that didn't seem appropriate at the moment.

We both put on our seatbelts, and Amanda started driving.

"So, still enjoying the fake braces I see" I commented, as we drove off.

"Actually, no... these are REAL braces" she replied

"REAL braces? As in stuck to your teeth, needed for REAL treatment?".

"Yeah! So after we parted, I didn't wear my fake braces all that much, well certainly not the month I was dating Gerald, and that kinda got me out of the habit. So, about 3 weeks ago, I tried my braces again, and they felt stupidly tight. I mean, not just a little bit difficult to get on, almost impossible to get on, and even then, they hurt. My retainers were slightly better, but not much. So I looked in the mirror, but couldn't really see anything wrong: no crooked teeth or anything. I mean, there MUST have BEEN a difference, the braces used to fit my teeth just fine"

"Oh, right.... so I guess you went straight off to see an ortho?"

"Well, not quite straight away, a few days later. I mean, how do you go to an orthodontist and say 'hey, I know my teeth still look good, but my fake braces aren't really fitting me any more'".

"Hmm, yeah, I see what you mean. So what did you do?" I knew full well that Amanda was getting as much enjoyment from telling me her story as I was listening to it.

"I finally plucked up the courage, and went to see an ortho. Boy, I've never been so scared". Now that wasn't something I had heard Amanda say, I'd never really known her to be scared. Upset, yes, but never actually scared. "I felt like a naughty child, having to admit to doing something wrong. I'm sure you appreciate that fake braces isn't something you expect orthodontists to like"

"So what happened?"

"Well, he opened with something like 'Good afternoon, Ms Spencer... or is it OK to call you Amanda? What can I do for you today?'. I responded with 'I hope you are open-minded, a have a bit of a story to tell you....'. His reply was along the lines of 'try me, I'm happy to listen...'. I told him that I had purchased some 'costume braces', which used to fit me just fine, but were now, only a few month later, very tight. He gave me a bit of a dirty look, but when I took out my braces, and he saw how they were actually made, he became a bit more positive. We chatted a bit, and he fully appreciated that the fake brackets were really no worse than a Hawley Retainer, and that if it used to fit, but no longer fitted, then yes, I had a problem, and he would be happy to take a look"

"And what WAS the problem then?"

"Well, it seems that I had some small, slightly impacted, un-erupted, wisdom teeth. I vaguely remember my dentist mentioning something a few years ago, along the lines of 'well, if they aren't actually causing you any problems, I'd be tempted to leave them as they are'. But it seems like they had changed their minds, and were now causing my teeth to move a bit."

"So, I'm guessing you've had them removed... I bet that wasn't particularly nice?"

"I know I should have maybe gone and seen another ortho to get a second opinion, but he seemed to be just fine, even if he's maybe not the cheapest. He booked me in a couple of days later with a colleague, who works more on the oral-surgery side of things, and I had my wisdom teeth removed under a local anaesthetic - not a particularly nice experience - and got my braces fitted a couple of days later. And I'm sure you'll be happy to hear that I'm also having to wear headgear and elastics for 3 months, just to move my molars back a tiny bit".

I smiled widely: the irony of life! Amanda, like me, has a massive braces fetish, and she has actually ended up NEEDING braces!

"Are you enjoying having them?"

"Yes, although they were rather sore the first week. But it's been so hard not having someone to actually share the joy with.... "

"So I'm guessing that's part the reason you asked me out tonight?"

"Well, maybe a bit more than just 'part the reason'" she replied with a lovely smile showing a lovely set of quite large metal brackets - in fact, larger than I would have expected.

"Do I gather that your orthodontist was willing to indulge your fantasies a bit...."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, those brackets ARE a bit on the large size..."

"Ah, yes.... he did! Hey, we're here...." she replied as we pulled into the car park.

The waiter showed us to our table, and we sat down, and started looking at the menu.

"I see your braces treatment has ended" commented Amanda.

"Yes, there's a bit of a story behind that..." I said, as I removed my retainers, and put them into the retainer box I had in my pocket

"Ok, I hope you're going to tell me over dinner.". We chose our food, and Amanda got us a bottle of wine. "So, what happened to cause your treatment to end?"

I explained about the girl with braces I'd met at the party, who had asked about why my braces had plates. How I had confessed that they were actually fakes, and how she had called me a 'weirdo', and walked out on me.

"Sounds about right, you ARE a braces weirdo... but no worse than me! So, what about Daisy then?" she asked. I thought a moment: I'd not mentioned anything about Daisy to her, so how did she know?

"Erm, how do you know about Daisy?" I asked her.

"Well, I might have, completely by chance, had lunch with Janice today, and maybe she mentioned her". Ah, so THAT is why she called me this afternoon!

