Happy New Year, Quiet Man

After the TJMaxx event, I think the next time I saw Quiet Man was on New Year's Day.

Yes, New Year's Day.

Christmas came and went and so did New Year's Eve. We had all attended a New Year's Eve party at a local restaurant, the one that Quiet Man had reacted to with the "Let's go!" comment.

The restaurant was not all it was cracked up to be; they must have a great photographer with lots of fancy editing and effects, or I was just to wrapped up into the party to notice the supposedly fantastic décor.

At 12 pm New Year's day we were invited to a ceremony on the local level. I was so tired; we had New Year's Day dinner cooking and it was cold outside because it was January. I was dragging. I really did not want to go out.

Harry was eating dinner with us. I told him I had to go to this ceremony and was getting ready to head out.

"Oh, OK, Harry, you can meet me there," I told him. He was hinting for an invitation, so I told him where I was going to be. Harry lives in the city where the infamous TJMaxx was located.

The room was crowded and there was only standing room. When I had arrived, I did not see a soul and it looked empty. Where did all these people park that were in this room?

As the room began to swell with bodies, I was standing with some acquaintances. I go back and forth with calling people I know acquaintances or friends. I had a boyfriend once who had this system with friends. You started off as a buddy and then he would elevate you up to friend. His logic was that friendship had to be earned and when you reached that level, it was like for life or something intense like that. I used to call everyone a friend and if it did not work out, oh, well, no big deal. Then I used to think about the old BF's logic and it kinda made sense.

One of these acquaintances was Fannie. She had a husband name Nick. Nick was very nice. Fannie was fake as far as I was concerned. One reason I think Fannie was fake because she was very unfriendly when she was first introduced to me. Then when she realized, how childish is this, that she was on the "outside" with others in our group and I was definitely not, she went out of her fake way to exclaim to me that when we first met, she was observing me and decided I was such a nice person. What a load of crap, but of course, I did not tell her, my fake way right back to her.

So, Fannie finds me and sticks to me like glue because I was up front. Never ending chatter coming from her, and we were stuck like everyone else, like sardines. All I wanted to do was sit down and close my eyes. I was not even listening to what anyone was saying. It was all droning at that point. I had not taken off my sunglasses, either, despite being inside. I knew I must have had bags big enough to travel to Europe, and that is for sure.

In the middle of the ceremony and trying to answer another of Fannie's inane questions, I had turned to whisper to her and who is in the crowd but Fred. He was alone, which was odd, because he never goes anywhere without Quiet Man, as far as I knew. I had thought they were so odd, with dressing the same, how they agree on everything it seemed, I had told each of them, without the other, they must be gay. No, as far as I know they are not gay, but geez, they seem so much in sync, it could be, it could be. This was one possibility that ran through my mind as to why Quiet Man was weird to me.

Well I had about enough of standing in my high heeled boots and I had to make my way downstairs to sit down and I did not care if I had to go sit on the curb outside. I told Fannie I was leaving, and lo and behold she was as well.

I noticed Fred was not in the spot I had seen him earlier.

We get down to the first floor and I ran into a person I just love: Van. Van is just the sweetest, honest and genuine man I have met in a long time. He does not have a malicious bone in his body.

I go through the door to the hallway that also posed as a waiting room because it had long wooden benches along its walls that people sat at before going upstairs.

"Oh, Van!" I cried as I put my arms around him and welcomed him. By this time, Fannie and Nick joined us. We stood by the door and chatted and chatted. Van is about 70 years old and was beating cancer. He is so sweet and corny at the same time, he is just charming.

I had not seen Van in about two months. So I was filling him in on what needed to be said to bring him up to speed. Fannie was trying to get in on the conversation, which was annoying.

When Fannie, who really did not know Van, was interjecting herself, I quickly turned around to see who was in the hallway with us, and because I can’t stand people who look at me from behind. I had been facing Van for a long time while talking to him and my back was to the hallway.

I turned and saw Quiet Man sitting on a bench, staring at me. He was leaning forward on his knees, just looking. Down the hallway. In our direction.

