1. The First Meeting or Lunch in the Union

First in a series of short stories documenting the relationship of Bree and Jim. Foundation pieces for a larger novel. The first time Bree meets Jim.

The First Meeting or Lunch in the Union

“Damn Marissa, why did I follow her down here?” she mumbled as she stood in line. Yeah the position with Metro looked to be a good one, and they offered her a heck of a package, so she grabbed it. Besides, it wasn’t like Montana had been her home. That little apartment they shared downtown had been awesome, but she’d only been up there to be with Alistair in his last years. She’d finally gotten the last of his things sorted and was just living to work. 

So when Marissa had gone looking for work back in her hometown, Bree had decided maybe it was time for somewhere new too, and the nice thing about their job is that there’s always work for someone that isn’t a total screw-up. Marisa found a place with Metro practically 24 hours after Mar did. It was, as they both said when Bree told her current partner and best friend at the start of one of their last shifts in Great Falls, “Brilliant!”

Now she stands in line, arms holding a couple books in a press of people, some of which seem barely old enough to be standing in a college bookstore. A bead of sweat has gotten brave and is now working its way down the small of her back, and a little monster has apparently taken up residence in her stomach and was making its unhappiness about it plainly clear. The rack of candies and treats just under the counter with the register seemed to call to her. Especially those damnable peanut butter cups, shaking her head at herself and doing the rough math in her head, “That’d be an extra day of running I can’t afford right now, especially not with all this orientation and other crap have to do.” 

Finally at the register, she plops the books- new editions of PALS, ACLS and Desert Medicine and pulls her wallet from her pocket to fish out her money. Smiling at the girl ringing her up, she asks “Best place to grab something decent to eat nearby?” The girl doesn’t return the smile, but suggests any of the kiosks on the south side of the Union, just through the big doors. 

Bag in hand, Bree finds herself out the ‘Big doors’ that she was directed to and smells food. Food, people, and that underlying heat that she’s come to realize permeates everything, and is distinctly Tucson. She finds the signs for the food lines, queueing into the one that isn’t for meal plans, and waits. Again. She usually doesn’t mind being short, but when she’s so close that if she had another five inches she’d be able to see around the wall of a man in front of her and maybe decide on the something that would shut up that grumpy beast making itself known again. 

At the quite loud grumble in her stomach, the man in line before her turns and looks down to where she stood placing a hand over her stomach and smiled empathetically at him. For a moment, it wasn’t just her stomach that silenced. Eyes so blue they reminded her of a lake in Montana that escaped her mind at that moment. He was tall, incredibly tall at that moment and she craned up to smile apologetically in return. 

“Sorry. Skipped breakfast. I shouldn’t have but it happens when you can;t find things in your apartment.” She surprised herself. Why is she explaining herself to him? maybe she just didn’t want him to turn around just yet. Her medic’s brain kicked into gear to stomp the embarrassment  into the ground. “Male, six foot even, approximately 210 maybe 220 lbs, possibly on the heavier end due to musculature. Pulse approximately on low end of normal, respiratory rate on low end of normal, deep and even. Physically fit, runner’s build, asthma or other pulmonary disease unlikely, same with cardiac problems, possible problems with knees, ankles, hips. No stretch marks on visible arm portions, unlikely to have substance use issues.” runs through her mind. Years of patient assessment drives her primal brain. She does it with no effort.

Suddenly she realizes he’s talking to her. She’s missed it, but how? She’s never been distracted like this. “Um, sorry, could you repeat that? I must have zoned out, I’m starving.” She answers.

He smiles at her, flashing what she notices are straight teeth and revealing dimples in both cheeks, “Sure, I said that I know how you feel. My alarm didn’t ring this morning, so I barely made it out the door in time to be in class on time. So, besides starving, what brings you?” 

Bree holds up her bag from the bookstore as evidence to him, “Bookstore, need a few things for a couple quick classes. I’m glad I did this today, since they start tomorrow.” He nodded in acknowledgment.

The line had been slowly creeping forward and they moved with the press of people and where now faced with the choices of food. She looked up at the menu board just after he did. A few things looking absolutely delicious to that little monster living inside her. Looking down the line, she could see pre-made dishes with all sorts of foods on offer. At the grill, she requested a cheeseburger, medium rare with swiss cheese, happily taking taking it on a tray and moving forward to grab a fresh looking salad and a packet of sesame vinaigrette before reaching for an apple and treating herself to a bottle of Dr Pepper. 

  At the cashier, she digs in her pocket, attempting to balance her tray and bag to dig out the bills to pay for her lunch when the lady waves her off, telling her that her friend had paid for her already. Standing at the condiments station, the man waved at her and smiled once again. Blushing, Bree hurried to the station and thanked him for lunch as she snatched a couple packets of salt, pepper and things for her burger before looking around for a place to sit and eat. 

The only available table was one with two chairs. Still being thankful for the purchase of her lunch, she invited him to sit with her. It was only once they had settled themselves at the table that she realized he had almost exactly the same thing she did, but instead of the apple, he had a banana. They sat in a companionable silence eating until she realized she hadn’t even introduced herself. 

“Name’s Bree.” she rushed out after taking a swallow of her surprising good burger and reaching for her drink bottle. He reached out and screwed off the lid for her. “Didn’t mean to be rude, plus I need to thank you for the meal.”

He dropped the lid onto her tray and wiped the little bit of wetness caused by the carbonation onto his shorts before answering with a smile, “James, well Jim.” He smiled another one of those dimpled smiles at her. 

