Vivienne (whitemagiclady) wrote in light_of_may, @ 2009-06-26 23:38:00 |
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Entry tags: | 2009-06-06 |
How to lose a guy in one easy step.
Who: Tayne and Vivienne
Where: Vivienne's house
When: 3pm, or about ten minutes after
Running late wasn't one of Tayne's favorite things to do, but somehow, it felt like half the time that's what he wound up doing. Like right now, it was about ten minutes after three, when he was supposed to show up at Vivienne's, and he was only just now pulling his battered truck up to her address, parking on the street and collecting the paper grocery bag he'd brought the ingredients for dinner in. Or late lunch. Or whatever you called such a thing.
Vivienne had been ready for the guy to arrive for a while now. She'd left her hair down and tried not to dress up. Tried being the key word there. She ended up in a pair of nice jeans and didn't even bother with shoes. She hardly ever wore them when she was running around the house anyway. Today was no different. Her shirt however, was another halter like the one she'd worn out to the radio station during her first show. This one was tight fitting and a deep crimson color. At least she hadn't gone completely overboard with her make up so she just looked like she'd be going out on date. Which was kind of what this was, without the going out part.
She pulled the door open and gave him a smile, stepping out of the way so he could enter. "Find the place okay?"
Tayne hadn't done anything special with his appearance: he had his usual jeans and a t-shirt, with a loose, short-sleeved flannel on top, and he grinned a bit sheepishly at how pretty she looked. This was not going to be a good afternoon, he could tell already. "Yeah," he answered as he came in. "Sorry I'm late, I just ran a couple minutes behind." After the morning visiting Annie, and running down to the diner to bless the hell out of anything he could get his hands on without people noticing, and then having to get to the grocery store to pick up ingredients... yeah, he was a bit behind.
"It's just a few minutes, sweetheart." she said, shaking her head and shutting the door behind him. "No worries." Vivienne was honestly just glad the guy had shown up at all. He could have changed his mind after all, it was more than possible.
"Well, I got plenty of food," he said with a slightly better smile, holding up the paper back. "This oughta be a good meal, at least. That can make up for a few minutes." He really ought to be complimenting her. Obviously she'd expect it. Was he actually trying this shit for real, again? Did he really think he could? After Johan, finding out about Johan....
"You look nice," he said after a beat, though inside he was kicking himself.
"Thank you." Vivienne said, a smile widening across her face. "You too." she added after half a second. He did look nice. At least in her opinion. These cute guys everywhere. "And you don't have to make up for those minutes." she said, leading him through to the kitchen. "But I'll definitely take some food."
"Since I have this thing about feeding people? I'd probably be doing it even if I weren't late. So." Tayne managed a real grin that time, too, and brought the bag up onto the counter. It clinked a little, and he reached in to get out the paper-wrapped fish, spices, rice, veggies, a couple sauces, and a small bottle of red wine. "I hope you ain't allergic to anything...."
"Nope." she said, shaking her head a little and leaning lightly on the counter. The kitchen was spotless. Hell, the whole house was spotless. If they'd wanted to eat off the floor, it would probably be just as clean as the counters were. Everything neatly put away. Even the cabinets were perfectly situated. Everything inside alphabetized and stacked just so. That was just Vivienne and the way she happened to be.
"Where do you keep your--" Tayne tried opening a cupboard and found the neatly stacked dishes. "--mixing bowls?" he finished. That was the most orderly cupboard he'd ever seen. Not even his mother kept things that neat. Well, really, his mother could be a bit of a mess sometimes, when it came to organization, so that wasn't surprising. And he'd inherited that trait, so he didn't have any cupboard that neat, either.
"Second cupboard on the right side of the sink." Vivienne answered easily as if the places things were located were burned into her brain. And perhaps they were. At least at her home where things needed to be where she wanted them to be.
