dlove_rm's Blog

Melody was a quiet young woman. She was slightly shorter than average height at 5’4” and by someone’s standard she would be called overweight at 130lbs. She believed in that standard, but Del was never convinced those charts were accurate. He knew better. He thought Melody was perfect. He didn’t know Melody intimately, he figured he never would. Oh he had known her for many years, they had been friends but Melody was not interested in Del. At least, not like Del was in her. Del believed it was his appearance that was the root cause of that. He was an awkward man. Oh both Melody and Del were about the same age, both fresh out of college, in their mid-20’s, but Del had this look to his appearance that was not what most women were interested in. Melody was NOT most women, Del knew this, but Melody was convinced that she had to follow the standards to fit in and be “normal”. So she was convinced, she needed to lose 15lbs, she needed to find her ideal perfect mate, settle down, and be live the perfect normal life.

Del was well over 6’ tall, had the square jaw, swept dark hair, strong blue eyes but he had other issues. An auto accident had left him with an ugly scar down his left cheek from the shattering windshield, and a permanent limp from where the car door had impaled his side. His left arm was slightly hampered due to some nerve damage.

Melody liked Del well enough. He was a good friend, but she could not ever see past these deformities to see Del more than this. Del had long since accepted this role of friendship but he was hopeful that one day his feelings would be understood and returned by Melody.

No one really asked what caused this accident that had deformed Del. It had only happened a few years ago, just after high school and just before Del started college. In fact, the injuries were so extensive, Del had to delay college for a year before entering just to allow recovery. He had nearly lost his scholarships but certain parties in the local town had reached out to the … of Hayley College and managed to keep the scholarships active for him when he could return. Del had maintained a perfect 4.0 in high school and had even done so while playing sports, and participating in various other extra-curricular activities. Del was quite the catch in high school, but no one ever caught him. He always seemed to be focused on the prize he could not have even then. Del was the hired … the ranch where Melody was raised. She could not be seen dating the hired help. Oh that makes her sound snobbish and that really wasn’t exactly true. Melody just had this desire to “fit in”, to be “normal”, to be socially accepted. And she would do ANYTHING to help that. She just wasn’t able to see that dating one of the most desirable people in school would help that, because he was on the payroll of her family. Yeah, ok, maybe a bit snobbish.

After Del went to college, his grades were not up to par and while he graduated, he had a difficult time maintaining the 2.5 required just to keep him in school. He did not receive any brain damage during the accident, but his focus, his drive, and his determination were gone.

Melody’s family kept him employed on the ranch after he graduated and Del was grateful for the place to stay and the job and paycheck. It wasn’t much, but he did the odd jobs around the ranch that needed done, and it kept him near Melody. He was very happy about that, even though Melody seemed to be indifferent to it.