Giving Fantasia: The Taking Fantasia Sequel

Chapter 40: How To Tie A Tie

Chapter 40: How To Tie A Tie

God. Damn. Tie.

Jim had a rare intelligence: logical-mathematical. His mind was a computer that calculated simple solutions, while simultaneously thinking 'outside the box.' This made him alarmingly resourceful. However, Jim was also dangerously perceptive; he could x-ray people's souls and read their behavior. Jim was a mind-reader, a mathematician, a detective, a problem solver, a strategist, a numbers wizard...

...but he could not figure out how to tie a god damn freaking tie.

"Hell with it." Jim crumpled the tie on the kitchen table. Smoldering, he filled a glass of water at the sink. He drank it – one gulp. He refilled the glass and drained it – again, one gulp. Immediately Jim regretted the decision. The water stuck like a rock inside his stomach. He felt like throwing up.

Jim inhaled. Clutching the sink, he stared into the kitchen window. The dark pane mirrored his reflection.

He looked stupid. 

Jim felt like he was wearing a costume: charcoal button-down shirt, black dress pants, shiny loafers, and clean-shaven face. He'd even removed his earring. Thank god Wendy had taken over the bathroom, or Jim would have shaved off his rattail.

The only bearable part of his outfit were the gold cufflinks. Stoically, Jim turned a wrist. Long John Silver had made the cufflinks. One had been forged from the cyborg's golden earring, the other from Jim's.

Bleakly, Jim stared into nothing. 

He had searched for Silver. He had searched for six years. Silver had escaped into the Outerworld following the Battle to Take Fantasia, and Jim had hoped to find him sailing amongst the stars. But after six years of hunting, Jim was no closer to Silver than a memory. A memory to take the helm...chart his own course...rattle the stars...

...and face the universe like a man.

Haggardly Jim sighed. He loathed the idea of dinner with the Tritons; but he loved Ariel infinitesimally more. It was time to man up; man up for her.

Jim closed his eyes. He pictured Ariel. 

Then refilling his glass, Jim returned to the table and wrestled with his tie.

Suddenly, Wendy appeared. Oblivious to Jim, she hopped down the stairs and into the kitchen.

Jim's eyebrows rose. She was glowing. Literally glowing. Had Wendy not been the only girl in the house, he wouldn't have recognized her. She looked like a fairy just dropped from a cloud: sweet, excited, and innocent.

She looked...beautiful.

Jim studied Wendy. Suddenly he remembered.

I want to take Wendy out tonight...and I don't want you there.

The butterflies in Jim's stomach turned into bear claws.

Peter.

Reactively, he made a noise. 

Wendy turned. She beamed.

"Jim?" 

Happily surprised, Wendy sat at the table. "Jim! Look at you! You look so handsome, I hardly recognized you! Well, not that you don't always look handsome, I just meant that you scarcely dress up. But it's quite becoming. And I would have thought that shaving would make you look different, but it's still you under there!"