"Hodges. Can you stop staring at me?"
Finally, I turned to him at the right moment. He was not able to run anywhere.
"What do you want?" I asked him and sipped a few drops of the delicious coffee that Greg had made for me when he had couple of minutes free. I had been sitting in the break room for a while because I did not have any new cases. Unfortunately, Hodges was doing the same.
"I can have something?" Sometimes he had this annoying habit of prolonging words. I hated that. "Interesting," Hodges added when I put my mug on the table.
'Oh, really?' I glanced at him. On his face grew a little, mischievous smile. "What do you have to keep my attention?" Someone from outside the lab might say that he was somewhat of a flirt but I was not so sure. I was too irritated every time I saw him. A crush was the last feeling which I was able to feel for him. "So?"
"It's something really special."
I cleared my throat.
"Excuse me." It was Mandy and she poked Hodges' back. He was standing in the doorway to the break room all this time. "Thank you," she said and came up to the fridge. "What's up?"
"Hodges has something special for me," I said. "And I wonder why I don't like this thought." Mandy took a yogurt and sat beside me. "Maybe he wants to surprise me?" I grinned to her.
"Hodges," Mandy said suddenly. "If you want to go on a date with Wendy, just ask her."
"We both know the answer," I added.
"Wait." Mandy stopped my words. "Let me guess." And she started to pretend that she was thinking really hard. "No?"
We burst into laughter.
"It's the right answer," I said with a voice like a compere in a TV show.
"You both are so mean," Hodges said and glared. "And no. It's not my surprise. But..." He tried to create tension but it was impossible for him. He was always predictable.
"What?" I asked.
"Hodges, why are you standing in the way?" It was Nick. "I would like to get some coffee." Hodges needed to move away again. "Thank you," Nick said. "Finally."
Nick walked up to the cupboards and opened one. He took out a pack of Blue Hawaiian.
"You can really take it?" I asked him.
"Of course he can,' Hodges answered suddenly. "His baby boy gave him permission."
"Hodges. Don't call him that. We're at work, you know," Nick said but did not even look once at Hodges.
"So what are you calling him? Not baby? Sweetheart? Dear?"
Nick glared at him. "Shut up. Better go to work."
"Just like you, I don't have any work now."
Nick sighed.
"Are you going to make two coffees?" Hodges asked. I spotted, like him, that the CSI took two beakers, not only one for himself.
"Why are you asking?"
"You know." Hodges glanced at Nick meaningfully. "A car."
"If you don't shut up by yourself, I will help you."
Mandy and I glanced at them both.
"What car?" Mandy asked.
"One beautiful day when I thought that it would be my next lucky day..." Hodges started to tell us his story.
"I told you to shut up." Nick cut his words up while he was waiting for the water to boil.
"It's nothing amazing, you know." Hodges grinned at him. "You and your sweetie in the car. How it could end up? Except that you both turned my day into a total mess."
Nick poured water into the beakers. "I swear to God that one day you won't count teeth when you smile into a mirror. By the way, how did we change your day to a total mess? Are you jealous?"
"What?" Hodges was surprised, or maybe only pretended to look like this.
"Are you jealous?" Nick repeated his question with a grin.
Hodges' face turned to red.
"He wants Wendy," Mandy added.
"Oh." Nick sighed. "Good luck, Hodges. But I don't think that you're gonna win this prize."
"A prize?" I asked quickly. "What's that? A competition?"
"A competition to your heart," Mandy said with a soft and sickly sweet voice.
I glared at her a little bit nervously. "Right. Who's Hodges' competitor?"
They all looked like they had swallowed their tongues. Only Nick smiled to himself. He finished the coffee and walked out from the break room but he turned to me when he was already in the corridor.
"Wendy?" he said.
"What?"
"You shouldn't be here."
"I don't understand. What do you mean?"
"Catherine was calling you but your pager is discharged."
I stared at him. "What?"
"Oh," Hodges said nastily. "That was my special thing for you. Catherine wants you right now."
"Hodges," I almost screamed at him. "You're an ass!"
And I rushed from the break room. That was not very intelligent because I almost spilled Nick's coffees and I did not know where to go to see Catherine. But luckily, (or unluckily) I met her in the corridor. I was close to running into her.
"Hold on, Wendy," she said. "Where've you been? I was waiting for you in the parking lot."
"I'm so sorry but Hodges didn't tell me and I... I'm really sorry, I didn't mean..."
I was not sure what I was saying and I had problems with catching my breath. But all that I was saying definitely made no sense. Catherine looked at me a bit startled and then she smiled. But that did not make me feel confident. I started to say even more senseless words. In my mind I had dozens of thoughts. All were mixed.
At once I wanted to say sorry to her, then how hot she looked, then that I wanted to meet her outside the lab, have dinner or something, go to a concert, whatever. Anything she would want. She spotted my confusion and probably did not understand why I acted like that. I was not able to explain.
"... and Nick just told me, and now I'm here. I should check my pager, cell phone, anything. I really don't know what I was thinking. We're in work and you need to find me any time you need me..."
"Wendy." Catherine stopped the flow of my words. "Calm down. Nothing happened."
"Really?" I asked with a bit of an absent-minded tone. I felt so stupid. And in front of Catherine.
"Hey, Cath."
I thought that I would punch Nick, who grew behind my back like a shadow. Again I was trying to get ready to talk with Catherine a little bit differently than usual (yes, even after the most stupid beginning of the conversation, like saying really?). But of course, I needed to have a lot of obstacles like her workmates or my mates from the lab. Well, the crime lab was not a good place to start deeper conversations. Actually, Nick and Greg made it but that was so different, though. They started to meet when Greg was still a lab tech. So maybe there was even a small chance for me, too? I hoped so.
