Laura rode the subway two stops from Grand Central to get to Rockefeller Center.
She exited the subway up the stairs, emerging into the sunlight and the crowd of people.
She walked a block passed Rockefeller Center and took a left, crossing the street to get to the FOX building.
Once she was standing in front of the entrance, she stopped and took a deep breath, calming her nerves before entering the building.
She made her way over to the reception desk.
"Hi, I'm Laura Marano. I'm a new sports journalist." she told the receptionist.
"Oh yes! One moment please, I'll let them know you're here. Please have a seat." the receptionist replied kindly.
Laura gave her a smile, then went to sit in the lounge area.
She pulled out her phone and checked stats while she waited.
"Laura?" a voice said a few minutes later.
She looked up to see a tall, good looking, red headed man, who couldn't have been much older than herself.
"Yes?" she replied.
"Hi, I'm Calum Worthy! I'm the supervisor for FOX sports online." he said, smiling warmly.
"Nice to meet you, Calum." Laura said, standing up and shaking his hand.
"Well we're really excited for you to be joining us!" he told her.
"I'm excited to be working here! This is literally like my dream job." she told him.
"Awesome! Yeah, working in sports is pretty much the best job ever. I mean, you can't work in sports and not have fun!" he said.
"Exactly!" she said. She had never met a person who shared her same passion about sports, other than her dad.
"Well, let's take a tour! I'll show you around and introduce you to everyone." Calum said, leading her towards the elevators.
"So we are on the main level currently, the first floor is news, the second floor is weather, and the third floor is sports." Calum said as they stepped into the elevator, pressing the number three.
When they exited the elevator on the third floor, Laura looked around at all the things she saw.
It was a very large room, the center of which was lined with rows of desks and cubicles, private offices lined the outer side of the room.
"So this is the sports floor. All of our journalists have desks; but as you can see, hardly any of them are here since you don't really need to be here just to write your stories. But there's always a desk here for you if you ever wanna come in." Calum said, pointing it all the empty desks.
"Is it weird rarely seeing your coworkers?" Laura asked him.
"Oh no, we see each other plenty. See, with the other departments, they see each other here every day, but in sports, you see your entire department at various other locations aka sporting events; which is way more fun. We all see each other at games which is very often, and leading up to games when we all do interviews and press conferences. And then we all travel to the big games and championships, which is always a blast." Calum explained excitedly.
"Sounds amazing!" Laura said.
"It really is!" Calum replied.
"Oh and here's your desk." he said, gesturing to a desk at the end of one of the rows.
"I'll let you get situated. My office is right here if you need anything!" Calum said, pointing to the office closest to where her desk was, shooting her a smile, then going off to see what other work needed to be done.
Laura sat down at her desk and smiled.
"Yes, I think this is going to be a very good fit." Laura thought to herself.
Laura spent the morning just going around meeting her coworkers and exploring the office.
She left the office around 2; there was nothing she needed to get done yet, so she decided to just hang out in the city for a while.
It was a beautiful fall day outside, she decided to walk over to Bryant Park, which was right by the library.
She entered the park and walked for a bit, just enjoying her surroundings.
After a while, she spotted a mop of familiar blonde hair.
He was sitting at a table next to the open lawn, his head and back hunched over what she assumed was his sketchbook.
She walked over to him, standing on his left side, tapping on his right shoulder.
He looked behind his right shoulder then twisted his head around to see her.
"Hey stranger." she said smiling, sitting in the seat opposite him.
"Hey." he replied breathlessly, a wide grin on his face.
"So whatcha' workin' on?" she asked, craning her neck to try to see what he was doodling in his sketchbook.
"Oh... Well... Nothing really." he said shyly. "I like to come to the park and sketch things I see. It's relaxing for me."
"Cool! Can I see some?" she said.
"They're not very good..." he said.
"They're probably better then anything I could draw." she told him.
"Ok, but just know I'm not a professional by any means. These are purely for pleasure." he said, she nodded.
He flipped open his sketch book to the page he had been on, showing her the picture.
"Ross..." she said breathlessly. "This is incredible."
He had drawn a family of a mother, a father and two small children, who were sitting just 10 feet away from where they were, having a picnic on the lawn.
"It's not much." he said.
"No, it's amazing. Really." she told him.
"Thanks." he said, giving her a shy smile; a bashful look on his face.
"So how did your first day at your new job go?" he asked her.