"By chance?"

"It was, actually". I remembered that Janice was taking the day off, and had offered to meet me for lunch, so it probably WAS by chance.

I told Amanda all about Daisy, and she thought the whole thing was rather funny, and looking back on it, I guess it was.

"So" I said after I'd finished the story about Daisy, "you've not told me about the guy you left me for...."

"Ah, yes, Gerald...."

"I'm guessing, from the way you just said that, that you aren't a couple any more?"

Amanda explained about Gerald, the accountant. It seems that while at first he seemed interesting, once they started being a couple, he became rather demanding. The word 'chauvinist' was even used. "I ended up making up stories that I was 'otherwise busy' for the last week of the 30 days, it was that bad!"

"Ah, so you didn't renew his contract then?": that made Amanda laugh.

"Nope!" was her reply. She went on to explain that after that, she'd been quite busy with a couple of important cases, and since then simply couldn't be bothered to do anything about meeting guys.

"You could have called me" I suggested

"Oh, I did think about doing that, several times, but I just felt so bad about the way things ended between us, and I was worried you'd not want to talk to me. Maybe wouldn't even answer my call. It was Janice who said I should call you, that you'd probably be ok with getting a call from me".

Oh, Amanda, why didn't you call me a couple of days ago? Before I'd met Abbie! Things would have been so very simple even just 3 days ago. Maybe I should have told Amanda about Abbie at that point, but I decided not to. After all, this was just an evening with Amanda.

Finally, we finished our deserts and coffees, and Amanda went to the toilet to brush her teeth. Oh, the irony of it: it used to be ME going to clean MY (fake) braces, but I was now wearing retainers, while Amanda had (real) braces. As as we left the restaurant, which was actually out of suburbia, and in a rather nice village, Amanda kissed me in the car park. I was now in a slight quandary: I was actually getting to like Abbie, but then again, I probably had ten times as many feelings for Amanda.

"About that 6 hour contract..." she said, kissing me again. "Would you be interested in extending it to maybe 24 hours?"

Chapter 60

Amanda?


When I woke up the following morning, I could feel an arm across me. Amanda's arm. As I opened my eyes, I could see that Amanda's eyes were already open, and she was looking at me. I could also see that Amanda was still wearing her headgear: a lovely metal facebow that was positioned between her lips, and a blue cervical strap around her neck, the sort with a force-module on each side.

"I've really missed you, you know" she said. "I've missed having you to cuddle up to. I've missed waking up with you next to me! I've missed spending my evenings with you. I've missed playing braces with you!"

"I've missed you too" I replied. Our heads moved closer together, and our lips met. Our tongues played with each other, and I ran my tongue over her facebow, and then the braces on her top teeth. The REAL headgear, and the REAL braces on her top teeth. I was so jealous that Amanda had REAL braces and REAL headgear!

"So, tell me all about your braces.... your REAL braces.... I want all the gory details about your ortho visits...."

"Ok, so I started looking online, and tried to see what places were fairly local and getting good reviews, and found Green Street Orthodontics. Once I finally plucked up the courage to do something, I called them, and got an appointment the next day: it's probably just as well they could see me so quickly, I might have bottled out if I'd had to wait. The outside was just a normal semi-detached house, but inside it was so nice: not only bright and clean, but nice big comfy chairs in the waiting room. Mind you, didn't make me any less nervous"

"You were actually nervous?"

"Absolutely! Although when I met him - Dr Banaie - I calmed down. He's originally from Sweden, but speaks lovely English. I was so worried about what I was going to tell him. I think initially he was a bit worried, but once I explained things, and I showed him my 'costume braces', he was so ok about things, and took me quite seriously. So I sat in his treatment chair, and he examined me in detailed, and once he'd taken x-rays of my jaws, the problem was so obvious: my wisdom teeth were starting to move my teeth. So obviously, I'd need to get the wisdom teeth removed, and then I could get braces to move my teeth back again. My only worry was what braces he'd give me - I mean, no way would I want clear aligners! He suggested that I have brackets, and asked if I knew what 'headgear' was. That was difficult, because I couldn't just say 'yes please, gimme gimme....' could I? So I said that I knew about headgear, a friend had it when we were teens, and that if he felt I needed headgear for my treatment, then I'd wear it as needed. What I'd forgotten at that point was, of course, that my fakes had headgear tubes on!"

"Oh, nice. What about getting the bigger brackets"

"That was actually something he suggested. 'I see the brackets on your costume braces are quite large... our normal brackets are smaller (and he showed me some tiny ones), but if you'd prefer slightly larger brackets, that isn't a problem. Needless to say, I liked his idea!"

"So you didn't get a second opinion?"

