MUMUS: Trusting Fate
Holy shiz!!! This is Mixed Up; Mashed Up Short #99!!!!!! Ahh!! Only one story left to write!!!!
Couple: Troy & Taylor
Rating: K
Setting/Event: Gabriella wants to set Troy and Taylor up but Chad is against it
“I’ve been thinking…”
The second those words slipped through his wife’s lips, his pulse began to race, his mouth went dry and every nerve in his body went on red alert. The endless possible endings to that phrase could frighten even the manliest of men to the point of wetting their pants.
“Y- yeah?” He stammered out the only suitable reply for a husband in this situation. He had to remain cool on the surface and not let her see the wheels turning in his head trying to figure out what she was thinking about, which was nearly impossible because it could be anything from painting the house to buying new furniture to having a baby-gulp.
“We should set Troy and Taylor up on a date,” she replied, appearing clueless to his inner turmoil.
“Wait, what?” He shook his head, not having expected her thoughts to be of his best friend and his cousin. “No way!”
“Oh, come on, Chad,” she rolled her eyes.
“Just no.” He wasn’t even willing to consider the idea of Troy and Taylor dating.
“Give me one good reason,” she challenged.
“I’ll give you several,” he stated. “First, she’s my cousin and he’s my best friend and business partner. Second, you won’t set him up with any of your friends because you don’t want it to be awkward if things go bad, so there is no way in hell I’m setting them up because I can’t choose between the two of them. Three, Troy isn’t close to settling down and Taylor said she wanted to.”
“I think he would change his mind if he met the right girl,” his wife stated. “Besides, I think they would be good together.”
“Then let them figure it out for themselves,” Chad stated. He held up a finger when she opened her mouth to talk. “Promise me, you will not interfere, Gabriella.”
“You’re no fun,” she pouted.
“I’m lots of fun,” he replied with a knowing smile. “But promise me you won’t do anything to get Troy and Taylor together. If they’re meant to be together they’ll get there on their own.”
“Fine, I promise,” she sighed.
“Thank you,” he replied. “Now come on, we need to get ready for work. If you’re late again, your boss might punish you.”
“Not if he wants to sleep on the couch,” she sassed before disappearing into their bathroom.
He and Gabriella had met while attending college in California, where he had majored in sports medicine and training and she had majored in business. They had dated throughout college, but had called it quits when he had returned to his hometown, Albuquerque, NM, two years ago to open a gym with Troy. Six months later, Gabriella had shown up on his doorstep and had proposed to him. He had accepted her proposal and she had moved in with him then had started working at the gym as the business manager.
On the eve of their first wedding anniversary, two months ago, Taylor had moved to Albuquerque for a new job and Gabriella had taken it upon herself to be Taylor’s tour guide around town. The relationship his wife and cousin had made Chad happy, especially since, before Taylor had moved to town, the two women had met one time at the wedding.
Despite being completely against the idea of his cousin and Troy being together, Chad understood why Gabriella wanted to set them up; Troy was their last single friend in group of friends and Taylor was new to the area. But nevertheless, Chad didn’t want to get caught between them and therefore, unless it happened naturally, he wasn’t going to bring the two of them together.
-----
Troy was managing the front desk at BD Athletics when a beautiful African-American woman came into the building. He could tell from her business suit that she wasn’t here to workout. Before she could approach the desk, an elderly member arrived at the desk and asked Troy several questions. After he had finished with the member, he was surprised to find the woman looking rather relaxed, not at all what he expected from a business woman.
“Can I help you?” He asked her.
“Yeah, I’m looking for Chad Danforth,” she replied.
“Is he expecting you?” He asked. He felt bad about giving her the third degree, but he didn’t recognize her.
“Yeah, we’re going out for lunch,” she replied. “I’m Taylor McKessie.”
“Alright, hold on a minute,” Troy said. He picked up the phone and punched in Chad’s extension number. “You have a visitor.”
