Dates and ducks Who: Katarina & Mia What: A date in the park When: Sunday 10th Where: St James' Park Warnings: Discussion of Chronic Illness Completion Status: Complete
Katarina did not have the best track record of being on time for things, and unfortunately neither did either of the other people working at The Creative Collection. Thankfully between them they did manage to bumble along and make it work, and encourage each other. Still, she’d had to convince both Caleb and Etta to help her conserve energy throughout the week and change and leave the shop on time to help her Sunday afternoon date.
Unfortunately they had been a bit overenthusiastic and she arrived early at the cafe and found herself a seat facing the windows with a can of coke. She had emergency crutches tucked into wizardspace in her bag, but she was mostly feeling good. And the weather wasn’t the brightest, but it did look like they might be able to find some time to go out and take a turn around at least part of the lake.
She hadn’t brought anything to particularly entertain herself because she wanted to be present for the date, and to look out for Mia. She was distracted from watching the door by looking out over the lake. As ever she looked a bit out of place in her floral dress and cute cardigan for warmth, her beige, t-bar heels, and a string of inherited pearls. Watching the ducks, who seemed a mix of cautious and opportunistic was making her smile, one hand twirling one of her long curls absently from time to time. Professionally, Mia was excellent at punctuality, but personally, it could get a bit murky. Today, especially, she seemed to be running behind. She just couldn't help it. Katarina was ridiculously gorgeous and super femme appearing, which was more than a little intimidating, if she were being honest. She'd gone through what seemed like her entire closet trying to figure out what to wear. Katarina had seemed so authentically herself, which left Mia feeling a bit lost in her own identity. She finally settled on jeans, a white shirt, and the jacket from one of her dating profile pictures. Her hair was a little shorter than normal and charmed her preferred bright purple, and she'd even taken the time to apply a little bit of eye makeup.
Would Katarina find her attractive? It seemed impossible, but Mia was running on that nervous, excited adrenaline as she hurried into the cafe at the park. She didn't notice Katarina right away, though as soon as she turned her head toward the window, she couldn't imagine anyone not noticing the gorgeous woman.
Mia pulled her lower lip between her teeth briefly, pressing a hand to her nervous stomach, before crossing over to her. "Hi! Katarina, right?" she asked with a smile, though it wasn't as though the woman could be mistaken for anyone else. Alerted more to Mia’s presence by the sight out of the corner of her eye than the sound of her arrival Katarina turned in time to hear her own name and smiled brilliantly. She stood as carefully as she could without making it too obvious, only to realise the height difference between herself and Mia. She held out her hand and dipped her face slightly, not sure if she was one for either hugs or French-style kisses as a greeting, but open to it if it came. “Yes, and you’re definitely Mia. I love the hair and jacket combo!” She had found Mia attractive in her profile, of course, but hadn’t quite expected this combination of cute and curvy. It seemed vaguely pejorative, even in her head, but they were the words which leapt out at her. Then several more deeply inappropriate thoughts that she quickly buried.
“I would have waited for you to get my drink, but I wanted to secure the table near the window,” she said, gesturing to the part-drunk coke. “The cake also looks good if you’re interested.” When Katarina stood up, Mia tipped her chin up a bit, surprised by how tall she was! That hadn't come through in her pictures, at all, not that Mia had any particular opinions about it. But Dios, she was just as gorgeous in person! "Thank you! It's a favorite. Both. I mean, both are favorites. Dios, you're beautiful. I mean..." Her cheeks darkened as the words tumbled out of her mouth without her permission, and she had the urge to run away from the embarrassment of it.
"Sorry. Umm, yes, the window table is ideal, isn't it? I'll just go get a drink, then," she said, happy to take the out and give herself those precious minutes to regroup and, hopefully, regain control of her tongue. She ignored the bit about the cake, if only because it was a terrible weakness, and if she gave it any thought, she'd indulge, and that was a slippery slope that would not be kind to her waistline. Apparently the few minutes of sitting contemplating the park had given Katarina enough time to compose herself in a way that Mia hadn’t had the benefit of, although it was incredibly enticing. Plus the enthusiasm and the compliment just made her smile, no matter how flustered the other woman seemed. “Thank you,” she said with a pleased smile and slight blush of her own which got lost in the artificial equivalent.
