Sara popped another bite of eggplant into her mouth and regarded Nick with amusement as he seemed to be eyeing her food even after he'd polished off all of his Panang Curry, her cup of soup, and the remainder of the rice; it was amazing to her that he could eat that much and still look that fit. "So what possessed you to replace all of your light fixtures anyway?"
Nick toyed with the glass of iced tea in his hand as he watched Sara eat. He enjoyed her company on most occasions, and outside of work in a purely social setting, he was finding that he was enjoying it even more. "Well, it started in here." He gestured towards the fixture hanging above them in the living room. "When I had the ceiling repaired, they didn't carry the fixtures that I'd had in here anymore, so I had to pick a new one."
Sara furrowed her brow a bit as she remembered the reason that Nick had to repair his ceiling in the first place. She was perplexed that he hadn't moved after Nigel Crane had stalked him, but she also admired him for dealing with the difficult things of life in such a strong manner. She smiled at him as she noticed him watching her a bit intently.
He smiled back. "I finally decided that I wanted them all to match, so I've been spending some quality time in the lighting aisle at Home Depot."
"Picking up hot chicks." Sara teased, popping another bite into her mouth and leaning back into the soft leather of the couch.
He smirked at her. "Actually, you're the first." He laughed as he watched the color creep into her cheeks as she let out a little snort and then started coughing on her food. He reached over and patted her on the back.
She shot him a bit of a glare as she finally stopped coughing. "Some of us are still trying to eat here." Her glare gave way to pursed lips that were trying to keep from smiling at him.
He cocked an eyebrow at her in mock concern. "You know I have it on great authority that eggplant isn't very good for your nasal passages." He pointed towards her nose. "Especially if it gets lodged in there." The amusement was clearly dancing in his eyes.
Sara was having a hard time not smiling as she swatted his hand away from her face. "Oh, really?"
He nodded, trying to keep a straight face. "Just last week, Doc Robbins found a rather large piece lodged in a victim's nasal passages. He determined cause of death as eggplant asphyxia."
Sara let out a full blown chortle. "You're full of it."
He grinned and started laughing. "Maybe so, but you eat slow." He was contemplating taking her last few bites of Eggplant Delight, but he wasn't overly fond of tofu and there was a rather large chunk of it remaining.
Sara scoffed. "I may eat slow, but at least I don't pack it away like it's going out of style." She furrowed her brow and gave him a once over. "It's a wonder you can stay fit and eat that much."
Nick leaned towards her and held up his arm, flexing one of his biceps at eye level. "Just taking care of these babies." He winked at her and then let out a chuckle as she rolled her eyes.
She popped another bite into her mouth and decided that she didn't want to risk Nick cracking another joke so she set her plate down on his coffee table and slowly pivoted on the couch towards him. "Thanks for dinner." She smiled. "I'll have to buy it next time."
"No problem." He raised an eyebrow at her. "So when did you take up these non-law enforcement related hobbies?"
She smirked a bit self consciously. "During my forced vacation."
Nick nodded in understanding. She'd filled him in a week into her leave after he'd left three or four messages on her answering machine wondering why she had suddenly taken time off of work and hadn't told anyone. He had felt guilty that he hadn't noticed that something was wrong, especially the night that she'd been picked up for DUI after she gone out for drinks with him and Warrick. After that he'd made a point to spend time with her and be the friend that he wanted to be, trying to make up for how he felt he should have been acting in the months prior to the incident.
Sara continued. "So they had this 'Trading Spaces' marathon on TLC and I gut sucked in." She let out a soft laugh.
He grinned at her. "I can't believe that people give up control of their homes like that, especially when they put things like hay on the walls."
She nodded, her eyes widening. "Did you see the one where Hilde put feathers on the walls of this couple's bedroom? It was hideous."
"I seem to have missed that one." Nick was highly amused at how Sara seemed to light up as she talked about something other than forensic journals and police scanners. While the near DUI was not a good thing, it seemed to have served as a catalyst to bring some good things into her life. Seeing her like this was nice, and not for the first time since he'd seen her in Home Depot the thought occurred to him that he should test the waters and see if she might be receptive to more than just friendship.
Sara smirked. "Hey, we need to get your ceiling fan installed. Where's it going?" She glanced up at the fixture above them in the living room and wondered if there would be enough clearance for the blades since it was so close to the exposed wood beams that ran throughout the house on the ceiling.
"My bedroom." Nick stood and didn't notice the hint of color in Sara's cheeks as he gestured down the hallway. "I've been using another fan for the longest time since the AC doesn't seem to do a very good job in there, and I finally decided to just install a ceiling fan." He stepped towards where he had set the box with the fan down on the floor.
Sara stood up and followed as he carried the box down the hall. "Ok, so what do we do first?" She looked at him quizzically as he set the box down on the floor of his bedroom. As much as she'd watched 'Trading Spaces' they never seemed to be installing ceiling fans, merely removing them.
He glanced at the ceiling and then pointed to the light fixture. "Well, after we pull all of the pieces out and see how this thing goes together, we need to cut the power to the room and remove the other fixture." He began to open the box, tossing the assembly instructions to the side.
It occurred to Sara that it was already past ten and it was dark outside, if they cut the power they wouldn't be able to see. She cleared her throat until he looked up at her. "So you're planning on installing this using the Braille method then." She had an impish smirk on her face.
He just shook his head, trying to keep a serious expression on his face. "No, I was gonna make you hold a flashlight."
She looked at him for a long moment wondering if he was serious when she saw the corners of his mouth twitch upwards.