The First Time

22.

Kathleen checked her watch again. Derek had called to say that he was running a little late but she knew that he shouldn't be too far away now. She'd suggested that she would wait for him in Starbuck's and she was flicking through a magazine wondering what sort of thing he would want to get Meredith when he came in and sat opposite her.

"Hey. Sorry about that. Traffic was a bummer."

Kathleen smiled. "It's no problem." She quickly pushed a coffee in front of him. "I thought that you would probably need one too." She suggested. "Plus while you drink it we can come up with a plan of attack."

"Attack? I just thought that we were shopping." Derek replied naively.

"Oh. Derek. Thanks goodness you called in the help of a professional." Kathleen laughed. "This sort of thing requires careful planning. So what are we looking for?"

"That's what I'd thought that you could come up with. And then I'd just pay for it." He explained hopefully.

"Oh no no no." Kathleen said shaking her head. "That wouldn't do at all. She doesn't want a gift from me ... although that's not a bad idea ... I should get her something too." She added as an aside.

"You don't need to." Derek quickly commented.

"But I'd like to." Kathleen replied. "But that's not important right now. What is important is your gift. But it needs to be from you. I'm happy to come up with ideas but the final decision has to be yours."

"Okay. So what are the ideas?" Derek asked.

"Well ... before I can offer any suggestions, you're going to have to tell me just what this girl means to you ... otherwise I'll have no chance of getting it right. It seems that I read everything wrong the other day." She looked at Derek and earnestly apologized. "I wish I could take it all back. I'm sorry that I assumed that you were sleeping together. You just seemed so ..." Kathleen searched for the word and finally added "right ... together."

"That's okay. It feels 'right' when I'm with her." Derek admitted. "And I'm sure that if we'd known one another a little longer then your assumptions would have probably been correct." He admitted sheepishly.

Kathleen frowned. They had seemed so comfortable together that she'd assumed that they had been together for quite some time. "How long have you known her?" she asked puzzled.

Derek thought for a minute and then replied. "I met her two weeks ago and we've been seeing each other since last Monday. So eight days."

"Oh My." Kathleen replied aghast. "No wonder you haven't slept together yet if you've only been together for that long. I just assumed ..." she started and then added. "There I go assuming again. You'd think that I would have learned how much trouble that can get me into. So you'd only been going out for what? ... six days when you brought her home. No wonder you weren't sleeping together.

You'd have to have set some sort of record if you had done it by then." She added.
Derek smiled as he thought about the twelve minute record but decided that it was something that he didn't need to share.

"Yeah. So ..." he was feeling a little uncomfortable. He knew that he could confide in Kathleen. If he asked her to she would even keep things from David although Derek would never expect her to do that. But it still wasn't easy for him to talk about his feelings for Meredith.

Kathleen watched the expressions flit across Derek's face. Over the years she had gotten much better at being able to read him since she hadn't really lived with him since he was about five years old.

"But I was right in assuming that you like her?"

Derek sipped his coffee and nodded self-consciously.