"I got the phone. A couple found a body in the desert and..."
"Go with Greg," Catherine said suddenly. "And I'm sure he still wants his coffee." She pointed at the two beakers.
"Yeah." Nick nodded. "So we're gonna go. Have fun, Wendy. See you guys later." And he went to the parking lot where Greg was in their new car.
"So why do you need me?" I asked with a wide smile.
"Help me a bit."
"Sure," I nodded. It was really hard for me to stop smiling. Even my face started to hurt. Another point which Cath was able to catch and then thought how stupid I was sometimes. "Anything for you." I almost bit my tongue. I hoped that she did not consider it as something ambiguous.
"It should be someone else but well, you're free now."
I could not stop nodding. Another bad habit when I was trying to calm myself. But who would be able to be calm when Catherine was around? Ok, maybe Nick...
"I want you to take a hundred packs of tissues."
"What? Tissues?"
"Yeah." She nodded.
Did I mention how beautiful she looked today in the black top with a little flowery pattern, dark blue jeans and light brown suede jacket? Damn, she was the hottest woman I had ever seen. Funny that some time ago, when I had a few crazy affairs with women, I would start to think about it more seriously. When I saw Catherine, I just wanted to hold her hand, hug her, kiss her. Anything to show my feelings. But how would she react? We all knew that men were her real interest. What change was needed to turn her more onto women? And by the way, what the hell I was thinking? Sometimes I really needed to shut out all my thoughts.
"I want you to take the tissues to the recycling."
"Oh."
"Well, one policeman just sneezed at them when he wanted to unload them. Yes, I know. It's totally stupid but we can't have them when someone sneezed at few packs which were accidentally open. We need to get rid of them all."
I nodded. "That's true. Will you go with me?" What led me to ask this question?
Catherine glanced at me a bit surprised. "No." It was the only word she said.
"I thought... never mind."
"Wendy, your shift is ending. That's why I asked you about it."
"Yeah. I know."
How stupid was I? What else could she think? Go with me? She needed to work, stay here all the time when her shift was on. Taking a hundred packs of tissues was absolutely nothing. No secret meaning, no feelings for me. Just a question, a request. An order?
I went to the parking lot where there were three bags with tissues. I took them to my car. But before I got there, I stopped for a while in front of Nick and Greg.
"You should go to the desert, you know," I said. It was totally unnecessary but at this moment I really needed to talk with someone. Actually, I needed someone to listen. "Oh, and.." I noticed that Nick wanted to say something but I was faster. "Is it miserable when you fell in love with someone at work? 'Cause I found it to be exactly like that. And you know, more miserable than falling in love with someone at work is falling in love with someone who's straight. Surely you both had problems with it, too."
Greg tried to say something but again I cut the words up.
"She asked me to do one favour. And well, I'm doing it. Before I had hope and now I know where I stand. So far from the point where I want to be. I can't call it love...more fascination, even erotic fascination. I can't deny it." Again, I was starting to talk with less and less sense. I was pretty amazed that Nick and Greg were able to listen to me for that long. "Is it bad when you want someone to go out with you?" I ended with this stupid question which was not suitable to the situation.
Greg only nodded. Nick sipped the rest of coffee from the beaker.
"I don't how it started with you. But did you have these problems like me? You know, checking each other."
"No." Greg shrugged. "Nick is very gay, you can see it from ten miles away."
"Oh." I sighed.
"Thanks, Einstein," Nick said. "Sadly, not every woman sees it."
"Yeah, buttercup." Greg smirked at him.
"Get into the car, Greggo. We should go to the crime scene." When Greg got into the SUV, Nick turned to me. "Wendy. I'm not sure how I can help you with Catherine, same with Greg..."
"How you know it's about Catherine?" I just loved to ask stupid questions.
Nick glanced at me a bit surprised. 'Let's say that we're very observant.' He tapped my arm. 'Maybe the simplest solution will be the best, don't you think?'
"What's the simplest solution?"
"Ask her out after few compliments."
"Does it really work?"
"Sure, it worked on Greg.' Nick smiled.
"Of course, cowboy! It wasn't that easy!" Greg shouted from the car.
"And you stop overhearing!" Nick answered loudly. "So, Wendy. Just ask her, nothing more."
"Yeah." I nodded. "Just ask."
"We need to go." Nick pointed to the SUV behind him.
"Sure," I said. "Thanks for the advice."
"Not a big deal." Nick smiled at me pleasantly. "Good luck." He opened the SUV's door and sat on the driver's seat. "Bye, Wendy." They drove away.
"Just ask. What can be so hard about this?" I asked myself and took the bags with tissues from the ground. "Nothing hard. Really." I could not stop talking to myself. I came up to my car and opened it. I put the bags into the trunk. I sighed. I was unable to stop thinking about Catherine and Nick's advice. It wasn't really a good one but always something to guide. I closed the trunk.
"Wendy!" I heard behind my back. Catherine's voice. I turned to her. "Good that you haven't gone. I wanted to ask you about something.'
"Yeah, sure." I nodded and I saw in my mind that she was talking about taking even more bags with tissues.
"You asked me once to go out. Remember?"
"Yeah. It was maybe a month ago."
"Is it still up-to-date?"
"Oh." I was startled. For a minute I didn't know what to say. "Of course."
"Great." Catherine smiled widely and kissed my check. Her lips were dangerously close to the corner of mine.