She waited a year before she went to see him. The addiction councillor had suggested six months or until she felt comfortable, but she hadn't really felt comfortable until now. If she was being honest she wasn't really comfortable now she just knew that if she waited for a moment when she was it would be too late.
It had taken her two months to walk out the doors of the rehab clinic and four months just to get the courage to take out the card that had given her with his name and phone number printed across the front. The moment she had gotten back into her childhood room and placed it between the covers of an old book.
She looked at the book out a dozen times and then put it back down like it had burnt her fingers. When she did take out the card she couldn't even look at it without calling herself a nerd. She was freaking out about looking at a business card. The next day she'd asked her councillor about obsessive personalities. Apparently she wasn't. Good to know. That and that being obsessed with attractive, genuine and kind CSI wasn't a sign of obsession. It was a sign of having a pulse.
One year after walking away from the man with the soft brown eyes and towards the family she'd almost left forever, she found herself in the air conditioned office of the Miami Dale Police Department looking at a young extremely tanned women wondering just what it was she was doing.
The girl raised one perfectly plucked arched brow and Jolene offered a shy smile. "I'm looking for Eric Delko?"
"Sorry hun he's not in right now." the girl replied in an overly bright bubblegum voice. "Would you like me to give him a message?"
"No that's ok. I'll just-"
"Jolene?" The voice was warm and thick like honey. She tuned around to find Eric standing there smiling at her.
"Hey," she said softly.
He grinned at her. "Hey yourself."
"I had to wait a year." she blurted out and then blushed.
His smile only widened. "Yeah I read the whole steps thing..."
She looked down at her feet and bit her lip. All her planning had been about walking into this office and finding him. She'd never planned what she'd say next.
"Look I'm pretty much done for the day," Eric said. "Do you want to go grab something to eat. Maybe we can...talk?"
Jolene looked up at him and felt herself smiling, a real smile this time, and nodded. "Yeah. I'd like that."
"Good," he nodded and smiled at her again. "That's real good."
