“Jo!” Jackie chastised a laugh in her words. “That’s not good!” 

“I know” Jo whined and Jackie could imagine her throwing her head back. “I just forgot.” 

“You need to eat, Jo.” Jackie admonished the other woman as she plated her own meal. She moved to grab a beer from the fridge, cracking it open. 

“What are you eating?” Jo asked.

Jackie looked down at the food on her plate before responding. “A sloppy joe.” 

“How do you know my stripper name?” Jo snarked, just Jackie took a sip causing her to let out a snort nearly choking on her beer. She coughed, reaching up to cover her mouth. 

“Are you okay?” Jo asked, concern leaking into her tone. 

“Yeah, that was really funny.” Jackie coughed again, barely managing to catch her breath, grabbing her plate and moving toward the living room. 

“I have my moments.” Jo chuckled as Jackie collapsed onto her couch with a grunt. “I should probably eat something.” 

“You should.” Jackie turned the volume down, so she could hear Jo as she pushed her seat back, its feet scraping loudly against the ground. Bringing her sloppy joe up to her mouth, she hummed as she took a bite. 

“I think I have some Italian left over from the other day?” Jo spoke and Jackie could hear what sounded like footsteps as she made her way into the kitchen. 

“I guess that’s something.” Jackie leaned back, watching the cooking show as the pair lapsed into silence. The sound of quiet beeping as Jo put something into a microwave. 

“So, you must be pretty fucking lonely if you’re calling a stranger just to yell at them about not eating.” 

Jackie hummed. “I wouldn’t say lonely but…I don’t exactly have much of a social life.” 

“Welcome to the club.” Jo laughed into her ear. “We should hold meetings.” She let out a quiet ‘oof’ and Jackie wondered if she’d sat back down. “Us loners gotta stick together, right?” 

Jackie snorted, nearly choking on her mouthful. “Yeah. We’ll meet up for coffee once a week.” 

“And we can bitch about why we don’t have any friends.” Jo spoke around a mouthful of food. “Even when we both know it's our own damn fault.” 

Setting her plate to the side, Jackie wiped her fingers off on her shirt. “How often would this anti-social social club meet?”  

“Well, normally you’d say once a week, but I dunno if that's manageable.” 

“I think we could pull it off. How hard could it possibly be?” Jackie mused and Jo laughed into her ear. It was soft and silvery, and she decided she liked the sound. 

“Honestly,” Jo spoke slowly. “I would kill for that level of social interaction.” She sighed. “But I wouldn’t want to be a bother.” 

“You wouldn’t be bothering me.” 

“You say that now.” Jo spoke slowly with a sigh. “But I wouldn’t want to bother a stranger.” 

“So my name is Jackie, I’m twenty-six, I work at in quality control for General Motors, and I’m really into this one anime right.” 

“Uh, what are you doing?” 

“Well now you know a little more about me, so we aren’t strangers.”

“Oh.” Jo is quiet before continuing. “Well, I’m twenty-four, you already know that I’m an artist and I don't really do much outside of painting.” 

“There. Now we aren’t strangers.” Jackie said only slightly smug at the workaround she’d found. “And, if I’m being honest, I’d love someone I could talk to.” She picked up a tot. “I dunno why, but you’re really easy to talk to.” 

“So are you.” Jo hummed quietly. “But do you really think we can manage one call a week?” 

“You’re right. We should make it twice a week.” 

“Jackie!” Jo cried, but there was a laugh in her voice. 

“Okay, okay.” Jackie couldn't help but chuckle. “How about once every two weeks?” 

“That works,” Jo spoke, her voice suddenly much quieter. “So, same time two weeks from now?”

“Sounds like a date,” Jackie spoke, eyes being pulled to the T.V. watching the chefs as they cooked. 

After a beat of silence, Jo spoke. “Good night.” 

“Are you hanging up?” Jackie couldn’t help the disappointment that leaked into her voice. 

“I need to get back to work, so yeah.” 

“Okay. Good night, Jo.” 

And with that, the line went dead, leaving Jackie to sit in silence. She set her phone to the side, grabbing her plate as she turned her full attention to the television. Turning up the volume, she let the sound of the TV show fill the empty space left behind by the end of their conversation. 

As she watched the chefs scramble against the time clock, Jackie found herself looking forward to their next conversation.