“I’ll be right down,” Chad replied.
Troy passed on the message to Taylor then helped a member that approached the desk.
A couple minutes later, Chad came down stairs from the offices and out of the corner of his eye, Troy watched as Chad greeted Taylor with a hug. Troy didn’t want to make anything big out of it because he didn’t think Chad would cheat on Gabriella, but people did stupid stuff.
After he finished helping the member, Troy looked over and saw Taylor nagging Chad about something then saw them head in his direction.
“Taylor, this is my business partner and best friend Troy Bolton,” Chad said seeming less than enthused about making introductions. “Troy, this is my cousin Taylor McKessie.”
“Your cousin?” Troy repeated, cringing at how surprised he sounded.
“Our moms are sisters,” Taylor replied. “And I’m four months older.”
“But I’m taller,” Chad added, quickly. He started to say something else, but was cut off by the buzzing of his cell phone. “Excuse me.”
“You aren’t from around here, are you?” Troy asked, after studying her face for a moment.
“I’m from Santa Fe,” Taylor replied. “How’d you know?”
“Chad and I have known each since we were kids,” Troy replied. “And I don’t think we’ve ever met and that surprises me.”
“We may have met at birthday parties when we were kids,” Taylor stated. “I vaguely remember something with Ninja Turtles, but after we turned six, we stopped inviting each other to our parties.”
“I wish I could say I remember Ninja Turtles, but I think all of us had Ninja Turtle parties when we were 5,” Troy chuckled as Chad walked back over shaking his head. “What’s up?”
“That was your dad,” Chad stated. “Apparently, one of his players got hurt during PE and he wants me to head to the school to take a look at him to see if there is any way he can play tonight.”
“I take it that means you can’t go out to lunch with me,” Taylor replied.
“Afraid not,” Chad sighed. “I’m sorry, Tay.”
“Don’t worry about it,” she smiled. “We can do it another time, go check on that player.”
“Alright, see you later,” Chad said. “Troy, I’ll be back later.”
“I don’t suppose you’ve had lunch.”
Troy looked up at Taylor and said, “Why?”
“Well, Chad’s gone for an appointment and I know Gabriella had something this afternoon, so that means you won’t get a break for awhile, right?” She replied.
“Well not until our afternoon desk person gets here,” Troy stated. “But that will be in an hour or so.”
“How about I go get us some lunch and then we can talk about how it’s possible that we’ve never truly met,” she replied.
“Alright, I guess,” Troy nodded.
“Excellent, I’ll be back soon,” Taylor said.
-----
Gabriella couldn’t believe her eyes when she came into the building and saw Taylor and Troy eating lunch together.
“Hey guys,” she greeted slowly. “What’s up?”
“Chad had to cancel on me for lunch, so I ran out and got lunch for me and Troy,” Taylor replied. “How was your meeting?”
“It was good,” Gabriella replied. “So wait, Chad knows you two know each other?”
“He introduced us,” Troy said.
“Wait, my Chad introduced you two?”Gabriella asked.
“What other Chad do we all know?” Taylor asked, glancing at her watch. “Yikes, I gotta go.” She closed the lid of her meal and grabbed her purse. “Tell Chad he owes me lunch and I’ll see you tomorrow for dinner, Gabs. Nice to meet you, Troy.”
“Nice to meet you, too,” Troy called after her. “She’s nice.”
“Yeah she is,” Gabriella nodded.
“Can you put this upstairs in the fridge for me?” Troy asked. “Amber will be here in a moment to take over the desk and I have to go get ready for my lifting class.”
“Yeah, sure,” Gabriella nodded. She waited behind the desk until Amber showed up and then she went upstairs to the office she and Chad shared after putting Troy’s lunch in the staff fridge.
She was sitting at her desk paying bills when Chad came into the office thirty minutes later.
“Hey,” Chad greeted, sitting down behind his desk.
