Studio 60 Fic: First Date. M/H
Title: First Date
Author: greta_garbo
Fandom: Studio 60
Pairing: Matt/Harriet
Rating: PG
Summary: Exactly what the title sounds like. Matt and Harriet's first date. Set pre-series.
Spoilers: Nothing really, except a bit of stuff about Harriet's history from "The Long Leag Story".
Notes: This is my first Matt/Harriet fic, and my first Studio 60 fic ever, so it might be a little off in terms of character voices and such. Also, it's unbetad, so any and all mistakes are my very own. Also, I pretty much just made up Matt's history, and I'm sure that it will be proven to be completely wrong by a future episode. And feedback makes a girl happy.
Matt was spending the first weekend of summer hiatus in the bars. He'd started out at his favorite spots, little hole-in-the-wall bars that were smokey and loud, but somehow being at those places alone made him feel a bit pathetic. Normally those were the places he went with Danny, but Danny was taking the summer hiatus to spend time with wife number two in Hawaii.
So Matt had migrated to the higher class bars. Hotel bars, bars in classt restaurants. He didn't exactly know why it felt less pathetic to be alone in these bars, but it did. Drinking alone was just something people did in hotel bars. Businessmen on business trips drinking to forget how much they hate their jobs, and doing it alone in the hopes of meeting a pretty young businesswoman to have a one night stand with before they went home and lied to their unsuspecting wives.
Matt really needed to get drunk. These unhappy thoughts were not good for him, and he didn't go out drinking to get himself depressed, he went out drinking to have fun. Though he was starting to doubt his logic. Exactly how much fun was he planning on having just drinking by himself? Granted, Danny never drank when they went out together, but they still had fun just hanging out.
He was about to throw in the towel and just go home when he glanced down the bar and saw Harriet Hayes sitting at the other end, sipping some kind of pink girly drink that Matt would make fun of if he didn't get so nervous around her.
And it was that nervousness that made him decide to bolt from the bar. He'd never really talked to Harriet outside of the studio, and he was pretty sure without the comfortable cushion of work to fall back on he'd make a complete *** out of himself. So he threw a some money on the bar to pay for his drink, and was read to haul *** out of there, when Harriet caught him eye and smiled at him.
He couldn't leave now. Well, he could, but Matt was pretty sure that would just offend Harriet, and he really didn't want to do that. So he slowly walked over to the other end of the bar, where Harriet was sitting, still smiling happily at him. Matt wondered how drunk she must have been to be so happy to see him.
"I was wondering when you were actually going to notice me," Harriet said.
"I try not to, you know, look at people in bars," Matt said, taking the seat next to her. "You make eye contact with the wrong guy, and suddenly you're listening to an hour long story about how his wife left him for the gardener."
"I can assure you that I have no stories about my wife leaving me for the gardener," Harriet said seriously.
Matt chuckled lightly, "Thank god."
"I do, however, have a very long and heartbreaking story about how my housecat left me for the chauffer."
Matt laughed harder this time. He was constantly amazed at how effortlessly funny Harriet was.
"I wanted to thank you, Matt," Harriet said awkwardly, looking down into her drink.
"For what?"
"For writing such great sketches for me these past few months."
"Really, it wasn't-"
"No, Matt, it really was. I mean, I loved my job before, but I have to be honest, I really did think that I was going in the background for the rest of my life."
"The sketches really aren't that good, Harriet," Matt said, looking down at his feet. "You make them good."
He looked back up at her to find the brightest smile he'd ever sen gracing her face. "Well, I disagree," she said quietly, "But I'll take the compliment anyway."
Silence settled over them as Harriet finished her drink. The conversation had made Matt feel bolder than he ever had around Harriet, so he decided to take the plunge.
"Have you had dinner?" he asked, trying not to sound nervous.
"Not yet, unless you count a strawberry daiquiri as dinner."
"Then let's get out of here. I'll buy you dinner."
Harriet blinked in surprise, and Matt was sure he'd made a huge mistake and that she most definitely was going to say no. But then she smiled at him again. It wasn't a huge smile like the last one, but a small one. Either way, he decided that Harriet smiling at him was his favorite thing in the world.
"Okay," she said simply.
Harriet chose the restaurant, a little diner that wasn't too far from the studio.
Matt marveled at the amount of food Harriet could eat. She had to be eating twice as much as he was. And god help him, for some strange reason he found that undeniably sexy. Yep, he was a goner.
"You know, there will be food in the world tomorrow. You don't have to eat it all now."
Harriet laughed as she took another bite of her burger. "Shut up! I just love this food is all. This place reminds me of this diner back home that my mom used to take me to every Sunday after church."
Matt pushed his eggs around on his plate. "What was that like?" he asked.
