NO PARKING ZONE
"Hey! Get the hell away from my car!"
Rick Castle squared his shoulders at the angry voice that had to be directed at him. He'd been in a bad mood since he dragged himself out of bed, having tossed and turned most of the night. And to top it all off he had to be at Black Pawn for a 9am meeting, and he'd already been running late before hitting traffic.
Really should have taken the subway, genius, he'd berated himself three blocks from the office. And then, just when he thought he'd lucked out and found a spot just down the block, he'd noticed the poorly parked sedan taking up a good chunk of a second spot. Needless to say, he'd been absolutely furious.
He managed to find a spot a couple blocks past the office. Grabbing his notebook as he approached the car, he'd started scribbling a very angry note. He was, after all, a writer; if there was one thing he was good at, it was putting his feelings on paper. And right now he didn't give a crap who this car belonged to. This person was going to know exactly how he felt about their sorry-ass parking job. So he had no doubt that the voice was yelling at him.
He turned around, nostrils flared, prepared for verbal battle. Rick opened his mouth but the sarcastic comment caught in his throat when he saw the woman in front of him.
In a word, she was gorgeous.
She was tall and slender, her hair just below her ears, the length highlighting the cheekbones that any model would kill for. But what stopped Rick in his tracks were her eyes. Right now they were shooting daggers, of course, but they were a shade of hazel he'd never seen before, flecks of gold and green and brown.
Before he knew it, she was inches in front of him, her finger poking him in the chest. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!"
The touch of her finger against his coat sent sparks directly from his chest to his brain that finally loosened his tongue. "Being late to my meeting, no thanks to your car. Do you need to get your eyes checked?" Rick motioned towards the parking stripe that the woman's car straddled. "You're in two freaking spots!"
The woman scoffed. "I need to get my eyes checked? After you, asshole. Next time you decide to touch someone else's property, make sure it's not a police car."
A police—Rick saw what was in her hand then: a shiny NYPD badge. Oh, shit. His eyes moved involuntarily to the car, noticing the lights in the window and the police license plate. "Oh—God, I'm—"
The woman shoved past him and yanked open the door. She moved to step inside, then reconsidered. "I could arrest you, you know. You're damn lucky I just got off a double and I don't want to deal with any more paperwork."
Rick felt his temper cool considerably. Yeah, he'd completely and royally messed up. "Look, I'm sorry. I've had a terrible morning, trying to get to a meeting that I am now—" he glanced at his watch—"27 minutes late to. But it's no excuse for you to catch me in the middle of leaving a note on your windshield containing detailed explicit commentary on your parking job. Can I make it up to you?"
She eyed him. "How?"
Rick scribbled down a name and street corner and handed it to her. "This is a coffee shop. It's always crowded, so don't worry, I'm not some creep trying to get you alone. Meet me there, say, one? My treat."
"I don't even know your name."
"Oh, it's Rick. Rick Castle." He held out his hand and she took it warily.
"Kate Beckett."
"Kate Beckett." Rick smiled. "See you at one?"
"Maybe." Kate slid into her car and rolled down the window. "Bye, Rick."
Despite the tough persona put out by Kate Beckett, Rick's smile only grew as he watched her pull out into traffic. If there was one thing he was good at, it was reading people, and he noticed the slight lift of the corner of her mouth when she bid him farewell. He had a very good feeling about the afternoon.
With good reason: she arrived the same time he did.
From tumblr awful-aus, Awful AU #208: "You came back and caught me in the middle of leaving a note on your windshield containing detailed explicit commentary on your parking job" AU