Perfume
Temperance stared at the bottle in her hand. It was small, clear, and somewhat curvaceous, filled with an innocuous golden liquid. It glittered with the glow from her dim desk light. It rippled without much excitement as her hand shook just a little with the natural unsteadiness of fine motor coordination.
A man gives you a bottle of perfume like that, it says ... it says, "I love you."
Hodgins' words came easily to her. Although eloquent, they were still part of that horrible nightmare through which they had just barely survived.
Temperance had already done her research. The perfume in her hand was not three thousand dollars "a pop" (she knew only vaguely what that meant), but it was not cheap stuff.
And Booth had purchased a few ounces of it for her. She had mentioned a few days ago, mostly to herself, as he returned her to the Jeffersonian after recovering a body, that she needed new perfume.
She could interpret the gesture to indicate that her old perfume had been unpleasing. But...
...It says, "I love you."
She could not ignore the heavy thudding of her heart. Her pulse did not increase; blood did not rush in her ears; her hands did not tremble unusually But her heart thudded so deeply, so strongly, she could almost believe that it was trying to beat out of her chest to scamper across Washington D.C. and meet up with his
That was ridiculous, though. The heart is a big muscle in each person's chest, which pushes blood through meters and meters of vessels in order to keep cells alive. Emotion is the result of hormones and brain structures working in tandem in ways that natural selection deemed valuable for continued life. Booth was a generous, emotional, sensitive, and honorable man, who would never be dumb enough to fall in love with her.
A man gives you a bottle of perfume like that, it says ... it says, "I was getting Rebecca something at the mall when I saw the perfumes, and I remembered what you'd said, Bones. I thought I'd save you some time, since you've also mentioned that you're behind on your next book. Hope this is okay."