Surprise! Its a date!

Who:Pandect, Amy and Jamie
Where: Marquette
When:four o' clock

"I'll be covering for you tonight," Pandect said, tucking his feet in the legs of the bar stool they used for the seat at the front desk. "You've prepped me twelve times, I know how to check people in, I know how to check people out, I'm not going to let the motel burn down, not after I put all that work into it."

"Okay, okay!" Amy said, playing with the end of her best sparkly scarf. "I'm just all excited! I haven't had a date in forever."

Pandect didn't seem to be terribly interested in her dating life, but that was kinda just fine with her. Pandect was great for making her feel loved and appreciated, and was most excellent about putting a buffer between her and Mr. Andrews, but he wasn't really romantic material.

"You have my number," Pandect said a little ominously and Amy almost giggled. She wasn't going to tell him that there wasn't much Jamie could do to get her to call for Pandect back-up. She was pretty sure he'd drive her to the bakery and make scary big brother eyes at Jamie until the morning.

"I do, I do," she waved at him with her scarf. "Keys, please?"

Pandect sighed the sigh of the deeply put upon and threw her the keys to his truck. "Be nice to it."

"Of course, of course," she saluted him.

She liked his truck, it was one of those really old vintage ones, the first time she got into it she had expected to have to strong arm it, but it drove beautifully, in Pandect's truck she felt like she could drive to the moon.

Well, this was going to be interesting.

Jamie wasn't really the hanging out type, he was more of a loner and then there was the whole... social retardation thing. But...! He was aware enough of social customs that he figured he should close the bakery early and head home to take a shower. Being clean was usually more preferable over being... paint-y.

He even tried to take a nap! Because now that someone was offering to show him around, it'd be kind of rude to let it all float hazily to the back of his mind and let it poof. Like the past several times he'd tried to figure out the place. Granted... he mostly just spent twenty minutes staring at the ceiling just laying there.

Oh, well, it was worth a shot.

He'd changed into some fresher clothes before going back to the bakery, a t-shirt and jeans, and a jacket--nothing too formal, this was just two people casually hanging out, right?

Jamie was adorable, he was a big bucket of scruffy puppy adorable. Amy didn't know whether she wanted to give him a big snuggle... in the backroom of his bakery... in the dark, or give him a big kiss on the cheek right there where everyone could see. She fiddled with her sparkly scarf one last time and fiddled with her hair in the rear view mirror before sliding out of Pandect's big orange truck and going to knock on the glass of the bakery's front door.

Having had arrived a little bit before four, Jamie took the time to prepare to a cup of coffee with many, many spoons of sugar, something to help hisattentiveness. Oh, and he just liked drinking coffee too. Mmm. Sugar.

He sat with his chair leaning back against the wall, his feet propped up on the table, the empty cup along his feet. Hearing the truck drive up, he placed the chair on four legs, and stood up, opening the door a moment after Amy knocked.

"Heya."

"Hi Jamie," she wiggled her fingers at him. "Um," what were the basics of courtesy again? "How are you this afternoon?" That was pretty much the opposite of smooth.

"Good. And you?" Jamie gave a quick, casual wave, smiling softly to keep up a friendly atmosphere.

"Great," she beamed at him, wasn't sure if she was beaming too much for a first date, but that was just her, she liked to beam. "Which side of the town do you want to start with, or just kind of see where we go?"

Eh heh... Jamie was overwhelmed with her happy, which wasn't a negative thing! It was just... he wasn't very accustomed to extreme happiness and smiling and rainbows and stuff. So it was kind of pleasant.

He shrugged, "I don't really care either way. We can just see where we go."

Somehow she doubted Jamie would want to check out the fire department, but there was lots of other stuff to take him to see. Some of the places went under stuff adorable Jamie would probably need to know, such as the post office on West Washington and other stuff that was maybe future date material, such as the Delft Movie Theater on West Washington. Plus everyone liked movies, right? And she knew this town pretty well so of course she knew all the best spots.

Which was how she ended up dragging an adorable baker through the street of Marquette trying to be as cute and second date worthy as possible.

