Clear the Schedule
“Dr. Banner, if your schedule allows, I’d like to meet with you outside the lab.” Toni’s back was rigid; the way it was when she got back from several hours of arguing with her board of directors. And she hadn’t called Briana by her professional title since the first day they meet. Even then, it had only been once or twice before the nicknames started. The doctor’s heart raced and all she could do was nod as she stared, wide-eyed, at who she hoped she could still consider her friend.
“Excellent. I’ll have Miss Potts clear my schedule for… tomorrow at three? At that tea shop you like off Broadway?” There were nerves at the edge of Toni’s voice, but she gave that fast and easy press smile. Briana nodded again. Toni’s smile got painfully wider before she nodded too and scrambled out of the lab.
Whatever this was going to be, Briana feared she might need to find a new favorite tea shop.
Seeing as Toni had asked her at nearly midnight, ‘tomorrow’ came rather quickly. Completely at a loss for what was going on, Briana dressed in her usual slacks and button up, hoping whatever type of business casual she struck would be enough for the serious seeming conversation Toni wanted to have. Their meeting was in a tea shop though, so she thought a full suit jacket might be overkill.
The short walk to the small street off Broadway felt even shorter as she pushed opened the door, bell chiming to announce her entrance. She scanned the cozy shop before she saw Toni in a corner both, rising to greet her. The press smile was gone, replaced with that goofy, ‘I-just-broke-the-laws-of-physics-come-join-me’ grin Briana had found herself accidentally falling in love with. She had never seen Toni wear pink, but the too large, too soft sweater looked perfect on her. The red skirt was more on brand, would be considered too short for the weather without the black tights that Briana had to pull herself away from staring at, shaping those impossibly long legs. Toni was short, but her legs seemed to stretch on forever. Drawing her eyes back up, she was again mesmerized by the way Toni’s hair fell in loose ringlets, curling over a fluffy white scarf. She looked straight out of a romcom.
“Oh wow.” Was all she could say before Toni wrapped her arms around Briana’s neck in a hug, whispering about how great it was that she could make it. This wasn’t a business meeting like she had feared, wasn’t Toni firing Dr. Banner from the Stark Industries payroll or kicking her out of the rent-free Avengers Tower. This was a date.