“Tara.” Tony turned keeping his arm around Libby. “I don’t believe you have met my date—Libby McKay.” His voice was easy, but not warm. Tara did not take the hint.
“Your date?” Tara looked confused for a moment, but she recovered quickly. “Libby. Oh right, Libby.
Aren’t you little Melanie’s date?”
“Does it look like I am on a date with Mel?” Sliding her free arm across Tony’s chest until it rested just inside his suit jacket Libby angled her body into his. Libby was not going to be intimidated, and she sure as hel wasn’t giving up on a date with Tony Marchetti – even if it was a pretend date.
“Wel I guess I wil see you two around.” Tara turned around looking a little dazed and headed towards the bar.
“You were amazing!” Tony spun Libby back into his arms laughing. “Is she stil watching?” Libby had no idea where Tara was. “Yes” She answered immediately.
“Good.” Tony drew her into another deep kiss.
Angling his mouth over hers this kiss shook her al the way to her toes and as he backed away he softly whispered
“wow”.
Every minute of that night was forever burned into Libby’s memories. Most of her dances belonged to Tony, and he even presented her with a glass of champagne when it was time for the toasts. Al too soon the evening was over, and Tony was dropping her off at home. She hoped he would walk her to the door and maybe she would even get another kiss.
“I had fun Lib.” Tony cocked a grin at her as he puled up in front of her building.
“Me too.”
“Wel have a great Christmas. I won’t be home again for awhile. I have an early flight out tomorrow and I start at the Examiner the next day. But I’l be in touch.” And he said the whole thing smiling. Libby couldn’t believe it. The best night of her life and a dress worth an entire winter break of servitude to her mother’s bakery and he would be in touch. ”
“Great. Thanks for the ride. Merry Christmas.” She climbed out of the car. Her apartment was on the fourth floor. For the first two flights she was determined to be angry with him. But by the time she finished climbing the last two flights she was determined to be positive. It had been a great night. And he did say that he had fun. By the time she fel asleep that night she was sure that Tony Marchetti was one step closer to realizing he couldn’t live without her.
Chapter Three
Merry Christmas! It was so weird to miss Christmas with the fam, but plane tickets home would have been worth way more than my sorry ass makes in a month. I love it though. Not that I ever get to do anything important but it’s a real newspaper. You know? I talked to mom and dad and Mel earlier. It sounds like they had a good holiday. My across the hall neighbor and I went out for Chinese. It sounds lame but it was kind of cool.
I thought about calling you, but I didn’t know when you’d be busy. So Merry Christmas Libby I hope it was a good one.
-t-
Chinese sounds good. You know me and my mom—
we ate so many Christmas cookies that neither of us could eat the Turkey dinner we made. So we had turkey pot pie for lunch today. I saw your family yesterday. I stopped by for a little while, they missed you—even Mel.
stopped by for a little while, they missed you—even Mel.
I missed you too
-L-
A few days later a box came in the mail for Libby.
Inside she found a digital runner’s stop watch. A little hand held thing that had settings for keeping track of her best times, and trends, and other things she hadn’t even known she needed to track. It was the most thoughtful gift. And Libby liked it almost as much as the card she found enclosed. It was a plain holiday card with a drawing of mistletoe on the front and inside Tony had scrawled a note in this barely decipherable writing.
thought this would come in handy. Lots of luck.
Love, Tony.
Love. Not Sincerely, and not Yours Truly. No, Tony had signed love. Of course boys probably didn’t think very much about these sorts of things so Libby tried very hard not to read too much into it. But that didn’t mean that she didn’t do a happy dance around her bed room after tucking the card into the frame of her dresser’s mirror.
Just got your package. I love it. It is perfect.
Tryouts are in two weeks so keep your fingers crossed for me!
-L-
How did it go?
-t-
I’m so in! They post the official results tomorrow, but I had the fastest mile. Not the fastest mile for a girl. I had the fastest OVER ALL mile! Just shows what a good stopwatch will do for training.
-L-
Not five minutes after she hit send, she got a thril from the message box’s ‘ping’.
TMarchetti: That’s great! Congrats