Jamie put his hands in his pockets, strolling after Amy and just following where she led, because he was sure that he wouldn't get lost that way. And that was always a good plan. "So you've lived here a while?"

"Yeah, I grew up here, my family moved a while back, but after college I came back here!" she was grown up now, she had her own apartment, her own job. Daddy couldn't understand how she could come back, but it didn't have the same memories for her as it did for him. "There aren't many towns like Marquette anymore. Good old fashioned American small towns, I'm kind of an old fashioned girl," she shrugged before motioning to the side.

"Here's the library. They're got a great collection of poetry, if you're into that kind of thing. They've got a really great old school collection of Milton, you know, the angel guy? Lots of old books actually, one of the old maids of the town donated them."

Jamie nodded. Yeah, it seemed like a nice enough town... but apparently there was some freaky things going on around here. Oh well, probably now was not the time to bring it up.

"I grew up in a city," he offered in response to match her history.

Hmmm... Jamie was alright at English, he was into the artsy kind of literature stuff, but he never really... absorbed it all. "Don't remember. You like poetry?"

"Yeah," she started playing with the ends of her sparkly scarf. "My minor's in Romantic Poetry. All the good old boys, Azevedo, Milton, the Shelleys, although Byron isn't really to my taste. How about you?"

"Uh..." Jamie rubbed the back of his neck, looking up to the sky for a moment, pondering. ...He didn't really know any good poets. None of themsophistimicated peoples. He'd read a couple of poems to Summer here and there when they were just hanging out on a lazy day...

"...Shel Silverstein?"

Amy grinned and clapped just when she thought Jamie couldn't get any adorable-er, "'Where the Sidewalk Ends?' I like 'The Giving Tree' too, although that's not really a poem is it?"

Jamie smiled meekly at the grin and clap, "Yeah, but they're both good." The Giving Tree was kind of depressing though... in a sort of uplifting way. For a couple weeks after he'd read that to Summer, she tried to uh. ...Tree talk, and he was forced to buy a potted plant to water and care for.

"Did you ever read Silverstein to your kid? I mean if its okay for me to ask. I don't want to pry," that was one thing that Pandect didn't like. Sometimes she could almost get away with murder with him, but he didn't like to talk about his past.

"Yeah, it's fine." Jamie liked to talk about Summer, in a dad-showing-off-his kid-because-they-love-'em-because-they're-awesome-and-just-because way. ...He just liked to talk about her. Even if she wasn't around anymore... well, no, she was. She was just with him in a different way.

"Yeah, she liked to be read stories."

Amy smiled shyly at him, she could recognize the voice of a proud parent, "What did she like to read?"

"Uh... y'know... the usual kid stuff... Dr. Seuss, Eric Carle..." Ahh... yeah, reading books always sparked inspiration in her, and she'd go straight to paper and crayons trying to draw and write and it was the cutest thing ever.

Jamie was... Amy sighed. There was so much love and sweetness in him. "Was she a writer too?" She was contemplating the old swinging hand trick, she looked down at her blue and white striped mittens. At least she wasn't going to have to worry about sweaty palms.

Jamie gave a small chuckle, "She tried as much as she could, but you know... she was spelling cat with a 'k,' and y'know... I didn't really understand some of the things she was writing... She was more of an artist." If she was older, she could've probably drawn some really great things...

"I'm glad you had time with her," Amy smiled. She motioned toward Pandect's big orange truck which she had oh-so-cleverly had wandered them back toward. "Um, there's one more place to see on the grand tour of Marquette, but its kind of a little bit out of town. Would you mind a quick ride?"

Jamie nodded. He was glad too. Nothing could've beaten the four years he had with her, and he'd do anything to get more time to be with Summer. "Nah, I wouldn't mind. I'm following you tonight," he smiled.

"Hop in then," she smiled, playing with her mittens. Hopping into the driver's side, with an old truck like this you had to hop in, that and she was on the shorter side of medium height. She reached across and popped open the passenger side lock and waited for Jamie to join her. There was no reason for her to feel nervous, it wasn't like she was dragging him off somewhere to... well... get into trouble with him, this was just the first date.

