2. First Messages or It's Not a Date, It's Just Lunch

A series of short stories documenting the relationship of Bree and Jim. Foundation pieces for a larger novel Bree messages Jim for the first time.

2. First Messages or It's Not a Date, It's Just Lunch

It was a nice apartment. Not like that great one she and Marissa had shared in Great Falls, there was nothing like that here in Tucson. Here its all brick buildings and cacti. She didn’t mind though, unlike the apartment they had shared, this complex had a pool and a hot tub, and a gym. They had gotten lucky finding a nice complex with units that seemed to have room to spare.  It didn’t have the personality of that building built in the early 1900s, but at least you could actually plug in all your things without worrying about sending the heat (or air conditioning) out. 

The girls had busied themselves the first week they were in town. Moving everything in from the truck took no time thanks to Mar’s brothers. And her mom had made enough tamales, salsa, chili and enchiladas to feed them for a month. Or so it had seemed at the time. There were still a few boxes sitting around waiting to be unpacked, but there wasn’t much of a rush.

She had gotten home and dumped the bag of books on the counter and put away the few things she’d pick up at the grocery store on the way home. While putting the pack of Dr Peppers in the fridge, she noticed Mar had made a new jug of Sweet Tea and marvel at how that girl amazed her sometimes.

Picking one of the last already cold cans off the shelf, she talked a running line of conversation with Marissa. Walking into her room, she dumped the contents of her pockets on her dresser before shimmying out of her shorts and into a comfy pair of yoga pants and walking out to her chair to grab her controller and joining her best friend. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*Dork, are you still at the University? Did you get our crappy books yet? Kind of boring playing Mario Brothers alone.* 12:45

*I got our books, and I’m having lunch. Be home soon, be prepared to be owned when I get there. -B* 12:47

The interaction between the two natural as breathing that afternoon as she sat having lunch with a guy she’d just met. She had messaged Mar after shoving his card into her pocket to see if they needed anything and heading home. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So who was he? Was he cute? Did you get his number? Does he have a friend?” Mar hadn’t even looked at her. How the heck did she know? Never mind, this is Marissa, how does she know everything?  She claims she got it from her grandmother, I think she just assumes that i’m always looking for a guy, even though I think I’ve gone on maybe 6 dates the entire time we’ve been friends. 

She’s the romantic, always hunting and hoping the next guy will sweep her off her feet, even if she never gives them more than half a chance. I think she’s looking for a man like her dad. He brings her mom roses, sings to her, cooks her dinner and generally treats her and his girls like queens. I can’t blame her for wanting that. 

“Mar. Really? I just had lunch. How could you even tell.” Bree looked at the girl with amazement. 

“Duh Bree, your beautiful and you were on a college campus… of course some guy was gonna hit on you. The rest was because, well, your fun to harass.” A huge smile plastered on the taller girl’s face that turned into laughter as she turned to her best friend. 

Both women were giggling like school girls as they shared another of the things they love to tease each other about. They filled their afternoon with video games and Marissa cooked some dinner and they watched a few episodes of one of their favorite shows until they realized they needed to get some sleep to be ready for their refresher class in the morning. 

Bidding each other goodnight after taking turns in the shower and brushing their teeth, Bree walked into her room, and turning to adjust the door so the light her friend instead on keeping on in the kitchen didn’t leak into her room too much, had her eye caught by a business card tangled in the things she had dumped there earlier.

Picking the card out of the pile and taking the few steps to her bed before sitting down and looking at the card. The number he had written in felt tip ink with tidy handwriting  on the white back of the card, she flipped it over to see the logo for a city police force along with his name, rank, office number and an email address. Serious seeming, probably the ones he gives everyone. 

Reaching over past her charging cell phone, plugged in on her night table by habit, he ringer on in case someone called, like her mom or brothers, but otherwise unneeded because she was with the only other person she texts on a regular basis, to her laptop and pulling into her lap as she settled onto her bed. Opening the top and waiting for it to boot up, she looked at the handwriting some more and considered Jim’s face again. Once she pulled up the browser, she clicked into the search bar and looked up some of the information on the card. 

