"The One" – Part 59

Summary and additional notes in part 1.

Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews! Interesting to see you guys were split between Gretchen and Fiona's choices! I think they both sound awesome, but I would definitely like the try the mango ;-)

Loved the guesses for fan favorite! We'll see who it is now… Sorry it's a little late! Enjoy :D

This is not related to my Degrassi timeline fics. (See my Author's profile for details!)

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Degrassi!

-oOo-

Fiona could feel someone's eyes on her as she continued writing an email. She knew who it was without looking up.

"Laura, can I help you?" she asked dryly.

Sure enough, her employee ventured over to her desk. She fidgeted for a moment, and Fiona knew the saleswoman was dying to say something. She looked up, exasperated.

"Out with it," Fiona told her.

"I never thought you guys would hold out this long! It's been almost a full month!" Laura blurted out. Initially she gave them two weeks and had thought that was being generous!

A few other ears in the office perked up. Fiona had a wry smile.

"Neither did we, but we made it somehow," she admitted. They were down to just three days! More like two and half, because Wednesday morning was nearly over. It was a quarter to Noon.

George snorted. "Call me cynical, but we have no way of verifying that!" He had placed two bets. He really wanted to win the pot of money, but unless they slipped up tomorrow it was out of reach.

Hanna laughed. "I don't think it would be hard to tell!" She could read her friend pretty well. If Fiona and Adam had crossed that threshold she would know.

"Hanna's right. You probably wouldn't see me for awhile," Fiona joked.

They all laughed.

"Fair enough!" George relented.

Fiona grinned broadly.

-oOo-

Adam took a long sip of his water. He was sitting across from Fiona and they had just ordered their lunch. Today they had the rare opportunity to meet up in the middle of the day. He had been elated all morning. Since Fiona was no longer spending the night, he didn't get to see her until after work. It was a hard adjustment. He couldn't wait for the week to be over, so that they could pick up where they left off and then some!

"I missed you," Fiona told him.

He smiled. "Is that so?" he said lightly.

She softly laughed. "What do you think?"

They both leaned in and shared a kiss. They were sitting outside at a small table. The weather was beautiful and this moment was perfect. Adam didn't want to ruin it, but he knew he was just delaying the inevitable.

He looked into her eyes. "I love you."

She stared back with a smile. "I love you, too!" Hearing those words never got old!

Adam reached for her hand. "I can't wait to be with you."

"Neither can I," Fiona responded. She looked at him mischievously. "I can't stop thinking about Saturday morning."

He slightly blushed as he remembered the feel of her hands on him. "You have no idea how much I wanted to throw you on the bed," he whispered.

She smirked. "Trust me, I do!"

They both laughed.

"Friday night can't come soon enough," she declared.

Adam looked off to the side. "About that…"

She furrowed her brows. "What about it?" she asked curiously.

He paused as he considered his next words. "Do you remember when I had to go into work last Saturday?"

Fiona nodded. "Yeah. That was only a few days ago!"

"Right," he affirmed. "I had to remotely assist with the servers for the Euro team in Germany. It took a long time, but we got everything online. Or so we thought… One of them wasn't configured properly and we need to take it down. It shouldn't take long to fix, but they want to do it early Saturday morning–"

"Adam!" Fiona protested. They had been planning this for weeks! To say she was disappointed by the prospect of him working instead was an understatement!

He sighed. "They're six hours ahead us, Fi. I'll just have to work late into Friday night. We'll still have the rest of the weekend," he explained.

This calmed her a little, but she still wasn't happy about it. "Can't someone else do it?"

Adam had a wry smile. That was his first thought when his boss informed him about it this morning. He shook his head. "No. I'm their guy." When he moved to the New York office, he took on a new role with greater responsibility. This was par for the course.

-oOo-

"Am I overreacting?" Fiona asked her.

Hanna slowly nodded. Fiona had just told her about lunch.

Fiona sighed. "It's just so… disappointing."

They were having a great time together until he dropped a bomb on her! After he clarified that he would only have to work later on Friday she calmed down. At least it wasn't the whole weekend! They would just get started a few hours later, or so she thought. She told him that she would wait for him at the apartment, but he suggested that it would be better for her to come by in the morning. Then they argued about that.

"It's totally understandable! Believe me, I get it!" Hanna started.

"But?" Fiona questioned knowingly.

"He told you he's probably going to get in at 2:00 or 3:00AM. He's going to be exhausted and if you're there, neither of you are going to sleep! I think you'll have a better time together if you're both well rested," she told her. "It sucks to wait an extra day, but he has a point."

Fiona chewed her lip. She really didn't want to wait until Saturday!