"Oh it went great! I'm really excited to be working there; I think it's gonna be a lot of fun. By the way, how did your audition go?" she asked him.
"I think it went well. I mean there are obviously a few things I would change if I could, but hey, we'll see what happens." he said.
They sat in a comfortable silence for a few moments.
"Hey, do you wanna get something to eat?" Ross asked her, speaking up.
"Yeah, that'd be nice." Laura said, as they both stood up.
"Great. I know this amazing bakery just across from the library." he told her as they began walking.
They enjoyed light conversation as Ross lead her towards the bakery.
"Here we are." he said as they came up to a bakery called "Maison Kayser".
"After you, m'lady." Ross said, holding the door open for her.
Her noise was filled with the sweet aroma of pastries when she entered the little shop.
Her eyes wandered across the beautifully decorated sweets behind the glass counter.
"I can't decide what to get, there's just so many choices. Any recommendations?" Laura asked him.
He simply grinned at her widely.
"Two pain au chocolats, please." Ross said politely to the girl working behind the counter.
The employee handed Ross the bag with the pastries in them; Ross then payed for both pastries and thanked the girl.
"Ross, you didn't need to pay." Laura told him as they left the bakery.
"No, I wanted to. Now shut up and try your croissant." he said.
She rolled her eyes at him, taking a bite of her croissant.
"Ohmuhgawd dis es AMASING." Laura said with her mouth full.
"If there's one thing I'm good at, it's knowing how to pick a chocolate pastry." Ross said, cockily.
"That's a good skill to have." Laura replied, wiping the flakes off her mouth.
The pair decided to stroll down fifth avenue.
They walked leisurely down the street, getting to know each other better as they did.
They learned a lot about each other.
She learned that his last name was Lynch, his middle name was Shor (after his uncle), he was from Utah, he had four younger siblings (three brothers and one sister), and his favorite animal was an orca whale.
He learned that her last name was Marano, her middle name was Marie (no special meaning, her parents just liked the name), she was from Ohio, she had one older sister, and her favorite holiday is Thanksgiving.
They also learned that they were exactly one month apart in age (her being a month older).
They learned where they had each gone to college (her at the University of Cincinnati and him at Juliard, yes, THE Juliard).
They leaned that they both shared a strong dislike for seafood, yet a love of studying aquatic life.
And they learned that they shared the same favorite food category: dessert. And the same favorite food: brownies.
Before they even knew what happened, they ended up back at Grand Central.
They arrived at the station at rush hour, so it was fairly crowded.
Laura felt Ross reach over and grasp her hand in his as they made their way through the crowd.
She was surprised by this gesture, but intertwined their fingers, nonetheless.
Their hands fit together as if they were made for each other. A warmth spread through each of their hands, tiny tingles spreading through their interlaced fingers.
Once they got to their track, he let go of her hand awkwardly; both missing the warmth as soon as it left.
"Sorry." he told her, looking down shyly. "It was just really crowded and I didn't want us to get separated."
"It's ok. I didn't mind." Laura said, smiling up at him.
He smiled back at her, then they walked onto the awaiting train, getting seats together.
The train left shortly after.
"I had a really great time today." Ross spoke up, after sitting in silence for a few moments.
"I did too. It's nice having a friend here." she said, smiling.
"To tell you the truth, I've been living here for like 4 years, and you are the best friend I've ever made in that entire time." he said. "And I know that sounds crazy because we literally just met and we don't even have each other's phone numbers yet but- what are you doing?"
As he was talking, she had taken out a pen from her purse, grabbed his hand and began to write her phone number in his palm.
"Giving you my number, duh." she told him.
"Oh." he said, keeping in the excited squeal he wanted to let out.
"By the way, I'm covering my first Yankees game this Friday; and as my only friend, I was wondering if maybe, you wanted to come with me." she told him.
"Yeah, that sounds like a lot of fun." he replied, a grin spreading across his face.
"Cool. So just text me." she said with a wink, standing up as the train came to a stop at White Plains.
"Will do." he said happily, giving her a thumbs up.
She shot him one last grin before walking out of the train onto the platform.
Laura had had a very good day, and she was very glad to have a friend.
Little did she know that said friend kept his left hand raised in the air and didn't touch anything with it until her number was safely in his phone and she had responded to his text, so he was sure it was the right person.
Because there's no way he wanted to risk losing his new best friend and train buddy (which is what the text to her said) due to a miss printed phone number.
But thankfully, the number was printed correctly.
reviews make me happy :)