Hydrophilic (OPEN)

[Idalia Tsavaris]

Idalia had stopped at the Pilot Ridge Rec Center on her way home from work this evening. It was a little after noon, she really had stopped trying to make sense of her schedule and how normal people usually saw time. She was standing in a racing suit with her hair bundled up over her head in a bun. She stretched out her cap and with a mix of many years of practice and perseverance she covered her head with the plastic cap. She had already stretched out and now she stood on the edge and poked the water with her toe. It had been a while since she'd swam and she was looking forward to it. It was still far too cold outside to swim in the lake, and it was easier to do laps in a pool. Eventually though she'd take Ike with her and they'd have a grand time splashing around in the lake. After a moment of adjustment of her goggles over her eyes she took a step forward and let gravity take her.

The cold water hit her and struck her nerves waking them all at once as she sank momentarily. She curled in on herself and oriented herself horizontally and her feet kicked off from the wall and she was off in a streamline and soon enough she broke the surface and made her way through her warmup. Rowing was a nice sport and there was nothing better for a bad day than hauling ass across a lake, flying over the water with oars that rubbed her palms bloody and the burning that rose in her legs as she drove herself harder. But swimming, swimming allowed for dreaming, there was still the physical exertion but it brought about a calm in Idalia that she didn't feel rowing. In rowing she felt powerful, in swimming she felt graceful. As she took a flip turn she closed her eyes and breathed out her problems in bubbles as she kicked off. It had been a long time since she'd had a serious swim workout and sooner than it had in high school she was starting to feel weary and after an hour she allowed herself a slop fifty and glided into the wall.

The meteorologist hooked her elbow over the edge and gave herself a nice long swallow of water. She tore off the cap and goggles and tossed them onto the deck. she untangled her dense dark hair from her hairband and wrapped the elastic around her wrist before she submerged again and with a kick off the bottom launched herself up and out. She stood for a moment and pushed back her dripping hair before bending and snatching her cap, goggles, and kick board. She dropped the kick board off in the bin and went to get her stuff. It took only a few moment for her to change into sweat pants and a hoodie in the locker room. She'd shower when she got home. Or maybe even take a bath. Oh, a bath sounded nice. She was still imagining the feel of a bath when she pulled the gym door open and abruptly met with a moving door in the face. She was able to jump back enough to minimize the effect but it swatted her nose and triggered a teary eyed response. It didn't hurt all that much, but the pressure point made her large brown eyes water. Her hands went to her nose and she uttered a small, "Ow."

[Deleted]

Now that Derek had gotten more into the rhythm of his new life here in Pilot Ridge - waking up early for a 45 minute commute, working 8-5, an hour for lunch at 12pm, then returning to Pilot Ridge with the evening traffic - he was able to consider more than that simple routine. Most would prefer to simply head home after a long drive, switch on the TV, and enjoy a nice cold amber ale. But Derek knew better than to fall into that trap again. And as a former physician, he knew how unhealthy it was for him to simply be sitting in an office job day after day. His legs weren't getting any circulation no matter how properly he sat up in his "comfortable" chair.

Unfortunately, Derek was also old. Not like a grandfather, he wasn't going to be ordering from the senior menu anytime soon, but having just turned 42 Derek did meet the criteria for a middle aged man. Therefore it was important for him to keep this aging body within some positive level of physical health. Derek didn't have the stamina nor the time to go to the gym and work out for 20 minutes on 10 different machines that only covered about half the muscles which needed working. That, and his age made it difficult, and sometimes painful, to participate in too much impact activity. That was why swimming was highly recommended to the elderly and those with joint complications as a preferred means of exercise. Again, Derek wasn't quite elderly yet, but he didn't have to be to take advantage of the sport.

Derek stepped out from the locker room, his bare feet leaving wet footprints on the concrete floor behind him after having rinsed himself prior to his aquatic workout. He flung his indigo towel over his right shoulder, not bothering to wear it like a sarong around his waist like many of the younger fellows did to hide their manhood compacted behind a black speedo, as he continued down the conjoined hall from the locker rooms and pushed open the door at the end of the hall without hesitation. His extension was met with some resistance, more specifically, a "bonk!" upon what sounded like a nose, which was quickly followed by a subdued utterance of pain. Derek peered around the door, sidling through it sideways and being careful to not open it more into the woman struck.