“Don’t apologise for a compliment,” she chided. “Then I won’t be able to tell you how good you look in those jeans,” she purred, her tongue coming out to damp her lips slightly. As Mia walked over towards the counter, she didn’t hide the fact she was watching her rather than the lake now. As she waited she slipped back into her seat and casually adjusted her dress and cardigan to make sure her cleavage was visible in the way she wanted. She had picked the combination for a reason. The grace with which Katarina took the compliment should have smoothed things over, but it only seemed to fluster Mia further, especially when she offered one in turn. And in that tone of voice! She barely resisted fanning herself, but the thought lingered that she might be in the best sort of trouble here.
Stepping into the queue, she tried to look at the menu, but her thoughts were so distracted by the gorgeous redhead (who didn't at all remind her of another gorgeous redhead) that she couldn't seem to make out any of the specifics. When she got to the front of the line, she ordered a simple latte. Once it was handed to her, she headed back to the table at the window.
"So, umm, yes, I'm Mia. It's lovely to meet you," she said as she slipped into the seat across from her. "In person, I mean." Oh yes, she certainly was still flustered. Taking several slow sips of her drink to keep her fluttering stomach at bay she smiled as Mia sat down. Clearly she was doing slightly better at regulating any kind of nerves she was feeling. She probably needed to make herself seem a little more human. And avoid thinking about how good Mia would feel pressed up against her, at least for a while.
“It’s good to meet you too, Mia,” she said. “I’m glad you agreed to this place, although you’ll have to forgive me if I go to pieces over adorable animals at some point,” she said. She thought it was probably too early for baby ducks, but frankly all cute mammals and birds tended to render her a gibbering fool of ridiculous talk.
“Plus I never seem to make enough time to visit green spaces just because anymore,” she lamented. “What about you? Is there something you don’t seem to make enough time for that you really enjoy?” She had liked getting to know Mia by skipping most of the small talk, although they’d probably have to cover a bit more of it at some point. Grinning, Mia waved a hand. "I'd be concerned if you didn't go a bit doe-eyed at the adorable animals," she teased lightly, feeling herself slowly starting to settle a bit more as Katarina seemed to be relaxed about this whole thing. She liked animals well enough, though she hadn't had pets since she was a kid, having opted to not bring any to Hogwarts with her. "Have you got any pets?" she asked, since her mind had wandered there.
"Oh, loads of things, I'm sure! I'm currently in an engineering internship, I think I mentioned that." She was sure she had, actually, because Katarina had mentioned a brother being an engineer of the Muggle variety. "And the hours, while usually regular, can get a bit grueling at times. And also, my brother just had a baby, so I've used up a bit of my free time stopping by to give her the best Auntie snuggles." She was about to pull her phone out to show Katarina pictures of Mari but managed to stop herself, realizing that it might be a bit much this early on in things. “Unfortunately I haven’t got any pets at the moment. I grew up with both dogs and cats, but I’m not really confident in my routine working with a pet and I live alone for the most part, so I’ve not got anyone to fall back on,” she admitted. Plus there were days where she struggled to get out of bed where what help she did get was needed for her and not a pet. “How about you?”
She nodded in understanding, well knowing that work could take over your life. “Okay, yeah I don’t have adorable babies in my life to compete with my free time. I can see that would be distracting,” she said. “I’m mostly blaming running a business.” Crap health too, but she didn’t want to drop that in the first five minutes. “I don’t think I mentioned that. I actually run a shop in Victory Road with my best friend to sell our craft things and lots of other people too.” As Katarina answered her question, Mia nodded in understanding, her fingers curling around her to-go cup and rolling it slowly between her palms. "Same," she answered when Katarina turned the question back on her. Though the 'for the most part' gave her a moment of pause. What did that mean? Would it be strange to ask? "Though I live entirely alone, not mostly," she added, thinking that was a polite compromise to asking outright.
"Ooh, would that be the, umm, the Creative…" She waved a hand, snapping her fingers as she tried to remember the name of the little shop tucked away near the intersection of Diagon Alley and Victory Road, but it continued to elude her. "I meant to stop in there at Christmas but didn't have a chance." Though it was more accurate to say she'd been caught up with other things and kept forgetting she wanted to check it out. Having forgotten that her weird living arrangements would be another source of questions she hadn’t talked around her language. But it didn’t matter. “Oh, right, my best friend, who is also my business partner, ends up using my spare room pretty regularly. Which is probably for the best or I’d just end up talking to my plants. I like to talk, he doesn’t mind listening, so it works well.” She shrugged and took another sip of coke.
