The Perk, Thursday night

[prof-cregg.livejournal.com]

She's got her laptop and she's engrossed in shopping for new office furniture. Retail therapy helps so much. Point and click and new couches and chairs and bookcases. Oh, and file cabinets, but those aren't exciting.

Now...on to shoes.

[[talk to CJ or patronize the Perk]]

Comments

[actingltcrumpet.livejournal.com]

Archie doesn't feel like cooping himself up in the dorm all night, so he's wandered into town. He'd considered Caritas, but after the other night alcohol may not be such a good idea for him. So here he is at the Perk, instead.

"Professor Cregg," he says, nodding to her as he sits down at an adjacent table with his drink -- plain drip coffee, black and double-sweet. This new-fangled trendy coffee is one of those things that overwhelms him. "How are you this evening?"

[prof-cregg.livejournal.com]

"Mr. Kennedy. I'm doing well. And yourself?"

She clicks a couple times, then shuts her computer, giving him her full attention.

[actingltcrumpet.livejournal.com]

"The best I've been this week. You?" he asks lightly. Upon seeing her shut the computer, he protests, "You didn't have to stop on my account, Professor."

[prof-cregg.livejournal.com]

"I've spent enough on new furniture. It's really not a problem."

She takes a sip of tea, Earl Grey with a bit of milk and sugar, and smiles.

"The week has definitely been on an upswing. I heard...are we neighbors? I moved into the first floor of the dorms."

[actingltcrumpet.livejournal.com]

"Did you? What room?" Archie sips at his coffee and with a grimace decides it needs to cool down a touch more. "I wish I had the resources to spend money on new furniture. Now that I've gotten used to having space of my own, I'm beginning to find my quarters rather spartan."

[prof-cregg.livejournal.com]

"128, just down from Gil and Sara, er..Professors Grissom and Sidle. Do you need anything? I have a couch in my office you can have."

She stirs her tea a little, then takes a sip.

"Really...you have to move it though."

[actingltcrumpet.livejournal.com]

Archie laughs and blows on the surface of his coffee. "I don't think my room is quite big enough for a couch, but thank you; I'm in 115 myself, so not that far from you."

[prof-cregg.livejournal.com]

"I can't quite figure out how these places are set up. Some seem so big, but you don't have room for a couch?"

[actingltcrumpet.livejournal.com]

"Well, perhaps I could," Archie allows with a wink. "But my roommate, assuming I ever see him again, might object to the loss of his bed and desk. We seem to have gotten one of the smaller rooms, though every now and then I think I might wake up one day and discover it's doubled in size."

[prof-cregg.livejournal.com]

"Who is you're room mate?"

[actingltcrumpet.livejournal.com]

"Harry Potter? Nice enough fellow when I saw him around, glasses and messy hair. I never do seem to see him, though . . ."

[prof-cregg.livejournal.com]

"There's a lot of that that goes on here, I think." She takes another sip of her fast-cooling tea. Looking over the rim, she can't help but smile.

"Hey...what are you doing tomorrow?"

[actingltcrumpet.livejournal.com]

"It happened to me for a while. I know." He laughs, a tiny hint of bitterness in the sound.

"Tomorrow?" Archie scratches his nose and considers. "Nothing, as far as I know. I'm quite free these days, really."

[prof-cregg.livejournal.com]

"Feel like some hard labor? We're tearing down a wall in my office. Many hands make quick work..."

If anyone could make work sound like fun, it's the speech teacher.

[actingltcrumpet.livejournal.com]

"Tearing down a wall?" Archie leans over, interested now. "I imagine that could be quite therapeutic. I'd be more than happy to help with that, Professor."

[prof-cregg.livejournal.com]

"My office is in the humanities wing. It's the wall between professor Chaucer's office and mine. Now that he's gone, it's all mine. Mwa-ha-ha. Evil laugh, see?" she says dryly.

[actingltcrumpet.livejournal.com]

"I tremble in my boots," he replies just as dryly, but with a wink. "I'm sorry I never got a chance to take a class with him, though. Er -- what time will you need me there?"