"Are you all right, miss?" he inquired with a hidden look of concern behind his lightly tinted glasses. "Here, let me see," he insisted, removing his specs for the moment. Derek blinked as he was momentarily blinded by the sudden appearance of this meta-woman's aura in his eyes. Once focused, Derek reached a gentle hand forward with the intention of lifting her chin so as to inspect the injured nose.

[Idalia Tsavaris]

Well this was really what Idalia got. She was having nothing but bad luck. There was the issue with the Hammel weather makes making her life hell. She had to hold her temper in the face of many interviews and had to explain time and time again that what was created was not a supercell, but rather a vortex that had appeared out of thin air. It was a hard thing for her as a meteorologist to wrap her head around, much less explain it. So she kept it in the background and she’d been doing a lot of work writing a case study on the incident and she was hoping to get a publication out of it. So, well things weren’t all too bad. But giving her something to study was doing nothing to reduce the heat Idalia and her fellow meteorologists were getting from people who seemed to have a much better idea about the weather than they did.

She was wondered if people would even listen to her. She shrugged it off and let the problems fall off with the water and she left all of her stress in the pool. That bath was sounding better and better the closer she got to it. She needed to walk Ike still, that should probably happen before then. And dinner. Oh, food, food would be a good idea. But a bath… a bath, oh with a bath bomb, and some candles, maybe a book. Now, that sounded glorious. The pain that bloomed in her nose and through her face was unpleasant but unfortunately not the worst pain she’d ever had in her nose. It wasn’t like getting smashed in the face with an oar handle. Now that hurt like hell. At least the door didn’t have as much force behind it as an oar handle would. But it still hurt. Honestly, any maybe a little vainly, Idalia wondered as she held her nose if it would bruise and if it would affect her on air appearance. Oh well, they had makeup for that.

Only when he spoke did Ida look up at the man and she smiled from behind her hands. “Y-yes, I’m alright, thank you” she said sweetly and dismissively. It didn’t hurt that much, she told herself. She knew if she told herself that enough she’d eventually believe it. She wiped at her eyes, ashamed that the pain had brought on tears. It wasn’t her fault, it was a natural reaction to getting smacked in the nose. She took her hands away from her nose and sniffed to see if her nose was still in working order. Ida was a little startled by his offer but made no motion to resist. Maybe he was someone who knew something about noses. Idalia certainly didn’t know anything about biology, she wouldn’t know. Close up, she took in his features, her face heated slightly when she realized he was very much dressed for a swim. She silently scolded herself. Really, Ida, she thought, like this is something new. Come on now. Idalia suddenly felt very self conscious of her chlorine soaked hair and skin. She must look like a hot mess. Maybe she was just feeling deprived of human contact. Oh well, she shook it off. Well, hopefully he wouldn’t be able to recognize her in such a state. “Does it look okay?” She asked, half referring to the actual injury and half to the appearance of the injury. Was it noticeable? Would she have to explain it to people?

[Deleted]

Idalia's frustrations with meta powers running rampant and without any sort of discipline was one of the other reasons why Derek disliked metas, despite being one himself. In addition to their overuse and abuse, especially those of mental powers, children these days had absolutely no sense of consequence for how their playful use of their abilities might negatively affect those around them. Especially within a school such as Hammel, where the population was completely composed of meta-human children, there was a lack of proper discipline with those same kids running around and showing off what they can do before they even have the slightest handle on their abilities. That was how some of these atrocities happened which was more than enough for normal humans to feel threatened by them. After all, if they couldn't control their power, who knows how long it would be until they killed someone on "accident". And even after they learned control, that meant that any misdeeds done by them were done consciously and were even more disdainful. Given the rate of these "accidents" and misdeeds, Derek had to conclude that Hammel wasn't doing their job properly to enforce proper control on them. After all, didn't they have telepaths, pre-cogs, and suppressors at their disposal to regulate their students properly?

