06 June 1999
10:25
"Those eyes. Never before have I seen such eyes," Ivy brooded, cupping her chin firmly with her free hand. She was staring surreptitiously in the direction of the 'new guy' while half-heartedly typing up a report with her other hand.
He was just another ordinary transfer on paper, with no outstanding merits to speak of, but he was extraordinary to behold. At least in Ivy's opinion. She smiled to herself. She was going to enjoy training this one.
13:40
She was still thinking on this later that day in the board room while the entire team was being formally introduced to the new recruit. This seemed to involve listing off his entire dossier, or so she thought. So Ivy sat there, trying to look as bored as the rest of her co-workers so obviously were, while in the meantime, she took notes on his dossier, and memorized his 'eye-catching' features.
Her favorite part of this Rob Edwards was his deep, yet unassuming soft brown eyes. They were not quite hazel, but were more of a mellowed out milky chocolate color. The more she stared, the harder it was not to start drifting away into the nether regions of her heart, places she dare not go, even in her darkest dreams. She was certainly not going to add Rob to this list.
She moved on, focusing now on his hair. It looked nice enough. Not quite what she liked in her men, but the soft, wavy, almost nappy look to his dusky blonde hair gave him an adorable puppy dog look about him. It was cropped close, in an off-handed sort of way. But for the curl of it, his hair would have stood straight up, for it lay in no to her general direction at all. Despite its strange styling, Ivy decided that she liked his hair.
His hair just went so well with his luscious ivory skin tone. His slightly rounded cheeks were almost unnoticeably tinted with an ever so delicate pinkish tone, until they fluctuated when he was being praised by the Chief for one of his greater accomplishments. Ivy smiled gently. "How cute," she thought. "He blushes easily."
She continued to observe as his peachy-pink lips widened into a half-way grin, with his full lower lip slightly protruding. She smiled to herself in return, but stopped immediately and looked down at her legal pad when she realized that Rob was smiling AT HER! "Crap it!" she screamed inside her head. "How long has he noticed me staring! And when, in the name of all that is holy, did the Chief stop talking!"
The Chief cleared his throat, slightly embarrassed at Ivy's obvious fixation, and continued his welcome speech. "Anyways," he addressed the rest of the crew, "Mr. Edwards here will make a fine addition to our little crime fighting family here at ACME! And, to insure this fact, I will be placing Rob here," he gestured in Rob's direction, and then looked across the table at Ivy, who was now glued to her notes, not looking up, nor paying any attention to the Chief's words. "With our best agent," he continued. "Ivy Darren."
"Huh?" Ivy looked up from her legal pad for a moment, slightly puzzled as to why she was being called on.
The Chief rolled his eyes, becoming exasperated. "While it may not seem like it right now, Ivy is one of our best agents. She will be your field partner for the time being, and will show you around headquarters. That is, if she ever gets her head out of the clouds today.
26 June 1999
08:15
Ivy was staring yet again. However, today it was only at her laptop, or into her cup of coffee, or out the window of her favorite cafe in Seattle. She was on her first mission with Rob as her partner. They were in Seattle on the trail of yet another Sandiego henchman. ACME had received several tips leading them to believe that the Seattle Space Needle was in danger of being part of a major heist.
So there she sat, waiting for Rob to finish ordering his coffee and come join her. She looked up occasionally, scanned the room for anything out of the ordinary, and then went back to staring at her laptop screen, which showed the monitoring camera feedbacks. She yawned tiredly, "Nothing so far. I hate the waiting part!"
Rob finally got his caramel macchiato the way he liked it, and strolled over to join Ivy at their table. He sat down across from her and smiled wearily, "No signs yet, huh?"
She shook her head. "I have a feeling were gonna be here all day once again."
Rob sighed quietly and stretched back in his chair, trying to get comfortable. "Well, since we are going to be here for a while yet, we might as well get better acquainted, Ivy."
Ivy sipped her coffee while nodding her ascent. "What do you want to know, Rob?" she asked as she carefully set down her cup. "I know a lot about you already, from our update meeting at headquarters."
Rob smiled slightly. "You are probably right, Ivy. They did talk an awful lot about me then. It bored even me."
She laughed at this, and then slightly blushed at the memory of her embarrassment that day. "Well, that leaves me then. So, what is it you wanted to know?"
"Hmm . . . to start with, where are you from?" He leaned forward on the pretense of picking up his cup and tried not to look over eager.
"Well, if you think you really want to know." She saw him nod again, so she proceeded to tell him the more interesting parts of her life. "I am from Connecticut originally and I have a brother, perhaps you have met him, Zachary Darren. We moved out here to California about five years ago with our parents and I joined ACME as an after-school kinda thing, but when I finished high school early, it turned into a career thing. So here I am, wasting my life, chasing after retarded criminals who won't catch the hint that they are never going to get away with their stupid plans." She smiled sadly down into her coffee, her countenance becoming darker than her double espresso mocha latte. She mumbled mostly to herself, "Going to college seems like such a waste now. All that time spent worrying about grades and majors and whatnot, and now I'm stuck in a job that I'll never get out of." Ivy sighed heavily, and looked up at Rob, who was waiting for her to continue, now with a somewhat concerned look on his handsome face. "What about you, Rob?" she asked, looking down at the computer screen again, trying to brush it all off. "What made you decide to join ACME? The retirement plan?"
