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Post by rosie on Nov 29, 2008 0:37:11 GMT -5
18th November 2008
It was almost a week since Rosie had found out about the untimely death of her much loved brother Tony, and the girl quite frankly had been heartbroken. She had moved herself into his apartment, because she had to clear it out of his belongings, which was something she hadn't found easy to do at all. Now she had it pretty much the way she wanted it to look. There were still family photos around obviously, and she had kept one jumper of Tony's. She didn't know why, but it was one she always used to wear when she was visiting him and felt cold. It was big on her and she liked how she could almost wrap it around herself twice.
Today, surprisingly it wasn't very cold, given that it was November. She pulled on Tony's jumper, picked up the bags of clothing and dropped them off at a charity shop before making her way to a local park. She sat down on a bench and stared out at the pond. She never thought of bringing any bread with her though which was a shame, because she could have fed the ducks on the pond.
Instead, she found herself realising just how much she actually missed Tony. Well of course she would, she loved him so much. Life without Tony would never be quite the same again. She wrapped the jumper around herself as she crossed her arms around her, brought her knees up, rested her head on her knees and sighed, thinking of the good times she and Tony used to share, and as much as she didn't want them to, tears began to fall.
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Post by Ira Grey on Nov 29, 2008 18:23:53 GMT -5
Ira shut down his computer and swung his shoulder bag over his shoulder, standing up to leave. As he exited the building, he noticed that it still wasn't very cold outside and decided to walk the few miles back to his apartment instead of taking a taxi. It had been a long, complicated case that they had just finished up, he reflected. They had been tracking the guy for days, and Ira had spent hours hunched over his computer, going through the suspect's hard drive that had been found, trying to find some clue of where the punk would hit next. Fortunately, they had been able to wrap the case up today and Ira was looking forward to a relatively stress-free evening.
He cut through a park, his combat boots scuffing on the gravel path. There was another perk of his job, Ira thought. The dress code wasn't strict, especially for the "techies," as the field agents so lovingly referred to him and the other analysts as; Ira wore jeans and a t-shirt to work most days. He paused for a second as he approached a park bench, seeing a young woman sitting on it, crying slightly. Ira wasn't quite sure what he should do; he felt like he should make sure she was okay, but he was never good at this kind of thing.
Moving on impulse, he approached the bench slowly. "Hey, um, are you okay?" he asked tentatively.
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Post by rosie on Nov 29, 2008 22:49:12 GMT -5
Rosie had really tried not to get upset over the death of her brother, but well it wasn't an easy thing to do. How many people found it easy to get over the death of a sibling? Not many she suspected. Now here she was sitting on a park bench, wearing Tony's jumper, the old faithful one she always borrowed from him when she was cold. Trying to get over it all, but finding it increasingly difficult to do so.
When she heard someone approach, Rosie turned her head the other way, it was bad enough she was in tears, she didn't want a stranger seeing her like that. However, the next thing she knew he was talking to her, and Rosie wasn't brought up to ignore people. She wiped at her eyes, probably smudging her make-up everywhere and giving her panda eyes. She turned to him slowly, looking up at his face.
"Thank you" she said softly, through her tears which were still there regardless, and she gave him a weak smile, she wasn't quite sure what to say. How do you just tell a stranger you're in mourning.
"My brother died less than a week ago, guess you could say I'm finding it a little tough" she finally managed to get out, as she put her knees down and wrapped the loose jumper sleeves on her arms around her stomach instead and looked at him with a sad tear stained face, but a weak soft smile. "Sweet of you to stop by and ask" she added.
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Post by Ira Grey on Dec 2, 2008 11:43:05 GMT -5
Ira stood awkwardly next to the bench for a minute as the young woman spoke.
Ira felt his eyes unconsciously widen. Oh. Damn. Still moving automatically, not sure if he should, he tentatively sat down on the bench next to her. He had never been good at...this. Well, talking to anyone of the opposite gender, for that matter; he most often practically melted in a puddle of awkward shyness whenever he attempted to talk to a woman, but he also never knew what to do to try and comfort people when they were upset.
Ira gave her a slight smile in return. What next, what next, what next, he thought wildly, trying to think of what to say next. Hoping it would stave off the awkward silence that he was sure was coming, he introduced himself. "I'm, uh, I'm Ira."
