"Here, drink this while we head out to lunch."
Erin looked up from the report she was going over, seeing Alex holding out a travel mug to her. Her brow furrowed in confusion as she closed her hand around the mug, bringing it to her nose and sniffing a little. "This is rose tea," she said before taking a sip. "Did you make this yourself?"
"Yes. I vaguely remembered that you enjoyed that flavor. Now, come on."
Erin nodded as she closed the file and pushed away from her desk. "I didn't realise that we had a lunch date," she murmured as she slipped into her jacket and followed Alex out the door, giving a warm smile to Helen before hurrying after the woman, wanting to hear her answer.
"You never rescheduled my offer, so I figured that you were waiting for me to offer once more. I get it, you don't know what my motives are, so I had to take the initiative." Erin nodded as she took another sip of tea, relishing the taste of it. "And I thought that it would be a good time for us to talk and work out some of what's between us. I've found that my heart has had a recent thaw."
Erin let out a soft sigh as she nodded, stepping into the elevator and pressing the ground floor button. Alex relaxed against the back wall and sipped from her own travel mug, and Erin wondered if they were drinking the same tea. "And what brought about this change of heart?" she said lowly before taking a long drink of her tea, anxiously awaiting her answer.
"Someone deciding that leaving anonymous cups of tea on my desk was the best way to my heart. I love the loose leaf tea set, by the way. James asked who had given it to me, and he was surprised to hear that I assumed it was you."
"Why? Why not Penelope?"
"She's a sweet woman, but she's close to JJ, not me. Plus, Agent Anderson sings like a bird when you give him the right look." Erin laughed as she shook her head a little.
"I will have to remember that," she said before taking a look at the mug. It was a sweet flower pattern, and she smiled to see it. "So, where are we headed to?"
"Rossi told me a few of your favourite lunch spots, so I know that you'll enjoy whichever place I choose. Unless you have a certain place in mind?"
She didn't want to rock the boat by demanding a certain place, so she shook her head as the elevator came to a stop, and they exited. Alex rested her hand in between her shoulders and Erin welcomed the warm touch guiding her over to her vehicle. This truly was the culmination of everything that she had been working towards for the last three months, and now it was finally happening. "I do hope that you're listening to some different music now," she said as she fastened her seatbelt.
"No, just a different type of rap. But I suppose that I can allow you to choose the music for us this afternoon." Alex gave her a small smile and she nodded as she flipped through the channels on Alex's satellite radio, finally settling on the Broadway station and settling back in her seat. As Alex drove, Erin hummed along to the songs she knew, surprised when Alex joined in on a few. "I have some culture, Erin," she said before turning into parking lot of her favourite lunch spot. "Ah, I knew that would put a smile on your face."
"You have good taste in food, what can I say?" she teased as they went to the door. There wasn't too long a wait, and Erin pulled out her phone as they waited, seeing that she had messages from Penelope and David. Since they were both concerning where she'd gone to, she sent practically the same message back – that she was with Alex, and they were okay. As she put her phone back into her pocket, she felt like there were eyes watching her, and she frowned as she slowly turned her head to the left. There was a delivery man there, his hat pulled down low, but again, she felt like the profile was familiar.
"Erin? We're ready to be seated. What has you so spooked?"
She looked up at Alex and shook her head as they followed the host into the restaurant. Erin made certain to take the chair that faced the entrance, wanting to keep an eye on the delivery man. Erin knew that she was still distracted by the way Alex frowned at her. "I'm sorry, it's not you. The day that I had to go to my meeting, there was a delivery man in the elevator with us. And he was wearing sunglasses, and his hat was pulled low, so it was difficult to see his eyes, but his jawline was so familiar to me. And just now, I saw the same delivery man outside this restaurant, and I feel like I'm paranoid for saying this, but it feels like we're being watched. It doesn't help matters that I know there have been a series of murders that copy cases the BAU, specifically my team, have already solved."
Alex's hand quickly crossed the table to cover hers, and Erin blinked rapidly as she tried to control her tears. "You're not the only one who thinks that she's being watched. I've felt it, too. And so has Spencer. We don't know what's going on, but it has to be something, if there are three of us experiencing the same phenomena. Maybe you should read Rossi into this? Just in case?"
Erin shrugged, shivering a little at the realization that she wasn't being paranoid. "I don't want to bother him about this until I'm certain that I am being followed. Or does that sound completely stupid? I just don't want to be known as the woman who cried wolf, especially when my position is already tenuous, given that I'm barely a year out from my second trip to rehab. Rock bottom really hurts, Lexie."
Her old nickname for Alex slipped out of her lips before she knew it, and then she gasped a little before picking up her menu and staring at it blankly, knowing precisely what she'd order, having been there often enough to have a favourite dish, but needing the buffer to protect her from the look she was just certain was on Alex's face. It had been too soon to act like she was best friends with the woman once more, and that small slip had probably just obliterated any chance at being friends. "Hey, Rin, look at me." She lowered the menu to see that Alex was giving her a tiny smile.
"What?"
"It's okay to call me that. In moderation. Because if Penelope catches wind of it, that is all I will be called, and that is something just for us." The smile widened until Erin returned it, and she sighed a little as she set the menu aside. "I can only imagine the hell you went through, but the more interesting part of your story is the fact that you clawed your way back, with the tender heart you buried under a pile of bureaucratic bullshit on full display once more." Their hands met once more, and Erin squeezed tightly as she nodded. "Now, let's order our food and then we can catch up on what's happened in the last fifteen years of our lives." Erin nodded as she looked up at their server, quickly putting her order in before turning her attention fully to Alex once more, knowing that this lunch might just be the best thing that happened to her in a long time.