Author: Regency

Title: Beautiful To Someone

Spoilers: I’ll Cry If I Want To

Category: Drama/Sorkin-style Comedy

Summary: After her party, Lydia has a surprise visitor.  And this time, she won’t have to pretend she’s known him before.

~~~

                Lydia stayed in the same place for a long time after Stewart and the kids left. She listened to the silence of her apartment and found herself feeling very alone.  She sighed and shifted a little, but didn’t both getting up because she had no one to get up for.  All of her compulsiveness thrumming behind her eyes, telling her to organize her week or alphabetize her emergency gift collection, and she couldn’t get up. She just couldn’t muster the will to do it.

                She pulled her bare legs up onto the couch, having kicked off her shoes a few minutes before, and wrapped her arms around her knees.  And then, she listened some more.  She listened for the sounds of her children trooping in after school, their adorable chatter but a faint memory.  She tried to smell the cookies Stewart had attempted to bake, but had burned instead. She could almost taste the store-bought ones he’d put in their place.

                She laid her head on the back of the couch and closed her eyes.  Tears pricked lightly at that back of her eye lids and she took a deep breath to keep her composure.  Even when she was alone, she wouldn’t cry about her marriage.  It had been over long before any papers had been signed and the end was less than bittersweet.  Besides, they still spoke amiably.  They didn’t snipe at one another.  They were adults with history and children between them.  They had learned to co-exist.

                But that didn’t mean she didn’t feel lonely at moments like this.  He was shacking up with his liposuctioned Frankenbimbo and she was here by herself.  She wasn’t getting used to it and she didn’t want to get used to it.  She had all of the things she had earned in this marriage and yet, she had no one.

                She sighed again and considered washing the dishes a second time because she wasn’t convinced that Man-Whore had done it right.  It was like no one washed dishes by hand anymore.  She decided to leave it for tomorrow.  She was tired tonight.

                She was just debating whether to turn in early when there was a knock at the door.  Thinking it was one of the children, she didn’t bother to look when the door opened.  “Did you forget something?”

                “No, actually.  I just remembered.”  She sat up quick and turned to look at the imposing figure standing inside her apartment.

                She sputtered, moving uneasily towards the far end of the couch.  “I’m sorry, do I know you?”

                He held a sleek back umbrella in his hands and smiled enigmatically.  “You do.”

                She had her doubts.  Though her vision might’ve been clouded with a veil of fear, this tall lanky man with piecing eyes and a lovely smile was completely unfamiliar to her.  Yes, he was handsome and he was smiling at her, but they were also alone together.  And if he did decide to do something, she was completely on her own.

                “So, how I do know you?” she asked as she took a chance and stood up.

                “You really don’t remember me?”  He seemed to deflate a little at that.  He sighed with a certain amount of disappointment and let the cane rest on its point.

                “No, I’m sorry.”  She clasped her hands in front of her and smiled sympathetically.

                “It’s all right.  I was just hoping you did because it would make this easier.”

                “Oh, what’s that?”

                “Well, I came here, because I wanted to talk to you.”

                “About?”

                “The way I feel about you.”

                Lydia laughed, “Honey, I don’t know you.”

                “You do.  Think back to the 80’s.  The nerdy kid who used to follow Gina around like a dog.”

                She held her chin thoughtfully.  “That nerdy little kid…What was his name?  M, m, something with an M.”

                “Mikey?”

                She looked at him in surprise.  “That’s it.  Mikey something Greek.”

                “Mikey Giannoulias.  That’s me,” he pointed to himself.

                Lydia took an incredulous step back.  “You, all seven and a half feet, are Mikey Giannoulias?  There’s no way.”

                “Yes, ma’am.  I had a few late growth spurts and here we are.”

                “Yes, here we are.”  She cleared her throat and looked to the floor.  “So, what did you want to talk to me about?”

                He opened his mouth to speak but shut it and looked away shyly.  “I feel a little odd saying this, but I’ve spent every day since I left San Francisco thinking about you.”

                She stepped closer to him unconsciously.  “Why?”

                “Because you’re beautiful.”

                Not that she was one to stare a compliment in the face but, “I don’t understand.  What does that mean?”

                “It means that I think you’re great.  I’ve thought you were great since I was little boy.”

                “That’s very sweet of you to say.”

                “I’m not trying to be sweet, I’m trying to ask you to dinner.”

                She stood uncomprehending for a long moment.  “Okay.”  She pursed her lips and shook her head.  “Okay, you want to ask me to dinner because..?”

                “Because

~~~~

Unrevised

                She stayed in her spot for longer than would probably be considered polite before rising to answer it.

                As she stepped to the doorway, an unfamiliar voice called out, “Hello.  Anybody home?” She stopped with her hand on the doorknob and raked through her memory for a name to put with that voice.  She hadn’t the foggiest idea who this was.

                “Hello?  Does Lydia Barnes live here?”  She didn’t answer but stood on her toes to look through the peephole.  She jumped back as she came eye to eye with a very handsome man about Regina’s age.  Well, there was no getting away from it now.  He had seen her and she seemed to be who he was looking for.

                She opened the door just enough to stand between it and the door jam.  “Hi, I’m Lydia Barnes.  Can I help you?”