He was sitting next to Fred, who had one of his daughters with him. Fred was sitting on the bench, just sitting.

The two of them, so weird.

I turned back to my conversation with Van as quickly as I had looked behind me.

It had un-nerved me somewhat and caused me to talk even faster to Van, who was trying to keep up.

Nervously, I had turned a couple of more times and looked right down that hallway as if he was not even there. Sometimes he was looking, other times he was not and once, he was not there at all.

When he was not there, I waved hello to Fred, who cheerfully waved back.

Man, these two are odd.

I could not stand anymore and decided to sit on a bench opposite and a bit away from Quiet Man and Fred.

Fannie of course sat with me. So I made the best of it and talked to her.

We then decided to go outside and I was beginning to wonder where the hell Harry was.
On the way out, I walked right past Quiet Man. I looked right at him and said nothing as did he. Fannie unknowingly helped me do this by her unending blathering.

We were standing in the weary and cold January weather; it kinda woke me up, but I still kept on the sunglasses.

After chattering for a while, I saw Harry’s vehicle circling the parking lot. Geez, can he just find a damned spot and park? What was he doing.

I saw Harry walking toward the building after I flagged him down while he was still circling the parking lot.

I decided to go in before Harry got to the door, because in my sick logic of the moment, if I went back to my previous seat on the bench, Harry would be walking right by Quiet Man for sure.

So I did, and he did.

As I was talking to Harry who stood next to me, I eyed Quiet Man. He was looking at Harry and I. What is with this guy, I was thinking. What does he want?

I introduced Harry to Fannie. She was peppy and friendly with him, but before she could move over and make room for him, I told Harry to sit on the empty bench opposite me. I did not know Quiet Man was going to be at this ceremony, and I don’t think he even went upstairs. So why would this man come to a ceremony on New Year’s day to sit on a bench and not even go in? I knew he was not interested in these things, and the answer was that Fred wanted him to come. So what is up with that? I could not even think of a normal explanation for how those two operated.

So Fannie was chatting it up with her new friend, Harry. Harry has a way of slow speaking that drives me up the wall. Harry is a Taurus and they do everything their way and they don’t believe in rushing. Taurus men are very funny, but bossy and possessive. You have to adapt to them, they will not adapt to you. I don’t adapt, so I don’t know what is wrong with Harry.

I had turned to look at Quiet Man who finally said hello. I replied hello back and continued on with Harry.

I then saw the best friend of one of the people involved in the ceremony. This is one good looking man. Tall, handsome, dark hair and blue eyes and a bright white smile that was large and generous. I had just met him the night before at the New Year’s party. He has a girlfriend, a former beauty queen, who I briefly saw upstairs with him. He was walking up and down the hallway, that I could not resist saying something to him.

“Hi Harley!” I said loudly and firmly to him.

I saw Quiet Man watching me from the corner of my eye.

“Oh, hello, Muse” he said with a broad and genuine smile.

“What are you doing walking up and down this hallway by yourself ? “ I said while wondering why the hell I said that.

“I cannot find Yvonne,” he replied while explaining she left upstairs to come down and now he could not find her.

What was wrong with that girl, leaving this handsome and genuinely sweet man? If I was with him, there would be no way in hell I would let him wander around looking for me. What was wrong with Yvonne.

“Well, Harley, I have not seen her and I have been here for a while. So how long are you staying? “ I nosily asked.

Well Harley and I had a nice time conversing, while Fannie was trying to talk to Harry and nose her way into getting introduced to Harley. I was not obliging her.

Harley is really a gentleman and took time off from looking for Yvonne to speak to me, which was thrilling. Harley comes off as very genuine, which I am sure he is, but since I only met him the night before, I had to qualify it, but he was an officer in the Navy, but was now out. His family is a billionaire family but you would never know it at all; he was so real and sweet. He was a regular guy with impeccable manners. A gentleman.

I could feel Quiet Man watch Harley and I. Oh, all the giggling and laughing and smiling I was doing while I was watching Harley as he spoke to me, made my face hurt.

