Chapter One: Bad Day
November 6th (two weeks earlier)
Callie could feel a smile tugging at her lips as she sat on the edge of the bed in an on-call room located on the surgical floor of Seattle Grace Hospital. Her eyes slowly made their way down the official document she held her hands before making their way up the figure of her girlfriend, Erica Hahn. "Erica! This is so amazing. I can't believe you didn't tell me that you even applied for this!" She was over the moon excited for her girlfriend of over a year. She had just been selected as the sole physician to receive the prestigious Carter Madison Grant that thousands of other doctors had also applied for. "This is literally such a big deal. You can help so many people who don't have access to a cardiac surgeon of your caliber. So, what does this mean? Do you know what you are going to tell them?"
"I didn't know I had to tell you absolutely everything I did, Callie." Erica was extremely annoyed because she genuinely wanted to celebrate her accomplishment on her own. She was also bothered by the fact that Callie seemed to think there was a choice here, "What do you mean 'what does this mean'? Nobody says no to the Carter Madison Grant."
Callie flinched at the bitterness of her girlfriend's tone and realized that if she had won, she would say no to the grant without question. There was no way she would uproot her life and move anywhere right now. She had a relationship, friends, and was slowly becoming one of the best orthopedic surgeons in the entire northwest—something she was so incredibly proud of. "You know I didn't mean it like that Erica. I am so incredibly excited for you… I just meant, what does that mean for us?"
"It means I'm moving to Africa for two years."
Just what Callie feared. Erica was going to be selfish and decide without even taking the time to think or have a conversation with Callie about all the options first. She would have to do her very best at a compromise to make this work. "Okay, if you want, I can talk to the chief and put in my two weeks' notice? He definitely isn't going to be happy having to fill a position in both cardiothoracic AND orthopedic surgery, but I'm sure he will find wonderful doctors to take our place."
"Callie… I'm going by myself. I don't want you to come with me." The truth is, Erica had applied for the grant just eight months earlier, a few months after meeting Callie, with the hopes that she could get out of Seattle as soon as possible. She had been planning on ending things with Callie for a while, but the sex was good when they happened to have it and she gave her someone to spend time with while she figured out her next move. She never felt like dealing with her intense emotions, though. The brunette also continually refused to come out to her family, which is something that bothered the heart surgeon more than she would like to admit. Besides that, fact, she just knew that Callie was going to end up cheating on her with Mark Sloan, her "best friend" with whom she previously had enough benefits to make a horny teenage boy uncomfortable. The Latina's bisexuality was something that had always bothered Erica to her core, and something she made very loud and clear from the get-go—you can't "kind of" be a lesbian.
"Wait, what?" Callie was so incredibly confused. She and Erica had been doing great lately. Sure, they'd had their rough patches, and she knew the taller blonde had been getting progressively distant the past few weeks, but she thought it was because work had been stressing her out a little extra recently. Even so, Callie couldn't imagine being without her.
"You heard me, Callie. I really don't want you to come to Africa with me."
"Okay, well I've never done the whole long distance relationship thing before, but we can write letters, video chat on Skype, and I can send care packages until you get back. Two years isn't that long, right?"
"No, Callie. You aren't understanding me." Callie could be so stubborn sometimes and didn't take a hint very easily. Erica knew she was just going to have to rip the Band-Aid off so that she could finish this conversation sooner rather than later and go check on her patients. "I don't want to be with you anymore. Not in Africa, not in Seattle, not anywhere. I'm going by myself because this is it for us. This is me breaking up with you…I don't know how to be any clearer than that. There's no gray area here."
"Wait, What?" She was extremely confused because there had been no indication that Erica would end things. "Where is this even coming from? How does this fix anything?" Callie felt like her entire world was spinning off its axis.
"This should've happened a long time ago, Callie. I never should've gotten involved with someone from work. It's messy and unprofessional." Erica remained impassive the entire time she spoke to make sure the brunette knew she wasn't playing games this time. She smirked and decided to take the opportunity to land a low blow while she had it. "You should be happy anyway. This gives you the opportunity to fuck around with your on-call room manwhore as much as you want. You know, since you still can't decide whether you're a lesbian or not."
Tears rimmed chocolate brown eyes as Callie swallowed past the lump in her throat and struggled to meet the eyes of the woman standing right in front of her. Before she could say anything more, the door opened. There stood Mark Sloan, Callie's best friend, and the most recent topic of conversation.
