Unexpected connection

Victoria wasn't one to skip work. She knew how lucky she was to have gotten into this program and there was no way she would ever take that for granted. That said, the next morning she was feeling compelled to call in sick. "Sick from what you dumbass?" She thought. "Irresponsibly drinking on a Sunday night, knowing full well tomorrow you have to be in the lab by 8 am? Yeah no". She thought of waking up and forcing herself to show up in time as an effective way of punishing herself for her childish behavior, deep down, she knew that she wasn't going to be able to keep that up for long, she had just turned 26, she wasn't a kid anymore, or even a college student who could justify drinking 6 rounds of tequila shots (and paying for it) every week. It was all a deflection mechanism, a way for her to evade the sad reality she thought was her life, her therapist told her once. Broke, reaching 30 years old, single and desperate, that's how little she thought of herself. She managed to gather the strength to get out of bed, she prepared the strongest cup of coffee she could swallow, and even put on a little bit of makeup, all in an effort to make herself more presentable to her coworkers and her PI.

Flashbacks of the previous night starting hitting her like a train. "There was a guy". Immediately, an impending feeling of doom overcame her. "Fuck, what even happened with this random man?" She started to recognize herself spiraling into her usual pattern. Any time she felt stressed she coped with wild nights out, hooking up with strange men, and regretted everything the following morning, just to do it all over again. It was getting old by now. Suddenly, she remembered this man wasn't just any good looking blonde with a charming smile. Could it be possible? She wasn't a big fan of football herself, but currently living in Cincinnati, she couldn't seem to get away from all the publicity of the local football team, like the rest of the population of the city. Everyone knew ithim, either for his compelling interviews, his incredibly good looks, or his talent on the field. For her it was a combination of the first two. "Nah, I probably just hallucinated the whole thing and it was just a man who resembled him" she recalled he had requested to follow her on Instagram, trying to prove that it was all, in fact a product of the 5 mango margaritas she had the night before, she opened the app, just to see her most recent, handsome follower had liked every story she had posted the night before. "Shit", Was all she could think. Not only was the embarrassing cringy interaction they previously had completely real, he had already seen her drunkenly dancing around with her friends, with her makeup smudged all over her face, her hair falling into messy waves, and her slurring words, barely even making sense. She felt like she wanted to travel to the farthest country she could buy a plane ticket to and disappear forever.

Little did she know that Joe had actually enjoyed the rawness of the footage he saw in her Instagram account, he was used to following models, influencers, and socialites with perfect, beautiful faces, in perfect outfits, looking flawless even when going to the supermarket, he was even guilty of sleeping with a couple of them, always feeling empty and shallow after. He didn't actually hold anything against the monumentally sexy women he followed on insta, he just missed the realness imperfection of the real world he no longer felt a part of. He started scrolling through her profile. The description read: "proud Biomedical Sciences PhD candidate,Mental health advocate ❤️""Oh I found a smart one", he thought. He had always admired smart, hardworking women, and felt even more intrigued as to why a self proclaimed mental health advocate would be getting wasted on a Sunday night. She seemed like an interesting puzzle. A complex person unlike his latest acquaintances in the industry, who mostly felt two dimensional. He smiled when he saw she followed him back. He had the day off training as it was the day after a game, specially since they won, the entire team was awarded the rare opportunity to just relax and get to be normal humans. He prepared himself breakfast and wondered if the girl on the other side of the screen had already woken up. He could only imagine the massive hangover she would experience. So he decided to text her, knowing full well she might not even respond to his text. @joeyb_9:Hey stranger, I waswondering how youwere doing, you seemed pretty out of it yesterday.

Victoria was already late to work, she parked her car in the same spot she had for the few months she had been going to the university, she was a creature of habit. She dreaded going in and having to face the pile of experiments she had in her schedule for the day, knowing that her boss would be onto her again, nagging about how she needed to start working on her doctoral dissertation soon. She hadn't even had time to look at her phone yet. She rushed into the lab, entering with her magnetic keycard, throwing her lab coat on in a quick motion while she swallowed the last of her breakfast bagel. She sorted through her to-do list and realized she was in for a long day, it would probably be around 9-11 hours of work depending of how much she hurried and if the instruments and the cells she was cultivating decided to work with her.

She checked her phone one last time before beginning her day and felt her heart drop to her stomach. The guy from the night before had texted her. She immediately opened the message and pondered whether to reply at all. She decided she didn't want to come off as rude and wrote the first thing that came to mind. @marlowe_tori:Hey there, how considerate of you to reach out, I'm doing fine, just a massiveheadache and a sore ego,Sorry you saw me like that.

Joe couldn't help but laugh at her honesty. He wondered if it would be too creepy to ask her to lunch after only having seen her once, whilst she was completely fucked up. But couldn't help the curiosity of actually having a conversation with her. He needed a friend. It was embarrassing to admit being that he was immensely popular in the country, not to mention a talented NFL player. He saw the opportunity and took it.

@joeyb_9:I had an idea,and it would be totally okay if you're not upto it, but would you like to have lunch someday? I feel bad for letting you go homealone being that you weren't sober

Victoria didn't read the text until later in the afternoon, she was eating her turkey sandwich alone in the university cafeteria, she had just squeezed in lunch time into her packed day, and had exactly 14 minutes to finish the whole thing before going back to the lab if she wanted to leave before 11 pm. She almost choked with her meal when she saw the text.

@marlowe_tori:Don't feel bad, it was entirely my fault. That said, I would love to grablunch someday.

@joey_b9:Awesome, maybe next week? Would Tuesday work for you?You know what I'll just give you my number(513)-867-214 Victoria quickly texted his personal number, and a lunch meeting was arranged for Tuesday at noon. Neither of them were sure of what to expect, the only thing they knew for a fact is they were a pair of lone wolves, who desperately needed to get a friend or they would risk becoming hermits.