"Gotcha." He headed over to get out the smallest one she had. "And I'll need a medium-sized pot, a small skillet, a spatula, a baking sheet, and which drawer has silverware?" Once he was settled into his work he could get the small talk going, but he needed a few things to get settled into work. At least he knew exactly what he was making today.
"First drawer to the left of the refrigerator." Vivienne said, retrieving a medium sized pot, the small skillet and a spatula for him and laying them out on the counter and then reaching beneath one of the other cabinets to get the baking sheet. "There you go." she smiled. "All set then?"
Looking around and rubbing his hands together a moment in thought, Tayne finally said, "I think... yes. You can sit in here with me, and all, I might wind upp putting you to work." He shot her a smile, unstoppering a couple bottles of spice and sauce. "If that's okay."
Oh good, he was going to let her stay. She grinned at him and found herself a spot by the counter. "I don't mind a bit." Vivienne assured him. "Just tell me what you want me to do."
"Simple stuff for now. Preheat the over to 300, chop up the veggies into something suitable for stir-fry, that kind of thing." Tayne started pouring a few sauces into the mixing bowl, not a lot, but a little of each. "Oh, and fill that pot with water and set it to boil? That's for the rice." He added a little bit of spice to the sauce mix, and started stirring rapidly. "I probably should've asked ahead of time what you liked, but salmon was on sale, and I haven't made salmon in a while."
"Salmon is just lovely." Vivienne said as she made herself busy with doing the things he'd asked. First the oven preheated. Then putting the water to boil on the stove. Then she got her chopping board out and started on the vegetables. "Thanks for coming over." she said with a smile. "It's nice to have some company for... lunch... dinner... whatever."
"Hey, I'm not going to turn down a chance to show off my skills," Tayne chuckled. Then, realizing how that sounded, he flushed. Great job, Tayne, way to give her ideas. "At cooking, I mean," he corrected hastily. "Cooking. I like feeding people, you know? It's something I'm good at."
Vivienne couldn't hold back the little tinkling laugh that escaped her, but she was quick to put her hand over her mouth to stifle it. "I wasn't thinking you meant anything else, sweetheart. After all... we just met right? What kinda girl do you take me for?" she teased, giving him a little wink and another grin.
"Ah. I'm sure you're a very nice one?" Tayne tried with a sheepish, shy, and still-embarrassed little smile. "Who can be forgiving of a guy being stupid now and then?" All the time, maybe? If only he was good as being an asshole; he could just chase women off. Ugh. He unwrapped the fish and cut it lengthwise, opening it up and cutting it into two halves onto the baking sheet. He checked a drawer, then another, until he found a sauce brush and dipped it in his sauce mixture to brush it onto the fish.
Vivienne smiled as she continued to chop up the veggies and once she was done, she put them all into a bowl for him. "Alright, now what shall I do?" she questioned with a little glance over to the man. "And you're not being stupid... just for the record. Don't be down on yourself, Tayne. You've said nothing wrong just yet."
"Um. Pour the rice into the boiling water." It was boiling now, right? Or almost boiling. "And don't worry, if I haven't said anything wrong yet, I'm sure I will soon." It sounded a little more like a tease, this time, poking fun at himself. "There's still a lot of hours in the day." Though he was pretty sure every word coming out of his mouth was stupid, at this point, because he was even here.
Vivienne did as he requested and put the rice into the pot and let it boil. "Well maybe I'll say something stupid too." she grinned. "You never know. I'm quite capable of making myself sound dumb. Believe me."
"I guess we'll just have to both be patient with each other, then," Tayne chuckled, and he took the fish over to the oven. "Or very politely ignore when we fuck up. --Wanna set the timer for me, for thirty-five minutes? It'll take about that long for the fish to cook, and a little longer for the rice to cook." He ducked into the cupboard she'd pulled her pot from, found the lid, and stuck that on. "So what shall we talk about in the meantime?"
