WHO:Carol & Peggy WHEN: Recently WHERE: Coffee shop WHAT: Two workaholics stop for a caffeine recharge and collide. RATING/WARNINGS: Low/None STATUS: Complete
If you attempted to take Peggy’s blood she was almost positive that you would get coffee instead of actual blood. She had never had to drink so much coffee until she took this job. There were strange hours and she felt that she needed to be on top of her game, so that’s where the coffee came in. Thankfully she had figured out which shops were her favorite and unfortunately they also knew who she was. Today was one of those days where she wandered into one of her favorite shops and walked to the counter to place her order. The barista greeted her by name and order and Peggy chuckled as she handed her card over.
Making her way down to the end of the counter she checked a couple emails on her phone as she waited for her phone to be finished. There was a bit of small talk between her and the barista and she thanked them with a happy smile and a tip in the jar. When she turned to leave she felt her elbow hit someone and managed to balance herself to not spill her drink. “Oh gosh, I’m sorry, are you okay?”
Carol was running on fumes most of the time. Between her staff calling in sick thanks to the freak weather -snow in California, who knew- and the fact that she’d had three calls about articles that were inaccurate, she was ready to get some kind of IV of caffeine just to keep going.
After a meeting with yet another unhappy representative for some pharmaceutical company, Carol made a pit stop for a refuel, more than ready to call the day over but definitely not able to yet. Naturally, it was the perfect time for her routine clumsiness to kick into gear. Thankfully before she’d received her coffee so she didn’t need to wear that all the way back to the office.
“No, it’s fine, it’s okay,” Elbow to the boob and Carol knocking her hip against the counter, but nothing spilled, no blood, all good. “This is a fairly good outcome for me.” It could’ve been her face, or the coffee she was just handed with a cautious look.
At least it was her boob and nothing more vital. Peggy had been told that she had sharp elbows, so it wouldn’t have surprised her if her elbow had hit anywhere else that large bruise would form later. “Oh god, this is a fairly good outcome? That doesn’t bode well,” Peggy remarked as she took a step off to the side to put some distance between them.
“I’m just impressed that neither of us managed to spill anything. Usually if I do anything like that my entire front is soaked,” she had to admit that one and she moved again to set her coffee down on a table and went back over to grab some napkins and check the woman again, “You sure I didn’t hurt you?”
There was a somewhat awkward shrug at that, but a slightly depreciating smile all the same, “Most people grow out of their clumsiness when they leave their teenage years behind, I grew into mine.” Books, coffees, boxes, bags, nothing was safe in Carol’s hands.
The urge was there to check over her hip, but it wasn’t like this woman needed the guilt, it was a bump, it happened, Carol just raised a hand to shake it off, adding a tiny little bit of creamer to her black coffee in the process. “Really, it’s alright, I’m rather used to spillings and knocks.” Corporate buildings during the holidays when people were trying to escape, not great ideas. Elevators were always crowded and Carol refused to fall down a flight of stairs, thank you. “But thank you for asking.” Most people wouldn’t bother.
“Well, then you should consider yourself something special. I’m hit or miss when it comes to clumsy,” there had been a few times where Peggy had almost botched a mission because she had been hit by the case of the clumsy. But for the most part she was able to keep herself and things safe.
“You’re welcome,” Peggy felt awful already and she wasn’t going to press the woman to do a pat down of her own body just to ease her guilt. She dug around in her bag for a business card, “But, if you do need anything, just let me know. I’m Peggy. Maybe I’ll even send you some sweets or something.” There was something about the woman that made her want to reach out a bit more, but it could also be the holiday season or something.
Glancing at the business card Carol couldn’t help but raise her eyebrow a little, was she getting hit on? It was hard for her to tell, she was so exceptionally rusty at these things. But she offered a small smile either way. “Thanks, yeah,” Although Carol wasn’t entirely sure what she might need from Peggy.
“Oh, in that case, I’m addicted to donuts and anything baked with cinnamon.” Because Carol was shameless. “But I really. I mean, unless you can tell me just where to find a good and inexpensive pharmaceutical expert looking to freelance for fact checking,” Carol just shrugged.
If Peggy wanted to hit on Carol then she wouldn’t be handing over her business card. Luckily for Carol she had far too much going on in her personal life now to even consider throwing something else into the mix. At least Carol didn’t think she was entirely creepy and she had to laugh at Carol mentioning that she loved donuts and cinnamon.
“I can definitely send some donuts and cinnamon covered things to you. Just send me a note with your address and I’ll make sure it happens. And as for the freelance, I can’t say that I’m too familiar with pharmaceutical experts and what they do, so please enlighten me,” if it wasn’t something that the Agency could use then at least she would be able to pass Carol’s name along to other people.
“Oh, it’s just work,” Carol started to stir a little at her coffee, “there was an article published that was possibly a little less accurate than it needed to be, which has caused a lot of headaches. Primarily for me.” Since she had to write the retraction and apologies. Carol detested being editor sometimes.
“Fiddly stuff really, finding experts for just about every possible topic isn’t something I expected to need to do, but I’m likely going to need to start looking into that.” Oddly, sharing with a stranger was fitting.
“I do know a few medical/science type people that might be able to take something on like that in their spare time. I’ll have to mention it to them, but I’ll certainly pass your name along. It is a hassle to go back and fix everything that was a mistake, especially if it’s out in the public domain already.” She wondered if Martha or Jemma would like something like that. Both were skilled in the science field and Jemma probably would like to do the research aspect of it.
Well, that was rather handy, wasn’t it. Offering a slightly less strained smile, Carol fished about in her pockets until she could find her own card, one that was lovingly emblazoned with Woman Magazine’s bright and swirly logo -Carol would have to question Tracy on that one day. “I suppose a tit for tat is in order then,” offering it for Peggy, since there was an ease of getting a hold of people when you actually had their number. “I’m a bit of a workaholic, so that’s the best place to get me.”
“We are incredibly similar then because I am also a horrible workaholic,” at that comment Peggy checked her watch and blanched slightly, “And I better get heading to the office. I am sorry again for bumping into you, but I will certainly speak to a couple people to see if they will help you out at all. And I will get some sweets sent to you.”
Sure, it was probably a little unfair since Carol wasn’t in any way harmed by the bump, or needing it to be made up to her in any way, but she wasn’t the sort to turn down sweets of any kind. “Thank you, that’s very nice of you.” Maybe Carol could return the favour as well. “You have a nice day,” hopefully spill free. And back into the throes of soothing ruffled feathers for Carol.