Vignette Summary: Mia replaces Diego's favorite mug. The one he broke during the Fawles trial.
Tags: Slice of Life/Crack/Humor
Word Count: 2,040
Date: Wednesday, July 3rd, 2013
Time: 8:06 am
Location: Diego's Office, Grossberg Law Offices, Los Tokyo
Diego checked his watch. "We have about an hour and ten before I have to leave for the courthouse. Wanna do one final review?"
Mia nodded. "Of course."
"I'll grab another coffee, and then we'll start. You want one too?"
Mia held up her travel mug. "I still have three quarters of mine left. I'd say I can't believe you're done already, but I know better than that."
"My blend from home always goes so fast. Now I'm onto the breakroom slop."
Mia giggled. "I'm actually surprised that you don't keep a coffeemaker in your office. That would be very you."
He chuckled. "I used to, but apparently the sounds of percolating were too distracting to my neighbors. It didn't fly with Grossberg."
"That makes more sense. Although, no workaround? I thought you'd at least keep a French press in here."
"That's what I said to him!" Diego exclaimed. He was happy to know that their minds worked similarly when it came to accommodating his addiction. "He told me that he thought keeping one in here would distract me too much from my work."
"I'm with Mr. Grossberg on that one."
"You two can try to keep me down, but it won't work. Even if you clip my wings, this eagle will still fly high."
Mia snorted. "You're so corny."
He flashed a grin and then started to walk out.
"Aren't you forgetting something?" Mia asked.
"What's that?"
"The mug I got you."
"Oh… yeah."
"I never see you use it."
"I'm using it right now. It's displayed very prominently on my desk."
"It's just gathering dust. And, you have it facing backwards. No one could even read it unless they were sitting in your chair." Mia picked up the mug and read out its pithy slogan: "Don't talk to me until I've had my coffee." She giggled. "It's funny. It's just like you."
"Yeah," he said plainly.
"Why don't you like it?"
"It's just a little goofy. Like something you'd read in a Garfield comic."
"Who's Garfield?"
"American Psycho and Carly Simon you know, but Garfield is a complete enigma," he retorted.
"Who's Carly Simon?"
"Never mind. I keep forgetting that you were too busy exorcising spirits and supervising calvings to keep up with pop culture."
"Well, we very rarely had to exorcise a spirit. Only if the channeler was too weak to sever the spirit on her own. And if we didn't supervise the calvings, the mothers could die!"
He laughed broadly. He loved accidentally stumbling on bizarre parts of Mia's past.
"You were making fun of me?"
"Obviously."
She jokingly punched him in the arm.
"Kitten? Claws!" he protested. "God, now I know how Jon and Odie feel."
"Stop talking in riddles!" Mia demanded. "You're one of the cheesiest people I know; this mug should be right up your alley."
"I can't take what is essentially a middle-aged woman's fridge magnet to the courthouse. I have a serious image to maintain."
Mia crossed her arms. "Sure, Jan."
"The Brady Bunch? Can you provide me with a two-page brief outlining your pop culture awareness because nothing is adding up."
"I told you. We had TV at the Village. We just didn't get many channels. I watched a lot of Brady Bunch reruns growing up. And you're being such a Jan right now."
Diego slammed his fist on his desk. "I'm Marcia, damn it!"
Mia looked at him in disbelief.
He laughed nervously. It wasn't that serious, Diego. "I don't need a new mug. I broke my favorite one, and I can't get it replaced, so I'd rather go without."
"The one you smashed on the defense stand during the Fawles trial?"
"I didn't smash it. I broke it with my bare hand. I have impeccable grip strength."
"How did you develop your grip strength?" Mia asked impishly.
If Diego had coffee on him, he would have done a spit take. That was brutal.
"Uh, the gym," he answered.
"You put a lot of hours in on the grip strength machine?"
"Yep."
They simply stared at each other for a moment. Mia couldn't get him to crack.
"What was on your old mug?" Mia finally asked. "I can't remember."
"It was my 'Class of 2010' mug from LTU."
"Oh, so it was sentimental to you."
"I don't know," Diego objected. It didn't feel very manly of him to get sappy over a cheap piece of porcelain probably made in a sweatshop. "I had it since I graduated from law school."
"Are you sure you can't get a replacement?"
"Yeah. It came in my grad pack. They only made enough for the graduating class."
"You could probably go to a print shop and get one made."
"Nah, it's fine. It wouldn't be the same."
"Okay."
He checked his watch again. "We have less than an hour now. We probably should get serious soon."
Mia nodded in agreement.
Once Diego returned to his office, blank white coffee mug in hand, the pair conducted a final review of his files before he had to leave for his trial.
After he left, Mia got to work on her own tasks for the day. For once, she didn't stay late. Moreover, she left early, working through lunch to accommodate this change in scheduling. She wanted to make it to the LTU bookstore before they closed that day.
After a bus ride and a short walk, she landed at her desired location right before they closed. She walked up to the register and, upon seeing a college student and a middle-aged man, chose to greet the man. She figured he was the manager and would be more helpful.
"Hi!" Mia said.
"Hello," the man replied. "How can I help you?"
