Kim drummed her fingers on the table. For once, she was early for lunch. Shego was nowhere to be seen.
Ten minutes.
Fifteen minutes.
Half an hour passed until Shego finally showed up.
The older woman looked rather out of breath as she sat down in the chair across from Kim.
"Everything ok?" the redhead inquired.
Shego caught her breath. "Yeah, just had to rush over. Sorry for being late. I should've called."
Kim shook her head. "It's ok, it's understandable." She bit her lip. "Where were you coming from? Work?"
Shego nodded. "I work over in the midtown area, so I generally walk over here, but today was just hectic."
Kim tilted her head. Not once did either woman mentioned anything about their professions. Perhaps now as a good time to start. "What do you do?"
Shego wiped her brow with the back of her hand. "Technically, I'm a graphic designer for a small advertising firm, but I do all sorts of stuff too."
Kim found herself nodding, but she was distracted by how flustered Shego was from rushing over. It was cute. Her normally neat hair was in disarray and her cheeks were pink. Kim smiled to herself before she noticed Shego giving her a quizzical look.
She was never late. Never. But, today was just one of those crazy days at work. One where she'd have to tell Betty to find another person to run these silly errands or else she'd threaten to quit. Or ask for a raise. Either one would work, but being late for a lunch date was unacceptable. Especially since she was too busy to give Kim a call.
Maybe it was because it was so habitual of her to expect the worst in people, she was a bit surprised to see Kim all calm and collected when she walked in half an hour late. She knew Kim probably had about an hour for lunch, so today's date would be cut short because of her lack of punctuality. Sadly.
Noticing the look on the redhead's face, she asked, "What's so amusing about being a graphic designer who runs around doing PR, picking up materials, and tries to make it in time for a lunch date?"
Kim grinned. "The fact that she's all hot and flustered trying to get here on time is cute. Really cute."
She felt her cheeks burn red.
After eating their sandwiches, the conversation left off from the day before. Kim wiped her mouth with a napkin before starting. She glanced at her watch. They still had fifteen minutes, maybe less since she had to walk back to work. "I think it's my turn to ask questions." Her companion nodded, but who, really, was keeping track? Neither of them seemed to care about how many questions were being asked since all that mattered was that they enjoyed each other's company.
"Do you travel often? From the impression I got from the ad, you like beaches? Middleton doesn't seem to have many beaches - well, at least ones that haven't been trashed by drunken teens."
Shego chuckled. "I'm originally from Go City, and they had quite a few there. As clichéd as this might sound, I did enjoy walking along them at night to clear my head. When I moved here, I was a bit disappointed that they don't have many. I don't really travel abroad, if that's what you're asking. I mean, I could, but I haven't recently."
Kim nodded. "How long have you been in Middleton?"
"About a year. I sort of moved here for work. How about you?"
"I've been in Middleton all my life, actually. I've been abroad a few times for some humanitarian work, but Middleton's always been home."
Her lunch partner thought for a moment. "What do you do at work?"
"I'm actually working as an editor at the Middleton Daily. I mostly go over the sections that deal with local news and businesses." She chuckled softly. "I, uh, happened to go through the Personals section on my break and came across your ad."
Smiling, Shego replied with a "I'm very glad you did."
Kim glanced at her watch. Still had some time left, it wasn't like her writers would harp on her if she came in late since she was their boss... sort of. She'd tell them to rewrite their articles, yes, but she was more of a compassionate boss, not like Bonnie Rockwaller, her adversary in the World News section. "What do you like to do on your days off?"
"Well, it's hard to say sometimes. I'm sometimes given work on the weekends if my boss wants something turned around quickly, but usually I like a good book with a drink. Maybe veg out with watching TV too."
"Sounds fun, but also stressful since you're sort of on-call."
"You are too, I guess, if you're doing the local news section. Middleton Daily also prints on the weekend, don't they?"
"I'm one of the two editors for the section. We alternate, so I do work some weekends, but not always."
Shego sighed. "We're busy people." It wasn't a statement, but more of an exasperation of their situation: they were too busy to date each other.
"I suppose we are. But, are you free this weekend? Do you want to catch a movie or something?"
It had been a while since she was asked out on a date. It felt nice.
"I'm free this weekend. I'll make sure my boss won't give me any work... I mean, after today, I've sort of had it with all the little errands she makes me do."
Her redheaded companion laughed. "But she's your boss, she can make you do whatever she wants you to do."
"Says the editor who probably bosses her writers around." She stuck out her tongue. "No, it's just that we're understaffed and don't have someone working the position to deliver important documents to clients. I ended up doing that today since she caught me on the way out."
"Poor you," teased Kim.
"It cut our lunch date short, that's what bothers me."
"Haha, you're cute." She felt her cheeks burn again. "It's fine since we'll be together on the weekend." Kim was about to pull out her wallet from her purse, but she waved it off.
"It's my treat today." A wrinkled twenty made it onto the table and a smile formed on her lips. "Plus, it's my fault for making you wait."
She made a mental note to herself that Kim said the darnedest things. Because the next thing that came out of Kim's mouth made her feel butterflies.
"If I had to wait this long to meet you, I'd say it's been worth it so far."
Author's Notes: Ahaha, so cheesy. Everything I write for this fic is so cheesy, I don't know why. I think it's a crazy idea for me to pump out a chapter every day, but here's to me trying to make up for not participating in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) this year. I've never participated in it before, but this might be a good exercise. I'm more afraid of getting lazy, but we shall see...