The alarm clock went off at three'o clock and Grissom woke up, stretched and got up out of bed. He only had a few hours before he was scheduled to meet Sara for dinner at her house. What was he doing? He knew she needed a friend, but was he expecting more to come from this? He shook the idea from his mind and headed for the bathroom. Moments later he returned to the bedroom to pick out some clothes to wear. He wanted something nice, but not too nice, he didn't want to come across as being too anxious, he just wanted to be himself. He decided on a pair of navy pants and a long-sleeved button up shirt. Both very similar to what he always wore. Happy with his choice, he headed for the shower.
He retreated from the bathroom dressed and headed to the kitchen for some coffee. Now the waiting game began, it was only shortly before four in the afternoon. He clasped the piece of paper with the writing in Sara's hand and wondered what doors this would open for them. She wanted to talk. He knew Sara didn't open up about her past to anyone and he was honored that she wanted to talk to him, but she wanted to be friends, after all, he had known her the longest, she came to Vegas on his request, they were fiends, no matter how stupid and insensitive he was to her. She asked him out; he knew how she felt, but he decided to reject her, as fragile as Sara was, he rejected her. No wonder she turned to drinking! He had been told that by the time he figured it out it would be too late, he hoped it wasn't too late.
The time went by so slowly. By five o'clock he couldn't handle the waiting anymore, he got dressed and headed for Sara's. He hoped she wouldn't mind him being slightly early.
Sara was busy preparing the finishing touches for their meal. The salmon was nearly done, she had decided on a nice dill sauce for over the Salmon, she hoped Grissom liked both dill and salmon. She also had decided to make a simple rice pilaf and a garden salad. Sara heard a knock at the door and hurried to answer it, she wondered who would be knocking at her door at this hour.
Sara looked through the peephole in her apartment door and saw Grissom standing there; she released the deadbolt, opened the door and let him in. He was dressed in blue, he looked amazing in blue, it complimented his eyes, Sara stood there for a minute drinking in his scent and his beautiful blue eyes then she flashed back to reality and took his coat and offered him a seat on the couch while she finished up.
"Sara, it smells wonderful, I didn't know you could cook."
"There is a lot you don't know Griss, just because I am single and live off take-out doesn't mean I can't cook, I just choose not to because it is no fun to cook a full meal for just me!"
"Nice apron Sara!" Grissom said looking at the apron she was donning over her clothes.
She giggled, "I have had this since I was a kid back at the B &B."
"Sara, is there something I can do to help you rather than sit here and watch you?"
"You don't have to help, but if you want to, you can set the table, the dishes are over there." She said pointing to the cupboard, the wine glasses are above the fridge."
He gave her a stare when she mentioned the wine glasses.
"Don't worry, it is non-alcoholic wine, I just thought it would be nice to drink it out of wine glasses rather than juice glasses."
"I'm sorry, Sara, I didn't mean to judge you."
"Its ok Griss, I was the one who made the mistake, not you, don't worry about it, and I think it is cute that you care."
Cute? She thinks I am cute? Stop it Gil, she thinks your actions are cute, don't make this more than it is!
He flashed her a smile and began to set the table. As soon as the table was set, Sara began to dish out the salad and placed the Salmon and rice in serving trays upon the table. The last touch was the "wine" and they were ready to sit down and eat.
"Do you eat Salad, Griss?"
"Just because I am not a vegetarian, doesn't mean I don't like salad!"
"I am sorry, I didn't mean that, its just some people, vegetarian or not, don't like salad," shut up Sara, you are overtaking! "Do you like poppy seed dressing? It is homemade!"
"It is fine, thank you!" he said pouring it on his salad.
They sat there eating in uncomfortable silence. They both had a lot racing through their heads, they ate and retreated to the living room for coffee.
"Do you want dessert, Griss?"
"Wow, dessert too? You have certainly out done yourself Sara!"
Sara began to blush. "So do you want dessert now or not?"
"Can we wait on dessert? Dinner was amazing but filling, can we have it a while later?"
"You had better eat it, I went through all this work, you had better eat it!"
"I promise you I will, just not now, ok?"
"Ok, Griss, sorry, I just have a lot on my mind these days."
"Speaking of your mind Sara, what did you want to talk about?"
She knew that was coming, she quickly assesses how she was going to do this and then she looked at Grissom and began to speak.