"Maybe it's much too early in the game
Oh, but I thought I'd ask you just the same
What are you doing New Year's
New Year's eve?"
Rodgers looked up from her work to see Lennie Briscoe standing in the doorway. When she only smiled at him and didn't say anything, he continued singing.
"Wonder whose arms will hold you good and tight
When it's exactly twelve o'clock that night
Welcoming in the New Year
New Year's eve
Maybe I'm crazy to suppose
I'd ever be the one you chose
Out of the thousand invitations
You received."
Lennie moved further into the room and stood very close to Rodgers to sing the last verse.
"Oh, but in case I stand one little chance
Here comes the jackpot question in advance:
What are you doing New Year's
New Year's Eve?"
Lennie cocked his head to one side in a questioning manner.
"Are you asking me out for New Year's eve?" Rodgers asked.
He nodded and then held out two tickets.
She plucked one of the tickets out of his hand and gasped, "Lennie, these tickets are expensive!"
"Yeah, you're not gonna make me eat the price of one of them are you?" he asked.
"Well,"- Rodgers started but Lennie interrupted her.
"Look there are several benefits to going out with me. First, I'm a cop and that means you'll be very safe with me," Lennie could see Rodger smirking at him.
"Second, because I don't drink, you know your date will be sober when he drives you home. Third, again because I don't drink, you don't have to worry about a drunken pass at 3 in the morning," Lennie concluded his list of benefits to dating him.
"You know, I have a cell phone so I could always dial 911 if I needed a cop, and I could call a cab to get home safely, and from what I've seen you don't need to be drunk to make a pass," Rodgers said to Lennie.
"So I guess that's a no," Lennie said sounding somewhere between dejected and angry.
"No, it's not a no. It's just your salesmanship could use some work," she answered him with a reassuring hand on his arm and a warm smile.
"So what should I have done differently?" he asked earnestly.
"Oh, I don't know, maybe you could have told me what you had planned for us," she suggested.
"But I showed you the tickets," he complained.
"Yeah, but I mean, well,"- she paused for a moment to gather her thoughts. "Are you going to wear a tux? Are you going to use your car or maybe hire a limo?" she started asking him questions to try to give him an idea of what she had in mind.
"Oh, you wanted me to paint you a picture of the evening?" he asked leaning down a bit to be able to look into her eyes to see if he was right. She looked up at him and nodded.
"Well, let's see. If you'll be so good as to give me your address, then along about 8 o'clock, a long limo will pull up, and I'll step out in the best borrowed tux you've ever seen," Lennie said with a grin.
"Borrowed?" Rodgers said in a shocked voice.
"Yeah, I've got a cousin who's a real sharp dresser. His clothes fit me perfectly, so I'll borrow one of his tuxes," Lennie answered nonchalantly.
"I see, do go on," she encouraged, now pleased with what she'd set in motion.
"Well, lets see, what will the dress you're going to wear look like?" Lennie asked.
"Uhm, I have this green, crushed velvet off-the-shoulder cocktail dress that I was thinking might be nice," she began uncertainly.
"Sounds perfect, when I get you into the back of the limo, I'll hand you a jewelry case, with a necklace in it, something hired from Tiffany's," she started to protest, but he silenced her with a slight motion of his head and an arch of his eyebrow.
"When we arrive at the party, we'll dance and talk and laugh and rub elbows with the famous people. Then at the stroke of midnight, I'll have danced you off into some quite corner for that midnight kiss. How's that for painting a picture?" he asked.
"Oh God, first your hopeless but now, I should run from you like a house on fire. You sing like Harry Connick Jr. and steal ideas from Richard Gere movies, what red-blooded American woman could resist that?" she asked with a laugh.
Before he could think of an answer, she whirled around to her desk and grabbed one of her business cards, flipped it over and wrote her home address and phone number on it. She tucked it in his jacket pocket and then leaned up and kissed him on the corner of his mouth.
"See you at 8 New Year's Eve," she said.
"It's a date and I swear I won't be late come hell or high water," he promised.
Elizabeth Rodgers watched Lennie Briscoe's long lanky form as he walked down the corridor of the medical examiner's building. He was whistling the tune he'd been singing earlier, and was obviously unaware she was watching him, otherwise he'd never have shouted yes and pumped his fist in the air just before he pushed open the door to the stairwell.
Elizabeth smiled to herself and began humming the same tune and imagining New Year's Eve, suddenly the day wasn't anywhere near as blue as it had been.