"Oh, shit. Sorry, Torres! I didn't mean to interrupt, I was just coming to take a quick nap and I—wait, are you crying? What's wrong?" Mark frowned at the sight of his best friend looking completely broken on the edge of the bed. He immediately sat down and pulled her into his embrace as he stared up at a pair of rolling ice cold blue eyes. "What the hell did you do to her?"
Erica rolled her eyes again. She didn't have time to put up with this. She had post-ops to check up on and a brand-new life to plan. "That's none of your business, Sloan."
"If you hurt her I swear I will— "
"Do what?" Erica challenged Mark. "You and I both know you aren't going to do anything to me. She's your problem now."
"Callie isn't a problem. She has never been and she never will be. If you can't see that, then that's your problem." Mark hated the woman standing in front of him. His friend used to be a fiery Latina with so much confidence. A complete and total badass. She always shined wherever she was, no matter what she was doing. Ever since she had met Erica, however, that had changed. She diluted her personality to make Erica happy, and he hated himself for standing by and just watching it happen. At his words, the resentful blonde merely smirked and moved toward the door—slamming it shut behind her.
When the door slammed, Mark felt Callie shudder before breaking down in his arms. He held her close and until she let it all out. "Why don't I get you home, Cal?"
•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•
Callie didn't know that was going to be the last time she ever saw the blonde until Mark took her back home to the townhouse she had shared with Erica for much of the past eight months—everything was gone. She had taken all the furniture she had purchased for their home as well as all her clothes and belongings. All that was left in the shell of a home were pictures of them together, Callie's kitchen appliances and personal belongings.
"Do you want to stay with me tonight? I really don't mind." Mark really didn't want to leave her alone.
"No, I'm fine Mark. I honestly just want to be alone right now." Callie was planning on drinking an entire bottle of wine and trying to forget the God-awful day she was having. "Please tell the Chief I'm going to take my sick days now. I don't care how many I have, I want all of them."
"You got it, Torres. Call if you need me, okay? No matter the time I will be here in five minutes." Mark had never seen Callie like this, not even after her divorce when that dumbass O'Malley cheated on her.
Callie gave him a small smile. "Thanks, Mark." She turned to go thei— her bedroom after grabbing a bottle of wine and a corkscrew from her wine rack. She didn't even know if Mark had left yet or not, but she didn't care. She flinched after seeing the bedroom just as empty as it was when she first got home and continued walking through to the bathroom. She opened the bottle of wine and took a drink straight from the bottle before she placed it on the ground, turned the shower on, and began taking off her clothes. She got in the shower and immediately sat on the floor, resting her head on the cool glass door. It was there that she watched the water dance across the glass, crying until the tears would no longer flow. When they finally stopped, all she could think about was what the hell she was going to do.
•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•
November 20th (present day)
The loud cadence of a drum echoed through the quiet, barren townhouse and tore Callie Torres out of her thoughts. She registered that the sound was coming from her cell phone across the room. She rolled her eyes as she immediately recognized the chorus of Queen's "Best Friend" currently filling the silence in the room and let out a small smile. She remembered the day Mark had set it as the ringtone for his contact. He had accompanied it with a ridiculous selfie, just for annoying the shit out of Callie every time he called her phone. She sat through two rounds of the chorus before the call automatically went to voicemail, joining the multitude of other calls and texts she has ignored the past two weeks, none of which were from Erica.
Had it only been two weeks?
To Callie, it felt like a lifetime since Erica had left her. She and the cardiothoracic surgeon had a bumpy relationship, and Erica tended to fight with the brunette a lot, but for the most part, she had thought they were good together. She knew Mark and her other friends from the hospital were only trying to help, but Callie couldn't face anybody right now. What on earth was she going to do? There was no way in hell she could stay in this house. That was just about the only thing she knew for sure. It was like the forgotten corpse of her deceased relationship, and she wanted to bury it.
Yikes.
Callie met her reflection in the mirror only to see a mere shell of her former self. She saw no confidence, no playfulness, and no fight. She looked like complete and utter shit. Her long raven locks were piled up in a messy bun that had gone untouched for three days, she had black circles under her eyes that felt heavy from lack of sleep, and to top it all off, she thought her face might be permanently red and swollen from all the crying she had been doing. Callie heard a few soft thumps from the living room but thought she was imagining things, so she continued to examine her appearance in the mirror.
"HEY TORRES!"
The soft thumps quickly turned into thundering knocks and Callie realized someone was at the door.
"Let me in, it's fucking cold out here."
