KEVIN AND JENN

KEVIN

Kevin was out of breath when he finally panted his way to the doors of Starbucks.

His best friend was going to kill him. Sweat clung to the underside of his arms and he felt as though his face was flushed red. Neverthless he charged forward like a soldier into the cool air-conditioned air of the Starbucks.

"Jennifer?" He called out absentmindedly. All of a sudden, he found it hard to picture what she looked like.

His heart began to fall. Did she leave already? His watch read "5:37". She could've easily given up waiting for him after five minutes and been on her way to whatever fabulous destination befitted a woman like her.

"Hello?" A soft voice drew his head towards a darker corner of Starbucks, half hidden by a fake bush. "Over here."

She sounded a lot less confident than the morning. Was it a mistake to ask her out? Questions pinged and ponged in his head as he walked over to her table and sat down.

"I'm exhausted. You?" She gave him a wary smile while swiping through her phone. "I'm up for dinner at this point."

"Sure." The run had taken everything out of him. The world was starting to sway from side to side. "Sushi? I know the perfect place." She shrugged and stood up, throwing out her half drunken coffee. Part of him wanted to interrogate her on what went wrong while another simply wanted to enjoy the moment.

Would she find it offensive if he tried to find out what upset her?

"So. Do you like sushi?" He decided to gauge her mood with a random question. "I love it."

She smiled at him and put on her trench coat. It fit her curves like a glove. "Yeah. Some of it."

"Why just some of it?" He held the glass door open for her. It made his arm tremble. "And not all of it?"

"I'm vegan. I don't eat fish." she laughed. "Plus, avocado makes me feel ill." A gust of wind blew into his face. Above, the sky was rapidly darkening. It definitely wasn't patio weather.

He needed to change plans to an indoor place. "Uh, do you want to go to Jack Astor's instead?"

She quirked her mouth and shook her head. "Nah. There's nothing vegan on the menu." They kept on walking through the bustling Toronto sidewalk with no destination in mind, their conversation stuck in limbo. "But there's a great vegan place near by."

"That'll work then." He didn't even know what being vegan entailed. He guessed he was going to find out. She looked so small and frail in her thin spring coat. "Do you want my coat?" She rolled her eyes and lead the way to the place.

"Do I look cold? I'm good!" Some of the cheer in her voice was starting to reflect in her expression. The unmoving eyes and cheeks were slowly catching warmth. "Fit as a fiddle!"

"I barely work out. No, scratch that-I never work out." She shot him a disdainful look.

"That's not good. A lot of programmers are like that." He was walking directly behind her now and losing ground, even though she was in heels. Women must walk faster when frustrated. "You need to make it a part of your life."

"I guess." His metabolism prevented him from changing his body altogether. "It's tough when your body barely gains weight." Kevin hated talking about his body and health crap. But she had a point. "So how what would you do if you were me?"

She stopped at the red streetlight and pondered in silence for a few minutes. Then she looked at at him straight in the eye and told him without remorse. "I'd get my ass off my chair and into the gym. And at the gym-" she pointed her fingers to emphasize this point, "I'd find other guys who used to have my problem and inquire as to what they did to solve it." The light changed to green and they bounded accross the thick Toronto roadway. Flecks of rain flew into his face. People were already starting to take out their umbrellas. "Guys love showing off at the gym."

Provided he could swallow his pride, it sounded like a decent plan. "That's a pretty smart idea. Any idea what gyms might be near by?" She tipped her head to the side and looked up as if searching through a mid-air database.

"Goodlife is in the basement of your building I'm pretty sure. I used to go there once." 

The rain intensified. The mist grew into heavy droplets that splashed onto the pavement and drenched their clothes. "Oh god!" She ran into Union Station. He followed.

They could barely see passed the doors. The storm outside was going to be raging for a while.

He racked his brain of what to do. The grimy, crowded halls of Union Station did not seem at all the right venue for their first date. Then he was struck by an odd idea.

"Want to take the PATH?"