Showing posts with label *Author Sean Lawson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label *Author Sean Lawson. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
The Fill-In Guy - Chapter 1
The Fill-in Guy
Chapter 1
Hello everyone, my name is Josh. Josh Newman if you're interested in my full name. I live in the leafy town of Malvern and I'm 32 years old. I'd like to think of myself as not only a guy who is open minded, but who also has an interesting sense of humour and definitely someone easy to talk to, I often like to converse with new and different people but I would probably say that I'm now a loner to a small degree, this is probably due to a little something that happened to me 2 years ago but more about that later.
Thursday, August 2, 2012
A Date to Remember
Hey everyone! After much procrastination I have decided to post a story, mainly as it is about a level of injury I am fond of writing about. I'd just like to say that I don't class myself as any star writer but hope you like it and please be kind in your critique:) P.s Sorry if I have posted it wrong!
A Date to Remember
Chapter 1
Melissa Ryan was a quiet woman, she worked at the local aged care nursing home and went about her business with a minimum of fuss, she loved her job looking after the old people though as she felt like they shouldn't be forgotten about just because they had got on in years. You could probably say Melissa saw a bit of herself in them as she felt a little bit forgotten by society, she had trouble forming friendships due to her shy nature and probably only had one real friend named Shelley. Melissa had also lost touch with her only remaining relative as well and she lived alone in a modest house just outside of town. While she bemoaned her lack of life so to speak she wasn't the clubbing type or one to go to a bar and sink some pool or have a few drinks. She didn't mind the odd glass of white wine though and was just happy most nights to be curled up on the couch reading a book or watching a movie. When her 30th birthday came around though she looked around and couldn't help but feel lonely, Shelley made a big deal out of it for her baking a cake and giving her a gift of earrings but Melissa decided that she wanted more, she knew it was time to try and meet a man.
With Melissa being quite shy she knew the Internet was probably her best bet, as she typed the words "Dating sites" into the search engine her hands almost trembled a bit. After a couple of seconds thousands of results came up, just looking at them all seemed overwhelming and Melissa almost closed the screen immediately."How do I know which one is right for me?" she asked herself. She scoured through the results and came up on a site called "Just for Fun.com".Now most people who have been around know exactly what the word "fun" means when ti comes to dating sites but not Melissa, she clicked on it and couldn't believe what pictures some of the men on there had posted, she quickly learned it was a swingers site and shut it down straight away, disgusted by what she saw. After that bad experience she decided to head to bed having seen enough. "If all the sites are like that then I'm definitely in trouble" she mumbled to herself before popping into her red and black striped pj's and making her way into bed.
The next morning she woke up and just felt a tinge of sadness. She knew it was loneliness knocking at her door and being a rainy Saturday she would spend it inside with this new book she had just purchased called "Angel on Horizon Road". After flicking past the first couple of pages she decided that she'd had enough of this, she needed to stiffen her upper lip and get back on the computer and do research on some more dating sites. Once again she logged on and could feel her heart pounding, this time she clicked on a site called "Perfect Partner 4 U". She wasn't a fan of text speak but thought it looked innocent enough, she looked through a few profiles and realised she liked this site a lot more than the other one, although that wasn't hard. After perusing 4 or 5 profiles it suddenly came up. "To keep viewing profiles please sign up". Melissa wasn't one to like being told what to do necessarily but she decided that this had to be done. She wasn't one to really sell herself either so decided to keep the profile brief.
"30 year old single woman seeks male companion. 5"6, hazel eyes, long chestnut brown hair, medium build. I like books, music and movies. I'm also someone who likes the little things in life and would love to meet a man who thinks the same way. I'm shy when people first talk to me but then I warm up. If you like what you read please contact me" read Melissa's profile.
She knew it was nowhere near the length of some people on there but she didn't want to say too much, not that there was much to say anyway. Before she even had time to decide whether or not she wanted to put up a photo she received a message." Hey sexy how you doing?" asked the man. She looked at his profile and it said that he "wants to get busy with as many women as possible". Melissa screwed her face up and just thought what an absolute sleaze and deleted him straight away. As she went back to looking for a picture she suddenly wondered that someone might spot her on here, god that would be so embarrassing she thought, forgetting the fact she barely knew anyone to see it. After some toing and froing she decided to put up one of her with sunglasses on, it was a pic that didn't really show anything but she thought it was better than the silhouette of a woman which would be the other option. Melissa decided if any of the men were interesting to her then she could always privately send them a photo. After completing the profile she decided to log off and come back later, setting it up was enough excitement for one day and she decided that she would come back tomorrow to see if she had any bites.
