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Lena stared at the food in front of her and sighed. She had been coming to Noonan’s every morning for the past several weeks in hopes of seeing her. Kara. Her master plan was to spot Kara and casually ask her to sit with her for breakfast. She would then tell her that her companion canceled on her and offer her the extra food that she had. It had been brilliant in her mind when she first came up with it, but now she felt foolish. Each day she came, she sat there looking stupid with food in front of her while the goddess she craved to see never came. The only thing that made her feel better was that the food never went to waste. Her assistant Jess was always extremely happy with the extra food. As she looked around the restaurant one more time, she began to pout.
“She isn’t coming back,” said Lena softly.
As she started to get up, she felt water being thrown on her which caused her to shriek. She looked up and saw a woman with wavy red hair and green eyes giving her an evil glare.
“Luthor scum! Go back to where you came from!” screamed the woman.
Lena tried to control her face, but couldn’t. She was seething with rage.
“I’m scum. You just assaulted me for no reason!” yelled Lena.
“You deserve it with the chaos your brother caused. He destroyed half the city!” screeched the woman.
“I am not my brother!” yelled Lena.
The manager grabbed the woman and started pulling the woman towards the exit.
“You need to leave and are banned from ever coming back. We don’t tolerate this type of behavior in our establishment,” said the manager.
“You are getting rid of me! That evil monster will be the ruin of this place. You’ll see!” raved the woman.
It took two more employees to help the manager throw her out. As the two employees watched to make sure the woman really left, the manager came back to Lena looking apologetic.
“I am so sorry Ms. Luthor. Are you okay?”
Lena looked away trying to control her face. She will be damned if she let them see her cry.
“I’m fine. I think I will just have the check.”
The manager shook her head and said, “Today is on us. Let me take the food back, and I will wrap everything for you to go. I will also put in a dozen of those croissants that you love as well on the house.”
Lena smiled at the manager's kindness and said, “Thank you so much. You don’t have to do all of that.”
The manager smiled and said, “You are one of the nicest customers that I have had in a while. We really appreciate your business and hope that the incident today doesn’t discourage you from coming back.”
Lena smirked and said, “Why would I go somewhere else? You guys make the best pastries in the city.”
The manager smiled as she went to put her order in containers. Lena grabbed a couple of napkins to pat herself down.
“At least she only splashed me with water,” muttered Lena.
The manager was nice enough to walk her to her car which she appreciated. Today was one of the days she was glad that she had installed the private entrance to the L-Corp building. She didn’t want her employees to see her as a wet mess. Once she got to her office, she went to see if she had any spare clothes. She frowned that she only seemed to have her old MIT sweats hanging in her desk drawer. She sometimes kept them here in case she had to stay overnight in the office. Normally, Jess made sure to keep dry cleaning the extra suite she kept in the office in case of emergency. Lena was about to call her through the intercom but stopped herself.
“Dam it! I forgot I gave her the morning off,” muttered Lena.
She slunk into her seat and sighed. Jess had asked her if she could take the morning to move into her new place. Lena had told her yes because she didn’t have any morning appointments that day. She had planned to spend the morning doing light paperwork anyway. She figured that she could field calls for two hours while Jess was gone. But given this morning, she regretted that decision. She just felt like crawling into a ball.
“Maybe, I should call out the rest of the day. I can have Jess reschedule my other appointments this afternoon for tomorrow,” muttered Lena.
She was about to gather her stuff to leave when she heard a knock at the door. She was going to ignore it but went because she thought that maybe Jess finished her moving early. She cracked the door open to peek at who was on the other side. She was stunned. It was her. Kara. She was standing there awkwardly in a bright blue dress that brought out the color of her eyes. Lena opened the door wider.
She stared at her a second before saying, “It’s you!”
Kara stared at her startled, and said, “Oh, you are the birthday girl.”
“Well, I was the birthday girl. What are you doing here?”
“Umm, I was supposed to have an interview with you this morning.”
Lena frowned and said, “I don’t have any appointments this morning.”
Kara stared at her awkwardly and said, “I spoke to Jess yesterday. She said that you would be happy to do it today.”
“Oh really now,” said Lena narrowing her eyes.
“I swear that I talked to her yesterday about this.”
Lena stared at her for a moment before sighing.
“Wait right here. Let me check something.”
She went to her desk to get her cell phone. Jess normally told her when she had appointments. However, she really didn’t want to believe that Kara was lying. She looked at the shared calendar she had with Jess and stared at it baffled. It showed right there that she had an appointment with Kara at 11 a.m.
“That wasn’t there earlier. I am going to have to have a talk with Jess about springing these things on me,” muttered Lena.
She was about to put down the phone when she noticed in the event it had a note to check her email. She quickly went to her email and saw that she had missed one from Jess from yesterday.
“That’s odd. I am normally good about reading my emails in order,” mulled Lena.
She clicked it open and read its contents.
Dear Ms. Luthor,
I have appreciated you bringing me breakfast the last several days, but have felt bad that you have only been doing it because the mystery blonde hadn’t shown up to Noonan’s every time. I decided to see if I could find her based on the name and description that you gave. It was a lot easier than I thought. I asked the manager of Noona’s about her, and she told me everything. Your mystery blonde is Ms. Kara Danvers.
“Why didn’t I think of doing that?” muttered Lena.
She shook her head and continued to read.
She told me that I could find her at Catco. She is a reporter. I knew that we had been looking for someone to create a fluff piece for L-Corp to help rebrand it. I looked at previous pieces Mrs. Danvers has done, and she has helped change around several different businesses with her articles. I thought it would be killing two birds with one stone. I am sorry for the secrecy. I hope you don’t mind.
Sincerely,
Jess
Lena wanted to be mad, but couldn’t. She had been talking to Jess nonstop about Kara all week and her plans to win her over. She had really come to rely on her the last three months since she was the only familiar face she knew in the city.
