Kelly to the Waffle Garden with Jen

Jen directs you to the state highway. A short distance out of town you see the bright green-and-white sign of Waffle Garden, with a design that Jen describes as a take-off of the hedge maze of Versailles done up into a big green W.

Jen orders the House of Cards, an improbable layer cake of waffles and berries supported by thick-sliced crispy bacon on edge, with a little help from strategically placed toothpicks with cellophane garland tops. You order the Marie Antoinette, a salad with shredded chicken, sliced apples, and pecans, with a forlorn pickled beet bleeding into the greens.

"How many Waffle Gardens are there again?" you ask Jen.

"Two thousand," she says. "And all of them serve the House of Cards. And stroopwafels. But they don't make those to order."

You snap your stroopwafel in half and dunk it in your coffee. "Fair. I mean, they're waffle sandwich cookies, really."

It ends up being a leisurely breakfast where you remind yourself why Jen is your best friend, and why you're terrified of falling in love with her and messing everything up. Jen talks about what she's learning by finding out the ins and outs at a small-city hospital with a rip-roaring lesbian contingent from top -- the Director of Nursing -- to bottom -- the laundry staff, a small-city hospital with a really active health outreach program and a really progressive obstetrics and birthing practice.

Jen shakes her head. "We're so lucky to be working here. I mean, maybe it took Brenda Box and her rich bitch girlboss sorority friends to get this to happen, but it happened, and here we are."

You smile. "Do you think you could see yourself coming back to this place?"

Jen's face makes a strange twist. "I don't know," she says. "I guess if I fell in love with someone who worked here. Lived here. It's nothing I'd ever imagined."

"It has queer punk DJs, what else would you need?" you say, giving Jen a big grin.

"Oh God, I don't know if I could handle the drama," she says. She laughs. "Though maybe I would enjoy being the sane person in a crazy house. House mother at a queer co-op. Except I probably would enjoy sleep more."

"You wanna go drive down by the river?" you ask Jen. "Trees by water. Best place for birdwatching. I heard about a place."

"Lead on, oh Pied Piper," Jen tells you.

There's a city park at the bend of the river. It's quiet and a little neglected looking. You're thinking you're glad you used the bathroom at the Waffle Garden. Across a broken fence line looks like an abandoned campground, its few buildings boarded up, its shade trees looking shaggy and neglected with fallen limbs on the cracked pavement of the driving lanes.

You pick up a broad, short feather, a lustrous shiny brown. You could imagine it tucked in a hatband.

"Wild turkey," Jen says. "Here's another one."

"You wanna go for a walk?" you ask Jen, hoping-not-hoping.

Roll +COOL(-1) to STALK Jen on your day off: 7. You find her in public, or there's trouble on the way.

You wander through the abandoned campground. Jen points out more fallen turkey feathers. A woodpecker drums on one of the trees overhead. You reach out your hand, and you walk, hand in hand, in the dappled sun between the trees. You sidestep the trash and discarded cans and bottles. Jen kicks them out of the way.

"I don't think I'd come back here," Jen says. "Because I don't think this is your kind of place." She squeezes your hand.

You don't know who moved first, but your clasped hands become an elastic band pulling you into each other's arms and suddenly you're backed up to a tree trunk kissing each other. Really kissing, mashing faces, holding each other tightly.

Gunshots in the distance. Breaking glass and clanging metal. The noise brings you up short. You look at each other's wary faces as you listen. There are faint, far-off voices.

"You're right," you say. "I don't think this is my kind of place. Let's go."

You walk, still hand in hand, back to Jen's car.

"I want to kiss some more," Jen says.

You swallow and cough to clear your throat. "Me too," you say. "So Jen. You want to be my girlfriend? I mean, just today? Just for today."

"I'll take it," Jen says. "Let's go somewhere."

You have +1 Hard, +1 Hot, -1 Cool, +1 Control and know the Character Move OMG . Also: Head Nurse's Pet: Take +1 to any rolls against Nurse Gloria, who is devoted to you.
You have 2 XP.

You've successfully used STALK on Jen, so you can TELL HER or MAKE HER BEG, or even try to get Gloria Bates into the action by rolling +COOL(0) to STALK her as well.