She couldn’t find anything bad about him, and she figured that was a good thing. She looked up some more information about the town he worked for. Cheney was a little town, only ten thousand people, give or take, and was just a few miles outside of Spokane. It wasn’t too far from where she’d lived the last 5 years. She’d been to Spokane a few times for different concerts and conventions, and thought it a nice place. 

Looking over at the clock, it was only 10. She wondered if it was too late or if she should wait until tomorrow. Admonishing herself, but not being able to really stop her hand from moving on it own. “Traitor, just like my mouth this afternoon,” she chided her hand as it lifted her phone from its base. Unlocking the screen and pulling up a new text message, she put in the number and typed her message.

*Hope it isn’t too late tonight. Thought I’d thank you for lunch today. -M* 

Snapping her laptop closed and putting it back into its place, Bree curled into bed, grabbing the charging cord and setting the alarm before turning off the light and scrolling through Facebook until she was ready for sleep. *Bing*

*Never to late. Your welcome for lunch. Would you be able to do it again tomorrow? -S* 10:25

Lunch again? Wow. She’d be at the University hospital tomorrow with the first half of training, though she wasn’t sure Mar would appreciate being ditched.

*Lunch again would be nice. @the hospital by the university tomorrow. Though not sure partner would appreciate being ditched. -M* 10:28

*We can eat off campus then, not the Union. Bring Luigi along, the more the merrier. -S* 10:30

Bree scoffed to herself, Mar would just love that. She’d have him knowing my whole story before they even sat down. Though it wouldn’t be a real date if she came along, and we won’t have a lot of time because of the class. Bree laid there for a minute trying to decide when she heard Mar yell out to her, “Do it already, say yes. I’ve got to see this guy, especially if you’re texting him on the first day.”

Rolling her eyes at Marissa, Bree started typing her response. Before having a chance to ask how she knew Mar is shouting out to her again, “Its your unassigned tone and 10:30 at night. I’m practically the only person you ever text with, so it kind of narrows things down.” She could hear Mar shaking her head at her and then wondered why she didn’t even realize it. 

*Lunch sounds good. Mar says she’d love to come. You can bring your girl too. -M* 10:35

*There’s McDonald’s on Speedway thats close. Drop a text when you girls know what time lunch is. -S* 10:36

McDonalds never sounded so delicious. While not usually a fan of fast food, she knew that tomorrow’s lunch would likely be that, since hospitals aren’t exactly known for their cafeteria food. Since they were talking, why not talk to him like a normal person. She didn’t want to be u all night,  but this she had to ask. 

*Sounds good, and will do. Quick question though, whats the ’S’? I know your last name, but seems odd you’d sign off on a text like that. -M* 10:38

*Look forward to it :).  Oh that, it’s silly but its a holdover from academy. Everyone called me Schmitty. Kind of stuck a bit. -S* 10:40

Bree smiled to herself again. A nickname. What a dork. Maybe they could become friends. Guys usually only get nicknames when they aren’t too awful, or at least they don’t get awful nicknames if they aren’t awful. Hopefully her brothers’ experiences with nicknames were usual in that sense, or her understanding of guys was really off. 

*That makes more sense than what I thought. It’s almost 11, I have an early start tomorrow morning. I’ll let you know when lunch is ASAP tomorrow. Night, and see you then. -M” 10:45

Putting the phone on her night stand, she pulled her blanket up around her shoulders and snuggled deeper into the bed, ready for sleep and feeling just a little excited for tomorrow. Just as Mar’s voice came through to her again, “We’re going in your Jeep tomorrow. Its cleaner and you know the way.” Comforted knowing things were normal, she dozed off into the night, not noticing the last message to ring through on her phone from the same number she’d texting.

*Night. Sleep well -J*

Author's Note

not edited, just written and put up. Any editing, voice or tone issues, let me know.