1 comments/  7254 views/  4 favorites

My Life's Playlist Ch. 01

By: worldhistorybuff



With thanks to Ava, for the kick in the butt to post and with sincerest apologies to MugsyB and Pennlady for dipping my big toe into their genre. I'll never do it as well as you guys! The first couple of chapters are character development, so please be patient with me!

© 2009.

*

Loneliness on the dunes I'm pretty tough But the wind is rough On the dunes
- "On the Dunes"-Donald Fagen

Giving what my best friend refers to as a "big momma sigh", I stood up and folded my blanket. The gray color of the Atlantic reflected both the approach of a storm and my mood. It was time to pack the car and leave my family's little slice of paradise here at the Outer Banks. Late Fall is my favorite time to come; I especially love the way the ocean changed color as I walked the beach, deserted of the usual horde of summer visitors. I needed some time alone to think, and Friday had been a school holiday for both teachers and students. When my parents offered a chance to use the house, I was packed and ready to go in no time. It was hard to believe that it had been almost a year since I'd walked in on my fiancé and his secretary doing things in his office that made me want to poke my mind's eye out. I promised myself that I'd use this weekend to do the last of the mourning for what was.

As I drove back to Washington, I could hear my late Grandmother Phillipa's voice. "Phillipa Fiona Rhys-Hall, it's time for you to pull up your socks and get on with your life. Take a moment, count your blessings, and move on!" I was honest enough to admit that this whole "I should be sad business" was making me get on my own nerves, so I did just that.

First, there are my parents. . My friends were starting to lose their parents, and I thanked God everyday for the blessing of my parents continued health. They had met when my English father had been posted to the Pentagon to work as one of the liaisons between the Royal and the US Navy. Phillip fell in love with my Irish-American mother Siobhan at an Embassy party celebrating the Queen's birthday. Though neither side of the family had been thrilled at the prospect of the other's background (read in minor titled, upper-class British vs. spunky self-made Irish American), they realized that at thirty-eight, both Phillip and Siobhan knew their own minds. My unexpected arrival a year after their marriage had caused my Grammy Fee to exclaim "Saints preserve us, miracles really do happen." Unfortunately as a peace offering, I had been saddled with my grandmother's names. While Fiona was not so horrid, Phillipa was definitely not a common name here in the States or in England for that matter since around 1910. Pippa had been settled on as a reasonable nickname, but it had been a big no fun being known as "the girl named Phil" in junior high, and my thick glasses hadn't helped. Almost thirty-one years later they were still madly in love, and after my father's second retirement from his civilian job in DC, they had settled full time at the beach, and spent a good deal of their time traveling. From my mother, I inherited my "Black Irish" coloring of almost black hair that shone with auburn highlights in the sun, blue eyes, and fair, freckled skin. From my father I inherited a love of the sea, sailing, history, and reading. The biggest puzzler in my family was how I ended up being only five feet tall, when my parents are both of above average height

Number two, Annie. How many people can say their best friend since their junior year of high school has turned out to be more of a sister than a friend? Annie and I had been there for each other since the day we met. We're both military brats, with Annie's father reaching the rank of General in the Air Force. Neither of us had been in the popular clique, but we both were well liked and straight A students. I coxed the men's eight in crew and sang in the choir, while Annie played the piano and was a demon field hockey player. After high school, we had gone our separate ways, me to William and Mary to pursue my dream of becoming a history teacher, and Annie to Johns Hopkins for pre-med. We reunited when Annie was accepted to Georgetown for Medical School, and I started my first teaching job. Shortly before we graduated from college, Annie inherited her Grandmother's Old Towne Alexandria town house, and she invited me to come live with her. This comfortable arrangement had continued as Annie started her pediatrics' residency and neonatology fellowship at the Children's National Medical Center. Annie was everything I wasn't: tall, red hair that always did what she wanted it to, brown-eyed, tan, with a figure to die for. She also had above-average intelligence and a stingingly dry wit.

Naturally, Annie had come to my rescue when I discovered what color panties my fiancé's secretary wore. As a true friend, she realized the situation called for an enormous amount of both alcohol and bad country cheating songs. She bundled me into her car and took me home, where we proceeded to get spectacularly drunk on Annie's famously lethal Manhattans. By the end of the evening, she even managed to help me find the humor in the situation by saying, "Pipster, did you expect any other outcome when you agreed to marry a man named Dick?"

"Annster, the thing that really bothers me is the absolute ordinariness of his unfaithfulness. I can admit now I knew how deadly dull he was, and he couldn't kiss worth a damn, but my god, couldn't he have shown more flash in his indiscretion. If I wrote this as a story for Mrs. Baldwin's journalism class, she would have taken out her purple pen and written trite all over it!" This sent us both into drunken giggles at the memory of our adventures on the high school paper. Giggles turned into drunken hiccups, and we decided that bed would be the best place for us. Neither of us was ready to face the next morning until it was afternoon, but Annie figured it was her off-call weekend, and what are best friends for anyhow? I had done the same for her when her college boyfriend dropped her because he wanted a woman whose career would come second to his. He then proceeded to marry the most insipid woman we knew whose only dream was to take care of him, stand by his side and stare adoringly at public functions and produce the five children he hoped to have. Last time I'd run into them at a Junior League fundraiser, he was balding and she was as whiny as ever!

My third blessing was my job, and the friends that came with it. When I graduated from W & M, I was able to find a job teaching 7th grade Social Studies. I know that most people think I'm certifiable when I say I like teaching 12 and 13 year olds, but I really do. One minute they are all-knowing sophisticates, and the next minute they are telling you about the latest episode of Hannah Montana. It also helps that the curriculum is World History from the Exploration of the New World to current times. How could you not love this part of history with its crazy dictators, wars, plagues, and epidemics? My students were a mix of the upper crust of Northern Virginia society, whose parents know me as the granddaughter of the famous society hostess Lady Phillipa, and immigrant kids from the low economic neighborhoods. One hundred and seventy-five days out of one hundred and eighty, I looked forward to getting out of bed and going to work. On those other five days, I could count on my 7th grade teammates' help to find the humor in the day.

Our school operated on the team model, which meant that I shared the same ninety students with Flip Jacobs who taught Science, Mary Miller who taught English, and our Math teacher Ted Adamson. We had been together the last seven years, and we were considered by both the parents and our administrators as a strong team. Our strengths and weaknesses complimented each other, and we had been known to break into silly banter in the halls during class change, much to the amusement of our fellow 7th grade teachers, and the confusion of our kids. I have many other friends on staff, but my teammates are the ones I see every day and the people I consider my school family. We also are bonded by our blood oath to help each other hid the bodies of any student who is being particularly annoying that day.

Flip is the youngest, a free spirited bachelor of twenty-eight who spends the summers hiking, fishing, and kayaking. His girlfriends all tended to be interchangeably tall, blonde, outdoorsy and terminal airheads whose names generally were spelled in overly cutesy ways. The rest of us referred them as his "Flippy Dolls". His room is full of colorful pictures he'd taken of his travels. Less attractive is Flip's collection of amphibians and reptiles. The star of his collection is Ethel, a giant boa who likes to occasionally escape and run free along the ceiling tiles that connected our classrooms. This is fine, except for the fact that I had a huge phobia about snakes, and I'm definitely still not over the time she came popping down from my ceiling during sixth period.

The only thing average about Mary (or M squared as we affectionately call her) was her height. Using her work ethic and intelligence, she had managed to beat the odds of her tough D.C. neighborhood and graduate with honors from Howard University. She has an encyclopedic knowledge of literature, and can find a quote to meet any situation she finds herself in. She met her husband at college, and they'd been married since graduation. At thirty-eight, she has managed to keep both her figure and sense of humor, even as she carpools her three kids to all their activities.

At forty, Ted was the oldest of our team. Originally, from upstate New York, he and his Canadian wife Angela had moved here after he got out of the Navy. Their four-year-old son Theo is my godson. Ted went into the whole parenting thing with great reluctance, but since the day Theo was born, Ted has referred to him as his little buddy and best friend. Around school we refer to him as "the dude", since The Big Lebowski is one of Ted's favorite movies. We always greet Ted by asking, "How is the dude?" Ted of course always replies, "The dude abides".

In counting my blessings I managed to find myself getting off the interstate and pulling up to the converted carriage house that served as the garage for our building. Annie was on call this weekend so I wouldn't see her until tomorrow night, when she would come in around 7:00 pm, grunt at me, eat a bowl of oatmeal, and sleep until she had to go back to the hospital. That's okay, because Beau Kitty greeted me. Beau is a black and gray calico Annie's brother found abandoned in a house his fraternity was cleaning out. He texted a picture of the then named Bonethugs (they had also found a female cat they named Harmony) with the caption "Who can resist this face?" When Annie showed me the message, I took her phone and sent back the message "Annie and I can", but when he came to visit Annie and me on his Fall break, I fell in love, and the rest is history. Unfortunately, due to the time Beau spent with the Frat's dog, he believes he is a canine. I guess if that is his only quirk, he ended up okay.

It had been a long drive home, and I was tired. I gave Ted and Angela a quick call to let them know I was home safe and sound, and to confirm my ride to school from the Metro station in the morning. After a hot bath, I climbed into bed, tried to read a few pages of the book I was reading, and soon fell asleep.