Harriet looked at him curiously. "What, the diner?"
"No, growing up in a religious home." Matt asked, hoping the subject wasn't too personal.
"Your family wasn't religious?"
"No, not really."
"Well, my home wasn't really religious," Harriet began. "Just my mom and me. My dad and my brothers weren't religious at all." She stuffed cheese stick in her mouth, then added as an afterthough, "It seems that pretty much none of the men in my life have been religious."
"You didn't really answer my question," Matt said, amused by how adorable she looked talking and eating at the same time.
"I'm sorry?"
"What was it like, growing up religious like that?"
Harriet paused for a moment, trying to think of a way to describe it. "Comforting."
"Comforting?"
"Yeah. Comforting. Not say that it wasn't kind of hard to have faith at time when things got tough, and they did get very, very tough. But in the end, no matter how mad I was at God or how much I questioned him, I always found my way back, because, for me at leasy, having God in my life was comforting. When it seemed like I had nothing and no one to turn to, I knew that I still had God, and that comforted me."
"Things were rough when you were a kid?" Matt asked carefully.
"Yeah," Harriet said, not sure if she wanted to open up and bear her soul to Matt. But when she looked up into his eyes, so open and caring, she knew she could. "Dad drank a lot. I mean, he wasn't a bad father or anything, and he really did love us. But times got tough, he lost his job, money was tight, and he just couldn't deal. And then mom ... mom got cancer. She died when I was young. And then it was just dad to take care of me, and he tried, but...."
"Yeah," Matt said, understanding even if she couldn't talk about it.
"But I was happy," Harriet explained, smiling. "Even things were bad sometimes, I was happy. As bad as things got, I was loved. By my parents. And by God."
Matt didn't quite understand how someone could feel that way about God, but Harriet was so sincere and honest about it, that even though he didn't understand it, he could accept it. From her, at least.
"So what about you?" Harriet asked. "Any sob stories from your childhood?"
"Only the many wedgies I got during high school," Matt joked, trying to lighten the mood a bit, and his chest hurt a little when Harriet laughed.
"My life has been pretty boring," Matt started. "Dad worked in advertising, mom was a housewife. We lived in the suburbs. I was a geek in high school. My life was pretty much Leave It To Beaver."
"So why'd you go into writing and comedy?" Harriet asked. "I mean, for me it really started to sort of kill the tension in my house. Since things were so normal for you, how'd you find out you were funny?"
"Like I said, I was a geek. And I found out pretty quickly that as long as I was a funny geek, as long as I could make the jocks laugh, they wouldn't beat the hell out of me."
"But your brand of humor seems like it would have been a little too smart for the high school meathead crowd."
"It was, at first. But I learned how to make my humor work for my audience."
"Matt Albie, a crowd pleaser? The man who fought with Wes for three hours because you refused to dumb one of your skits down so that it would appeal to younger viewers? I don't believe it," Harriet said as she finished off her meal.
"Yeah, well, I don't think middle America is going to beat me up. At least not as badly as Steve O'Daniel did."
The waitress came with the check. "Did you enjoy your meal?" She asked.
"The lady must have, because she pretty much inhaled it," Matt answered. Harriet glared at him playfully.
"Do you want a ride home?" Matt asked as they walked out of the diner.
"No, that's okay. I don't live very far from here. I think I'll walk," Harriet said.
"I'll walk with you," Matt offered.
"Okay," Harriet said, smiling shyly.
They walked in a comfortable silence for several blocks until Matt said, "So...."
"So...." Harriet responded, amused.
"So I paid for your dinner...."
"Yeah..."
"So I was just wondering..."
"Wondering what?"
"If this was .... you know ... a date."
"A date?"
"Yeah."
Harriet stopped walking and faced Matt. "This is me," she said, gesturing back toward the apartment building.
"What do you think?" Matt asked.
"About what?" Harriet asked nervously.
"Was this a date?"
"Does it matter."
"Yes, it matters.
"Why?"
"Because I want to know if I can kiss you right now."
Harriet felt a blush crawling up her cheeks. "You can't kiss me."
Matt took a step backward, deflated. "Oh.... because this.... wasn't a date."
"No," Harriet said, smiling playfully. "Because I don't kiss on the first date."
Matt's smile grew as he stepped toward her again. "Why, because you're a good christian girl?" He teased.
"No," Harriet responded. "Because I like to play hard to get." She leaned up quickly and kissed his cheek, and then turned around and headed toward her apartment. When she went inside, she stuck her head back out and said, "Call me tomorrow." Then she closed the door.
Matt couldn't stop smiling as he walked back to the diner to get his car. He wasn't sure if he could wait until tomorrow to call her. He started his car, and looked at the clock. 11:52. He smiled to himself. He'd call her first thing when he got home.
