Morgan was in the break room having her salad snack when Greg walked in with two envelopes in his hand.
"Morgan, someone left this at reception with your name on." He reached his hand out and handed her one of the envelopes.
Caught by surprise, Morgan looked up at him, shot him a grin as she tried to keep her mouth close because she was midway through a shrimp, and took the envelope from him. Greg returned her gesture with a funny smile.
"Why? What's wrong?" She asked, as she hastily swallowed the shrimp.
"You've got some sauce on your mouth." Greg pointed to the corner of his left lip as politely as he could.
Morgan tried to get it off her lip, but instead made a bigger mess on her face. She chided herself mentally for looking like a fool in front of Greg, who had to stifle a laugh as he watch her fumble.
He was not going to laugh at her because she looked silly, but because she was so adorable. Morgan was a mature lady in many ways, like when she was working a case or interrogating a suspect; Greg loved the professional side of her. But she was also like a little girl at times, such as when she tries to get him to help her with something by pouting or speaking in a cute voice, which he always has a hard time saying no too. Or incidents like this when she was just being herself.
He had always noticed her, from the first time he saw her in the laboratory and Nick made the introduction, Morgan Brody was on his mind a lot. But her lack of enthusiasm to his flirting at the beginning had dampen his spirit, so Greg kept his growing feelings for her inside of him and instead chose to admire her from the sideline.
"Could you help me with it? Pretty please?" Morgan asked in an unusually high voice with a little whiny tone in it. "You can use this napkin."
This broke Greg's train of thought as he reacted just in time by taking the napkin from Morgan's outstretched hand before she started to realize he had spaced off.
He took the seat next to her and reached out to help her clean the little mess on her face. Being in such close proximity to her and touching her lips, those thick, luscious lips that he had been thinking about for some time, made Greg very uncomfortable.
He tried to get the job done as quickly as he could, before she could hear how fast his heart was beating and noticed his ears turning a slight shade of red.
"Greg," she called his name.
He had been avoiding eye contact with her, but found her green eyes looking into his. Just at that moment, he thought he saw Heaven.
She stayed silent, as they continued to look at each other without saying another word. Morgan could not believe it! This moment that she had been dreaming about for ages was finally here! She had always wanted to kiss Greg, and she almost did the last time they went out for beer as friends, but decided against it, as she was afraid she might scare him. She was not the type of girl who dared to make the first move, especially in this case, when her crush was her colleague whom she had to work closely with everyday; If anything goes wrong, they were going to have a hard time continuing in the same team.
Greg was immobilized. His body was still, but his mind was operating faster than when he played in a chess tournament. His heart was going to burst out of his chest any moment, and it took everything inside of him not to ventilate.
"Greg and Morgan! Just who I have been looking for!"
They jumped apart, upon hearing the voice of their supervisor call their name from the entrance of the break room.
"Hey Russell!" They both said at the same time, before exchanging an awkward glance, and then looking back at him.
"I hope I wasn't interrupting anything important." Russell commented in all seriousness, though they detected a slight amusement in his tone. "I've got a double homicide for you two to solve."
Greg was behind the wheel, as Morgan sat on the passenger seat. They were both looking ahead on the road, unable to look each other in the eyes again after what happened just now. Greg was blaming himself in his head for not seizing the moment and planting a kiss on her lips, which he dared not look at now, for fear that he would commit a sin of kissing her while on the job and get his ass fired. Morgan was also thinking of Greg, and cursing herself mentally for being too afraid to say or do anything when a good opportunity had presented itself to her.
She wondered if Greg felt anything as well. She was not oblivious to the way his ears had turned a little red, and his breathing got heavier as they shared that moment of close proximity. Morgan turned to look at Greg, unable to resist the temptation any longer, and opened her mouth to try to speak.
"Morgan." He beat her to it, and called her name first. Turning to look at her for a short while before focusing back on the road, he noticed she had her eyes on him with her mouth agape.
"Were you about to say something?" He asked.
"I… Well not really, I just wanted to ask you, if you're hungry."
She knew that sounded stupid, but her mind was in a whirl at the moment and thinking of a better excuse was impossible to do.
"Oh wow, thanks for your concern, Morgan, but I'm good for now. Hey I was just wondering, maybe we could grab breakfast together after our shift? I thought you might be hungry, since you didn't get to finish your shrimp salad."
Was he asking her out again? Morgan instantly said yes, albeit a little too enthusiastically which caught Greg by surprise but he managed to hide it quickly. A smile lit up on his face when she agreed; a smile that was unusually bright for an acceptance to a breakfast invitation.
Although the crime scene was a mess with blood, decomposing corpses and lots of maggots, the two CSIs were still looking forward to having a meal together. Actually eating was the last thing on their mind, they were more excited to have each other's company and hopefully talk about the moment in the break room just now.
When their pancakes arrived, Morgan quickly dug in without saying a word to Greg as she fell deep into thought. She wanted to ask him if he felt something at that moment, but was afraid that she would appear too forward, or worse still, be laughed at for making a big deal out of nothing.
She knew that he cared about her. But she was no longer sure if he liked her anymore, after her countless indirect rejections to his flirting at the beginning. Maybe it was too late and the ship had sailed, and it was all her fault for letting such a wonderful man go.
Being the man, Greg knew he should make the first move. But facing one of the biggest crushes of his life, Greg was rendered speechless. He watched her eat her pancakes, taking big bites like she was famished and this made him unknowingly let out a grin on his face.
She noticed it, and looked up at him.
"Why are you smiling at me like that, Greg?"
"You look… adorable." There he said it. He almost choked but he did. He just called her adorable for the first time.
"Thanks Greg," she replied with a smile on her face as she felt the heat creep up on her cheeks. "That's sweet of you."
He reached his hand out and gently held on to her hand. Looking at her, he tried to gauge her reaction before proceeding further. Luckily for him, she did not pull her hand back, but instead had stretched her fingers out to hold on to his hand!
"Morgan, do you think, we can do this often? Just you and me, not just breakfast I mean, but us going out and spending time together, getting to know each other better… Wait, I don't mean I don't know you well enough, but I meant we could get to know each other on a more intimate basis… Like more than friends."
"Yes, of course we can. I would love that."
When she had replied positively and flashed him the sweetest smile he had ever seen, Greg knew that this was the start to many dates they were going to have. He was already secretly hoping that this would last him a lifetime, because he could not imagine Morgan not being by his side from now on.
After breakfast, they had walked to the car with their arms interlocked. Being the gentleman that he is, Greg opened the passenger door for his beautiful date and that earned him a chaste kiss on the lips.
She then boldly invited him to spend the rest of the day before their shift in her apartment, which Greg could not say no to. She casually dropped a hint about a new lingerie set she had purchased online, and wanted to try it on later.
It was only going to get better from here for Greg, and he knew what she had meant at that moment, that the best is yet to come.