My Life's Playlist Ch. 02



Legal disclaimer time: The people in my story are totally made up and shouldn't have any resemblance to any current or past hockey player. Once again I'm developing characters and plot, so be patient and hang in there!

*





My Life's Playlist Ch. 03







My Life's Playlist Ch. 03



Theo continued to dance and twirl, singing his little tuneless song that quite frankly was getting on my nerves. I looked around for the closest trashcan or restroom in case I really did decide to hurl. Ted look over at me as we stood against the wall along with the other invited guests and media people. "You're wearing your freakin precious and lovely smile Pippa. For Christ sake, he's not one of our society parents that you're trying to impress. Get a grip girl."

"Once again bite me Adamson. Use the Thumper rule," I snapped. If you can't say something nice...don't say nothing at all."

"Jeez, is your head going to spin around and should Theo and I prepare to duck as you shoot pea soup at us?" He replied, taking his life in his own hands.

"For the third time, put your pretty lips together and just bite me Adamson!" I hissed.

"So you like being bitten Pippa? I'll have to file that away for future reference," chuckled a deep voice with what I now knew to be a Swedish accent.

Crap, crap, crap, this was turning out way worse than I thought possible. In my discussions with Ted, I had turned my back to the locker room, and at this moment, I really hoped the floor would open up and I could just disappear. I looked at Ted and mouthed, "Is it him?" He didn't have time to answer, because the second biggest hockey fan in DC piped up with "Hi, I'm Theo. Are you Tor? Gee, you're really, really tall. I'm four. My Aunt Pippa said you might have something for me. Do you?"

Ted just stood there gob smacked, so it was up to me to say something and save the day. "Theodore David Adamson, you know that was a rude question. Please apologize now," I admonished Theo as I turned slowly around to find that the wall and I were eye to astounding blue eyes level. Tor had squatted down so he would be on Theo's level.

"I'm sorry Mr. Edvardson," Theo apologized.

"It's alright. I have a nephew your age, and he asks me the same question when I go home to visit him. Here these are for you," he said as he handed Theo a Caps ball cap and a puck.

"Wow, the puck's still cold, did you use it tonight?" asked Theo.

"Yes, we did. Now can you introduce me to the grown-ups?" he inquired, standing back up.

"This is my Aunt Pippa, and this is..."

"Ted Adamson," chimed in Ted, finally recovering himself. He and Tor shook hands and Tor said, "I understand you are a huge fan of the game. I got some of the guys to sign this program for you. I hope you like it."

"I'm sure he'll find a place of honor in his Caps shrine for it. I'm Pippa Rhys-Hall. I guess this is our dryer circumstance." I said, extending my hand. It was firmly clasped by his much larger, cooler, one.

"Let me offer my sincere apologies for the other morning Pippa. I hope you were not too inconvenienced." He continued to hold my hand, staring quite intently into my eyes.

"You've more than made up for any inconvenience that I might have suffered by the generosity you've shown to us tonight." Two could play the formal apology game, but mine might have been somewhat spoiled by the fact that I had started to blush under his close scrutiny. Did I have something on my face? It also didn't help that he still had my hand, but somehow my brain would not send the message to my arm to remove it. I noticed that Theo had become very quiet. I looked over I found that he was asleep in Ted's arms, wearing his new hat, clutching his puck.

"We need to head home and get someone to bed. Thank you so much for everything Tor," I said.

"I was hoping that we could all go to get something to eat, but perhaps another time," he said.

"Pippa, we can get home without your help. Tor could you make sure she gets home safely? I would like to take a rain check on the dinner offer. Thank you again for everything. It was a great game, and Theo will remember this night for a long time!" replied Ted, obviously ignoring the dirty looks I was shooting his way.

"It would be my pleasure," he said. "Good night Ted, Theo is great and I'm glad you enjoyed yourselves."

"Good night Pippa," said the traitor, leaning down to kiss my cheek. "We'll see you tomorrow when you pick up Theo. Does five o'clock work for you?"

"Yes," I answered, knowing that he'd probably figured out that the only way he'd survive the wrath of Pipzilla was to run away, so that's what he did. I was left alone with Tor. In the time we had been talking, the rest of the people waiting for players had disappeared. I realized that he still had my hand in his, but this time I was able to convince my arm to remove it. The silence went on as we continued to size each other up.

Tor was the one that broke the silence. "Can I assume that you also live in Old Towne if so, maybe we should go somewhere in that general area?"

"I do and that would be fine."

"Did you drive here?"

"No, I took the train," I replied.

"Great, we can ride together. Do you have any ideas of where we should go?"

"How about going to Bugsy's," I replied.

"That's fine."

As I put on my coat, hat, and gloves, I couldn't tell if I was getting more or less nervous, but I certainly was starting to look forward to spending more time with him. The fact that I felt that way made me feel a little bit apprehensive. Okay, it made me feel a lot apprehensive, and it didn't help when he took my hand and tucked it into the warm, firm crook of his arm. Walking this close to him, I could smell the heady scent of his soap, and light clean smelling cologne. Before I was even aware of what was happening we were out the door into the players' parking lot. We stopped in front of the passenger door of a black Audi SUV. Tor opened my door and helped me in. I buckled my seat belt and wondered if like Betty Davis' party guests in All About Eve I was going to be in for a bumpy night.







My Life's Playlist Ch. 03



"Well he sounds delightful," cooed my mother. Whose side was she on anyways?

"I don't know Mummy. I'm not sure I want to get involved with anyone right now. I'm not sure I could take another disappointment," I admitted to myself as much as I did to her.

"Besides, I'm not even sure he wants to be involved. After all, he is a professional athlete, and I'm just a schoolteacher. What could he possibly see in me? I'm not tall, I'm not blonde, I'm not a size 0, I'm an absolute klutz and what I know about hockey could be summed up on the head of a pin. No, he's just being kind. He'll probably not show tonight and I'll never hear from him again."

"Don't sell yourself short Phillipa," she said with love in her voice, unaware of the pun she'd just made. "Yes, your heart was broken, but it was broken by a man not worthy of you. Just let keep yourself open to the possibility of love. You never know who you'll meet. Just look at Daddy and I."

"Ok Mummy. Listen, I've got a thousand things to do, and Theo is staying with me tonight. Please give a kiss to Daddy, and keep one for yourself."

"Will do darling. I love you."

"You too Mummy. Bye."

"Bye."

Saturday was the day I played Susie Homemaker, and this one was no exception. Due to Annie's schedule and the fact I lived here rent-free I had volunteered to do the cleaning. I put on my IPod and proceeded to sing at the top of my lungs as I vacuumed, dusted, scrubbed toilets, did laundry, changed linens and mopped the kitchen floor. Beau supervised the entire operation from various perches around the house. As I got ready to mop the kitchen, he decided it was time to go out, so he scratched at the French doors and I let him go enjoy the sunshine on his favorite patio chair. Thanks to my Mom's early wake-up call, my housework was done by 11:00. I had just thrown the last load into the dryer, and was headed up to take a shower when there was a knock on the front door. I looked out of the peephole and saw an arrangement of flowers, with a delivery boy standing behind them. I opened the door, and he inquired "Miss Rhys-Hall? These are for you." He handed me not only the flowers but a small wrapped parcel and yes, an envelope with my name on it. At least this one didn't have a Capitals logo on it. I thanked the delivery boy, turned, shut the door, put the flowers on the table by the window and went and sat on the staircase. They were a simple fragrant arrangement of gardenias in a pretty blue and white bowl. Hum, package or letter? Definitely package. I quickly opened it a found a small book entitled The Language of Flowers: Symbols and Myths. Inside the front endpaper was written:

To Pippa,

Flowers can say what one has trouble saying aloud.

Tor Edvardson

Okay, I'd bite. I flipped through the book and found that gardenias mean you're lovely or secret love. "He is so not playing fair," I said to the empty hallway. My hands shook as I opened the square envelope with my name on it. It contained a note card with his initials, which read:

Pippa,

I'd like to have lunch with you today. I'll come by for you at 1:00. I would have called but I found I didn't have your number.

Until then,

Tor

It was so unfair for him to take my breath away, but that was what he was doing. I was even more confused than I had been last night. I felt like this relationship was on the Autobahn, speeding ahead at 100 mph. But I knew how to drive right? So I could stop it anytime I wanted, or at least slow down to a manageable speed. I was starting to think that maybe I should just give up coffee since this is how the whole mess started. I also wished that Annie was not on today, so we could talk, but one of the other chief residents was on maternity leave, so she was having to pull extra shifts. I sighed to myself. This was not getting the baby, or in this case me, bathed. I stood picking up the flowers and moving them to one of the side tables in the den, threw the paper in the recycle, and head upstairs to get ready for lunch. Before I went to into the bathroom, I put the book on my bedside table, so I could peruse it tonight when I had more time to think it all out.

I was just tying the bow to my ponytail when I heard a knock. I took a deep breath, grabbed my W & M sweatshirt, and ran downstairs to answer. I pulled the door open and once again found myself gulping and gaping. Even in his casual jeans, long sleeve t-shirt, and sneakers he was breathtaking. His hair was slightly damp, and once again, I could smell the mixture of soap, shampoo, and his cologne. He pushed up his sunglasses as he leaned over and kissed my cheek. "Good afternoon Pippa." So not fair!