But Jamie was adoreable-ness and so driving with him to Wetmore's Landing was kind of exciting. And besides, everyone who was going to spend any time living in Marquette had to see the Landing. Once the got there, who's to saysomeone's hand wouldn't get held?

Doing as commanded, Jamie took a seat in the truck, totting his head up with a hand, and staring out the window at the sky with a lazy smile on his face.

"What was her name?" Amy said turning the truck toward Buckroe. She had felt like she had been doing all the talking tonight, which he didn't seem to mind, but first dates were for getting to know each other, notmonopolizing the conversation.

"Hm?" Jamie turned his head back over to Amy as she asked. "Oh..." He continued to smile and look out the window. "Her name was Summer."

Amy smiled at that, she was doing a lot of smiling tonight, not that she didn't anyway. "That's a good name. Its beautiful."

"Yeah... it really fit her, you know? She was a really happy and energetic kid." Jamie reminisced while staring off.

Amy smiled at the soft look on Jamie's face, the guy had a lot of soft looks, but this one was happy too, they were close enough to the Landing she let him reminisce. She almost wished this was a morning date so they could see the sun rising, but the Landing was pretty enough as was. And she had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in a basket under the seat along with a couple apples and what Pandect made for her that he'd called Queen Elizabeth squares.

Staring out at the snow reminded Jamie of the first time he'd taken her out to play in the winter. She was, of course, wrapped in about fifty layers of clothing to protect her from the cold, and was waddling through the white, frosty layer, until inevitably tripping and falling face first in a 'poof.' He remembered the surge of worry that came up, till she rolled over onto her back and was in a fit of giggles. He laughed with her, taking steps towards her, and falling back in the snow, so he was laying down right next to her...

"So where're we going?" He looked away from the window at Amy.

"Its called Wetmore's Landing. Everyone who lives in Marquette should run up to see it, its got everything, beaches and dramatic cliffs and all the good stuff. Its like a nice little park in there. I'm driving to one of the closer spots, right there," she pointed over the top of the steering wheel to a narrow road through a bunch of trees. "Hardly anyone comes this way. It opens up to a little cliff, you can see pretty well out over the lake there's one of those old picnic tables from back when the city council was trying to bring in outsiders, spruce the place up a bit. I drove out here earlier to check on the road, its been cleared all the way so we shouldn't have any trouble."

It was still light enough to not need headlights, but there were deer in the area, and deer weren't really known for their intelligence. "My parent's took me out this way a couple of times when I was little, I don't think many other people know about it though. You have many places like this where you lived before?"

The trees and the little road opened up together to the clearing, all covered in snow with the old park bench to the side, but with a new metal railing along the edge of the cliff. It had been kind ofdisappointing when she got back into town and saw that the old wood one had been taken out, she had memories of tracing over the names people had carved into the big boards. This was, she supposed, safer though, less likely to crack or fall apart. She wondered if they had kept the boards somewhere.

"We're here!" Amy said, shifting into park and waiting to see what Jamie thought of it.

"Kind of." Jamie'd grown up near the coast where there were beaches and little parks and things like that, but they were really touristy and it was always crammed full of people.

He kept looking out at the window, observing the new place... snow always made everything look prettier, white dusting everywhere, accenting all the other parts of branches of trees and such.

"S'pretty here," he commented, glancing over at Amy.

Amy smiled brightly, glad she had done good, "I'm glad you like it. I've got a picnic basket too."

Well, that was nice of her. Jamie hadn't really expected her to do anything besides show him around. "Didn't have to," he smiled.

Amy blushed at the steering wheel, "It was a pleasure, its just sammaches." She was kinda manning up, metaphorically speaking, on this date. But she was a modern girl, she could deal with asking a guy out.

He couldn't help it, but he had to smile at 'sammaches,' 'cause that was just plain cute. "S'nice of you. Thanks."

"You wanna sit in the truck and eat or go clear off the picnic table?" Amy tried not to swoon too obviously at Jamie's smile.

