When Raymundo agreed to at least talk with Becky, he hadn't any thoughts of it actually going anywhere. As far as he knew, and cared, she was a friend of Penny's who also happened to be single. And Penny was on a matchmaking spree.
Raymundo thought she really wanted someone else to have kids so her son could have playmates that weren't her responsibility to raise.
To get Penny to stop hounding him Raymundo set up a meeting with Becky. Just coffee. Well, Raymundo ordered hot chocolate, but the point was it was just a casual meetup. So they could tell Penny they tried.
When Becky joined him, with a steaming cup of hot chocolate, Raymundo felt a little more at ease. In fact, he quirked his lips into a half smile and joked. "Did we both just come to a coffee joint, only to buy hot cocoa?"
Becky giggled, cheeks and nose still dusted pink by the dreary winter chill. "I guess we are both those people." She raised her cup. "Cheers!"
"Cheers!" They tapped their paper cups together and grinned at each other. Raymundo wrapped both his hands around the cup again. "So," he tilted his head. "What do you do for a living?"
"Oh no," Becky sighed, "pulling out the big guns are we?" Raymundo tilted his head. "Mine has a gross factor of eleven, so you go first."
He rolled his eyes but humored her. "Just a grease monkey. Cars, motorcycles, even done a ship or two." He smirked to himself watching her thick black eyebrows shoot up her head. "Your job beats oil, gas, dirt, and grease on the gross scale?"
"Oh honey," a bit of Southern charm slipped into her voice, "My job easily beats yours." Raymundo leaned closer, eyes on the way the corners of her lips went up and then back down. "I'm a microbiologist. My expertise is the gut microbiome." He nodded along, though he didn't really see where she was going with it. "You don't have a clue do you?"
"It is the stuff that lives inside us." Raymundo pat his abdomen.
"Good." She leaned closer, their breaths making the steam coming from their hot chocolate dance. "You're not the dumbest mechanic I've met." Raymundo put a hand over his heart, but she kept going. "In order to do that I mostly study fecal matter."
“Oh.” Raymundo furrowed his brows. “Okay. You win the gross job competition. Congratulations.”
“Thank you.” She took a deep drink. For nearly a minute they sat in silence, drinking. And then she spoke again. “You’re not running for the hills?”
“Not over your job.” Raymundo shrugged. “As long as you don’t drag me to work.” Becky snorted and covered her face. “And no, I’m not running from the snort laugh either.”
“Okay.” Becky grinned. “Penny might not be such a bad matchmaker after all.” She tilted her head. “Well, at least we don’t already hate each other.” They tapped their paper cups together once more.
Word count: 500