It wasn't something that Derek wanted to dwell on, but it was something that itched the back of his mind whenever he came across a meta. Every time he had to wonder if they were the kind who rampage and use their power against someone who had wronged them. This woman that he'd accidentally bumped with the door was no exception, at least not until he'd had a proper look at her aura and determined it to not be a immediately dangerous power. That was when he called it okay to move in like the physician he used to be and inspect the nose for further damage. Even if she didn't appreciate it, the most she could do was hit him and…well, she was only a woman.

"It's not broken, thankfully," he finally said after his brief analysis. "It might be a little sore for a while, but I doubt it'll bruise." He didn't hit her that hard, after all. Not even enough to cause bleeding. There was no reason for Derek to believe it wouldn't be fine. However, with his eyes focused so intently on her face, it was hard not to notice the faint flush which developed on her cheeks. This brought a small smile to his normally flatlined lips. Derek released her chin and took a step back. "Apologies for not being more careful," he offered with a slight nod. This woman did, however, look vaguely familiar. Which was strange because he hadn't really been in town long enough to have forgotten an interaction already with someone he presumably met only once before. Luckily, Derek was not shy. "You look familiar," he said, narrowing his eyes in further scrutiny. "Have we met before?"

[Idalia Tsavaris]

If this man wanted to bring up meta children and their problems Idalia would probably talk his ear off. Because when someone at Hammel spun something like a tornado peoples lives were in danger and it wasn’t the kid that got blamed. It was Idalia and the hard working meteorologists of her team and the National Weather Service who got blamed because they missed the warning. She had gone crazy after a close to a 48 hour shift and actually gone off on a student at Hammel. She’d written a formal apology to the school and the girl, but she wasn’t sure the girl would reply, she had been as put off by Idalia’s attitude as Idalia was by hers. But Idalia still held herself with confidence. That had been a state of emergency and yet that seemed unimportant to Hammel. They assured her they were ‘working on it’ but until they fixed it they would have an angry Idalia Tsavaris at their door every time an anomalous weather pattern popped in. If she had it her way, they would call the station and the Weather Service to tell them they were training a weather controller that day and to expect strange weather.

It was a very good thing he kept those thoughts to himself because if she knew he thought she wasn’t strong because she was ‘only a woman’ she would not be a happy meteorologist. She had the temper of a Greek and could lash her tongue as sharply as any whip and she liked to think she could do some damage, even if she wasn’t physically stronger. But for now Idalia was unaware of his thoughts and so smiled at the kind man who was looking at her nose. She sighed with relief when it wasn’t broken, she’d never broken a bone before and it would just be her luck to break her nose of all things. And not even a cool story to go with it, just Idalia being Idalia and standing too close to an opening door. “Oh good,” she said and smiled pleasantly at him, “Thank you, I’m glad.” Really and truly, she couldn’t even imagine the laughs she’d get if she walked into the station with a broken nose.

She waved a hand. “Don’t even worry about it,” she replied pleasantly, it really wasn’t his fault, he couldn’t have known she was behind the door, there wasn’t a window or anything. She probably wasn’t even the first person it had happened to. She touched her nose gingerly and sniffed testingly. She was looking down as if she would be able to see her nose from this angle. Ida looked up halfway startled by the statement. It shouldn’t, but it still startled her when people she didn’t know recognized her. She gave a bright smile, “I don’t believe so,” she extended her hand. “I’m Idalia, I’m a meteorologist for Channel X. Maybe you’ve watched that?” Idalia was used to people coming up and talking to her, she’d learned to just roll with it at this point.

[Deleted]

Indeed, they would have a lot to talk about. Derek would even forgive the woman for being a meta herself. It would prove his own faith that there were still people in this world, metas in particular, who understood the dangers of their powers and that they should not be taken lightly, treated as mere playthings, and used recklessly. That training should be held in a more controlled environment where outsiders couldn’t be disturbed. That the students as a whole required more discipline and supervision. If he had it his way, suppressors would be riding the heels of all those students with uncontrolled powers except for training purposes.

If only he were a mind reader, but then he wouldn’t be in the situation that this damned life had cruelly dealt him.

