Unexpected coincidence

It was dark outside by the time Carla was satisfied with her work. She had read her books, taken notes, and written her essay all in one evening. If any changes needed to be made, she'd still have plenty of time to make them during the weekend. Life was good. She closed her books with a resounding thud and instead turned on the TV. She sat comfortably, just watching the mindless entertainment, for yet another hour before she decided to go to bed. She would worry tomorrow instead.

§§§

"You did not!" Donald exclaimed with a great deal of disbelief.

"Honestly, that's what happened. Minnie didn't talk with me for a week after that."

"Haha, whaddya know, the mouse isn't perfect," Donald gloated.

The three friends had been talking constantly since their little reunion started, only pausing when their food arrived. They had talked about their past adventures, but mostly the subject had been their respective love lives. Or, to be more precise, Donald and Mickey's love lives. Goofy had mostly been listening while his two buddies talked about their girlfriends. Right now, they were telling each other anecdotes about problems that they had inadvertently caused because of silly misunderstandings, jealousy, and clumsiness. They had been at it for over an hour, and there was no end in sight. The stories were amusing, he couldn't deny that, but Goofy would have appreciated a discussion that could involve him, too. Unfortunately for him, Mickey seemed to be of the same opinion.

"So, Goofy, is there a woman in your life yet?" he asked earnestly.

"Umm, no, not really." Goofy replied, blushing from his hat down to his feet.

"Not really? What's that supposed to mean?" Donald said.

"I don't have a girlfriend, alright?"

He hadn't intended for it to sound bitter, but that's how it came out. Mickey, who was far more sensitive to the feelings of others than Donald, hushed the duck before he could make another potentially hurtful comment.

"I'm sorry, Goofy. Wanna talk about somethin' else?"

"Gawrsh, that'd be nice."

"…What do you wanna do tomorrow? Fish, play golf?"

"Gee, I dunno, guys. Maybe you could decide?"

"Hehe, alright. Golf it is. Right, Donald?"

"Sure thing." Then he yawned, which prompted the three friends to look at their watches and thus realize that it was time to head home to Goofy's.

§

Later in the evening, when they were all comfortably situated on Goofy's shabby couch, the conversation drifted towards their careers. Being men, that subject soon degenerated into wild stories of their adventures as professionals.

"So, the Phantom Blot and his gang of thugs had me cornered, and I thought 'Mickey, you're in deep trouble now', but then I got an idea – I'd just use my pocket-knife to cut the rope that held up the chandelier! And, 'CRASH' it fell down and hit me in the head. When I woke up seven hours later, they were all gone, and so was every single valuable in the Lé Pomegranate mansion."

"Oh yeah? That's nothin'! Just last week I followed Uncle Scrooge to his rubber plantation in Farawayistan, and we were attacked by the entire Beagle Boys clan five minutes after arriving there. They were after his money, as usual. They drugged us and tied us to a railroad track, and we'd have died if the natives hadn't mistaken Uncle for some vengeance god and saved us," Donald said with a smug look at Mickey. No stinkin' mouse, no matter how foolhardy, would beat him at his own game.

"A-hyuck! Your jobs are far more dangerous than mine, pal-erooonies. Not that I mind or anythin'; I'm pretty happy to work in a safe environment."

Mickey laughed, and said, "Heh, I bet you still get in trouble all the time."

"I suppose I do." Goofy smiled slightly.

"Wanna share?"

"Not really. And the stories aren't interestin', anyway."

"Alright. It's gettin' kinda late, guys - should we call it a night?"

Goofy and Donald both agreed, and with that, their first evening together was concluded.

§§§

It was bright. Too bright. Carla frowned and looked at her alarm clock. 10 a.m. It wasn't as bad as she'd expected. She didn't have to be at work until later in the day, her assignment was finished, and the apartment was clean. She decided to get up nonetheless, because she had some shopping to do.

More accurately, she had a lot of shopping to do. She needed more shampoo, new toothbrushes, milk… The list was long. That's why she found herself in a nearby supermarket late that Saturday morning. I should have done this some other day, she resignedly thought when she spotted the lines. They were so long and winding that she wondered if they in fact were without end altogether.

§§§

"Do we have everythin' we need?" Mickey asked Goofy as the two of them were preparing a snack for later in the day. Donald, true to form, was still asleep despite his friends' attempts at waking him up. They'd just have to dump a bucket of water on him eventually.

"Gee, I dunno, Mickey. Lemme check." He searched through their bag of goodies and frowned.

"No mustard."

"Darn. I guess we'll have to stop by at some store then." Mickey said.

"Yep."

They finished their packing, managed to wake Donald up, and left for the golf course. They decided to stop at the Lone Pine Mall to get the mustard.

The huge crowd within did nothing to spoil their good moods - they simply got what they came for, plus some assorted sweets and chips, and tried to decide which line was the shortest.

As they were browsing for a good line, Goofy spotted Carla. She noticed him too, and smiled shyly at him. He stood there completely crestfallen, desperately trying to gather his wits. Is she smiling at me? What should I do? Smile back? He did eventually smile back, and ordinarily that would have been the end of it, but Mickey noticed the exchange of glances, and asked Goofy to introduce them to his friend. He promptly blushed, but valiantly led them to Carla.

"Umm, hiya, Carla."

"Hi, Goofy." She bit her lip and hesitantly added, "Are these your friends?" gesturing vaguely at Donald and Mickey.

"Yeah. Carla, meet Donald and Mickey. Guys, this is Carla." He stumbled over his own words in his hurry to make the proper introductions, and at that point Goofy was ready to die of embarrassment. Gee, great job there, genius. Could you be more of a dork?

Mickey, who had been watching the exchange with hidden amusement, reached out his hand, and she shook it. Donald lifted his sailor hat in acknowledgment of her.

"How do you two know each other?" he asked.

"Oh, I work at Joe's." she replied.

"All right." Mickey practically beamed at her.

His friendly demeanour relaxed Carla enough for her to ask, "Are you on your way somewhere?"

"Just a guys' day out, ya' know," he said.

"We're going golfing," Donald supplemented in an unusual act of helpfulness and manners.

"Sounds like fun. It's a lovely day to be outside." she said, desperate to make a good impression.

"You're right about that." Mickey smiled, and added, "It's been a pleasure meeting ya, Carla, but it seems to be your turn at the register now."

That was indeed true, so Carla hurriedly bid them goodbye and walked to the cashier.

Donald suddenly saw something miraculous. So miraculous, in fact, that it was on the verge of being a religious experience. The store was opening another register.

"Run!" He shouted excitedly, and run they did.

§§§

A/N: Yay, I have finally found a Beta! If it weren't for her, this chapter, as well as the last one, would have been a complete mess.

To the one reviewer who wondered where Max was: He isn't born yet. Sorry if I wasn't clear about that.