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Being in a somewhat low position in the politician career, Tamara was often given the boring jobs that no one liked doing. Usually door to door surveys or public forums that no one showed up to - and when people did it was just the town crazies. But today she had to go and survey people on the city streets.
Ugh... she thought.
At least with door to door you get some privacy... But as she drove the short distance from the town hall to the park, there was someone who caught her eye.
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Deciding that she liked the idea of surveying him, (her flirty side thinking in more ways than one), she made her way over to him and sat down on the bench beside him. He gave her a funny look, but she started to explain herself before he ran away in fear.
"Hi, I'm Tamara Donner. I've got a survey from the Town Hall I would really appreciate you answering," she said, putting on her best smile and her cheeriest voice.
"Oh, uh..." he looked around, trying to get away from the conversation, "I've got work soon..."
"Hey, it's ok if you don't want to take it," Tamara said with a smile, "I don't really want to make people take it anyway. But, y'know, the sooner I get this done, the sooner I can get home."
The guy laughed and settled back down. "Oh, well, in that case maybe I should take it. I'm Leighton, by the way. Leighton Sekemoto."
As Tamara got to know Leighton through the survey and the jovial conversation that interspersed the questions, she started to like Leighton more and more. Who knew that a survey could lead her to such a great guy? She scolded herself internally.
Don't try to flirt with him, Tamara. You're not a flirt anymore! [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Leighton checked his watch, and his eyes went wide. "Oh gosh, now I really have to go to work."
Tamara laughed. "Well at least you're not dodging me this time."
"I'm definitely not." After saying that, Leighton grabbed a little pad of paper and started scribbling on the page. Once he was done, he handed it to Tamara. "It's my number and address. In case you want to come over." Suddenly he was blushing, and Tamara found that she was too.
"Oh, right, yeah. I'll definitely call you some time," she replied, looking at the paper in her hand.
Leighton said his goodbyes, and they hugged. As he drove off in his car, Tamara looked back down at the now slightly crumpled piece of paper. She couldn't believe he'd given her his number this easily! Normally, back in her party girl days, she'd have to flirt and flirt and flirt before a guy even thought about giving her his number. But there was Leighton, just giving it to her after a normal conversation. Maybe she should've just tried that before? But if she had, maybe she would've never met Leighton...
Resolving to visit his house tomorrow, she wandered off to finish her surveys.
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The next day, after a rather grueling day at work, Tamara departed for Leighton's house at a later hour than she would've liked. She hoped he would be home - she'd hate to arrive at his house and find herself locked out. Or even worse. She shuddered at the possibilities, and for a moment she started to regret driving to his house. Was she being too presumptuous? But no, if she didn't see him now and cement a relationship she may never get another chance. But when she arrived, her hopes faltered.
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Was that his mother? Did Leighton seriously live with his mum? Taking a deep breath, she stepped out of the car and greeted the old woman.
"Hi, I'm Tamara Donner. Is Leighton home?" she asked, and the old woman looked at her quizzically.
"No, he's at work," she said with a frown. "What do you want with him?"
Tamara wasn't expecting her to be so... standoffish. All the old ladies she'd met had been nice and sweet. Unless she was only standoffish to strangers, Tamara could see her having a hard time with this woman. "I met him yesterday. I thought I'd just drop in and say hi."
"Oh!" the woman suddenly had a wry smile on her face, "So you're
that Tamara."
"He told you about me?" she asked. If Leighton told his mother everything, she wasn't sure how successfully this relationship would end up. That is if they ended up in a relationship in the first place.
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"He did indeed," she said, "He was singing your praises all night, even to little Sam."
Tamara blushed. Was he really singing her praises? She'd never had someone do that before, and she quite liked it. But then the last part of the sentence hit her. Little Sam? Who on Earth was Sam?
"Is Sam his brother?" she ventured, hoping she was right.
The woman laughed. "Oh no no no. Sam's my grandson, so Leighton's his father."
Leighton had a son? She never would've picked him as the fathering type... What happened to the mother? Was the mother inside? Surely his mother would've told her if there was a mother... But then she thought, maybe a single father was the kind of man she needed? She'd wanted to tone down her life style - she was over endless parties and flirting, she wanted something more tame. What was more tame than parenthood?
"I should let you in," said Leighton's mother, and she guided Tamara into the house. Almost as soon as she entered the house, she saw him.
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He was... cute. Even though he was only a toddler, she could see bits of Leighton in his features. He looked very innocent, babbling to himself and laughing at himself. Looking at him made Tamara feel like she was missing out on a whole world of wonders. She'd never thought about being a mother much, but maybe it was what she'd been looking for this whole time...
"I see you've met Sam," said Leighton's mother, smiling down at the little toddler.
"Yeah. He's really cute," Tamara replied.
Judging by the spark in the old woman's eye, she seemed to have an idea. "Why don't you feed him and put him to bed, then wait for Leighton. I'm sure he won't mind."
Tamara took another look at Sam. Well, she had come to see Leighton...
"Sure, I'll look after him," Tamara agreed, and with a smile, the old woman disappeared into the other rooms of the house. That left Tamara alone with Sam, who was looking at her with puzzlement in his eyes.
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"Hey there, little guy," she said, putting on her softest voice and picking him up, "Let's get you some dinner."
Sam didn't seem to mind being picked up by her. Tamara would've thought he'd have hated being picked up by a stranger, but he seemed to rather like her. She decided that she rather liked him as well. Smiling, Tamara set him down in his high chair then headed for the kitchen to get some food. She thought Leighton must've said some wonderful things about her to convince his mother to let her look after her only grandson.