While he wasn’t a doctor anymore, Derek still held the habit of immediately checking small injuries when they occurred in front of him. Nothing major, because providing a diagnosis off the clock was always a liability and he wouldn’t have the hospital’s legal aids to protect him from a spur of the moment misdiagnosis. Because while there were procedures one had to go through to prevent that, there wasn’t always time to do a 30 minute test when the patient only had 10. But now he didn’t have that worry in one direction or the other. Since he wasn’t a doctor, it would be foolish for a person, namely this woman, to take his advice at face value and thus would be her own fault if it turned out to be more serious than he’d said. Though Derek was still fairly certain he knew a broken nose when he saw one, and this wasn’t one.

The woman was being very forgiving about the offense and he admired her for it. Derek didn’t know if even he would have been able to do so because he knew there were many ways in which this encounter could have been prevented. The woman could have stood to the side of the door as she opened it, or father away. Conversely, he could have opened it more slowly such as to give anyone on the other side proper warning of his passage. Neither of them did either, and if either had, it might have prevented the accident entirely. But her quick forgiveness might also have been a sign of being a doormat, which would be unfortunate.

Derek’s eyes turned into those of realization upon her introduction. “Yes, I do,” he confirmed. “Not every day, but often enough.” He didn’t have time to watch every day, but her reports were informative, though he merely listened to them while he did other things. Derek took her hand in a firm shake. “Derek.” His eyes narrowed and his lips twisted into a small smirk. “I’m an evil insurance agent from Company Y.” Derek chuckled softly as he released her hand. “I assume you come here often, given your aquatic preparedness, so I’m not going to bore you with an outdated and quite overused pick-up line. But I might be interested in enjoying some coffee with you later, if you’ll have it. It’s not everyday you meet a celebrity, even a local one.” She may prove interesting to speak to, given the intellect she displayed on the television.

[Idalia Tsavaris]

Idalia honestly didn’t think she would have needed a doctor to look at it, it hurt but it didn’t hurt that much. She probably would have gone home anyways and just went through a home examination. Most of the time she found that emergency rooms or urgent care units, she checked in and then by the time she saw anyone she was feeling much better. She had on more than one occasion gone home without seeing someone. Her parents didn’t like that she did that, but if she was feeling better instead of staying and taking up space and time for someone who actually needed someone to look at them. She could never be a doctor, she couldn’t handle blood or anything like that. Well, correction she didn’t really panic if she was bleeding or otherwise in pain, but if someone she cared about was she had a tendency to get a little motherly and frantic.

It would be foolish for him to make any such judgments on her nature from a simple exchange. Idalia herself had made snap judgments before, mostly when someone had been insulting or had rubbed her the wrong way. Then she was more than happy to let a conversation die and never see them again. Most of her quick escapes happened after something like this when someone thought it was absolutely necessary to tell her how she personally had ruined the nice picnic they had planned. There was only so much she could do, the atmosphere would do what the atmosphere wanted regardless of what she thought was going to happen, regardless of if she and all of her colleagues were mostly in agreement on what was going to happen. If there was anything that Idalia had learned in this field for all of the schooling and working years it was that she didn’t know a damn thing. She could be pretty sure, hell, Idalia could see the future of weather and she still got it wrong more times than she liked to admit.

She smiled, silently thanking him for not going and making some snide comment like that. Seriously, the next person who said it was good she got into a field where she could be paid to be wrong, she was going to pop some heads off. “Nice to meet you,” she said and noted the firm handshake and took his hand firmly herself. She was a woman in a male dominated field, she was used to getting ready to prove her worth and half of the battle was a strong handshake. She raised a brow and laughed at his joke. Well they had that in common, Idalia couldn’t count the number of people who’d called her a communist because she agreed with climate change, they both had to deal with angry people sometimes, he probably had to deal with them far more frequently than she did, which was good because she didn’t keep her temper very well.

Ida raised a brow in surprise, this was not the direction that she had expected it to head in. She covered her mouth as she giggled to hide her smile, but the blush that rose in her face was more than enough to show that she was extremely flattered. Idalia composed herself and nodded. She removed her hand from her face and gave him a dazzling smile. “I’d like that,” she replied, especially if it was coffee, that was one of her vices, she never said no to coffee. “But, I’m hardly a celebrity, I’m just doing my job,” she protested for a moment thinking back to that young girl she’d met who told her she was the ‘hottest’ meteorologist at the station. She’d never repeated those words to her coworkers who would have only laughed. They’d seen Idalia when she was in sweatpants and trying not to die of some illness while she was at work.