She set the timer on the oven for thirty-five minutes and shrugged. "Well... what have you been doing all day?" Vivienne questioned.
"God, um. You probably don't want to know." Tayne laughed a little bit. "It's been a long day, and probably a pretty weird one by your standards. By anybody's standards, really."
"Weird?" Vivienne asked, her curiosity peaked as she sat herself down at the kitchen table and waved a hand for him to take a seat as well. "I'm sure I've seen plenty of weird, hun. A vampire bar just opened up in town. Hard to get much weirder than that."
After a quick peek into the oven, Tayne came over and sat down, too. "Have you read this morning's paper yet? The story about the werewolf in Sunny's Diner last night?" He was pretty sure he'd told her that's where he worked, but she could easily have forgotten, too.
"I hadn't read the paper yet, no." she admitted. "Hadn't had a chance. Caught up on sleep but... a werewolf?" she questioned. "Where you work, right? Wow... what happened? Were you there?" A little pang of worry was clearly evident in Vivienne's voice when she questioned Tayne. "What happened?" she said again.
"I wasn't there, no. I get off work at six, and this happened after eight. I wish I had been there." He sighed, settling back in his seat. "Annie, my boss-- the owner and manager of the place. She was attacked. She's in the hospital right now. Someone-- someone killed the werewolf, I don't know who, before it could kill her."
"Oh my god." Vivienne said, letting her hand move to cover her mouth for a half a second. "She's alright though? She'll pull through?" she questioned. "And how... how could someone kill a werewolf?" she went on. "They just... came in and killed the werewolf and left? No one saw anything?" Vivienne was quickly deciding that she needed to get a hold on a newspaper and read it.
"I don't know," Tayne said, voice hard. "I think the missing fellow was a hunter." And he wasn't sure whether the hunter or the werewolf was at fault here. It could easily have been either one; a werewolf in danger couldn't help himself. "And since hunting is illegal, he must've cut out and told Annie not to tell the police about him."
Vivienne leaned forward, elbows propped on the table and shook her head just a bit before resting her chin in her hands. "Wow. That's just... ridiculous." she mumbled.
"I know, it's crazy," Tayne sighed. "Then I had to go to the diner and get things straightened out there, since people were kind of freaking out a little." And... yeah, bless the hell out of the place. He had gone with the fish specifically because fish juices didn't hurt as much as chicken juices or red meat juices, and no lemon whatsoever for the same reason, since he had little, healing cuts all over his left hand. "That took a while."
"Well then you are most assuredly forgiven for any tardiness." Vivienne assured the man. "Especially if you were spending that time helping people who were freaking out. I can imagine how they must have felt knowing the manager was hurt in a were-fight." she said, shaking her head a little.
"Pretty upset, yeah," Tayne admitted. "I kind of left my breakfast half-eaten to race down to the hospital and bully my way in to see her, soon's I read the article. But she's doin' all right, she's stable and all that." Thankfully.
"Well, I'm glad she's doing alright. All things considered, she's a very lucky woman." Vivienne couldn't imagine being attacked by a were wolf. Hell, she couldn't really imagine being attacked by anything now that she was thinking about it.
"That's true," Tayne agreed, and checked the timer. Not time to flip the fish yet. "So how's your day been?" he asked, looking back to her with a little grin. "Better than mine, I hope."
"Well there were no attacks." Vivienne smiled. "I spent a lot of the morning sleeping. Then I got up and tidied the house a little since I knew you were coming over... then I showered and got dressed and... well, then you arrived."
"Oh, yeah, you're sleeping later these days, 'cuz of the radio show, right?" Tayne blinked. "I'm sorry, I haven't managed to listen to it yet... no nights that've been quite that late." Well, or that hadn't been filled with being drunk off his ass and too depressed to pay much attention to it. Fuck, he had to stop doing that.
"It's alright." Vivienne was quick to assure. "The longer you wait, the better I'll be at this whole radio show thing." she grinned. "So don't worry, take your time and don't be staying up super late on my account."
