1.10 Feels Nice

Another day, another plate of pancakes…

Sage has improved at cooking, but these pancakes are merely…adequate. Sage knows she can do better.

After getting dressed, Sage squeezed in some guitar practice. One can never be too good at something, after all.

Following that is work, of course. She fiddled with her tool belt, double-checking that she had all of her various wrenches and screw-drivers. She didn’t want to be caught without the right tool if something broke down, after all.

Her diligence is rewarded with a promotion. Her victory dance is quite public and very noisy. Walter tried not to gape at his normally reserved colleague.

I’ve been fishing for this for months, Sage thought gleefully to herself, now I’m finally a musician for the theatre!

After seeing how dedicated Sage was to her guitar playing, as well as the smooth running of all of the theatre’s productions, Ms. Lin had asked her if she wanted a larger stage presence. Sage all but knocked her over when accepting.

She tried to dial down her excitement at home when Mr. Ivanov called.

“Say Sage, you aren’t dating anyone right now, are you?” he completely bypassed a greeting. Sage nearly dropped her phone.

“Dating?” she repeated incredulously, her celebratory mood having completely evaporated. She didn’t want a repeat of the Mr. Lessen incident.

“Don’t worry, it’s not for me,” Mr. Ivanov laughed, “It’s for a friend.”

Sage’s eyebrow rose skeptically, “I don’t think this is terribly professional, Mr. Ivanov…”

“Oh come on, it’s not like my friend works with us,” Mr. Ivanov snapped. Sighing, he continued, “All I ask is that you consider it.”

Sage casually inspected the back of her hand as she mulled this over. While this offer was coming through very un-orthodox channels, she supposed having someone she already knew ask her was a gentlemanly way of inviting her out. Much more polite than Mr. Lessen.

“What’s this friend of yours like?” she finally caved in.

She could practically hear Mr. Ivanov’s smile through the phone. “His name is Billy, Billy Caspian. He works as a painter for the art gallery. When I told him about you, he seemed very interested.”

“Does he have any interest in music?” Sage asked the important questions, “Or theatre?”

“Yes, of course! How do you think him and me are friends in the first place? He might not play an instrument, but he likes music. Don’t worry, he can hold his own in a deep musical conversation, if that’s why you’re anxious. And he’s a pretty serious guy, I think you’d like him.”

Sage mentally regrouped; an artist? That sounded interesting. Of course, artists tended to have whimsical tendencies, which she personally found distasteful.

“C’mon, Ms. Silverly. He’s looking for someone like you- independent, serious, artistic… you’ll get along great! At least meet the guy, or else he might be offended…”

“Tell your friend I’ll meet him for lunch,” she decided at last, “But no fast-food. And if he tries anything improper, he will never hear from me again.”

Mr. Ivanov chuckled, “I’ll set it up. We’ll keep in touch.”

***

After a lot of negotiation and passing messages through Mr. Ivanov, Sage and Billy had finally decided to meet up for lunch at the Corsican Bistro.

Sage had spent hours getting ready. She hadn’t told this to Mr. Ivanov, but this was her first proper date… ever. When she was in high school most of the boys didn’t catch her interest, being immature teenagers and whatnot, and the ones who did usually didn’t return her affections. Now here she was, well into her twenties, on her first actual date. She nervously smoothed down her dress as she approached the restaurant. What if Mr. Ivanov was wrong and Billy was some loony shut-in? He did say Billy could stay inside his house for days, lost in his work… Then again, Sage did while away hours on her guitar.

Calm down, she commanded herself, if you get too nervous, he might think you’re agitated… and that just won’t do!

Taking a deep breath, she scanned the parking lot for Billy. She hadn’t wanted to see any pictures of him beforehand, as to not build up any expectations, so all she knew was that he would be wearing a hat.

She glanced over at the fidgeting, rain-soaked man to her right. The only person in the vicinity wearing a hat of any kind.

Looks like it’s my lucky day, she rolled her eyes. She considered fleeing for a moment, but shook her head. Mr. Ivanov had gone through a lot of trouble to set this up, it would be unforgivably rude if she left without at least sitting down with the man.

The man suddenly turned around.

“You must be Sage,” he said, an embarrassed smile on his face, “Um…how long have you been standing there?”

“Long enough to see your…dance,” Sage admitted, no emotion in her voice or on her face. Embarrassment, quickly followed by amusement, flashed through his eyes.

“I guess it’s pretty obvious I don’t get out much,” he joked, “But for a date, especially with someone as pretty as you, it was worth it.”

Sage blushed, now very self-conscious. Aside from Mr. Lessen’s traumatizing phone call, she’d never been romantically commented on before. She had to admit, it did feel nice.

“How did you hear about me, anyways? Mr- um, Yuri, didn’t say,” she switched her normal appellation for her co-worker out at the last minute, not wanting to seem too odd.

Billy chuckled, “I came by once to drop off a painting that Shirley Lin requested for some opera, and I ran into Yuri and we chatted for a bit and he told me about a new co-worker he had, you in this case, and he pointed you out to me. At the time you were just managing some people back-stage, but as soon as I said you were pretty, Yuri was all over me about it. I, uh, well… I don’t date much. Work takes up a lot of my time,” he admitted, shyly scratching the back of his neck.

“Work takes up a lot of my time, too,” Sage echoed.

“I figured. Making time for other people just isn’t really possible with busy schedules like ours, eh?” he flashed a joking smile.

She smiled; maybe she and Billy had more in common than she thought.

After a beat of silence, Billy gestured towards the restaurant. “Wanna go eat?”

Wow, her first date! Sage was not normally a romantic, but she found herself smiling softly after their lunch. Billy had a thriving passion for the arts, painting in particular. She had listened intently as he described his current works in progress. While he certainly had more…colourful…language to describe his profession, he spoke of it with the same vigor Sage had for music.

“I have to go to work soon,” Sage told her date, only a hint of regret in her words, “But I would love to do this again.”

Billy’s face lit up. “Sure! If you give me your number, I could call you later.”

Sage quickly scribbled her personal phone number on a napkin and handed it to him. “I hope to hear from you soon,” she said politely.

After a change of clothes and scrubbing the makeup off of her face, Sage barely made it to work on time. Many surprised eyes swiveled to her, Ms. Silverly, the one who scolded them if they were any less than ready to go the second their shifts started.

“I apologise for my tardiness. It shall not happen again,” she had promised as soon as she got in. This earned many eye-rolls; she was only two minutes late, if even that.

Once Sage arrived home, she began strumming on her guitar. Short but hopeful and energetic tunes sounded as she plucked the strings.

Today had been quite a good day. 

AN: I had a completely different idea of romance for Sage, but this seemed like too good of an opportunity with the autonomous romantic conversation bubbles. Normally Billy Caspian is autonomously homosexual in my saves, but here without any intervention he's dated women and even has a kid with Ruby Broke.