[Deleted]

One of Derek’s pet peeves from when he was a practitioner, was when patients tried to self-diagnose instead of letting the doctor examine them correctly. When they did that, a sprained wrist quickly became a cracked wrist which after that became fully broken. Or a simple rhinovirus suddenly became SARS and caused a panic of a non-existent epidemic. Then there were those who had an infection of sorts and neglected to take the full dosage of medication because they “didn’t want to depend on drugs” or “they already felt better so they must be healed”. Everyone thought they knew what was best, because clearly the one who spent 8 years learning this stuff didn’t know what he was talking about. Derek hoped that this woman wasn’t like that, but she seemed to take his advice well, though maybe she’d be better inclined if she actually knew he had a medical degree.

She was a professional, he could tell that much just from her handshake. Strong-willed, confident, probably didn’t take no for an answer if she could help it. “Yes, you as well,” he returned the pleasantry. She, Idalia, didn’t seem put off by the joke, which many didn’t know how to respond to these days. If they happened to have a policy with his company, then it was nothing but complaints as if he had the power to change anything they did with their premiums and coverage. All he did was review the actuaries, adjust the premiums, and investigate claims. He didn’t make the rules.

The smile of invitation remained on his lips as Idalia respond as a woman might, with unnecessary giggles and a flush in her cheeks. Flattery could get you anywhere, even with a career woman like this. Her smile, at least, was pleasant. Not unwelcome at all. Derek straightened himself and shifted his weight from one let to the other. He panned his eyes toward the large pool room for any oncoming pedestrian traffic, as they were still standing in front of the door and were likely to be in the way should someone come by. “You appear on television. People know your name. That’s essentially the definition of celebrity, even if it only relates to a town as small Pilot Ridge.” It wasn’t small enough to where everyone knew everyone, therefore it was still considered a special thing for people to know your name and face. “In any case,” he continued, “about that coffee. I plan to be here for about an hour. Are you willing to wait for me?” Derek smiled.

[Idalia Tsavaris]

Idalia wasn’t one to go rushing to a doctor, for one doctors were expensive and while she had insurance it wasn’t enough to make her want to rush to the doctor every time she had the sniffles. Idalia supposed that was because she’d never had any major health problems and not very many people in her family did. Her aging parents were starting to get more health problems but among her sisters, no one was sick more than another. It was perhaps this that had shocked the family so when her eldest sister died so suddenly. She knew that her parents had never really gotten over that, but how could they. Idalia was not in the mind of thinking about Rio too often, she missed her sister but she had a life to live and Rio would have wanted her to pursue her dreams. So Idalia worked harder, and longer and threw herself into her work. Being sick didn’t give her a pass, and her hours made it hard to see a doctor, so if she wasn’t actively dying she would pick herself up and put on a face and give the weather.

One day they should exchange stories about the crazy people who complained about what they did. Idalia had more than a few people who couldn’t understand why she had made it rain on their picnic. Idalia in kind couldn’t understand why people assumed she controlled the weather. She wasn’t that kind of meta human. It was a very good thing that more often than not she could defer most complaints to the public outreach people. Idalia had done a bit of that herself by trying to put a little more of her thought process into her forecast, she was trying hard to not only report but to explain why things were happening. It was a challenge as she did most of it on papers and in her head and had a hard time vocalizing it. Which was the reason she wrote notes and made her own powerpoints for the forecast. She smiled at him, well maybe they would be able to complain about their complainers over coffee.

Ida cocked her head to the side and listened to Derek's reasoning, it appeared no matter how much she argued the fact that she did the weather on television made her a local celebrity. Well, she supposed she should count herself lucky that she could still go out in public without people going nuts, if she had to be a celebrity this was the kind she was alright with. She raised her hands and shrugged. “Fair enough,” she said with a smile, she was still new she had a lot of work to do before she was able to move up to some heavily populated area even like Richmond or Raleigh. She was set here, they’d bumped her to chief and that was a hard accomplishment this early in her career and she knew she should be content but if a larger station came calling, Idalia might consider moving. Though she liked her job and the area.