Callie rolled her eyes at her friend, Cristina Yang's, sympathy. She knew the woman had heard about Erica vanishing into thin air because she had desperately clung to the talented attending's bright and shiny cardiac cape since she had come to the hospital a few years prior. It was just like Cristina to ignore all the emotions that encompass a situation. "What are you doing here, Yang?"
"Sloan paid me to take the rest of the day off and come check on you since you're ignoring everyone." Cristina squeezed past Callie and made her way to the fridge to look around. She came back with an opened beer. "What are you doing hanging out in your PJ's anyway? Don't you have a job?"
"I'm off until next week."
"Fair enough." Cristina finally looked around the spacious townhouse and realized that it was empty. "Damn, Torres. So, it is true? You guys broke up? She flew away to Africa? I can't believe she just took everything." She may not admit it out loud, but she could tell that Callie was broken and as empty on the inside as the house. It was written all over her face.
"Yeah, it's all true..." Callie looked down at her feet. She hated talking about everything still, but she honestly was glad Cristina came over.
"So… you're just going to live in a house without furniture?" she was trying to lighten the mood and knew that Callie couldn't live like this much longer.
"No, I'm just going to sell this place. It isn't my home anymore, and I know I can't stay in it." The townhouse had been in the Torres family for years, and it had been in Callie's possession before she met Erica. After the blonde had seen it, she wanted to move in because of how beautiful the house was. It became their house. Callie felt judgmental eyes on her immediately. "I just need a radical change, okay?"
"That's kind of a bad drastic change, though. Hasn't this townhouse been under Torres rule for like ten years?" Cristina thought it was a little crazy to just sell such a nice house when she may decide she wants it later. "Why don't you just do what every other woman does after a breakup and cut all your hair off?"
Callie's eyes lit up. "OH, MY GOD YES! I'm going to get a haircut today. That would be the perfect way to make a radical change." Why didn't she think of this sooner? It's such a simple solution that could make her feel so much better. The reason quickly began creeping in nearly as fast as the excitement had. "Well, maybe I shouldn't do radical things right after a blonde woman has ripped my heart out of my chest and stomped on it, but—OH MY GOD!" She was too busy rambling to notice that Cristina had found a pair of scissors and took it upon herself to hack off a long strand of her hair. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING? ARE YOU INSANE?"
Cristina just shrugged her shoulders and laughed. "You seemed like you needed a push, and this is your opportunity to seize the situation and make lemonade!"
That's it. Cristina officially has lost it. Callie had no clue what had gotten into Cristina, but she had the first twinge of excitement that she has had since Erica left two weeks ago. "Fuck it, keep cutting."
Cristina paused a moment before she let out a burst of laughter. "What is so funny, Yang?"
"It's just… I operate on people nearly every day. So, when you said that, I had a mild internal freak out before I realized that you were talking about your hair. I generally don't have people tell me to keep cutting on them." She couldn't contain it and busted into another fit of laughter. It even caused Callie to let out a little giggle before it all dissipated into a comfortable silence.
Cristina continued to cut Callie's hair. "Are you almost finished?" Callie was getting impatient and wanted to see her new hairdo.
"Yup, go ahead and look." Cristina handed Callie a mirror.
Callie lifted the handheld mirror and saw what used to be her long, beautiful hair at four or five different, chopped lengths. "No. No. No. This is not what I wanted at all! Cristina, I look injured." The other woman had disappeared back into the refrigerator for another beer and was ignoring Callie. "LOOK AT MY HAIR." All she heard was Cristina cackling from the kitchen. "Do you even cut hair?"
"Yeahhhh, I sort of can't believe you let me do that."
"CRISTINA!"
"OKAY, damn. We'll go to the mall and get it fixed." The taller woman could really kick Cristina's ass if she wanted to.
"Thank God. I'm going to go take a shower before we head out, I feel gross." Callie started walking towards her bedroom to take a shower.
"Um…Torres?" Cristina smirked when Callie turned to look at her in the doorway. "You might want to wear a hat."
Callie glared at Cristina and flipped her off before spinning around and heading towards the bedroom again. While the water was heating up, she searched through the piles of her clothes that had been left on the floor after Erica fled Seattle with all the furniture. After a few minutes of exploring through the piles of clothes, she really needed to go through all her shit and downsize a little, she finally found what she was looking for—her most comfortable pair of skinny jeans, black leather jacket, a deep red V-neck, and an old charcoal gray slouch beanie.
"Torres, hurry up! I've got places to be."
