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Stories posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 

Thwarted - 10. Chapter Ten

The prompt that I chose for this week was have your character make some sort of comfort food.  To be honest, I misread the prompt a tad as it had been a rough few days but the following is what I came up with.  It's a bit shorter than my usual responses, but it's still within the limits, so enjoy smile.png
“So, what do we do now?”
 
“What do you mean?” Mark knew what Trey was talking about, but he didn’t really want to think about it.
 
“About us. We agreed to see where this connection took us, but we didn’t expect this to happen so soon. I thought we still had a couple of months together.” Trey sat on one end of Mark’s couch and watched as he paced the room.
 
Mark froze.
 
“Carrot cake.”
 
“Excuse me?” Trey looked at him like he’d lost his mind.
 
Mark couldn’t blame him. With everything going on, food should be the last thing on his mind, but even before he’d joined the military, whenever he was stressed or facing something he wasn’t sure how to deal with, he turned to carrot cake. It was his comfort food. Not always readily accessible, but it never failed to settle his mind and calm his heart.
 
“Carrot cake. We go out and find us a nice, or even mediocre, slice of carrot cake.” Trey still didn’t look convinced. “Trust me.”
 
***
 
“I can’t believe I’m leaving here in three weeks and we’re sitting here eating carrot cake.” Trey shook his head but Mark noticed he still took a bit of his cake.
 
“It’s my comfort food. Normally I make Jackie make it for me, but this time it was kind of an emergency.” He shrugged and finished off his own cake before pushing his plate away. He studied Trey across the table. He hoped the fact that Trey came to him when he found out meant that the other man didn’t want to end things between them. “You asked me what we should do; I vote we don’t do anything.” Trey’s brow wrinkled and Mark clarified, “Back at the apartment you asked what we should do since you’re getting deployed earlier than you thought.”
 
“No, I know what you’re talking about. I just don’t see what doing nothing is going to accomplish.”
 
“We won’t really be doing nothing. We have three weeks until you leave. Rather than spend that time griping about you leaving, which we can’t change, let’s spend it getting to know each other better. We can work on building something that can survive a year of phone calls and web chats.” Mark smiled, despite the topic. “Not saying it’s going to be easy, but it’s not impossible.”
 
“They’re giving my unit a week of leave before we deploy. I need to drive up and see my parents before I leave.”
 
Mark tried to brush off the sense of dread he felt. It made sense that Trey would want to go see his parents. He was going to a war zone and no matter what area he got sent to, there was always a risk that he wouldn’t come home. It still gave him two weeks to spend with Trey. At the very least they’d have a couple of weekends. He could work with that.
 
“Would you go with me?”
 
“What?” Mark was sure he’d heard wrong. Trey wanted him to go with him to meet his parents? Wasn’t it a bit too soon for that?
 
“If we’re going to try and make a go of this, I’d really like you to meet my parents.” Trey smiled and Mark felt his foot slide up his leg underneath the table. “I don’t have much time before I leave and I don’t want to give up any time I can spend with you, but I have to go see them. Come with me, please?”
 
Trey’s foot caressing his leg was distracting, but even more than that, the pleading look on Trey’s face got to him and Mark found himself agreeing. Ready or not, in just over two weeks, he’d be meeting Trey’s parents. He only hoped he didn’t regret it.
So, now we know what Mark's comfort food is, do you have one? What is it? If you liked this chapter of "Thwarted" then please leave a review as I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Copyright © 2016 Renee Stevens; All Rights Reserved.
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Stories posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 
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Chapter Comments

I agree with Suvitar. Any kind of chocolate. :) And it's comfort food, non-comfort food. lol

 

Mark should be ecstatic that Trey wants him to go with him to see his folks.

 

Three weeks is not a long time to spend together, knowing that Trey will be deployed and God knows when they'll be able to see each other again. That's if Trey's tour of duty is a success and he doesn't get hurt.

I love chocolate cake with chocolate ganache but, that aside, I love this story. It is creating a sense of immediacy as well as presenting a powerful scene of what all of us face, at one point or another. We all meet people we connect with and know or fear we will lose. It is inevitable though I adore your use of the military. Good hook. You got me when Mark admitted he knew it was happening and Trey needed to make that connection. Of course, it was reverse order, maybe.

Love it,

thanks,

Cole

On 10/14/2013 10:34 AM, Stephen said:
I like this chapter, despite it's brevity. I'm happy Trey wants to move forward and

have Mark meet his family. That's a big thing. Carrot cake? I love it and make a

killer carrot cake. You've planted the seed here and I may just need to make one.

Thank you Stephen! Meeting the parents is a big thing and even I am anxious to see how it goes. As far as Carrot Cake, I love Carrot Cake, and German Chocolate cake. I honestly couldn't say for sure what my comfort food would be as I tend to bake, lol. Cookies, cakes, etc. I hope you continue to enjoy the story!
On 10/14/2013 11:41 AM, clochette said:
hey, found your story tonight, read all the chapters in once. I really like it so far there's a good dynamic even if the chapters are a bit short for my taste but your written skills make it totally ok. I can't wait to read a nex one and to find out how things are gonna be with Trey's family.

So keep going it's really goooood!!

