A/N: Well, here it is: the promised normal-length chapter. Well, it's still kinda short, butit seemed like a good place to break it off. Originally I was going to have them get drunk and then sleep together, but I decided that would be too anti-climactic (no dirty-minded pun intended) and might make it too angst-y later on. Plus, I didn't really like the idea of them bar-hopping the night away.

Also, I'll be visiting family out of town for Mother's Day, so there probably won't be a chapter 4 until mid-next week.

"Good one, Goren." She shook her head in a combination of pity and disbelief. "You, the walking encyclopedia, couldn't think of a better excuse than 'I have paperwork to do'? And you stammered, too!" She was teasing me again. I know she meant well, but still, it was embarrassing.

"Shut up…" I grumbled back. "She's just trying to be friendly." Why was I defending her? "She wants to meet people, even if her methods are a little…unprofessional." That's an understatement…

She nearly choked on her coffee when she heard that one. "'Unprofessional'? That woman wouldn't know professional if it danced in front of her in a Dracula costume! And from the way she's been behaving, I'd say she's interested in a little more than friendship."

I just rolled my eyes. Eames was right, but women are so critical of each other. I like the way men handle their issues; we just take it out back, no messing around, one's the winner and that's it. We don't fight our own personal cold war like women do. As barbaric as it may sound, that's the way it is. It's much simpler like that.

As I looked at my partner, I realized just how very different she was from most women. Alex didn't do the whole gossipy/taking sides thing that some women do. She was real and that was refreshing. They just don't make 'em like her very often.

"Goren, you're staring again."

"Wha-…oh, sorry." Damn it! I had to pay more attention to what I was doing. Come on, Bobby, make up something quick… I blurted out the only decent excuse I could think of at the time. "Hey, since I don't really have paperwork to catch up on and a drink actually sounds kinda good, you wanna go somewhere after work with me?" Did I really just say that? Oh well, it was too late now. "Anywhere except O'Halloran's is good with me."

She flashed me one of her breathtaking smiles. Breathe, Bobby, breathe. "Okay. But you're buying!" she replied. She was getting that enchanting shine in her eyes again…look away…put those things away before someone gets hurt…

"Then it's a date?" I asked. I regretted my choice of words almost immediately. Idiot, don't force the idea on her! You'll scare her off!

She raised her eyebrows at me. "Yeah, I guess so…" she said, sounding a little hesitant. Thankfully, she didn't seem too weirded out by my use of the word "date" and accepted it at face value. At least, she appeared to…

Later that day…

The day was finally over. I was glad to be done; we hadn't had much field work to do today and I really needed to get away from my desk. Unfortunately, I had to wait for Lila to leave first.

At precisely 5:00, she sidled up to my desk and sat down just as she had that morning. "Are you sure you can't come, Bobby? I'd love to get to know you better outside of work." She was doing the doe-eyed thing again. That was gonna drive me nuts eventually. "Yeah, it's too bad. I wish I could go, but…" I gestured to the stacks of papers on my desk andwilled myself not tolaugh. "Then I guess I'll see you tomorrow. Bye!" she replied. I hope I was hallucinating, but I thought I saw her wink before she finally got up off my desk and headed for the elevator.

As soon as the doors slid shut, I looked over at Eames, who was shaking with the effortof suppressingher laugh. As soon as we made eye contact, we both collapsed into laughter.

"She-she-she winked at you!" she gasped, trying to regain her breath.

"I know! Do women actually think that acting all coy and flirtatious will get them a guy?" I said, almost as out of breath as she was.

"God, I hope not. Most women don't but there's always a few that give us a bad name." Her smile was back; I had to look down before I started staring again. "Come on, let's get out of here. I think it's safe now that she's gone."

I looked up into her eyes and was pleasantly surprised to see that all traces of her earlier hesitation were gone. She seemed totally at ease now that Fulton was gone. Seeing her like that made me feel good, like maybe I was doing something right if she felt that comfortable around me. Her happiness made me happy, and I felt a smile of my own lifting the corners of my mouth. I grabbed my coat, she got hers, and together we headed for the elevators.

"So, Don Juan, where are you taking me?" she asked once we were outside.

I smiled. "Well, I was thinking maybe we could go to dinner instead of just bar-hopping all night. I know this great little Italian place called Grimaldi's that's only a few blocks away," Isaid, hoping she couldn't hear the nervous tic in my voice. I was afraid she would get spooked if she thought I was moving in on her. In reality, I kind of was moving in on her, but she wasn't supposed to know that. When you're subtly trying to get someone to love you, you don't make your intentions obvious. It just doesn't work that way.

She smiled back. "Ooh, dinner and drinks…are we going dancing too?" she asked teasingly. Her eyes twinkled in the fading light. She's beautiful…

"Sorry, me making a fool of myelf by attempting to dance was not part of the deal," I repliedwith a chuckle. "I have to either do something worthy of blackmail or hurt you if you want to work that one in." I checked my watch. "Come on, let's get going. They have the best alfredo in town so they get busy pretty early. We should go if we want a table."

And with that, we got into my car and drove off.