I sat on the couch alone in my modest apartment. I sat flicking through channels; I had probably gone through each a hundred times, hoping there might be something new on that would catch my eye. After about ten minutes of not being able to choose what to watch, I let go of the remote and went to the kitchen. I left the TV on; I liked noise in the background. It made me feel not so alone by filling the void of silence that tended to be in the apartment.
I looked in the fridge, stood there for a minute looking around seeing if I could whip something up out of the groceries that were in there, but nothing took my fancy. I then opened the freezer door, letting the ice cool air hit my face. I dug through the shelves of frozen food. A few microwave meals but nothing really else. I thought to myself 'Well if worst comes to worst, I can have frozen pizza'. But truthfully that didn't appeal to me, I wasn't that hungry. I headed towards the pantry, my eyes instantly fell on the box of Coco Puffs that was on one of the middle shelves. I grabbed a bowl which was in the upper left hand cupboard and returned to the fridge to retrieve the milk. As I was pouring the milk into bowl all I could think was 'how come I'm sitting here eating cereal when I did my grocery shopping four days ago, the day we arrived home from New Orleans?'
New Orleans. I hadn't stopped thinking about the case. Well not so much the case as the lead detective who called us in to help. Will. I had given him my card, and basically threw myself at him telling him to call me. And yet four days on, I hadn't even received so much as a text or a short message on my message bank. I couldn't stop thinking about it. I had to keep reassuring myself that I didn't make it up, he was flirting with me the whole time we were there. I really liked him, and there was a spark that I hadn't felt in a long time. I was certain he would call, I didn't get how I could have been so wrong. Well I'll give him until the end of the week. And if he doesn't call, I guess it's for the best then, it couldn't go anywhere anyway.
But that didn't help wishing it could. I walked into my bedroom leaving my bowl of cereal to go all soggy. I liked when I could return to chocolate milk, I guess I hadn't changed much since being a kid. I headed to my bureau beside my bed looking for my phone. I had sworn I had left it there. I turned my head to the left seeing the mound of clothes that I knew my phone laid under.
"Why does this always happen?" I knew the answer to this. I was a slob. My office is a mess, my rooms a mess, and there are usually at least two dishes in the sink. I never have time to do anything, working at the BAU is busy enough without having to keep a clean house and office too. And I'm very rarely here. I'm making excuses for myself aren't I?
I start rummaging through the pile, throwing everything to the ground, knowing I'll need to pick it up soon. This only reminded me I needed to do my washing. Why was everything so hard? Right down at the bottom of the pile, I found my personal phone. I looked at the front screen before I flipped it open. 1 missed call. Oh please tell me I didn't miss his call. I opened the phone to find 'Missed Call- Mom', well I guess if it was really important she would have called my landline a hundred times. It was too late to call her back now, she could wait until the morning, if a case didn't come up. I slipped my phone into my pocket, and headed back to the kitchen. I jumped up on the counter and started to eat the bowl of Coco Puffs. I scooped up the first spoonful, maybe it was a little bit too soggy for my liking but I didn't mind. I lifted the first spoon up to my mouth just as my phone started to vibrate in my pocket. No wonder I didn't hear my phone ring before. Maybe I should have called Mom back, it was obviously important.
'Unknown Number'. I put down my bowl.
"Hello?" I answered questioning who was on the other end of the call. I couldn't be work related; my personal number wasn't on my card. It was probably just a wrong number.
"JJ?" Will, I hadn't forgotten what his southern accent sounded like.
"Yes, may I ask who is calling?" I asked, pretending I had no idea who it was. I didn't want him to know I hadn't stopped thinking about his voice calling my name as I answered the phone since I gave him my card.
"Uh it's Will. William LaMontagne. The detective for New Orleans."
"Oh hi," I said trying to play it off nonchalant.
"I wanted to call you earlier, but I didn't know what to say, my nerves took a hold of me. But it was now or never."
"I didn't know if you were going to call."
"But are you glad I did?" I let out a gasp of air as I smiled. "I'll take that as a 'yes'."
"So why are you calling?"
"I told you I couldn't survive you leaving." I waited a minute before answering.
"How are you doing?"
"Well I feel like I'm never going to finish the paperwork load I landed from the case, but otherwise I can't complain."
"I can relate."
"If this is how much paperwork you get every serial case, I thank God I'm not you."
"Its not too bad, although we have a whole team that completes reports, but it is usually Hotch and me who get the biggest load of paperwork."
"Well if you like doing paperwork, care to do mine?"
"Haha, good try, maybe some other time."
"Oh well at least it was worth a try… Wait 'some other time'?"
"Huh?" I pretended I didn't know what he was talking about. I can't believe I let that slip. Well now it's completely obvious I like him.
"You said 'Maybe some other time'."
"I did?"
"Alright, I'll let it slide…this time," I rolled my eyes, even though he couldn't see, I felt like he could tell what I was doing. He let out a laugh, and I couldn't help but laugh to. I got off the kitchen cupboard, and made my way to the living room. I turned off the TV, and sat down on the couch turning the lamp above me on. It was the only light on in the entertaining area, but it illuminated the room well enough. "So what are you doing?" He asked.
"Nothing really, just sitting on the couch in the living room. You?"
"Pretty much the same thing. Do you have another case yet?"
"Surprisingly not. Sometimes we go a week without a case…we usually call that a vacation. Other times, we'll arrive home and the next day we'll be flying out again."
"But that doesn't really give you room to have a personal life."
"Precisely why I haven't married", a nod back to the conversation we had in the bar the week before.
"Do you ever get free time?"
"Yeah we don't usually work the weekends, but occasionally we have a case that take precedent, what about you? You're a detective; you can't have that much free time."
"Well that's a casualty of the job, ain't it?"
"That it is". I looked at the digital clock flashing on the oven – quarter to twelve. "I'm really sorry Will, but it's late and I have to be up early in the morning."
"That's all right, Cher."
"Well goodnight Will, it was good hearing from you."
"Uh JJ, I was wondering if I could call you again?"
"Sure".
"Tomorrow?"
"Yeah, that would be good"
"Well I'll talk to you tomorrow. Goodnight JJ," he said in a soft tone right before hanging up.
I closed my phone and slipped it back into my pocket. I headed back to the kitchen and tipped the bowl of Coco Puffs down the garbage disposal. I left the bowl on the cupboard, turned off the overhead lamp, and headed to my room. I turned off the bedroom light, waited for my eyes to adjust and found the cleanest path to my bed. I slipped my phone onto the bedside table. I closed my eyes and smiled. He called.