Nodding Idalia’s mind was running through what she could get accomplished in an hour. “I’ll tell you what, I don’t live far away and I’ve got to go home and walk my dog, so why don’t I meet you here, outside, in an hour?” she said. Idalia was not going to wait around for him, she had things to do, but she was off work and had time now, in an hour she could get home and walk Ike and shower so she didn’t look like such a mess. Hell, she could probably even check her email and put on a least a dab of makeup so it didn’t look like she’d just rolled out of bed. Though something had to be said for their first meeting he was seeing her at her absolute worst.

[Deleted]

Derek had only been working for the insurance company for about two months. He was still technically within his 90 day trial period and could be released at any time for little to no reason whatsoever. Therefore he had to be tactful with his customers, selective about which ones he gave more attention and which ones he could afford to handle with less scrutiny. Customers were annoying in general, but even more so over the phone. If something caused an accidental disconnect, then it meant you were rude and hung up on them. If there was a problem with their policy, it was because Derek was deliberately making things difficult for them. Over the phone, there was a lack of personalization, so it was easier for customers to treat the agents as if they weren’t human. As a professional, Derek did what he could and maintained his composure. That didn’t mean he didn’t want to rip the vocal chords of every single customer that yelled at him through the phone.

The stories he had of customers were likely about as interesting and share worthy as Idalia’s. The only difference was that because he still worked in the medical field, he was technically bound by a confidentiality clause….which was fine as long as he didn’t mention the precise name of each incorrigible offender.

Derek thinned his smile into one of satisfaction. He liked winning an argument, no matter how small. He was good at it and wouldn’t accept anything less from himself.

The man was impressed with her plan. Many women would have simply said no, rescheduled, or decided to wait around like the had nothing better to do. Idalia was a proud, busy woman, it seemed. One who put work and responsibility before pleasure. No, perhaps her work was her pleasure. In that case, Derek’s opinion of her stepped up once again. He didn’t consider that she might also just merely be vain and wished to clean herself up before presenting herself. Derek had mixed feelings about women who put their appearance as such a high priority. Yes, he understood that one must look the part in addition to being it, but spending hours on pasting bacteria-infested cosmetics onto one’s face was just an unhealthy waste of time. A more natural look was often missed as being one of the most attractive kind out there.

“That sounds fair,” he said with a nod. “I will see you in an hour, then.” Derek offered Idalia one more smile as he seemed to back away from the woman. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I should claim a lane before they’re all taken up, otherwise I’ll be forced to do laps in the kiddy pool.” Derek stepped away and turned as he headed to the starting end of the rec center swimming pool.

((OOC: Wanna just time jump it and continue here, or start a new thread?))

[Idalia Tsavaris]

((I think time jumping it here is good))

It was good thing that when Idalia had taken this job she signed a contract and she couldn’t just be let go without some sort of reason. It wasn’t very secure but it was more secure than having the random possibility of being fired hanging over her head. If she had to work somewhere where she was required to be nice to people day in and day out she would probably shoot herself in the foot. Sure on air and if she was anywhere in public where someone could recognize her she was cordial but if someone wanted to send her an email or call her to demand one thing or another or accuse her of something she didn’t take it sitting down. It was a problem and she needed to work on it but honestly she hadn’t had any complaints that she hadn’t been able to prove where someone had initiated a rude exchange and provoked her. It got her a slap on the wrist and a plea from the outreach people to be more understanding but it didn’t cost her job.

There were many people whom complained, she hardly remembered names, though that one girl at Hammel, Idalia was very annoyed she didn’t remember her name, she had a few things to say about that. Admittedly Idalia knew she was acting like a crazy person, but the fact that Hammel wouldn’t see her after one of their students threatened the lives of everyone in Pilot Ridge. It was careless! Idalia was studying that storm, going over the radar and examining the damage path and running simulations trying to figure out just what happened. There had to be some physical explanation for it. Tornadoes didn’t just appear, they were very tricky, very specific processes and maybe the student didn’t realize what they were doing but that they didn’t stop when they did was what was bothering Idalia.