“I need to limit what I say to her more,” muttered Lena.
Lena looked up at Kara who was standing hesitantly by the door.
Lena looked down at herself and sighed. She didn’t want Kara to see her like this. She wanted to look powerful and compelling instead of like a slob. She shook her head and walked over to Kara.
I hope I can make the best of this.
“I am so sorry Kara. I missed the calendar notification from my assistant.”
She motioned her to follow her to the couch and sit down. Kara looked around and instantly zoned in on the food on the table across from them. She shook her head and took out her notepad and immediately started asking questions. Lena was able to answer them, but barely. She kept blushing and fumbling her words like an idiot.
What surprised Lena more was that Kara was not only cute but very smart. She asked her a variety of topics including her charity work and her plans for L-Corp as she is now the new CEO. One thing that she was grateful for was that she didn’t mention Lex during the conversation. She always hated being compared to him, especially on days like this. While she was asking her questions, there was a loud growling noise. Lena looked around to see where it was coming from. When she looked back at Kara, her face was beet red.
“I am sorry for that. I haven’t eaten yet today,” said Kara sheepishly.
Lean smiled and said, “You should have said something sooner. My last appointment had cancelled on me and I have all of this food left. You should have some.”
“Are you sure? I don’t want to impose.”
“No, you would be doing me a favor. I really didn’t want to throw away the extra food.”
Kara’s eyes lit up.
“Thanks! Ohh, what do you have?”
Lena smiled and said, “Everything is from Noonan’s. I have a selection of pancakes, sausages, eggs, bacon, and croissants.”
Kara smiled and instantly went in for the croissants. As Lena gathered food for herself, she heard a sound. It was low but very pleasant. It sounded like purring. She looked around and realized that the sound was coming from Kara while she was eating. Lena couldn’t help but stare. She looked like a cute chipmunk eating. Lena began to chuckle.
Kara blushed and asked, “What’s so funny?”
Lena smirked and said, “Nothing. It's just that you make a very pleasant purring noise when you are enjoying yourself.”
Kara chuckled and said, “Food has always been my Achilles’ heel. My sister used to tell me that I would follow someone into a dark van if they offered me the Dumplings from Choi’s and Chicken downtown.”
“I never would have taken you for a dumpling girl.”
Kara’s eyes went wide, and said, “Dumplings are my favorite. I like them from anywhere but Choi’s dumplings are the best. I am just happy there is one so close now.”
Lena chuckled and said, “I would need to remember that for next time.”
Kara cocked her head and asked “Next time?”
Lena looked down shyly and said, “It is just that I am new in town and haven’t really met that many people. I don’t know if you would be willing to show me around sometime.”
Lena looked up and was happy to see Kara smiling back at her.
“I would love to show you around. In fact…”
Kara took out a piece of paper and wrote a couple of things down. She handed it to Lena.
“My friends and I have a game night every Friday. They are your usual games like Monopoly, Sorry, Scrabble, etc, but we have tons of fun. You should join us tomorrow. It will be at my place. I wrote the directions down.”
“I would love that!”
“Normally, we all come in our pajamas or sweat to relax so I see you have that covered.”
Lena looked away sheepishly and said, “I normally don’t dress like this, especially to work. My outfit got ruined by a crazy person while I was out and this was the only thing I had here.”
“I am sorry to hear that! What happened?”
Lena sighed and said, “People blame me for the stuff that Lex does even though I have no part in it. I wish people would see that I am trying to help society instead of destroying it like my brother.”
Kara took her hand in hers and began rubbing soothing circles.
“I know you are a good person Lena and after my article comes out, people will realize too.”
Lena started blushing and asked, “Do you really think so?”
Kara smiled and said, “I know so.”
Suddenly, a phone began to ring which startled them to drop each other’s hands.
Kara looked down and said, “I am sorry about that. I thought that I had turned it on vibrate. Do you mind if I take this?”
“No, you are more than fine.”
Kara quickly took the phone call.
“Hey Alex, what's up?”
She was silent for a minute with a frown forming across her face. Then she sighed.
“I will be right there.”
She hung up and looked at Lena apologetically.
“I am sorry to cut this short, but I do need to run.”
“Oh, I hope it is nothing too serious.”
“Nothing like that. Just some work-related things that I wish I could push off. I was really having a good time.”
“Me too,” said Lena blushing.
Kara smiled as she got up and said, “I hope to see you tomorrow.”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” smiled Lena.
Kara left the room. Lena waited a couple of minutes until she was sure that Kara was nowhere near the office. She took a pillow and screamed into it. Not only did she get to see her crush, but she now has future plans with her. She was all giddy until a thought came to her. She rushed over to her computer and went instantly to the internet.
“I don’t have an outfit to wear tomorrow. What exactly screams comfy?”
As she looked through the different websites, she heard a knock on the door.
She looked up and said, “Come in.”
Jess peeked through the door and asked, “Did everything go well with Ms. Danvers?”
Lena leaned back in her chair and kept her face emotionless.
“You realize what you did was unprofessional and without my permission no less.”
“I know, but….”
“No, buts. The next time you want to schedule an interview or appointment for me, I need you to tell me ahead of time.”
Jess sighed and said, “Yes, Ms. Luthor.”
Lena smirked and said, “Now that we got that out of the way, Kara was absolutely amazing. She really is a good journalist, and I believe her article will help us in the long run.”
Jess smiled and said, “I am glad things worked out in the end.”
“Me too. Now, would you mind coming here and looking at these pajamas? I need something comfy, low-key, but attractive at the same time.”
“Sure.”
As Jess headed to Lena’s desk, she shook her head as she watched her boss frantically go through websites in search of the perfect pajamas.