Hi Clochette, I'm glad you found the story and thank you for reviewing! I know the chapters are short, but that's due to the fact that I am writing them as part of a group called the Wednesday Briefers. We write a "flash" piece every week and it has to stay between 500 and 1000 words. I'm glad that you are enjoying the story and I look forward to reading your thoughts on the future chapters. There is still a lot more of this story to come!
On 10/14/2013 02:39 PM, Suvitar said:
Carrot cake is good but I prefer chocolate cake or just chocolate in any form :)

Meeting the parents and saying goodbye and spending a year apart being afraid for Trey. It´s not gonna be easy for Mark....or Trey. Looking forward reading what they get up to during their last weeks together :kiss:

Great chapter :thumbup:

Thanks for the review! Carrot cake is one of my favorites, though I have to say I don't think I'd say no to chocolate either, especially German Chocolate.... yummy. As for the story, I definitely agree that the next year is not going to be easy for either one of them, they'll definitely have to make the best out of the weeks that they do have together.
On 10/14/2013 02:51 PM, Lisa said:
I agree with Suvitar. Any kind of chocolate. :) And it's comfort food, non-comfort food. lol

 

Mark should be ecstatic that Trey wants him to go with him to see his folks.

 

Three weeks is not a long time to spend together, knowing that Trey will be deployed and God knows when they'll be able to see each other again. That's if Trey's tour of duty is a success and he doesn't get hurt.

Thank you Lisa!!! Chocolate... yummy...

 

I can agree he should be ecstatic, but can also understand him being nervous. It will be interesting to see how it goes. As far as their time together before Trey leaves, no, it's not a lot of time together, but it all depends on how they spend that time. Personally, I think they will be making the most of every second they have together, but we'll have to wait and see.

On 10/14/2013 03:11 PM, Cole Matthews said:
I love chocolate cake with chocolate ganache but, that aside, I love this story. It is creating a sense of immediacy as well as presenting a powerful scene of what all of us face, at one point or another. We all meet people we connect with and know or fear we will lose. It is inevitable though I adore your use of the military. Good hook. You got me when Mark admitted he knew it was happening and Trey needed to make that connection. Of course, it was reverse order, maybe.

Love it,

thanks,

Cole

Thank you for the review Cole! I'm so glad that you are enjoying the story and that it is keeping your interest! I always worry about being able to hook the reader and I'm glad that I've succeeded for you with this story.

I love carrot cake but my comfort food is mashed potatoes and corn lol. I think the guys have the right idea sure they could take the three weeks and whittle it away with what ifs and we should haves but why. But they knew it was going to happen the only thing that caught them by surprise was the timing so now they only have three weeks to finish making that bond strong enough to handle a years separation. Meeting the family actually works in a way as long as it goes good it will give both men relief and a cushion of support. I like the way they are thinking rather than giving up they are pushing ahead thier schedule just like the military did to them half the battle is already won now they just need to strengthen and build on what they have to make it thru the separation.. Great chapter Renee looking forward to more!!

On 10/15/2013 08:47 AM, Daithi said:
I love carrot cake but my comfort food is mashed potatoes and corn lol. I think the guys have the right idea sure they could take the three weeks and whittle it away with what ifs and we should haves but why. But they knew it was going to happen the only thing that caught them by surprise was the timing so now they only have three weeks to finish making that bond strong enough to handle a years separation. Meeting the family actually works in a way as long as it goes good it will give both men relief and a cushion of support. I like the way they are thinking rather than giving up they are pushing ahead thier schedule just like the military did to them half the battle is already won now they just need to strengthen and build on what they have to make it thru the separation.. Great chapter Renee looking forward to more!!
Thanks Daithi! I agree that both guys will need their families to help them through the year. Regardless of how long they will have been together, a years separation can be hard on anyone and having a good support structure is important. Thanks again!
On 10/21/2013 11:52 AM, Daddydavek said:
Deciding to make the most of their remaining time together so they can maintain while separated is an example of clear thinking. Something that is needed when facing life altering situations.

My comfort food varies with the seasons. A quart of Haagen-Dazs cookie dough chip is my current one!

Making the most of any situation I think is all that someone can do, especially when it's not a situation they can change. As far as your comfort food, yummy! Now I want some!!! Thank you Daddydave! Hope you enjoy the upcoming chapters!

Crisps/Chips (dependant on which part of the world you live in)

I love cheese flavour or tomato sauce flavour the most. :P Although Paprika flavour can be nice too.

The seasoned older man is coming out to play. :)

Maturity accepts what we cannot change and tries to make the most of the things we can control.

Meet the parents??? He's a brave man. :P I'd rather go to war. haha ;)

On 11/26/2013 12:49 PM, Yettie One said:
Crisps/Chips (dependant on which part of the world you live in)

I love cheese flavour or tomato sauce flavour the most. :P Although Paprika flavour can be nice too.

The seasoned older man is coming out to play. :)

Maturity accepts what we cannot change and tries to make the most of the things we can control.

Meet the parents??? He's a brave man. :P I'd rather go to war. haha ;)

Chips sounds like a good comfort food to me! Though I don't know as I've ever had a tomato sauce flavored or paprika flavored chip... Sounds interesting.

 

As far as meeting the parents, yeah, I don't envy him. That should be an interesting thing. Especially knowing that it's going to be a rough time for Trey's parents as it is, add in having to share him with someone new... that could be very interesting indeed...

On 08/03/2014 08:20 AM, Headstall said:
OK...that was really sweet...good for Trey...and good for Mark for taking a positive outlook in a crappy situation...he seems to recognize that this is worth fighting for,and possibly worth a year of separation. I got my fingers crossed for these guys...cheers...Gary
Thank you Gary. They really only had two choices, walk away from each other (which based on the intensity of the connection between them didn't seem likely) or do their best to give it a go. Neither one of them strikes me as the type to give up easily, so there was really only one answer to their dilemma :) .
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