"I have a bit of a weird request: I'm looking for a law school graduation mug. One of those 'class of' ones."
"Not weird at all. Did you forget to pick up your grad pack in May? We still have a few of them out back."
She shook her head. "Not for me, for my boyfriend. He graduated in 2010 but his mug broke."
"Oh, 2010. Yeah, I don't know about that. That was a while ago."
"I know," Mia agreed. "He's so old."
"Easy," the man said. "I'm 45."
"Sorry. I say that just to bug him. I know he's not actually old but don't tell him I said that."
He smiled. "My wife is like that too, and I'm only a year older than her. I'll take a look in storage, just in case. I wouldn't get your hopes up."
Mia nodded. "I understand. I appreciate you checking anyway."
Mia perused the store for a few minutes while the man checked out back. She didn't want to stand at the counter and make awkward small talk with the shy student employee. She looked up once she heard the back door open, and the man return.
"You're in luck!" he announced as he walked back to the register.
Mia met up with him back at the cash. "You're joking."
He set a dusty black LTU-branded drawstring bag on the counter. "Looks like someone in his year didn't pick up their grad pack and no one bothered tossing it out." He opened the bag and pulled out the mug. In addition to its "Class of 2010" inscription, it also had LTU's law school logo: a crest featuring a jaguar, a Latin motto, and the scales of justice.
Mia picked it up and smiled. "He'll lose his mind when he sees this. I got him another mug, but he wouldn't use it. He said it was too much like Garfield or something."
The man showed her his travel mug. "Was it like this one?"
Mia looked at the mug. It had a grumpy-looking picture of Garfield on it and read: Give me coffee and no one gets hurt. She giggled. "Oh, so that's Garfield! See, I think that's very funny."
"It's very relatable," the man agreed.
"He has no sense of humor." Mia pulled her wallet out of her briefcase.
The man waved his hand in refusal. "It's no charge."
"Really?"
"Someone already paid for it and didn't want it. Now it's yours. Merry Christmas."
"Aw, thanks so much."
"Take the bag too. It'll just sit out back. There's a pennant, a T-shirt, a water bottle, and a pen in there."
She laughed. "I don't know if I can convince him to drink water, but I'll take it. Thanks."
Mia went back to Diego's apartment and placed the mug in a cupboard and the bag atop his nightstand. Then, she went about her evening, taking a shower and catching up on some laundry. One fringe benefit of basically living with Diego was having use of a washer and dryer. No more lugging her clothes to the laundromat.
She was sitting on the couch, folding her clothes, when Diego walked in at about eight o'clock.
"Hey, how was day one of the trial?" Mia asked.
"Pretty good." He dropped his briefcase by the door and walked over to give her a kiss. He got distracted when he saw one of Mia's bras sitting on the armrest. He picked it up, looked at it, and then nodded approvingly. "Nice."
Mia rolled her eyes. "You've seen me naked. This isn't news to you."
"Yeah, but it's still impressive. It's like… a trophy."
She yanked it from his hands and placed it on the opposite armrest. "Anyway, the trial?"
He grinned. "Yeah, I think I'll win this one. We built a pretty solid case."
"That's great. It helps that the evidence was in your client's favor."
"For sure. It feels so much better to win a case when your client is actually innocent." He walked over to the kitchen to make his umpteenth coffee of the day. "Might not even need all three days. The prosecution has…" Diego trailed off. He opened the cupboard with all his mugs and coffee supplies and saw his favorite mug staring back at him.
Mia smiled slightly, but didn't look up, continuing to fold her laundry. She realized that he found her surprise but decided to play coy.
Diego picked up the mug and looked at it, dumbfounded. "How did you find this?"
"What do you mean?"
He showed her the mug. "There's a new mug in my collection."
"Oh, that! It was nothing, really. Just made a quick stop to the LTU bookstore and they had one left."
"Really? Years later?"
"One of your classmates didn't pick up their grad pack." Mia let out an exaggerated sigh. "But I know you always say that school was just a means to an end to you. Maybe I should just take it back. You don't need any extra junk cluttering your apartment."
He smiled. Maybe he had a little school spirit in him after all. "No, I'll keep it. Will bring me luck at my trial tomorrow." He walked back to the living room and gave her that kiss he forgot about earlier.
Afterwards, he looked at her for a second, thinking. If there was a perfect time to say "I love you," it was right now. However, Diego had stopped saying it weeks ago, once he realized that Mia only seemed to say it under duress. "Thank you," he said instead.
"No problem." Mia tilted her head towards the bedroom. "The guy at the store gave me the whole grad pack too. I left it on your nightstand."
He went to the bedroom to investigate. "There's another pen in here!" he called out to her. "Mine ran out of ink." He rooted through the bag. "I don't think I need a water bottle, but you can use it if you want." He pulled out the T-shirt and read the label. "I can't wear the shirt; it's a medium."
"Is that not your size?" Mia called back.
"Kitten," he bristled.
"Right, you take a small!"
"Kitten!" he protested more zealously.
Mia cackled. She had become pretty good at getting his goat. Maybe all that goat wrangling she did growing up had helped.