Katarina nodded brightly. “Collection, that’s the one,” she filled in, pleased. “We’re coming up on a year of being open and everything seems to be going okay.” She scanned quickly for wood and not seeing any she knocked on her own head quickly out of habit rather than real belief in the superstition. “You should definitely check it out if you like handmade things and supporting small businesses, plus we do craft nights on Tuesdays if you just want to make stuff with other people.” She stopped and blushed, looking slightly sheepish. “Sorry, force of habit, not really here to promote my business at you,” she said with enthusiastic hand gestures. As a distraction from the faux pas she swept her hair back over one shoulder and smiled at Mia. It was clear from the way she talked about her best friend that he was a man, and she remembered Katarina mentioning that she was only interested in women, so at least it would seem that her living situation wasn't complicated with mixed up romantic entanglements. "It feels like I'm rarely at home, to be honest, probably because I also like to talk. I end up at my brother's, like I said, or my parents or other siblings. There are five of us total, though my two eldest siblings are half from my dad's first marriage. We're all quite close, though." Was she rambling? She was definitely rambling. But hopefully her date wouldn't mind.
"Oh, that's so exciting!" Her dad was a businessman, and one of the things she'd picked up from him over the years was that if a business survived their first year, that was promising for their odds of continuing on. "I do love handmade things, though I'm not sure I'm any good at making craft type things. Though I love doing things with my hands, so I suppose you're never too old to learn?" Her mum hadn't been big on crafts, and so she hadn't seen it done much as a child and thus been encouraged to try it herself, but it had always fascinated her, what people could make. "You really don't need to apologize though. Your business is a big part of your life, and I am here to get to know you, aren't I?" she asked reassuringly. “I have weeks where I feel like I’m going nowhere but home and work, then I try and pack everything into one week and end up wiped out. Desperately trying to learn to pace myself,” Katarina said. “I’ve found I can’t drop in on my family unannounced because everyone’s a muggle and my parents have stupidly busy social lives. I think my brother was glad when I stopped following him around like a lost sheep. Especially since he got in trouble when I hurt myself somehow, and I was a clumsy kid.” She was so glad that Mia also seemed to have a strong bond to her family, even if it seemed like she saw them more often than Trina managed to. “I speak to everyone pretty regularly though and organised visits are just as fun.”
That Mia seemed to understand how much of an achievement it was to make it to a year of trading pleased Katarina no end and she beamed at her. “We should do something for that, but yes I’m really pleased." Even though she'd done the craft fair thing for several years, an actual shop was a pretty big risk. "Oh there’s something in crafting and making stuff for almost everyone. I repair, alter and spell vintage accessories for a modern audience, plus make greeting cards, but we’ve got everything from candle making to knitting, jewellery to glass ornaments. Even if you only use a load of thread and make friendship bracelets it can be a fun way to relax.” Picking a craft someone might like to try was a fun game, but there were so many factors which played into it. “Yeah, that’s true. I try not to make it take over my life, and look, here I am out on a date with a beautiful woman. Success!” She laughed at herself, something she found mostly easy to do. That sort of dedication to being busy was something Mia could relate too, as she hated being idle for too long. If she didn't have anything to do, she usually found something to tinker with or someone to socialize with or, on rare occasion, something ridiculously romantic and frivolous to read. "It's good that you've managed to stay close despite being the odd witch out," she said, the quippy little pun amusing her. "It's so weird sometimes because my dad's a muggle, but his first wife was a witch. He didn't know until after she passed and married my mum and my sister and oldest brother showed signs of magic. My mum knew, though, but I guess that's a whole other story, and I'm sure you didn't come here to hear all about my parents' crazy, novel-worthy love story!"
Mia's head spun a bit with all the things Katarina listed, though she was sure that hardly scratched the surface of the options. "Do the makers use much magic in their projects, or is it more of a hands-on only sort of thing?" She had the urge to go research crafting spells, to see what sorts of things had been discovered for doing crafts, but how silly it would be to abandon this gorgeous woman to stick her nose in some dusty books, of which Katarina's next words reminded her. "Definitely a success! I'm sure every generation has had their issues with dating, but it seems really weird and hard these days," she admitted before bringing her cup up for another sip. Her mind tried to drift to Dom again, but she forced it back. Dom was in Quebec and would be for the immediate future. She needed to let her go. The little pun amused Katarina, and mildly annoyed her that she hadn’t thought of it herself since it now seemed so obvious. “Odd witch out, I like that,” she said after a little giggle. “I did get lucky with my family being so determined to keep us close.” Sometimes it felt like she didn’t see her family very often because she was busy, but at least she had positive reasons for not seeing them. “I quite like a love story, but maybe not about your parents right now,” she said. She was more than a little in love with romance. “It does sound like it’s one of the good ones though.”
