Before we begin today’s blog post, a quick word…

The plan was to introduce a spicy story this week. One to get ahead of all that pumpkin late spice thing folks do in the Fall. Sadly, what started as a great beautiful blush worthy story… turned into an epic concept that is way way too long to be posted as one single blog post. Worse, it’s not yet done.

It was to carry a name similar to this post. The content calendar already set, and the writer falling badly behind due to work obligations and catering to his family, a tough choice had to be made. Do we skip a blog post or do we not?

Solution: Take one of the deleted scenes and share it on the blog today. For transparency sake, the expression deleted scenes only means deleted from the original plan for the original post. However, now resurrected, it will serve as the post of the day. For those who rather not risk blushing, I suggest you enjoy the Portfolio section of the blog today instead.

You’ve been… warned.

one more thing… To the fan(s) who have been anticipating the blush inducing post… thank you for the suggestion of considering sharing the full version as an e-book.

Let us now turn our attention to the story of the day

Before the Sway

He was accustomed to the hectic train rides into the city. The underground human rail carrying machine was bursting at the seams with overworked and overstressed carbon based bipedal life-forms that grumbled and mumbled their way to and from their slave ships, sorry, work places.

Yes, work places.

Never mind that side thought. Matt was just trying to get a good seat and tune out the noise of the rush. The trains were supposed to be great quality machines, but they were just junks of metal that made a racket.

Once settled, the ride was going to be one long bumpy deal that prevented a good nap from taking place. Fortunately, Matt was also too lazy to take off his sunglasses inside the train. Not so much for the cool factor as the lack of safe place to put them. He was not keen on sticking them on top of his head where they’d smudge up with the oils from his hair.

The following stop, a lady nearly stumbled onto the aisle of the train. She looked a bit dazed but not confused. Whatever was on her mind was really taking a lot of energy from her focus. Given the tightness around the edges of her face, Matt concluded that she was having a rough morning with a set of less pleasant meetings coming up.

As he started to dismiss her, his attention returned to the way she sighed. Ordinarily, people sigh on the train from annoyance. No one sighed from feeling good on a train. Not this early in the morning. Not this crowded a rush hour.

Grateful that his sunglass of choice were the darker mirrored variety, Matt rested his head such to appear asleep and readied himself to watch. Head perfectly lined up straight, he allowed his eyes to follow the lady as she struggled to move towards the last remaining empty seat. A guy had offered, her lucky day.

The way she sat down was a bit too controlled for someone who was dazed and unfocused. She really went out of her way to gently let herself down in the seat. The very tight nature of the limited leg cross she afforded herself drew Matt’s attention that much closer to her.

What was going on with this lady?

Her face flushed over red. Bright red. She let down her head with enough of a snap to pull her hair to cover her. Too bad she didn’t have that long of hair, the redness was plenty evident around her jaw line and neck.

She must have sensed that she was being watched as she frantically dug through her fancy designer purse to find a scarf. Quickly unfurling and wrapping her neck with it, she made a few careful adjustments to cover the rest of her face.

A nervous leg wiggle was introduced to this most unusual of scenes. As Matt surveyed the car, everyone was preoccupied. They were either nursing big cups of coffee while strap hanging or reading the latest in unverified news from the media lambasting the activities of various politicians.

Returning his attention to the lady, he could see her being unsure about keeping her leg cross as she kept un-crossing and partially recrossing her leg. The slight forward lean and strong clasping of her purse indicative of her hiding something. All motions that were kept very deliberate and carefully timed. She didn’t want anyone to see what was going on.