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Author: Anonymous7

Rating: G

Summary: A companion piece to "Blind Through a Blizzard?"

Disclaimer: All characters are the property of Warner Brothers and Shoot the Moon Productions.

This story, however, is mine. Please don't archive it without my permission.

Feedback: All is welcome.

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The tall brunette sighed as she walking into the middle school gym. She just didn’t feel like being here today, but knew she had no excuse for not showing up. She loved being involved in her sons’ lives and she felt they deserved it. They were wonderful boys, and if their father couldn’t be around to support them, then she was just going to have to show them enough support to make up for that.

That being said, since she had taken on her new job, she found some of her PTA functions a little ... wanting. Sometimes it felt like they were little more than a waste of her time.

‘Buck up, Amanda!’ she chastised herself, and plastering a smile on her face she walked over to the group of mothers on the other side of the room.

"Amanda!" called Samantha, excitedly. "How are you? You know I bumped into your mother in the supermarket the other day and she was telling me all about your new job. How exciting to have your own business! Although, she did say some of your clients have the strangest pets! Did I hear her right when she said one of your clients has a pet chimpanzee?"

Amanda looked at the woman with wide eyes. Recently she’d been trying to ramble slightly less. She knew it bothered one or two of her ‘clients,’ so it really struck her now that many of her friends rambled as well. She smiled a little to herself. ‘Maybe it’s just part of being an all-American housewife.’ Looking around she noticed that all eyes were on her and she tried to recall why. When Marcy added, "So, Amanda, is that right?" her focus snapped back and she smiled. "Actually, yes. One of my clients does have a pet chimp. He’s quite companionable, actually." Amanda bit her tongue in an effort to not laugh out loud at the thought of Francine having a pet chimpanzee.

"Do all your clients have weird pets, Amanda?" Nadine asked.

"No, some have normal pets." Amanda paused while she thought. "I have one client who has fish."

"Why do you need to watch someone’s goldfish?" Samantha asked.

"Well, he keeps very busy and is out of town a lot. So sometimes I go feed his fish while he’s away." Amanda thought of recent times she had had to feed Lee’s fish and sighed slightly. ‘His trip to the hospital where he insisted on the comb with the two missing teeth ... Watching Alexi for him since his previous attempts at babysitting were limited to the steno pool,’ she thought wryly. But then she softened as she recalled that babysitting Alexi had ended with Lee leaving a large stuffed panda on her doorstep — a large stuffed panda that she explicitly recalled saying could help to win her heart. She knew Lee didn’t mean it that way and truthfully she was glad. With his track record the last thing she needed was to get involved with Lee Stetson. But the gesture warmed her inside just the same.

And then the most recent memory of feeding his fish came to her with such startling clarity that she reached for the nearest chair. The memory of being stuffed in a crate was overwhelming and she tried hard to not take deep breaths and alert the other mothers. But the feeling calmed as it was replaced by that of Lee’s arms around her, whispering soothing words into her hair and holding her close.

She recalled again that she did not want to be involved with the likes of Lee Stetson, but couldn’t help but admit that she was glad he was in her life just the same.

Shaking her head slightly, she turned to Marcy. "I heard your Robert is going to be the star in the school play?" she asked and the conversation was thankfully taken off of her.

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Setting the cake down on the table in front of her, Amanda King smiled at the woman facing her. "Hi, Nadine! How are you?"

"Great. How ‘bout you, Amanda?" the blonde woman replied.

"Good. Jamie told me that Kimberly made the swim team. You must be so proud."

Nadine smiled. "Yeah, she’s doing really well. I think she’s part fish."

The two women laughed as they were joined by Marcy and Samantha. "Amanda! It’s so good to see you!" Samantha smiled as she approached. Talking a sniff of Amanda’s cake, she continued, "Mmm.. your poppy seed cake. We were so looking forward to this."

Amanda smiled her thanks and asked about Samantha’s daughters. The small talk was boring her, but she wasn’t sure why. These women were her friends. Well, sort of... They had been her friends, but in the last year or so she had pulled back from a lot of her PTA duties and her friendships had suffered some as a result.

"So, Amanda," Marcy put her hand on Amanda’s arm. "Tell us all about your new job for that film company!"

Amanda thought quickly, had she mentioned her job to these women before? Oh well, she must have. "Well, it’s not as exciting as it sounds. IFF does documentaries and I help out by doing odd jobs. It’s a lot of clerical work." Amanda downplayed the job.

"But your mother said you get to travel for locations. She said you went to Europe and even on a cruise!"

Her mother knew about the cruise! How! Amanda really needed to be more careful. She was sure she had never mentioned the cruise to anyone. No, wait. She had told her mother that she’d been sent on a cruise. Whew!

"Yes, that part of it is fun, but you know, they are business trips. Not a lot of time for sight-seeing or having fun." Suddenly a mental image popped into Amanda’s mind of Lee’s face as he bent to kiss her on that cruise. Okay, so maybe she was allowed to have a little fun. ‘Stop it, Amanda!’ she thought. ‘Do not think that way. Lee Stetson is just a ...’ Well, the truth was Amanda wasn’t sure what he was. A friend? An acquaintance? A business associate? Sometimes it seemed he was a friend, but others ... well, he could be frustrating beyond belief and the man lived a life so very different than her own, she couldn’t even picture it.