Ida smiled in return, “Alright, see you in an hour.” She laughed lightly and gave a wave as he turned to the pool and Idalia herself went through the door, but not without stealing a glance back. She checked the time and made a note of it before she went to her car and drove the short distance home. As soon as she walked in the door she was greeted by the booming bark of her massive Great Dane.

An hour later, Ike had been walked, and Idalia had been able to throw herself into the shower so she at least didn’t smell like chlorine. She didn’t have time to dry her hair so she took the wet mass of thick hair and fixed it up in a bun. She pulled on a pair of jeans and after far too long and three shirts later she decided to wear her comfortable green blouse, still nice but comfortable enough that she didn’t feel like she was going to work. By the time she had figured out the shirt crisis she hadn’t left herself with a lot of extra time and so she just quickly put powder over her face and a bit of mascara on her eyelashes to accomplish a polished look. Being on television meant always looking her best and usually meant a ton of makeup, so her light use felt and freeing, though if she had more time she’d probably have done a bit more. With that Ida put a pair of flat sandals on and made her way back to the gym.

By her clock she was on time, if a few minutes early. She settled herself on a bench outside when she didn’t see Derek anywhere. Part of her stomach flipped when she sat down. What if he’d already left? What if he blew her off? She steeled herself for the worst case and reminded herself that she’d gone this long, and it was only coffee, it wasn’t a big deal. She pulled out her phone and started to check her email while she waited. She sifted through her work email, reading a few and making a note of them. Well, at least nothing was breaking and no emails had been labeled as ‘IMPORTANT’ or with otherwise urgent lettering. That was always a good sign. She opened her Radar app and started looking at some interesting weather elsewhere in the country that she’d received an email about. Focused, Idalia was all but oblivious to the world.

[Deleted]

Derek was a very punctual person. He had no intention to arrive any earlier or later than he intended. It wasn’t easy however. Derek often got lost in doing the things he did, therefore he always had to have a constant reminder of the time. It was fortunate for him that there was a large clock in the pool area to which he could reference. Derek intended to work on laps for the next half hour, resting intermittently. The water was cool, but not too much. Comfortable, one of the benefits of being an indoor pool, as they were usually heated.

After each of his sets, Derek checked the time, ensuring that he was still on schedule. Once he had completed all of them, which took a little more than a half an hour to complete, Derek pulled himself from the pool and dried himself briefly. Now that his muscles had had their workout, they needed a good rest. Derek spent the next ten minutes in the spa, taking advantage of the heated water and massaging jets. He didn’t need to be there very long. Derek might have been aged, but he was still hardly an old man requiring more than 20 minutes of bath time in near-scalding hot water. Ten minutes was more than enough for him.

From then it took only another ten minutes to return to the locker room and shower, then another five to get dressed. Since he’d come to the rec center straight from work, Derek was still clothed in mostly business attire. Casual meant removing the tie and unbuttoning the top button of his light blue dress shirt. By the time Derek stepped out of the center, it had been about an hour, give or take a minute or two. He scanned the area outside for the woman, Idalia, and spotted her after a moment sitting on one of the benches. He approached casually, his eyes once again covered by tinted shades. “Thank you for coming,” he said, offering no subtlety to his greeting. “I trust you weren’t waiting long?” Derek hoped so. While it was good to arrive early to ensure you would not be late, there was such a thing as too early, which in his opinion just wasted time which could be spent on other things. But it seems, even if she had been waiting a while, she had found something else to occupy her time with on her mobile device.

[Idalia Tsavaris]

Examining the forecast and reading the discussion took up most of Idalia’s attention and she was glancing up now and again when feet appeared in her field of vision, but confirming that it wasn’t who she was looking for she went back to her work. Even when she was off duty she liked to be aware so she could be prepared if something big was happening and she was going to be called in. Honestly though, working with the weather all the time she liked to be aware but that was the extent of it. If something was interesting she would pursue it to see what other people were saying about it but otherwise while she was off duty she was off weather. There had been a time after college where she didn’t even want to look at the sky, but of course with her power that wasn’t very easy to do.