"Hi Tor. I just need to grab my purse and let the cat in." He followed me in as I went to the back door and whistled for Beau. He came shooting up to the door as Tor stood there with a look of amazement on his face.

"He comes to a whistle?"

"I told you last night, he thinks he's a dog. I've tried calling for him, but he just won't come. The whistle is the only thing he responds to." I locked the backdoor and headed to the front, Tor still shaking his head behind me. As we passed the table with the flowers he had sent I turned to point them out to him, saying "Thank you for the book and the beautiful flowers. In some of my Great-grandmother's old journals there are references to the language of flowers, but I've never known exactly what they meant."

"I thought as both an Englishwoman and a history teacher you would enjoy it. I'm glad to find I was correct in my assumption. Shall we head to lunch? I have to be at the arena before 5:00, and I heard you say to Ted that you were picking up Theo around that same time tonight."

"I'm only half English, the other half is pure stubborn Irish," I smiled at him as I locked the front door, pulled on my sunglasses, and started down the stairs. Hand in hand we walked to one of my favorite neighborhood delis. The weather was so nice, we decided to eat on the patio. We talked of our respective mornings, and other trivial things. As I was starting to take my last bite of She Crab soup, I heard the unmistakable sound of girlish giggles. Three girlish giggles. Damn, maybe if I slunk down they wouldn't see me, but true to form Katie recognized Tor, and saw me sitting across from him. I was so busted. They stopped outside the fence by our table, and I barely had time to take a breath when Katie opened her mouth. Utt-oh, here it comes.

"Hey Miss R-H." Looking straight at Tor she inquired, "Aren't you the guy who brought the envelope to school the other day?"

Tor rose from his chair to directly address his adoring and curious audience. "Aren't you the lovely young lady who was sent to deliver the envelope the other day," he retorted flashing a dazzling smile at all three girls. Now it was Katie's turn to blush as Tor continued. "Perhaps Pippa you could be so kind as to introduce me to these three young ladies."

"Of course, where are my manners? Tor Edvardson, I'd like to introduce three of my homeroom students, Katie Riley, Carolyn Manacelli, and Allison Lauer. Ladies, Mr. Edvardson."

"My pleasure," he said, grasping each girls hand and giving it a firm shake. I wished I had a camera, or at least a tape recorder, since for the first time in recorded history all three of them were speechless. I decided to come to their rescue by inquiring "What are you girls doing in Alexandria this afternoon?"

Allison spoke up. "My dad had to do some work at his office here today, and since we don't get to come to Old Towne very often, we thought we'd come with him. That reminds me, we are supposed to meet him at 2:30, and it's already 2:15. We better get going. Bye Miss R-H, Mr. Edvardson."

"Good-bye ladies. I'll see you on Monday. Enjoy the rest of your weekend." I thought it had gone rather well when Katie recovered her cheeky self and said, "It looks like you are definitely going to be enjoying yours." Now it was my turn to blush, and as they walked away I heard Carolyn say, "you were right Katie, he is hot with a capitol 'ha'!" Allison added, "I guess Vance was wrong, teachers do have a personal life." Tor sat down again, chuckling.

"Hey, it's not funny! Katie cannot keep her mouth shut, and now everyone in the seventh grade will know I was having lunch with you."

"And this is a bad thing why?" He asked, reaching across the table and taking my hand.

Crap. I so couldn't think when he touched me, even casually. Okay, I could think, but not the kinds of things I could say out loud. "It's not a bad thing," I replied. "They will just make a bigger deal of this than it is, and by the end of first period Monday the rumor mill at school will have us engaged, or at least living together."

"Again, and this is a bad thing why?" He inquired, leaning closer to me as he took the hand he held, kissed my knuckles, and placed it on his cheek.

Double crap. I felt like the speedometer on this relationship had jumped to 150 mph. I stalled by taking a sip of my water and moving my hand from under his and back to my lap. "It's a long story, and if we are going to make our 5:00 deadlines we probably need to head home. I promise I'll explain everything tonight after your game if you still want to come over."

"I look forward to it," he replied coming around the table to pull out my chair. He reclaimed my hand and we walked back to my house in silence, each in our own deep thought. When we got to my doorstep I turned to thank him for lunch. He leaned down and brushed his lips gently against mine. "Until tonight," he said as he walked away. I went into the house and collapsed on the stairs. Triple crap, I think I could really care for him, and I so wasn't there yet. Deep breaths, I told myself, big deep breaths. I glanced at my watch and saw it was already 3:00. Two hours until hurricane Theo blew in, and I hadn't done anything about dinner. I needed to run to the grocery store and do any prep work before he got here. I headed back to the kitchen to glance at the pantry. My phone started playing "O Canada". "Hello Angie," I answered.

"Hey Pippa, we've decided to go to dinner and movie in the city tonight, so we'll just meet you at the turnstile of your station at 6:00 if that suites you."

"That would be great. I'll see you guys then," I replied.

I took out some homemade pizza sauce I had in the freezer, grabbed my purse and headed to the store where I picked up ingredients for homemade pizza, salad, and sundaes. After putting away the groceries I made my afternoon cuppa (tea, to you yanks) and went to my room to shoot off a quick e-mail to Annie. We found early on that this was the best way to communicate with each other due to her crazy hours. I sat at my great-grandmother's Edwardian ladies writing table enjoying my Lady Gray tea with milk and sugar and filled her in on everything that had happened since last night. Writing the events of the last few days to Annie helped me start to sort out my own feelings. When I finished I crossed to the loveseat covered in a chintz print of blue irises and yellow tulips that was under the street facing window. The late afternoon light streaming in from my window hit the Waterford lamp on my desk, casting prisms of light on the buttercup yellow wall across from me. As I started at the miniature rainbows before me, I came to the following conclusions:

1. I was totally intrigued by Tor.

2. In the time I'd spent with him I had found he was attentive, kind, courteous, and intelligent. He appeared to also be a really good player, but with my limited knowledge of hockey, I couldn't be sure.

3. I was not interested in stopping or even slowing down this journey. While I was a control freak, maybe it would be nice to let sit back and let someone drive for a change.

4. Mummy was totally right. Richard had been completely wrong for me, but I couldn't hide behind the hurt I'd felt when he betrayed me. I needed to be open to the idea that someone out there might actually be deserving of my affection that I was definitely deserving of their affection and that person might be Tor.

5. So far as I could tell, the man could probably kiss like a demon, and I'd be getting the opportunity to confirm this soon.

6. Maybe Ted was onto something with this hockey obsession of his.

The sunlight was fading as I glanced at my watch and realized I had 10 minutes to get to the station and meet Theo. I grabbed my keys and ran out of the house, feeling a little surer of my feelings about this whole situation.

I got to the bottom of the station just as Ted, Angie, and Theo came to the turnstile. They put Theo's card through, and he ran straight into my arms.

"Aunt Pippa, can we watch the game tonight? What's for dinner?"

"Of course poppet. We are having do it yourself pizza, salad and sundaes for dessert." I turned to Angie and Ted as he handed me Theo's backpack. "Have fun you guys. We'll meet you for brunch after Church?"

"Sounds good," said Ted. " We expect a full report of last night's events at brunch." He didn't know the half it. "By the way, good luck getting the hat off of him," he chuckled. I had noticed Theo was wearing the cap Tor gave him. I'd put money on him having the puck in his backpack.

"Bye Mommy. Bye Daddy. Have fun," piped Theo, waving as he pulled me frantically up to the escalator.

"Bye Theo," I heard them call as we rode up the escalator to the sidewalk. Theo kept up a steady stream of chatter as we walked back to the house. Much like my mum, I was mainly required to listen and add the occasional comment. His main topic of conversation seemed to be the game last night, and his own personal play by play analysis. We soon reached home. He went up to my bedroom and put his backpack down on the loveseat. I convinced him that hockey players would never wear their hats in the house, so he allowed me to hang it on the hall tree downstairs. Theo then went looking for Beau, and proceeded to engage him in a game of fetch. Yes, the cat fetches little yarn balls and drops them at your feet. Sometimes I think I should get that cat's DNA tested. When Beau finally tired of the game, he and Theo wandered into the den.

"We're hungry Aunt Pippa. Is it dinner time yet?" He asked. Beau just went into the laundry room that was off the kitchen and started eating his food.

"Yes. Please go wash your hands, and then we'll each make our pizzas." Theo went to the bathroom to do this, and Beau followed closely after him to get watered. When Theo came back into the kitchen, I handed him his piece of dough and he proceeded to make a cheese, pepperoni, and black olive pizza. I stuck to cheese, artichoke hearts, and salami. As the pizzas were cooking, Theo tore the lettuce I'd washed, while I cut up the tomatoes and cucumbers. I made the dressing while Theo set the table. By the time I poured his milk and my glass of Merlot the timer went off and our pizzas were done. We sat down to eat as we had done twice a month since he was a baby.

"Is it my turn to say grace?" he asked.

"Yes," I replied. Hey I was the kid's godmother after all.

"Ok. We fold our hands and bow our heads to say, may every child on Earth be fed today. Amen."