"Do you get to meet any stars?" Nadine asked.

Before Amanda could explain that no, she did not get to meet any stars, Marcy added, "Oh, I’ve heard that the men who work in the movie industry are all attractive, not just the stars. Isn’t that right, Amanda?"

Amanda shook her head no and explained, "They’re just normal people, just like us." But her earlier thought about how different Lee’s lifestyle was from hers came to mind again and his face, his very attractive face, flitted across her mind’s eye. "They are just normal people." she repeated, weakly.

"How about your boss? Is he nice?"

"Yes, he’s very nice." she replied. She knew she was giving very little information, but she was desperately trying to think of a way to change the conversation.

"Do you get along with him well? You know what happened to Bonnie Wilkenson, right? She decided to go back to work and got this fabulous job working for a clothing designer. Everything was going along fine, and then one day she got into this big tiff with her boss and that was that. He fired her on the spot." Nadine took a breath as she finished her story.

"Oh, Mr. Melrose would never do that." Amanda said. "And we get along fine anyway."

"What about with your co-workers? Sandra Johnson had to quit her job because she couldn’t get along with one of her co-workers. It was awful."

What were these women trying to do? Scare her?

"My co-workers are all very nice." Amanda assured them, blocking the thought of Francine out of her mind. "And I’ve never had a reason to argue with any of them." Well, except Lee, she added silently to herself. But those were never serious.

Again, another memory came to her and she turned to start decorating the gym so the others couldn’t see her face. Amanda could nearly still feel the sting on her cheek from where Lee had slapped her. She was still somewhat surprised by it. Even knowing he’d been in character, she couldn’t believe he’d actually hit her. But his eyes, the moment he did, he had looked so startled, so scared, so ... well, so sorry, she knew she couldn’t be upset about it. As much as she didn’t like to admit it, it was very difficult to stay angry at Lee Stetson for very long.

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Amanda King sat at her kitchen table, blankly staring out the window. She had just baked a cake for Jamie’s school bake sale, and knew she should go deliver it. However, she just didn’t feel up to seeing her old friends. In recent years her life had really changed, and in recent months the changes had somehow seemed more poignant to her. She just didn’t feel ready to face the other PTA members. Whenever she saw them now they asked about her job — which was polite of them, she knew. But it made her feel badly for lying to them. The only thing she didn’t lie about was her co- workers.

Amanda sighed. She was not up to talking about coworkers today. Lee’s image flitted across her eye lids, smiling at her, his hazel eyes twinkling, and she sighed again. She definitely was not in the mood to deal with her feelings for her co-workers, or at least one in particular.

Pushing away from the table, she stood up. ‘Get over it, Amanda.’ she told herself. ‘These people are your friends. And they won’t ask about Lee. There’s nothing to say about him anyway. He’s a friend of yours, that’s it.’ But before the words were finished being thought, Amanda could clearly picture Lee in her bedroom trying to warn her about Alan. The jumble of emotions she felt that night came to her in a rush — the nervousness about Lee being in her bedroom, the warmth of knowing he was concerned, and the feeling of contentment when he reached for her hand.

Closing the door behind her, she thought again, ‘Lee is just a friend.’ She repeated the thought as she walked to the car and wondered if maybe by repeating it enough times she’d begin to believe it. ‘Of course I’ll believe it! It’s the truth!’ she thought, somewhat exasperated with herself as she turned the key in the ignition.

However, she couldn’t stay in denial any longer. As she pulled out of her driveway, another face came into view - a tall brunette. Pretty, but not Lee’s type. Not Lee’s type at all. Leslie was normal and nice and ... well, she had everything Amanda saw as a strength in herself. Which forced the question — why Leslie and not her? Why would Lee Stetson date Leslie and not her?

Trying once more to get a hold of herself, Amanda thought, ‘I don’t care why. We are just friends.’ But she was through fooling herself. She had been jealous of Leslie. Jealous. Amanda was generally not a jealous person. And Lee had had many girlfriends before and she had never been jealous of them. But Leslie was different. When she met Leslie it suddenly occurred to her that Lee could be attracted to her — there was not something intrinsically wrong that made them incompatible. And yet, despite that, he wasn’t.

She would have much preferred to think that Lee didn’t find her attractive because she wasn’t blonde, or her name didn’t end with an "i" than for no reason other than that he simply wasn’t attracted to her. At least then she could feel that he was shallow or she had no control over the issue, but now she was forced to wonder, what was she lacking? What did Leslie have that she did not? Well, besides Lee?

Parking the car at the school, Amanda tried once more to get a grip on her emotions. She hated being depressed. And really, recently she got the impression that maybe Lee did feel something for her. And while he hadn’t said anything about ending his relationship to her, he also hadn’t said anything about Leslie at all in quite some time. Maybe it was time to test the waters. Maybe next time the moment came, she would take matters into her own hands. Forget waiting for Lee to make the first move. That didn’t seem like it would ever happen. If she made the first move, at the very least Lee would be forced to deal with the fact that there was more between them than profession. At least from her end.

She smiled a bit to herself. She had baked that extra cake, and Mother and the boys had plans for tomorrow night. Maybe she should invite Lee over ...

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