Rob laughed appropriately at her sarcasm, knowing how right she truly was. ACME had a six foot retirement box just waiting for him. "Not exactly," he replied. "It was the glamorous lifestyle, the girls, the extensive travel . . ."
"HA HA!" she interrupted him, now giggling almost hysterically at his response. "Surely you can't be serious! With ACME?"
He nodded gravely, his broad jaw growing taught at her reaction. "And what is wrong with that," he posed, wondering what her response was going to be now. She just seemed to be so full of surprises. Or maybe caffeine.
"Oh I am so sorry!" she blushed deeply, her face turning the color of her hair. "I thought you were joking! I didn't . . .uhhh . . . yeah" she stopped suddenly, and looked around the room, and at the computer again, anywhere but at Rob, whose face was now turning slightly red in turn, but only because he was starting to laugh at her. His usually very serious face now broke into a wide grin, and his broad chest started heaving, wracked in laughter.
"Ahhh!" she cried, frustrated at his not-so-funny joke. She wadded up her napkin and hurled it at Rob's face. "I can't believe you!"
Rob ducked, effectively dodging the paper missile, and kept laughing at her. "You know, you should be more careful when you make comments, Ivy!" he continued chuckling.
"Okay, fine then." She smiled back at him, not really minding his little joke so much, after having seen his gorgeous face non-serious for once. "But, seriously, what else do I need to know about you, Rob?"
"Hmmm . . . well, what's not on my dossier?" he thought for a moment. "I was born in Indonesia on my mother's trip overseas to see my father, who was on a business trip at the time. I grew up with my dad, because my parents divorced when I was two. Although my dad was from Scotland originally, we never lived there, but instead I lived with him all over Southeast Asia until I turned 14 and had to be sent off to boarding school and then off to college after that."
Ivy smiled at his obvious pride in his childhood, "That's pretty neat, Rob! Was it just you and your dad living in Asia?" she asked. "Do you have any siblings or anything?"
Rob looked somewhat uncomfortable at that question, and looked down at the table while he answered quietly, "No. No siblings that I lived with. But I had a monkey though. Loved that monkey."
Ivy arched her eyebrow. It was obvious that he was hiding something about the fact that he didn't have the normal family. "A monkey?" she began, trying to get him to spill his secrets, "No one else?"
Rob frowned at her. He could see her feeling around for answers. "Might as well tell her. It might work out in my favor eventually, if nothing else," he reasoned. "Since you are so determined to find out about this, I think I could save you quite a lot of time and not skirt around the issue. I know how curiosity can get the best of agents. Yes, I did have siblings, at least one that I know of, a sister. But she lived with my mother after the divorce, and I never continuously lived with her for long."
Ivy reached across the table and laid her hand across his. "I'm sorry if you think I was snooping. You opened the door, and I went in. I do that a lot. Sorry."
Rob stroked her hand for a minute absentmindedly before gently removing it from his. He seemed to be trying to fighting off his less happy childhood memories. He sat up straight, and shook his head breaking the reverie, and then replied, "Yes, I know Ivy. You needn't apologize. But, it is a sore subject though, so we can talk about something else." He sighed and looked at his watch. It was about time something happened. This was about to get old.
"Well, okay. If you don't want to talk about it," Ivy said, understanding him completely. After a minute or two of checking the incoming surveillance transmissions, she her curiosity got the better of her, despite his uncomfortableness. She pushed the point, "What is her name? At least tell me that."
Rob laughed and shook his head at her agent's instinct. He knew that she would look up his sister up later, just out of her curiosity. "Her name is Cassandra. I called her Cassie. And I haven't seen her in almost ten years, and I'm not looking to right now. Please don't interfere with anything. I know how girls can be. It isn't worth it."
Ivy nodded her ascension, as her pants started buzzing. She jumped out of her chair. "Oh crap!" she cried, and then was once again embarrassed. Her cell phone had been on silent, and now was insisting she answer. "Sorry, it's the Chief. I have to take this," she stated before walking over to the window to answer.
He smiled back and nodded, as Ivy turned away to go take her call. He sighed in relief, and slumped in his chair. "Wow, she sure knows how to work 'em" he thought to himself as he observed her hollering back at the Chief, his information obviously not making her happy. He frowned though, when he thought of how she had used her skills on him as well, weeding out semi-personal information that he would have rather kept to himself. "She did have a point, though," he frowned deeper as he stared at her back while she continued her argument on the phone. "I did start the conversation. And it won't happen again."
