It was a little after three when Mía spotted Steve at a bench near the corner of the park he had asked her to meet at. She smiled when he finally saw her approaching and he waved slightly.
"Hey, I'm sorry I'm late. I overestimated my walking speed when I left my place," she said.
"It's alright. Do you live nearby?" he asked.
"Kinda," she said "It's about a twenty minute walk. How about you?"
"I'm just down the street there. No more than 5 minutes." he pointed in the opposite direction of her own apartment. "Next time maybe we can find somewhere closer to your place so you don't have to walk as far."
"Sure," she smiled, glad to already have thoughts of doing this again.
"There's this ice cream stand here, would you like something?" he asked as they walked into the park.
"Ooo that does sound nice, it's a perfect day for ice cream," she said. It was the middle of June, the weather was getting warmer in New York but not too hot yet.
They stood in line and neither of them said anything. It was a little bit of an awkward silence, Mía worried it resembled too much like a first date with someone you weren't too excited to get to know. She cracked the knuckles on her fingers a few times to settle her nerves and then jumped quickly to fill the silence, not wanting it to feel weird.
"Have you always lived in Manhattan?" Mía asked. She realized their conversations were very limited in the time she had spoken to him in the cafe. She knew he was in the Army and that he was an only child, but she couldn't recall him talking much about himself beyond that. She told him about her own CNA job, a little about her family. They talked about common daily life instead of more getting to know each other.
"No, I'm from Brooklyn actually. Grew up there and didn't leave until joining the army," he said.
"Wow, was it hard being away from home? I know I had a bit of a hard time adjusting when I moved here, but I also am not too far from my family."
"Yeah, it was a bit of a change. I spent my whole life in Brooklyn and then before I knew it, I was overseas." He seemed to have a sense of longing for his life before enlisting, and she gave him a sympathetic look.
"When did you get back to New York?"
"This spring. I don't know how long I'll be here before I'm needed again, but right now I'm just trying to adjust back to some sort of normalcy."
Mía didn't know much how the military worked, so she didn't know how common his situation of coming back to New York was. But she offered him a light smile before speaking. "Well I'm glad you reached out to me and we can spend time doing 'normal' things together. Do you still have family or old friends in the area to help you out too?"
"No, it was just my Ma and me, Dad died serving when I was a baby. She got sick when I was 18, so I've been on my own since then. My best friend growing up also enlisted with me but I lost him in a mission that went south." The more Steve opened up about the people he lost, the larger Mía's frown grew. Her heart ached for him, it was clear that he had been through a lot and she didn't think he deserved any of it.
"Oh Steve, I'm so sorry," was all she was able to awkwardly offer him.
"It's alright. It's been a while since I was really shook up about my parents. My friend, that one's kinda fresh, but I'm doing my best to get through it."
"If you ever want to talk about it or anything else, I would love to listen. It's hard going through things alone."
"Sounds like you speak from experience?" he observed. She took a deep breath, not wanting to go too much into it.
"I haven't experienced loss like you have, but it can be hard sometimes being out here in the city without my family. I've had to do things on my own that I never thought I'd have to do at all. It doesn't help that my friendships here have fallen apart. My point is, going through hard things by yourself is much harder than if you have someone to support you. I'm not saying I can make your life perfect, but maybe I can help lighten the load."
He smiled at her sincerity. It was the first he had received since waking up from the ice. It felt like anyone at SHIELD who was trying to help him were really just trying to get him back into fighting for them. Mía just seemed like she genuinely wanted to help him in any way she could.
"Thank you, Mía," he said. "Maybe we can be that for each other?" she smiled and nodded, but he knew it would be a bit longer before she trusted him to open up. Steve didn't blame her though; he certainly wasn't being completely honest with her either.
They ordered their ice creams, Steve getting chocolate with sprinkles and Mía getting cookie dough with chocolate fudge.
"Wow this place is delicious, I'm glad you suggested it," Mía said as they walked down a paved path in the little park.
"Yeah I had never tried it, but you can never really go wrong with ice cream, right?"
"Exactly," she smiled in agreement as she took another bite.
"So, how long have you been a nursing assistant at the children's hospital?" he asked.