"Amen," We began to eat as Theo continued to fill me in on everything he'd done today, what he and his friends were going to do during recess on Monday, and the game were we going to watch tonight. As he was making his sundae, I was stopped short when he said, "I really liked Tor Aunt Pippa. He sure was staring at you a lot last night. Do you like him? Do you think he likes you? Will I get to see him again?"

Way to cut to the chase kid. "Yes, now if you want to watch the game you need to take your bath, brush your teeth, and put on your jammies." We went back upstairs where I ran his bath. While he was playing in the tub, I made up the loveseat into a bed for him and put his beloved blankie by the pillow. He didn't carry it around, but he did like it at bedtime. I laid out his church clothes for the morning, and packed his play clothes and sneakers from today back into his bag. By the time I finished these small chores it was time to help him wash his hair. He climbed out of the tub and I snuggled him into his towel. There is just something irresistible about the smell of a freshly washed preschooler, so I took a minute to just breath in and enjoy his warmth. I really had thought that I would have had a child of my own by now, but obviously that was not the plan. Theo tolerated my affection for about 30 seconds, and then bounded out of my arms to put on his jammies. While I was folding his towel he bounced back in to brush his teeth. "Hurry Aunt Pippa," he cried. The game is about to start!"

I followed him down the stairs with my book in my hand, not expecting to watch much of the game. We curled up on either end of the sofa in front of the TV, and proceeded to watch all 3 periods of the game. Ok, I watched all 3 periods, Theo was asleep by the middle of the 2nd period. I moved to the blanket chest under the window, pulled out a quilt, and covered the hockey puck clutching boy. I decided for now to let him continue to sleep peacefully on his end of the couch. I still didn't understand much about the game, but like all sporting events, it was much more interesting since I actually knew one of the participants. I did admire the grace and coordination they showed as they skated around the rink. The game ended with a 3-2 victory for the Caps and I turned off the TV and pretended to read my book as I waited for the knock on my door. Theo continued to sleep peacefully next to me, and Beau had stretched out beside the back of his legs. I had just finished another chapter of my book when I heard a quite knock on my door. I got up to answer the door. I glanced through the peephole and saw my possible future.



My Life's Playlist Ch. 04



Thank you for the comments and votes. This is my first attempt at writing a novella, and I hope you are enjoying the story. Also much like Pippa, my only languages are English, Pig Latin, and really bad French spoken with a Southern accent (Thanks loads Mademoiselle Baker) so the Swedish quoted here is from my poking on Swedish to English on-line dictionaries. Please drop me a line if you do speak Swedish and find I've made a mistake. - WHB

© 2009

*





My Life's Playlist Ch. 04



"You've got too long a memory my friend."

"Probably because I spent most of my time sober, while you spent your first three years at UVA partying. Don't worry, I won't tell too many of your secrets."

"So, are you going to introduce me to Tor Edvardson? He's obviously fallen into bad company if he's hanging out with you. Hi, I'm Michael McGuire, Mike to my friends. Anything you want to know about the young Pippa, just ask." The two men shook hands. Mike looked behind to the people still waiting and said, "we'll catch up soon Pipster. Lee and I have big news!"

"Again! Geez Mikey, can't you find another hobby?" I gave him a hug and we walked away laughing.

We got settled back into the car and headed into Fairfax to meet Angie and Ted. Theo had obviously been storing up over an hour's worth of chatter and was anxious to get it all out at once. He asked Tor questions about everything from hockey to Sweden, to his favorite food. He filled him in on his friends and his favorite cartoons. Tor patiently answered his questions, and asked a few of his own. I just sat and listened.

Angie and Ted were waiting outside the restaurant, and once again when Ted saw Tor he got gob smacked. Theo grabbed Tor's hand and dragged him to his parents.

"Mommy, Daddy, Tor came with us to church and I went to big church and I was a good boy. Does that mean I can have dessert?"

"Tor, I'm Angie Adamson. Thank you for all you did for the boys Friday night. I'm still hearing about it, and Theo even talks about it too," she smiled and shook his hand. Angie is tall, blonde, green eyed, and one of the funniest people I know. She keeps Ted on his toes, which is always a good thing, and she has become like a big sister to me. She and Ted adore each other, and they are another hopeful example that you can marry your best friend, and still love them fifteen years later.

We went into the restaurant and enjoyed a leisurely brunch. Ted got over his awe of Tor enough to start playing big brother and asking lots of pointed questions of Tor. Angie and I caught up on each other's lives. When Tor excused himself to use the washroom she leaned over and said "so...?"

"So what?" I replied in my most innocent manner.

"Church and brunch with us. This must be serious. He seems too good to be true."

"That's what I'm afraid of Angie. Right now I can't really answer your question, but I promise you'll be the first to know."

"I'm holding you to that."

Tor came back and Theo crawled into his lap. He asked me for his blankie, and when Angie nodded yes, I handed it to him. The four of us continued to talk over our coffee, while Theo drifted off to sleep in Tor's lap. We paid our bill and Tor carried Theo to Ted and Angie's car, put him in his car seat and turned to face Angie and Ted.

"I had a great time with Theo today. He's a wonderful boy. You are very fortunate."

"Thank you," said Angie.

"Tor, good luck on the road games. Pip, we'll see you in the morning?" inquired Ted with a wink at me.

"Bye guys," I said. He helped me into his car, and we headed back to Old Towne.

"So what do you want to do now?" Tor inquired.

"It's your day off, so why don't you decide."

"I'd like to get out of this shirt and tie, and Axel needs to go out. Why don't we go to my house, I'll change and let him out, and we'll decide from there."

"I have an idea. After you change why don't we walk Axel and head back to my house so I can change. We can light a fire if you'd like and maybe watch the Redskin's game. Axel can come in to the house, Annie's parents bring their dog all the time. I can cook dinner or we could order in if you'd like."

"Sounds like an excellent plan," he replied, taking my hand.

That's how we ended up at my house, curled on the sofa in front of the fire and talking. We had gone to his house, and while he changed I looked at the pictures in his study. There were pictures of little blonde boys and girls, some obviously of he and his siblings, some of his nieces and nephews. Many featured a handsome couple that I assumed were his parents. I think my favorite might have been the one of him holding his godson in front the church on his christening day. It had been a sunny day, and obviously a little breezy because hair was blown away from his and the baby's face and his nephew's hand was patting his cheek. Hearing him enter the room I turned around. "They're lovely. It must be great to have siblings."

"Most of the time it is, though sometimes growing up it was less so," he chuckled.

"Were you lonely as an only child?"

"Sometimes, but my parents always made sure my friends were welcome and I seemed to be surrounded by kids my age. Are you ready? It hardly seems fair you've gotten to get out of your good clothes and I'm still sitting here in my dread pantyhose," I said rolling my eyes. He was wearing jeans, a blue and white snowflake patterned sweater, and navy turtleneck that made his eyes seem even darker. Once again, so not fair!

"Yes, let me put Axel on a lead and we'll go. Axel," he called. The large black dog came and sat patiently as Tor clipped on his lead. We headed out the red front door of his house. He told me he'd been working on renovating it when he could on the off season. The afternoon was still chilly, the temperature seemed to be 30 degrees color than the day before, and fall was definitely here.

When we got to my house I ran upstairs to change and Tor lit the fire that was already laid.. Axel and Beau spent a few minutes checking each other out, but Beau's dogness made him unafraid, and Axel's patience held out long enough for Beau to sniff him out. They both ended up hearthside, enjoying the warmth. I came down in my jeans, a long sleeve t-shirt, and my warmest socks. I hated wearing shoes when I was home, and avoided them at all costs.

"Sarcasm Society, like we need your support. Nice," Tor said, reading my t-shirt. He was up sitting with his legs stretched out on the couch and I curled up on the other end facing him as we proceeded to learn more about one another. He told me that his tooth had been chipped when his sister threw a marble at him as they argued about a game as children. A pick up hockey game as a teenager with no helmets broke his nose. His father's specialty was pediatric cardiac surgery, and his mom had played professionally until she met his dad. All of his grandparents were gone, but both his parents came from large families, and so he had tons of cousins, aunts, and uncles still in Sweden. The Royal Marines had been his branch of choice for his mandatory service, and in college he had studied economics. He liked to eat most things, except brussel sprouts and tomatoes. His favorite junk snack was chips and salsa and his favorite course was dessert, just like mine. I shared that I had broken my shoulder a couple of years ago when I tripped and fell walking Annie's parents dog, that my Dad had spent most of his life as a liaison between the Royal and U.S. Navy, my Mom stopped teaching after I was born, and that both of my parents were only children, so I had no cousins, aunts, or uncles. My dad's father had died before I was born, but had been in the Foreign Service, with his last posting being here in Washington D.C. at the British Embassy. My Grandmother Phillipa had loved it here so much she stayed on after he passed away, becoming the grand dame of a certain segment of British expats. She had also kept her country home in Cotswold and her apartment in London and would go there for the "Season". She was the daughter of an Earl, hence her courtesy title of Lady. Her dearest wish was for me to do a season in London and marry some nice Duke or Earl and live happily ever after producing the requisite heir and spare and performing good works. Unfortunately I had too much of my Grammy Fee in me so for once I dug my toes in and refused to something she wanted. Grammy Fee had been widowed shortly after my mother was born, and had worked as a cook for a prominent family here in Washington. She was feisty and stubborn and I loved her to death. All my grandparents were gone. I hated most green vegetables, but I ate everything else. My favorite junk food snack was Cheetos, and M-squared swore that when I died there would be no trouble identifying my body because I'd have fluorescent orange dust all over my fingers. Then he asked me a question that made me stop and think..."Why teaching?"