Little than an hour after making herself a coffee and going back to her book Melissa couldn't help but wonder if anyone had messaged her on "Perfect Partner 4 U". She had told herself she was going to wait till tomorrow but the suspense was killing her, "Oh god I can't believe I'm doing this" she chastised herself as she logged in to see if anyone had left her a message. She typed in her username and password and was surprised by the results, she already had 8 messages and it had only been an hour. "Geez if I got this many in an hour how many would I get in a day? Surely one of these is someone I could get to know" she smiled eager to see what these men had to say. Her excitement was quickly tempered though as she read the messages, once again they all seemed to be from men thinking with what was between their legs rather than their head or their heart. "I'm so sick of this.. Aren't there any normal guys?" she moaned. After the first 6 messages she didn't even bother to read the last two and deleted them without looking. She started to beat herself up and decided that she was probably just destined to be alone...
2 weeks passed and Melissa hadn't been on Perfect Partners 4 U again, after a tough day at work though and a lonely cold apartment almost swallowing her up in her own misery she decided to give it one more go. "This time your going to give it a red hot go Melissa" she said to herself. Once again she logged on and found she had in excess of 100 messages, most of them were spam or horny men so she just decided to wipe the slate clean and delete them all, start afresh. As she had a skim through the profiles she saw a couple of men that looked alright, she wanted to message them but was far too shy to make the first move, even if it was from behind a computer screen. After a few of the usual messages she finally got one from a guy who seemed like he at least had some potential. "Hi Melissa I'm Damon, I had a read of your profile and thought you seemed like a nice down to earth woman, I too like to read and am not opposed to a good movie either. Anyway if you would like to chat then please get back to me". Melissa thought he sounded very polite and had a look at his profile, he was a very attractive man with big broad shoulders and a cheeky smile, his brown hair was short but fashionable and it said in his profile he was 6"2. Looks weren't the be all and end all though and if they didn't get along it wouldn't matter how he looked, he definitely deserved a message back though as he was probably the first "real" man she had talked to. Still, she wasn't getting her hopes up.
Over the course of the next few days Melissa and Damon exchanged messages, he seemed like a real gentleman not to mention quite well spoken, they seemed to have so much in common having read a lot of the same books and also their taste in music, this made Melissa start to really come out of her shell and she started to warm up to Damon. After what was probably their 10th message they graduated to talking online before Damon decided to propose a meeting.
"Oh I'm not sure. Are we ready to meet just yet?" asked a nervous Melissa.
"I think we are. Believe me I will be just as nervous as you" assured Damon.
"Oh ok. Fortune favours the brave I guess" replied Melissa. Her last date per se would have been her ex boyfriend. That was 4 years ago now and was a relationship that was riddled with abuse and one she had struggled to forget. In essence it was the main reason she had been single for so long.
They set up a time to meet at the Fountain River Shopping Mall the next day at 4pm. It was a Tuesday which she thought was a little strange." You don't have a job?" she asked. It was a question that had never come up before as they used to just wax lyrical about their love of books and other interests. "No not at the moment" replied Damon. Melissa wasn't overly happy with his reply but she wasn't one to judge, she thought he may have just been one of the unlucky few that had lost his job, with the way the economy was and all.
Soon enough the next day rolled around and Melissa was having a lot of trouble deciding what to wear, she wanted to dress casual but still a bit dressy. This was her first date in years and she wanted to make a good impression, that was if she even got there and didn't chicken out. She was so overwhelmed by nerves she almost called and cancelled but then knew she just had to suck it up, find an outfit and go out there to meet Damon. After a couple of changes Melissa decided on a nice sleeveless white top with a black knee length pencil skirt and some black pumps to complete the outfit, she normally tied her hair back but today Melissa was going to wear it down, she normally didn't wear much makeup but decided she would break with tradition and put on a bit of foundation followed by some mascara and lip gloss to finish off. As she looked in the mirror she thought she looked nice but was terrified that Damon wouldn't like what he saw, she used to be extremely overweight growing up and while she was now a good curvy weight she still had body issues. By the same token though if he didn't accept her for who she was then she wasn't going to waste her time on him anyway. The shopping centre was only 100 metres down the road so she planned on walking there, she took one last look in the mirror and headed out..
