Sunday, May 26, 2013

Shards To A Whole: Chapter 101

McGee-centric character study/romance. Want to start at the beginning? Click here.

Chapter 101: The First Dance

Some things about planning the Sciuto-McGee wedding weren’t so easy.

One thing Tim had really appreciated about Jimmy and Breena’s reception was that they did the first dance right away, so everyone could just party as they saw fit, instead of having to wait around for it.

So, they had decided to do that for their wedding as well.

And promptly ran into a brick wall.

Both Abby and Tim like music. She’s more into it than he is, but he likes it quite well.  Basically her tastes are narrower, but deeper, and his are broader but less intensive. The issue is that the circle of music she likes and the one he likes, there’s just not much overlap.

And to make matters worse, they couldn’t find a good song that had it all. It needed great lyrics and you had to be able to dance to it. Abby had tons of great music from a dancing perspective. Not so great on the whole love you forever and ever front. Tim had music with fabulous lyrics, especially for a Halloween wedding, he’s almost sure The Airborne Toxic Event somehow crept into their life and wrote The Graveyard by the House for them, but you can’t dance to it. Likewise, Mumford and Sons The Ghosts That We Knew, and the ‘bury my heart next to yours’ seemed especially appropriate for a Halloween wedding, and once again, you can’t dance to it.

For about three minutes he thought Heaven by Bryan Adams (and yes, that’s how far back in his music collection he went) might do it. Great lyrics, perfect lyrics, okay, maybe not the best dancing beat, but it would work. She listened to the first thirty seconds and said, “Eighties anthem rock?”

“Our second first date was an eighties cover bands.”

She’s giving him a I can’t believe we are so desperate for music you came up with this look. “Yeah, but, it’s not dance music. This is stand in an auditorium waving around a lighter music.” Which she demonstrated, sans lighter.

So they went looking for something else.

They even had a great second dance song. It was too raunchy for a first dance, but You Shook Me All Night Long was a perfect second dance. Somewhat naughty lyrics, good beat, fast enough to move to, yes, perfect second dance song.

But that first dance... That was a killer.

They’d been sitting on the floor of the living room, listening to their different MP3s, playing songs for each other, when Tim finally found something that might, sort of, kind of, if you squinted a little, work.

“How about this?”

He stood up, held out his hand to her, and she stood as well. He settled his right hand on the small of her back, hit the play button, and laced his left hand with her right.

Guitar, drums, fairly steady and slow beat. Okay, that worked. A basic box step melded into the music easily.

“What is this?” Abby asked.

“You’ll recognize in a second.”


She grins at him, knowing what this was.

“Little sappy?” she asks.

“We’re getting married; we’re allowed to be a little sappy. Besides, this is the original version, not the remakes. How sappy can Classic British Invasion Rock be?” He pulls her tighter to him, his face near her ear, and sings along with a low voice,

Your love is all around me, and so the feeling grows.

It’s written on the wind, Violins in the classic wedding march add to the guitar and drums. it’s everywhere I go

So if you really love me—

“What’s this if stuff?” Abby says.

“Okay, it’s not perfect, but keep listening.” He spun her away from him, and then pulled her close again as the beat shifted. “At least this one has decent lyrics and we can dance to it.” He kisses her and then goes back to singing along when the lyrics picked back up.

You know I love you, I always will, my mind’s made up by the way that I feel

There’s no beginning, there’ll be no end, ‘cause on my love, you can depend.

A few more beats sans lyrics, and they’re moving pretty comfortably together to this.

I see your face before me, as I lay on my bed.

I kinda get to thinkin’ of all the things you’ve said

You gave your promise to me, and I gave mine to you

I need someone beside me

In everything I do.

Abby’s smiling at him, maybe this song will work. Maybe the hunt is done.

Once again the guitar trips over beats in an almost percussion like manner, and it’s very clear these are the same guys who did Wild Thing. And as that happens, he dips her low, and pulls her back up to continue the rather slow box step.

The second half of the song was exactly the same as the first half, just repeated. So no new territory there.

It’s written on the wind, it’s everywhere I go

So if you really love me, come on and let it show

Come on and let it show...

She kisses him as the music winds down. “Not loving the end. All in all pretty good, and if we can’t find anything else, then, yeah, I like it.”

“You think we’re going to find something else? We’ve been at this for two months, and the DJ wants a song list soon.”

“True. Okay, play it again.”

He did, and they danced through it, figuring out where their feet went and how to slip along to the music.

She was nodding by the end of it, and he took a minute to set it up with You Shook Me All Night Long right after.

“How is it we’re going to end up with a classic rock wedding?” she asks as he dips her low at the end of Love Is All Around.

He shrugs, pulling her back up, hands settling on her low back, starting to move to You Shook Me. “It’s halfway between Jazz and Industrial?”

She grins. They’ve already danced to You Shook Me many times, so her body knows where to go when, and his does, as well. This is a lot sexier, a lot more playful than Love Is All Around, and both of them like it.

He kisses her, and sings against her lips, ...was the best damn woman I had ever seen... Then winks at her and grins as her as she pulls back and shimmies a little in front of him.

He held the beat for a few lines, and then ran his hands down her sides to end up on her hips and pull them against his. She told me to come, but I was already there.

Her head dropped back and they both happily danced to it, fast, and for the most part not too close. But when they got to the chorus, she pulled him close, her right leg sliding up his left, and sang along, You shook me all night long. His hand dragged down her arm as she stepped back, looking at him with sex in her eyes when Workin’ double time on the seduction line hit, then he pulled her back into him, curling her into his arms, her back against his chest, adding a grind, and a kiss to her shoulder and neck. She pressed his hands to her hips and shimmied against him.

Both of them were smiling when that song ended.

She turned back around to face him. “Okay, yeah, that works.”

“Good. So we can tell the DJ what the first two songs are?”

“I think so.”

He pulled out his phone and fired off a text. “So we don’t change our minds.”

She laughed. “So, now what?”

“We’ve got envelopes to address.”

“I’m starting to think your idea of just sending out emails was a good plan.”

“Too late for that. We bought the invitations, might as well use them.”

And, so music picked, out they settled down to address envelopes.

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