Hydrophilic (OPEN)

[Idalia Tsavaris]

Idalia nodded. “I like to think so, or else I’m going faster through life than normal people.” She smiled warmly at Derek. It had seemed like high school had dragged on and then college had flown and well senior year was nothing more than a blink of an eye. “It probably depends on how busy you are,” she added with a shrug because when she’d been busy there had been several moments in her life when midnight and even 2AM had snuck up on her while she was still in the office. The worse had been the dates she had missed because she lost track of time. She needed to have everything in her calendar or else she forgot about it and sometimes she still forgot. She really shouldn’t blame people for dumping her. Her first love was indeed her job and she was completely okay with that.

Waving a hand dismissively. “It slows down right in the moments we don’t want it to. Like in the middle of a hard year, when things just drag on forever.” She shrugged wondering if she was close to the mark or if it was blatantly obvious she was just pulling things out of her ass. Oh well, she wasn’t quite looking for things to go fast or slow, she was just working on keeping up at the moment. Tensions between the weather community and Hammel were strained, they had not reciprocated her letters very well, making excuses and offering no solutions. She knew there were people at Hammel who were level headed but was it really too much to ask for them to not screw around with the weather. She supposed so, it was a power after all that needed to be learned and developed but Idalia swore to god she was going to throttle someone the next time cloudless vortex signatures appeared on radar.

Ah, hiking, yeah, if Ida were to be honest she wasn’t really a fan. Sure she liked going for walks and running around the lake but as far as moving and dodging obstacles like rocks, no thank you. “Oh really? Fishing? I’ve never been fishing,” she mused, “I always imagine it would be a slow sport.” She said, not implying that it was easy, just a lot of patience and well patience was not one of Idalia’s strong suits. “So you’re into the kind of water sports? Have you ever been kayaking?” She asked, she loved anything dealing with water. Kayaking and rowing. Rowing was her one true passion, well, second to weather. She showed him her palms, which were a little rougher than one would think for someone with a desk job. “I row and it’s amazing.”

Ida smiled, a dog person and a big dog person! They would certainly get along very well. “Thanks, I have a friend of a friend who knew a guy who had a litter of puppies and I just couldn’t resist. I’ve always wanted a Dane and the moment I saw him it was meant to be,” she chuckled and put her phone away. The photo that was right after the one she had showed him was one of Ike running right when his face was all flapping up and down. It was quite comical, Derek probably wouldn’t have the same impression from that. “So, Derek, the new in town, dog loving insurance agent,” she said softly crossing her legs and as she did so discretely nudging his leg with her own. Watching him over the lid of her coffee she smiled, “Is there anything about this new area I can help you with?” She raised a brow and slowly batted her eyes in what she hoped was an alluring way.

[Deleted]

Derek remembered a lot of time passing by in the blink of an eye, then all of a sudden it just stopped doing that. So he had to agree, yes, it was all relative to how busy one was. Derek hadn’t been that busy in a long time. Not even his current job could match the amount of work he had to trudge through while in school or even while running his practice. The days after that, however, seemed like a long, never ending dream. Or rather, a nightmare. He didn’t have very fond memories of that time.

“That’s true,” he agreed, lowering his head in thought. “I admit I had a very long period of that prior to my coming to Pilot Ridge. I’m not going to bore you with the details, but time, unfortunately, has not been kind to me.” Derek rose his head once again and sent her a relaxed look of appreciation. “I’ll be honest though. It is a blessing to be able to share such difficulties with someone who can relate.” Derek had an inkling that Idalia could only speak of such things intelligently if she’d experienced it somewhat herself.

Derek spread his lips into an amused smile, nodding his head in agreement at her assessment of fishing. “Yes, it can be slow. But the point of fishing is rarely to actually catch a fish,” he explained. “It’s, more often than not, used as a chance to slow down and simply relax.” It could be used at simply something to do while friends sat around and enjoyed each other’s company over a beer or two. Or alone, it was used as a chance to be alone with your own thoughts, away from the distractions of society. “Kayaking?” he repeated, straitening himself in his chair. Derek released a breath of incredulity, shaking his head shallowly. “I…haven’t done that since I was in college, to be honest. My friends and I would often raft or kayak down the rivers around here, especially during our summer vacations.” Derek didn’t realize that with that statement he may have already blown his cover of being “new” to this region. He was enjoying the conversation a little too much and had let himself relax enough to forget which details he was trying to hide. Whether Idalia was perceptive enough to pick up on it was up to her.

