Meredith and Derek had been texting every day since the coffee shop and her day normally started with a good morning text from him. She smiled as she heard her phone ping instantly picking it up to see his name at the top of her screen.

'Good morning? How did you sleep?'

'Good. Great in fact, how about you?' She typed back.

'Me too. Any plans for today?' She smiled as she read the text.

'Nope. I have some homework but nothing much.'

'Same here. Want to grab a bite to eat?' Derek replied.

Smiling at her phone she hesitated responding. This would be like a date right? Getting food with a guy you just met and getting to know each other is typically called a date. She pondered for a few minutes, she hadn't split up with Finn that long ago and she wasn't sure she was ready to start dating again, she knew that if Finn wanted her back again she wouldn't refuse. Another bubble popped up on her screen as he started to type again, stopping shortly after. She realised she was taking too long and he was taking it as a no so she shook Finn from her thoughts and typed back.

'Sure, I'd like that. What time?'

'2?'

'Works for me, see you at 2 :)'

'Where are we meeting?' Derek asked, she giggled at the fact she'd forgotten to ask.

'Wherever. How about the cafe on fell street, they do a lot of food options?'

'It's a date ;)' he replied, finishing their conversation and making Meredith blush at her phone.

She was still lying in her bed even though it was past 11am and she had things to do but she just didn't have the energy to do them, she'd do them last minute like she always does. As she sat up and caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror she immediately decided to get into the shower and wash her hair, she hadn't left the house for a couple of days so she hadn't washed her hair and she could tell. Her messy bun was all over the place as she stood up, her fly aways at the front literally flying away.

She made sure to put extra conditioner in her hair when she washed it so it was extra soft and silky for her 'date', she rolled her eyes with a smirk at the thought, although she couldn't deny that she was attracted to his arrogance and the obvious confidence he had. She decided the curl her hair ever so slightly and put on a little amount of makeup to cover the circles under her eyes that had gathered from her late nights. As she stood at her dressing table doing her hair and makeup she looked to the purple jewellery box with the flowers on top that Finn had gotten her for her 19th birthday almost a year ago that she hadn't thrown out just yet, it wasn't even that nice of a box but it was the sentiment of it she couldn't let go of. Her mother had a similar one and that's why she loved it so much because it reminded her of her mom before she got Alzheimer's and lived in a care facility.

Ellis had been diagnosed just as Meredith's first semester at college was finishing and whilst Meredith was destroyed by the news, she was also a little grateful that she got to spend some time with her mom away from the hospital. After that summer Ellis declined rapidly and her disease progressed very quick and after that Meredith could no longer say that she enjoyed spending time with her mother and has avoided going to see her ever since.

"Mer!" Cristina's voice rang through the house as she ran up the stairs.

"In here." She shouted back listening to her friends footsteps get louder as she got closer. Meredith quickly brushed her curls out and went to her closet to pick out something to wear.

"Have you heard ab- Where are you going?" Cristina asked.

"Out." She replied still looking through her closet.

"With?" Cristina asked suspiciously, she knew that Meredith had saw Finn a couple of times since their break up.

"I'm just going out for lunch." She grabbed a top and jeans.

"Mer, if you're meeting Finn don't even think about it. I will ground you."

"Ok mom." Meredith laughed.

"I'm serious Mer don't do it. You deserve better."

"I'm not meeting Finn." She rolled her eyes, "I'm going for some lunch with Derek."

Cristina smirked at her friends response, "in that case hurry out."

Meredith threw a shoe at her but she ducked quickly and it missed. "We're just getting some food at a cafe, that's it. Nothing else."

"Mhm." Cristina teased her.

"Shut up. What did you rush up here to tell me about?"

"Oh my god. Guess what." Cristina clapped her hands together and let out a laugh.

Meredith giggled, "what?"

"Okay so you know that clinical professor, the narky one with the huge glasses and blazer that is 5 sizes to big for him."

"Yeah?"

"Alex had a bag of sweets on his desk in class knowing that we're not allowed to eat in class right? So the professor takes the bag away from him and takes them to his desk, he ate one and it was soap Mer." She laughed loudly. "Alex disguised them as sweets so he'd take them off him and eat one."

"No he didn't!" She cried laughing.