Extending her hand to finish the introduction, “Nice to meet you.” They said at the same time. They continued eating and talking about little things like the oppressive desert heat, how difficult parking was to find around the college and finding out things like she had just moved to town in the last month and he was a cop who what working on a Master’s degree. 

*Ding* a sound traveled up from Bree’s back pocket, her phone signaling a received message, causing her to jump as it vibrated under her. She pulled it out and made a lopsided kind of smile. A message from her best friend. Clicking on the screen and bringing it up, she made another unreadable face, typed something in and then clicked the screen black again before setting it on the table next to her tray.

Jim gave a little laugh at the sound, “Super Mario Brothers? Really?” He asked with a little lift of one of his eyebrows.

“Yeah,” Bree answered, feeling a little flush on her cheeks as the eyes looked at hers. “My best friend and partner. I’m the Mario to her Luigi. It’s ben a running joke for the last 5 years.” She noticed a look of disappointment in his eyes that didn’t make it to his face before she continued, “She’s my partner on the ambulance. I’m not actually seeing anyone.” She snapped her mouth shut and scrunched her eyes closed, oh why did she say that? She’s only just met this guy, besides what did it matter if she was or wasn’t dating someone. 

“No, its cool,” Jim tried to relieve the embarrassment that rolled off her at that moment. “I knew what you meant. You did just say you followed her from Montana.” He saw her relax and open her eyes again, taking a moment before that easy smile of hers returned. 

“Thanks, I think I was about ready to die when that popped out of my mouth, sometimes it talks before my brain tells it what to say.” Bree tried for cool and collected but noticed a tremble in her fingers as she reached again for her drink. 

Having finished their food, Jim grabbed their trays and turned over to the trash and dumped in the papers before slotting the trays themselves into the nook on top. his happened to give her a chance to collect herself and see a glimpse of muscle and, is that a tattoo? Turning back to the table, his phone beeped to remind him that he had another class coming up. 

“Well, that’s my cue. Just enough time to get to my next class.” He stood up and reached out again to shake her hand. “See you around sometime?”

A shaky smile formed on her face as she shook his hand. “Sure… though I won’t likely be on campus again after I finish these refresher classes. How about you give me your number and I can maybe call sometime?” she asked, quite boldly, surprising herself as the words came out. 

Another of those stunning dimpled smiles gave her his answer. He dug into his pocket, opened his wallet and pulled out a card. He snatched a pen she hadn’t even noticed he had and wrote something on the back of it and handed it to her. “Sounds good. Sorry, but I have to run. Sociology waits for no man.” 

Holding the card in her hand, still smiling and shocked that that had even happened, she watched him walk away. Again her inner medic assessing, “Tall posture, square shoulders, shirt hugging those shoulders, khaki shorts that fit in the right places and muscular legs, the right calf with a tattoo, and shoes more appropriate for a high school skateboarder than a grown man.” She shook her head realizing that was NOT assessment, that was checking this man she’d only met 40 minutes before.

She gathered her head together, grabbed both her bookstore bag and her phone. Stood and tucking the card into her pocket left the Student Union to begin the walk back to her car. Clicking on her phone, she messaged her best friend to see if they needed anything from the store on her way home. 

Author's Note

First draft, no editing done. Any tweaks or editing is welcome.

Reviews

[SweetNutmeg]

I love it already!

I like leaving things for the reader to figure out, giving them clues rather than shoving things down their throats, but there is always the opposite problem of being too mysterious and not giving enough clues. I err on the side of with shoving things down the poor reader's throat, so I admire your restraint and subtlety, but there were some spots of confusion for me.

For example: “Damn Marissa, why did I follow her down here?” she mumbled as she stood in line.

We start out with an unidentified person when it would be simple to say "Bree mumbled" instead of "she mumbled."

A bit more confusion here: "new editions of PALS, ACLS and Desert Medicine." Desert Medicine seems to point toward a medical course, but PALS and ACLS don't tell us anything.

You include lots of details that give your story texture and reality, which I really like, but sometimes they are a bit off or unnecessary. For example: "she snatched a couple packets of salt, pepper and things for her burger" I like the concreteness of packets of salt and pepper, but then you go vague and don't list the other things she snatches. For me, I'd enjoy it more if you either listed all the things, or only mentioned the salt and pepper. It feels sort of unbalanced to combine the specific and the vague in one list.

This story is off to such a good start that I am going to definitely read the rest. I will review them all if you'd like me to. Feel free to give me direction in what you want from a review... every little thing that gives me pause, the big picture, character development, grammar, etc. I aim to please.

[I Write, alright]

Thanks for the review hon.

I've written these as a fill for building a relationship between Bree and Jim. So I can have a timeline and to use as a reference when I flashback memories in the bigger novel I'm writing. I figure it would be easier to have them to reference to and not end up mixing memories when I write- something that puts me off when I read, personally.
I'll go in and putter around with a few suggestions. I think you've got a few points that would clear things up if I decide to put them into an anthology at some point.

I don't know that there's a Desert Medicine course, but PALS and ACLS are both American Heart Association courses required for paramedics- they are pretty much the manual for the way "heart attacks" and other cardiological heath problems are treated in an emergency. I could probably throw in a quick snippet of him asking about the books my main character has in her not unseen bag. I figured the "Desert" course would be a good point to Bree's recent arrival to working in the desert location.