"Sunday night I'll be up," Tayne shrugged thoughtfully. "Maybe I can listen to it then. Are you broadcasting Sunday?" He gave her a hopeful look.
"Unfortunately, no. I'm a Monday to Friday girl. Maybe I'll record us and just give you a copy." she teased. "That'll be better than making you sit up waiting to hear me on the radio." Vivienne smiled.
"Can you do that?" Tayne asked, though he felt a little bad at anything that would be making her do work. Since he was... not really interested in her. He was just an asshole, wasn't he? Without meaning to be. "Naw, it's okay," he said before she could answer. "I'll find a chance to. I wind up staying up weird times, sometimes. I go out of town on a pretty regular basis, and drive late at night."
"I can." she smiled. "It's not really a big deal. Just a little tape recorder. It's just me taking, sweets. No need for you to really... sit up and listen for it. I don't mind. It's not like I'm going to die or something if you don't listen to the show once. I promise it's not a big deal." Vivienne wasn't going to push him into doing anything he might not really want to do. She figured he was just being nice about wanting to listen to the show anyway. "What takes you out of town and keeps you up late?" she questioned.
Tayne was used to slip-ups like that-- he really wasn't the best at keeping secrets-- so he had his lie ready. "Side-job that I help my parents out with. Or, well, my mother," he added, blinking. He actually hadn't had to use that lie yet since his dad died....
Vivienne raised a brow at that. "What kind of side-job?" she asked. She couldn't help but be curious about the side job. She wanted to ask about his parents, but since he corrected himself and said 'mother' alone, she didn't want to be rude and start him in on a depressing topic.
"Don't laugh," Tayne said with half a smile. "My mum kind of sells spells, on the side. I mean, she has a real job, but she's got her magic business on the side, too." Okay, that part was new. He used to say it was an outstretch of her decorating business, consulting on affordable remodeling, but this was much closer to the truth, so he liked it more.
"Like... spells for witches and things like that?" Vivienne smiled. She half wondered if she should tell Tayne about herself, but she supposed that could wait for just a bit. Maybe.
"Actually, more for people who can't cast magic, but still believe in it," Tayne said with a smile of his own. And he did do that, too. His mother sent protective and healing charms off with him when he hunted, and he left them places that seemed like they needed them. "Or don't, sometimes. But that's not as luc-- lucre-- doesn't make any money."
"Lucrative." Vivienne supplied with a little smile. "Well, that's definitely not your run of the mill side job. Very interesting though." she grinned.
Tayne blushed a little at her pointing out his slip-up, but didn't comment. "Yeah, that. I like it." It was probably his favorite part of his real side-job, actually. "So yeah, I wind up leaving town over weekends about once a month, or so, and drive kind of late at night, or early in the morning. Don't generally go out of state, though I've been over the border a couple times."
"Sounds kind of interesting." she smiled. "Going off to sell spells and stuff like that. What made you decide to do it for peopole who can't do magic?" Vivienne asked. That part was perhaps the most intriguing for her.
Tayne blinked at her. "Well, what'd be the point of doing it for someone who could do magic?" he asked reasonably. "Then they can do it themselves, not need little charms or spells done for them. That's what it is, I take Mother's made spells, not, like, her spellbooks or anything."
"Ohhh." she said, realization washing over her. "Gotcha." she nodded. "Well... what does your mother do?" she asked. "Like... is she a witch?" she questioned, arching a brow at him. "Never mind, you really don't have to answer that." Vivienne said. "It's not any of my business really."
"It's not really a huge secret," Tayne shrugged, getting up from the chair and heading to the over to check on the fish. He plucked an oven mitt from the drawer he'd accidentally opened before, looking for silverware, and opened the oven to pull the tray out. "My mother's a white witch. She's also an interior decorator, since being a witch doesn't really make you much."
