He wanted to make her dinner. That was a good sign. "Well, I'm not
sure how much food I have....or how much food is going to be good by
dinner time. How about we wait and see? If we have power by then, we
can go out to eat. If we don't then you can make me dinner."

"No board games. Not a one." It was true, Neela didn't have any
board games at all. She didn't have any reason to play them. No one
to play them with. "So what do you want to do?"


~Neela Rasgotra~

"No, I don't have to," He agreed and sat down at the table, smiling
at her gently. "But I want to."

Michael hoped that had been a blunt enough answer that she would
realize that he liked her, but he was afraid maybe he had pushed too
far. It was quite possible she didn't return his feelings or even had
a boyfriend already. So after this, he wouldn't push it any further.

"Do you have any board games?" He laughed a little. "That's how we
used to get through blackouts when I was a kid."

~Michael Gallant~

Neela watched Michael light the candles on the table. It was so
romantic. Not that anything was going to happen, but still......

"You don't have to make dinner for me," Neela said. "I'm sure that
the power will come on soon. The question is what should we do until
that power comes back on?"


~Neela Rasgotra~

"Right here," Michael held up the tealights in their glass holders.
They were little but they would give off at least enough light to get
through the rest of the day. If nightfall came before the lights did,
they might need something a little bigger.

"Don't worry, I wouldn't let anything happen to you." He said
reassuringly, feeling protective of her even if it was just a power
outage. Setting a half dozen tea lights on the table, he took a book
of matches out of his pocket and started to light them, one by one.
As the kitchen began to lit, though dimly, he almost lost his breath
when helooked at Neela. She looked even more beautiful in
candlelight. "But I still want to have dinner with you tonight...even
if I have to cook it myself, in the dark."

~Michael Gallant~

Neela looked out the window a little upset that they had broken
contact. From the looks of things, the whole city was out. "The
whole street is out."

Neela walked back to the kitchen. "Did you find the candles?"

"Okay," Michael stood there for awhile, concentrating on the feeling
of her shoulder under his hand. So warm and soft...

"Uh," He broke contact after a noticable pause and felt his way to
the cabinets and began searching for the candles. "Can you see
outside? Are the other buildings out too?"

~Michael Gallant~

Neela closed the refrigerator door to keep everything cold. "I'm in
the kitchen."
She heard Michael walk into the kitchen and felt his hand on her
shoulder. She leaned back against him. "The candles are in the
cabinet below the sink."

"Neela?" Michael called as he eased the air conditioner back onto the
floor. He didn't want her to trip over something and hurt herself.
Picking his way through the living room he joined her in the kitchen,
which was fairly dark despite it being only around noon. He reached
out and put her hand on her shoulder to reassure her and keep them
from tripping over each other.

"Are you okay?" He asked, not moving his hand or really wanting
to. "Do you have candles?"

~Michael Gallant~

Neela's eyes went wide, "You..You want to take me to dinner? Like a
date?" Had he just asked her out? Neela's heart pounded widely in
her chest. Neela watched for Michael's reaction. It would seem that
he hadn't heard her. He was busy concentrating on the air
conditioner. She watched him lift the heavy air conditioner off the
floor with ease and place it in the window. Not wanting him to see
her staring and drooling, she turned away and asked Michael if he
would like something else to drink. She went to the refrigerator. As
she opened the door, the lights went out.

~Neela Rasgotra~

"Or you could let me take you to dinner tonight, after we get this
air conditioning business done," He smiled at her sweetly, his heart
pounding in his chest. Michael had went in with a plan and totally
didn't use it. But that was okay...it might work better that way.

Not wanting to look like he was standing there gaping at her for a
response, he picked the air conditioner up. It was heavy, but he was
able to get it up and balanced on the edge with relative ease. He
reached for the vents to pull them out. The first one came out easy,
but the other side stuck and he had to pull on it quite hard. Trying
not to look like he was struggling, he felt something give in the
second vent....

And then the lights went out.

"Um." Michael blinked in surprise. "I didn't do that, did I?"

~Michael Gallant~

"Maybe we can start later," Neela said. He wanted to actually
learned the language. Oh, well. Myabe that can lead to something
better. "I think that we need to start small. Maybe that little
bakery on 6th."

Neela helped Michael open the window. "I can hold it open for you
while you put the air conditioner in."


~Neela Rasgotra~

"I think I can do that," Michael laughed slightly and smiled at her.
French lessons, huh? There was another type of french he was more
interested in, but it was a good start. "That would be fun, learning
something new. Maybe when I know enough to read the menus we could go
to the new french resturant on 4th."

