Hey guys!
I'm back with a brand-new story! It's a little different from what I normally write I guess, it's fun to try something new!
Hope you enjoy it!
Big Love,
pikapikatchu
"She's amazing! I can't wait for you to meet her!" Greg was excitedly telling Nick about his date last night. He had met a woman two weeks ago at the police department's christmas party and had hit it off with her instantly. She was a funny, intelligent woman three years older than him and new on the force. She transferred from Reno to Vegas two months ago.
Nick smiled as he tied his shoes in the locker room. "I think I have. Short brunette?"
Greg shook his head. "Tall redhead. She's mostly working the day shift, sometimes swing shift."
"No nights?"
"Sometimes. Sara worked with her a few times." Greg closed his locker.
"Well, I can't wait to meet her, either," Nick said with a wary smile on his face. After Greg had a few miserably failed attempts at dating, Nick was very protective of his friend when it came to women. His heart seemed to have been broken beyond repair quite a few times, but he recovered every time. Still, each time left some marks behind that made every new attempt more difficult than the previous one. And now that Greg was extremely euphoric about this woman, Nick feared that once it was over with her, his friend would be devastated.
"I think you're gonna like her!" Greg patted Nick on the back as the two were walking outside the locker room. And there she was, Gretchen Roth, standing in the lobby as she was talking to her colleague, officer Spencer.
Greg walked closer, with a big, cute smile on his face, ready to approach her.
But as Spencer leaned in for a kiss and Gretchen kissed him back while putting her hand on his cheek, he stopped.
"...What?" Greg looked confused. "What's going on?"
Nick stared at the confusing scenery. "Come on, let's get out of here before she sees us..."
As the two turned around to walk away, Gretchen walked over and tipped Greg's shoulder. "Hey there," she said with a smile on her face. "I didn't know you were working tonight."
"Y-yes, I, uh... I do, I..." Greg stammered nervously.
"So you're Gretchen," Nick interrupted Greg to help him out. "I'm Nick Stokes."
"Nice to meet you." They shook hands. "I've heard a lot about you." She smiled as she looked over to Greg. "...Are you alright?"
Greg nodded. "Sure."
Awkward silence followed before Nick chimed in again. "Well, we have to get going now. It was nice to meet you, Gretchen." They quickly walked off.
"Do you think she saw us?" Greg asked nervously as him and Nick were driving out to the desert for their case.
"If she did, she's a great actress. She didn't look nervous or anything." Nick was contemplating suggesting something that might hurt Greg. He decided to go ahead, anyway. "Say, Greg... Is it possible you were misreading her signs?"
"What? No way! We had a romantic dinner with lots of physical contact. We kissed. Friends don't kiss, Nick."
"...So what does that make Spencer and her, then?"
"...I don't know. I don't get it. We had a great time. She even asked me out for our next date, she seemed to like me." In the last two weeks they had four dates. Quite a high number, considering their time demanding jobs. "What happened?"
Nick shook his head with a smile. "Nothing happened. Maybe she's just... looking around, you know?"
"But Spencer?!" Greg replied rather outraged. "Him?"
Nick couldn't help but chuckle. He had thought the exact same thing. "Just ask her about it, maybe there's an explanation."
"Like what?"
He shrugged as he pulled the car over to the crime scene. As they got out of the car, they were greeted by Spencer and Gretchen.
"Hey guys!" Spencer waved at them.
"...Great. That's exactly what I needed, being stuck out in the desert for hours with them." Greg rolled his eyes as he walked towards them.
Working that crime scene was straining Greg as he was trying to avoid Gretchen the whole time, while she seemed to be wanting to be close to him. "God dammit!" Greg walked into the evidence room with a frustrated look on his face as he put his phone in his pocket.
"What's wrong?" Nick asked worried.
"I just talked to Brass. Officer Bailey broke a hip in a motorcycle accident."
Nick raised his eyebrows. "That's horrible, but... Why does this annoy you so much?"
"Because it means Gretchen will work his nightshifts! She'll be around me all the time!"
Nick sighed. "That wouldn't be a problem if you just talked to her. Tell her you don't want to date her when she's dating other people."
"...But I wanna date her! What if she decides to keep dating other people and stops dating me?"
"Well then so be it. You can't keep dating her then, that wouldn't make you happy."
Greg shrugged as he put on gloves to help Nick work on a piece of evidence. "I don't know, it could work out, couldn't it?"
Nick gave him a look. "Maybe if it was any other guy but Spencer. You know him, after all. Either way, you should talk to her."
Later that night, Greg was drinking a cup of coffee in the empty break room when Nick walked in to join him. "I was on the phone with our victim's boss for almost an hour. He was very reluctant to help us, I wonder why that is..." Nick grabbed a coffee and sat down opposite Greg. "What's wrong?"
Greg had a thoughtful, sad look on his face as he shrugged. "I can't get Gretchen out of my head. I felt so confident, you know? She seemed so understanding when I told her I wanted to take things slow, maybe that's why she's not interested."
Nick sighed. He had hoped the fact that Gretchen had kissed Spencer would make Greg lose interest in her. Getting romantically involved with someone at work was never a good idea, especially with a complicated backstory like Greg's. Ever since the Neil Novak ordeal he had anxiety when it came to physical contact. He didn't want to see his friend get crushed, but that was exactly what was happening right now. "Look, we don't know she's lost interest. I know you're worried she'll turn you down, but at least you'll have an answer."
"Yeah sure but... there's nothing wrong with stalling a bit first, right?" Much to Greg's surprise, Gretchen walked in as he finished his sentence. "...Hey Gretchen."
"Hi." She smiled at both men. "Greg, do you have a minute?"
Nick hopped off his seat. "I gotta go back to work."
Gretchen watched him leave, then sat down opposite Greg. "You were avoiding me at the scene, weren't you?"
"...What makes you think that? No, I..." He sighed and paused for a moment. "...I saw you kiss Spencer, alright? I didn't know how to deal with that other than to avoid you... I'm sorry."
"No, I'm sorry. I should've told you about it." She put her hand on Greg's. "A week before I met you I started dating Spencer. We went out a few times, that's it."
Greg frowned. "But you kissed him. Today."
"It was kind of like a kiss goodbye. We agreed we didn't click and decided to stay friends. It didn't mean anything and Spencer knows that."
"...Oh." Greg looked a bit sheepishly at her. "And... Spencer knows about us?"
"Yeah, of course."
Greg smiled relieved as Gretchen gently stroked his hand.
"So next Saturday, is it still a date?"
"Sure," he replied happy.