"Believe me, I know." Vivienne smiled, shaking her head a little. She didn't really keep herself a secret so she didn't think much of what she said.
Glancing over at her with raised brows, Tayne asked, "You do? Witches in your family, too?" Or maybe she was one, too. Wouldn't that be ironic.
"You could say that." Vivienne smiled. "I'm a witch." she explained. "Hopefully that doesn't make you think of me in the same regard you would your mother." she teased. That would be weird. God.
Tayne blushed a little. "No, don't worry about it. My brother is, too, and my grandfather, and I doubt I'd think of you like all three." Just probably not the way she'd like, anyway. "What do you practice?" The only issue he'd have with her was if she practiced mainly black or blood magic, but somehow he doubted that one.
"White magic." she said. "No worries, not into black magic." she assured him. Vivienne was pretty sure that was what he was worried about.
"Well, I was mostly just asking to ask," he told her with a wry grin, and fished up some tongs from one of the drawers to flip the fish pieces over, painting on a fresh coat of sauce mix in the process. "But that's good to know, no black magic. I might have to have a problem with you, if you did." He chuckled to take the potential sting out of that, since it was a moot point. "I know a couple white spells, but not enough to call me a witch of any kind. I kind of suck at it."
"Not everyone takes to magic of any kind really, but at least you have a couple spells that work for you, Tayne. And gosh, that smells good." Vivienne had to add.
"I manage, yeah." He carefully pushed the tray back into the oven and closed the door, then moved over to check on the rice. It was steaming nicely. "And thanks. It'll smell better when I get the veggies stir-fried." He thought this was a pretty good meal, all told, himself.
"I bet it will. Especially if it smells as good as it does right now. It'll be pretty awesome when it's all finished." Vivienne was looking forward to the dinner/lunch that was for sure. The way her stomach rumbled in response to her statement just seemed to punctuate that.
He caught the sound and chuckled, coming back to sit for a moment. "Hope I can live up to your expectations," he said. "With a demanding stomach, like that, and all."
Vivienne flushed a little and shook her head, pressing her hand to her stomach. "Hush you." she said to her tummy. "That's so embarrassing." she mumbled, letting out a little laugh.
"There's nothing wrong with being hungry," Tayne laughed. "Don't be embarrassed. If anything, I'll take it as a compliment, that your stomach likes the way my food smells."
"Well, I'm glad you think so. My stomach just needs to learn not to be quite so loud about it." Vivienne chuckled. "Very unladylike... or something like that."
"Women worry too much about being ladylike," Tayne told her, grinning. "I think most guys would be perfectly happy if you were just yourselves and didn't worry about acting like ladies." Or maybe he was just weird, since he didn't like women that way... but he'd heard other guys talk about it, so maybe it had merit.
"Maybe." she smiled. "But... I still don't think I'm going to go around belching the national anthem or anything of the sort. I'm at least... mostly lady-like. I'd like to keep it that way." Vivienne said. "Anything else I can help with?" she questioned. "Setting the table... getting glasses maybe?"
"Getting glasses is good. Wine glasses. I can uncork it, unless you have one of those fancy cork poppering tools. As long as wine is okay, and all." Tayne didn't know her policy on alcohol. He checked the timer, and got up again. "I should probably start the veggies, too."
"Wine is just lovely. And I do have one of those fancy cork poppers." she smiled, she pointed at the drawer that contained said cork popper and then proceeded to find some glasses for the two of them from one of her cabinets. Vivienne placed them on the counter and got out plates and silverware for them and gave him a little grin. "It really was nice of you to come make me dinner." she told him. She'd probably told him that too much since he'd gotten here, but she just couldn't seem to stop doing so. "Thanks."
Setting the skillet onto the stove and turning up the heat, Tayne shook his head at her. "No problem at all. I like cooking, and it's less fun if there's nobody else to eat it but me or family, who'll say it was good no matter what, because, you know, they're family." He snagged one of the oils he'd brought and poured some into the pan.