"Truck's fine." It was probably too cold to be outside eating sandwiches in proper comfort at any rate, and from here, they could stay warm and still get a good view.

Amy pulled off her mittens and slid the basket out from under the seat, propping it open, she liked this basket, it was red and white checkered. "Okey dokey then. Sammach?"

Ahh... ha... there was that word again, and it was still cute like about five seconds ago. "Uh. Yeah. Sure. Thanks."

Amy dispensed sandwiches and cokes, peanut butter was the secret food of love, and crossed her ankles under the seat, "So tell me more about your daughter."

"Oh, um..." Jamie held onto the sandwich, pausing a moment to think. It's not that he didn't know what to say, it was just that there was so much he could say. "Summer liked to draw... and she liked tigers. That's her favorite animal. Her favorite food was spaghetti... she liked it with milk. Um..." he rubbed his chin, trying to filter out what may or may not be interesting to Amy.

Amy leaned forward munching on her sandwich, she liked to watch him talk about his daughter, it changed his whole face, made him even more adorable-er, if that was a word. She looked over at Jamie's free hand sitting there, all on its lonesome, without a thing to do. Nonchalantly, she reached over and slid her fingers into his hand, "Its just nice to hear you talk about her."

Uh. ...What? Jamie wasn't really up to the whole socializing thing, he hadn't bought the newest edition of The Official How To Not Be An Idiot In Public book, now with 33% more content, but he was pretty sure he felt hands, and he was pretty sure hand holding was reserved for people who either were bee-eff-effs, or were. Dating. Or something.

...Right? Damn it, he needed to Google this or something.

At any rate, the physical contact made him blush and look out the window, taking a 'casual' bite out of his sandwich. "...uh. Yeah?"

So, he was blushing, that was a good sign, right? Unless that just meant she was moving too fast, she let her hand sit there a little bit, see what he would do. Other than his palm getting a little damp, he just let her hand sit there. "It makes your face light up. You obviously love her a great deal, I guess its kind of silly of me, but a think that's sweet in a guy."

Oh. Oh, damn, brain functions were slowing down dramatically... The only thing he focused on was eating his sandwich. Yeah. Chewing was a fairly simple process, just like sitting there. Just... sitting there...

"Uh. ...yeah. Yeah?"

Somewhere in the back of his mind he realized he'd used the same word to answer two questions, but if that part of his mind was in control at the moment, then he'd be better off.

Annnnd now he was frozen. Was he one of those guys that didn't like to be called sweet? "Not that you're not more than sweet. You're plenty awesome in other ways too."

"Uh. Oh? I. I like sweet. Sweet's good." Babbling maybe yes? "You're. Uh. Awesome too."

No, no, no. Not that she wasn't a fine person and all, but that probably wasn't the thing to say at this moment.

"Oh," Amy said. "Um. Thank you." She un- and recrossed her feet.

"...y-yeah, no problem." Jamie just focused on his sandwich. Peanut butter. Jelly. Good stuff. He liked to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, easy and they tasted good. He focused on the texture in his mouth, and pondered various things he could do with peanut butter and jelly, until... well. The sandwich was gone. His lifeline.

...So he just sat there. Looking out the window. Not moving an inch.

"...so. Uh. ...was good."

Damn it.

Amy cleared her throat, took a deep breath and gave Jamie a kiss on the cheek, stubble and all. It was kind of scratchy on her lips, but it got her point across she thought. Not that is she made totally miscued it wouldn't be a super awkward ride back, but she was a grown up girl, and sometimes it was worth it to take a chance. She turned a bright shade of pink and looked out the driver's side window, suddenly embarrassed.

Jamie didn't need an official handbook to know what that meant. No, in fact, his powers of deduction leveled up after figuring this one out. This was not just a friendly tour around the city, but he didn't really want to think what it was.

...so he just sat still, continuing to look out the window.

"Um, sorry..." Amy stuffed a Queen E square in her mouth until she could think of something to say. She put her hands back on the steering wheel. "I hope I wasn't too forward," she said weakly to the steering wheel.