At the question Katarina had to stop and think, she knew the answers for the people she saw the most frequently, or could make a decent guess, but for one or two she honestly didn’t know the answer. “Hmm, I think it depends on the person and what exactly they’re doing,” she hazarded after a bit of thought. “I know Mrs Molly Weasley does most of her knitting via magic, but Etta who does fused glass uses magic to help her cut pieces but the fusing is just done in a regular kiln as far as I know. I think Kehinde heats and mixes his candles in cauldrons rather than on a hob, but I don’t know if the process is different than the muggle one,” she said, her face squinting as she thought through some of the different makers and what bits she knew of their creations. “Basic sewing there are spells for, but I think the more complicated it gets the more likely you need a lot of practice to make it look good.” As a person who loved to talk, it was the sort of question she had asked makers herself, but the answers she got weren’t always very descriptive or forthcoming for whatever reason.
“I’m glad we’ve moved away from your parents setting you up with men of an appropriate station or making marriage a business arrangement for the most part,” she said. “And not just because of the man bit, but the whole app thing has upsides and downsides for sure,” she agreed. “I like not having to go to the effort of meeting up with someone who is obviously a terrible match after a quick conversation, but I’m sure we miss things from not meeting people in person. Also body language is so important,” she added as she casually let her hand rest on the table reaching towards Mia. It might not be hugely subtle, but it seemed right. From the way Katarina answered, Mia got the impression it was something she'd put a bit of thought into before, which she found rather endearing. It was second-nature for her to consider those sorts of things, but she'd found that most people seemed flabbergasted that her mind would even go there. "It's definitely something to think about, isn't it?" she asked rhetorically, grinning a bit.
Her nose scrunched up a bit at that, nodding. "Exactly!" she agreed easily. While the gesture wasn't necessarily subtle, Mia still felt a kick of anxiety when she shifted her own hand out to cover Katarina's. What if she'd misread the moment? Even with the way Katarina had seemed flirtatious, wasn't it entirely possible that she was always that way? But this was a date, and so she ought not to be so nervous about this sort of thing. She was quite tactile, after all, and she enjoyed having a partner who seemed so as well. "Have you had many terrible conversations through the app, then?" she asked, wondering what her dating experience had been like with the dating app, being so new to it herself. As Mia’s hand slid across her own, Katarina felt the thrill of new connection. She enjoyed touch if it wasn’t in a way that caused her more pain and while it wasn’t quite like sparks flying there was still a frisson as their hands touched for the first time. She gifted Mia with a widening smile and idly rubbed a thumb over the edge of her hand. Reflecting on the interactions she’d previously had on the app she waggled her head in noncommittal fashion. “Some have been okay, I’ve been on a date or two that didn’t go much of anywhere. But people are still weird about my fashion choices,” she said. “A few women went out of their way to tell me to switch my settings because I’m clearly dressing for men.” She rolled her eyes hard at that, shaking her head. “Basically nothing I do is with men in mind unless they’re clients!”
Lifting her can she realised she was basically out of drink and tipped it up to drain the last of the liquid. “When you’re done with your coffee would you like to join me making weird noises at animals?” Then she realised what she had said and her face scrunched up in horror, the hand that had just put the can down coming up to cover what parts of it she could reach, even as she felt her cheeks begin to heat. “Merlin and Morgana,” she muttered at her own awkwardness. Flutters erupted in Mia's stomach at the way Katarina's thumb moved idly over her hand. If she wasn't careful, she knew she'd be in over her head in no time, and that never ended well for her. No, it was better to approach this cautiously, especially considering the fact that Katarina wasn't the only person with whom she'd connected through the dating app.
Frowning at Katarina's words, Mia tutted and shook her head. "That's absurd. Aren't we far enough into the twenty-first century that people know women's fashion choices are about self-expression, not about pleasing me?" she asked rhetorically.