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After Sam had finished his dinner (which was rather a messy process), Tamara set him down into his cot for bed. After sitting with him until he fell asleep, she softly slipped back into the living room. She cleaned up Sam's dish, then sat down on one of Leighton's plush sofas. She deduced that Leighton's mother must've gone to bed as she couldn't hear anything coming from other rooms of the house. So she stayed up and waited for Leighton, which took longer than she expected. But then, the sound of the front door creaking open alerted her to his arrival.
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Barely containing herself, Tamara jumped from the sofa to run and greet him, and byt the look on his face he hadn't been expecting her.
"Tamara?" he asked, flabbergasted as she appeared in the hallway.
"Hey, Leighton. Your mum let me in," she explained, and Leighton's expression softened.
"Oh, right. So I guess you've met Sam, then?"
"Yeah, he's really cute." She gestured to the door of Sam's room. "He's sleeping now. I put him to bed."
"Let me guess, he was a total dream?" Leighton asked, leaning against the wall.
"Yup."
Leighton rolled his eyes. "He's always better when other people put him to bed. He never settles when I try to get him to sleep, so I usually need Mum to do it."
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"Well, we can talk about that later," Tamara said with a wave of her hand, "How was work, anyway?"
"Oh, fine. Not much happened, just the usual."
"And what's the usual?" Tamara asked.
"Boring," Leighton answered, and Tamara laughed.
"Kind of like my job then," she said.
"Gosh, we're talking like a married couple already..." Leighton said with a sigh, though there was laughter in his tone.
"Maybe that wouldn't be so bad?"
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Tamara couldn't believe what she'd just said. She'd never beent that forward before, even back in her party girl days. Well, she'd been a different kind of forward back then, but that wasn't the point. She could tell she'd made the situation awkward, and she was kicking herself mentally for saying it. But, oddly enough, Leighton didn't seem to mind.
"Maybe you're right."
Earlier that day, Stiles McGraw had been practicing his guitar without a care in the world. He'd gathered his usual audience of Blair and Cycl0n3, but Emma wasn't there that day. She usually wasn't part of his audience, spending most of her time in the kitchen. But lately, she'd been out of the house a lot, even on her days off. He wondered what that was about?
"I love that song," Blair sighed as Stiles finished strumming.
"You do?" he asked, more interested in the merits of the song than in Blair's opinion.
"Yeah, you really feel a deep connection to it, y'know?" she said, trying her best to sound deep. Being a woman of academics, it was sometimes difficult for Blair to engage in cultural conversations. But at least she tried - Cycl0n3 didn't even bother.
Not that Stiles wasn't going to try. "What did you think, Cycl0n3?"
The beanie clad man shrugged, which was his usual form of communication. Rolling his eyes, Stiles started to pack his guitar back into its case.
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As he put away his guitar, Blair couldn't help but think back on how he looked while playing. He made it look so effortless... The way he looked so focused when he played... The little quirks he had when working out some difficult chords, biting his lip, scrunching up his nose. Needless to say, Blair was infatuated with him. He was just the kind of guy her academic minded parents had warned her off of, but that wasn't going to stop her. She loved Stiles, and somehow she was going to tell him.
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Later that day, Cycl0n3 came home from work to find Stiles practicing his guitar again. He hadn't noticed Cycl0n3 come in, which gave him some time alone with his thoughts. He knew Blair loved Stiles - she'd talked about her crush often enough with him to be certain. That wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for the fact that Cycl0n3 was in love with Blair. Having Stiles around playing guitar attractively all the time didn't help either, so maybe it was time to convince him otherwise?
"Hey Stiles," he said, jolting the musician out of his concentration. He frowned, the fright mucking up his song.
"What?" he asked, clearly annoyed at Cycl0n3 for breaking his concentration.
"I was just wondering if you could, maybe, like, practice somewhere else?" he requested, and Stiles looked at him like he had two heads.
"Why?"
Cycl0n3 realised that he couldn't get out of this without telling Stiles about his feelings towards Blair. Well, if there was no other way to go about it...
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"It's just that you're, like, y'know, crampin' my style," he explained, but Stiles just raised a confused eyebrow.
"What style?"
Well, that was a low blow. Cycl0n3 sighed, and just let his feelings go all at once. "Like, Blair really likes you and thinks you're totally hot when you play, and she's, like, totally crushing on you. But, like, I'm totally crushing on Blair, y'know? But you playin' guitar all the time really cramps my style, and I feel like I've got, like, no way of askin' her out if your there bein' sexy all the time, y'know?"
Stiles took a moment to take all that in, but before he could reply the sound of someone coming up the stairs cut him off.
"Hey guys! How's it going? Oh! Is it time for another jamming session?" Blair asked excitedly as she dashed up the stairs, taking sight of Stile's guitar.
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"Hey, Blair," Stiles greeted while still giving Cycl0n3 an odd look. "Yeah, I'm still practicing."
"Cool! Mind if I watch?" she asked even though she knew that Stiles wouldn't mind.
"No problem." He said that while giving a look to Cycl0n3 that said "I'm going to ruin your love life now."
So as Stiles strummed away and Blair listened, enraptured by his every move, Cycl0n3 was left wondering if he should even have told Stiles in the first place. He could've just frightened him away with technological jargon, though how that would get him out of the house Cycl0n3 had no idea. But as Blair watched Stiles, Cycl0n3 was watching Blair, wondering if she'd ever learn how he really felt about her.
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