Imperfect

Convincing Jay

I had a rare day off. Between looking after Finley and working I rarely had time for myself. Today I was meeting up with Jamie. We hadn't spent time together in almost two months and I missed him. I rounded the corner and saw him outside the coffee shop we had agreed to meet at. I ran up to him and jumped on him. He caught me and hugged me tightly.

"I've missed you so much Jay." I said. I didn't care who was watching this over the top display of affection. It felt good to be back with my best friend. We released each other and went inside the small shop to get a drink. We walked in and the smell of freshly ground coffee beans floated into my nostrils. It was a cute shop, it had a cute cottage kind of vibe and I thought it was strange that such a serene place existed in such a hectic town. We seated ourselves at a booth with the sun shining in at us through the window.

"How are you Claire Bear?" Jamie asked as he began looking through the menu.

"So much better for seeing you Jay. Life has been crazy recently. I needed some down time. How are you hun?" I asked. I also picked up a menu and began scanning through.

"Oh you know. Same old. Same old. Work is stressful, but Kyler is wonderful. Honestly I think he might be the one." He said. I beamed at him and held my hand out.

"Jay that's so good to hear. So do you think you guys will be together forever?" I asked.

"Girl, if he doesn't propose soon. Then I'm going to." He said chuckling. He took my hand and I squeezed his. I was so happy for my best friend. He deserved nothing but the best. We both ordered coffees and took some selfies together whilst giggling.

"So what's going on at work?" I asked as I took a sip of my latte.

"Oh we started production on our new product. We thought we had everything in place and everything was tested, but the assembly fixture we bought is causing havoc. It isn't robust enough, and we're replacing parts on it every shift. It's been a lot. The manufacturer is coming on Monday to have a look, but it looks like we're either going to have redesign it, or build a whole new one with stronger parts. The quality team has been useless." He rolled his eyes, "so I've had to do the full 8D investigation myself and get to the bottom of the issue. I swear the sooner the quality manager leaves, the better. We need someone to revamp the team." He said. "You could probably do it Claire." I laughed and shook my head.

"I wish. No I can't commit to that Jay. I'm still on part time hours." I replied.

"Talking of that, how is Fin?" He asked.

"He's ok. He's definitely getting better. Which I'm obviously happy about. I was so worried when he was in the hospital. I mean you know, you were there a lot of the time." Jamie nodded.

"I know. It was scary. I never thought he was going to wake up." Jamie said. I sighed and smiled,

"But he's doing better. He's in a much better mood and he's finally following through with his physio." I said. Jamie started sipping his coffee and raised an eyebrow.

"Is he treating you better now?" He asked. Jamie and I had spoken at length about how rude and obnoxious Finley had been to me when I first started caring for him. I put my drink down and leaned back in my chair. I knew Jay would not be impressed when I told him the news.

"He's been really lovely Jay. Things between us have been incredible and-" Jamie cut me off. He put his mug down and eyed me suspiciously.

"I swear to God Claire if you tell me you're back together I might just throttle you." He warned. I sighed and chewed the inside of my lip.

"Jay, we're not back together, but he told me he still loves me, and you know how I feel about him. He's back to himself again Jay, like when I first met him."I explained. Jamie simply shook his head.