“So Troy and Taylor were having lunch when I got back,” she stated. “Apparently, you introduced them.”
“It’s not like it sounds,” Chad groaned. “She showed up and he was working the desk since Linda called in sick. And Taylor made me introduce them.”
“I want to be mad,” Gabriella stated. “But I can’t, because fate did it a lot quicker than I could.”
“What do you mean fate?” Chad asked. “This wasn’t fate, it was a coincident.”
“It’s fate, believe me,” Gabriella stated. “And I’ll prove it to you. When Taylor left, she said she’d see me tomorrow night at dinner and I bet you that as soon as his class is out Troy will come upstairs and ask if he can join us for dinner.”
“So not going to happen,” Chad replied, hearing the phone ring. He picked it up and greeted the caller. “Oh, hey Tay. What’s up?”
Gabriella watched from across the room as Chad’s face converted to a frown.
“Are you sure?” He asked. “I mean, wouldn’t you rather it just be the three of us?”
Her eye brows perked, maybe it wouldn’t be Troy asking after all.
“Yeah, yeah, fine, I’ll invite him to join us,” Chad replied. “See you tomorrow.” He hung up the phone and held his hand up in Gabriella’s direction. “I don’t want to hear it.”
Gabriella smirked and sent Troy a quick email inviting him to dinner.
-----
Taylor tucked a few strands of hair behind her ear and took a deep breath. She didn’t know why she was so nervous, well, ok, she knew she was nervous about seeing Troy, but she didn’t have a reason to be nervous, really. She and Troy were merely dinning at Chad and Gabriella’s house. It wasn’t a date; it was just dinner with friends.
“This is silly,” she muttered, untucking the hair. “You’re a grown woman, Taylor McKessie, so start acting like it.”
She refused herself one last glance in the mirror and turned to grab her purse. Then she headed out to her car and drove the short distance to Chad and Gabriella’s home. She parked her car in the driveway then walked up to the front door.
“Hey, come in,” Gabriella smiled after opening the door. “Can you set the table? Chad had an emergency call from Coach Bolton so he’s running late.”
“I’m on it,” Taylor replied. She set her purse down and kicked off her heels. Then she went into the kitchen, gathered the dishes and set the table. She was filling the glasses with water when she felt somebody watching her and looked up to find Troy standing in the doorway.
“H- hey,” she greeted, trying to remain composed even though she felt like a giggling school girl with a crush.
“Oh, good, Troy, you’re here,” Gabriella said, coming out of the kitchen. “Chad just called, he forgot a wrap he needs and I have to take it to him.”
“What about dinner?” Taylor asked.
“Eat, please,” Gabriella stated. “Don’t wait for us. We’ll be back as soon as possible.”
“Well, I guess we should eat,” Troy said after Gabriella breezed out of the house. “Do you want to dish the plates or do you want me to?”
“You can,” Taylor replied. She didn’t want to admit that she didn’t know if she’d be able to hold them or not. She had always considered herself a level-headed woman who couldn’t be affected by a man’s looks or charm, but here she was just twenty something hours after meeting Troy and she was totally smitten with him.
“I have a confession,” Troy said, his voice low.
Taylor blinked and found him standing in front of her, the plates in his hands still empty.
“Yeah?” She replied.
“As crazy as it sounds, I think I like you,” he stated. “I don’t know how or why, but I do. I haven’t been able to get you out of my mind since we met yesterday. And to be honest, I don’t really mind. You’re beautiful, Taylor, and I want to know if you’ll go out with me sometime.”
“It’s not crazy at all,” she replied, meeting his eyes. “If it is, then I’m crazy, too, because I feel the same way.”
“So you’ll go out with me on a date?”
Taylor nodded.
Troy smiled and let his eyes flicked down to her lips. Something about the way this confident woman was biting her lower lip nervously brought out a wave of passion in him. He set the plates down on the table then cupped her chin in his hand and gently pulled her lips to his own. The second she melted against his body, he knew they would be together forever.