As she walked the short journey to the shopping centre her heart was literally pounding out of it's chest, the closer she got to the meeting point the quicker it raced, Melissa knew she had to do this though, she was sick of eating microwave dinners and being alone, plus Damon seemed like a nice guy, she was sure that once they get talking it will be just like on the Internet where they usually ended up talking for hours about their favourite books or quotes. Soon she found herself at the entrance to the mall. "No going back now" she said before taking a long calming deep breath. The meeting point was a quiet cafe at the back of the mall, Melissa had been there before and felt comfortable there so it should make things easier. She ordered a cafe latte then sat down to drink it in anticipation of the arrival of Damon. As she made her way through her coffee she looked at her watch and it read 4:09, he was a little late but nothing to get too worried about she thought. "Just relax Melissa, deep breaths" she kept saying to herself. She picked up her handbag and had a quick look in the mirror of her foundation capsule to see if everything was still all how she wanted it and was glad to see it was. A further 5 minutes passed and Melissa's legs were now starting to become restless, her foot now tapping the side of the table furiously. Just as she started to think Damon wasn't coming she heard a voice calling her name. "Melissa" the voice asked. She couldn't help but think there seemed to be a little bit of a hiss in it but just assumed it was a noise from the coffee machine or something. She turned around to see who it was. "Melissa?" he asked again. "Yes?" replied Melissa before having fully looked around.
"It's me. It's Damon"
"What?? You can't be Damon!"
"Well yes. Actually it is"
"It can't be.. Your a... a.... your a" said a stunned Melissa struggling to deal with the unexpected sight.
"Quadriplegic?"
"Yes" replied Melissa with her jaw on the ground. She had no idea what on earth to say or how this had even happened.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier but I wasn't worried if you knew you wouldn't meet me" said Damon trying to explain.
"Well it's a pretty big thing to omit!!!!" blurted out a still flabbergasted Melissa.
"I know. Believe me I feel terrible. It's just ever since my accident no-one wants to give me a chance. They see the chair and straight away delete me as a possible suitor for their affections" expressed Damon hoping Melissa could look past this deception.
"But you lied to me. You had a picture up on your profile of an able bodied person for god's sake!!" protested Melissa not believing her first date in years had gone up in smoke so quickly.
"The picture of that able bodied man is me. Well me 4 years ago, before my accident. Can you please just give me a chance?" pleaded Damon.
Melissa looked at him and was filthy, while she had sympathy for his condition she couldn't look past this deceit. "Look I'm really sorry but I don't think I can date a liar.Goodbye" replied Melissa before going to storm out.
"Wait!" asked Damon desperately as she almost left. "Just spend 15 minutes with me and if you still hate me after that then you can leave and we never have to speak to one another ever again. Surely all those good conversations we had are worth something?"
Melissa didn't want to give Damon a chance but she decided that she would just spend the 15 minutes and be on her way, confident nothing that he could say would change her mind."Ok you got 15 minutes" she informed Damon reluctantly.
"Thank you. I really appreciate it" acknowledged Damon. He had a lot to tell Melissa but it was just a question of whether she would listen or not..
A Date to Remember
Chapter 1
Melissa Ryan was a quiet woman, she worked at the local aged care nursing home and went about her business with a minimum of fuss, she loved her job looking after the old people though as she felt like they shouldn't be forgotten about just because they had got on in years. You could probably say Melissa saw a bit of herself in them as she felt a little bit forgotten by society, she had trouble forming friendships due to her shy nature and probably only had one real friend named Shelley. Melissa had also lost touch with her only remaining relative as well and she lived alone in a modest house just outside of town. While she bemoaned her lack of life so to speak she wasn't the clubbing type or one to go to a bar and sink some pool or have a few drinks. She didn't mind the odd glass of white wine though and was just happy most nights to be curled up on the couch reading a book or watching a movie. When her 30th birthday came around though she looked around and couldn't help but feel lonely, Shelley made a big deal out of it for her baking a cake and giving her a gift of earrings but Melissa decided that she wanted more, she knew it was time to try and meet a man.
With Melissa being quite shy she knew the Internet was probably her best bet, as she typed the words "Dating sites" into the search engine her hands almost trembled a bit. After a couple of seconds thousands of results came up, just looking at them all seemed overwhelming and Melissa almost closed the screen immediately."How do I know which one is right for me?" she asked herself. She scoured through the results and came up on a site called "Just for Fun.com".Now most people who have been around know exactly what the word "fun" means when ti comes to dating sites but not Melissa, she clicked on it and couldn't believe what pictures some of the men on there had posted, she quickly learned it was a swingers site and shut it down straight away, disgusted by what she saw. After that bad experience she decided to head to bed having seen enough. "If all the sites are like that then I'm definitely in trouble" she mumbled to herself before popping into her red and black striped pj's and making her way into bed.
