2019-06-19 - We Need to Talk about Kevin

It is very late in the offices of the Gray Harbor Gazette. Anyone with any sense has gone home. Which means that Jessica is still at work. The security guard is used to both Jessica's hours and the occassional visit from the crazy librarian. He opens the door for Harper, steps back to give her some room, and gestures towards the offices. "You know where she is" he grumbles before locking the door again and returning to his issue of 'Guns and Pigs'.

The journo is typing furiously on her keyboard as she writes. It seems she is in the zone. At least until she cries out in frustration. "What's another word for 'fecund'?" She doubts her readers would know that one. "I know it starts with an 'f'."

The night admits Harper into the lobby of the local paper's offices and printing facilities. She'll make her way past the lobby at the paper after the usual phone call from the security officer on duty for approval of Harper's entry to the building. She is given a visitor's pass if Jessica approves her visit because these visits are not unheard of -- Harper visiting Jessica in particular at the paper at unusual hours, that is.

When she arrives at the proper floor and approaches the appropriate office or news bullpen, Harper is carrying a canvas bag in addition to her satchel, which in turn hangs from one shoulder, and finally a drink carrier with two insulated to-go cups, size largest. "Jess-a-Mess," she greets cheerfully with her usual warm, curving smile. "Whatcha working on? Something scoop-y? Tell me -everything-." She sets herself down beside whatever desk or table that has Jessica's lovely form bent over it and sets the drink carrier down. "Darjeeling, special blend, just how you like your men." And how is that again?

"Annnnnd --" Harper pulls not one but two carry-out bags from the canvas bags. She shakes the bag in her left hand. "Caprese sandwich on ciabatta," then shakes the bag in her right hand, "Baklava Cheesecake with extra whipped cream." She lifts her eyebrows in a cute, silly manner and acts as though she is weighing the options like a balance scale between the two bags. "Hmmm? What tickles your fancy? You /know/ you haven't eaten in far too many hours. What will it be?" Harper was working late doing inventory at the library since a new shipment of books came in. She's still dressed in her typical be-cardiganed fashion.
(not pb, just outfit: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/493073859203768822/ )

"Fertile?" Harper offers.

"Hey, Harpo" Jessica smiles warmly in return to the appearance of her talkative friend; she knows not to try and interrupt the flow with anything more than a greeting for now. She has her own desk, near Kevin's, and out on the bullpen floor. No office for her yet. But it will be hers, one day. Oh, yes, it will be hers. A chair rolled over for Harper before she gets to see a modern day cornucopia from the canvas bag.

"The way I like my men? Indian and caffeine based?" Jessica smirks before looking impressed at the sandwich, and then rather excited at the cheesecake. "You know me so well" she sighs contentedly. "And I had a wafer biscuit not..." She glances at the time on her screen. "When did it get so late? Okay, it was a while ago. Can't I have both? I mean, obviously we'll share." The look in her eyes suggests she will have the larger share.

"Fertile! Yes, thank you. I can't believe I forgot such a simple word." Jessica leans over to give Harper a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek. "You're a lifesaver. How've you been?" The typing resumes to get that paragraph out of the way. "I'm working on a piece about the working girls down at the docks. Do you know 'Fatback Sally' at all? The middle of the night is the only time I can work on the serious stuff. Who knew that a fake cat video scandal could take up all my time?" She is in pants and t-shirt, her jacket hanging over her chair, her shoes off. The typing stops. "What are you doing out so late?"

Harper takes the pulled over seat. To the way Jessica likes her men, "The flavor du jour," she agrees. "Of /course/ you can have both. What do you take me for? A tease?" She sets both bags gently down in carefully chosen spots on that busy desktop. "If you can't eat it all, we'll share," Harper finally agrees. Then she can't help herself. "Flagrantly fertile. No, wait. I've got it! Fervently flourishing with flagrant fertility." Harper can't /not/ play this game. Words are some of her favorite things. Finessing infinite phonemes formidably. She knows better than to speak the last, but Jessica just knows her friend could go on and on if encouraged. She then adds, "I like fecund so much better, though. I say bah! to the 5th grade paper reading level rule. Bah!"

The old friend's hug and cheek-kiss is returned enthusiastically. "Don't /make/ me worry about you. You know what happens when I do that." But that's likely all Harper will do to chide Jessica about her long work hours. "I live to serve my favorite reporter," she answers to the lifesaver bit. "And I'm cherry flavored. Or pina colada, if you buy the tropical ones." She listens to the topic of the piece Jessica is talking about. "Can't say I have much of a line on the working girls. Though I did hear someone joking about a 'Misty Storm'. I don't know if it's a Pink Floyd album, a weather report, or ... I suppose it could be a working girl." Misty Storm. "Myst-erious," she observes, smiles. "What about them? Aside from the obvious, of course." That they all check out magazines from the library and usually return them in a decently timely manner?

