Melissa McCall started when she heard a knock on her door. It seemed like every time someone knocked, something bad happened. But she sighed and resigned herself to opening it.
She exited the small kitchen and went down the small hallway to the door.
Opening it, she was slightly shocked. She knew most faces in Beacon Hills, seeing as she'd taken care of a lot of them in the hospital. But she'd never seen this face before.
"Hello," the new woman said. "I'm Jennifer Blake."
"Melissa McCall." Melissa said slowly. "I'm not sure we've met."
"No, we haven't. I just moved in across the street." Melissa vaguely remembered seeing moving trucks a few weeks ago. "I've already been in town for three weeks, and I just wanted to say hello."
Melissa felt like a jerk for not having said hello. "Sorry I haven't seen you. My life's been a little hectic."
"Perfectly understandable." Jennifer's smile was brilliant. "I've been running around a lot since I got here. Your town is certainly an interesting place."
"Yeah. You don't know the half of it," Melissa returned the smile. "Would you like to come in for some coffee?"
"Sure, that sounds great."
Melissa beckoned Jennifer into the house, and led her to the kitchen. Jennifer sat on a chair at the table while Melissa started the coffee maker.
"So," Melissa asked, "How do you like it here?"
"Everyone seems so nice. It is a very picturesque town. I already have a job here too. There was an opening at the high school for an English teacher, and I grabbed that as fast as I could." She laughed. "It's a great environment here."
"Oh, you're an English teacher. My son is in high school."
"Scott, right?" Jennifer saw her shocked look, and quickly backtracked. "I'm not stalking your or anything. But you did say your last name was McCall. I have a student named Scott McCall. I just assumed..."
Melissa felt relieved. "No, no, it's fine. I was just surprised." The coffee maker dinged, and Melissa took out the pot and poured two mugs. She handed one to Jennifer, and then sat down with her.
"So what do you do?" Jennifer asked.
"I'm a nurse at Beacon Memorial. I've worked there as long as I've been here."
"It's nice to know that I'll have someone I know when I end up there. I'm a pretty big klutz."
"Well, we've seen all manner of cases there, so I doubt anyone will judge you for ending up there," Melissa said. "One time, a guy came in claiming he'd fallen on his own garden hose. He had a massive bruise all over his stomach and a puncture wound."
Jennifer laughed at that. "Sounds like you don't ever have a dull day."
"No, I really don't." I have a werewolf son and his werewolf friends to deal with, she added mentally. She stood up and grabbed a notepad and a pen. "Here's my phone number," she scribbled down her number. "Call me if you need anything. I know this town pretty well, so I can definitely help." She offered the paper to Jennifer.
Jennifer took the paper and then grabbed the notepad and pen. She wrote her own number and gave it to Melissa. "And here's mine. I don't have intimate knowledge of this town to offer, but I'm not useless."
"Thanks," Melissa said.
Jennifer checked her watch and sighed. "I had better get going. I have papers to grade and a lesson to plan for Monday. Thanks for inviting me in. We should do it again sometime," she stood up and grabbed her coat.
Melissa followed her to the door and exchanged basic goodbyes. As the door closed behind her, Melissa smiled and leaned against the door. She hoped they got together again.
Walking away from the house, Jennifer laughed a bit to herself. She couldn't believe how well that had gone.
They went a few weeks without seeing each other. Melissa was busy with an influx of patients after there was a pile-up between seven motorbikes and three cars when the motorists were on their way to a motorcycle convention. Luckily, no one was seriously injured and everyone went home just fine, if apologetic and slightly annoyed at having missed the convention.
Jennifer managed to stay on her toes with her students. Some of them required extra help, so she was often at school late and up early grading. On weekends, she was occupied with making lesson plans and sleeping.
One Saturday evening, however, Jennifer found herself without much to do, and so she decided to give Melissa a call. She had said they should get together again, and Melissa had seemed receptive to the idea. So, what the hell? It's not like she would be sad if Melissa said no. After all, they had just had coffee together once.
But still, the call gave her a bit of anxiety.
Melissa picked up on the first ring. "Hello?"
"Hi, Melissa. It's Jennifer."
"Jennifer, hey," Melissa sounded pleased.