"So many kids hate school, especially history. I've always maintained they've had boring teachers. History is a story, and like any story if you tell it well, it's interesting. I love it when the kids who try to pretend they don't care get into a debate with someone in class. I also love it when I get e-mails from my former kids who have gone on to high school to tell me that they are studying something I went over and they still remember what I taught them. I've gotten some very nice thank you notes from students saying that I've helped them grow up or motivated them to believe in themselves as students. It certainly isn't for the money, I guess I just can't imagine doing anything else," I laughed. "Why hockey?"

Now it was Tor's turn to hesitate. "Every since I was little I've loved the feeling of being on skates, it's like flying. Figuring out where to shoot is like solving a puzzle. Like you, I just can't imagine doing anything else, but given my age, I won't be able to play at this level for much longer."

"So what will you do?" I asked.

"I haven't figured that out yet, probably something to do with hockey like coaching or management. I like the business end of it too." The clock on the mantel struck 2:00 so I turned on the game. I popped some popcorn and got us each a glass of water. Tor threw some more wood on the fire. When I came back to the couch Tor pulled me into his arms so I was leaning with my back against his chest and his arms around my waist. From this comfortable position I proceeded to watch my beloved Redskins get their butts kicked by the Colts, or at least that's the last thing I remember before I woke up as the clock struck 5:00. I am always slightly disoriented when I wake up from a nap, but this time it took me several minutes to reorient myself to my surroundings. Okay, I was in the den, lying on the couch in front of the fire with the TV tuned to the football game. I remembered that part. The part I was having trouble remembering was when exactly I ended up sprawled on top of Tor's chest. Not that it was uncomfortable, because it wasn't, just slightly embarrassing, and if I was truly being honest with myself, lust producing. From the slow, even motion of Tor's chest I ascertained that he was asleep himself, so I carefully rolled to my side and propped my head on my elbow so I could see his face. He looked so peaceful and I found my fingers being drawn irresistibly towards his face. Barely touching him I followed the line of his eyebrows, down his slightly crooked nose, to his cheekbone. His checks were slightly rough from where his beard had started to grow from this morning, but I found it only made him feel more masculine. Once again my brain was saying stop, but my hands would not obey. They went towards his ear lobe, around his chin, and then gently traced his lips with the tips of my fingers. I heard a quite sigh and felt Tor's hand move from around my waist, up my arm to grasp my wrist. His lips moved into a smile as he carefully kissed each finger tip and his eyes remained closed as he brushed his mouth back and forth against my palm. "Gott kvall, min sot ringa en," he said drowsily. I was going to have to get a Swedish/English dictionary if he was going to continue to throw phrases at me.

It was my turn to sigh as he drew me nearer to him, planting small kisses all over my face as he cupped it with his hands. He finally reached my lips. We started slow and gentle, but quickly heated up to passionate and fierce. The logical side of me was wondering how far to let this go, while the wild child side of me was trying to figure out if it was too early in the relationship to drag him upstairs in my room and hold him hostage for the rest of the night. I split the difference between the two sides and decided to just sink back and enjoy the moment. That moment was a lot shorter than expected because a minute later Axel started to bark and head to the front door. I know where he was headed because the bark startled me and I fell off the couch onto the rug, hitting my elbow on the coffee table on the way down.

"Ouch," I whined. Tor just sat up laughing, lifted me back onto the couch to sit next to him. He kissed my elbow, saying "hyra mig puss den det amt skapa det battre." As he was doing this I heard the Annie asking Axel his name and where he came from.

"Pippa," she called.

"In the den," I replied. Tor got up to put more wood on the fire. Annie came in asking "whose dog is this?"

"I'd like to introduce my dog Axel, and I am Tor Edvardson. You must be Dr. Annie Creagen. I've been looking forward to meeting you Dr. Creagen." he said, extending his hand to her. She took it and looked over at me with one eyebrow raised as she shook Tor's hand.

"Please call me Annie. Have you guys eaten yet?"

"No," I replied. "Shall I call and have some Thai delivered?"

"That would be great," said Annie. "I'm going to go upstairs and grab a shower while we wait for it to be delivered. Be good Pippa," she said laughingly as she went upstairs. While I made the call Tor took Axel out to the backyard. Beau of course had to follow. When they came back in, I put a bowl of water down for the dog, and he was non-plussed when Beau came up to drink beside him. Annie came back down and I opened a bottle of wine. We sat together in the den, talking, well mostly it was Annie and I talking. Tor just sat back and took it all in. I told Annie Mikey and Lee's news, and she laughed as hard as I did. She told me about her shift at the hospital, and said it had been a good weekend because all of her patients in the NICU had made it through the weekend. I don't know how she could stand it when one of her charges didn't make it, but she coped somehow. She once told me that she tried to think about her success, and like all NICU staff she loved to attend the yearly reunion of NICU "graduates" and staff.

The food arrived and Tor insisted on paying. The three of us moved to the dining room and continued our conversation as we ate. As we were finishing, Annie brought up my current least favorite topic.

"So Tor, do you know that Pipster is turning 30 on Friday?"

"Bite me Annster! You know I'm avoiding that topic at all costs!"

"She did tell me about it. Unfortunately I will be in New York playing against the Rangers. It is the last game on our road trip, and we do not return until late that night. If I may ask, why do you call each other Pipster and Annster?"

"That's easy," I replied. Neither of us have a sister, but we consider ourselves as close as sister so Pipster is short for Pippa sister and Annster is short for Annie sister. We also have our own conversational style called Pipnie, because we can follow what the other means, even if no one else listening can. It freaks our parents out." I was glad he had given me a way to divert the subject away from my birthday. We talked around the table and finished the bottle of wine. We were all startled when the clock struck 9:00.

"I didn't know it was so late and I have to be in for rounds at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow. Goodnight Pippa, Tor it was nice to meet you."

"Goodnight Annie. I hope you have a good week. It was nice to meet you too. I hope to see you again soon," he replied standing up and shaking her hand.

I started to clear the table and Tor helped me bring everything to the kitchen. In no time at all everything was tidy, and we were headed back to the den. Unfortunately I could no longer stifle my yawns, and I didn't think either of us was at the sleepover stage.

"Tor, this has been a really wonderful day, but I'm having trouble keeping my eyes open and the alarm will go off way too early tomorrow," I sighed, turning towards him.

"I agree," he said. "If you don't mind I'll try to call you when I can." He put his arms around me and pulled me to him.

"I'd really like that. I usually turn my phone on at 3:30 when school is over, so any time after that is fine." I stood on my tiptoes and wrapped my arms around his neck. All of a sudden my legs were off the floor and around his waist as he lifted me up so we could be face to face. He snapped his fingers at Axel and started kissing me goodnight, as he walked towards the front door. He set me on the second step and continued to say goodnight in the way I was really starting to appreciate. All too soon he pulled away. He took my hand and said "Adjo, min karlek, in kommer att sakna du." He pressed a kiss into my palm, turned and he and Axel walked out the door.

I so needed to get a Swedish/English dictionary.







My Life's Playlist Ch. 04



"Bye Tor. I miss you too. I hope you win tonight." I hung up the phone. Ted came by and asked if I was ready to go. We left the building, and I rode home, still trying to sort out what it all meant.

The rest of the week went by following the same pattern; teach, commute, grade, plan, read, and talk to Tor. I watched the games, and they had won 2 and lost 1 by the time Friday rolled around. Annie and I actually ate dinner together on Tuesday, and she clued me in on the plans she and Ted had made for me on Friday.

"I promise Pipster, Angie and I reigned in Ted as much as we possibly could. We finally got him to agree that you would not like a surprise party in any way, shape, form or fashion. If you don't mind the four of us will go to dinner, and then a few people will meet us back at our house for cake and libations."

"Define a few Annster," I asked rather pointedly.

"Umm, more that 5 less than 100. Come on, you know you'll have a good time once you get there."

"I suppose there is no changing your mind, so I'll try to be a good sport about it," I grumbled.

"As you should," she replied.

The dread day arrived, and as tradition dictated, I was greeted by Mummy's cheerful and Daddy's less cheerful rendition of "Happy Birthday" at 6:00 a.m. Geez, did these people never sleep? After the serenade, my father grumbled good-bye, and left me to the mercy of my Mother.

"We spoke to the Condons yesterday. They say you brought a man to church with you darling. Michael said that he thought he might be some hockey player, Tor Edvardson, who plays with the Capitals. Cate said he was quite handsome and that Theo seemed very attach to him. It appears that he did show up on Saturday night. Anything you'd like to tell me darling?"

I guess I should be grateful that it had taken this long for word to reach my parents. The Condons had lived next door to us when I was growing up. They were very close to my parents, and so I wasn't too surprised they were the ones to let the cat, or hockey player, out of the bag.

