d.: and now, without further adieu, here is "The Inert Ingredient's" Chapter Two
CHAPTER TWO; A CHANCE MEETING
It was a chance meeting that got the two potential lovers back on track. Jay decided to put in a good workout at the police gym before heading home. A vigorous cardiovascular workout, he reasoned, would help relieve his stress. He was shocked to find Alice doing the same thing at the same gym! He assumed she was also trying to relieve HER stress because he knew that nursing school could be as demanding as his job was at times.
Jay thought, “This young lady DOES look a little like Alice.” However, this woman had makeup on her face and around her eyes. Her hair, now brushed and fixed, was bleached blonde. This was a different look for the former brunette. The skin-tight workout clothes she wore made the young detective believe that she was not unfamiliar with gyms and working out for many hours on end. Alice’s loose-fitting scrubs had revealed no such thing.
Jay did not know if Alice was just in a hurry or she did not care so much about her personal appearance, but she had worn her nursing school scrubs on their first date. Alice’s loose fitting scrubs had hidden her well-defined figure the previous times Jay had seen the young nursing student. If this young lady was NOT Alice Jones, she was worth meeting, Magruder thought. He decided to strike up a conversation and confirm his suspicion.
“Alice? What are you doing at a police gym?”
“My dad is a cop. HPD lets me work out here. I usually come in the early morning before class. I missed my workout this morning, so I decided to come after class. How are you doing Jay? (Are your fingers broken?)” Alice whispered the last statement, but Magruder heard the statement, as well as the fury in Alice’s voice, loud and clear.
“I am so sorry that I did not call you. I was working undercover (it was the truth, in this particular instance). “I was going to call you right after I got through working out. Scout’s honor. Now that you are here, would you like to go to the juice bar and talk?”
Jay could tell that Alice was still beyond furious with him. She seemed to have changed her whole persona after their first coffee date, and he had not bothered to call or communicate in any manner with her. It was to Jay’s delight, then, that she agreed to have a conversation with him. ******************************************************************************
During their conversation at the juice bar, Jay asked about Alice’s family. Since she was still upset with him, Jay wanted to relieve some of the tension that he had created. Showing his interest in her personal life, he reasoned, would be a good way to do this. His interest was also genuine. He found himself thinking pleasant thoughts about their first date regularly.
Alice obliged the young detective with details of her upbringing. It was a good way, Jay decided, to distract the young lady and to keep her from asking questions that he would not be able to answer without endangering his own life, and the life of a close friend. Knowing the truth could also be detrimental to the young lady’s well-being, he knew. He did not wish to obligate his new acquaintance in this way.
Jay listened with piqued interest to his new friend's story. Alice and her sister had been raised from a young age, Alice said, by their single dad, Ben Jones. Ben had been an HPD officer for all of Alice and her sister’s lives, she stated. Alice’s dad was busy with his police work, so he never learned the finer points of creating a feminine persona for his daughters.
Jay was very interested in his new acquaintance’s upbringing because he was interested in her motivation to become a nurse. Knowing the finer points of Alice’s early life may clue him into this motivation.
Jay reasoned, from Alice’s account of her formative years, Alice and her sister, Janine, would be considered tomboys by most people. Each took up sports in middle and high school. Both excelled at their chosen sports: Basketball and volleyball, respectively. Neither, however, was able to earn a scholarship to further her education, so Ben worked even more hours to put his daughter through nursing school. The Jones girls’ apparently noble father even offered to support both daughters if either wanted to pursue an advanced degree. Since Janine had expressed an interest in doing this, Ben decided that he needed to build a large nest egg before she graduated from high school. As a result, neither young lady saw much of her father, since he was working many hours of overtime to accomplish this goal.
This statement worried the young detective. He desired to have a family, but his job would always be his first priority, regardless of his family situation.
Since Alice believed that Jay had not called her because he did not like the way she looked, she told her her potential beau, she had enlisted the help of an older classmate. Linda Moore had helped Alice learn how to put makeup on her face properly and fix her hair. Because Linda believed that Alice would look better as a blonde, she had helped Alice dye her hair a lighter color than the light brown hue that was natural for her. This paid dividends for the formerly plain-looking young lady.
The young cop was now practically drooling over Alice. It was a nice distraction from his usual routine, and Alice seemed to enjoy the attention. When she asked Jay, curtly, why he had neglected to call her, Magruder decided that he must think fast to appease the young lady. He did not wish to lose a chance to date such an interesting young woman. Fortunately, he had a way to do this.
Jay had procured tickets to a play that he was anxious to see. The play’s opening date, however, was one month away. He asked Alice if she would like to join him for the play. When she agreed to THAT date, Jay convinced her to have dinner with him on a weekly basis. He did this to not only to help pacify the young nursing school student, but also to help establish his interest in her. That is because, from his first date with Alice Jones, Jay Magruder believed that he had found someone in whom he could entrust his secrets.
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