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Post by rosie on Dec 2, 2008 18:12:29 GMT -5
Rosie could tell she had made the stranger uncomfortable. He was obviously the type of guy who didn't bode well with females in this sort of situation. However, Rosie wasn't absolutely devastated like she was when it happened, just very sad, and sometimes with the help of someone you could get over that feeling of being extremely sad.
It seemed the best he could do was to offer her his name. Rosie actually felt it was a nice gesture, and found herself smiling at him despite of herself and how she was feeling.
"Well, hello Ira" Rosie said with a weak smile. "I'm Rosie" she offered her own name and then found herself asking "What brings you here?" simply because she didn't know what else to say to him.
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Post by Ira Grey on Dec 2, 2008 23:59:50 GMT -5
The woman managed a weak smile at Ira, and he felt a slight feeling of satisfaction that he had somehow gotten her to smile. She introduced herself back, as Rosie.
"I'm just--just heading home from work," Ira said. "Wasn't too cold, so I figured I could just use the walk." He ran his hand through his tousled hair, finally realizing how tired he was after the long case, the eighteen-hour stretches at work for the past week or so. He just wanted to settle in at home with a good book.
Ira glanced over at Rosie again, not quite sure what to say next.
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Post by rosie on Dec 3, 2008 4:19:59 GMT -5
Rosie nodded her head. "I see" she replied when he said he had been heading home from work.
"I didn't feel too cold myself" she said, even if she was now huddling inside the jumper which belonged to Tony. "Although I'm sort of feeling a bit cooler now. This jumper belonged to my brother" she explained softly, the man seemed to be very uncomfortable she noticed. She didn't want to be the type of person to cause someone to feel uncomfortable around her.
"You're not very good around women are you?" she asked, looking into his eyes for a second and then looking away again. It probably wasn't the best thing to have said, but Rosie found she couldn't help herself.
"Maybe I should just go" she said as she thought about getting up from the bench and making her way back to Tony's apartment which she was now making her own.
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Post by Ira Grey on Dec 4, 2008 10:56:58 GMT -5
As Rosie agreed that it wasn't too cold, and went on to say that her sweater had belonged to her brother, Ira looked down at the sidewalk. She was obviously still upset over the death of her brother, but he didn't know what to say to her.
"Is it really that obvious?" Ira asked, feeling himself blush, smiling sheepishly. "I'm really not." He looked down again, then managed a glance back at Rosie. "I'm...um, sorry this got so awkward," he managed. "I just...just wanted to help..." he trailed off.
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Post by rosie on Dec 5, 2008 0:28:29 GMT -5
Rosie decided that she would stay after all, because talking to someone, anyone, was helping to take her mind off of Tony and right now that's exactly what she needed.
"Yeah, it really is that obvious, but don't worry about it it, I think it's actually kind of sweet, rather than having a guy falling all over me like normally happens" Rosie said, as she nudged him slightly.
"It's not really that awkward though, and you have helped, more than you probably know, just getting me talking has helped" Rosie said softly, as she looked into his face once more and caught his gorgeous eyes and chiselled look.
"Why don't we find somewhere and go for a coffee or something?" Rosie asked him sweetly, as she put her hand on top of his and gave it a gentle squeeze, "I don't bite and I'm actually rather nice when you get to know me" she added.
Sure a couple of weeks ago she was chasing after some rock god and sure she had a fetish for them, but what had that done for her in life so far? Absolutely nothing. Maybe it was time to look at the nicer people in life.
Although she'd still have a thing for rock music and rock gods, she just wouldn't chase after them anymore.
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Post by Ira Grey on Dec 5, 2008 19:11:05 GMT -5
Rosie nudged him and Ira felt himself blush again. He had always been like this...ever since he was a kid, he had never found it easy at all to talk to women. He always just clammed up and probably appeared to be mentally subnormal.
"Well, I'm...I'm glad I could be of some help." Ira managed a smile. He hadn't been sure of whether he had helped at all, or just made the whole situation more awkward than necessary; it was a relief to find out he had been some help.
When Rosie touched his hand and suggested they go get coffee, Ira felt himself blush furiously a third time. Come on, pull yourself together, Ira, he told himself. It's not like you've never been on a date before. "Sure," he agreed, finding himself smiling, hoping he could manage to not make too much of a fool of himself.
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Post by rosie on Dec 6, 2008 19:35:55 GMT -5
Rosie felt terrible with the guy being so awkward around her. He seemed so nice and all she wanted to do was to talk to someone. However Rosie was such a warm hearted woman she'd do her best to keep him from completely clamming up on her.
