Through the Cosmos

Two

Veronica hit the snooze button at the top of her alarm. As she readied for her typical morning run she acknowledged the extra tinge of anxiety she felt in her stomach as she slid an extra glucose gel in her running vest, just in case... She grabbed the bag that held the men's size 13 running shoes and extra large runners socks. She had left the office earlier than usual so she would have time to find a decent pair before picking up dessert for dinner with her uncle. Knowing that she would be walking to the monument rather than running, she left a bit earlier for her run, opting out of her usual pre-workout. 

I won't need it today, the nerves are enough. Veronica kept repeating in head. Luckily, about a mile into the walk towards the monument, she stumbled upon an e-bike and grabbed her phone from her vest pocket and took off on the bike. As the monument came closer into view, her optimism started to dwindle. What if he doesn't show? He doesn't even know me, why would he? Thankfully, her negative thoughts came to an end as she rounded the corner of the monument and saw Steve Rogers standing at the top of the steps of the monument, stretching. Veronica parked the bike and headed up the steps towards him. 

"I'm surprised you showed, thought you were going to stand me up." Steve Rogers joked to her as she reached the top of the steps. While it had a joking tone, he really did think she was going to stand him up. 

"Well, I forgot this" She motioned towards the bag, "Couldn't stand the idea of you trying to run in Converse and it being uncomfortable." She replied, trying to sound confident and not at all worried that she had wasted nearly $300, but she would never admit that she spent that much. 

"You really didn't have to do that for me, but I really appreciate it." Steve humbly replied. He took the bag and switched out his socks and shoes for the ones in the bag. He did a could of warm-ups in the shoes and was pleasant surprised by the comfort and quality of the shoes. 

"Never thought someone could convince me to ditch my trusty pair, but I'll admit these are extremely nice. Thank you." Steve offered another thanks to Veronica. As he looked up, he noticed she was walking around to the back of the monument. 
"What're you doing?" He asked. 

"Well, I don't think you want to run with a duffle bag in your hands or somehow strapped to you so..." Veronica pulled out a small key from her vest and made her way to what she knew to be a panel behind the great statue. She unlocked it, gestured for Steve to give her his other shoe and slipped them into the bag and threw the duffle into the panel, relocking the hidden compartment and slipped the key back into her vest. 

"This will have to be our little secret because I would hate for George to get into trouble." Veronica joked knowing the George was the man in charge and the likelihood of him getting into any kind of trouble for giving her a key was slim-to-none. Steve made a locking motion over his lips making a silent promise that her and George's secret were safe with him. 

"You ready Steve, Steve Rogers?" Veronica asked. Steve laughed at her continuing the joke from the day before about how he had introduced himself. 

"Are you ever not going to address me that way?" Steve joked. Veronica shrugged and took off without warning. Steve laughed once more and began jogging to catch up to her. She took him on her typical morning route, stopping every now and then to joke about him needing to catch his breath and not wanting to over exhaust him. When they got in front of her building, Veronica slowed her pace and reached for the glucose gel knowing they had reached the halfway mark of their run. She extended her the extra gel she had packed out to Steve. Not knowing what it was but not wanting Veronica to know he was completely lost her took it. Veronica quickly realized he had no idea what she handed him and came to a stop.