Although her date seemed rather mortified, Mia couldn't figure out why. She'd said at animals, not like animals, after all. "Do you mean at a zoo or something simpler like an animal shelter or something else entirely?" she asked. “You would think, but you would apparently be wrong. I wasn’t expecting it either,” she said. “At least I’ve not experienced random explicit pictures. People apparently aren’t over those either,” she said with derision.
Giggling at her own absurdity, Katarina shook her head. “No, I was just meaning do you want to come for a walk around the lake and look at some ducks, and maybe dogs if there are people out for walks.” She could feel the flush still on her face, but it was fading. “I have a tendency to make ridiculous noises at animals,” she admitted.
“Although, er, before we go I should say I’m not a fast walker because I’ve got some chronic health problems, but today is a pretty good day so we should be okay.” It was London and everyone local tended to walk fast, but Trina had come to view all the hurry as irritating and the broad irritation at everyone who didn’t as distinctly ableist. "Probably has something to do with your predilection for women," Mia commented with a small measure of amusement. "I can't say I've been so lucky as to avoid that, but thankfully the app makes it easy to block those people." Not that she'd received a lot of those sorts of pictures, but it had happened once or twice. She hoped those were the exceptions.
When Katarina elaborated, she made a soft sound of acknowledgement, but before she could answer, her date was continuing, and her brows furrowed. Chronic health problems sounded serious. That was the sort of thing that was serious, wasn't it? "Oh. Are you okay?" She'd seemed perfectly normal, in her rather wonderfully extraordinary way, but Mia knew that invisible disabilities were a thing. “Yeah, I figured as much from friends’ stories,” she admitted. “At least they give you the right tools,” she said. The apps were not particularly a thing she fully understood the makings of but she had become fairly good at navigating them. “I’m sorry you’ve had to deal with that sort of photo though. I really don’t understand the impulse.” She wasn’t against the idea of seductive photos, but didn’t think she wanted the in your face sort.
Katarina took a breath and tried not to sigh or roll her eyes at the obvious question, she had pretty much invited it after all. “Today specifically I’m okay. Overall I have good days and bad days. I don’t know if you know about Broom Snare exposure, I mean most magical people know they should avoid long periods with the plant, but not so many know what happens if you’re repeatedly exposed not knowing it’s a problem,” she said. “The super short version is I was exposed a lot as a child and now deal with internal problems, pain, and fatigue, along with other things because it wasn’t caught early enough to treat it fully.”
“Any questions?” she asked, as she stood to head outside. It looked like a move towards walking around part of the lake, but it would also give Mia the chance to leave if she wanted to. Not her favourite option, but she was well aware that her condition wasn’t an easy thing to get the head around. Mia didn't particularly mind the pictures, more that they'd been unsolicited, though she got the impression that Katarina might not understand that perspective, and so she let it go with a small nod of her head.
Cringing faintly when Katarina mentioned Broom Snare, Mia couldn't imagine what the other woman lived with every day. Herbology wasn't her speciality, by any means, but her parents had had to burn out patches of the plant on their property several times throughout her childhood, and she'd always been grateful that her mum had known to do so. "Ouch. That's… a lot." Wow, way to go, Mia, so eloquent!
"No questions. Shall we go on that walk, then?" she suggested, nodding toward the exit. While it might give her a moment of pause, a realization that anything serious between them would have to take Katarina's health into account, Mia didn't see any reason that it should end their date prematurely. Knowing to look for the reaction Trina saw that Mia was familiar enough with the prohibitions against use of the plant. She hummed in agreement. “It is, but it’s also normal for me so there are plenty of things I forget to mention, so please ask if I casually mention something and don’t explain. I’m pretty good at setting medical boundaries if I don’t want to talk about it. Also maybe don’t ask me about the lack of warnings for muggleborn parents about specific dangers for their magical kids if you don’t want a long rant.”
The words which confirmed Mia wasn’t going to run screaming immediately, or whatever the less dramatic version of that was, made Katarina smile widely at her. “We absolutely should. Although I take no responsibility for how distracted I will get at anything small and fuzzy,” she reminded her.
They wound their way out of the cafe and away from the entrance, Katarina looking for the nearest cute animals to determine which direction they should go in. “I’m glad the weather stayed fine, I’m not a fan of what rain does to my hair.” Mia could easily imagine the rant that would accompany that topic. She'd heard her mum go on rants about that sort of thing plenty of times. "Right, best to keep those sorts of topics for the second or third date," she quipped lightly, though she supposed it was presumptuous to assume there would be other dates.