"Not really Mummy." I added her to my list of people I'd have to update once I figured this mess all up. We chatted for a few moments more, and she reminded me that they were coming up the next weekend to take me to dinner Saturday night for a late birthday celebration.

"Why don't you invite Tor to join us?" she inquired.

"I'll see Mummy. He might have a game that night. I have to run or I'll miss my train. Love you, bye."

"Happy birthday darling, see you Saturday." We hung up and I went through the morning routine. Annie had left me a note reminding me of my promise to be a good sport about tonight. I'd try. Scott gave me my coffee free since it was my birthday, so that was a plus. I rode to the station, got off my train, grit my teeth and plastered on my precious and lovely smile.

It turns out that I was going to need that smile. Theo started the ball rolling, greeting me with "Happy Birthday Aunt Pippa is it true that you are as old as dirt now?" He handed me a wrapped package.

"No darling that would be your daddy," I replied sweetly as I opened the package. "Hockey for Dummies, thank you so much poppet!"

"You're welcome Aunt Pippa. Will you save me a piece of your birthday cake since Mommy says I'm too young to witness the bacchanalia? What does that word mean?"

"You'll find out when you take Latin sweetie," I replied, smiling sweetly at Ted.

I hoped that I would be able to get through the day without the kids finding out about my birthday, but no such luck. Tacked up along the route to school, and around the school itself were signs announcing my birthday and birth year by posing a word problem. I think my favorite one read, "MTV was launched when Miss R-H was almost a year old. How old is she today?"

It got worse. My team occupied the very end of the 7th grade hall. In the morning, the early arrivals waited outside in the hall reading or doing their homework. Today as I walked down the hall, I noticed that none of our team's kids were sitting in the hall. This did not bode well, especially when I noticed that Ted was no longer behind me. I reached my classroom (the very last one on the hall) and started unlocking the door I heard the faint sound of a tuba and baritone, playing Chopin's "Funeral March". Crap cubed. Every one of the people on my team, teachers and students was wearing some piece of black clothing. Leading this macabre parade was Mr. Morgan Kelly, our beloved 7th grade vice-principal. Morgan, or "big daddy" as I affectionately referred to him when it was adults only, had played on the offensive line at Hampden-Sydney College. He still looked like the ex-lineman he was, but he was really a teddy bear inside, and a fiercely loyal friend. He was deeply devoted to his daughter Megan, who he had raised as a single parent. She was now off at school, learning to be a music teacher. I considered myself extremely fortunate to have someone like him helping to guide my career. Right now though, I was a little ticked off to see that he was a co-conspirator in my teams' evil plans. He held a large tombstone laden birthday cake in front of him, and the musicians started playing "Happy Birthday". The cake was alight with thirty-one candles.

"Blow them out Miss Rhys-Hall, before we set off the smoke alarm and sprinkler system," he rumbled in his deep baritone.

"Ha-ha," I said, but did as he asked. Soon plates and other, smaller cakes appeared and the entire 7th grade hall had cake for breakfast. Probably not the smartest thing to do, sugar up three hundred eleven and twelve year olds, but hey, you only live once and they'd be the related arts teachers problem soon.

The rest of the school day went on fairly normally, except that I had to accept birthday wishes from colleagues and students while keeping my p & l smile in place. You'd be wrong if you thought turning thirty was the reason I was upset about today. I was upset because this would be the one year anniversary of me finding Richard doing the vertical mambo with his now wife. Richard's present last year was one that would keep on giving, year after year. I just hoped that at some point I'd get a better memory in its place.

During my last planning period, Katie arrived at my door with a rather large arrangement of yellow tulips. "These are for you Miss R-H. I bet they're from Mr. Edvardson."

"Thank you Katie," I said in my most sugary voice.

"Aren't you going to read the card before I go?"

"Nope, same rules as last week so don't let the door hit you on the bahunkus as you go. Have a good weekend if I don't see you."

"You are so not fun, but I still hope you have a nice weekend too, Miss R-H," she pouted, but closed the door behind her.

I tore the card open, knowing that she was probably right. Our assumptions were confirmed as I read:

Glad fodelsedag, min sot ringa en.

Tor

The afternoon announcements started, which meant I wasn't going to have time to find a translation of the card or Google the meaning of yellow tulips. I went to my afternoon duty posts, pasting on my p & l smile as I accepted the good wishes of the parents going through car line. Ted was so going to pay for his sign-posting scheme. 3:30 came, and I got my things gathered up to go home. As I was getting into Ted's car, my phone rang.

"Hello Tor," I answered. "How is New York?"

"Good, cold though. Did you get the flowers? I wish I had been there to give them to you in person."

"Yes, they are beautiful. Thank you so much. What is the English translation of what is written on the card?" I questioned in what I hope was a casually tone of voice.

"I'll tell you later."

"I'm sorry to be so short, but we are at Theo's school and I need to go in and get him. I'm glad you'll be home tonight, I've missed you."

"As I have you, Good-bye Pippa."

"Bye Tor. Good luck tonight."

I sighed and hung up the phone. Ted looked over at me, putting his finger down his throat to simulate gagging. "This is all your fault," I reminded him.

"How exactly is it my fault?" he said.

"You're the one who made me go meet him after the game last week. If I hadn't, this would have probably never happened so suck it up big guy."

"Seriously Pip, I just want you to be happy. Just know if this guy hurts you, I'm going to kick his ass, or at least I will if the season is finished."

"Thanks for that Ted. Now I'm going to go retrieve the kid before you get charged a late fee," I said getting out of the car and going into the school. Ted and Theo dropped me at the station and my flowers and I got on my train. When I arrived home, I was greeted by Beau and Annie.

"Nice flowers, Pipster. I assume they are from the wall?"

"Yep," I replied as I set them on the entry table by the window. "I'm going to jump through a bath and change. What time are we leaving for dinner?"

"We have 6:00 reservations at Il Porto, so we need to leave here in 45 minutes or so. By the way, here's your present from me. Happy Birthday!"

I opened the small box containing a gold dolphin charm. "Thank you so much," I said as I hugged her.

Her giving me this charm confirmed the fact that she could laugh at herself. Annie and I had been swimming in the Atlantic last summer at my parents' house. She didn't have on her glasses or contacts, and when I pointed out a pod of dolphins swimming about 6 feet away from us, she squealed and said she thought they were sharks. Every since then it had become an inside joke.

I climbed the stairs to my room, kicked off my shoes, and dropped the rest of my clothes into my hamper. While I was waiting for my bath to run, I grabbed the book Tor had given me and looked up the meaning of yellow tulips. There is sunshine in your smile, it read. I rolled my eyes. The boy still wasn't playing at all fair.

After my bath I put on my comfy jeans, French blue oxford cloth blouse, and the new emerald green cashmere crew neck sweater my parents had sent for my birthday. I completed my outfit with my shamrock patterned socks and my black Danskos. I called down the stairs and asked Annie if she would come and French braid my hair.

"So, what do yellow tulips mean?" she asked as she tied a ribbon that matched my sweater to the end of my braid.

"There is sunshine in your smile," I replied, once again rolling my eyes.

"Obviously he hasn't seen your p & l smile in action," she laughed. I was saved from having to make a snarky comment back by a knock on the front door. Angie and Ted were waiting on our doorstep. They were carrying a wrapped package.

"A Capitals sweatshirt, just what I've always wanted," I cooed sarcastically.

"Well now you can look like a true fan when we go to the games. We are going to another game, aren't we Pip?" asked Ted.

"Whatever. Can we go eat now seeing as it is my birthday and if they give away our table I'm going to be really pissed," I said.

"Temper, temper birthday girl," replied Ted tweaking my nose. Annie and Angie just laughed as we gathered our coats, locked the door, and walked to the restaurant. We proceeded to eat a delicious dinner, and somehow two bottles of red wine were consumed. We lingered chatting over the second bottle, when Annie looked at her watch and exclaimed "Yikes, its 8:30 already. We need to scoot home to meet everybody."

We settled our bill and walked out into the cold air. I was starting to feel much better about the party, but that might have been due to the wine at dinner. Make that I was feeling better until we arrived at the house. It was lit up like a Christmas tree, with white lights strung down the banister and around the doorframe. This did not bode well for the quiet celebration with just a few people for which I had hoped

Nope, M-squared had worked her party magic. I was greeted by all of my seventh grade colleagues, most of my good friends, and several other staff and administrators of my school, and most of them had brought their spouses or significant others. Geez, was there anyone left in Northern Virginia tonight that wasn't here?

"Happy Birthday," they all cried as M-squared handed me a tiara that her kids had decorated especially for me. It was gold, adorned with glued on little shamrocks, Tudor roses, and thirties. I then noticed the rest of the crowd had them too.

"Someone go a little crazy with the glue gun?" I inquired.

"Well, you know how much Talya, Maya, and Justin like craft projects," she replied with a shrug of her shoulders.

