Hidden

HIDDEN
Author's note: This is a longer version of the one already seen on here.

A cold breeze swept through the room making Matt shiver slightly. He turned the saw off, placed his goggles on his head and turned to see who had walked in the door. It was Darcy, his co-worker.
“Hey Matt,” she said as she waved and smiled.
“Hey,” Matt said, with a little wave and small smile. He watched her walk towards the lockers. She placed her purse and jacket inside, and took out her goggles and gloves. She turned around and Matt quickly turned back to his saw. He picked up a piece of wood and examined it.
“How was your weekend?” she asked politely. She walked over to her station and looked at several papers.
“Uh…it was alright,” he said. “How was yours?”
“To short,” she said laughing. Matt smiled again and glanced at her.
“Yeah I hear that,” he said. “Always seems to go too quickly doesn’t it.”
“Yeah, totally,” she said with a smirk. She sat down at her desk and started filling out some paper work. Matt took another quick glance at her. She was wearing her blue overalls, with a red flannel shirt underneath. Her blond hair was tied in a ponytail behind her head. As usual, there wasn’t any makeup on her face, and her glasses made her look intelligent and independent.
After his quick glance, Matt turned on his saw and got back to work. At the moment he was molding a leg for a table he was working on. He was using a dark maple for this one. It was dark enough that if there were any nicks or scrapes, one couldn’t see them very well. However, the grains stood out just enough to give the table a look of refinement. In a way, the dark maple could keep the real condition of the table hidden, while still appearing strong and elegant to someone taking a quick look at it.
Matt worked with fine precision on the leg because he wanted to make everything look perfect. The other legs and the mount were lying next to him waiting to be completed.
Nothing was said between Darcy and Matt for most of the rest of the morning. It was usually a quiet time for them, especially after the weekends when it took a little longer to wake up then usual. Occasionally he would stop the saw and examine leg closely, looking for any reason why he wouldn’t want to use this leg; it could be a little too closely shaven here, or the dimensions slightly off there. But each time he checked, it appeared perfect.
He also took occasional glances at Darcy. He only saw her back as she worked at her own station and her own project. She was working on a cabinet. She was making the moldings and trim for it. She would place them in various places, and then open and close the doors to see if they fit. The doors never had a problem closing, the problem was that the moldings, which make the cabinet complete, were always too small.
The lunch bell rang without warning, and both immediately stopped what they were doing and walked to their lockers. They each grabbed their lunches and walked to the lounge. They were the only two in their department, so they often ate lunch together. Once they reached the lounge they selected a table and sat down across from each other. Matt picked up a newspaper and turned to the sports section, holding it in between them so she couldn’t see his face. Darcy took out a book and began to read it. After a moment Darcy laughed. Matt lowered the newspaper.
“What’s so funny?” he asked. Darcy waved her hand in front of her face.
“Oh it’s nothing, just this scene in my book.”
“Well…what happened?” Matt asked. Darcy stopped laughing and looked at him.
“Well, this is one of those mushy romance novels, I know lame right,” she said and laughed again. Matt smiled in a way that suggested he was making fun of her.
“Oh don’t give me that look,” she said playfully. “Can’t I enjoy a little cheesy romance here and there?”
“Well, whatever floats your boat,” Matt said smiling. “But what happened?”
“Well, there’s this guy in the book who is madly in love with the girl, but he’s a total tool,” she began. “Now obviously the girl wants to be with the independent and mysteriously handsome guy, but we all know that’s not gonna happen till the end of the book.”
“Ok,” Matt said.
“But in the mean time, the stupid tool guy is chasing after her, and making himself look like an idiot each time.”
“Ok.”
“So this particular time, she’s walking down the beach, cheesy setting I know, and he comes up to her dressed in a tux with flowers and candy.”
“Ok.”
“He starts to confess his love to her for like the fifth time, and she tries to get away by walking on the dock.”
“Ok.”
“But he follows her of course, and starts reciting some poetry he wrote. Only this poetry is just famous poems with new words in key spots to apply to her. I mean, it’s like typical ‘roses are red, violets are blue’ stuff.”
“Ok.”
“And then she decided she’s had enough and tries to get past him, but when she politely places her hand on his chest to push him aside, he falls into the water. But he can’t swim, and the author describes it in the funniest way.” She closed her eyes, tilted her head back and started laughing again. Matt smiled and laughed along, but not nearly as loud.
“Yup,” Matt said. “Sounds like a tool to me.”
“I know, its great isn’t it,” Darcy said, wiping some moisture from her eyes. “It reminds me of my first date with Tom.” Matt bit his lip.
“Really,” he said.
“Yeah, you remember right?” she asked.
“Uh huh,” Matt said lightly turning back to his paper. “You were walking on one of those little bridges over some creek. He tried to show off to you by walking on the railings, and he fell in right.”
“Yeah,” she said, laughing again. “I almost died of laughter. But I guess that’s why I agreed to a second date.”
“And how many dates, after this weekend, does that make now?” Matt asked from behind the paper. Darcy took a deep breath and started counting her fingers.
“I don’t know,” she said. “Six or seven.”