THE END.
Author: greta_garbo
Fandom: Studio 60
Pairing: Matt/Harriet
Rating: PG
Summary: Exactly what the title sounds like. Matt and Harriet's first date. Set pre-series.
Spoilers: Nothing really, except a bit of stuff about Harriet's history from "The Long Leag Story".
Notes: This is my first Matt/Harriet fic, and my first Studio 60 fic ever, so it might be a little off in terms of character voices and such. Also, it's unbetad, so any and all mistakes are my very own. Also, I pretty much just made up Matt's history, and I'm sure that it will be proven to be completely wrong by a future episode. And feedback makes a girl happy.
Matt was spending the first weekend of summer hiatus in the bars. He'd started out at his favorite spots, little hole-in-the-wall bars that were smokey and loud, but somehow being at those places alone made him feel a bit pathetic. Normally those were the places he went with Danny, but Danny was taking the summer hiatus to spend time with wife number two in Hawaii.
So Matt had migrated to the higher class bars. Hotel bars, bars in classt restaurants. He didn't exactly know why it felt less pathetic to be alone in these bars, but it did. Drinking alone was just something people did in hotel bars. Businessmen on business trips drinking to forget how much they hate their jobs, and doing it alone in the hopes of meeting a pretty young businesswoman to have a one night stand with before they went home and lied to their unsuspecting wives.
Matt really needed to get drunk. These unhappy thoughts were not good for him, and he didn't go out drinking to get himself depressed, he went out drinking to have fun. Though he was starting to doubt his logic. Exactly how much fun was he planning on having just drinking by himself? Granted, Danny never drank when they went out together, but they still had fun just hanging out.
He was about to throw in the towel and just go home when he glanced down the bar and saw Harriet Hayes sitting at the other end, sipping some kind of pink girly drink that Matt would make fun of if he didn't get so nervous around her.
And it was that nervousness that made him decide to bolt from the bar. He'd never really talked to Harriet outside of the studio, and he was pretty sure without the comfortable cushion of work to fall back on he'd make a complete *** out of himself. So he threw a some money on the bar to pay for his drink, and was read to haul *** out of there, when Harriet caught him eye and smiled at him.
He couldn't leave now. Well, he could, but Matt was pretty sure that would just offend Harriet, and he really didn't want to do that. So he slowly walked over to the other end of the bar, where Harriet was sitting, still smiling happily at him. Matt wondered how drunk she must have been to be so happy to see him.
"I was wondering when you were actually going to notice me," Harriet said.
"I try not to, you know, look at people in bars," Matt said, taking the seat next to her. "You make eye contact with the wrong guy, and suddenly you're listening to an hour long story about how his wife left him for the gardener."
"I can assure you that I have no stories about my wife leaving me for the gardener," Harriet said seriously.
Matt chuckled lightly, "Thank god."
"I do, however, have a very long and heartbreaking story about how my housecat left me for the chauffer."
Matt laughed harder this time. He was constantly amazed at how effortlessly funny Harriet was.
"I wanted to thank you, Matt," Harriet said awkwardly, looking down into her drink.
"For what?"
"For writing such great sketches for me these past few months."
"Really, it wasn't-"
"No, Matt, it really was. I mean, I loved my job before, but I have to be honest, I really did think that I was going in the background for the rest of my life."
"The sketches really aren't that good, Harriet," Matt said, looking down at his feet. "You make them good."
He looked back up at her to find the brightest smile he'd ever sen gracing her face. "Well, I disagree," she said quietly, "But I'll take the compliment anyway."
Silence settled over them as Harriet finished her drink. The conversation had made Matt feel bolder than he ever had around Harriet, so he decided to take the plunge.
"Have you had dinner?" he asked, trying not to sound nervous.
"Not yet, unless you count a strawberry daiquiri as dinner."
"Then let's get out of here. I'll buy you dinner."
Harriet blinked in surprise, and Matt was sure he'd made a huge mistake and that she most definitely was going to say no. But then she smiled at him again. It wasn't a huge smile like the last one, but a small one. Either way, he decided that Harriet smiling at him was his favorite thing in the world.
"Okay," she said simply.
Harriet chose the restaurant, a little diner that wasn't too far from the studio.
Matt marveled at the amount of food Harriet could eat. She had to be eating twice as much as he was. And god help him, for some strange reason he found that undeniably sexy. Yep, he was a goner.
"You know, there will be food in the world tomorrow. You don't have to eat it all now."
Harriet laughed as she took another bite of her burger. "Shut up! I just love this food is all. This place reminds me of this diner back home that my mom used to take me to every Sunday after church."
Matt pushed his eggs around on his plate. "What was that like?" he asked.
Harriet looked at him curiously. "What, the diner?"