"He did! You should have saw his face, there's a video, it's on Instagram."

"I haven't saw it." Meredith chuckled as she grabbed her phone and found the video online, laughing as she watched it. "That's funny but Alex will probably get into a lot of trouble for that."

"He's suspended for 11 days." Cristina told her.

"That's all?"

"Yeah."

Cristina soon left and went to her room leaving Meredith to finish getting ready, she prayed some of her favourite perfume and put on her jewellery, she wore her black high converse and soon left.

'I'm outside the cafe.' She texted Derek.

'I'm already here, come inside, I'm at the table next to the counter at the left.'

She pushed open the door to the cafe and looked around spotting him quickly as he stood up and waved to her. She smiled walking over to him.

"Hey." He hugged her.

"Hi." She giggled.

"Did it take you long to get here?"

"No, our apartments just through the park." She took the seat opposite him.

"Our apartment?" He asked.

"Yeah I live with my friends."

"Ohh. Me too, well with one of them."

She nodded not really sure how to respond to him. Picking up the menu she read through the options, she hadn't ate breakfast this morning so she was really hungry.

"Did you do your homework?" He asked sipping his water.

"No, I'll do it tonight." She laughed pushing her bang behind her ear, "I always leave it last minute."

He smiled, "so, tell me about yourself."

"What do you want to know? I'm not that interesting." She giggled.

"I find that hard to believe. Where are you from?"

"Boston. Well, I'm originally from Seattle but I moved to Boston when I was really young, I don't really remember not living there." Meredith told him.

She tried not to remember the memories she had of Seattle because the ones she had weren't good ones.

"You're from Seattle?" He asked.

"Yeah, I know my accents all Boston but yeah."

"That's where I'm from." He chuckled. "You're the first person I've met here that's also from Seattle."

"What a coincidence haha! As I said though, I don't remember much of it."

"You should go back and re jog your memory. It's a great place."

"Hmm." Meredith nodded picking up the menu again. Derek noticed her recoil of conversation and thought he might have touched a sore spot.

"What are you ordering?" Meredith looked up and asked him.

"The steak salad." Derek picked up his own menu, "you?"

"Im not sure, I can't decide between the caesar salad or the chicken pesto pasta." She bit her lip.

After a few minutes of self debate she decided on the chicken pesto pasta and a lemonade, the waitress took their order and their menu's.

"So what made you go into medicine?" Derek asked.

"My mom."

"You didn't want to yourself?"

"I did. I'm not really sure in all honesty, I always wanted to be a teacher but my moms a surgeon so she wanted me to go down the same route she did, I didn't really have a choice."

"Your moms a surgeon? Any name I might know?"

She blushed ever so slightly as she lied, "no."

"Go on, try me." He joked.

"Seriously you won't, she most did Doctors Without Borders." She lied again.

"Ahhh ok. I think I'd like to give that a try too, seems like it would be really rewarding."

"Yeah I think so. It's a lot of time away from home though."

"Yeah that's true. I want to specialise in neurosurgery." He said proudly.

"That'll be cool too. I'm not sure what I want to do, I think paediatric surgery."

"You'd be a good fit for paeds, since you wanted to be a teacher and all. You must like children."

"I do." She smiled widely, her cheeks rising.

"I like them enough to like my nieces and nephew but I couldn't be around them all day." He said making Meredith laugh.

"I think you'd find a lot of people will agree with you. How many nieces and nephews do you have?"

"I have three at the minute, 2 nieces and a nephew. One of my sisters is pregnant but she doesn't know what she's having."

They carried on their conversation getting to know one another as their food arrived and they began to eat.

"Your steak looks really good." Meredith said as he cut it up.

"It is." He laughed, he picked a piece up on his fork and held it out to her, "try it."

"Oh no it's fine, I didn't mean I wanted to eat your lunch, you ordered your own food and I'm good here with mine, it's good too you don't have to feed me your food that your ordered because that's what you wanted and I ordered what I wanted and- "

"Meredith." He cut her off laughing at her giant ramble making her blush.

"Sorry." She apologised, giggling with embarrassment.

"Try the steak." He said as he held the fork to her again, she looked at him before looking back and accepted the steak he fed her.

"It's good." She nodded.

"I know. That's why I ordered it." He winked.