"Seems like it would be more of a red flag if you didn't get distracted by small and fuzzy creatures," Mia offered. Small, fuzzy animals should be distracting!
She pressed her lips together to keep from laughing, though she couldn't resist saying, "There are charms for that." A woman who took such care of her appearance as Katarina seemed to had to know far more of those charms than she did! As they walked, her mind drifted to her date with Rhys yesterday, which was in poor form, she knew, but it niggled at the back of her mind, that she should be honest with Katarina. The problem was that she had no idea how to bring it up. She'd never really just dated around or dated more than one person at a time, jumping straight into relationships usually instead. "Ooh, look, ducks!" she said instead, spotting a whole group of them waddling in a line toward the water. Having got a little carried away Katarina drew in a purposeful breath and let it out slowly and nodded. “You’re right, not a first date topic,” she agreed. A suggestion of further dates did make little flutter in her stomach though and she suppressed a smug sort of smile, turning it back into something closer to her usual sunny disposition.
She had certainly met people who didn’t get hugely distracted by cute, fuzzy creatures, but she mostly found them less fun than the kind who got super distracted. “Well I think so,” she agreed.
“Mmm, there are,” Trina agreed. “But I have a horrible tendency to forget them unless someone actively reminds me,” she said. It was just one too many things to be incorporated into her routine, and one that was easy enough to clear up afterwards, so she had never tried too hard to make it work. She talked idly about nothing much until Mia pointed out the ducks and she gave a quiet squeak. “The waddling is so cute,” she enthused. “I don’t even know why.” She gave a happy little shiver and paused as the line plopped one by one into the water. “Also how animals legs disappear under them when they sit down is stupidly cute somehow. It doesn’t work for most humans without this sort of thing,” she said, fluffing out her skirt. "Because it is cute," Mia pointed out with a soft chuckle. Ducks and penguins… who could look away from either with their adorable waddling? She wasn't sure how animals were able to do that disappearing legs thing, but she could imagine how cute it would be for Katarina to twirl around in that full skirt and then sit in a way that it pooled around her, hiding her legs.
The thought of transparency wouldn't leave her, though, and before she could stop the words, she found herself saying, "So, this might seem strange, but I feel like honesty is the best policy and all that. I'm dating. Which, obviously I am, as we're on a date, but I have a track record of rushing headfirst into relationships, which hasn't worked out so well for me in the past, so I'm trying the slower, dating around track instead. But I'm hoping for exclusivity in the long term." Because she just couldn't help but feel hopeful that she would meet (or had met!) someone in this process that she could see a future with. She was still watching the ducks, pulling a little squinty smile when one of the ducks tipped itself up exposing its feathery tail and its head disappeared below the water looking for food. She giggled slightly and sighed. Seemed like such an easy life, even if she was well aware of the furious paddling below the surface. Which sounded like her chronic illness. Maybe that was a new metaphor to use.
Katarina was a tiny bit taken aback by Mia’s words. Not because she didn’t appreciate them, but because she hadn’t expected them for some reason. But why wouldn’t someone as lovely as her have several dating options. “Oh!” she exclaimed, before running rapidly through some responses in her head to try and find one that conveyed what she wanted. “I appreciate the honesty,” she said with sincerity, she was rarely deceitful herself and appreciated similar consideration from others, although skirting issues and sarcasm definitely did a little heavy lifting for her from time to time. “I’m not actually dating anyone else right now, but that’s more timing than anything,” she said. She neatly avoided mentioning the couple at Taboo that she had an arrangement with since that was very much neither dating nor a long-term prospect. Nor something she wanted to introduce on a first date. Although definitely if they continued to date. “It’s not a deal-breaker for me as long as we keep communicating where we’re at.” She probably needed to go and swipe through the dating app again if she was honest. It had been a little while. Even if she was pretty taken with Mia she respected the other woman’s needs. It wasn't that she'd wanted to encourage Katarina to date around, but rather that Mia didn't want to keep making the same mistakes that had ruined past relationships, and rushing in head first into something serious and exclusive had definitely been one of her past mistakes. As such, she was relieved that her date seemed receptive to the idea that she wasn't at the exclusive point yet, and she smiled warmly at the other woman. "Great. Fantastic! I'm a big fan of communication," she confirmed. That out of the way, Mia settled into focusing on the cute little creatures they could spot on their walk.