"I know, I guess I should have got a second opinion, but I felt good about him, so decided not to waste my time or energy, and just go with him, so we filled in the forms, and he took pictures of my teeth, and scanned my mouth and all that sort of stuff. Tell you what, the scanner he used was really cool, about the size of an electric toothbrush, with a wire coming out of it. It was ten times better than getting impressions taken! Then he booked me in for a couple of days later, with a colleague, to get my wisdom teeth out: the good news is that they came out very easily. "

"Before I left, he fitted me with spacers. Unfortunately, I hadn't really expected to get things started so quickly, ao I hadn't taken any pain killers... shit, those things hurt! I mean, not straight away, but by the time I got home, I was in pain, and of course, it took a bit for the painkillers to kick in. After that, I made sure I was dosed up, both for the extractions, and for the braces fitting."

"How did you feel coming out the ortho's then?"

"Oh, wow, I felt so good... the pain from the spacers hadn't kicked in, and I was about to get braces - REAL braces!! "So, 2 days later, I got my extractions done, and picked up my formal treatment plan while I was there. Three days later I was back to get my braces."

"Ah, good" I said, "we're getting to the more interesting bit...."

"You're really enjoying this, aren't you?" she said

"Of course I am.... and you're having just as much fun actually telling me! So, do go on..."

"Anyway... the first thing he did was to remove my spacers: a couple had already fallen out, and he said I had plenty of space to fit my molar bands. I think getting the bands fitted was the hardest bit, they have to be large enough to fit, but not too large, so he was trying them in, taking them off, adjusting them, and trying them again. Seemed to take ages to get them right. So yeah, once they were all ok, he did the etching of ALL my teeth, then he he glued the 4 bands into place."

"UV activated glue, I'm guessing?"

"Yeah, that's right. Then it was the brackets: getting them fitted was, by comparison, easy. My teeth were already etched, so it was just a matter of him putting glue on the tooth, add bracket, shine light... repeat loads of time. Fitting the archwires was pretty straight-forward... my teeth were pretty much lined up ok, so there wasn't a huge amount of pressure on my teeth. He was really quick at putting on the ligatures."

"So what colour did you start with then?"

"I went with that sort of neutral clear colour, didn't want to be too obvious, given what I do."

"And what was it like the first time you saw your braces"

"Not all that exciting, to be honest, I'd already seen my teeth with my fakes on, and it wasn't THAT different, although there WAS the added bonus that these are REAL braces. Of course, that wasn't the end of it..."

"Ah, yes, your headgear!" I said, running my finger along the silver facebow that was currently between her lovely lips. And I bet that wasn't all that exciting either, as you already had some headgear".

"Well, you say that, but with the fakes, the pressure from the facebow goes into the whole appliance, so it's spread over all your teeth. With real braces, the pressure is directly on your teeth, so I guess you only have two molars - the front and the rear molars - taking the pressure."

"Ah, so it hurt a bit?"

"Not so much when he was fitting it, I'd made sure I was maxed on pain-killers, but when I put it in again a couple of hours later at home, yeah, I could feel it!"

"Sounds like you quite enjoyed the experience of getting braces then?"

"A bit of yes, and a bit of no. Yes, it was a fun experience, but the no is all the long boring bits, lying there as he fitted the brackets"

"So, I'm guessing you've had another visit since... you don't hove the boring ligs any more..."

"No, I had a look online, and decided to get these blue ones. What do you think?"

"It suits you actually!"

It was so good being with Amanda, talking about braces like we used to, both enjoying the experience, feeling so relaxed in each other's company. We kissed an cuddled for a few minutes.

"I have a crazy idea..." said Amanda

"Oh yeah, what's that?"

"Well, three months ago, when we ended our contract, I made a very big mistake. That 30 days with Gerald was another big mistake. Ok, so we were going through a bit of a bad patch, but maybe we just needed another short break from each other, before continuing on together, like we did before... so I was wondering: how would you like to extend this 24 hour contract to a 30 day one?"

Oh dear, I needed to make a big decision: did I want to go out with Amanda again? I guess there was really no doubt in my mind what my answer would be, but that would leave one slight 'loose end'.

"Amanda, before I answer you, there's something I need to tell you. A few days ago, I met a girl through a dating app"

"And is it serious?"

"Well..... not yet....  but I was hoping it might get serious. We've had lunch in the park a couple of times, and we went out for dinner the other night, and I was thinking about asking her to be my girlfriend. She's actually very nice, but the real problem is with who she is....."

Awesome job! It will be interesting to see what happens next!

Great, and very complicated.
It makes me think I might have missed a lot more than just having braces when I was around that age and leading a very simple life!!

A new post form Sparky is always the first thing I look for. It must be time to start thinking about making this a published novel!