Emotional Connection

shared coffee

Ashley had no idea what she was getting herself into when she'd asked Charlie on a date. The entire contents of her wardrobe were covering her bedroom floor, shoes and her hope for finding something to wear scattered across the living room, and still, she was struggling to know what on earth she was doing.

She hadn't told James or Jace yet, they had the morning shift and she was asleep for most of it, so Ashley had decided to go down just before the end of their shift and tell them about the events of the previous night - slash - early hours of the morning, but staring out across her apartment, she thought momentarily about cancelling it. No point going if she had nothing nice to wear, and she couldn't wear what she'd worn before; she wanted to look as though she'd made an effort, and re-wearing an outfit? She wasn't sure that would be ok, plus, Ashley really wanted it to go well, and for some reason, her mind equated a nice outfit that she hadn't worn before with Charlie to things going well. Irrational, but there were more pressing matters than debunking her irrational thoughts, namely finding something to wear for her date with Charlie in less than six hours.

Five minutes before their shift ended, she managed to step over everything littering the floor, only tripping maybe five times, and ran down to the hospital to catch them.
James noticed her just as Jace was finishing handing over, looking a little bemused at her being in such a rush and looking so completely lost and anxious. "You ok?"

"Yeah," Ashley nodded, "I just need your help. And I need Jace too."

James still looked confused. "So you need my help but you need Jace there too?"

"Please?" She gave a hopeful smile.

Sighing, he agreed, pulling Jace to the back instead of walking back home together.

"What's going on."

"Not a clue, but Ash needs my help." James shrugged.

Jace nodded. "So why am I here?"

"Beats me." He pushed the door open, staring in bewilderment at the lack of floor space. "Um, Ashley?" He called through, trying - and failing - not to stand on anything as he tried to get to her bedroom, which he rightly assumed was in a similar state.

She looked at them both in defeat. "I don't know what to wear."

The two men looked at each other, trying to figure out what was going on.

"I asked Charlie on a date." She spoke quietly, but both heard her perfectly.

Turning, they stared at her with a mixture of shock and relief. "Finally! Man, I thought it would never happen!" James cheered.

Jace laughed, shaking his head, "seems your carefully engineered plan worked!" He nudged him.

Ashley grinned, "I heard about the towels."

"So, you need help trying to decide what to wear?" James stared at the mound of clothes. For someone who never spent too long in one place, she really did have a lot of stuff. "What about that nice dress, the green one? You look good in that."

"Wore it at my twenty-first for dinner with my dad and Charlie. Has to be something nice that he's not seen me in before."

James raised an eyebrow, looking at everything laid out, turning to look at her shoes, before sighing in defeat, "we'll have to go to town. Seriously, you have nothing like that, all of your clothes are work-clothes or he's seen you in at some point."

Ashley threw herself back onto the bed. "I figured as much."

"Come on, we're going on a trip to town, get your stuff." Jace clapped his hands. He grabbed his bag from where he'd dropped it by the front door when he'd seen the mess, and lead them all out, the three of them trooping off to the nearby town. "Shall we go to that shop with the weird shopkeeper lady? Has James met her yet?"