It's A Pleasure To Meet You

"De Clercq! Get back to work! Those dogs will still be there once you're finished!" Katjaa felt herself jump in her skin, and her cheeks flushed an embarrassing shade of pink.

"Y-yes ma'am, sorry!" she scrambled to her feet, and hurried back to her desk where a nice, large stack of paperwork awaited her. When Katjaa first started this internship, she hadn't been expecting for there to be so many papers that needed filling out. Sure, she knew she'd have some, but she had mostly been hoping that she'd be able to get some actual hands on experience.

So far, however, she hadn't been doing much of that at all. Every once in a while, she was allowed to assist the veterinarian whenever an animal was brought in.

"Brianna, I'm going out to lunch," the vet called to her secretary as she set about gathering her things and moved to leave the office. This caught Katjaa's attention, and she watched as the more experienced woman left the building.

She let her pale blue eyes linger on the door that her 'boss' had just exited through. She sighed, leaning forward on her desk with her face cupped in her hand. This sucked. With the vet gone, that meant that there was no chance of any hands on experience any time soon. She'd be stuck doing paperwork all day knowing her luck...

...

"I need to see the vet immediately!" A strange, southern accent sounded foreign to the Belgian's ears.

"I-I'm sorry sir, but the vet isn't seeing anyone at the moment, but she'll be-"

The man pressed on anyway. "B-but, it'll die if I don't see the vet right now!"

"I'm sorry, sir, I truly am, but-"

"What seems to be the problem?" Katjaa, who could no longer resist the temptation, quietly stepped into the room, and stood, watching from afar, slowly but surely coming closer to get a better look at what was going on.

"O-oh, it's nothing Miss. De Clercq-"

"Please," Kenny started and, upon laying eyes on her, approached her, showing her the octopus he was carrying in the pail with him. "Can you help me out here? It'll die otherwise!"

Katjaa's eyes widened in surprise. No one had ever brought in an octopus before!

The secretary opened her mouth to interject again, but Katjaa cut her off.

"I'd be more than happy to help you!" She sent him a kind smile. "Please, follow me right this way!"

She didn't dare turn her gaze to meet Brianna's, and instead, lead Kenny into an empty room, taking the octopus from him, and setting up a tank, and filling it with salt water.

She had done enough studying and observing to know just what to do in pretty much any senario dealing with sick animals.

After getting the octopus squared away and dumping the creature (gently, might I add) into the tank, she turned to Kenny. As she looked over to him, she finally took this as an opportunity to take in the man's appearence.

He was soaked from head to toe. He was so soaked in fact, that water from the sea was literally dripping off of his drenched body.

"O-oh, uh, here," Katjaa left the room for a few seconds, only to return with a tower of towels stacked in her arms. Once she set them down, she handed a few to the soaking man.

"These should help you dry off some, I hope."

"Thanks," He smiled gratefully at her, and took the towels, patting them all over his body in an attempt to soak up some of the water.

Katjaa put a few more on the floor, dabbing up the puddle. Almost immediately, the strange man crouched down to help her.

"Oh, you don't have to help, I can do it myself-"

"It's no problem. I don't mind helpin'." He waved her words away.

"Well, thank you," Katjaa murmured quietly with a light smile. "You know... I don't believe I've got your name, Mister..." She trailed off, looking to Kenny, as if waiting for him to fill in the blank.

The Floridan man looked up at her, and flashed a grin. "Name's Kenny Martin. Ya don't need to bother callin' me mister though; Kenny works just fine."

Finally, they manged to mop up the puddle of water on the floor and Katjaa set the towels over to the side to take care of later.

"It's nice to meet you, Kenny," Katjaa smiled, as she grabbed a few papers and clipboard, and began writing a few things down.

"You too, Miss... Uh... 'Dee Click'," Katjaa couldn't stop the light chuckle from escaping her lips as Kenny butchered her last name. She was very used to that by now away, and she dismissed it. "You can just call me Katjaa if you'd like," she offered. "I think it would be much easier for you to pronounce."

Kenny tried to hide his chagrin, and nodded. "Right. Katjaa it is."

The fisherman was handed the clipboard, and Katjaa told him what he needed to fill out. As he did so, she couldn't help but ask him, "So, mind telling me how you managed to acquire an octopus?"

"Oh," Kenny looked up from the paper, and replied, "I uh, I'm a fisherman; I was out on my boat, when I caught the lil guy, and he seemed hurt, an' fer some reason I couldn't just leave 'em out there like that, so..." He trailed off, and Katjaa nodded.

"Oh, I see..."

A small silence grew between the two, and Kenny sat, staring over at the blonde intern (as opposed to filling out the information attached to the clipboard). She was nice enough, and he supposed that he probably could fill this stuff out in no time and be on his way, but... Something inside him, wanted him to stay.

"Are you finished?" Katjaa asked as she caught him staring.

Kenny cleared his throat and tried to keep his cheeks from turning red. "O-oh, uhhh... Almost."

He stared intently down at the paper, and finally managed to fill it out completely. Handing it back to Katjaa, he stood there for a few moments longer. "Need me to do anything else?"

"Hm, no, I think I've got everything from you that I need for now," Katjaa smiled over at him.

Still, Kenny didn't move, and he cleared his throat again. "Y-ya know... With an accent like that, I don't suppose yer from around these parts, are ya?"

Katjaa looked up from the clipboard in her hands, and chuckled a little. "No, I moved here from Belgium with my family a few years back," Katjaa explained. "It's nothing like it is here..." She chuckled a little more.

"I reckon it's a lot colder there than it is here, eh?" Kenny let out a small chuckle of his own. "I don't think a hot-blooded Floridan like myself would be able to take it."

"Oh, it wasn't so bad... But it was definitely a lot colder there than here... It's so hot here..."

"Yeah, ya get used to it, I guess."

"Ha, I doubt I'll ever get used to it..."

Another silence fell between the two, and finally, Kenny started ever-so-slowly backing up towards the door. Katjaa watched him as he started to make his leave-well, until he stopped again.

"S-So... I just gotta know... Is there uh... A Mr. Dr. Katjaa at home?"

The question caught Katjaa off guard, and she could only stare, mouth slightly agap, and a blush flushing across her pale cheeks.

"W-well, no, there isn't. I'm... I'm single."

This seemed to make Kenny's features brighten ever-so-slightly, but it was still evident that he was nervous. But, nevertheless, he decided to just put it all out there.

"S-so uh... In that case, would you maybe like to go out sometime? For dinner maybe?"

Yet another question caught Katjaa off guard.

"Well, um," she met his gaze, and after a moment, a warm smile slowly began to form on her lips. "Sure, I'd really like that, Kenny."

"R-really?" Her response seemed to greatly surprise Kenny, and he caught himself before he could become anymore excited. "I-I mean, uh, that's great!"

Before the Floridan finally left, the two exchanged numbers, and Kenny told the blonde that he would call her sometime soon to set up a time and a date. He struted by Brianna, and flashed her a grin and waved as he made his way out the door. When he finally approached his truck, he did a quick "victory dance" (not giving a care in the world who saw it-well, maybe other than Katjaa), and slipped into his truck before finally pulling out of the parkinglot and driving away.

Back inside the office, Katjaa found herself reading over the digits scribbled down on a piece of stratch paper over and over. Her lips found themselves curving upward in a wide smile. As much as she hated to admit it, the feeling bubbling up inside her made her feel all giddy. She stuffed the paper into her pocket, and glanced over to the octopus in the tank next to her.

"Perhaps things will look up from he-"

"DE CLERCQQQQQQ!"