"Really, thanks for everything. This place looks fantastic! How did you get it done so fast?" I asked hugging her. I wasn't just trying to make her feel good. She really had transformed my downstairs into a perfect party venue. All of the furniture was repositioned so that people could sit in small groups and have conversations. The middle of the room was just the bare floor. I understood the need for this space when music started playing from the DJ set up in the dining room. A small fire blazed in the fireplace, and the mantel was ablaze with tons of small gourds that had tea lights inside. The bar separating the den and the kitchen had several small tubs full of soft drinks, water, wine, and beer. Along with the usually party munchies of chips, veggies, and fruit were bowls of candy corn and pumpkins. Fall leaves and gourds artistically placed completed the theme for the night.

"I drafted Doug, Mike, Lee, Flip, and his latest squeeze. I think her name is Kaykay or something equally nauseatingly cute. I did lock all of the breakables from the living in the laundry room."

"Thanks, again, M-squared. Let's get this sucker started. What should the first song be?" I said.

"Duh, Birthday by the Beatles," she replied and magically the song started playing. Flip handed me a glass of wine and I circulated around the room, accepting birthday hugs and best wishes from my friends. The night continued with a blur of people dancing and talking. When the shag tune "More than a Number in my Little Red Book" by the Drifters came on, Mikey grabbed my hand and we proved how we won the Kappa Alpha Old South Week shag contest our Junior year of college. After a few hours, the DJ took a break and my second candle-laden cake of the day was brought out. Everyone sang the standard Happy Birthday, and we dug into my friend Cathy's famous Chocolate Guinness Cake with Bailey's Ice Cream. Annie stood on a chair and tapped her wine glass to get everyone's attention.

"To my best friend the Honorable Miss Phillipa Fiona Rhys-Hall, May this night be the restart of great birthday memories. Happy Birthday, Pipster. To Pippa."

"To Pippa," the crowd echoed.

She got off her chair. I gave her a huge hug and whispered into her ear "Thanks for putting up with me this year. You truly are my best friend and lost sister."

"Shut up and let's show these folks how they do it in Ireland," she said.

"Without birth control?" I cracked.

"Again, shut up. Hey Alex, do you have Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers 'The Black Rats of London'?" she called to the DJ.

Before I knew it, the thumping rhythm of the song was playing, with Annie and me leading the guests in our version of an Irish Jig. The music was infectious, and soon several of our guests were singing along with the chorus:

Hoorah, hooray, the black rats of London

They crossed the sea for you and me Let′s raise a glass so thankfully Hail, Hail, hooray, the black rats of London Made the long treacherous passage too Spread their natural juices, a gift to you

The sound of fifty shoes thumping on the floor at the same time echoed through the house and made me thankful we had invited the next door neighbors. Nothing could be heard except the throbbing music and the sounds of our boisterous dancing. We were on my very favorite part, the classic spin, (you go through different partners by placing your arms around each other's waists, spin around once, and then the ladies move to their right and spin with the next person), when I found myself being picked up and spun to the front hall.

"Glad fodelsedag min sot ringa en," said my favorite Swede, as he gave me a kiss. "I knocked, but no one answered so I just came in. It appears that you are having a good birthday celebration."

"Tor, how did you get here? And more importantly, how about translating what you just said into the Queen's English for me." By now, he was sitting on my bottom step and I was sitting on his lap, so it seemed only natural to follow up my comment with another kiss.

"I'm so telling your mom," laughed a voice in front of me. "Don't worry though, I think this would not qualify as something you need to confess, but if it goes any further..."

I looked up and saw Mikey and Lee with their coats on. "Bite me Mikey. Are you two leaving already?"

"Midnight is way past our bedtime. I can't remember the last time we were out this late, and my parents are watching the girls so the house is ours," replied Lee with a blush.

"Um, I think it's a little too late to be blushing Lee. You've obviously figured out what happens when you mess with boys," I giggled, standing and giving them each a kiss. "Thanks so much for coming; I guess I'll see you Sunday."

"Good night Pippa. Tor good to see you again," said Mikey as he and Tor shook hands.

The DJ was packing his equipment, so most of the other guests took this as their cue to go. Annie and I stood by the door to say thank you and good-bye to our guests. Tor moved into the other room, where Angie and Ted introduced him to M-squared, Doug, Flip, and Kaykay. By the time we got all of the other partygoers out the door, it was almost 1:00, but the cleaning crew had managed to put everything mostly back into place.

"We'll finish in the morning guys. I can't even begin to thank you for such a great night! You are the bestest friends a girl could have." Hugs and handshakes were exchanged, and Annie headed up to bed, leaving Tor and I alone on the couch. We cuddled quietly for a few minutes, when it became obvious we were both swallowing our yawns.

"I guess it's time to call it a night," I sighed.

"I'm so tired that I'm not sure I can find my way back to my house," Tor laughed. "This week has been brutal, and I never sleep well in hotel rooms."

"Then sleep here with me tonight. Just sleep. I'm pretty sure I've got an extra toothbrush," I whispered, turning what I was sure was a lovely shade of crimson. At least it coordinated with my sweater.

"I'd like that very much, if you are sure," he whispered back as he leaned in to give me another kiss.

My yes came out as more of a sigh than word. I got up and pulled him off the couch. He made one finally check of the downstairs to make sure all the candles were extinguished and everything that couldn't wait until tomorrow (today?) was taken care of while I whistled for Beau, locked the back door, and opened the laundry room so he could get to his food. Tor met me at the bottom of the steps as I checked the front door and turned out the last remaining downstairs light. I took his hand as we walked up towards my room. Beau obviously moved faster, because by the time we turned off the hall light and closed my door, he was ensconced on the loveseat, giving himself a bath.

"Do you want to use the bathroom first?" I inquired.

"No, you go ahead," he answered as he sat on the opposite end of the love seat to take off his shoes and socks. I went into the bathroom and took a deep breath. I was almost certain this is what I wanted, no more, no less. I was too tired to over think it, so I washed my face, brushed my teeth, and proceeded to pull on my flannel pajama pants and tank top. I put out a clean washcloth and hand towel next to the spare toothbrush. I grabbed my hairbrush and opened the door. Tor was still sitting on the loveseat, but I could tell he was fighting to keep his eyes open.




My Life's Playlist Ch. 05



I apologize for the shortness of this post. Spring break is less than 2 weeks away, and I plan to finish the story then. Of course to quote John Lennon from his song "Beautiful Boy", 

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans, so we'll see. Thanks again for your support, and as always comments, criticism, and votes are appreciated. WHB

©2010





My Life's Playlist Ch. 06



Sorry for the brief post. Both organizations mentioned in this part of the story are organizations worthy of your support. Drop me an e-mail if you'd like more information. As always, comments, criticisms and votes appreciated. WHB





My Life's Playlist Ch. 06



"I am Ang. I'm so glad to be home and see everyone."

You might be wondering where Tor was. Why he wasn't picking me up? Why Theo was again my favorite man?

We'd had a fight. No I'll be honest, I picked a fight. I was beginning to realize that in my grief and guilt I had pushed away the man who loved me, and I wasn't sure if I could get him back.

But I was sure as hell going to try. 



My Life's Playlist Ch. 07



As always, thank you for the vote and support. I promise the next chapter is on its way! WHB





My Life's Playlist Ch. 08



First of all, a big thank you for all of you who have commented and voted. I can't get better if I don't know what to change. Second enormous thanks go to Pennlady for loaning me Drew. He's such a nice boy, and I'm waiting breathlessly for him to have his own story. WHB





My Life's Playlist Ch. 08



"I can't blame anyone but myself, so I promise no moping." I added to the end of my summary. I figured if I repeated this enough I'd start believing it.

"You are still planning to chaperone the dance Saturday night?" Ted asked.

"You know I wouldn't miss my annual dance with you! Besides how else am I going to see the latest in fashion if I don't go," I laughed.

"We'll pick you up promptly at 6:30."

The entire 7th grade was buzzing with excitement. The Valentine's Day dance was our school's largest event. Only 7th and 8th graders could attend, and everyone dressed up. Of course tears were shed over invitations not given, but most of the kids came in big groups, not as couples. I always thought the concept of 7th graders "going out" was a bit absurd. After all, where could they go? They couldn't drive and they didn't work. After a few years I finally figured out that going out meant they spent an inordinate amount of time texting each other. I won't say that I didn't know some of our kids were already sexually active, but since I wasn't their parents, nor did I teach sex ed., there was not a lot I could do legally, so I kept my fingers crossed. I was, however, still puzzled by the fact that giving a blowjob was not considered having sex. Whatever.

Annie and I spent Saturday doing girly things. We indulged in mani/pedis and facials at the local day spa, and then enjoyed lunch. Subtle (or not so subtle) reminders of the holiday were scattered among the shop windows. I sighed and reminded myself that the fact I had no one was my own damn fault. I turned back to Annie and asked her what she and Ian had planned for tonight.

"Ian is on call tonight. Drew was whining the other day that he never got to spend Valentine's Day with his wife, so I offered to finish the last part of his shift for him. I'm going to relieve him about 5:00."

"I hope he's not too much like you, because if he is, she'll be lucky to get an hour of his attention before he falls asleep," I giggled.

"Ah, but if you know what to do with that hour," she smiled knowingly. "Ian and I have spent many a satisfying hour in the in-call room together, if you know what I mean."

"Ew, enough with the over share," I groaned.

"I'm just saying," she replied with a grin. "Not to change the subject, but have you heard anything from Tor?"