Callie was going to be so proud of herself if she didn't kill Cristina Yang today. Just think of the poor, sickly heart patients Callie. Rise above.
•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•
"Oh, my god. I just had the most brilliant idea!" Cristina's eyes almost bulged out of her head as she set her sights on Norman's, a furniture store located on the first floor of downtown Seattle's most popular mall. "I can rent the townhouse from you!" This is so perfect. She would have an entire house to herself, finally escape Meredith's awful frat house, and get some alone time with Owen outside of his trailer. She didn't know why she hadn't thought of this sooner. Cristina loved her best friend and person, Meredith Grey, but she took all the hospital surgical strays and brought them back to her gigantic house. She loved her boyfriend, Owen Hunt, too, but his trailer in the woods? Not so much. This was her opportunity. "That way, if you ever happen to change your mind and decide you do want the house, you won't have to jump through a thousand hoops to get it."
Callie mulled over the thought of Cristina renting the townhouse. Her parents and trust fund had enough money for her to live comfortably for the rest of her life, even if she didn't have a job, but the Latina didn't like people knowing about her financial situation and bringing in a little extra cash just in case never hurt anyone. This would grant her the opportunity to start with a clean slate as quickly as possible. "I think that's a great idea, Cristina."
The furniture store was huge. It easily took up the space of an entire department store, and it was taking them forever to shop the entire thing. Callie was getting irritated because she just wanted to hurry up and go to a salon. Looking at all the furniture was a sad reminder that she was basically starting her life over. She needed a place to live, furniture to put in that place, and to move on from the blonde surgeon that had yet to leave both her heart and mind. Callie was ripped out of her thoughts by Cristina's bizarre way of furniture shopping.
Callie watched as Cristina tapped a man in a Norman's Furniture shirt on the shoulder. "Can I help you find anything ma'am?" the man said when he turned around.
"I will take that and that." She pointed at the two staged rooms in front of her.
"The couch and the bed?" the man looked incredibly confused.
"No, those two rooms. All of it. How much?"
Callie was sure his eyes were going to pop out of his head. "Um. I'll have to go check with my boss. I'll be right back."
Seeing her reflection in a full-length mirror that was set up in the new bedroom suit Cristina was apparently buying, Callie visibly jumped. "I thought we were going to a hair salon."
"Next. We are doing me now." Cristina was focused on how she was going to get all this furniture back to the townhouse as soon as possible. "I need to get all this stuff back to the townhouse today so that I don't have to worry about it on a day I actually have to work."
"I have an idea!" Callie got excited. "We should throw you a housewarming party!" this would be the perfect solution to getting her mind off her ex. She loved planning parties ever since she was in high school and helped her mother, Lucia Torres, plan her elegant A-list functions.
Cristina knew as soon as she saw the brunette's face light up, there was no way she could say no. She could tell Callie needed this distraction. "Ooh, a housewarming party. That's a good idea. I'll text everybody and tell them to be there at eight tonight."
The salesperson returned to where the two women were standing carrying a list of everything she had wanted to buy and the prices that went with them. "Okay ma'am, if you want these two rooms they will be a little under $20,000."
"Great. Do you do same day delivery?" Cristina was hoping they would so she didn't have to do any heavy lifting.
"Yes ma'am, but it is also kind of expensive."
"That's fine. Here's my card, take care of it for me please." Cristina waited until the man returned with her card to give him the address and a spare key to the house so that everything would be waiting for them when they got back. "It was nice doing business with you!"
"I think you made that man's entire year, Yang." Callie was thinking about it as they made their way out of Norman's, and began ascending the escalator. He probably just made killer commission on that.
"I just needed to fill the empty space, and those rooms were nice enough." Cristina shrugged. She didn't think it was a very big deal. "Oh, my god. Frozen yogurt! I'm so getting some of that. Do you want any?"
"Ugh no. I haven't had much of an appetite all week." Callie's stomach churned at the thought of eating a sweet treat after not eating much of anything the past few weeks. She knew she had to get it together, she had lost about eight pounds in two weeks, which she knew wasn't safe.
"I just needed something to focus on while I have to suffer through you getting your haircut."
Callie shook her head at Cristina as they made their way to a mall directory to find a salon. She ran her eyes up and down the columns until she found a section entitled, Beauty, Salons, & Health. There were about five salons to choose from, but the name of one salon caught her eye. It was written in pink and had NEW! written inside a thought bubble by the name. "Alright, I found one, let's go."
