As Roy drove Ed back to the hotel, he smiled at the alchemist's semi-positive attitude.
"Did you have a good time?"
"For the most part."
"That's good. I got another call today. It looks like you're more popular than I thought."
"That's nice."
------------------
The next evening, Ed got dressed in a different suit, gained several amused looks from both his brother and Lieutenant Hawkeye, and got into the Colonel's car again.
"Where are we going this time?" Ed asked as they drove through East City.
"The call I got was from someone whose last name was Izzman. She didn't give her first name, so you should be cautious."
"Shouldn't you research these people before you send me to spend several hours alone with them?"
"Who says I don't? It just so happens that I trust you enough to get out of a bad situation on your own."
Ed got out of the car and followed Roy to the front door of a house. Roy rang the doorbell and walked off, leaving Ed to face his newest date on his own.
After a moment, the door opened, and a woman wearing heels and some sort of dress let him in.
"You must be Edward. Come in, the jam is waiting."
Ed followed Ms. Izzman to the kitchen table and sat down where she indicated. She began fixing tea. It took Ed a moment to realize that he was actually talking to a man. Once he figured this out, he sort of jumped in surprise. The man sat down after bringing tea to the table and pulled off his high-heeled boots.
"I guess you aren't used to this sort of thing. My name is Jeff."
"Um…"
"Yes, I'm the one who answered your ad. I was bored."
"I see…"
"So why exactly is a fifteen-year-old writing personal ads?"
"Um… Because I didn't really have a choice. Hey, wait a minute, I just wrote one!"
"Well, then, why is this one different from the one that was in the paper two days ago?"
Ed took the newspaper that Jeff was holding out. As he read the ad, he became very angry. "That damn Colonel."
"Come on, let's go keep bees now."
"Huh?"
Jeff dragged Ed out of the room and into a huge backyard full of beehives. Ed stared in shock at all the bees. Jeff placed a random hat thingy with a net on it over Ed's head.
"Uh… You're a beekeeper?"
"No. I'm actually a comedian. I just do this to see if anyone gets the joke."
"Uh-huh…"
Ed spent the rest of the evening running away from bees. Somehow he had managed to make them very angry, and the net had a big hole in it. Once Roy arrived, Ed gratefully took off the net thingy and ran for the car, shouting a somewhat polite farewell to Jeff. All he heard in return was a loud shout of "I'M EIGHTY-TWO!"
"I take it this one was a disaster, huh, Fullmetal?" Roy asked as he watched Ed pull a stray bee out of his left arm.
"Yeah, it really was."
Roy turned back to the road. "I guess we won't mention this one to Havoc. Which means we'll have to add another date to the list."
Ed glared at Roy until they arrived at the hotel. Once the car was stopped, Ed got out, slammed the door, and stormed into the building. Roy decided not to mention that Ed had another date the next day.