It's Still Not A Date

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Liam had passed by the building with Walton Industries emblazoned on the front countless times on his own way to work. This was his first time actually going inside, but he already had an idea what to expect. Like most major corporations, the interior was designed to make an impression. You always wanted your clientele to be comfortable and be assured the business was a successful one. Business, however, hadn't drawn him inside. The woman Liam had met late last year – that he had spent this past month getting to know – had a job for the tech company. So Liam had come here wanting to do something nice for his friend. He wanted to surprise Mia by taking her out to lunch.

Friends did that sort of thing. Liam might not have much experience on that front, but he could observe what other people around him did just fine. The internet had also proven helpful in that regard as well. For such a simple, well-meaning idea, he wanted to kick himself for not thinking of it first. To be fair, Liam had considered taking her out to lunch, but during working hours? That part had sounded almost scandalous to him. Mostly because of his bad tendency to just eat lunch at his desk while he was working. He walked up to the front counter.

"Mia Suzuki, please." Liam told the receptionist. "She works in IT."

The young woman continued typing on the computer in front of her without bothering to look up from her work. If Liam didn't know better, he might have thought she was ignoring him. "One moment. Who may I say is here?"

"Liam. Um. Liam Darcy." Once he'd given his name, the receptionist dialed Mia's number to inform her she had a visitor.

Mia Vukovic

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Mia’s cover was in trouble. Walton Industries was in legal trouble. WhitTech was filing a lawsuit against them in civil and criminal courts. Mia wasn’t even wanting to read into the half of it; but that didn’t make her feel very secure in her job. To be honest, she wasn’t have a great day after finding out that tidbit of information. Mia wasn’t one to care about stocks but that had been falling if it could even fall anymore. Leave it to the RGB to get her a cover with a company with one of the worst reputations in the city. Oh well, that was for another day.

Mia was fixing yet another computer on the lowest paying job in Chicago. Mia picked up her phone as it rang. It was her work cell. Usually because no one knew where she was going to be in the building at any given time it was just easier. Mia left the thing at work all of the time. She really hated being bugged after hours.

“This is Mia.” She called into the phone just before the receptionist said that Liam was there. “I will be right down.” Mia really couldn’t give a time frame on how long it would take her to tower down the stupid skyscraper. The elevator didn’t go past the 10th floor on its way up and 11th floors on its way down, for some reason it was having mechanical issues. Mia ran down the stairs from the 12th to the 9th story before getting on the elevator. Seriously, someone needed to fix that. She made a point to put in a call with the fire department.

Liam Darcy

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After the secretary called up and told him that Mia would be right down, Liam took a seat in the lobby, patiently waiting in a seat that offered a view of the elevators on both sides of the building. It had taken a fair share of courage to work up the nerve to come here today and even think about asking. In fact, Liam might have used up a year's supply. Thankfully, he didn't have that long to think about it here. He spotted Mia getting off one of the elevators.

Getting up to greet her, Liam gave the petite Asian woman a small wave. "I hope you don't mind that I came to see you at work." Because, well… if she did, this plan was going down in flames before it ever began, but what had been a chance meeting in a coffee shop had started growing into an unlikely friendship. "I thought you might like to grab lunch together. You know… if you have time or… you haven't already had lunch, have you? I wasn't sure what time you went."

But that was the thing about Mia. She had been encouraging him to be bolder, to take more chances. Liam could appreciate the sentiment, even if he found it a difficult one to wrap his mind around. All he had to do was look at Mia. She didn't let anything phase her – at least not that he had seen. He could try doing more than just testing the water's temperature experimentally with his foot so to speak. This impromptu meeting between friends certainly qualified as bolder. At least Liam thought so.

Mia Vukovic ,

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Mia hadn’t gone to lunch yet for the day. “No, not at all. I not used to company at work.” Normally Mia just brought her lunch and ate in the cafeteria. “I go to the cafeteria here; but you want real food.” Yes, she was admitting that the food at Walton Industries was terrible. She shook her head. “But if you want to rescue me from cafeteria. I would not say no.” She teased taking him up on his offer.

The boldness suited him. Mia smiled, it was a nice change of pace. She waved her work phone at the desk receptionist. “I have with me if you need. Tell Huntfield, I be back to finish reset after lunch.” No she didn’t want that call as she turned to Liam. “So, where to?” Mia wanted to hug him for the sentiment but now was probably not the best place for that sentiment.

Liam Darcy

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Okay, so maybe Liam hadn't thought everything all the way through. He'd come to take Mia out to lunch and hadn't even decided where to take her. Definitely not off to a good start, Liam scolded himself. Or maybe he should be asking Mia where she wanted to go? That seemed like a reasonable idea too, but he was taking too long to make up his mind, wasn't he? Well… shoot. Who knew a simple idea could be so complicated? You'd think he was trying to plan how to build a time machine. Liam knew one thing, at least: he wasn't taking her to the building's cafeteria. Maybe he should just come clean with her and admit there were a couple of things he'd failed to work out.

"So, remember how you're always telling me to be bolder? I did that. I may have missed a step in the planning process. I never actually picked where we were going." Liam flushed red at the admission. His first attempt at this and he'd managed to screw this up. If nothing else, maybe they could just improvise and pick somewhere along the way? There were a couple of nice-looking cafes that he'd passed coming here. That was one of the nice things about living in such a big city: there was no shortage of nearby eateries. Somehow this sounded like a bad fantasy novel. "Uh… just consider me your knight in shining armor without a plan, but here to rescue you from the clutches of terrible cafeteria food… I guess?"

Mia Vukovic