Animator's Magic - James and Jaiden

Just a Meeting

James wakes up from a good dream, rubbing his eyes. He looks outside his window and sees a car go by. 

"Glad there are no dogs to bark at." he thinks to himself while he pets his puppy. 

He reaches for his phone "4 New Messages " it reads in bold letters. He opens up the notification and he sees one text from his mom, two from his sister, and one from Jaiden. He skips through all of the others and clicks on Jaiden's name. 

"Hey, don't know if you're up yet but I wanted to let you know that the cafe might not work. Can we meet up at my house? Sorry, it's so last minute. Text or call if the cafe is better."

"Yeah, no problem. Can't wait. See you in 20." He quickly responds. He gets dressed and starts to pack his things. As he double-checks his bag, he grabs some coffee and some toast. After kissing Floof a goodbye, he jumps into his car and starts the ignition. 

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James sips his coffee but he notices the sugar is on the bottom. As he stops at a sign, he opens up the top of the travel mug. Jaiden's house is in sight when he sees a car coming straight towards his way. He quickly steers off to avoid a serious crash just when his coffee spills all over him. He slowly parks into Jaiden's driveway as he wonders what to do. Just then, Jaiden comes to greet James but she notices his worried expression.

"Hey, what happened?" she says, just as she realizes.

"Some stupid car was on the wrong lane and I had to jerk to the side and all of my coffee spilled onto me," he said, almost finding the story funny.

"Oh no! Come inside I'll help you get it out." As soon as the words came out, she felt as though she was someone special. Helping him when he needed it. She tried to avoid the thought by noticing how motherly she was being. 

"Oh my god, it's everywhere. I might need to take off my sh--" he stops himself. Something felt weird having his shirt off in front of her. They were just friends so it would be fine, right? 

"Um, yeah, no that's fine. I can wash it too if you want." Jaiden offered to break the silence. "Not like I want you shirtless for longer, just, well, I don't want you not shirtless, I just wanted to help and.." she babbles on. 

"Haha, that sounds great Jaiden. It's my only white shirt and my mom would kill me," he says, comforting her. He also wonders if what she meant from her ramble; a double negative makes a positive so did she want him shirtless? 

"Yeah, your mom would. Sorry about the car by the way, and the coffee of course. I'll make you some more later." she says, interrupting both of their thoughts on the recent exchange. James slowly takes off his white shirt, handing it over to Jaiden. As she takes it from him, she begins to stare, smiling even more. 

"What?!" James laughs. "I was gonna ask for another shirt for the time being but, it would look even sillier."

"Yeah.." she says, almost dreamily. She comes back to reality and responds with: "Okay, we need to get started before we run out of time. Go set up in my room and I'll get the coffee I promised you." They both smile at each other while he walks away. James sets his stuff up right next to hers. He doesn't want to sit in her chair so he sits on her bed, looking at Ari and saying a silent hello. 

"Here's the coffee. I hope it's okay, I remembered you like it with milk and two sugars, right?" She says, trying to ignore the fact that a shirtless James was sitting on her bed.

"Ya, good memory. Thanks. So, do you want to play video games or...?" he responds thinking it was weird how this was considered his job.

"So weird this is our job huh? But yea, I got it all set up in the living room so we can record it right away." Jaiden starts walking but she notices James is just staring at her. 

"You want to go or, is there something else...?"

"No, no, sorry. It's just I was thinking the same thing right before you said it and it's just interesting to see how similar we are."

"I mean, I don't think it's really rare to state the I set up the video games and the camera in the living room--" she laughs.

"No, what you said before about this being our job. Nevermind, sorry. Yeah, I'm coming." He quickly shook his head and followed Jaiden while looking at his feet. He bumped into Jaiden and looked up. 

"You okay? You seem so weird since the whole shirt thing." Jaiden asked, genuinely concerned.

"We should start. I'm sorry; It's kinda weird everything that's happened today. It's only 9:22 and I've already almost died, I'm half-naked in front of you, and just realized how much we think alike. Sorry, it's 9:22, we need to get started." He awkwardly stammers. 

"I know right, It's totally fine. We need to forget everything. What game do you want to play?"Jaiden steers the conversation back to work. James is relieved and answers with "Whatever you like!" and they cheerfully move to the living room. They continue to laugh at each other's jokes while they play video games. 

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After a whole day of working, laughing, and drawing, James realizes the time.

"Jaiden, it's 6:18. We've been working for nine hours!" He laughs while Jaiden looks at the little clock on the right corner of her laptop. 

"Oh my gosh, you need to go! I can't believe it! I'm sorry I kept you so long!" Jaiden hurries around.

"Don't worry, I've got nothing better to do." James smiles as he packs up his stuff. Jaiden runs to the washer to get his shirt. James is putting on his shoes when Jaiden shouts from the back room. 

"Wait! James! Aren't you forgetting something?" James walks back to where she is and looks at her quizzically. Jaiden looks back at him forgetting to give him his shirt. 

"Um, okay?" He kisses the top of her head, confused. "See you later?"

"Oh, sorry, no, here." She hands him his shirt shyly, laughing awkwardly.

"Haha, forgot I wasn't wearing one!" He says as he puts it on. They walk to his car together silently until James sits into the driver seat. 

"Okay, I'll text you later today but we still need to do some work together so do you want to meet up again tomorrow?" Jaiden asks hoping for a "yes".

"Of course. Is my house okay though this time? My dogs are gonna be mad at me that I left them all of today so..."

"No problem! Is nine okay?"

"Yup! Are we good?"

"Haha, yeah. I'll see you tomorrow." Jaiden smiles as she waves James a goodbye. He drives away thinking about the whole day and its crazy events. Jaiden walks back inside, satisfied with everything she's done today. They both continue to go to sleep thinking about each other.