[Saturday, March 6, 06:00]
"Met Juliana, hallo," she mumbled sleepily into the phone. Who on Earth was calling her so early in the morning on a weekend? Her eyes couldn't be convinced to open all the way.
"Hey, it's Don." He felt bad calling so early, but she deserved as much notice as he could give. He sighed. "I'm sorry, I can't make it today. We just got a case." She was silent, but he could hear her breathing still. She hadn't hung up yet.
She rubbed her eyes, trying to get some wakefulness into them. "If you don't want to have coffee with me, you can just say 'no'," she said levelly. "If you think it's inappropriate, or you're too busy, or if you simply don't want to. Be honest with me." She missed the directness of the Dutch. "That is how we do things back home. I can handle it."
"No no no. Wait, no. I mean, yes," he fumbled. "I do want to have coffee with you." And yes, it was inappropriate as all hell since he was investigating her case. But never mind that, her case would go cold anyway. "But I swear to God, there is a dead body in the middle of Manhattan. Press is everywhere. We have to work this case as fast as we can." In fact, Mac was looking at him and pointing to the witnesses behind the crime scene tape that were waiting to be interviewed. Flack apologetically mouthed, 'Be right there'. Mac gave him a nod that said he had about thirty seconds to hang up and get to work. "Work is busy but I will find time. I'll call you to reschedule. Weekends or evenings are good, right? We could do drinks in the evening."
Drinks? Now she liked the sound of that. "Alright, you call me." His turn to make a move.
"Okay," he breathed. "I will. I promise, I will make this up to you."