"I was just wondering if you would like to come over for dinner tonight. If you're not busy, that is. I mean, if you want to," Jennifer cursed herself for fumbling so much.
Melissa laughed a bit. "Yeah, I'd love to. That sounds great. When?"
"Does an hour sound good?"
"I'll be there." Melissa hung up.
Jennifer couldn't contain the smile.
Melissa wanted to look nice. She knew it wasn't a date or anything, but she still wanted to make sure she didn't go looking like a mess, which she did right now. So she showered, got dressed in a pair of slacks, which were a nice pair, but not too much, and a clean shirt. She left her hair down, and tried on three different shades of lipstick before finding a good shade. Oh god, she was totally over thinking this. Shit.
Jennifer realized, too late, that she didn't really have a good dinner in mind. She searched through her cabinets and found a box of mashed potato mix. In the fridge were some vegetables. That wasn't a good dinner.
She grabbed her keys and ran out the door.
15 minutes later, Jennifer returned home with an already-baked chicken. Hopefully Melissa wasn't vegetarian. She quickly got the potatoes cooking and ran upstairs to change into something a bit nicer. She found a pretty skirt and a relatively nice blouse, pulled her hair back, and found a reasonably matching lipstick color.
Not that she cared what she looked like.
When Melissa knocked on the door, Jennifer was ready. She opened the door, smiling like a good host should. "Melissa, hi. Come on in."
Melissa walked in, tentative. "Thanks for inviting me, Jennifer. You have a nice house."
"Thank you. I haven't had a chance to make it look more mine yet, so it's still kind of bare." Jennifer led Melissa to the kitchen. "I kind of ended up scrambling for dinner. To be honest, I didn't plan this out as well as I should have."
Melissa laughed. "Don't worry about it. It smells great."
"It's chicken. I hope you eat meat."
"Yeah, I do. Chicken's great."
Jennifer set up the dinner and plates, and served up the chicken and potatoes.
"Mm, tastes as good as it smells," Melissa commented when she tried it. You're a good cook."
"It's store-bought chicken and box potatoes. You're inflating my ego too much."
"Well, I'm not too stellar of a cook, so we're on the same page there."
Over dinner, they made small talk about Beacon Hills, and the weather, and their lives, and basically anything. Melissa recounted the story of the bikers, which made Jennifer howl with laughter. Jennifer talked about how ridiculous the excuses were for missed homework at school.
Dinner took almost an hour, since they ate at a leisurely pace and enjoyed each other's company. When it was over, Melissa tried to help clean the dishes, but Jennifer would have none of it. "You're a guest. Helping clean up is totally not appropriate," A realization came to her, "Shit. I don't have a dessert."
"Its fine," Melissa waved it off. "Thank you so much for dinner, it was delicious."
Jennifer walked Melissa to the door. "We should do this again sometime," She said.
"Yeah, we should." Melissa smiled. "Thanks again."
What happened next was a wildly inappropriate move, Jennifer knew, and so not justifiable, but on a sudden impulse Jennifer leaned forward and kissed Melissa. Not a cheek kiss, but full on the mouth. It lasted maybe two seconds, but Melissa totally froze.
"I'm sorry," Jennifer apologized instantly, "I shouldn't have done that. I don't know what came over me."
Melissa's mouth worked furiously for a few seconds, her mind coming up totally blank as to what to say. So, instead, she acted. Grabbing Jennifer's face with both hands, she kissed back.
This time, it was Jennifer who was frozen, but she managed to react pretty quickly. She slipped both arms around Melissa's waist and returned the kiss, pushing Melissa up against the closed door.
When they finally broke away, they were both breathing hard.
Melissa was looking anywhere but at Jennifer. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that either."
"No, no, I think you're fine."
That night, at home, Melissa lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. She should be asleep. She had work tomorrow.
But she couldn't get the fact that she had kissed Jennifer Blake out of her head.
Over the next few weeks, they took any time alone they could get. Between their jobs and Melissa taking care of Scott, they often couldn't see each other, but that just made them cherish the time together even more.
One night, they were cuddling on Jennifer's couch, when a though occurred to Melissa, and she voiced it.
"How the hell am I going to explain to Scott that I'm dating his English teacher?"
A/N I'd like to write a second chapter for some better development and telling Scott. Expect that in the next week.