“Muse, you have the most beautiful hair,” he threw into the conversation like a rocket.

OH MY GOD, I was so embarrassed. The conversation we were having was mundane, about him going back to Washington D.C. with Yvonne and the party the night before. I hoped Quiet Man heard that. Harry could have had a bomb go off on him and he would have continued doing what he was doing, probably telling Fannie all of his joke stories that crack him up into hee-haw laughter, a true Taurean trait.

Harley was looking at me. He was almost standing over me, looking down. His smile was brilliant. His eyes animated.

All I could think about was where the hell was Yvonne?

As I usually do when I am caught off guard, I rattle on about something until I can change the conversation or exit it altogether. I blurted something out about donating my hair and went into excruciating detail about hair donation enough so that Harley would be silenced.

Eventually Harley decided to move on and try and find his lady love, Yvonne.

The crowd was on its way to a small reception in the building across the way.

I collected Harry to go over and had Fannie and Nick in tow. Fannie was still chatting away with Harry.

Quiet Man and Fred had already made their way over.

I said hello to Fred again while getting something to drink, a plain cranberry juice. Quiet Man was standing above everyone due to his height, all those rushing the snack and beverage table. Lordy, what people do when there is free food and drink always amazes me.

I had left Harry and Fannie chatting outside the building. Harry had his back to the stone.

Quiet Man greeted me in his usual fashion, gallantly and sweetly. I was glad to see him but did not show it.

We spoke about the night before. He said he had gone into the big city with friends. I thought it was sort of odd that a grown man would go and watch a ball drop, but that is just me.

I had mentioned that the restaurant was nothing like it looked like on the internet. He stated he had gone there as well and it was not good.

He already went there, I thought. How weird is that? I thought. The place he was so fakely enthused to bring me and he went already. How odd.

Quiet Man was acting anxious. If he was not by Fred’s side or near him, you could see his eyes searching for him. Quiet Man excused himself from me and went directly to Fred.

After a short while, Fred came over to chat with me. I made small talk with him and then introduced Fred to someone he was happy to meet and got rid of him.

I was drinking my cranberry juice and it the juice level in my plastic glass was getting low. Tried as I might to get some more, I could not reach in between the throng of bodies vying for cheap fruit danishes, donuts and the usual variety of pastries and coffee.

Quiet man re-appeared. He was holding his coffee and a pastry he was eating. I appeared less than enthused when he resumed his conversation with me. I don’t remember what he was saying. I interrupted him to ask him to reach over and get me some more cranberry juice, which he did.

After a while, Fred announced he wanted to leave. This was when Quiet Man had asked me to go and talk outside and we where there for a total of less than five minutes. Fred’s daughter was inappropriately dressed for the cold weather, but that was besides the point: Fred had run out of people to talk to and I had long figured out if Fred is not the center of someone’s attention, and the better if the person is of some import, he is disinterested. Fred is a Leo and an attention hog and is not shy about it or anything else that shines the light on him.

Quiet Man said his goodbyes and then went to fetch the BMW 7 series to pick up Fred and his underdressed daughter so she did not have to walk in the January chill.

“Goodbye, Muse,” said Fred, who needs some sort of fanfare for his grand exit, even if its just to say good bye.

“Goodbye, Fred,” I muttered.

As they left, I turned to see Harry who was still outside, holding up the wall, talking with Fannie and her husband Nick.

Fannie walks over to me and exclaims, “Oh Muse, Harry is so sweet and so nice looking!”

Good for you, Fannie, I thought, I wonder what Nick thinks of all the attention you showered on Harry?

“Harry, are you ready to go?”

“Yeah, Muse, hold your horses,” said Harry apparently enjoying the attention from Fannie and Nick.

We left Fannie, Nick and all the pastry hogs so that we could go and enjoy a nice New Year’s Day dinner and a fire made with Harry’s King’s Wood that burned blue and green in the hearth.

Oddly, Harry did not ask me not once about Quiet Man or where I was the whole time.

This was not the end of Quiet Man.