Chapter 7

Jordan was actually surprised when she arrived in the lab. Woody talked only to Nigel, ignoring the fact that she was even in the room. This didn't escape Nigel's notice and every chance he got, when Woody wasn't looking at him, he rolled his eyes and made a comical face at Jordan. She wanted to smack him up side the head, but knew that would bring unwanted interest from Woody. Instead she made her excuses as quickly as she could and headed back to her office to tackle some of the never ending stack of paperwork threatening to take over her desk.

The rest of the day flew by. She was actually able to make visible inroads on the mountain of files on her desk. Because Woody was hurt and wanted to avoid her, he left right after getting the info he needed from Nigel without stopping in to see her. Nigel and Bug were busy in the lab so she didn't see them at all and finally, Lily seemed to know her friend needed some space. The only time she poked her head into Jordan's office was to ask if she wanted to go to lunch with them at Joe's Deli down the street. Jordan turned her down because she had made plans with Harm for dinner that evening and wanted to get out of there as early as possible.

Usually Jordan was the last to leave the offices, the only other one of their group used to be Dr. Macy. But since he and Lily had started dating they had been leaving together. Tonight, however, Jordan was the first to head for the elevator. She felt a twinge of conscious when she saw the shocked look on the receptionist's face. As the elevator cut off the shocked stare Jordan reviewed her justification for her earlier than usual departure. She had been in on time, which was in itself a rare occurrence, and she had worked through her lunch hour.

Reaching her vehicle Jordan called Harm informing him that she was on her way home, believing that she would have plenty of time to get cleaned up, but when arriving at her apartment twenty minutes later she was very surprised to find him waiting for her. He had given her no indication of his intentions when they had spoken.

"Hi," he greeted her with a smile, his arms loaded down with grocery bags.

"Hi," she parroted, then raising her eyebrow, asked, "What's all this?" indicating the bags.

"I hope you don't mind, but I thought I would cook for you."

"Wow, that's great!" she answered, unlocking the door so they could both enter. "What are we having?"

"Well, my specialty is vegetarian lasagna, but that takes quite a bit of time so maybe I could do that this weekend. Tonight I thought I would make stir fry."

"Yum! If you're going to be feeding me like that, I might just have to marry you to keep you around!" she teased.

He stopped dead on his way to the kitchen and with a considering look on his face said, "You know, in the past a remark like that would normally have sent me running for the hills, but when you said it just now, it suddenly had a nice ring to it."

This time it was Jordan's turn to be stunned, "You're kidding, right?"

"Oddly enough, no," he told her as he put the groceries down on the counter and began to unload them. "I mean, I'm not in any hurry, mind you, but I could conceivably see us spending our futures together."

"Ummm," she hesitated.

"I didn't mean to paralyze you with fear. It just occurred to me and I said it. It's something we can talk about in the future."

"It wasn't fear," she insisted and then sighed, as she tried to be truthful with him. "Okay, maybe it was fear. I've never had a successful long term relationship before. I can't even contemplate me and marriage in the same thought!"

"Jordan, I was in the same boat before two minutes ago, but when I think of the future and you, all of a sudden marriage isn't such a scary word."

To be continued…