Oh damn. That went from casual to more serious then he intended to
get before the air conditioner was hooked up. Now what about dinner
tonight? He smiled at her for a moment more, pretending to have all
the confidence he lacked at the moment and started opening the window
while the silence hung in the air like a curtain.

~Michael Gallant~

"Well, maybe I can give you French lessons sometime," Neela said
smiling. French lessons or "French lessons"......either works. She'd
get to spend time with Michael. Although, she would prefer "French
lessons" to French lessons. But she'd take what she can get.

"Okay, basically what you have to do, is open the window wide. Pick
the air conditioner up and put it in the window. Then, the little
venty things that are on the side need to be pulled against the
sides of the windows. Then close the window tightly on top of the
air conditioner and lock it. Then, plug it in."


~Neela Rasgotra~

"Beautiful," Michael grinned at her dreamily, watching her with big,
brown, puppy dog eyes. She was gorgeous and her voice was gorgeous
and life was gorgeous. With a little sigh he shook his head. They had
an airconditioner to install before anything else, and she probably
didn't appreciate him drooling on her.

"Now...can you say that in English? I slept through French in
highschool."

~Michael Gallant~

Neela smiled. He liked her....well, at least she thought he liked
her. That's what it sounded like. "Well, French it is, then," Neela
said.
She opened the manual and found the French instructions. She began
reading the instructions out loud in French. "How's that?"

~Neela Rasgotra~

"Well," He paused a moment, deciding if he should make a move here.
She wasn't going to figure out he was interested in her if he didn't
give her some clue, most likely because she wasn't his type. But it
was worth a chance, then he could decide how probable dinner that
night would be.

"French," Michael smiled, almost shy like a young boy asking a girl
out for the first time. "I think it's a beautiful language and it
would be even more beautiful with you speaking it."

~Michael Gallant~

Neela watched Michael as he studyed the manual trying to figure out
which languages were which. She giggled as he handed her the
manual, "Well, which do you want me to read?"


~Neela Rasgotra~

"Alot," Michael looked up at Neela with an impish smile then turned
back to the manual to look up the lanagauges. After scanning through
the pages, he handed it to her. "Spanish, French, Chinese,
German...and that was about all I could figure out."

~Michael Gallant~

Neela watched Miohael bend down and look at the instruction manual.
He was very handsome. He made her stomach do flip flops. She really
liked him. He probably didn't feel the same way. He was just helpng
her out to be a nice guy.
"I speak a few languages," Neela said. It was true, she spoke
Punjabi, Spanish, and French. "What languages are in the manual.
Maybe I can help."

"It's an old habit, I guess," He laughed a little and picked up the
instruction manual. Flipping through it, he raised an eyebrow at all
the languages in the manual. It was like a tour of the world, almost!
Except for one thing, there was no english. Not a single word of it.

"Oh boy," Michael sighed and looked to Neela. "Please tell me you
speak a second language or we're going to have to wing this..."

~Michael Gallant~

"You didn't have to put it on a coaster," Neela said. It was nice that he was a
gentleman, but he didn't have to be that much of a gentleman.

"The instructions are over there, in the box by the couch."
-----Original Message-----
From: "Mariann" <maregatherswords@...>
Date: 03/12/05 08:39 PM
To: Gallant_and_Neela@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Gallant_and_Neela] Re: Heatwave (Gallant/Neela)


"That's sweet," He smiled and took another drink of the pink liquid,
smiling at her over the top of the glass. "That's good stuff...and
now we can get down to the fun part."

Michael finished his glass of Snapple and set it on the end table, on
a coaster, no less. He was minding his P's and Q's today. When they
were younger, girls might like the bad boy type, but he and Neela
were old enough now to be past that and he really did believe that
nice guys did get the girl.

"Okay..." He kneeled in front of the box. "First things first, let's
take a peek at the instructions..."

~Michael Gallant~

"That's sweet," He smiled and took another drink of the pink liquid,
smiling at her over the top of the glass. "That's good stuff...and
now we can get down to the fun part."

Michael finished his glass of Snapple and set it on the end table, on
a coaster, no less. He was minding his P's and Q's today. When they
were younger, girls might like the bad boy type, but he and Neela
were old enough now to be past that and he really did believe that
nice guys did get the girl.

"Okay..." He kneeled in front of the box. "First things first, let's
take a peek at the instructions..."