Story Index
Couple: Troy & Taylor
Rating: K
Setting/Event: Gabriella wants to set Troy and Taylor up but Chad is against it
“I’ve been thinking…”
The second those words slipped through his wife’s lips, his pulse began to race, his mouth went dry and every nerve in his body went on red alert. The endless possible endings to that phrase could frighten even the manliest of men to the point of wetting their pants.
“Y- yeah?” He stammered out the only suitable reply for a husband in this situation. He had to remain cool on the surface and not let her see the wheels turning in his head trying to figure out what she was thinking about, which was nearly impossible because it could be anything from painting the house to buying new furniture to having a baby-gulp.
“We should set Troy and Taylor up on a date,” she replied, appearing clueless to his inner turmoil.
“Wait, what?” He shook his head, not having expected her thoughts to be of his best friend and his cousin. “No way!”
“Oh, come on, Chad,” she rolled her eyes.
“Just no.” He wasn’t even willing to consider the idea of Troy and Taylor dating.
“Give me one good reason,” she challenged.
“I’ll give you several,” he stated. “First, she’s my cousin and he’s my best friend and business partner. Second, you won’t set him up with any of your friends because you don’t want it to be awkward if things go bad, so there is no way in hell I’m setting them up because I can’t choose between the two of them. Three, Troy isn’t close to settling down and Taylor said she wanted to.”
“I think he would change his mind if he met the right girl,” his wife stated. “Besides, I think they would be good together.”
“Then let them figure it out for themselves,” Chad stated. He held up a finger when she opened her mouth to talk. “Promise me, you will not interfere, Gabriella.”
“You’re no fun,” she pouted.
“I’m lots of fun,” he replied with a knowing smile. “But promise me you won’t do anything to get Troy and Taylor together. If they’re meant to be together they’ll get there on their own.”
“Fine, I promise,” she sighed.
“Thank you,” he replied. “Now come on, we need to get ready for work. If you’re late again, your boss might punish you.”
“Not if he wants to sleep on the couch,” she sassed before disappearing into their bathroom.
He and Gabriella had met while attending college in California, where he had majored in sports medicine and training and she had majored in business. They had dated throughout college, but had called it quits when he had returned to his hometown, Albuquerque, NM, two years ago to open a gym with Troy. Six months later, Gabriella had shown up on his doorstep and had proposed to him. He had accepted her proposal and she had moved in with him then had started working at the gym as the business manager.
On the eve of their first wedding anniversary, two months ago, Taylor had moved to Albuquerque for a new job and Gabriella had taken it upon herself to be Taylor’s tour guide around town. The relationship his wife and cousin had made Chad happy, especially since, before Taylor had moved to town, the two women had met one time at the wedding.
Despite being completely against the idea of his cousin and Troy being together, Chad understood why Gabriella wanted to set them up; Troy was their last single friend in group of friends and Taylor was new to the area. But nevertheless, Chad didn’t want to get caught between them and therefore, unless it happened naturally, he wasn’t going to bring the two of them together.
-----
Troy was managing the front desk at BD Athletics when a beautiful African-American woman came into the building. He could tell from her business suit that she wasn’t here to workout. Before she could approach the desk, an elderly member arrived at the desk and asked Troy several questions. After he had finished with the member, he was surprised to find the woman looking rather relaxed, not at all what he expected from a business woman.
“Can I help you?” He asked her.
“Yeah, I’m looking for Chad Danforth,” she replied.
“Is he expecting you?” He asked. He felt bad about giving her the third degree, but he didn’t recognize her.
“Yeah, we’re going out for lunch,” she replied. “I’m Taylor McKessie.”
“Alright, hold on a minute,” Troy said. He picked up the phone and punched in Chad’s extension number. “You have a visitor.”
“I’ll be right down,” Chad replied.
