Vanessa Luchevski had just gotten up and gotten a cup of coffee into her before the phone rang. Lucky for the unknown caller that she had gotten that cup of coffee, or she might have stabbed them through the phone line. She detoured on her way to her second cup and picked up the receiver. "Hello?"
The voice on the other end was decidedly masculine, and very sure of itself. "Is Jennifer Tarleton available?"
Vanessa felt her eyebrows go up. Sexy voice. "No, she's not," she said, and reached for the message pad with her free hand. "May I take a message?"
A moment of silence, then a sigh. "Yes, please. Tell her that Morgan called and will try again in approximately six hours."
"No callback number?" she asked, scribbling the message down and glancing at the clock for an approximate time. Bit late, but then Jen rarely went to bed before midnight.
"I will be elsewhere then," was the somewhat unhelpful reply.
That made precisely no sense, and Vanessa almost said so before she remembered that Jen would kill her if she screwed up a potential date. "I'll give her the message, then," she said, and added, "Jen should be back then."
"Thank you, miss," he replied, then hung up.
Consumed by curiosity, Vanessa called in sick to work, and was sitting sideways on the table when her roommate came home.
Jen tossed her stuff on the couch and gave Vanessa an odd look. "You're home late," she said.
"Work didn't need me," Vanessa said, waving an airy hand. "Message for you." She proffered the paper and watched Jen's face closely.
Jen read it quickly, and smiled a sudden bright smile. "Oh, good, I've been hoping to hear from him," she said. She tucked the paper in her pocket and went to make coffee.
"That's it?" Vanessa asked incredulously, hopping off the table and following Jen into the kitchen. "'Oh, good, I've been hoping to hear from him?' Come on, Jen, who is he?"
"That's it," Jen replied, and smirked at her. "If and when anything comes of it, I'll be sure to introduce you."
At approximately six hours after the first call, the phone rang again.
"Got it!" Vanessa sang out.
"Oh, don't you dare," Jen snapped, and half-shoved Vanessa down on the couch. She got to the phone first by virtue of longer legs and shot her roommate a quelling glare as she picked up. "Hello?"
A familiar deep voice came on the other line. "Jennifer?"
She smiled again, almost involuntarily, the same bright smile Vanessa had seen earlier. "Hi," she said. "Good to hear from you. I was worried you forgot."
Across the room, Vanessa made faces at her, but was kind enough not to speak.
"I apologise. Things got a little... hectic."
If you called recruiting for the Wardens hectic. At least Dresden was physically an adult, even if he had yet to reach that stage mentally.
"Don't worry about it," she said, leaning back against the wall. "I had to get through that godsbedamned show myself." It felt bizarrely natural, talking to him, when this was only the third time she'd ever spoken to him. Judging from the faces Vanessa was making, it didn't sound like it was.
"How did that go, by the way?" he asked. "Was your director pleased?"
"Beautifully," she said. "Mel was happy as a pretentious clam. Box office wasn't too displeased, either. I think the only one who genuinely didn't like it was me."
A snort of amusement. "I did tell you that the dancing made the most sense. This was remiss of me. It implies anything else made sense."
She laughed, and dodged the pillow Vanessa threw at her with practiced ease. "I am never working for Mel again. Ever, ever, ever. I can't believe he managed to make Cole Porter pretentious."
"Proof that not all miracles are good ones."
"Amen." Another pillow; this time it made an audible thump when it landed.
"...Jennifer?"
"Yes?" she asked, innocently, and gave Vanessa a death glare.
"Is everything all right?" There was an undercurrent to his voice now, one that was remarkably akin to worry.
"Perfectly fine," she said, mildly confused. "My roommate's just throwing pillows at me because I won't tell her anything about you, that's all."
Vanessa yelped."Jen!"
"Ah." And with that, the current was gone, leaving nothing but maddeningly opaque depths overlaid with a breeze of amusement. "The curious type?"
Jen gave Vanessa a sweetly amused smile that said, in no uncertain terms, 'you're a dead woman.' "You know what they say about curiosity and murder."
"Of course." A pause. "Speaking of curiosity."
"Hm?" She straightened, almost without knowing it.
"I'm going to be in Chicago next weekend. I was curious to know if the lunch offer is still open."
Jen managed not to say anything. She did let herself punch the air. "Of course it is," she said, her voice (she thought) commendably even. "When did you have in mind?"
"Is Saturday all right? Around twelve-thirty?"
"Sure." She smiled at nothing in particular and added, "You caught me at just the right time. The next show doesn't start rehersals until next month."
"I'd almost forgotten what good luck was." The tone of voice indicated an answering smile on the other end. "Do you have a place in mind?"
"I do if you like sandwiches," she said. "There's a great deli down the street that's actually affordable."
"That sounds wonderful. What is the address?"
She gave it to him, and said, "I'll meet you there at twelve-thirty, and if there's a crazy tall blonde hanging around, that's just Vanessa. Don't mind her."
Vanessa rolled her eyes. "You're a total bitch, Jen."
"You know you love me."
"On Saturday, then," said Morgan, seemingly oblivious to the byplay.
"Saturday," Jen repeated, and really did not want to hang up.
Unfortunately, there was no choice. "Fare well until then." A click; he'd hung up.
Jen hung up very slowly, then indulged herself in a fit of air-punching. "I have adate and he is sexy!"
"Congrats!" Vanessa said, curling her legs under her on the couch's one remaining seat cushion. "So tell me all about him!"
"His name is Morgan, he's sexy, and I have a date," Jen said, grinning. "And that is all you get to know for the moment because it's all I'm really thinking."
Her roommate rolled her eyes. "If you didn't pay your half of the rent on time you would be so evicted."