"How did I miss a fake cat video? Stupid inventory," Harper grumps, not at all grumpy about getting to do her second favorite thing at the library. Also what she was doing at work so late. "Stupid inventory, of course. And -- oh, Jessica," she breathes. "Some of the new titles. I can't wait to start showing people what we've got in." That said, "I almost forgot." She reaches into the shoulder bag as she drops it to the floor beside the chair with a thunk and lifts the leather flap to pull out a book that has a 'Non-Fiction' sticker on it. Joan Didion's journalistic essays of the aftermath of the 1960s, entitled, 'The White Album'. "I wasn't sure if you'd read this one. And given all your free time..." She just lets that silly comment trail off, offering the book to her dear friend in query.
https://www.amazon.com/White-Album-Essays-FSG-Classics/dp/0374532079/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

"You're totally a tease" Jessica smirks. "Look at that outfit you're wearing. The sexiest librarian in the state for sure." A bite of the sandwich brings a sigh of pleasure. Harper sure knows how to cook. Though she does get a raised eyebrow at that alliterative masterpiece. "I might keep that one for another article. Probably for the one on that woman who lives out in the woods who has fifteen children; 'Forested Fervently flourishing Flagrant Fertility'. I can't use 'fecund'. People will think it is something to do with bowel movements."

"I know I'm only your favorite reporter because you don't know any others" Jessica teases before nodding over at Kevin's desk. "Do you know Kevin? I think he was in the year after us. Total nerd. Spent a lot of time in the library. Now he has muscles on muscles. You two should meet. I think he likes cherry." A wiggle of her eyebrows before a sip of her tea - she even found a clean mug each.

"I'm glad you don't know a lot about the working girls, Harpo. 'Misty Storm'? Sounds more like a stripper but their professions often cross. Usually using different names. But let's not talk about such things. I bet there's someone out there called 'Misty Rious'. Or 'Miss Terri'." Jessica is actually excited about the new inventory too. And when presented with the book, she grins excitedly. "Oh my gosh. This is such a famous book. I read it in college but I'd love to read it again. Proof that everything old is new again...unfortunately." She happily takes it. "Thanks, Harpo. When is it due back? Oh, met anyone strange and new at the library? I met this guy while jogging out in the woods. Not all of us are genetically thin." She pokes out her tongue with envy at her friend.

Harper regards Jessica's fond accusation and smirk with a faux gasp of insult to her person. "You take that back Jessie-McJessicson." Then Harper looks down at her black flats, her grey tights and tweed skirt with a bemused expression. "I forgot my tube top and garter belt." Deadpan. Then that curving smile once more, irrepressible. Harper /so/ did not cook either item. Both were purchased as their wrapping and container will attest. Then Jessica is spouting headlines and Harper bursts into a fit of quiet laughter, no less amused for the volume of it. "That sounds just -perfect." To how people will respond to 'fecund', she just shakes her head. "The /right/ people will appreciate it. I mean, you say the word, and I can /feel/ a handful of loamy soil right before seeds are planted. Or imagine a jungle teeming with a little bit of everything. Except slash-and-burners. None of those."

"Just because I don't /know/ them, doesn't mean you're not superlative at your job. Maybe I don't know them because they don't contemplate using words like 'fecund' in their articles about working girls." She taps her lips with a fingertip. "Kevin... Kevin. Hmm. You mean the geeky hunk that graduated a couple of years before us? I mean, we don't get together or anything, but... are you dating him yet?" A slow smile lights up Harper's eyes. "Because you totally should be flirting him in circles, Jess." They're both talking over each other about the other one taking a taste. "No no no. He's /into/ you. I can tell by the smell of his workspace." She makes a show of breathing in the air, knowing his desk is one of the ones nearby in the bullpen. Harper doensn't dump her black tea (no cream, no sugar, no lemon) into the mug. Why make Jessica have to clean another dish before going home. "I say whisper 'fecund' to him every now and then, watch his cheeks flush."