-oOo-

"I don't know. Maybe you should have told her over the phone?"

Adam snorted. "Yeah, I don't think that would have made much of a difference!" he argued. His boss told him about working overtime on Friday just a few hours before he met up with Fiona for lunch, so it wasn't like he withheld this information for any length of time.

"Well, probably not," Joe acknowledged. He had been on a coffee break when Adam called him. It was perfect timing.

"Now she's mad at me," Adam sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Lunch had started out so well!

Joe chuckled. "I doubt that. She's just reacting, you know? You both are wound so tight."

Adam grinned. "We are," he agreed.

"I gotta hand it to you! I would have been afraid of Fiona's wrath," Joe joked. He thought she was a cool chick, and he could tell she was no pushover.

Adam shrugged. "I was!" he laughed. "Even though I knew she wasn't going to like what I had to say, I needed to see my princess."

"Aww," Joe teased him. "You're totally giving me the runs, dude!"

"Thanks!" Adam said sarcastically.

"I know sleep is great and all that… but there's something about sleeping next to the one you care about. Perhaps you're being just a tad rigid?" Joe suggested delicately. Adam considered his words. "I mean, working late threw a wrench in your plans, but you don't have to throw the baby out with the bathwater."

Adam rubbed his chin. "Right," he said slowly.

"And who cares if you're dead tired the first time? You have the whole weekend to rest!" Joe pointed out.

Adam was quiet for a long moment. "I'm an idiot." He had gotten so caught up in wanting things to go perfect that he lost track of the bigger picture.

Joe snorted. "No, you're not. Though you have your moments!" he laughed.

"Har har," Adam responded. He made up his mind to call Fiona once he was done talking to Joe. "Enough about me, how's it going with Danny Boy?"

Joe playfully shook his head. "His name is Daniel."

"Oh, I stand corrected!" Adam joked. They always nicknamed their conquests, so the distinction was meaningful.

"And things are going well," he concluded.

"That's great, man! Have anything special coming up for the weekend?" Adam inquired.

"Not particularly. We're just going to hang out when we can. His sister is actually coming up on Friday, and we're going to brunch on Saturday," Joe revealed.

"Meeting the fam, huh? Sweet!" Adam was happy for his friend.

"It's just brunch!" Joe insisted.

Adam chuckled. "I believe you!" he teased.

-oOo-

Fiona took another sip of her coffee. "You're right," she told Hanna as they walked back to their desks. They had been chatting in the conference room. She didn't want to discuss her conversation with Adam out in the open.

"I usually am!" Hanna joked.

One of the office phones rang. Fiona realized it was the phone on her desk but she was too far away to grab it. Her assistant answered.

"Fiona Coyne's line, Jessica Chui speaking. How may I help you?" Jessica listened for a moment before placing the caller on hold.

"Who is it?" Fiona asked as she came to her desk.

Jessica smiled at her. "You have Mr. Torres, on line one."

Fiona and Hanna exchanged a brief look. "Thanks Jess."

"No problem!" Jessica responded.

Fiona picked up the handset. "Adam?"

"Hey Fi," he replied warmly.

She smiled. "How come you didn't call my cell?" She sat down in her chair.

"I did, but you didn't pick up," he told her.

She swept her eyes over her desk and saw it lying near her mouse. Of course! "Oh."

He chuckled. "I know you're busy, so I won't keep you long. I just wanted to apologize for lunch."

She furrowed her brows. "What exactly are you apologizing for?"

"Well… I was kind of… dumb," he finally got out.

She laughed heartily.

"I can see that you agree!" he said amused.

"No! It's just the way you said it," she tried to explain.

"Uh huh," he teased.

"Well, you were a bit dumb!" she affirmed in jest.

"I know… I want you to come over Friday night. I won't get in until late, but it doesn't matter. I just want to be with you," he professed.

Fiona smiled broadly.

"Fi? Are you still there?" he asked after a beat.

"I am," she confirmed.

He relaxed. "Okay."

.

tbc

A/N: Aww! Friday night it is ;-) Joe is full of win! Looks like he has a good weekend ahead too! And Hanna provides awesome support as well.

Reviews rock! :D

So… Chapter 60 is coming up next. There are mini lemons and the chapter title is "T.G.I.F."

To the folks I can't directly PM –

I3FADAM – Thanks :D I appreciate the kind words! Haha, his news was a small monkey wrench, eh?

FADAMisMYlife – Thanks for the review! Yeah, it's hard to go wrong with chocolate, right? Lol.

Off topic: Oh man, X-Men was excellent! Lol. It was better than the first three! I loved it!