"Well, I'll be completely honest with you. Even if it tastes bad..." Vivienne doubted that it would taste bad however. Her stomachs growling attested to the fact that something that smelled so good couldn't possible taste bad.
"I appreciate that," Tayne said with mock-gravity. As long as he wasn't thinking about her as a girl who wanted to date him, he could do just fine here. He just had to keep that mindset going.
Dinner was delicious and afterward, Vivienne was sure she told Tayne that about a billion times. At this point they'd been sitting on the sofa just randomly chatting when Vivienne decided that maybe, just maybe she should at least give him something as a thank you. That thank you came in the form of a little kiss against his cheek, and then a light one against his lips. "It really was lovely." she told him.
He'd been doing so well. She'd liked his dinner-- hell, so had he; it'd turned out well-- he'd not said or done anything stupid, he'd helped keep the conversation going, and he even found he liked the girl. She was a nice young woman, friendly, if a bit more ingratiating than he wished she'd be. He didn't need to be told a dozen times in the span of an afternoon how grateful she was he'd come over and how good the food was, really.
Then she had to go and kiss him.
Tayne was startled by it, actually. He'd done a good job at keeping her firmly in friend category in his head, like Jessalyn and Allegra, which was probably all that had kept him doing well, rather than descending into stuttering and awkward pauses. But that meant he really and truly hadn't expected her to kiss him. And so he reacted accordingly, be jerking back in surprise and staring at her.
Vivienne was surprised when he pulled away from her and her eyes went a little wide. He hadn't wanted her to kiss him? That was... different for her most definitely. "I... I'm sorry.." she was quick to say, shaking her head a little. "I shouldn't... I'm... I'm sorry." she said again. Good going, Viv. she found herself muttering inside her head.
It was admittedly different for most of the girls who kissed him. None of them expected it. Shit. Shit shit shit shit. The last thing he'd wanted to do was make her feel bad. "Nonono, it's-- it's okay. It's okay. I'm just--" Gay. Right. He didn't have the guts to say it. He never had. "--surprised?" he finished weakly with a small smile.
What was called for here was another kiss, this time from him. That'd fix it, wouldn't it? He could do that. It was just a kiss, not hard. He could do it. Really he could. He just wasn't yet. He would... in a minute.
"I'm sorry..." Vivienne said again, biting her bottom lip and pushing her hair back behind her ear. "It's alright... I just... shouldn't have done that." she said. "I just... I don't know. I just shouldn't have." Vivienne finished, shaking her head a little. "Can we... just forget it?"
Just do it, coward, Tayne told himself, watching her take all the blame with a pained expression, but he couldn't make himself do it. He'd rather be alone entirely than lie to people, especially nice girls who apologized too much. It just wasn't right.
Okay, then, tell her, his conscience tried again. Explain and apologize. But he couldn't do that, either. His mouth refused to do more than open, then shut again, when he tried. The only words his cowardice let him say was the usual ones, the ones that were always wrong: "I oughta g-go...."
Vivienne bit her bottom lip and put her hands in her lap, twining her fingers together and squeezing hard enough to turn the knuckles white. She shouldn't have kissed him and the more he spoke, the worse she felt about it. She wasn't going to make him stay and she wasn't going to argue with you about leaving. If he wanted to leave, she'd let him leave.
"Alright..." she said softly. "You know where the door is." And with that, Vivienne got up and left the room, heading into the kitchen and shutting the door behind her. She had a mess to clean up and it was bad enough she'd kissed someone who obviously didn't want to be kissed, but she wasn't about to let the mess in her kitchen sit any longer. "Way to go, Viv. Way to go." she muttered to herself.
"Viv, I...." The kitchen door shut before he could think of any way to finish that sentence that his brain and his fear would let him voice. Swearing at himself under his breath, he did exactly what he always did: he fled.