"Oh yeeees. A stripper. I'll bet you're right. What an awful job. Can you imagine?" She shakes her head, though which part of it she thinks would be awful might not be the same as what most others would think. "So many germs." Harper's laughter is light but delighted as Jessica offers out 'Mys' names. But when Jessica says she already read it Harper shakes her head a few times. "No no ... if you already read it, I thought I'd try one of Didion's older books just in case you hadn't. But I'll find you something else." She holds out her hand for the book, intending to put it back in her satchel. Find The Right Book is another of Harper's favorite pasttimes. She does, however, nod to the 'old is new' statement. "Isn't that the case." A faint frown. "Those who ignore history and all that. Now eat something!" If Jessica does insist on keeping it she leans forward and shushes her friend. "Whenever you like. I know people at the library." Then at a more regular tone of voice. "And if someone reserves it before you're finished, I'll hunt you down with tea and snacks."

Now Harper frowns just slightly and the expression is more concerned than teasing. "Meeting 'guys' while jogging out in the woods? Jessica." Disapproval. "Such reckless behavior. That's not a safe thing at /all/." Another abrupt demeanor-shift. "Was he nice? Did you give him your number? Did he try to kill you?" These are questions one asks in Gray Harbor. Jessica, a beauty in her own right, earns a squinched up face from childhood in response to the tongue-sticking-outing. "Don't you try to get rid of those curves. I'll bet Kevin secretly /loves/ them."

"You can't wear a cardigan with a tube top. Sheesh, talk about a fasion faux pas. The garter belt you could definitely do in that outfit and I am honestly surprised this is not the case." Jessica's turn for faux shock. Harper may not be a great cook then, but she's a fine selecter of packaged goods. "Yeah, that's Kevin" she confirms after the brief description. And then her brow is furrowing. "No, we're not dating" she protests, even reaching over to playfully slap Harper's arm. "He doesn't date co-workers. Which is why you would be perfect for him. If I whispered 'fecund' he would probably sue me for harrassment. Umm...what can you smell at his desk that would suggest he is into me?" Jessica thinks on this a moment before looking quite alarmed. "Ewww! Harpo! That's gross. He does not jerk off at his desk." She does a little sniff to confirm this.

"Stripping is just a job like any other" Jessica shrugs. "If that's what they have to do to make money, then so be it. As long as they are treated as human beings and valued employees, then it should be fine. Trouble is...they aren't." She intends to keep the book. "I'm happy to read it again with my added life experience." Though that does make her snort in amusement at herself. "Such as it is. Okay, okay, I'm eating." And she does.

At least until she has to talk about the man in the woods. "I think he was out there watching teens making out in the abandoned sawmill. He was British." That explains it. "Never even got his name though he knows mind and what I do." She glances around the dark office save for the pool of light around her desk before leaning in to whisper to her friend. "He's probably a kiler. And could be here watching us. Right. Now." A spooky 'wooooh' before she laughs and sits back. "He didn't try to kill me. Not then at least. Okay, I won't get rid of the curves. Just the flab, okay?"

Harper listens to the lessons on sexy-librarianing with thoughtful speculation. "Bouncy hooks on my thighs to hold up stockings? That would be both disturbing and irritating," she muses. "And the cardigan's required. You know, like doctors have stethoscopes? Like listening to someone's heart is so /important/." She rolls her eyes. Harper's brown eyes twinkle at her best friend's protesting-too-much. They know each other well enough that Harper doesn't even need say more that just give Jessica that look. "He doesn't date co-workers, /yet/," she corrects. "Because one curvy chick he sits next to hasn't been biting at his hook." She takes a long drink from her tea. "Mmm. I'll have to remember that blend." Where was she? "You'll see. I'm right about these things ALL the time." More laughter at the potential reaction to fecund. "Well, if he's adverse to 'fecund', then he doesn't deserve you." There. Matter closed. The naughty statement earns Jessica a gasp and a careful look around the bull pen and darkened offices. "That is /not/ what I did ... or did not smell. Pheremones, JessJess, pheremones."

Stripping as a career. "Yes. Fair treatment should be a right, not a privilege," she agrees. Then a little mutter and a distracted look to her left. "No /you/ stop it." Back to Jessica. "Just hand back the book unless you're dying for some old material," Harper demands, as if talking a jumper off a ledge.

Eating happens. This pleases the dark-haired librarian. She watches with no avarice about the food or impatience for conversation to fill the silence. Omni-patient. That's Harper. Easy with silences? Also Harper. The man in the woods! "Well that's just not sporting," she states in objection. "One way information going /away/ from the reporter? What's the deal /there/?" She leans in too and the girls might be back in high school. She nods slowly. "In the shadows. With a ... no they don't have candlesticks here, do they? With a /toner cartridge/. Think of the /mess/. Fingerprints would be a bitch." As Jessica sits back, Harper lifts her elbow to rest it on the desk and props her chin on her knuckles while watching Jessica continue to eat. "Maybe he tried to kill you and you didn't notice." Ever think of that? Not getting rid of curves earns Jessica a pleased smile. The mention of flab and she's shaking her head again. "/Please/ don't tell me you buy in to the female-body-image crap that society is doling out these days. I don't know if I could be your friend if you were airbrushed. So fuzzy."

