Jaimie Solace and the Unavoidable Affliction of Love

Chapter Nine

Around a week after Jaimie had made her (Leo's) famous vegan tacos, she was getting ready for her second official date with Bruce.

She had insisted that she would get to surprise Bruce this time, as letting him choose the destination of their last date had horribly backfired on her when they pulled up to the Empire State Building. Hopefully no nosey gods would eavesdrop this time.

She was excited for this date in particular, because she was going to bring Bruce to her absolute favourite bookstore. She had found it one day when exploring the city with Will, a few years after they had started living at camp permanently, and it was probably her favourite place in New York,

She loved it so much because it was a store dedicated entirely to sci-fi, so that meant every Star Wars book imaginable, Star Trek, Dune, just about any science fiction novel you could ever dream of. Jaimie was kind of a huge nerd about Star Wars in particular. Maybe that's why she loved being in Avengers Tower so much, as it kind of felt like living somewhere straight out of the movies. She hoped that Bruce would be equally excited about the excursion she had planned for them, but if sci-fi wasn't his thing, that was fine too. The bookstore was connected to the cutest cafe, and Jaimie had planned for them to be able to get a coffee and hang out there together anyways.

She knew it was significantly more relaxed and casual than the date Bruce had taken her on, but she did that on purpose. As fun as it was to get all dressed up and go out to dinner, she knew that it wasn't really either of their scenes. But just because they weren't going somewhere fancy doesn't mean that Jaimie wasn't still stressing over her outfit.

She knew that Natasha wasn't going to be able to come to her rescue this time either. Logically, she knew this was ridiculous. They saw each other literally everyday, and he was just as interested in her when she was wearing her professional work clothes as he was when she was wearing her comfy sweatpants and oversized shirts. But she still felt the need to find a cute outfit and put on makeup for this 'official' date, for whatever reason. Maybe just the act of asking him on a date made her feel like it was some kind of event, so she needed to try a little harder. Not that she minded having to try a little harder for Bruce.

Eventually she settled on a cute but comfortable grey, knit, off the shoulder sweater which she thought made her collarbones and the length of her neck look very elegant. She paired it with some looser fit jeans, and kept her gold jewelry very simple.

Feeling very pretty, Jaimie made her way to her vanity and was going to start the process of braiding her hair into two french braids when she heard a knock at her door.

"It's open!" she yelled, because there was no way she was going to let go off the strands of her hair she had tangled in her fingers and be forced to restart the braid.

Jaimie didn't have to wait long before Bruce appeared, leaning against the doorframe.

"Oh hey, you're a little early. Oh no, wait, am I actually just really late?" Jaimie said in a panic, looking at her clock sharply.

"No, don't worry, you're fine. And you look beautiful. But I have some bad news." Bruce cringed as he muttered the last part. He had just been told that SHIELD had been monitoring some abandoned HYDRA base, but recent evidence showed some kind of new activity. The team was being sent to make sure whatever operation was shut down, and although most of the time Bruce was left behind as his presence was usually more of a hindrance than a help, they had asked that he come along this time as backup. And unfortunately they had to leave immediately, which meant that Jaimie and his date would have to be postponed.

When he told her all of this, he was expecting her to be upset. Privately, she was a little disappointed, but she knew that it was nothing that couldn't be moved until later.