"...i-it's alright..." Jamie didn't want to be rude. What she did wasn't terrible or anything, and it's not like he was offended, he just... Wasn't good with this sort of thing. He... was not good at denial.

Crap.

"Oh," Amy said and reached back for Jamie's hand carefully, testing out the waters so to speak, with her fingertips. "Would you like a Queen Elizabeth Square? They're Canadian, I think. Not sure. They have coconut."

At the touch of her fingers back on his hand, Jamie stiffened up a bit. He... he didn't exactly grab her handpassionately or anything... like that at all. He once again, just sat there. The last time he'd done anything with a girl was pretty much forever ago, and since he had no idea that Amy thought of him that way, he was completely unprepared.

Oh. Crap. Question. Uh. His mind scrambled for a response: 'I don't want to say no, that'd be rude, I don't want to say yes, that'd encourage her, oh damn, what do I say?'

"...I like coconuts..."

Tilting her head at Jamie, Amy handed him a square, "Its just a first date Jamie, I'm not expecting anything but to have a littleconversation and show you around town a little bit. I mean you're cute, really, really cute, but we just met a couple days ago." She folded her hands primly in her lap, "If I'm being too friendly you can tell me."

...Oh. Oh gosh. It was legit. It was legitimately a first date, she probably had a certificate with a seal of approval from the Date Committee and everything. "...Uh. ...Y-yeah. No, it's. Fine," he did his best to give a carefree chuckle which ended up sounding a bit... forced.

...So he just put the square in his mouth and chewed. Chewing did not require much thought prep to do.

He looked like he had just been smacked between the eyes with a two by four. Oh man, he was adorable when he was nervous, she just wanted to give him a big hug, and possibly ruffle his hair up even more. Not that she was sure that was possible. It was kind of odd to make a guy nervous, they usually just kind of raised an eyebrow at her and patted her on the head. Not that she minded finally being taken seriously.

"So, how are you enjoying Marquette?" a nice easy question, hopefully not one that would give him a panic attack.

"Uh... it's nice." Yup. Short and simple, you can't fumble a sentence with only two syllables. ...Well, you could, and Jamie knew he could, but it was harder to fumble a two syllable sentence.

Amy smiled encouragingly, "I've always thought so, its so quiet and peaceful here."

"Yeah..." Well... apparently she didn't know about the supernatural stuff around here, or if she did, then she wasn't talking about it. Guess it wasn't really a first date talk.

...oh, crap. ..If this was a first date, did that mean there was going to be a second date?

Amy gave him a searching look, something she had learned from Pandect, she didn't really know how to search with a searching look, but it was the thought that counted wasn't it? He was still nervous, in fact he rather looked nervous-er, he had started with that panicked look when... Oh dear, oh no, oh drat, she blushed bright pink, she could feel it. "You did know I asked you out right? At the bakery? You knew this was going to be a date?"

Oh, damn it. What could he say? He couldn't say no, that would just make her feel bad, and he couldn't say yes, because then it'd just seem like he wanted to be on a date. He... couldn't...

Crap.

"...yeah, I knew. Just. ...Kinda nervous." Jamie... just couldn't bring himself to make her feel stupid. That just wasn't very nice.

Chewing on her lower lip a moment Amy leaned on her free hand, she narrowed her eyes as Jamie stuttered and his eyes flicked away like a little boy who had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Her mouth dropped open and she gestured toward the roof of the cab with both hands, forgetting she still had one of his still held captive, "Jamie Heart! You just fibbed! I can't believe it, my whole perception of you has changed!" She poked him playfully in the ribs so he would know she was teasing, "You don't have to be embarrassed you didn't know, I don't mind. I just wish I had know before I planted one on you. To tell the truth this experience has given me a whole new sympathy for men. Its hard to ask people out! Although since you didn't know I'm not sure it counts."

Leaning back in the seat Amy gave him her very best sunshiny smile, "You don't have to pretend with me, I'm the least pretend-y person ever. Except for maybeOl ' Honest Abe. You want to go home we can go home, you want to make snow angels we can make snow angels, you want another Queen E square I can fatten you up," she shook the paper bag with the baked treats at him. "If you want this doesn't have to be a date, we can just be two friends with an affinity for baked goods, small children and the color purple hanging out in an old orange truck."