"For about four years now," she said. "I started during my senior year of undergrad and then it's been three years since I graduated."
"Is it common to do that before going to medical school? I've never known anyone who's done that. My mom was nurse, a really good one too, but medical school wasn't really an option for her."
"Well, it is common to have some sort of clinical experience like nursing assistant before. It helps you get a feel for how working in medicine is. It also looks good on applications. However, waiting so many years isn't as common. That's wonderful that your mother was a nurse, I'll be the first in my family to go to medical school. It was definitely harder for women in our parent's generation to pursue a medical degree. It obviously gets better as the years go on, but it can still be hard. And then for me it's even more rare for a Latina to get such a high degree. My mom is a teacher, so she's got a degree, but my dad only finished high school. He is part of park services in the local parks department back home, so mostly cleaning and maintenance. The odds are stacked against immigrants, with lower paying jobs and sometimes it's harder to be taken seriously or supported throughout school."
He listened with all his attention as she spoke about her family and her own journey through school. "My parents were also immigrants," Mía gave him a slight shocked look. "From Ireland, so I know it's not the same, but I remember some difficulties coming from it growing up."
"Wow, yeah it definitely still counts. I've only ever met my extended family once in Mexico when I was a teenager. It can be hard when your family is trying to assimilate to culture here. My Spanish is shit because my parents wanted us to speak perfect English."
"My mom never taught me Irish!" Steve related to Mía's statement. "She didn't want kids to pick on me."
"Yes! I've been working on it since college, and I'm much better than before, but it's really not anywhere near fluent."
"I know what you mean about extended family too. I never met my grandparents." Steve frowned and looked down as they naturally walked towards a bench at the edge of the park.
"Do you know where they are? Maybe you could try to find them now?" Mía tried hesitantly.
"They're not around anymore. But I heard nice stories from my mother growing up. She always wanted me to be able to meet them, but we never had even close to the money necessary to find a way."
As they sat down on the bench, Mía automatically reached out and grabbed Steve's hand. They both were startled by the action, but neither pulled away. She gave it a light squeeze and a sad smile, unsure of how to comfort him in any other way. She wanted to be able to do something more, say something to help, but she was never really good at it and she also didn't want to cross a line between the man who was in the early stage of friendship with her. However, Steve appreciated the small gesture, and then she just as quickly let go of his hand as when she took it.
Their conversation shifted, at Steve's direction, to the busyness of Manhattan, the cute animals we had seen scurry through the park, and the weather. Much safer topics, ones that made Mía remember that she barely knew Steve and to not push too much or reveal too much too soon.
"You know, this kind of weather is perfect for carnivals and fairs," Mía said as she fondly thought of the ones she would attend growing up.
"You ever been to Coney Island?" Steve asked.
"No actually, I haven't done something like that since my first year of college, but never at Coney Island," she told him.
"Well it's been a while since I've been, like a very long time…" he thought for a moment. "So I'm not sure how different it is now. Would you maybe want to go check it out with me sometime?"
"I would love that," Mía smiled wide at the idea. "Today's been wonderful." she looked at her watch and knew she had to get going soon for a shift she had later in the evening. "I hate to leave," she started, but Steve cut her off.
"No, no, don't be sorry. Thanks for coming out with me, Mía," Steve said. "I had a really great time, and I hope we can find time to do something like this again. I truly would love to be your friend." His statement, although might seem ordinary, made Mía's heart sore. Of course the entire time they had together seemed to have gone smoothly, but she still had that small voice telling her that he was pretending. He was trying to just get through this little outing and then would go back to only ever seeing her at the coffee shop. It felt nice to have a verbal reassurance from him that he enjoyed their time together, that he wanted to see her as a friend again. "Sorry, if that sounded weird," Steve added with his own insecurity in his voice, and Mía quickly shook her head.
"No, that sounds amazing. I would also love to be your friend, for real." They chuckled together at their awkward statements before saying goodbye. They both spent the rest of the day smiling more than they could ever remember smiling in one day.
Here is chapter 3! I think I'm planning to make it a slow burn. I'm usually too impatient with that and rush it, so well see how committed I am to it, but I really want to develop their friendship before it goes further. Please let me know what you think, I'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas!