I curse. Why, oh why, did someone have to choose this moment to call me? Just when I was finally making progress?
Sara seems more amused than frustrated. She's trying to hold back a grin as she releases me and stands up. "Better answer it, Gris."
I sigh and pick up the phone. "Hello?"
Sharon's voice comes over the line: "Are you kids having fun up there? I noticed you bailed early from the party."
I shoot a nervous glance at Sara. She looks back at me, eyebrows raised in question.
"That's true," I say, trying to sound like I'm having a professional conversation. "Was there anything else, or did you just need to confirm that?"
Sara's at my side now. I guess she's assumed, understandably, that if I'm talking business and confirmations with anyone on the phone, it must be someone at the lab back in Vegas. Who is it? she mouths to me. I wave her away.
"You know," Sharon says, "she's going to ask who just called, anyway. Stop faking it."
I sigh. She's got a point. "Did you need something, Sharon?" I ask pointedly.
Sara's eyes fly to my face and narrow considerably. I try to look innocent.
"Alex and I wanted to know if you and Sara would be interested in going out to dinner tomorrow night, just the four of us."
"You had to call me now to ask that?" I can't believe how bad my luck is.
Sharon's end of the line is quiet for a moment, then: "I interrupted something good, huh? You finally made a move! I'm so proud of you!"
Sara can hear the raised voice, even a foot away from me, and crosses her arms, tilts her head in that now-spill-it kind of way she has, and glares. "Tell her she can't have you!" she hisses, which makes me want to start laughing again.
"Sara says I should tell you that you can't have me," I relay into the phone, smirking. I look back at Sara and add, "Until now, I never realized how in-demand I was!"
Sharon starts laughing, and I can tell she's pulled the phone away from her mouth so she doesn't hurt my ears. "Tell her she's welcome to you."
Sara doesn't look happy. "You tell her," I order Sharon, and hand the phone to Sara, who just looks at it skeptically for a few seconds before she puts it up to her ear.
"Yes?" she says, using the coldest voice I've heard from her in quite a while. A pause. I try to imagine exactly what Sharon's saying. "Tomorrow?" Sara says blankly. Sharon must be repeating her invitation. "Alex and...you? Grissom and me?" A longer pause. Her face softens a bit. "I didn't think..." she says, and stops, listening to what Sharon's saying. "No, really. It's fine. I just..." A short pause. "...exactly," she finishes, sounding guilty.
This just can't be good, I decide, and try to grab the phone from Sara. She won't give it up. I frown at her, but she ignores me, still listening to Sharon. "Well no, we weren't...I mean...not exactly," she finishes lamely. "But could you just...not call back for the rest of the night?"
Aha. There must be some sort of girl-talk going on that I'm missing. My ears perk up.
Sara laughs, then looks at me and quickly looks away. "No! We don't need..." She stops short, looks at me again, and seems to decide to censor herself. "I think we can make do," she amends.
A short pause, and Sara holds the phone out to me. She looks a whole lot more relaxed than she did five minutes ago. "She wants to talk to you again," she tells me.
I take the receiver and, without bothering to say hello again, say, "What in the world did you just say to her? You should have seen her face!"
I hear Sara choke behind me, but am too busy waiting for Sharon to answer me to investigate.
"Just girl-talk," Sharon sing-songs. "You know. You wouldn't be interested."
"I definitely would."
"Just ask Sara," Sharon advises, and hangs up without saying goodbye.
"That," Sara says, shaking her head bemusedly, "was weird. What did she say to you?"
"Nothing important. Wanted to know if we could go out to dinner with her and Alex tomorrow. It sounded like she had something a lot more interesting to say to you, though." I cross my arms, copying her spill-it posture, and wait.
"No, nothing," she says, and I'd swear she blushes.
"Sara."
"Nothing important, really!"
"I didn't ask if she said anything important," I point out. "I asked what she said."
She turns redder, if it's possible. "Just...girlie things," she says, sounding desperate to get me off her back.
I'm not so easily dissuaded. "Like?"
"You're not going to shut up, are you?" she says with a sigh.
I shake my head. "Nope."
She throws up her hands. "I can't believe you're making me repeat this. She asked if she had interrupted...uh..." She looks mortified. I'm now even more interested, and wait for her to continue. "...if she had interrupted our first time together," she forces out, raising an eyebrow meant to convey the meaning of together in this context.
No wonder she's embarrassed! "She asked me almost the same thing," I offer, trying to be empathetic. "What else did she say?"
"I already told you!"
"You left out the part about 'we can manage'," I remind her.
"I am going," she enunciates clearly, "to kill you." Without warning, she hooks a leg behind my knees, dropping me backwards onto the bed.
I bounce for a moment, shocked, and then push myself up on my elbows. "What was that..." I begin, but cut off when she leans over me, nose an inch from mine, and smiles.
"There are some things, Grissom," she says sweetly, "that a girl just doesn't tell."
I try to get in one last dig: "Must have been good."
"Oh," she says, standing back up, "it was." She looks down at me. "You just going to lie there all night?" she asks casually, as though she hadn't just put me here a few seconds ago.
"Depends. Are you going to beat me up if I don't?"
"No," she assures me.
I sigh and move to stand up, until she opens her mouth again. "...not unless you piss me off again."
I immediately flop back onto the bed and play dead.
"Hey!"
"It's only a matter of time, Sara," I say truthfully.
"Hmm. You have a point there." She's quiet for a moment, and I'm afraid to guess what's going to come out of her mouth next.
Instead of speaking, she slides onto the bed, props her chin in her hand, and looks at me.
"What?" I ask. This situation is getting out of my control, and I'm bad enough at handling Sara when I am in control.
"You're cute when you panic."
I blink.
She blinks too.
"What would you do..." she says uncertainly after a moment, "if I asked if I could kiss you now?"
I blink again. "...kiss me?" I repeat. Does this mean I'm not in trouble anymore?
"Yeah. That thing people who like each other do with their lips. Or their noses, depending."
"You want to...kiss me," I say again. My head is spinning. An hour ago, I thought she was never going to look at me again, and now she's asking permission to kiss me?
"I guess not," she says, taking my silence as a no and moving to stand up.
I grab her wrist. "No! I mean yes!" I attempt.
"Pick one, Grissom," she orders. But at least she's not trying to get up now.
"If you were to ask if you could kiss me," I say slowly, reflecting on it, "I would probably turn pale and start shaking, then nod and wait for you to do it."
"So is that an 'ok'?"
I nod. "I think so. But I think it's good that I'm already not standing up."
"So, if I were to do this..." She lowers her head an inch toward mine. "...you wouldn't freak out on me?"
"No..."
"This?" She lowers her head another inch.
I shake my head, mute.
"Last chance, Grissom," she whispers when her lips are a millimeter from mine. "Back out now if you're going to back out."
I meet her eyes and wait.
She closes her eyes and kisses me softly, using almost no pressure, then pulls back immediately. I just continue to look at her. This is her show now, and I'm very interested in what the next act will be.
"Still with me?" she breathes.
I incline my head in a slight nod. "But can I sit up now?"
"Oh!" She seems embarrassed to realize that she was hovering over me. "Sure!" She gets off the bed and stands up.
"I didn't say you couldn't sit too," I tell her.
She just looks at me, eyes wide, looking like she just had an epiphany. A bad one. "I think..." She swallows. "I think maybe I should just go to bed."
What! I stare at her. "Bed?"
"In my room," she adds hastily. "Not here."
I decide to be the voice of reason. "Are you actually tired?"
"Well...no."
"So then why are you saying you want to go to bed?"
She twists the ring on her right hand nervously. "I just thought that maybe...maybe I've done enough tonight."
"You're the one scared now," I say, suddenly understanding. "Why?"
She shakes her head. "I can't explain it."
"Is it something I did? Can I fix it?"
She sighs. "You're such a male. Always thinking everything has an easy fix."
"Believe me, Sara," I say. "There's no way anything having to do with you is 'easy'. Just tell me what's wrong. I know it has to be something having to do with me."
"I was just...caught up in the moment. I shouldn't be in here," she mumbles. "I need to..."
I grab her hand to keep her from walking away. "I'm trying to be up-front with you, to find out exactly what you want me to do. That's the only way I'll be able to not screw this up. And you're not helping by refusing to talk to me."
She shakes her head. "No. This is just..." she says, pulling her arm away from me, "it's too much."
I backpedal. "Ok, fine. If that was too much...I guess I can relate. But please don't go in your room and slam the door again. Stay in here."
She looks confused. "What for?"
I stand up and walk over to her, wondering what she'll do.
She holds her ground until the last second, then backs up a step when I reach for her, pressing herself as hard as she can against the closed door. That stings - she doesn't want me to touch her? I hold up my hands as if I'm showing that I hold no weapons. "I won't touch you, how's that?" I suggest. "I won't touch you if you don't want. Just sit and..." I search my mind for some non-threatening activity. "Watch TV with me," I finally say lamely.
"TV," she repeats, sounding like she thinks I've lost my mind. "With you."
I nod and try to look as harmless as I can. "I don't get to spend a lot of time with you," I say, as if that's news to either of us. "I just want to enjoy your company for a while. Nothing has to happen," I add, groping for words that will make her relax. "I'll sit in the chair and you can sit on the bed."
"I'm not scared of you, Grissom," she says, sounding offended. "I don't think you're going to maul me."
She doesn't? Then what's the problem? I look at her, confused.
"I'm more afraid that I'm going to maul you."
Ah, I'm beginning to see the light. "Well," I tell her, "I'm not afraid that you're going to maul me, so that's not an excuse." She still hasn't relaxed her defensive stance, but I can't think of anything else to say. "Please?" I finally say quietly, just looking at her.
She sighs. "This is really weird, but...ok. And you don't have to sit across the room or anything."
"Ok," I say cautiously. "What shouldn't I do, then?"
She shrugs, looking harassed. "I'll let you know if you do it."
Ok. I can deal with that, at least for now. I give her a tentative smile, then turn and walk back to the bed. Sitting down on the end, I pat the space next to me. "So, have a seat."
She does, albeit hesitantly, holding herself stiffly away from me. Trying to ignore her obvious discomfiture, I pick up the remote control from the bedside table and ask her if she has any preference for what we watch.
She doesn't, so I decide to select a movie from the Pay-per-View options. It's a delicate business, trying to select something that's not too romantic or sexy, but also not too boring, but I eventually find it: the original, 1970s version of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. No sexual tension to speak of, but plenty of grown-up jokes and plain old gags.
She looks at me in surprise when I select the Purchase option. "Willy Wonka?"
I smile. "It's a funny movie. You got a better idea?"
"Nope."
"Ok, then." I move up the bed so that I'm facing the TV straight-on, with the headboard and pillows supporting my neck and back. I tug on her hand, pulling her up until she assumes a similar position at my side. "Let's relax."