Request for Mike and Nadine for the prompt: "I love you. I've loved you since the moment I laid eyes on you and- Oh screw it!"

"I'm sorry."

"It's a little late for that."

"Mike, I'm sorry."

"Nadine..." He sighed. He stood in the doorway and she stood on the porch, and it was anyone's guess if he'd relent and let her in. Or if he'd just leave her there to humiliate herself some more, right where anyone could see.

She hoped he'd cut her some slack. She didn't apologize to just anyone, and surely he knew that. Surely he'd recognize this offering for what it was.

"Do you want to come in?" he said finally, stepping aside.

"Thank you." She went inside and he closed the door behind her. Nadine stood awkwardly in the foyer until he brushed past, and then she followed him into the living room.

"Can I get you a drink?" he offered.

"I'm okay."

He sat on one end of the couch and she sat on the other, the space between them feeling like a chasm. "So," he said.

"So," she echoed.

"I know you want me to forget what you did, Nadine, but it doesn't work like that. Not for me. I can't flip that switch the way you can."

He could, she thought. He knew how. He just didn't want to do it for her.

"I just want a second chance," she said. "A chance to make it up to you. That's all I'm asking for."

"But I think... if you were to do this all over again... you'd do it exactly the same way." He studied her face, his gaze cool. "Wouldn't you?"

She didn't answer him.

"That's what I thought," he said softly.

/

"Nadine..." He made a noise of frustration. "You still don't get it."

"Then explain it to me." They were standing in her office this time, and it felt too similar to the last catastrophe for Nadine to feel anything except on edge. She didn't want this to end the same way. But she'd instigated this because she still wanted the second chance that he didn't seem willing to give her, and she always got what she wanted. Now she had to stand her ground and see it through.

She hoped it wouldn't blow up in her face.

"The problem was never that I stopped caring about you. And it wasn't... it wasn't that I resented you for your work, or the way you did your job—"

She scoffed, but he barreled on.

"—not really. If— if that had been the crux of the problem, I would've found a way to get over it."

"Then what?" she demanded.

"The problem was that I was falling in love with you, Nadine."

She froze. Her mind scrambled as she tried to fit these new pieces into the pre-existing framework. A framework that didn't include any of the words he'd just said. "Wh- what?"

How could she have gotten it so wrong?

"I was falling in love with you, and the whole time you just thought I was just looking for somebody to keep my bed warm."

She floundered again before she could find her next words. "How... how could you expect me to have known that?" she said weakly. He let out a short laugh.

"Nadine, I think you were the only person around who didn't know that."

"You never said anything," she insisted.

"I didn't think I had to. I thought it was obvious. Everyone else thought it was obvious."

She shook her head. Suddenly, she felt so, so foolish. "It wasn't," she said. "Not to me."

"Okay, then. I'll say it now." He moved in closer, until they were nearly toe to toe. "I love you, Nadine. I've loved you since the moment I laid eyes on you and—"

But just then her intercom beeped, and then Blake's voice was filling her office and she jumped, her heart hammering for a multitude of reasons.

"Oh screw it," Mike muttered.

"Nadine, Under Secretary Alberton is waiting for you in Conference Room East," Blake said. "And the Secretary needs your input on the budget memo; maybe you could poke your head in before you see Alberton.

She reached over and pressed the speaker button. "Thank you, Blake. Tell them I'll be along in a minute."

"Sure thing." The intercom disconnected.

She sighed. When she looked up, Mike had stepped back again. She could see the line of tension that now tightened his jaw. "Mike, I want to have this conversation, I do," she said, sounding strained, "but—"

"But work comes first," he finished.

"Yeah." She felt small and miserable and all used up now. Tired.

"Some other time, then." His words were neutral but his tone was curt, like he had no intention of picking up this conversation again. He was almost at the door when Nadine called him back.

"I was falling in love with you too, you know," she said.

He stopped in his tracks before turning around slowly, and the look on his face was one of near disbelief.

It almost didn't make sense to Nadine, that he hadn't suspected this. That he hadn't known. Because she'd sought him and apologized to him and shown up at his door for him and had embarrassed herself in front of him, and then she had pushed him for more. Why else would she have done all that, if not for the fact that she might love him, be in love with him? Who else would she have done this for?

"Y-yeah?"

"Come by my place tonight and I'll make us dinner," she offered, hoping against hope that he'd say yes. "Please? I still want that second chance."