Hidden In Plain Sight

Guitar Lesson

The rest of Sadie's first day back to college passed without incident. She had passed the gap between the meeting and her afternoon workshop by sitting in a music practice room and hanging out with some music performance students who were having a rehearsal session. They were playing folk music, so Sadie listened in fascination to songs she had never heard before.

College is so exciting! Maybe I'll get to record these guys for a project?!

When she arrived back at her apartment that evening, tired and hungry, she smiled when she saw Mary's car still parked under the cherry blossom tree which would start to bloom in a matter of weeks. It was dark again and the weather was starting to turn nasty.

She let herself into her apartment to find a cozy scene: Mary was sitting on her couch with his laptop on his lap and a mug of coffee was nearby. He was wearing black and grey plaid leisure pjyama bottoms and a black and white raglan Metallica t-shirt. He looked over the rim of his glasses and smiled at her as she walked in.

"Hey!" he called cheerfully.

"Hi!" she giggled, throwing her college bag on her tiny kitchen table with relief.

This is amazing... coming home to him!

He stood, stretched and shuffled over to her in his socks. "You look amazing!" He kissed her lips.

"Look at you in your sexy glasses!" She wrapped her arms around his neck and stole another warm kiss. All the stress of her day melted away in his arms.

"Oh shit!" He bashfully took them off and folded them onto the neck of his t-shirt.

"No! I love them! You look so cute with them!"

"You're sweet, Kitten! How was your day?" He helped her shimmy out of her overcoat and he hung it on the rack.

"It was good!" she called from her bedroom as she changed into her favourite Powerpuff Girls pyjamas. "The class missed you!"

"They'll be sick of the sight of me by the end of the week!" Mary laughed.

Sadie came back into her living area. "How was your day? Did you relax?"

"Oh, I missed the Powerpuff Girls jammies!" he purred, looking her up and down in quiet delight. "Yes, I chilled out and had a great lie on with your plushies!"

"Awh, you're adorable! You look refreshed. Do I smell food?" she asked.

"Yeah! I've lasagne in the oven! Is that okay?"

"Oooh, yes! Yummy! I'm starving! Where did you get it?"

"I made it! What else was I gonna do with my day?"

Sadie peered into the oven. "Wow! Looks amazing! Thank you so much!" She noticed a cut up long French bread roll on the worktop.

"I made garlic bread too! It's going in the oven soon!"

"Aren't you quite the chef?!"

"Stop, it's only basics!" Mary blushed, his cheeks filling up and his smile hiding his crooked teeth.

"Were you playing my old guitar?" Sadie noticed her guitar was beside the couch. It tickled her to see her apartment look slightly different from Mary being there all day. His presence put a little stamp on her place and she honestly loved it.

"Actually, yeah. I put new strings on it. I figured your guitar needed a bit of TLC. I actually bought lots of guitar strings and stuff in New York: I stocked up!" Mary grabbed the freshly polished nylon string guitar and played a fancy fingerstyle piece to demonstrate. Sadie listened in delight: her guitar had never sounded better. It wasn't just the fresh strings of course, he played with a natural fluidity and his fingertips danced across the strings. Mary had a gift and he coaxed every harmonic and overtone out of the old guitar.