A/N: Sorry about the lateness. I love your reviews and alerts and favorites! You make me feel so good and make me want to keep typing!
A week later Penelope was sitting in her office with Nancy, one of the other techies, devouring a delicious lunch of Chinese food. They had lunch roughly once or twice a month. That was really all of the time with her that Penelope could handle. She was a sweet girl but young, and slightly off kilter.
"You're kidding," Nancy said as she stuffed a bite of her food in her mouth.
Penelope shook her head with a sigh, "Nope."
"So they have been back for almost five days and nothing?" Nancy asked incredulously as she shook her head in disbelief.
"Well not nothing." Penelope put down her food unhappily. As much as she didn't want to discuss this with Nancy, she was one of the few friends Penelope had who knew about her long standing awkward crush on her best friend. Nancy had called her out on it after she came back from Alaska. It had actually been pretty nice having someone to talk to about it. At least most of the time.
"So there was something?"
"No, not something, just not nothing."
"P," Nancy said with a short laugh, "It's either something or nothing."
She frowned, "It's like it was before we kissed."
"But he hasn't said anything to you?"
"No, he has said a lot of things," Penelope said. Nancy looked at her hopefully causing Penelope to groan, "Just nothing about the kiss. Or our rain check."
"Men are such jerks," Nancy said angrily. Penelope suddenly remembered Nancy had recently been dumped by a cheating fiancé. As she realized that Nancy was going to blow the whole situation out of proportion she began to regret bringing it up to her at all.
"He's not a jerk," she said defensively. As Nancy gave her a disbelieving look, Penelope relented. "Okay so he's kinda being a jerk."
"P, he is being the worst of the worst. Everyone knows you have had a crush on him since forever, and he goes and pulls this? You don't need men like him in your life."
Nancy was blowing out of proportion just like Penelope had thought she would. She was actually surprised by how angry she was getting at Nancy for speaking badly about Derek. He wasn't a bad guy, she reasoned. He just was clueless about how to woo a real woman like herself. The women he usually dated threw themselves at him and he never had to work at it. Penelope noticed Nancy staring at her, waiting for her response. "He's not as bad as you are making him out to be," she said.
"Really? How many times has he paraded his women in front of you? There is no way he doesn't know how you feel and yet he does that. I have half a mind to mess with his file." Her eyes flashed, "You should do the same thing."
"What?" Penelope asked with a laugh. She shook her head incredulously, "Are you crazy? I'm not doing anything to Derek's file. I love you, Nance, I really do, but you are insane."
"No, parade a bunch of hot guys in front of him. It totally works, I'm telling you. It will drive him crazy until he has to do something," she said excitedly.
"Yes, because I have so many guys beating my door down." She shook her head, "Besides, I don't want to play games with him."
"I still say you need to make him squirm," Nancy said with a shrug.
Penelope was saved from answering her clearly insane confidant by the shrill ring of her phone. She gave her an apologetic look before answering with the push of a button. "Garcia."
"Hey, momma," Derek's silky smooth voice charmed her through the phone. Penelope felt butterflies jump in her stomach the minute she heard his voice. The butterflies were a recent occurrence; starting the second Derek had kissed her. Now every time she saw him or heard his voice, they bombarded her stomach.
Penelope turned to Nancy with a smile, "Speak of the devil. Hey, love bug." Nancy stuck her tongue out in disgust at the pet name.
"How is my favorite tech goddess?"
A smile involuntarily appeared on her face. "I'm peachy. What can I do for you, hot stuff?"
"I know its kinda last minute but you got plans for tonight?"
Nancy's eyes widened as Penelope answered, "I'm free tonight." Nancy shook her head and whispered, "Play hard to get."
"I was thinking a movie at my place."
"There's something I'd like to talk to you about so I would like that," she said. If he wasn't going to say anything about what happened between them, she would. She couldn't stand the awkwardness not knowing. They were best friends, she reasoned, there was no way they shouldn't be able to talk about what had transpired. She glanced at Nancy who was shaking her head and rolling her eyes.
"Um, yea," he said. There was something in his voice that made Penelope suddenly doubt herself. "I'll see you tonight."
"Bye, sugar."
As she hung up, Nancy cleared her throat. "So, that's not what I told you to do. You can't just be available any time he wants. And what do you mean you have to talk to him? You had better be telling him you're too good for him," she ranted. "I'm gunna fix this for you."
Penelope shook her head in frustration. "Nancy, I got this. I have to get back to work." She loved Nancy buy sometimes she was the absolute worst.
Derek was walking towards Penelope's office. Something she had said while they were on the phone made him worried. No one wanted to hear we need to talk. The only thing that ever came after that phrase was there's someone else or I'm pregnant. He wanted to get it straightened out now. He was lost in his thoughts when someone bumped into him. He turned to apologize when he recognized the small woman as a friend of Garcia's. "Nancy, right? Sorry about that."
"It's fine," she said frostily.
He didn't notice her tone. His thoughts were on an entirely different FBI technical analyst. "Have you seen Garcia today? Is she okay? She seemed weird on the phone."
Nancy's eyes flashed, "Yea, she's great." She smirked calculatingly, "Super excited for a huge date this weekend with her guy."
An instant flash of jealousy flooded through Derek. Date? Who the hell was she dating, he wondered irritably. "What guy?" he asked, deceptively calm. "She never said anything to me about a guy."
She flashed him an imply smile, "Jessie, this absolutely gorgeous man. She said he was the best looking guy she's ever been with. She called him her chocolate God."
Hearing that Penelope called someone else one of his pet names made him see red. It was one thing for her to date someone else. He realized he had no real claim on her, that she could date whoever she wanted since he had left their relationship up in the air for the week. He had just been waiting for the right time to bring it up. Because of that, he knew he couldn't be upset that she had a date. It didn't mean he wasn't upset because he was. He was mad as hell.
But the fact that she was calling another man one of her nicknames for him… Derek glanced at Nancy and saw the smile of satisfaction on her face. "Excuse me, Nancy. I have to go." He turned on his heels to go to the gym and beat his frustration out.