Ivy slammed her fist against her thigh as she hung up on the Chief. "Gahh!" she cried and then winced at the pain she inflicted upon her leg. She stalked back over to the table and plopped back down in her chair with a heavy sigh. "Well this is just great!" she exasperated. "Chief says our informant was," here she held her hands up in exaggerated air quotes, "uh. . . 'misinformed' and we have been sitting here for two days for no reason!" She leaned back in her seat and gritted her teeth. "I hate wasting time!" Rob leaned his head back and laughed. Ivy glared across the table at him. "How can you laugh at something like that?" she spat out through clenched teeth.
"I just don't sweat the small stuff," he replied quietly. "I like to think of it as time off from mountains of paperwork in the office, and getting paid to take time off to have coffee with my new partner and get to know her better."
She sighed, knowing he was right. It really wasn't worth worrying about. "Sorry. You have a good point. And if the Chief wasn't so anal, we could sit here and continue talking about all your other good points. However, he wants us back at HQ immediately."
Rob helped her finish gathering up the equipment and then, as they walked to the elevator together, he offered her his arm.
"Why thank you, sir!" she smiled, taking his arm and walking into the elevator with him.
"My pleasure, miss." he replied. "Anytime"
19 July 1999
18:50
"Crank it up, Zack!" Ivy hollered at him over the already loud boom box blaring Vanilla Ice's 'Ice Ice Baby'.
"What?" he yelled back, then grinned at her gesturing at her gesturing for him to turn it up, and nodded his head in ascent.
They were in Ivy's uptown San Francisco apartment, cooking up a storm for their dinner party. It was a biannual affair, but was usually concocted on a spur of the moment whim, when the crew started getting restless. Only a few of their closest friends had shown up, and right then, as Zack cranked up the music, they were helping with the preparations. Josha and Tatiana were rockin' out in the dining room while they set the table, and both laughed unexpectedly at the next song that came on. 'The Sign' by Ace of Base brought back a lot of childhood memories, and they both congratulated Zack on his excellent taste in music when he joined them in the dining room.
Ivy laughed at their silly antics to the music, while she began doing it herself. She danced over to the refrigerator, pulled the wine out of the cooler, and waltzed into the dinning room with it, and handed it to Josha, who was setting out the ice bath. He smiled at her while he took it, and then took her hand and waltzed back into the kitchen with her. They both collapsed in fits of laughter onto the barstools.
"Not bad, Josha!" Ivy laughed, slowly standing back up, and walking back over to the stove. "I never knew you could waltz to 'Rollercoaster of Love'!"
He grinned sheepishly, "I don't do it very often. Only on special occasions." He walked over to the stove, and wrapped his arm around Ivy's shoulders, "Only with you Ivy." He then bent over one of the steaming pans and took a big whiff. "Smells good!" he commented, while avoiding Ivy's somewhat stunned look.
"It sure does," another voice came from behind them, interrupting their little moment, much to Ivy's relief, and Josha's chagrin. Ivy spun around quickly and smiled broadly at the new visitor to her apartment. Rob stood there with a casserole dish in his hands and an unsure look on his face, which was quickly replaced with a slight smile in response to Ivy's.
"Why Rob!" Ivy cried sweetly, "When did you get here? Did Zack let you in?" She walked over to him, took the dish from him and set it on the countertop carefully, before turning back to him and giving him a friendly hug. He responded warmly to it, nearly causing her to lose her breath.
"Yeah. Zack let me in after I banged on the door for a while. I think it was between songs or something.
Now it was Ivy's turn to look slightly embarrassed. Not only for Rob having to stand outside for longer than necessary, but also because Josha was now staring strangely at the both of them. She let go of Rob suddenly, realizing that they were still hugging. "Sorry!" she forced out, trying to laugh it off. "Ummm . . . thanks for the casserole! What is it?" she stepped back, putting several feet between them.
"It's scalloped potatoes. Nothing all that fancy. I just hope it goes with what you are making," he smiled hopefully, and looked past her to the stove where Josha still stood, absentmindedly stirring various dishes, and occasionally watching their strange interactions.
"Oh yes, it will be fine, I'm sure," she replied, and walked over to the stove where Josha stood and took the spoon that he handed her, saying, "Thanks Josha. Does it look ready?"
"I suppose it is," he replied, looking a little happier now that she wasn't so friendly with Rob right then.
"Well good. Then let's get it on the table then, shall we?" She took a pot off the stove and turned all the burners off before turning back to talk to Rob. "And Rob," she asked, "Would you do me a favor?"
He nodded. "What do you need?"
She wanted to shout, "You!" but thought it better to just reply, "Tell Zack to turn down the stereo, would you? We're about to eat."
"Okay," he replied, and went to do her bidding, exiting into the living room where Zack was attempting to dance with Tatiana.
Ivy thought she saw a slight twinge of disappointment in his face about something. "Probably just unhappy that I didn't give him something more important to do. Men. Ha ha." Though she laughed about it to herself, the more she thought about it that night as they ate together, hung out, and relaxed, the more, deep down, she wished it was something more.