Disclaimers in part 1
AJ dressed for the ball while Mac got her
hair done. By the time she came back he was no where to be found. She saw a
white rose, a small box, and a note on the pillow that said, "I’ll meet
you in the lobby by the stairs at 1900." She smiled then opened the box.
"Oh, AJ." It was a pair of earrings. Beautiful earrings. Each earring
had two brilliant white dangling stars. She changed her clothes and put on the
beautiful earrings. She was ready to go but she was a bit nervous. She was a
bit worried about the reaction his dress whites would cause, especially after
the "I train seals," comment. That still made her smile, she had
never realized what a great sense of humor the Admiral had. She tried to forget
her nervousness as the elevator opened. She got in and when it finally stopped
she stepped out looking for AJ. She didn’t see him though so she just kept
walking to the door of the ballroom. He must be inside.
As she was walking she noticed a man in a tuxedo
who noticed her at the same time. It was AJ. They both seemed a bit stunned for
a while then they walked slowly to each other. They started to speak at the
same time, "You look," they both stopped, he let her continue.
"Wonderful. Where are the whites?" she whispered.
"I figured that it would be
inappropriate after letting them assume I work with marine animals. Is this
okay? Do I pass inspection?" he asked.
"You look great. Thank you for the
earrings. Where did you ever find them, they are beautiful."
"Not as beautiful as you though. I’ll be
the envy of every man there tonight."
She lowered her head and turned away,
embarrassed. "Look there’s Kathy and Syd."
"Let’s go say hi," he said as he
placed his hand on the small of her back to have her lead the way. He just
wished that he had remembered that the dress had no back before he did that. It
felt like he shocked her as a tingle ran up her spine. They walked over to her
friends.
Kathy said, "Beautiful dress, Mac."
"Beautiful earrings, Mac," added
Syd. "Two stars, huh?" he turned to AJ, "Somehow I thought you
would be wearing white."
"Just why would you think that,
Syd?"
"I don’t know," his voice dropped
to a whisper, "something to do with the two stars that are on her earrings
I would think."
"Sarah?"
"He recognized you from somewhere. I
didn’t say a thing."
"Hey. I have the Internet what can I
say?"
AJ simply smiled and taking Sarah’s arm said,
"Shall we?"
Several hours into the ball, one of Mac’s old
teachers walked up to him. "I know exactly who you are young man. Why are
you telling people differently?"
"I’ve only spoken the truth, ma’am. They
just assume things differently."
"And you know what they say about
assuming don’t you, young man?" she asked with a twinkle in her eyes.
"Yes, ma’am. I do," AJ replied with
a smile.
"Well you better go find your Sarah and
take her away from that Jennifer person. I had hoped that she would have
outgrown her nastiness, but oh well can’t save them all."
Meanwhile, on the other side of the room,
"So, Sarah, you sure this relationship is just nothing? You slept with him
last night," asked Kathy.
"Not really. We went downstairs last
night to the gym and then there was an incident at the pool."
"AJ is the one that saved the kid?"
"Yeah. By the time we got finished with
that, they had locked up the gym with our keys inside. Finally we got them to
reopen the gym and get our stuff. Then the elevator got stuck. We didn’t get
back to the room until after 4-am local time, which is about 6-am, my time. We
stretched out on the bed and just zonked."
"I can accept that, but you still didn’t
answer my first question."
"Kathy, he’s my boss. There can be
nothing between us due to military regulations."
"Hum."
"What’s that supposed to mean,
Kathy?"
"I didn’t think he was your boss anymore
after he retired."
It suddenly sank in. Sarah and AJ could have
a relationship if they choose to and no one could say anything about it.
AJ decided to take the little lady’s advice.
He looked around for Sarah. She was with Kathy and she had a strange look on
her face. AJ walked over to her and asked "Are you okay, Sarah?" with
sincere concern.
"Yes. Yes, I’m fine. Something
surprising was just brought to my attention. That’s all." Mac didn’t
notice Kathy’s smile. Taking her hand in his, he asked her to dance. They went
out to dance and the after several more dances, AJ suggested that they head out.
She stopped to say goodnight to Kathy and Syd and collected her purse.
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