Long time no see! Sorry for taking this long with an update guys! I hope you can forgive me and like the next one!
It's a little after 8pm when I arrive home. Jay and I are friends and I couldn't be happier about that. I really missed him. We've been friends before and we were good as friends, so I hope things can maybe go back to the way they were.
When I enter our apartment I immediately see David, on the couch, asleep. I have to smile; I know he has trouble falling asleep without me, without knowing that I'm home and safe. Which is kind of cute but also ridiculous, but then again I tend to forget that David does not know the detective me. He only knows me as the person that helps women and children in the shelter. And not as detective Erin Lindsay who beat up perps five times her size. There actually have been a few situations in the shelter too. Aggressive ex husbands, stalkers and other threats but I'd never tell him that. I don't want him to be worried everyday. I even broke my finger once because I was protecting a 19 year old girl from her much older,and abusive, boyfriend. I had no problem punching him in the face, he deserved it. The only thing I told David was that I fell and tried to catch myself with my hands.
David wakes up at the sound of my keys on the coffee table in front of him. He looks tiredly at me with a soft smile on his face.
"Hi babe. You look nice." he says, exhaustion laced in his voice.
"Thanks." I whisper and move to sit down next to him on the couch, kissing his cheek as I cuddle into his side.
"How did it go?" he asks curious, "are you guys cool or too many bad memories?"
I don't really know how to respond to that. It was ok and Jay and I are good with each other now but it was also emotionally really exhausting.
"It was ok," David frowns and I know he wants to hear more than it was ok. "I mean we're good and decided to be friends but it was draining, we talked about serious stuff I would've rather avoided.
He nods understandingly, " So you told him?" David figures.
"No. And I probably never will." I shrug and he shifts to face me.
"Erin, you have to," his tone is serious, "he deserves to-"
"Can we not talk about this right now?" I ask before he can finish. "I've had enough of fighting for one day, I'm tired of fighting." I say and look up at him, begging him with the look in my eyes to drop it. So he does.
He takes a deep breath and kisses my forehead and I feel better the second he does. We stay like that for a few moments until he moves to get up and offers his hand to me, offering me his help to get up. I accept his offer and get up too.
"You do know that you eventually have to right? You can't fix what's broken inside of you when you're still ignoring what happened, Erin."
I say nothing. I just follow him into our bedroom, cuddle into him and try to fall asleep, I can't wait for this day to be over.
The rest of the week actually went by pretty fast. Jay and I texted a couple of times and Friday night came closer and closer. I had asked him if he would be ok if I'd bring David. I know that we're friends now, but I figured it might be weird for him. But apparently he was fine with it, or at least he pretended to be when he told me I should bring David to dinner at the Ruzek's.
I tried my best to prepare David, told him what everyone is like and that he should not start any sort of drinking games with Adam. He laughed and asked why so I told him the about the time when Adam invented a game called 'Drink or Kink'. It basically meant a person either had to drink a shot or tell the group a freaky kink they have. Obviously everyone ended up shitfaced and Adam knew that would happen. We also ended up knowing more about Olinsky than any of us wanted to.
Wednesday and Thursday passed quickly. Long days of work to leave early on Friday. I told Kim I would get dessert and planned to get a little something for the Ruzek twins. They don't know me really well and I'm planning on changing that, so I need to break the ice somehow. I ended up with macaroons and cupcakes for desert. After that I stopped at Toys'R'us to get some play-dough and hot-wheels cars for the boys.
David texted me that he'd get out of work later than expected today, so I call Kim to let her know that we'll be a little late, she picks up immediately.
"Hey Erin what's up?" she asks breathless and a little stressed out.
"Hi Kim. I'm just calling to let you know that David gets out of work later than expected and that we-"
"Wait! Don't tell me you're not coming?!" she cuts me off. I have to laugh, knowing Kim she is probably driving herself insane because she wants everything to be perfect. I can hear the kids screaming in the background. "ADAM! Can you please stop this fight they're having?! I did not marry you to be a single mom, control your children!"
"Woah," I chuckle "ok so I just wanted to let you know that we'll be a little late. David should be on his way home soon and then we'll be on our way to you, alright? 20 mins late max."
"Ok Erin, I'll see you soon. Love you." she replies in a rush.
"Love you," I say before realizing that she already hung up, "...too."
Most of the unit has already arrived when David and I get there. We apologize to Kim for running late but her only problem is apparently that she can't find a vase for the flowers that David got for her.
"Hey! I know you're the new guy and all but that's no reason to make the rest of us look bad!" Antonio protests and tries to look as if he's serious. I punch his arm and he looks at me, unable to hide his laugh any longer.