~Michael Gallant~

__________________________________________________
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"Do they?" Michael laughed a little himself. "I watch Trading Spaces
sometimes, and they're always putting something crazy on the walls
like hay or feathers."

He turned and looked at Neela with a smile. She was so beautiful and
so far she didn't seem to think he was an enourmous dork. Always a
good thing. When he took the offered glass and took a drink, his
smile got bigger.

"Peach Snapple...this is my favorite..."

~Michael Gallant~

Neela opened her refrigerator. "I have Peach Snapple, diet Pepsi,
and water. Which do you want?"

She remembered that he like Peach Snapple. She got a glass from the
cabinet and put some ice in it. She walked into the living room. She
watched Michael look around her apartment.

She giggled when he commented on her air conditioner. "Well, they
always say match your air conditioner with your wall color."

"That would be great," Michael smiled in return. "Thank you."

He suddenly felt a little awkward and wondered what to say next. He
had a habit of putting his foot in his mouth when he was talking to
women. Especially beautiful women like Neela. HIs eyes scanned the
apartment for something to comment on, but the only thing he found
was the air conditioner.

"The color of the air conditioner is going to look good in here with
the walls." He finally said with a little smile, realizing he sounded
like the biggest idoit ever.

~Michael Gallant~

"Hi, Michael," Neela said smiling. He looked handsome. Even in
blistering heat, he is one of the most handsome men that she has
ever seen. "Come on in. Do you want something to drink?"

"Hey Neela," Michael tried not to let his eyes bug out of his head
when she opened the door. She looked fantastic! He always knew she
was beautiful, but it showed even more today. He smiled at her and
almost forgot for a moment why he was there. Oh right, air
conditioner. Manly labor. Hopefully, he would impress her and then he
could ask her out to lunch or dinner afterwards. But right now, he
had an air conditioner to install.

"I'm glad we're doing this now, it's supposed to be even hotter by
Monday."

~Michael Gallant~

Neela Rasgotra paced around her apartment. God, it was hot out. The
air conditioning in the hallways and stairways weren't working. They
had died out three days ago. Her ceiling fans weren't doing anything
at all. She had to go out and buy an air conditioner. She went
yesterday to Home Depot and bought a medium sized air conditioner
and brought it back to her apartment. She was glad that her landlord
had a handtruck. She was at least able to bring it into her
apartment without much problems. Installing it was another story. It
would be very difficult, if not impossible for Neela to put the air
conditioner in the window. That's where Michael came in. He was
going to help her.

While Neela was looking at all of the air conditioners yesterday,
something occured to her. She didn't know anything about air
conditioners. She couldn't call her father because he would be
sleeping. She couldn't call her brother-in-law because it would be
too much money. She looked through her phone book and decided to
call Michael Gallant. Not that he wasn't the first one that she had
wanted to call.....he was. She just needed to think of two other
people to call that wouldn't be able to help her so that when she
did call him, she had some sort of an excuse. She called him and not
only had he helped her pick out an air conditioner, but he offered
to help her install in the next day.....today.

She heard a knock at the door. She knew that it must be him. She
checked herself in the hallway mirror to make sure that everything
was in the right place. She had spent two hours getting ready this
morning. She wanted her hair, makeup, and clothes to be perfect. She
wanted him to think that she was beautiful. She wanted him to want
her. Maybe if he did, they could be together. She took one final
look in the mirror and a deep breath before she opened the door.


~Neela Rasgotra~

The weather man had been right for a change. THey had said this was
going to the hottest summer in Chicago in several decades, and they
were definetly right this time around. Michael Gallant felt a sweat
breaking out on his skin the minute he got out of his car. His plan
for the night had been to go home and hug his airconditing, but a
colleauge of his had asked him to come by and fix her own air
conditining. And there was no way he could say no to Neela Rasgotra.
She was beautiful and smart and he thought she was just about the
most impressive speciman of the female gender. Not that he had told
her yet, of course, he wasn't really her type. But one could
pretend...

He felt like he was going to die from heatstroke walking up the four
flights of stairs to her apartment. Apparently the superviser didn't
believe in air conditioning the hallways and stairwells. Damn him all
to hell. When he found Neela's door, he paused a moment to wipe the
sweat off his brow and try to make himself look presentable. This was
the first time he had seen her outside of work and vise versa. With a
slight hint of nervousness, he knocked on her door and waited, trying
his best to look cool and casual.

~Michael Gallant~