                The young man suddenly looked very nervous and he stuffed his hands in his pockets.  “Well, you might be able to.  It depends.  Do you remember me?”

                She gave him a thorough once over before conceding that if she’d ever met him she’d somehow forgotten.  “Unfortunately, I can’t say that I do.”

                His faint smiled turned to a full-fledged grin.  “That’s all right.  I wasn’t expecting you to.  I’m Mikolas Giannoulias and I came for the party.”  She had to smile at the mischievous look in his eye.

                “Well, Mikolas, I’m sorry to say you just missed it.”  She pushed back her sleeve to look at her watch.  “Though, I have to wonder what would make you think I’d still be having a party this late.”

                He rubbed absently at his chiseled jaw and chuckled deeply.  “I actually didn’t think you’d be.  I was kind of hoping to find you alone.”

                “Ah.” She took a tiny step back, so that she was more inside of her apartment than out.  “Why would you want to talk to me alone?”

                Seeing her apprehension, he took a step back to give her space.  “Because I’ve been gathering the courage for seventeen years just to talk to you and I don’t think I could do it in a room full of people.”

                She narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips.  “Who are you and why are you here?”  It was pure curiosity.  She felt that he had no ill intentions towards her, but she did wonder what were his intentions.

                “I told you, I’m Mikolas Giannoulias and I would really like to talk to you.”

                She observed him squarely for another moment before nodding.  She stepped back, allowing him to step in past her.  She shut the door behind her and watched him stand awkwardly in the middle of her living room.

                “Well, talk.”

                “You really don’t remember me, do you?”  She shook her head.  “I’m Mikey Giannoulias from Waverly Prepatory.” Her eyes widened.  “I went to school with Gina and Ollie.”

                She laughed, with her hand over her lips, shaking her head.  “Mikey?  Little Mikey.”  He nodded.  “I remember you.  You used to follow Regina around like a puppy.  You were so cute.”

                He ducked his head down, which from his full six feet was still well over the top of her head.  “I didn’t think you’d remember that.”

                “Of course, I remember that.  How could I forget?  She hated you following her that way, but she tolerated you because her father said she had to be nice.  Oh, she’d complain about it for hours every night.  But, then, you stopped coming around in about…”  She paused to think.  “Eighty-eight, I think it was.  It’s been such a long time.”  She was a little saddened by how much time had passed, but she didn’t show it.  “Well, come over here and let me get a good look at you.”

                He stood in front of her and looked down to meet her eyes.  “Well, do I stand up under inspection?”

                She tipped her head and waved her hand a little.  “Ehh.”  She began to circle him, eyeing him appreciatively.  “I don’t know.  For one thing, you’re slouching.”  He immediately straightened up.  “And that’s a bit much for the Aqua Velva.”  He couldn’t do anything about that, so he only shrugged. 

                “And don’t shrug.” She came around, laying her hands on each of his shoulders. He let them drop beneath her touch.  Absently, she trailed her fingers down his shoulders to his forearms, to his arms.  “You’re in good shape.”  She tried not to sound too impressed, but he did look good.  “You’ve grown up to be quite the handsome man.”

                “Thank you.”  He smiled down at her with twinkling brown eyes.  She smiled back at him and took a step away because she found herself enjoying his smile a bit too much.

                She walked around him towards the standing bar.  “Would you like a drink or -- Oh wait.  You probably want to get in touch with Regina and Oliver.  I can get their numbers for you.”  She started looking for a pad and pen.  “Let me just write them down.”

                “Hold on, you don’t have to do that.  I actually came to see you.  I meant that.  I saw them tonight.  They looked well, but I’m where I want to be right now.”

                She cleared her throat awkwardly and clasped her hands in front of her.  “Oh.  So, you want that drink, then?”

                “I’d like that.”

                She turned back to the bar and started  rifling through the many bottles, trying to think of what to fix.  “So, what’ll you have?”

                “You wouldn’t have a good bottle of vodka for a martini, would you?”

                “You need your courage?”

                “I’ve earned the drink.”

                She laughed.  “You have?  By doing what, may I ask?”

                “Just coming here tonight.”

~~~

                She’d just been sitting there. She was updating her patient medical records and bothering no one when he came in.  At first, he just stood there watching her without saying anything.  Eventually, she looked up at him over her glasses, trying to figure out what he was up to.

                He smiled at her again and she couldn’t stay mad at him.  She gestured for him to have a seat on her couch.  She rose from behind her desk to sit next to him.  They didn’t say anything for a few moments, just taking the time to sit together alone.

                He started looking at her again out of the side of his eye.  She smiled and looked back.  That went on for a few more minutes before she laughed out loud at their immaturity.

                “I’m…well, a woman of some age. I don’t have to act this way.  I know that you’re attracted to me, Mika.  And you should know that I’m attracted to you as well.”

                He turned towards her,  studying her with a look of barely held desire.  “But do you like me as more than a friend of your children and as a colleague?”

                She shifted in her place so that their knees touched ever so slightly.  “I like you as a man, as a person, as a friend.  I like you as someone I could feel more than friendship for.”

TBC...