[prof-cregg.livejournal.com]

"Oh, about third period, I suppose. That's when we'll move stuff out. If you want to avoid that part, come during fourth. And bring a sledgehammer if you can find one."

[actingltcrumpet.livejournal.com]

"A sledgehammer, eh? I don't think I have one of those at hand, but I'll see what I can come up with. And I'd be more than happy to help with the moving as well."

[prof-cregg.livejournal.com]

"Fantastic, Mr. Kennedy. I'll warn you, you may be the only one enthusiatic about this who isn't a professor."

[actingltcrumpet.livejournal.com]

Archie shrugs. "This week I feel as though a little judicious destruction can only make me feel better, so I won't deny the prospect is appealing."

[prof-cregg.livejournal.com]

"What's happened to you this week to make you so eager for this project?"

She takes another drink and stares at him, waiting for him to answer her nosy questions.

[actingltcrumpet.livejournal.com]

Archie picks up his coffee and stares at it absently, swirling it in the cup and watching the pattern of ripples on the surface. "I suppose you could say that I'm not terribly pleased with myself for taking this whole situation with Jaye as hard as I am. I didn't think it would bother me as much as it has."

[prof-cregg.livejournal.com]

"The radio girl? What's going on?...I mean, if you want to talk about it."

She finally gets up, leaving her things at her table and joins him, regardless of invitation.

[actingltcrumpet.livejournal.com]

Archie smiles and moves his coffee cup out of her way. "The question is more what isn't going on, any more. It was all very . . . abrupt. I don't hold it against her, mind you; I understand completely why she thought it was best to end things. Still, such things aren't taken too well when completely unexpected."

[prof-cregg.livejournal.com]

Not to disregard his feelings, but she can't help but snort out a laugh before she takes another drink. "Tell me about it, kid. The abrupt and the unexpected? They suck."

[actingltcrumpet.livejournal.com]

Archie responds with a slightly derisive laugh of his own. "I've come to understand the meaning of that particular bit of vernacular, much better than I'd ever wanted to. Seems you can say the same."

[prof-cregg.livejournal.com]

"I've been around, and yes. But it can't rain all the time, so you go with what you've got. Suddenly alone? May I suggest tearing down a wall and doing some online shopping? It does wonders for me."

[actingltcrumpet.livejournal.com]

"I don't know about the online shopping, but the tearing down a wall I can certainly do." A nostalgic look crosses Archie's face for a moment. "It's not quite the same as tearing down the bulkheads and clearing the ship for action, but it will help."

He gives CJ a sympathetic smile. "I'm sorry."

[prof-cregg.livejournal.com]

"Thank you Mr. Kennedy. That's very sweet of you. We'll both be ok, right? We'll do some damage to property...and rebuild it like nothing ever happened."

[actingltcrumpet.livejournal.com]

"It's what we do, Professor. Some things don't change much from my time to yours."

[prof-cregg.livejournal.com]

"I imagine so. When exactly is your time, Mr. Kennedy?"

[actingltcrumpet.livejournal.com]

"The turn of the century. The eighteenth to the nineteenth, that is." Archie nodded and took a sip of his coffee and, satisfied that it was of a proper temperature to drink now, followed that up with a healthier gulp.

[prof-cregg.livejournal.com]

"Really? Fascinating. And you're a sailor?"

She picks her cup up several times, almost drinking but never quite making it.

[actingltcrumpet.livejournal.com]

Archie nods. "Yes, the last I recall I was the fourth lieutenant on the HMS Renown. Not the best of posts, but at least I passed the examination instead of twiddling my life away in the midshipmen's berth." He absently taps the side of his coffee cup. "And you, Professor? Before you came here?"

[prof-cregg.livejournal.com]

"Before I came here, I was the Press Secretary to the President of the United States, Mr. Kennedy. Not too shabby, I've gotta say."

She finished her tea and checked her watch now that she's finally gotten back online with time to play.

"You know, I'd love to keep chatting...perhaps we can talk more about ships and politics in my office tomorrow. But I should go and clean out my office a little."