Jen was rather proud of herself--she was only five minutes late, which for her was practically early. She paused a bit down the street to tug her top straight, and make sure she still looked nice without looking like she'd made an effort to look nice. There was an art to first dates, after all, and she was past master at it.
Morgan was already there, though he had thoughtfully forgone his grey cloak. There was no sign of the sword either, though with wizards that didn't mean much. He was patiently waiting for her.
She made her way up to him and gave him her best brilliant smile. "Morning!" she said, cheerfully.
He smiled back, though it was small. On the other hand, he didn't seem as though he smiled very often. "Good morning, Jennifer," he replied.
"I see you found the place all right," she said, a touch idiotically, but everyone said stupid things the first time around. "How're you doing?"
"Much better than I was." The tone was bland, but there was a hint that she had a lot to do with the sudden improvement.
That hint made her insides warm unexpectedly, and she gave him another smile. She was really smiling rather a lot lately. "Glad to hear it."
He offered her his arm with another smile of his own. "Shall we?"
"Yes please," she said, and took it, after a slight pause. Really, no one had ever done that before. Of course, no one had ever called her 'Miss Tarleton' or 'Jennifer' before. Overall, it was an extremely pleasant change.
As they entered the restaurant, they attracted several looks, but the wizard ignored them with the long patience of one who was used to such attention.
Jen, on the other hand, gave back look for steady look until they reached the counter, then grinned at the teenage girl behind it. "Morning, Allison."
"Morning," the girl replied, and glanced at Morgan. "How's life?"
"Going wonderfully, thanks. This is Allison," she said, in an aside to Morgan. "She makes the best damn tuna salad this side of Philadelphia."
He nodded to the girl. "A pleasure."
Allison gave him a steady look a match for Jen's, then grinned unexpectedly. "Likewise. Nice catch, Jen."
"Please to be shutting up now and making my usual, thanks."
Morgan took some time to read the menu, absently stroking his beard as he did so. After a moment, he elected to try something different and ordered a Reuben.
Jen made a face. "I don't get sauerkraut," she said, sliding along down the line to wait for the sandwiches. "I mean, it's basically cabbage turned sour and ew."
"It depends on where you get it," Morgan, an experience traveller, explained. "It's normally better to get it in a small, family-owned place." He considered. "Though the best I ever had was at a truck stop near Landstuhl."
"Landstuhl being where?" she asked, and added, "I dunno, I'm not terribly fond of cabbage anyway. It's basically washed-out lettuce, isn't it?"
"Landstuhl, Germany." It had been nice to visit with the damage from the Great War mostly gone. "And as with all things, it depends on the preparation."
The look she gave him this time was genuinely impressed. "You've been to Germany?"
He considered his next words very carefully. "A few times on tour with the British Army and once with the Wardens."
Oh, so many questions there. She'd figured from the slight accent that he was either an ex-pat Brit or just on vacation here, and the British Army confirmed it. But what the hell was a Warden? Probably something best not discussed in a crowded deli. "I've never been outside Illinois," she said. "Except once, but that was kind of an ill-fated trip anyway."
He raised an eyebrow. "May I enquire as to what happened?"
She winced. "I went to New York to try and make my living as a dancer." And ended up stripping, but she was sure as hell not going to share that little tidbit now. "It didn't work, so I moved to Chicago. The theatre scene is a little more forgiving here."
"I see," Morgan replied. "It's good you found a place to settle."
"Yeah," she said. "And I do like it here. It's a nice city, I get to do what I love, and I'm sufficiently far enough away from my mother to pretend she doesn't exist."
A quirk of the mouth that was definitely a smile. "Always a good thing," he agreed quietly. His mother had had several unkind comments to make when he had first joined the Army, and then later the Wardens.
"You're telling me." She rolled her eyes. "Parents. Can't live with them, wouldn't live without them."
"You should have heard my mother when I decided to move to America."
Ex-pat, then. She felt unreasonably relieved. "Bet you mine's better at the silent disapproval thing."
"No bet," he replied. "Mother was never silent if she could help it."
Jen laughed. "I like her already. It does nobody any good if you don't speak up when something sucks."
"You do have a point," he agreed.
"Fifteen," Allison yelled, and winked at Jen. "Yours is ready. Enjoy."
Jen wasn't quite sure if Allison meant the sandwiches or the date, and wasn't sure she wanted to guess, either.
Morgan fetched the sandwiches and let Jennifer lead him to a table, putting the food down long enough to hold the chair out for her.
She gave him a look halfway between gratified and puzzled, and asked, "Why do you keep doing that? Not that I mind."
He looked confused. "What do you mean?"
"The chivalry thing." She waved a hand in the air. "Holding chairs and such."
He looked as puzzled as she was. "I... never really thought about it, to be honest. It's how I've always done things."
"Huh." She rested her chin on her hand for a moment before reaching to unwrap her sandwich. "Not many men see things that way. Not these days."
Morgan knew that well enough. "I suppose I'm old-fashioned," he said. If only she knew how true that was.
"I kinda like it," she said, and smiled at him. "It's fashionable these days to get ticked off but I like being pampered sometimes."
His returning smile was wide. "I'll keep that in mind."
Jen ducked her head in a brief fit of uncharacteristic shyness and grinned at her sandwich for a moment. Goddamn, but she'd gotten lucky.
Morgan calmly unwrapped his own food and took a bite.
Hmm. Not bad. Change every now and then is a good thing. He eyed Jennifer. Sometimes a very good thing.
Yes, I am somewhat fond of drawing parallels between Harry and Morgan. It better highlights their differences, don't you think?
Jennifer Tarleton played by TigerKat24.