"Dude! Shut up. How about you just try and learn how to be a gentlemen? Besides, those flowers are also from me. It's called being good guests for the woman that has been standing in the kitchen all day preparing the food that we're about to stuff our faces with." I have to chuckle when he gives me a look that tells me I am right.
Everyone is starting to spread throughout the whole house after, getting lost in conversations. Adam is having a funny conversation with Atwater, so they're kind of just doing what they always do. Antonio, Jay and Hayley are talking outside with their beers, Jay gets hot easily when he's had a couple of drinks. I'm happy to see David having conversations with the people I considered family. He's in the middle of a conversation with Olinsky when Kim sits down next to me.
"Wow! Ok so I have 10 minutes until I have to get the pasta off the stove and then I can finally serve you all." she breathes out and sinks further down on her chair. I smile at her; I feel sorry for being part of the reason why she's stressing herself this much.
"Kim, take a breath, we'll survive without the perfection." I chuckle and then laugh because she actually does take a deep breath as I had instructed.
"So now that I have you for myself for once. I think I never really asked you about how you and David met. Like how you actually became a thing." Kim looks at me curious, waiting for me to tell her everything she doesn't know. I look around to make sure nobody can overhear our conversation. Not everyone needs to hear every detail about David and I, especially not Jay.
"Well there's not that much I can tell you about how we met. It was pretty random actually. We met at a bar and he basically tried to hit on me, in a really respectful and nice way but I turned him down because I was still trying to get over Jay." I shrug.
"But, wait ... how? I mean, if you turned him down?" she asks confused and I have to chuckle.
"Well, like I said I was still trying to get over Jay that night and I kind of got sick and you know me and how stubborn I can be, of course I wanted to handle it by myself. But he was resistant and wouldn't leave my side until I got into my apartment safely. He didn't come inside being the great man he is but made sure I got home safe." I'm not longer able to hide my smile when I look over at him. "The next morning I found his phone number on my doorstep. We'd been friends for a while since then. He helped me get through a particularly difficult time, and without even noticing I fell in love with him. I know it sounds super cheesy and it's so not me but it just ... happened."
"That is so freaking adorable Erin." she says with heart-eyes and I know she means it. She is happy for David and I.
"MOM!" there's a loud scream and we're suddenly out of our bubble. Kim jumps at the sound of her son yelling at his brother trying to get her attention.
"Mom! Leo won't share the red play-dough with me!" Drew whines. When I look at Kim I can see how much this little argument overwhelms her after a long day of organizing everything and handling the kids at the same time.
"Hey!" I shout at both of them. Causing David and Olinsky to look at me too. "Your Mom is going to get dinner ready so if you have something to complain about then you're going to complain to me now, got it?" they look at me with big eyes and just nod. I wink at Kim and she just smiles with appreciation before heading back into the kitchen. "Now, if you can't share and play together with that play-dough I got for you, I might have to take it back home and keep it for myself." I simply shrug.
"No!" they say in unison and I'm having trouble hiding my smile.
"Alright. Let's play together then." I smile and notice David and Al rising from their chairs to join Adam and Kevin. When David passes by he stops next to me for a second. He leans down and whispers in my ear, "That was so fucking hot."
He winks at me after that and follows Alvin over to the other side of the room. I smile to myself and continue playing with the kids.
The kids and I have been playing for the past 15 minutes. Kim shouted for all of us to come and sit down for dinner a couple of minutes ago. But her kids were in a heated discussion about who gets to marry me when they're older. It's actually kind of cute.
We are all finally sitting on the same table but the boys aren't done with their little discussion yet.
"Drew! I'm an hour older than you are! So I get to be the one marrying aunt Erin." Leo says matter-of-factly and we all have to laugh.
"Well you know what? You can't! Because aunt Erin is already getting married, right?" He turns to me expecting an answer. I suddenly feel the heat rise in my face and even though I'm just looking at Drew, I know that the whole room is staring at me, waiting for an answer. I clear my throat and try to sound as relaxed as possible.
"You're right. I'm sorry boys but I'm already getting married to David." I swallow hard, feeling Jay's piercing gaze on me from the side of the table.
I didn't plan this and I sure as hell didn't want this to happen in front of everyone, especially Jay. I look over to Leo who just frowns at me. He takes a breath to speak up again.
"But Mama said you were gonna marry uncle Jay one day!"
His statement knocks the wind out of me. I barely hear Jay's chair scraping across the floor as he races outside, Kim groaning and she looks over at her husband.
"Safe to say the perfect night I had planned is gone. This is so not my day"