Trying Your Luck - Bucky BarnesxOC

Part 3: Third Date

He's been a wreck all week. The nightmares are getting worse. Full-blown flashbacks, missing pieces that he wishes would just fall away into oblivion. He can't handle waking up alone anymore. Bucky has been seeing Shannon for a week now, meeting for lunch and coffee. He buys her a single rose and smiles as she turns pink and sniffs at it. She's so pretty.

Yesterday, she asked if he wanted to have dinner tonight since she had a night off from the restaurant. She offered to cook for him. They could watch a movie and get to know each other in a more personal setting. Bucky doesn't know why he said yes. He knows he's not fully ready, but he wants to prove to himself that he can do this. Next week, he wants to walk into Dr. Raynor's office and tell her that he was able to connect with someone other than a court-mandated therapist for the first time since Steve.

So, he's decided to start taking some steps. Like, today, he bought a couch. It's not great, but it's something. Maybe she'll like it if she comes over.

If they get to that point. He still has the ability to screw this up.

"Okay, where are we putting this couch?" Sam asks as Bucky closes the door behind him and sets it down in the hall. "And remind me why you couldn't do this yourself with that vibranium arm of yours?"

"How do you think it would look if I just carried a couch one-handed down the street?"

"You'd look like an Avenger," Sam replies. "Which is what you are. It's not exactly private information, Barnes."

He crosses his arms over his chest and smiles.

"You know what I think?"

"I'm afraid to ask," Bucky grumbles.

"I think you just wanted some company. Maybe this whole thing with Shannon is softening you up a little, huh? Am I on the right track?"

"No."

His Tinder phone dings and he digs it out of his pocket. A message from Shannon.

Still good for 7 tonight?

He smiles and doesn't see Sam watching him with a huge grin on his face and raised eyebrows.

7 is perfect. Your place, right?

Yep! :) 51st and Oak.

See you in a few hours.

See you, cutie!

His heart almost stops. Cutie. She called him — she thinks he's cute. Bucky rubs the back of his neck and sighs, slipping the phone back into his pocket and trying to play it cool. When he looks up, Sam is sitting on the couch with his arms crossed over his chest and his eyebrows raised.

"What?" He asks.

"Look at you, man! One week and this woman has you absolutely fucked up!"

"I'm not fucked up."

"You bought a couch, man! What's next? A bed? With a box spring and a mattress so you don't have to sleep on the floor like a damn dog?!"

"I like the floor," Bucky mumbles.

"You like to torture yourself," Sam replies. Bucky's mouth sets in a firm line, but he says nothing. Sam sighs. "How many times have you seen her this week?"

"Three," Bucky admits. "Just lunch and coffee. She doesn't work far from here."

"Three times?! You gotten laid on any of these lunch dates?"

Bucky frowns.

"That's personal."

"We're friends."