"Torres. You have got to be kidding me." Cristina couldn't believe Callie had picked a salon with a bright pink, marquee style sign that said Tease: Salon & Spa. "Who names their salon Tease?"
"Be nice, Cristina." If Callie was being honest, she was wondering the same thing. She had no ideas why, but she was extremely intrigued.
As the women walked toward the salon they noticed that most of the walls were left as dark, exposed brick and had accents of wood underneath it. It did not match the sign outside, but somehow it worked. When they walked underneath the door opening, they heard a faint chime go off and saw a petite brunette woman walking towards them. They stepped forward to a large front desk made from a beautiful dark barn wood and accented with stonework across the base and across the countertop. The name of the salon was written again on the front of the desk, but in a metallic silver color, featuring small golden butterflies cut out of metal to look like they were flying. It was simple, yet beautiful.
The woman, now settled behind the desk gave them a warm smile. "Hi, welcome to Tease. My name is Lexie. How may I help you today?"
"Is this what mall people do all day? Just mosey around, shop, and eat? Do they not have jobs?" Cristina was fascinated. She had been so busy the entire time they had been at the mall that she hadn't even noticed the people around them. "Look at that woman! All she's going to do is eat that pretzel."
Lexie looked at the woman with a confused expression. "Excuse me?"
"Please ignore her." Callie didn't know what Cristina was talking about. "Hi, I'm Callie Torres. I was wondering if you would have time to work me in for a haircut today… well, now actually. If possible."
"I'm sorry, miss. Our salon is by appointment only."
Callie looked up at the woman desperately. "Please. It's an emergency. You see, my friend over there, currently obsessed over the lady with her pretzel, thought it would be a great idea to butcher my hair today."
Lexie could tell this woman looked very tired. "I'll tell you what. Let me go to the back and ask my boss for you. I can't promise you anything, though."
"Thank you so much! That's fine." Callie thanked the woman as she began to walk away before she turned around, leaning her back against the front of the massive desk and looking outward into the mall. She noticed Cristina had found a chair in the front of the salon to sit and people watch as she ate her frozen yogurt. Callie chuckled to herself as she waited for the verdict on her hair.
•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•
Arizona Robbins had finally finished pulling products from the shelves in the storage room of her salon. She began making her way past all the spa rooms towards the front of her shop when she was stopped dead in her tracks at the doorway between the back of the shop and the lobby that held the salon area and the manicure/pedicure stations. The blonde immediately backtracked and leaned against the wall, nearly dropping the box as her hands had become sweaty suddenly. She put the box down before peeking around the corner to see a smile that nearly made her weak at the knees. The mystery woman in front of her colleague and longtime friend, Lexie Grey, was easily the most beautiful woman Arizona had ever seen. Her caramel colored skin was almost entirely hidden underneath a pair of frayed skinny jeans that looked painted on curvy hips. She was also wearing a garnet V-neck top covered by a well-worn leather jacket. Arizona could tell why she was here, as she wore a distressed slouchy beanie that wasn't big enough to hide a few unequal pieces of raven colored hair. Thank God for shitty haircuts. She couldn't rip her eyes away from the Latina, and didn't realize that Lexie had left the front desk until the woman turned to face out towards the rest of the mall and Arizona was met face to face with an amused looking Lexie.
"Whatcha doin' boss?"
Arizona's eyes went wide. Shit. "Um. Nothing. I was just getting a few products from the back to stock the front shelves and I got sidetracked."
"I can see that." Lexie had watched as the blonde never took her eyes off the pretty woman up front until she was literally a foot from her. It had been a few years since Arizona had shown interest in anyone, so she was enjoying making her squirm a bit. "I have a question that might peak your interest in that case."
"I'll do it."
Lexie started laughing. "You don't even know what I'm going to ask!"
"She needs a haircut. I can see her mismatched ends from back here Lex."
"Humor me. I came back here to ask if you would be willing to accept a walk-in today. I know it's against policy, and we don't have any other stylists in this afternoon, but this is a hair emergency so I thought we could call one of them in."
"Yes, I will accept a walk in, but no need to call anybody because I'll be doing it myself." Arizona knew there was no way she was going to let anyone else get their hands on the brunette. "Give me five minutes to get my shit together and I'll be happy to fix her hair for her."
"You don't even cut hair anymore." Lexie playfully bantered with Arizona. She could tell the blonde woman was dying to meet the brunette that had her acting like a middle school girl in front of her first crush.
"I'm damn well going to cut hair today."