“Getting up there huh,” Matt said plainly. He turned the page in his newspaper, which wasn’t his preferred New York Times, and checked the scores. He frowned at the Twins-White Sox game. The Twins had lost 5-4.
“Yeah I guess so,” said Darcy.
“Tom’s gonna think it’s getting serious you know,” Matt said. Darcy bit her lip and looked at the table.
“Yeah I know,” she said. Tom folded a corner of the newspaper and gave her a serious look.
“You and I both know he’s had feelings for you since high school,” Matt said. “The three of us have been friends for much longer than that. Are you gonna be fair to him?” Darcy let out a sharp breathe and shrugged her shoulders.
“It hard to decide,” she said. “He’s nice, sweet, funny, and somewhat smart….there doesn’t seem to be any reason why I shouldn’t want to be with him.” Matt adjusted the newspaper so it covered his face again.
“Is there?”
“Well,” she said, and then paused. “Sometimes I wish we had more in common. I mean at dinner… we just kind of sit there and stare at each other. We can’t just talk.”
“Well you know how he is,” Matt said. “He doesn’t have much to say. He doesn’t have any kind of strong emotions or opinions for anything. He just lives his life, and while some people criticize him for it…”
“He has a good heart,” Darcy said, interrupting him. Matt lowered the newspaper and stopped himself from speaking again. He glanced at the table, and lifted an eyebrow.
“Yeah,” Matt said nodding. “He does.”
The bell rang again meaning it was time to get back to work. The two walked back to their work room in silence. Same as this morning, they worked in silence for most of the afternoon. A few questions here and there, mostly to clarify some instructions, were all they said to each other.
Matt finished the leg he was working on earlier and inspected it again. He sighed, and couldn’t find anything wrong with it. But that didn’t satisfy him and he threw it in the garbage, grabbed a new piece of wood, and started to make another leg. Darcy noticed.
“That’s the third leg you’ve thrown away,” she said. “What was wrong with that one?”
“To narrow near the base,” Matt said.
“It looked fine from here.”
“Trust me. It was too narrow,” he said. “Or something,” he whispered. Darcy shrugged and continued to work on her cabinet. Still trying to make the moldings just right to finish it off, but like this morning, each one was too small and didn’t complete it.
At four thirty they began to pack up their work stations to get ready to go home. Matt and Darcy shut off their saws and stored their projects. The table didn’t get completed today, and neither did the cabinet. So they remained on the floor waiting to be finished another day, if they ever could get the legs or the moldings right.
As Darcy grabbed her jacket and put it on she looked at Matt who was filling out his time card.
“So what do you think then?” she asked. Matt looked up from his paper work.
“About what?” he asked.
“About Tom,” she said. “What should I do?”
“You’re worried,” Matt said. “Did something else happen this weekend?”
“Yeah,” she said. “He told me he loved me.” Matt wiped his brow and rubbed his eyes.
“Do you love him?” he asked. Darcy shrugged her shoulders.
“There’s no reason why I shouldn’t, unless he didn’t actually love me. Do you think he loves me?” Matt fumbled with his pencil and dropped it to the floor. He bent down to pick it up and stuttered to find some words.
“Well, how did he tell you?” Matt placed his pencil on his desk and picked up a small piece of wood and a carving knife.
“Look,” Darcy said. “I don’t mean to bring you into this. It’s just that nobody knows him better than you, and I need to know if he really does love me.”
“Well I’m sure he loves you as much as he’s capable of loving someone,” Matt said. There were a few moments of silence. Darcy stared at Matt while he continued to carve away at his piece of wood that was getting smaller and smaller with each sliver he cut away.
“So…” Darcy said, finally breaking the silence. “What do you think?”
“About what?” Matt asked.
“About Tom,” Darcy said urgently. Matt shrugged his shoulders.
“He’s a good guy. And I’m sure he loves you as much as he’s capable of loving someone,” Matt said repeating what he said before.
“So what should I do then?”
“Do whatever you wanna do,” Matt said. The piece of wood was about half the size it had been before. “If you’re happy settling for the first guy who says he loves you, that’s fine. If you want to wait patiently to be with someone you love back, do that.” Darcy’s eyes narrowed.
“Are you saying I’m settling for him because nobody else has ever loved me before?
“I’m saying nobody has ever loved you before,” Matt said quickly. “I’m just saying nobody has ever told you before.”
“And how do you know that?” Darcy snapped. The piece of wood slipped from Matt’s hands. He stared at it for a second, and then slowly lifted his head. Finally he spoke.
“Because you’ve never come to me asking for advice like this before,” he said. Darcy’s eyes shifted away from him and she crossed her arms. He shook his head and looked at his work table.
“Why shouldn’t I be with him?” She asked quietly.
“I don’t know,” Matt whispered. “There’s the possibility of losing a friendship that is very special to you, and to him. Relationships come and go, but friendships are almost guaranteed to last forever. Some people would rather take what’s guaranteed and be thankful for what they have then risk losing it, and the person, forever.” Darcy’s hands fell to her sides. She nodded and turned to walk away.
Matt watched her leave and nodded. He picked up his piece of wood and continued to carve it away, sliver after sliver after sliver.