The next morning she woke up and just felt a tinge of sadness. She knew it was loneliness knocking at her door and being a rainy Saturday she would spend it inside with this new book she had just purchased called "Angel on Horizon Road". After flicking past the first couple of pages she decided that she'd had enough of this, she needed to stiffen her upper lip and get back on the computer and do research on some more dating sites. Once again she logged on and could feel her heart pounding, this time she clicked on a site called "Perfect Partner 4 U". She wasn't a fan of text speak but thought it looked innocent enough, she looked through a few profiles and realised she liked this site a lot more than the other one, although that wasn't hard. After perusing 4 or 5 profiles it suddenly came up. "To keep viewing profiles please sign up". Melissa wasn't one to like being told what to do necessarily but she decided that this had to be done. She wasn't one to really sell herself either so decided to keep the profile brief.
"30 year old single woman seeks male companion. 5"6, hazel eyes, long chestnut brown hair, medium build. I like books, music and movies. I'm also someone who likes the little things in life and would love to meet a man who thinks the same way. I'm shy when people first talk to me but then I warm up. If you like what you read please contact me" read Melissa's profile.
She knew it was nowhere near the length of some people on there but she didn't want to say too much, not that there was much to say anyway. Before she even had time to decide whether or not she wanted to put up a photo she received a message." Hey sexy how you doing?" asked the man. She looked at his profile and it said that he "wants to get busy with as many women as possible". Melissa screwed her face up and just thought what an absolute sleaze and deleted him straight away. As she went back to looking for a picture she suddenly wondered that someone might spot her on here, god that would be so embarrassing she thought, forgetting the fact she barely knew anyone to see it. After some toing and froing she decided to put up one of her with sunglasses on, it was a pic that didn't really show anything but she thought it was better than the silhouette of a woman which would be the other option. Melissa decided if any of the men were interesting to her then she could always privately send them a photo. After completing the profile she decided to log off and come back later, setting it up was enough excitement for one day and she decided that she would come back tomorrow to see if she had any bites.
Little than an hour after making herself a coffee and going back to her book Melissa couldn't help but wonder if anyone had messaged her on "Perfect Partner 4 U". She had told herself she was going to wait till tomorrow but the suspense was killing her, "Oh god I can't believe I'm doing this" she chastised herself as she logged in to see if anyone had left her a message. She typed in her username and password and was surprised by the results, she already had 8 messages and it had only been an hour. "Geez if I got this many in an hour how many would I get in a day? Surely one of these is someone I could get to know" she smiled eager to see what these men had to say. Her excitement was quickly tempered though as she read the messages, once again they all seemed to be from men thinking with what was between their legs rather than their head or their heart. "I'm so sick of this.. Aren't there any normal guys?" she moaned. After the first 6 messages she didn't even bother to read the last two and deleted them without looking. She started to beat herself up and decided that she was probably just destined to be alone...
2 weeks passed and Melissa hadn't been on Perfect Partners 4 U again, after a tough day at work though and a lonely cold apartment almost swallowing her up in her own misery she decided to give it one more go. "This time your going to give it a red hot go Melissa" she said to herself. Once again she logged on and found she had in excess of 100 messages, most of them were spam or horny men so she just decided to wipe the slate clean and delete them all, start afresh. As she had a skim through the profiles she saw a couple of men that looked alright, she wanted to message them but was far too shy to make the first move, even if it was from behind a computer screen. After a few of the usual messages she finally got one from a guy who seemed like he at least had some potential. "Hi Melissa I'm Damon, I had a read of your profile and thought you seemed like a nice down to earth woman, I too like to read and am not opposed to a good movie either. Anyway if you would like to chat then please get back to me". Melissa thought he sounded very polite and had a look at his profile, he was a very attractive man with big broad shoulders and a cheeky smile, his brown hair was short but fashionable and it said in his profile he was 6"2. Looks weren't the be all and end all though and if they didn't get along it wouldn't matter how he looked, he definitely deserved a message back though as he was probably the first "real" man she had talked to. Still, she wasn't getting her hopes up.
Over the course of the next few days Melissa and Damon exchanged messages, he seemed like a real gentleman not to mention quite well spoken, they seemed to have so much in common having read a lot of the same books and also their taste in music, this made Melissa start to really come out of her shell and she started to warm up to Damon. After what was probably their 10th message they graduated to talking online before Damon decided to propose a meeting.
"Oh I'm not sure. Are we ready to meet just yet?" asked a nervous Melissa.
"I think we are. Believe me I will be just as nervous as you" assured Damon.
"Oh ok. Fortune favours the brave I guess" replied Melissa. Her last date per se would have been her ex boyfriend. That was 4 years ago now and was a relationship that was riddled with abuse and one she had struggled to forget. In essence it was the main reason she had been single for so long.
