Back to the "Real World"? Part 1

Posted on Tue Jul 30th, 2024 @ 5:45am by Master Chief Petty Officer Chuck Finley [Reece] & Lieutenant J'airesh Mora-Heath

Mission: Season 6 HIATUS
Location: J'Air's Quarters
Timeline: Current
858 words - 1.7 OF Standard Post Measure

J'Air had invited Chuck to visit her in her quarters again. This time she had promised to cook him whatever he wanted for dinner and had asked him to choose what he would like.

She was getting a bit nervous as the day wore on. She had a rare day off having organised her duty shifts cleverly the day before but now she had finished tidying and cleaning up, her thought shifted to starting the preparation for dinner. Depending on what Chuck chose, she might start something cooking and then go to start getting showered and dressed up and return to finish it off before doing the last of her make up at the last minute, and perhaps adjusting her hair again, especially if she might have messed with it when cooking.

Now all she had to do was to wait for his call with his choice and confirmation that he'd remembered this was the pre-arranged day. If he didn't call soon, she might not have time to prepare, especially if it was to be a complicated choice...... she caught herself fussing and straightening ornaments and realised this wasn't going well.

She was just about to message him, having gone back and forth with indecision.... would she be nagging him if he was busy and therefore think her too high maintenance? Or had he forgotten or got held up and needed to cancel after all - that made her heart sink in anticipated disappointment which then sent her into another half an hour of being strict with herself and refusing permission for her to contact him at all.

When the Vid screen bleeped to announce a message coming in, she jumped with a surprise that was totally out of proportion to the fact that she was expecting and hoping for a call, but even so, it still set her heart racing as if she had be startled out of her skin. That wasn't possible, but yet it did seem to have happened. Very strange.

Leaping to the screen to take the call, J'Air was grinning like an old Earth legendary 'Cheshire Cat' only to be very awkwardly embarrassed when it wasn't Chuck's face that was looking back at her, but a rather startled looking Nurse was peering curiously at the strangely overstretched mouth of the ACMO. The message was about a patient of J'Air's in Sickbay who had been in a critical condition and who had taken a very happy turn for the better. As J'Air had been worried about the Orion woman, it had been very considerate of the Senior Nurse on Duty to let J'Air know so she could enjoy her day off without worrying any more about the Orion.

J'Air thanked Casey, the SNO who was calling, and was genuinely glad to hear the important news but she was taken of guard that it wasn't Chuck who had called and now she was back in the dilemma again. She would call him. She would make a cup of terran tea and then she would sit down with it and try to be nonchalant about "just catching up with him about later".. as she planned to present her call.

Suddenly, her comm beeped again, indicating that she had a new message in her inbox. When she opened it, she discovered that it was her one and only, handsome Chuck. The message was in text:

Hey Gorgeous,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. Had a bunch of personnel reviews to get through, so I could hand 'em in to the XO before end of business today.

It warms my heart that you want to cook dinner for me. Le6s see...what would I like? Hmmmm...oh! I know just the thing. Back on the beach, you had mentioned that we don't know many things about one another. So....how about you make the dish that you find the most enjoyment creating? That way, I can both learn something new about you, and enjoy the thought of you having fun!

Hopefully, I should be done here by 1700. I'll then head back to my cabin and get cleaned up. Want to look my best for the woman who owns my heart!

I'll see you tonight, my love!

Yours Eternally,

Chuck

"Aww. I'm the luckiest woman in the whole universe" J'Air told herself, so impressed with Chuck's reply.

After she had melted at the message it then sank in that he wanted her to choose a recipe that she would enjoy preparing and 'learn more about her'.
"oh no" she groaned. "How disappointed is he going to be when he finds out that I don't enjoy cooking at all. Will he be unimpressed? In fact, will he be disappointed with the dish itself...... no it's okay, I have my safe basics..... but he'll want me to tell him how much fun it was making it...... "

Standing in her kitchenette she realised she was talking to herself out loud.
Shaking her head in dismay, the ACMO went off to her computer terminal for the recipe she would need and started to replicate the ingredients.

~TBC~