“Rowing. I can’t say I’ve ever tried that outside of a row machine at the gym.” If she asked him, then he might be inclined to try the real thing, however.

“A great dane. Beautiful creatures. I dare say I am envious.” He slid the photo back to her. “I’ve thought about getting one of those. But it’s difficult to find some of my more favored breeds out here in Pilot Ridge. It’s such a small town.” Therefore, there wasn’t much demand for specific breeds, causing pet-retailers to not have them available. Derek smiled and gently flit his eyes down as he felt her leg under the table. He lifted his eyes to meet her’s again. “Well, if it doesn’t put you out too much, I am very interested in becoming more acquainted with locals like yourself.” That wasn’t too subtle, was it? Of course not. If things continued down this road, Derek had a very good idea where he and this beautiful brunette were going to end up by the end of the evening.

[Idalia Tsavaris]

There were times, she remembered in graduate school when there had been just simply not enough time. Ever, it was always work, always. Her work load had not necessarily slowed down at all, it was still extremely heavy but it was definitely not as bad as it had been in school. She wished there had been more about school that had actually prepared her for a job. So, far Idalia’s career had had ups and downs, but she doubted any of them compared to Derek, she was hesitant to ask what happened, but it didn’t seem like it was his choice to stop practicing medicine. Oh well, they’d just met, no use in unpleasant talk, right?

Idalia paused in sipping her coffee to look at Derek, she hoped that sympathy didn’t show to much in her eyes. “I’m sorry to hear that, Derek,” she said reaching out a hand and gently placing it over his. She bit her lip, she wasn’t sure she could relate to quite that amount of trouble, but in helping people it always came at a price. “I can believe that,” she said with a smile and decided to offer him some of her own gripes, “It’s hard to be in a job where bad news has to be delivered and no matter what you’re going to say someone will be upset, because either your wrong, or you’re right and people don’t take you seriously.” Being a meteorologist wasn’t easy, not in a long shot.

That explanation about fishing got a startled laugh from the forecaster. She had never thought about it that way, she was more of an action oriented person and if she had to wait around she’d rather be lounging on the beach somewhere. She smiled nevertheless and listened. She could appreciate the action. Her smile widened when she caught hold of something that he was really interested in. She raised a brow as he let slip that he’d been around here before. “I bet, it’s great fun. Which rivers around here did you kayak on?” She gave a pleasant smile and gave a semi sharp look. She wasn’t upset about being lied to, but she wanted to see if he could come clean now that he was caught. It wasn’t as if she’d ever lied about something strike up a conversation with people, mostly saying she didn’t understand when she did and telling people she was lost.

“It’s a lot of fun,” she said with bright eyes, “I tell you it sucks you in.” It was often said that rowing was like a bad relationship, because ‘you love rowing, but rowing hates you’. There was bleeding and burning and just when it came down to the breaking point you remembered that there were seven other people in the boat counting on you not to give up and that wall was broken. It was one of the best experiences of her entire life. Worth all of the blisters and bandages and awkward tan lines. If he was interested Idalia knew there was a Learn to Row coming up next month, she was definitely see if he was interested.

Ida smiled, proud of her little puppy. He was in many ways her closest confident and friend, in many more ways her baby who she wanted to smother with love and protection. Ida nodded. “Sometimes you have to be willing to travel, what kinds of breeds do you like?” She asked curious. The conversation was starting to take a different turn and it made Ida smile. She fluttered her eyelashes for a moment as if considering his unspoken question. She sipped at her coffee and let it warm her. “I’d be happy to help with that,” she said smoothly her eyes tracing over his features a seductive smile on her face. She was sure that they were on the same page and she was starting to get excited butterflies in her stomach.