"Okay boss, I'll go shampoo and condition her hair for you so you can get your chin off the ground and wipe the drool from it."
"Thanks, Lexie. Do me a favor and try to do a little recon. Find out whatever you can." Arizona found herself wanting to know everything she could find out about the woman. "I owe you one!" Arizona watched Lexie walk toward the front of the shop before she leaned back against the wall and took a deep breath. Get it together, Robbins.
•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•
Callie had been humming along to the music playing over the speakers when she heard a now familiar, chirpy voice behind her. "You're in for a treat, Mrs. Torres! My boss doesn't normally allow walk-ins, but she made an exception today since we are a little slow this afternoon."
Callie hadn't heard anyone call her "Mrs." in years. "It's Ms. Torres, actually."
Score. "Okay, Ms. Torres, right this way. I'm going to get you washed and conditioned while Arizona gets finished up in the back."
Callie sat down in the reclining salon chair and removed her beanie before leaning back. "Arizona?" That was an interesting name.
"My boss that I was telling you about—her name is Arizona."
"Oh! Okay, I'm sorry. I just thought you had a really interesting nickname for one of your co-workers." She was just as intrigued with the name of this woman as she was with the name of the salon itself.
"That wouldn't be the first time someone has asked about her name. The funny thing is, she is just as interesting as her name." Lexie knew that Arizona wanted Lexie to find out more about the woman, so she really needed to get the conversation flipped back around. She decided to make it about the task at hand first. "Let me know if this water gets too hot, Callie." She began slowly lathering coconut scented shampoo into the brunette's dark tresses before completely rinsing the soap from her hair.
"It feels wonderful to me. I can't remember the last time I got a haircut, my ex preferred my hair long so even though I had always wanted to, I never really put much thought into actually getting it cut." Callie frowned, she had forgotten about that. There were a lot of things that she did for Erica.
Damn, I deserve a raise. Now to find out how gay she is on a scale of one to gay. "Aw, I'm sorry to hear that. It sounds like he was a real tool." Lexie knew this was a 50/50 shot to get some information without asking Callie if she dated women. She began deep conditioning her hair so that it would be extra soft after Arizona dried it for her.
"She was, kind of." Callie chose to be casual about the change in pronoun, just in case the woman wasn't exactly down with the rainbow. Thinking to herself, she had never actually admitted it out loud, but her ex-girlfriend had always been selfish and very controlling most of the time. She couldn't remember the last time she had even done something for herself.
Salon gossip prevails, once again. Lexie chose not to make a big deal out of the pronoun change, as she wasn't sure if it was something Callie was comfortable with discussing. She squeezed some of the extra water from the woman's hair and wrapped it up in a towel she had just taken out of the warmer. "Alright. I'm all done here. I'm going to move you over to get comfortable in station number three. The best stylist we have to offer will be with you in just a moment."
"Thank you." Callie admired the workspace in front of her while she waited. Her eyes focused on a few very beautiful and detailed golden butterflies. She recognized them, as they very closely matched the metal butterflies she saw on the desk up front, except these were drawn on paper. There also were a few pictures of the same blonde, dimpled man scattered around the space. He looked to be in his mid-twenties, and in most of the photos, he was making an array of silly faces. One, however, he had a very serious expression in a military uniform. Callie noticed that he had very calming eyes and a big smile, she found it impossible to keep herself from smiling back. Callie's text tone went off, and she saw that Mark was asking if she was okay. She decided to respond to him later and begin the Google search for a decent apartment to move into.
•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•o•
Arizona was silently chastising herself for her choice in wardrobe on this particular day. Normally, for business, they wore a flattering collared shirt made from a scrub material that wrapped around the waist very similarly to a robe, with black dress pants and heels. She hadn't planned on working out front today because she had a lot of inventory to manage, so instead, she was wearing a navy blue V-necked shirt with three quarter length sleeves that she had tucked into a pair of high-waisted skinny jeans. She had opted for the heels today though, so that was a plus. She could do this. Come on, Robbins. You've got women lining up for you! You're hot. Arizona glided across the room confidently, towards the woman waiting in her favorite salon station.
Callie had made it through a few web pages of apartment options on her phone when she felt someone walk up behind her and gently remove the warm towel from around her damp hair.
"Hey." Arizona spoke softly so she didn't startle the woman.
The calm and melodious voice filled the air, causing Callie to flash her gaze upward and meet a pair of shimmering ocean blue eyes. Callie was sure her heart had just skipped a beat. Holy Shit.