-Tell all
"Have you seen Agent Barrett?" Such an simple question, yet he didn't have an simple answer – Ziva and her sneaky ninja skills.
Of course he over-reacted, he saw it in the way Ziva's eyes squeezed together – scrutinizing him – how her hands moved their way to her hips and how her lips slightly pouted.
"Why do you keep asking about her?" and of course he should've known she was going to answer with a – this is the first time – responds because really she was kinda right.
It had been the first time she had openly asked if he was seeing EJ but in his head she had asked a thousand times already, with her subtle glances, her poking around, her gentle asking what he been doing last night.
"She intrigues me" he never would've seen that one coming, Ziva was intrigued by EJ?
The first meeting had been nothing more than uncomfortable for the two woman, also the way Ziva had been complaining about EJ dropping into their conversation… - he had just assumed Ziva had already drawn her conclusion.
Perhaps she had and just didn't want any trouble.
Last week's he hadn't really spoken to EJ often, he had been busy, she had been busy – it was understandable.
Yes, Ziva she was assembling her team.
What else would she do? He thought he held it together pretty good in the woman's shower.
Thinking about it he and Ziva always were having interesting conversations in interesting places, the man's room, the woman's shower, a broken down warehouse – he could think of plenty of other places.
"I wonder when she's due back" it had been the perfect trap and he had fallen right into it, with his immediate responds of "me too".
Of course it had satisfied Ziva, her eyes relaxed a bit and the smallest hint of a victory smile made its way to her mouth – her eyebrows held the question, of how much he wanted to see EJ.
It wasn't against the rules he told himself, technically agents could not date each other if they were on the same team or working together closely in any other way – he wasn't working with EJ closely so…
Then he had given Ziva a very good directed hint of 'Everyone deserves their privacy', he had nearly slipped because the words 'me too' were already on his tong before he realized it.
He had quickly changed the words in 'Even Leroy Jethro Gibbs' and hurried out of the woman's showers.
Ziva was on to him, he should be careful with her.
He took another sip of his beer and looked around his place for the first time that evening, taking note of the messy pile of clothes next to his bed, of his neatly stacked DVD's and the half-empty pizza in front of him.
It was an classic bachelor apartment, and in that moment he realized that he wanted more – he had gotten a taste of the 'more' part with Jeanne but it hadn't been the same he knew then that it could never work.
He also knew that Erica Jane Barrett was very much alike him and probably had had around the same number of men as he had had woman.
What he didn't know was if she was a kind of person that could even have a serious relationship, because deep down in his heart he knew that that was what he needed.
A serious relationship.
Because he really didn't want to be some old grumpy man sitting all by himself one day, he also didn't want to find out he was a father of some girl when he was seventy because he hadn't been careful, no he wanted a good healthy relationship.
And he was gonna get it, for now he could see it work with EJ but like his father always said – enough woman out there Anthony, if one doesn't work out you take the next one.
He never thought he hear himself say it but he wanted a family, a wife to come home to, perhaps a child.
Above all, he wanted to be happy.
Just plain ol' happy.