They set up a time to meet at the Fountain River Shopping Mall the next day at 4pm. It was a Tuesday which she thought was a little strange." You don't have a job?" she asked. It was a question that had never come up before as they used to just wax lyrical about their love of books and other interests. "No not at the moment" replied Damon. Melissa wasn't overly happy with his reply but she wasn't one to judge, she thought he may have just been one of the unlucky few that had lost his job, with the way the economy was and all.
Soon enough the next day rolled around and Melissa was having a lot of trouble deciding what to wear, she wanted to dress casual but still a bit dressy. This was her first date in years and she wanted to make a good impression, that was if she even got there and didn't chicken out. She was so overwhelmed by nerves she almost called and cancelled but then knew she just had to suck it up, find an outfit and go out there to meet Damon. After a couple of changes Melissa decided on a nice sleeveless white top with a black knee length pencil skirt and some black pumps to complete the outfit, she normally tied her hair back but today Melissa was going to wear it down, she normally didn't wear much makeup but decided she would break with tradition and put on a bit of foundation followed by some mascara and lip gloss to finish off. As she looked in the mirror she thought she looked nice but was terrified that Damon wouldn't like what he saw, she used to be extremely overweight growing up and while she was now a good curvy weight she still had body issues. By the same token though if he didn't accept her for who she was then she wasn't going to waste her time on him anyway. The shopping centre was only 100 metres down the road so she planned on walking there, she took one last look in the mirror and headed out..
As she walked the short journey to the shopping centre her heart was literally pounding out of it's chest, the closer she got to the meeting point the quicker it raced, Melissa knew she had to do this though, she was sick of eating microwave dinners and being alone, plus Damon seemed like a nice guy, she was sure that once they get talking it will be just like on the Internet where they usually ended up talking for hours about their favourite books or quotes. Soon she found herself at the entrance to the mall. "No going back now" she said before taking a long calming deep breath. The meeting point was a quiet cafe at the back of the mall, Melissa had been there before and felt comfortable there so it should make things easier. She ordered a cafe latte then sat down to drink it in anticipation of the arrival of Damon. As she made her way through her coffee she looked at her watch and it read 4:09, he was a little late but nothing to get too worried about she thought. "Just relax Melissa, deep breaths" she kept saying to herself. She picked up her handbag and had a quick look in the mirror of her foundation capsule to see if everything was still all how she wanted it and was glad to see it was. A further 5 minutes passed and Melissa's legs were now starting to become restless, her foot now tapping the side of the table furiously. Just as she started to think Damon wasn't coming she heard a voice calling her name. "Melissa" the voice asked. She couldn't help but think there seemed to be a little bit of a hiss in it but just assumed it was a noise from the coffee machine or something. She turned around to see who it was. "Melissa?" he asked again. "Yes?" replied Melissa before having fully looked around.
"It's me. It's Damon"
"What?? You can't be Damon!"
"Well yes. Actually it is"
"It can't be.. Your a... a.... your a" said a stunned Melissa struggling to deal with the unexpected sight.
"Quadriplegic?"
"Yes" replied Melissa with her jaw on the ground. She had no idea what on earth to say or how this had even happened.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier but I wasn't worried if you knew you wouldn't meet me" said Damon trying to explain.
"Well it's a pretty big thing to omit!!!!" blurted out a still flabbergasted Melissa.
"I know. Believe me I feel terrible. It's just ever since my accident no-one wants to give me a chance. They see the chair and straight away delete me as a possible suitor for their affections" expressed Damon hoping Melissa could look past this deception.
"But you lied to me. You had a picture up on your profile of an able bodied person for god's sake!!" protested Melissa not believing her first date in years had gone up in smoke so quickly.
"The picture of that able bodied man is me. Well me 4 years ago, before my accident. Can you please just give me a chance?" pleaded Damon.
Melissa looked at him and was filthy, while she had sympathy for his condition she couldn't look past this deceit. "Look I'm really sorry but I don't think I can date a liar.Goodbye" replied Melissa before going to storm out.
"Wait!" asked Damon desperately as she almost left. "Just spend 15 minutes with me and if you still hate me after that then you can leave and we never have to speak to one another ever again. Surely all those good conversations we had are worth something?"
Melissa didn't want to give Damon a chance but she decided that she would just spend the 15 minutes and be on her way, confident nothing that he could say would change her mind."Ok you got 15 minutes" she informed Damon reluctantly.
"Thank you. I really appreciate it" acknowledged Damon. He had a lot to tell Melissa but it was just a question of whether she would listen or not..
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