"No, growing up in a religious home." Matt asked, hoping the subject wasn't too personal.
"Your family wasn't religious?"
"No, not really."
"Well, my home wasn't really religious," Harriet began. "Just my mom and me. My dad and my brothers weren't religious at all." She stuffed cheese stick in her mouth, then added as an afterthough, "It seems that pretty much none of the men in my life have been religious."
"You didn't really answer my question," Matt said, amused by how adorable she looked talking and eating at the same time.
"I'm sorry?"
"What was it like, growing up religious like that?"
Harriet paused for a moment, trying to think of a way to describe it. "Comforting."
"Comforting?"
"Yeah. Comforting. Not say that it wasn't kind of hard to have faith at time when things got tough, and they did get very, very tough. But in the end, no matter how mad I was at God or how much I questioned him, I always found my way back, because, for me at leasy, having God in my life was comforting. When it seemed like I had nothing and no one to turn to, I knew that I still had God, and that comforted me."
"Things were rough when you were a kid?" Matt asked carefully.
"Yeah," Harriet said, not sure if she wanted to open up and bear her soul to Matt. But when she looked up into his eyes, so open and caring, she knew she could. "Dad drank a lot. I mean, he wasn't a bad father or anything, and he really did love us. But times got tough, he lost his job, money was tight, and he just couldn't deal. And then mom ... mom got cancer. She died when I was young. And then it was just dad to take care of me, and he tried, but...."
"Yeah," Matt said, understanding even if she couldn't talk about it.
"But I was happy," Harriet explained, smiling. "Even things were bad sometimes, I was happy. As bad as things got, I was loved. By my parents. And by God."
Matt didn't quite understand how someone could feel that way about God, but Harriet was so sincere and honest about it, that even though he didn't understand it, he could accept it. From her, at least.
"So what about you?" Harriet asked. "Any sob stories from your childhood?"
"Only the many wedgies I got during high school," Matt joked, trying to lighten the mood a bit, and his chest hurt a little when Harriet laughed.
"My life has been pretty boring," Matt started. "Dad worked in advertising, mom was a housewife. We lived in the suburbs. I was a geek in high school. My life was pretty much Leave It To Beaver."
"So why'd you go into writing and comedy?" Harriet asked. "I mean, for me it really started to sort of kill the tension in my house. Since things were so normal for you, how'd you find out you were funny?"
"Like I said, I was a geek. And I found out pretty quickly that as long as I was a funny geek, as long as I could make the jocks laugh, they wouldn't beat the hell out of me."
"But your brand of humor seems like it would have been a little too smart for the high school meathead crowd."
"It was, at first. But I learned how to make my humor work for my audience."
"Matt Albie, a crowd pleaser? The man who fought with Wes for three hours because you refused to dumb one of your skits down so that it would appeal to younger viewers? I don't believe it," Harriet said as she finished off her meal.
"Yeah, well, I don't think middle America is going to beat me up. At least not as badly as Steve O'Daniel did."
The waitress came with the check. "Did you enjoy your meal?" She asked.
"The lady must have, because she pretty much inhaled it," Matt answered. Harriet glared at him playfully.
"Do you want a ride home?" Matt asked as they walked out of the diner.
"No, that's okay. I don't live very far from here. I think I'll walk," Harriet said.
"I'll walk with you," Matt offered.
"Okay," Harriet said, smiling shyly.
They walked in a comfortable silence for several blocks until Matt said, "So...."
"So...." Harriet responded, amused.
"So I paid for your dinner...."
"Yeah..."
"So I was just wondering..."
"Wondering what?"
"If this was .... you know ... a date."
"A date?"
"Yeah."
Harriet stopped walking and faced Matt. "This is me," she said, gesturing back toward the apartment building.
"What do you think?" Matt asked.
"About what?" Harriet asked nervously.
"Was this a date?"
"Does it matter."
"Yes, it matters.
"Why?"
"Because I want to know if I can kiss you right now."
Harriet felt a blush crawling up her cheeks. "You can't kiss me."
Matt took a step backward, deflated. "Oh.... because this.... wasn't a date."
"No," Harriet said, smiling playfully. "Because I don't kiss on the first date."
Matt's smile grew as he stepped toward her again. "Why, because you're a good christian girl?" He teased.
"No," Harriet responded. "Because I like to play hard to get." She leaned up quickly and kissed his cheek, and then turned around and headed toward her apartment. When she went inside, she stuck her head back out and said, "Call me tomorrow." Then she closed the door.
Matt couldn't stop smiling as he walked back to the diner to get his car. He wasn't sure if he could wait until tomorrow to call her. He started his car, and looked at the clock. 11:52. He smiled to himself. He'd call her first thing when he got home.
THE END.