'Erk--' Jamie didn't quite expect his arm to be jerked up, nor his ribs to be poked to which he winced slightly because he wasjustatinybitmaybe ticklish. He looked at her with that bright smile of hers, and he... just wasn't sure how to respond. Yeah, he did kinda want to go home and rest his brain for a bit, but even if she offered, it still seemed... rude to say that.

"I'm... okay with anything."

...So he subjected himself to more awkwardness.

And there went his eyes again. Amy wished she knew his middle name, although scolding him like his mother wouldn't really encourage in him the... feelings she was quite going for. She was half tempted to clap her hands together (oops, speaking of which, she still had one of his hands captive) and say 'okey dokey, let's make out!' Just to see him stroke out, but that was just plain not nice. Even though he had said anything, and had she mentioned yet how adorable he was? She let his hand go and turned the truck all the way back on and flipping on the headlights before making an easy circle around the picnic table. "Jamie Heart," she said. "I've got your tell now. You are a really nice guy. And really sweet too. Why don't I get you back to the bakery? We should be able to watch the sunset going back."

"Uh. ...Yeah, sure..." Feeling his hand free, Jamie placed the palm of his hands on his jeans, hoping maybe the fabric would soak them dry.

So this was over now, right?

"Look, I'm really sorry, next time I do something stupid, like kiss you when you're not expecting it, let me know okay? My ego can handle it, I don't mind being friends, you don't mind being friends do you?"

Jamie merely shook his head, "Don't be. It's... fine." ...well, it kinda made his brain fry, but that was what was 'fine' in his book. "And yeah, I'd like that."

"I'm sure you say that to all the girls," she teased him. "Friends then," she's shake his hand but she was kinda driving. The setting sun came into view, turning the fields of snow orange and gold. "I hope you had a good time being shown around at least."

"Yeah... I did." Jamie would've smiled, but he was afraid his nerves would've twisted into something a bit more awkward.

"I'm glad," Amy beamed. "Although I have to warn you, Pandect probably thought it was a date too, but I'll totally dissuade him and stuff. Tell him we're tight and all," she banged one fist twice against her heart. "He'll probably be relieved in fact."

"...Relieved, huh..." If he thought it was a date, and he was relieved... what did Pandect think they were going to do? "That's... cool." Was all Jamie could manage at the moment.

"Don't worry about it," Amy rolled her eyes. "Pandect's just kind of old fashioned, and he has that whole big brother thing going on, you know, 'Big Brother Sense tingling! Pats on the head andoverprotective posturing to the rescue!' Its no big deal. He knew I wouldn't jump you." Not on the first date at least, she thought.

Jamie could kind of understand the whole overprotective thing, after all, he had been a dad. And he would've banned her from dating. Ever.

But... sigh. Maybe it was best not to think about what Pandect worried about. If he knew that she wouldn't jump him, what? Did he think that Jamie was going to jump her?

"He might look at you dubiously," Amy spared a quick glance toward Jamie to give him a pretty fair imitation of Pandect looking dubiously. "But he'll be cool about it. I think he likes you anyways. Or at least he likes your muffins. He's really fond of muffins."

'Yeah, maybe I can bake a ton of muffins to convince him that I haven't done anything...' "That's good... I'll uh. Be busy tonight then?"

"Uh, best not be too busy, wouldn't want to make him suspicious," she winked at him. And then so he wouldn't have a seizure she winked at him. "I'm just teasing you Jamie. Looks like we're just about home. I had fun tonight by the way." She nudged him gently in the shoulder.

...There was just silence on Jamie's end of that jest. The only thing he could do was pretend he heard nothing. Blank slate in his mind.

"Uh. Yeah. ...Me too..."

...Yes. Fun.

"Its okay Jamie," Amy patted his shoulder consolingly. "You'll get used to me."

Jamie stiffly nodded at her, "...Yeah."

'I hope so...'

...he really needed to brush up on his social skills...