CHAPTER TWO
A Rose For A Rose
The first thing Sophie saw when she entered her office the next morning was something completely out of place: a vase filled with a dozen red roses was placed neatly on the center of her desk. Sophie stood in the threshold of the doorway to her office and just stared at it for a moment, wondering for a split second if she was hallucinating. But then Nate came up behind her.
"Sophie, did you look over the— what are those?" Nate said as he came up to her, the flowers interrupting his train of thought for the moment.
"They appear to be flowers," Sophie responded, though still didn't move towards the vase. She looked back at Nate, who was bringing a glass of fowl smelling liquid to his mouth. Sophie sighed and took it out of his hands before it ever had the chance for to touch his lips.
"I'm sorry, did you want a sip, Sophie?" Nate asked sarcastically and held up his hands like 'why the hell did you just do that?'
"It's too early for this stuff, Nathan," Sophie said, using his full first name as a way to indicate that he had done something wrong, and brought the drink to the trash and dropped the entire contents – glass and all – into it.
Nate sighed heavily and Sophie could swear the man just rolled his eyes at her, which made her scoff. "Why did you send yourself flowers?" He asked her, looking at them.
"I didn't," Sophie said, in a voice that indicated he had just said something very wrong. "Is it so hard to believe that someone would send me a present?"
"It's hard to believe anyone knows who you really are, let alone how to find you," Nate replied, which made Sophie shrug like she knew it was true.
Sophie picked up the card that was placed between two roses and opened it. "I thought you'd like something pretty like this," she read out loud. That was all it said.
"Oh jeez."
Sophie rounded on Nate and said with an attitude, annoyed that she was being mocked for someone giving her flowers, "Was there something you wanted?"
"Did you look over the case file yet? I need to know how we can get in to the funeral," he asked her.
"The what?" Sophie asked, confused.
"The funeral, didn't I…? Oh, I thought we already talked about this," Nate answered, confused for a moment.
"Maybe if you didn't drink so much you would have remembered that you had yet to fill any of us in," Sophie said with a disapproving look.
"It's not because I've been drinking, I'm just tiered," he sighed. "Just tell everyone to meet in the briefing room in ten minutes, please."
"Fine," Sophie said, and watched him leave.
She turned back to the flowers and reread the note in her hand. She smiled, despite herself. If she was to be honest, she actually quite enjoyed this kind of attention. She hadn't gotten something like this in awhile, haven't had the time or the trust to actually have any kind of functional relationship. The thought of a secret admirer almost made her feel like she was back in high school, and someone told her a cute boy had a crush on her.
She leaned down and smelled the flowers before smiling again as she set the note on her desk. Turning, she left her office and went to find everyone else. Went to find everyone else that included whoever sent her those. Parker was still the most likely case, but unfortunately she herself picked up some of the other teams skills here and there, and she's sure someone would learn how to con and pretend they were someone else as well.
Eliot and Hardison were already in the briefing room, watching sports on the six different televisions. "Meeting in ten minutes," she told them. Hardison groaned.
"But we're in the middle of the last quarter," Eliot said.
"Tell that to Nate," I told them, before turning and looking for Parker.
She found the thief in her office, sitting on her desk and looking out the window that overlooked the skyline of the city. Her knees were up to her chin, her head resting on them.
"Parker?" Sophie addressed her, more quietly than she normally would, though she wasn't sure why.
Parker noticeably jumped in her skin, which made Sophie crease her eyebrows. Since when was Parker jumpy? The blonde turned and looked at her, jumping off of her desk. "Oh, Sophie. Hi."
"There's going to be a meeting about ten minutes," Sophie told her, curiously watching the other woman. She was acting kind of odd, well, odder than usual anyway, which sparked that theory she had again
"Okay," she said, then turned back to the window and looked out it. Sophie knew it was because she was feeling uncomfortable with her there, but instead of departing she walked over and stood next to her, looking out with her.
"You alright?" Sophie asked her, but didn't look at her directly; instead she chose to watch her out of her peripheral vision.
"I'm just watching the clouds," Parker said in explanation. She was moving her hands in an odd way, like she didn't know where she should put them. They went to go up to the windowsill but then stopped and went back down to her sides, but then moved again as she chose to cross her arms across her chest; a clear sign of defensive behavior.
"You seem a little jumpy," Sophie observed.
"I'm not," Parker told her, then her hands were back down to her sides again, then up for a second time to rest on the windowsill. Sophie cocked an eyebrow but said nothing about her body language.
Instead she opted for, "Someone gave me flowers today." She saw Parker noticeably tense up, and she went on, "But I don't know who." Parker relaxed a little.
Sophie was almost positive it was Parker. No one who was hiding something, and that bad at hiding something, would have body language the way she did right now. But it still didn't make much sense to her, how could Parker be in love with her? Sophie didn't remember doing anything that would signal that she was interested in women. Not that she wasn't, she just never tried it. Entertained the idea, but never really had anyone to try it out with.
But then again, Hardison or Eliot could have asked Parker to put the flowers in there and keep it a secret and that's why Parker was acting funny: because she knew. Once again, the many possibilities clouded her determined accusation, and she was back where she started. Filled with doubts and not having enough information to be completely certain.
"You got flowers?" Parker asked as she attempted to feign surprise, but failed.
"Yeah, a beautiful vase filled with a dozen red roses," Sophie answered. She smiled a little and Parker looked at her, then turned away as she tried to hide her own smile.
Yeah, Parker knew something alright. She was either her secret admirer, or knew exactly who it was. Either way, Parker was her connection to the person, one way or another. And if it was one thing Sophie was good at, it was getting information out of people.
But then Nate walked in. "Sophie, Parker! Meeting, remember?"
Sophie inwardly kicked something but replied, "Yeah, we'll be there in a minute." Nate left and Parker turned to go but Sophie put a hand on her shoulder to stop her. Parker's body tensed a little but then relaxed as she turned to look at her in question. "Parker, can I ask you something? I know this isn't really your area, but you're a woman, and I need to talk to a woman right now."
Parker's eyes shifted slightly and then she shrugged, "Okay. What is it?"
"Actually, can you just come over after work? I'd rather we not be interrupted, and Nate will blow a fuse if we don't go in there right now," Sophie said, working through her plan. She loosened up her body language and smiled a little, becoming inviting and looking trusting.
She never thought she'd have to work Parker like this, of all people.
Parker was quiet for a second and looked like she didn't know what to say when finally she shrugged and replied, "If you want."
Sophie smiled as her and let her fingers run softly down Parker's bare arm as she let go of it, noticing the way Parker's skin seemed to jump at the contact. "Yeah, I do want that." Eye contact, and Parker shifts her eyes again before nodding and turning to leave.
Yup, Parker definitely knew something.
TBC…
