Sleuthy reminded her of all the things she'd left unsaid in the blog. "KSL sounds like an asshole."
It was the second time a "reader" of the blog had said that. She felt like a bad writer for letting it go this long, making him sound like an asshole. What must people think of her if she was painting him in such a bad light? She went back to read his tag and see what things were left unsaid.
When they first met, according to the blog, he was just an asshole getting her to run and jump to high five him. Not the best first impression. What was unsaid was that, at first, she had to be well caffeinated to get to his level. He had just broken up with his girlfriend, and in hindsight he was feeling very vulnerable. The more vulnerable he is, the louder he gets.
"Penny, tell me a story!" He would joyously demand during a lull in rehearsal. She told him about her prom, about how she won a dance competition in junior high, and others. One day she realized she was telling him the stories, and never the other way around. He would always make jokes like "Don't hit me, that's my dad's job!" and whenever something bad happened he would say "prom night flashbacks!"
"Tell me a story!" He said one day, and she retorted "I'm all out of stories KSL, YOU tell me a story."
So he did. She got a little background on how horrible his family was, how his dad did actually beat him pretty frequently as a kid because he was abusing drugs and alcohol. "But don't worry, he's all better now" he would reassure her, badly. He explained how he had been screwed over by his family as well as got into brutal fights with his brother.
They shared stories of how they had gotten their scars. She tied his gun holster into his belt every night, part of his costume for the show. Then he was onstage for the entire show, so they never really bonded much past "story time" while she tied down his holster.
With PJ's and BFF's increased aggravation in his job and her Improv show respectively, KSL didn't really hit her radar that hard. He was just the main character in the show, another actor amongst 10 or 11 that she had to wrangle. She sensed his wall being up right away, but didn't see the point in trying to break it down. They had just met.
Eventually she stopped needing to have energy drinks before each rehearsal. Whenever he got to be too much, she could now calm him down or get him to shut up all together with just a word. She found that he was actually a very good listener, and was responsive to things she would put her foot down about right away.
At the opening night party, they ended up on a couch alone at the beginning of the evening and got to talking, which led to some light flirting. After a few drinks they were taking silly pictures of her in his giant shoes and laughing. Every once in awhile people would join them, flow in and out. They remained joined on the couch, as the bar was packed tightly. No reason to give up prime real estate when the conversation and harmless flirting was good.
Late into the evening her husband had shown up to the bar unexpectedly, having gotten out of his rehearsal early. KSL's face changed upon his arrival, and the energy between them changed. It was as if he suddenly remembered that she was married, and he was back in his relationship. It was then she realized that the flirting hadn't been all that harmless.
"Well," he said jokingly, "I'm gonna get out of here first. You give it five and then follow to avoid suspicion." She smiled at him and said goodbye.
At the time, she didn't think anything of it. Until now, when she realized it had gone unsaid. The beginning of their friendship had been really good...she had just been distracted.