"I can't bite at his hook if he never gets his pole out" Jessica points out with a wicked grin. "You're so bad, Harpo. Anyway, it wouldn't be good for work, would it? We'd sit here all day mooning at each other instead of doing out job. We'd get fired...especially if he did start jerking off at his desk. Blame each other. Have a huge fight and never talk again. And I'd be left lonely and poor on a sinking houseboat." Her brow furrows once more. "So no change for me at least. However, if he started dating you... You could give him all the fecund he could handle."

Jessica looks at the book in her hands, stroking the words on the cover for a moment, before handing it back with a sigh. "Fine...but only if you find me an even better book." She has no doubt that Harper would be able to do that. "A toner cartridge would leave his fingerprints everywhere. He'd be better off using a stapler. Or one of those giant blades they used to use to chop the paper. Haven't seen one of those in a while. So long, I can't even remember what it was called. Probably a guillotine. Hmm...you think I'm a ghost? Well...could be I suppose." The two of them do sparkle a bit. "And the flab is not about body image. It's about not wanting to wheeze when I walk up stairs. And being energetic all night." A pause before she points at Harper. "Not in that way."

An enjoyable sip of her tea. "Hey, would you like to come down to the houseboat this weekend? Have a proper gossip session. I'll cook. There's supposed to be a storm on Friday, so how about Saturday night? If my home is still floating. Could even invite Kevin."

Jessica, Queen of Wicked. Or at least capable heroine. "I'm bad," Harper states flatly. "You are a corrupting influence. Think of my /reputation/." She listens to the treatise on why work relationships are bad for work, just shaking her head. "Or... you'd put your heads together and write transformative journalistic pieces eviscerating the establishment. Then go back to your place and cap it all of with a spectacular --" She drops her jaw. "If he starts doing that at work, then go for the murderer in the woods. I'll bet Mr. Mystery could buoy your boat." Always tenacious, Harper. At least on her best friend's behalf. "Just no murdering." As for /her/ dating a guy she just knows was a year or two above them in high school who works with her best friend and potentially jerks off at his workstation. "I don't give 'fecund' away, you know. A guy has to pick out the /right/ books, if you know what I mean."

Harper graciously takes the Didion tome back and slips it into her satchel, no harm, no foul. So long as Jessica lets her at least try to matchmake with books.

"Smudgy fingertips. Super hard to pin down." Then she wrinkles her nose. "Death by stapler just sounds ... irritating." A head tilt. "You mean -paper cutters-?" The woman using 'fecund' couldn't remember 'paper cutter'? "Finish your food, Jess-cah." She opens her mouth to speak, then Jessica has to go and say 'not in that way'. Harper closes her mouth again.

Jessica's drink of tea reminds Harper to drink more of hers, now halfway gone.

"This weekend? Sure. As long as I finish inventory and a couple other things. That would be fun. Especially if you cook. What can I bring?" Kevin. Again. "You invite Kevin, he'll be a little puddle of -- pheremones by the time we're done with him." Harper's laughter rings through the words. "Tell me your house is not really sinking."

"I have a reputation too" Jessica protests. "You wouldn't want me to stop being the weird Arab girl who probably wants to blow everyone up, do you? Kevin is really into his conspiracy theories, so how about we don't mention that to him. He'll think it's true and I work for the state or something. Not Washington, the State. The one that's in...Washington. You know what I mean. And I'm sure he could finger the right pages in the right books if you'd let him."

"You and your pheromones, Harpo. You're acting like you spray them around like it's going out of business. Or Kevin does." Jessica sighs. "We always end up back with Kevin spraying. Just make sure you finish your inventory. We need to hang out more...when our jobs allow us. I guess you could bring someone if you wanted to. Make it a foursome. And then, if someone leaves, we can still have a threesome." She taps the side of her head as she sagely pouts. "Up here for thinking. Down there for...cobwebs at the moment. Make sure you come along." Jessica finishes her tea. "But it's time you got home before it gets too late...early." She moves to give her best friend a tight hug. "So wonderful to see you. Thanks for the food. The wisdom. And the images of you in a garter belt and what Kevin does at his desk." Jessica winks before nodding towards the exit. "Get out of here."