Chapter Three: Friction

The phone rang in Booth's office. He was so happy that he'd been working out on the personal gym he had installed in his office to keep himself fit, which consisted of weights, a treadmill and an exercise bicycle. As soon as the phone rang he immediately jumped up and picked it up and said in his half breathless and over excited voice, "Booth"

"Hey its me" said the voice on the other end.

It was Tempe, he was even more excited now.

"Hey, what's up" he said

"Hey why are you out of breath?" she asked him

"oh I was working out" Booth told her

"Working out?" Brennan was clueless "On what?"

"Haven't you seen my own personal gym?"

"No" Tempe paused for a second and thought 'personal gym.. in his office?' Then she thought out loud "You have a gym in your office?"

"Yeah, so I can work out while im working, pretty cool huh?"

"Yeah awesome" she said, half enthused. Booth could sense something was wrong in her voice.

"Ok, spill"

"Spill?"

"Something's up, I can tell"

"Nothing's up but the sky Booth"

"Ha ha, very funny, Bones, I can read you like a book.. sometimes.. but right now you're like a trashy romance novel about break ups and heart ache and bad relationships. What's up?"

"You read trashy romance novels?" she said. Booth knew she was a hard nut to crack, but he was gonna crack her, he'd done it before.

"Temperance Brennan!"

Brennan was stunned, no one ever called her by her full name all at once unless she was really in trouble, now she knew Booth was being serious. Brennan was being sarcastic and stupid.

"Sorry. Ok you wanna know what's up, why I called you?"

"Yeah I do" he told her.

"Ok well, Angela, Zach and Hodges won't get off my case about you, about me and you"

"Since when has something like this bothered you Bones?" He was concerned now. Was she really having second thoughts and regrets about them, he thought. He shook it off, no, couldn't be. But he had to ask, just to be sure.

"Bones?"

"Yeah, I'm here" she said.

"What's wrong? You can tell me, I'm one of your closest friends right? And now the man you love, you can tell me anything"

"Ah—about that. That's the reason I'm calling you. I think we need to keep out relationship strictly outside the office"

"But—but why?" he said it like a little child would, when told they couldn't do something that they wanted to

"No buts Booth, you said it yourself, inter-office dating can cause friction in the workplace and wars between colleagues" she told him

"I hate it when you get all technical on me"

"Booth, I'm being serious here"

"So am I Bones" he was starting to get annoyed "Ok well, if you didn't want there to be an us, all you had to do was say so in first place!" Obviously sounding mad and disappointed.

"Booth, I'm sorry, I do want there to be an us ok, but what I don't want is for us to cause friction in the workplace. We can still be together, but we just have to tone it down a bit when we're at work"

"Ok" Booth replied. Still unsure.

"That means definitely no kissing, not so much hugging and no flirting" she stated

That's the last thing Booth wanted, was for Brennan to, 'set down the rules" or 'draw a line' or 'set a boundary', however you wanted to put it. He hated it when she did that. He wanted her to loosen up and open up to him, not close down and almost push him away. But then he stopped and thought about it for a second, 'maybe she's right' he thought, 'we can still be together, but not at work' That sounded like a plan, ok! He said that to himself as if he'd engraved it into his memory permanently.

"Ok, deal" he said at last.

"Ok good. So you understand?"

"Yeah, I understand" he didn't really, but just said it to make Tempe happy.

"Good. I just wanted to clear that up." She said.

"Now that's out of the way, do you wanna get some dinner with me tonight? Italian?" He knew how much Tempe loved Italian food.

"You don't give up do you?" she said with a laugh

"You know me Bones" another typical Booth response.

"Ok can you pick me up at seven pm?"

"Ok, seven it is" Booth told her. They said their goodbyes and hung up the phone.

Seven would give them plenty of talking time followed by drinks, maybe dancing if Tempe was up to it and let the rest of the night unravel itself.

Tempe finished work at five pm so she figured that would give the both of them plenty of time to get home, shower and get ready before the date.

Tempe liked the sound of that word 'date', it was something she hadn't done in a long time and it made her feel young and alive. She liked the sound of dating Booth as well, he was handsome, rugged and charming, not to mention that he fell into the category of tall, dark and handsome, (she'd already mentioned handsome, but who cares) she laughed to herself. She was too excited to continue with what she was doing before she rang Booth, so she decided to go see what Angela was up to in her office. She thought she might tell Angela about herself and Booth, but only if she promised to keep her gossiping mouth tightly closed, Brennan smirked.

As Tempe was walking to Angela's office, Booth walked past. Tempe didn't know what he was doing down here but it was probably to see her, she gave him a warm smile, he returned one, and Tempe continued toward Angela's office. But what she was unaware of was that Angela had been discreetly watching them, whilst pretending to sketch.

"Hey sweetie" Angela said as Tempe entered. "How's Booth today?" she said with a smirk.

"I dunno, fine I suppose" replied Tempe as she took a seat on Angela's couch.

"Fine? I think you'd know how he is, haven't you been spending every spare moment with him?" Angela asked her.

"No"

Angela gives her an 'I don't believe you' glare.

"Well I did speak to him on the phone not long ago, if that's what you mean"

Angela put down her sketch pad and came and sat down next to Tempe.

"Sweetie, I think it's good that you and Booth have finally sorted out your feelings. He's a great guy for you. And it really helps that you guys are close friends already right?"

"Ang, Booth and I aren't—" she decided to give up denying it, Angela already knew, give it up Tempe, she said to herself. "Ok, we are, we're going out tonight, but you know I'm not one to kiss and tell"

"oh I know. It's ok sweetie, your secret's safe with me"

"Thanks" she starts to get up, when Angela speaks again.

"But you know, your secret won't be a secret much longer if you guys don't stop eyeing each other in the hallways"

Tempe stopped short, "how did she know?" she said to herself. She couldn't put her finger on it. Tempe looked at her watch; it was almost five, 4.42pm to be exact. As she was walking back to her office, Booth stops her in the hallway.

"What are you doing?" she asked him as he pushed her up against a wall.

"Nothing, I just had to see if you're ok" he told her.

"I'm fine"

"I just had to make sure"

This wasn't like Booth, Tempe thought, well it was, in his obsessive way, but not this.

"Can't you wait till tonight?"

"Not really. I wanted to see you" he told her, and leaned down to kiss her neck.

"Booth, we can't do this here" she tells him. Booth continues kissing Brennan's neck, and moves up to kiss her on her mouth, but Brennan pushes him off.

"Booth, I mean it, stop!"

Booth stops and looks at her.

"Sorry, I just wanted to kiss you again"

"Well you're gonna have to wait till after we leave this building. Can you give me a ride home?"

"Sure. See you in fifteen minutes or so" he kissed Tempe on the cheek and heads back up to his office.

Tempe felt flushed and red and embarrassed, she looked back to see if anyone had seen what had just happened and Angela was standing in the door way of her office with a huge smile on her face. She was happy for her best friend. As Tempe walked away, Angela shook her head and went back to work until finish time.