Troy passed on the message to Taylor then helped a member that approached the desk.
A couple minutes later, Chad came down stairs from the offices and out of the corner of his eye, Troy watched as Chad greeted Taylor with a hug. Troy didn’t want to make anything big out of it because he didn’t think Chad would cheat on Gabriella, but people did stupid stuff.
After he finished helping the member, Troy looked over and saw Taylor nagging Chad about something then saw them head in his direction.
“Taylor, this is my business partner and best friend Troy Bolton,” Chad said seeming less than enthused about making introductions. “Troy, this is my cousin Taylor McKessie.”
“Your cousin?” Troy repeated, cringing at how surprised he sounded.
“Our moms are sisters,” Taylor replied. “And I’m four months older.”
“But I’m taller,” Chad added, quickly. He started to say something else, but was cut off by the buzzing of his cell phone. “Excuse me.”
“You aren’t from around here, are you?” Troy asked, after studying her face for a moment.
“I’m from Santa Fe,” Taylor replied. “How’d you know?”
“Chad and I have known each since we were kids,” Troy replied. “And I don’t think we’ve ever met and that surprises me.”
“We may have met at birthday parties when we were kids,” Taylor stated. “I vaguely remember something with Ninja Turtles, but after we turned six, we stopped inviting each other to our parties.”
“I wish I could say I remember Ninja Turtles, but I think all of us had Ninja Turtle parties when we were 5,” Troy chuckled as Chad walked back over shaking his head. “What’s up?”
“That was your dad,” Chad stated. “Apparently, one of his players got hurt during PE and he wants me to head to the school to take a look at him to see if there is any way he can play tonight.”
“I take it that means you can’t go out to lunch with me,” Taylor replied.
“Afraid not,” Chad sighed. “I’m sorry, Tay.”
“Don’t worry about it,” she smiled. “We can do it another time, go check on that player.”
“Alright, see you later,” Chad said. “Troy, I’ll be back later.”
“I don’t suppose you’ve had lunch.”
Troy looked up at Taylor and said, “Why?”
“Well, Chad’s gone for an appointment and I know Gabriella had something this afternoon, so that means you won’t get a break for awhile, right?” She replied.
“Well not until our afternoon desk person gets here,” Troy stated. “But that will be in an hour or so.”
“How about I go get us some lunch and then we can talk about how it’s possible that we’ve never truly met,” she replied.
“Alright, I guess,” Troy nodded.
“Excellent, I’ll be back soon,” Taylor said.
-----
Gabriella couldn’t believe her eyes when she came into the building and saw Taylor and Troy eating lunch together.
“Hey guys,” she greeted slowly. “What’s up?”
“Chad had to cancel on me for lunch, so I ran out and got lunch for me and Troy,” Taylor replied. “How was your meeting?”
“It was good,” Gabriella replied. “So wait, Chad knows you two know each other?”
“He introduced us,” Troy said.
“Wait, my Chad introduced you two?”Gabriella asked.
“What other Chad do we all know?” Taylor asked, glancing at her watch. “Yikes, I gotta go.” She closed the lid of her meal and grabbed her purse. “Tell Chad he owes me lunch and I’ll see you tomorrow for dinner, Gabs. Nice to meet you, Troy.”
“Nice to meet you, too,” Troy called after her. “She’s nice.”
“Yeah she is,” Gabriella nodded.
“Can you put this upstairs in the fridge for me?” Troy asked. “Amber will be here in a moment to take over the desk and I have to go get ready for my lifting class.”
“Yeah, sure,” Gabriella nodded. She waited behind the desk until Amber showed up and then she went upstairs to the office she and Chad shared after putting Troy’s lunch in the staff fridge.
She was sitting at her desk paying bills when Chad came into the office thirty minutes later.
“Hey,” Chad greeted, sitting down behind his desk.
“So Troy and Taylor were having lunch when I got back,” she stated. “Apparently, you introduced them.”