Idalia had a policy, having been stood up before, she gave everyone a text and a fifteen minute leeway. If the answer to the text didn’t have a valid excuse like traffic or something, or if they never answered she waited fifteen minutes then went home or wherever she was supposed to be. Since she didn’t have Derek’s phone number and presumably he might be swimming she was using her fifteen minute policy. But no more than a minute after their declared hour she heard his voice. She blinked and looked up giving him a smile and putting her phone in her bag so it wouldn’t bother her. She rose to her feet and shook her head. “No, not at all,” she replied, “Did you have a good swim?” Idalia was glad she’d tied her hair up, she had a tendency to play with it when she was nervous and she didn’t want to show her nerves.

“I think there’s a coffee shop a short walk that way,” she pointed down the strip, “Or did you have a specific place in mind?” Though if he did he might as well have just told her to meet him there rather than driving back, besides it all seemed very spur of the moment. Idalia couldn’t help but wonder if Derek did this often. He looked good in his business attire. As much as Idalia hated her own suits she couldn’t lie that a well dressed man was extremely attractive. She was always very jealous of men in that sense too, slacks a shirt and a tie that matched was sufficient for business. Idalia had dresses, knee length skirts, floor length, pants in all the standard neutral colors, blouses in every color, and then there were the shoes and then the jewelry and the makeup which all had to be matching. It was exhausting, and worse it was expensive. She was very content to be here in jeans.

[Deleted]

Already Derek was impressed by the woman’s demeanor. Very much a lady, though he did take note that she’d gone through the trouble of putting on some light make-up. Had it been anything more than just a few touch-ups, Derek’s impression would have fallen to thinking that she was one of those woman who thought that slathering on make-up to the point of it being a gooey mask was somehow attractive. There was a tasteful way to present yourself and this woman seemed especially competent in that area.

Derek smiled upon seeing the woman, the meteorologist for Channel X, Idalia, and nodded his head approvingly. “It was as well as it could’ve been,” he said with a light chuckle. “I am, sadly, not the energetic young man I used to be.” Nor the same stupid boy he once was who was fooled and trapped by the woman and her child which ruined his life.

“That will work just fine,” Derek said with a nod. He looked down to his shoes with an abashed expression. “Truth be told, this was all very spur of the moment, but I assumed we could handle a few last minute plan, or rather lack-of-plan, changes.” He rose his head to look her over again before motioning in the direction Idalia had mentioned previously. Presuming she followed, Derek would continue in that direction at a steady gait, his outside hand tucked casually in the pocket of his slacks.

[Idalia Tsavaris]

Idalia joined him in laugher and shook her head. She didn’t know how old he was, but he couldn’t be all that much older than she was, after all she’d passed over the dreaded thirty hump and her mother had immediately felt the need to tell her that her biological clock was ticking. Great birthday conversation. She did understand that though, mostly from the fact that she couldn’t go out drinking and dancing and not severely pay for it in the morning anymore. “Nonsense,” she said waving a hand, “But a good work out is always good.” She laughed at herself and shook her head, well that was well put, Idalia good job. She was sometimes really good with words and other times really bad. She blushed shyly from her blunder.

Idalia was a tad curious about how old he was now though. Not that she was older she wasn’t turned off by dating people older than her, it was those younger than her that made her feel bad. Waving a hand dismissively Idalia smiled. “Spontaneous plans are the most fun.” She smiled and took a moment to looked at him while he wasn’t looking at her. He was extremely attractive, she’s already seen him in a speedo and she had seen nothing but an attractive man. Not only that but he seemed like a decent man and Idalia watched him turn away and took a moment to shake her head before she caught up and fell in step with him. Either way he was nice and someone she liked to keep as a friend. “So,” she started as they walked, “how do you like working in insurance?” She asked conversationally, interested in his job because it was something new.

She was one of those people who was used to having to fight the insurance people, but she’d never met someone who worked for one of the companies. It would be interesting to get a change in perspective. She walked with him and she saw the coffee shop but a block or so down the street. She wondered if he had always been in insurance or if there was some other calling he’d had before. Then again perhaps that was all he’d wanted to be. She’d only wanted to be a meteorologist and the thought of doing anything else just seemed strange. Different things within meteorology were on her mind but doing something unrelated was not. Idalia suppressed a yawn, she’d gotten off of work and she’d had the overnight to early morning shift, so coffee was a great idea and she was thinking about the energy she would have after this.