"Of course you should be glad, you should always be glad to know you've helped someone" Rosie said kindly. She didn't care how long it would take, she'd bring him round. Somehow. Not that she wanted to jump the guy or anything like that, he just seemed a really nice guy who ought to be more open around women. Rosie thought hopefully she'd be able to help him with that.
"You sure blush a lot, don't you?" Rosie asked him, teasing slightly, and giving him another gentle nudge. "Really you can't be like this around me, because I'm likely to keep saying things which will constantly make you blush" she added giggling slightly. But she was glad when he said he would go for the drink.
"Good" she said, as she stood up, and instinctively put her hand into his sort of pulling him along with her. "Come on then" she added and grinned at him before leading him in the direction of the local Starbucks which would only take them about ten minutes to reach.
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Post by Ira Grey on Dec 7, 2008 19:33:04 GMT -5
Ira slowly began to feel himself relax slightly, as Rosie seemed like a genuinely nice person, not really seeming to mind his tongue-tied-ness, and she had cheered up significantly from when he had first come along, thanks to him just talking to her, Ira thought, feeling a slight sense of satisfaction.
Despite what Rosie had just said, Ira felt his face grow warm again, and he smiled sheepishly. "I'll see if I can work on that."
When Rosie took his hand as they started towards the nearest Starbucks, Ira was a little surprised but it felt strangely...natural. Or something like that. Hoping to keep the conversation going, he continued with the first thing he could think of. "So, um, what do you do for a living?"
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Post by rosie on Dec 9, 2008 18:02:21 GMT -5
Rosie couldn't help but laugh when he blushed again, after she told him he really had to stop blushing so much, as she'd be likely to say things a lot which could make him blush. She found it hilariously cute.
"Yeah it needs work" Rosie said grinning, "In fact I think it needs a lot of work" she added and then began to laugh again. "But the way I see it" she continued, looking into his wonderful eyes and grinning, tongue sticking out in a teasing way, "The more time you spend with me, the better you will become" she finished grinning.
When he asked what she did for a living, it was Rosie's turn to blush, as she never really had a job, in all her life all she had ever done was chase rock stars. "I've actually not got a job, I really need to find one, guess I've never really needed to work before, but I kind of do now" Rosie explained warmly.
"What about you? What do you do for a living?" Rosie felt herself asking as they continued to walk in the general direction of the local Starbucks. Within ten minutes, just like she'd predicted they were there. She was still holding Ira's hand, so she opened the door with her free one.
"What would you like?" she asked him softly and smiling at him.
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Post by Ira Grey on Dec 15, 2008 15:07:23 GMT -5
After Ira blushed yet again, after Rosie told him he needed to stop blushing so much, she laughed, and Ira couldn't help but laugh too. He was slowly, very slowly, starting to relax more, feel more comfortable.
Ira smiled again. "That's true, I guess." He paused, shrugging slightly. "I'm not always like...this, you know, " he blurted out an explanation. "Just when...I don't know someone." He glanced at Rosie again, offering an apologetic shrug.
When her asked about Rosie's job, it was her turn to blush, and she went on to explain that she hadn't ever really had a job. Ira nodded. "Nothing wrong with that," he said, and then she asked him about his job. "I'm an analyst for the FBI," he responded, smiling. "It's a good job."
They were entering the Starbucks by this time, Rosie still holding onto his hand, and Ira finally settled on what he wanted to drink.
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Post by rosie on Dec 15, 2008 21:55:33 GMT -5
Rosie was glad when Ira laughed along with her, when he blushed again after she told him to stop blushing so much. It was nice to know that they could laugh together.
"Well it's not easy I guess, speaking to someone you don't really know" Rosie said softly, "But the more you talk to me, the less of a stranger I will become" she said with a grin. She couldn't help it, she wanted Ira to feel completely comfortable with her. He had managed to cheer her up over her brother's death, something she hadn't thought at all possible.
"I'm glad you didn't find it a bad thing, me not working, and yes it does sound like it's a good job, the FBI, it makes you sound like a really important person" Rosie said with a laugh, oh to know an FBI Agent and be on his arm, that would really be something.
They were now in the Starbucks, and Rosie ordered herself a latte, and then she looked at Ira again, "What would you like?" Rosie wanted to treat him to the drink for cheering her up, she just hoped he wouldn't refuse and insist on paying because it was the gentleman thing to do.
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