"Nope, and I don't expect to. He made it pretty clear he was done with me on Friday. Time for me to get over him."

"Easier said than done."

"No shit. That said; let's concentrate on more important things, like what I'm going to wear tonight. I'd hate to be out-styled by a 13 year old," I laughed.

We paid our check and went shopping to put together the perfect outfit. I needed to be dressy, but not overdressed. Annie claimed the powers that be had forgotten to give me my shopping gene, but I always maintained she had gotten mine and hers. Annie was a master. She managed to find the perfect dress in the second shop we went in. It was a deep pink empire waist raw silk cocktail dress. Amazingly enough, it was a petite and my size, so it wouldn't need any alterations. I already had shoes and wrap that would look great with it. Almost before I'd finished signing the credit card slip, it was wrapped on a hanger and we were on our way out the door.

I was in my room reading when poked her head in on her way to work. She had her "seriously" face on, so I knew she had something important to say. I put down my book, and gave her my full attention. "What?"

"Just let tonight unfold Pipster. I don't know, maybe Cupid will shoot his arrow into the chest of that Swede you love. Just don't shut your heart to any of the possibilities."

"Donkeys are more likely to fly out of my ass, but whatever. Now get out of here and enjoy your 'romantic' on-call night. Maybe it will be quiet, and you get a whole hour and a half in the call room."

"Here's hoping. Bye Pip, see you Monday."

"Go!"

I was ready and waiting when I got Angie's text that they were pulling up to the door. I turned to Beau and said "Keep your fingers crossed, maybe you will get to see Axel again." He mewed back. Great, I've become the crazy lady who talks to her cat. I locked the door and ran down the steps into the car.

We got to the school and took up our posts. I was assigned to take their tickets, while Angie and Ted stood by the cafeteria door to greet them. Our PTSA had outdone themselves, and I barely recognized the cafeteria when I got a chance to peek in. Small white Christmas lights were strung from the ceiling and walls, providing just enough light into the room for us to make sure everyone was behaving, but not so much as to remind the kids that this was where they ate every day. Pink, red, and white hearts and balloons were strewn across the ceiling. The DJ was setting up on the stage, and the parents had laid out a feast of punch, cookies, and chips.

While the boys looked sharp in their "southern boy uniform" (khakis, tie, button down shirt, and navy blazer), the girls were literally breathtaking in their colorful dresses. While red and pink were the dominate colors, jewel tones seemed to also be big this year. For the most part they appropriately straddled the line between little girl and grown up, though in a few cases Ted and wondered if their parents knew what they were wearing. The giggle triplets came in with most of my homeroom, and compliments were exchanged all around.

"So Miss R-H, is Mr. Edvardson coming tonight? I bet he looks good in a suit," Katie inquired with an innocent grin.

"I don't know. You guys better go in because I think the first song is about to start." They filed in, and I was reassured by their giggles and awkwardness with the dressed up versions of each other that they really hadn't suddenly grown up overnight.

After about 45 minutes most of the students had who were coming had checked-in, so I went into the dance itself. The music was loud, and the kids were standing around talking to each other. A few brave 8th graders were dancing, but the majority of the kids were too shy to ask each other to dance. Luckily the DJ had done a ton of Middle School dances, so he put on the Chicken Dance, which got everyone out on the floor, including me.

"You know how to do the Chicken Dance, Miss Rhys-Hall," asked an amazed Viktor as we clapped together.

"When you get to be my age and have gone to a gazillion weddings, you too will become the Lord of the line dance. If you're really lucky, you too will participate in a Congo line down a hotel hallway."

"I think I'll give it miss," he replied.

"Your loss."

The band or in this case the DJ played on. As the evening wore on coats were discarded and ties loosened. Some of the girls came to the painful realization that just because a shoe looks cute, it can actually be a medieval torture device in disguise. My colleagues and I stood back and watch our students take their first tentative steps towards adulthood. I danced with a few of my students and fellow staff members, and talked to the parents.

Okay, confession time, what I was really doing was trying to stop myself from hoping that Tor would appear at the door. As 7:30 became 9:30, and then 10:00, I stopped hoping and began accepting the reality that he was not coming. I had another hour of the dance to endure, so I put on my precious and lovely smile.

"Pippa, would you mind doing a quick check of the hallways to make sure no one is off limits?" asked Morgan.

"Anything for you big daddy," I replied. This duty consisted of walking up and down the halls and into the bathrooms to make sure no one had left the cafeteria area to find "alone" time. Our unofficial motto is "we send home as many as came; no more, no less". I walked the halls and was extremely grateful to find them empty. As I reached the end of the world, or my classroom as it was more commonly called I decided to use the master key Morgan had given me and go inside. The next think I knew I was sitting in my dark classroom at my desk, with my head in my arms, sobbing. I think my heart finally caught up with what my head already knew. I had royally screwed up my relationship with Tor, and he was not coming back. I'd end up being crazy Aunt Pippa, the one who talked to her twenty cats, the one who sent sucky birthday presents like socks and underwear, and the one no one wanted to visit. Hell, I already talked to the one cat I had. This made me sob even louder, so I didn't know anyone else had come in until I felt myself being lifted out of my chair and cradled against a very familiar chest.

Step 5 -- Grovel for forgiveness, big time!

"Shh karesto, why the tears?"

I was afraid to look up, but when two fingers went under my chin and gently lifted my head from his chest, I found myself once again looking into Tor's sky blue eyes. I slid my arms under his open coat and tightly hung onto his waist, afraid he'd disappear if I let go. "It got to be so late, and I figured you weren't coming, especially after you ignored me last Friday," I whispered against his chest.

"We had a game tonight and it went into overtime. I got here as soon as I could. I didn't know I could shower and dress so quickly, but I knew the dance ended at 11:00 and I didn't want to miss it."

I stepped away and used a Kleenex from my desk. I took a deep breath, turned towards Tor, and executed step five of my master plan.

"I'm sorry Tor. I'm sorry I hurt you, I'm sorry I lied to you, and I'm sorry I broke your heart. I felt guilty about my parents, and I pushed you away in the most permanent way I knew. I was a huge asshole, and I'll never be able to make it up to you, but if you can forgive me, I promise I'll try to do so every day you'll let me. I love you with all my heart, so please...."

He stopped me in mid-apology in the best way I could think of, he kissed me. "I snuck a look at you during the third period of the game, and I saw how heartbroken you looked. Then Drew told me what you had done to get me the note. Remind me not to have you negotiate my next contract karesto; it sounds like you gave him way too much to just deliver a note."

"But it was a really important note. Without his help I'd never been able to execute steps four and five of my plan." I was rising on my tiptoes to give him a kiss, when the sound of giggles echoed down the hall. I sighed and started walking to the door when he caught my hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"Miss R-H, Mr. Adamson sent me to tell you they're about to play the last dance. Oh hi Mr. Edvardson, are you going to ask Miss R-H for the last dance?" Katie asked in pretended innocence.

"Of course. Will you dance with me Pippa?" he asked raising my hand to his lips and brushing a kiss against it like an old-fashioned movie hero.

"It would be my pleasure," I replied, matching his formality.

"Then let's go ladies," he said extending one arm to me and one arm to Katie.

We entered the cafeteria to the strains of "Lovely Day" by Bill Withers. No, it wasn't a current song, but it was the traditional last dance at our school, and an inside joke with the staff. Whenever we were having a particularly interesting day, we look at each other and sing the refrain of the song. Austin claimed Katie, and Tor swept me onto the dance floor. I looked around the room to the people who meant the most to me. Ted and Angie danced by us and I stuck my tongue out at him as he winked and wiggled his eyebrows. Tor tightened his arms around me, and I looked up and smiled.

"Jag älskar dig," he said.

I didn't need a translation. "I love you too," I answered.

"Can we leave after this dance?"

"We can slip away now if you'd like."

"Very much so."

I caught Angie's eye and nodded my head towards the door. She smiled and gave me a thumbs up. Tor waited impatiently for me to gather my wrap and purse, and make my manners to Dr. and Mrs. Patrick and Morgan. As soon as we were out the front door he pulled into his arms and proceeded to give me the kiss I'd been waiting for all evening. "Is Annie on call tonight?" he asked breathlessly.

"Until Monday morning," I replied.

"I feel I've been neglecting your Swedish lessons. How about we stop by my house to pick up Axel and a change of clothes then we resume your education?"

"Ja snälla," I answered as he pulled me towards his car.

Before I knew it we had picked up Axel and were standing in my hallway kissing. Clothes magically disappeared and I wrapped my legs around his waist as he lifted me onto his hardness. My hands threaded into his hair as I tucked my head into the crook of his neck, just savoring his unique scent. Our bodies remembered the rhythm of our private dance, and we came to a shattering end together. I felt tears pricking my eyes and soon Tor felt them on his neck.

"More tears karesto?" he asked lifting my face to kiss them away.

"Happy ones, karlek," I said with a watery smile. "I know there are still tons of things we need to talk about, but right now do you think you remember how to get to my room?"

"I do. Will I still have to lie diagonally to fit?"

"Yeap."

"Then put that on our list of things to discuss tomorrow afternoon. Right now I have better uses for our time."

And he proceeded to prove it.