“It’s not like it sounds,” Chad groaned. “She showed up and he was working the desk since Linda called in sick. And Taylor made me introduce them.”
“I want to be mad,” Gabriella stated. “But I can’t, because fate did it a lot quicker than I could.”
“What do you mean fate?” Chad asked. “This wasn’t fate, it was a coincident.”
“It’s fate, believe me,” Gabriella stated. “And I’ll prove it to you. When Taylor left, she said she’d see me tomorrow night at dinner and I bet you that as soon as his class is out Troy will come upstairs and ask if he can join us for dinner.”
“So not going to happen,” Chad replied, hearing the phone ring. He picked it up and greeted the caller. “Oh, hey Tay. What’s up?”
Gabriella watched from across the room as Chad’s face converted to a frown.
“Are you sure?” He asked. “I mean, wouldn’t you rather it just be the three of us?”
Her eye brows perked, maybe it wouldn’t be Troy asking after all.
“Yeah, yeah, fine, I’ll invite him to join us,” Chad replied. “See you tomorrow.” He hung up the phone and held his hand up in Gabriella’s direction. “I don’t want to hear it.”
Gabriella smirked and sent Troy a quick email inviting him to dinner.
-----
Taylor tucked a few strands of hair behind her ear and took a deep breath. She didn’t know why she was so nervous, well, ok, she knew she was nervous about seeing Troy, but she didn’t have a reason to be nervous, really. She and Troy were merely dinning at Chad and Gabriella’s house. It wasn’t a date; it was just dinner with friends.
“This is silly,” she muttered, untucking the hair. “You’re a grown woman, Taylor McKessie, so start acting like it.”
She refused herself one last glance in the mirror and turned to grab her purse. Then she headed out to her car and drove the short distance to Chad and Gabriella’s home. She parked her car in the driveway then walked up to the front door.
“Hey, come in,” Gabriella smiled after opening the door. “Can you set the table? Chad had an emergency call from Coach Bolton so he’s running late.”
“I’m on it,” Taylor replied. She set her purse down and kicked off her heels. Then she went into the kitchen, gathered the dishes and set the table. She was filling the glasses with water when she felt somebody watching her and looked up to find Troy standing in the doorway.
“H- hey,” she greeted, trying to remain composed even though she felt like a giggling school girl with a crush.
“Oh, good, Troy, you’re here,” Gabriella said, coming out of the kitchen. “Chad just called, he forgot a wrap he needs and I have to take it to him.”
“What about dinner?” Taylor asked.
“Eat, please,” Gabriella stated. “Don’t wait for us. We’ll be back as soon as possible.”
“Well, I guess we should eat,” Troy said after Gabriella breezed out of the house. “Do you want to dish the plates or do you want me to?”
“You can,” Taylor replied. She didn’t want to admit that she didn’t know if she’d be able to hold them or not. She had always considered herself a level-headed woman who couldn’t be affected by a man’s looks or charm, but here she was just twenty something hours after meeting Troy and she was totally smitten with him.
“I have a confession,” Troy said, his voice low.
Taylor blinked and found him standing in front of her, the plates in his hands still empty.
“Yeah?” She replied.
“As crazy as it sounds, I think I like you,” he stated. “I don’t know how or why, but I do. I haven’t been able to get you out of my mind since we met yesterday. And to be honest, I don’t really mind. You’re beautiful, Taylor, and I want to know if you’ll go out with me sometime.”
“It’s not crazy at all,” she replied, meeting his eyes. “If it is, then I’m crazy, too, because I feel the same way.”
“So you’ll go out with me on a date?”
Taylor nodded.
Troy smiled and let his eyes flicked down to her lips. Something about the way this confident woman was biting her lower lip nervously brought out a wave of passion in him. He set the plates down on the table then cupped her chin in his hand and gently pulled her lips to his own. The second she melted against his body, he knew they would be together forever.
Story Index