THANKS FOR YOUR GREAT COMMENTS GUYS! KEEP 'EM COMING! LOVE TO HEAR! 3 SORRY FOR THE WAIT, BEEN REALLY BUSY LATELY! 3
Thursday morning, I awoke with a text. I rolled over, rubbing my eyes and fumbling for my phone. My radio roared to life as I bumped the on button in my nearly blind search. My fingers brushed the cool glass of my iPhone. I picked it up and held it over my head, trying to get my eyes to focus on the words.
'Seeley Booth' it told me as I squinted into the light and unlocked it. I hated the time—eight thirty two. I unlocked my phone and tapped 'read' as I wiped the early morning eye crusties away.
'Hi. I know you're probably not up yet, but I just wanted to tell you that I can't stop thinking about you. I'm free for lunch today. I just wanted to let you know…I have a good feeling about this. –Booth, err, Seeley'
I touched the reply bar and typed quickly, not needing to see the keys to know how to say what I wanted to—lesser than sign, the number three. Send. I tossed my phone on my pillow, rolled over, and threw the blankets back over my head. It vibrated under my cheek and lit up in my eye.
'Seeley Booth'
'3 you ARE up! So, lunch with the squints?'
I groaned as I turned over onto my elbows.
'Are they all like Dr. Brennan?' send. I kicked off my covers and slowly, gingerly padded on my achy feet to the kitchen where I got a glass of water and turned on my laptop. Another text lit my phone.
'Um, not all of them. Angela's husband Hodgins is a conspiracy theorist but he's normal enough to have a conversation with. I'm just going to call you. It'll take too long to text it all." Just as I finished, the phone vibrated and Seeley's picture popped up on the screen along with his name and 'accept' and 'ignore'. Accept.
"Hi," he said sweetly. "Where was I?"
"Hodgins? And how come you all have strange names? Hodgins? Bones? Seeley? Actually, Seeley's pretty cool, verging on special." He laughed, but was clearly trying to contain the joyful sound.
"Bones is just a nickname." In the background, I heard someone say,
"Who are you talking to? No one but you calls me Bones." He chuckled before giving me the Sparknotes version of the squints.
"Hodgins is the bug and slime guy," he began before a voice in the background, this one male, said,
"Whoa, now, Booth, who are you talking to?" then it was Seeley's voice, only distant.
"Hodgins. Give me back my phone."
"Who is this?" Hodgins said, sounding annoyed.
"This is the person on the other end of Seeley's phone. I kinda want to talk to Seeley. Isn't it illegal to take something from a federal agent?"
"Let's go with no." He then started talking to someone else, his voice becoming distant. "Who calls you 'Seeley'? I mean, Jeeze, Booth, you're so…Booth." then he was talking to me again. "Oh, are you Booth's new girlfriend?" the last word got quieter as the phone was pulled away.
"I'm sorry about that, Jay, the squints are a nosy bunch." There was a background chorus of 'put it on speaker!' I heard him sigh.
"Is that okay? Do you mind?"
"Nah, it's fine." I heard a click and then a lot of white noise, footsteps, sniffles, and the like. There was a soft thud as he placed it on a table or something.
"You're on with the Squint Squad," Seeley sighed. Most of the following voices were unidentifiable.
"Is this very professional?"
"Shut up, Clark." That was Angela, I think.
"Hello, various people I cannot see," I said with a chuckle. There was a chorus of greetings:
"Hi." "Hello." "Hey." "Wassup?"
"What's going on up here?"
"Cam, it was a Squindea." That was Seeley. A combination if 'squint' and 'idea'.
"Hello?" said the woman called Cam.
"Hi," I said cheerfully. She carried authority in her voice. I didn't want to make bad with Seeley's boss, if she was his boss. "Seeley—"
"Who calls you Seeley?" Cam again.
"Seeley, I have to go," I finished after the interruption.
"Oh!" Seeley took the phone off speaker. "Okay. About lunch…?"
"The diner. Noon, okay?"
"Alright."
"Text me. Or be alone, that was kind of confusing."
"Yep."
"Okay. Bye." I hung up, slightly dazed, confused as to what had just happened. I dropped my phone beside my laptop and went to shower. I got out and let my hair air dry as I sat down to write, periodically checking the time. As it grew close to eleven, I picked a pretty sundress, belting it at the waist with a wide braided leather belt. I put on my favorite grey booties and a short black cardigan with a lace back, grabbed my apartment keys and headed for the Royal. I checked the time and paid the driver with just about the last of my cash. My debit card, which I tried not to use, would soon become a necessity if I didn't make good tips tonight. I worked at one of the nicest restaurants around, somewhere I'd never ever be able to eat at off duty, but when you work the dinner shift, you can usually snag some pasta or better if you're friends with the kitchen staff. I mean, when your bill is close to two hundred dollars, you should be well enough off to leave a decent tip. If your bill is one-fifty and you're leaving the accepted fifteen percent, that's a solid twenty-three dollar tip. That could buy me plenty of ramen. I get around ten tables a night, about two per hour I work, so in a night I could make like two hundred dollars on tips alone.
I got out of the cab and sat at Parker's favorite table and waited of Seeley. I was five minutes early for noon. Twelve came and went, as did twelve thirty and one o'clock followed suit. I left then, a little flustered, and hailed a cab for the Jeffersonian. He said he'd be there all day. I called over to the FBI building first, a number I'd gotten from 411, the directory. After the official FBI greeting, I asked for Seeley.
"May I speak to special agent Booth please?"
"May I ask who's calling?"
"It's Jay Gilroy. He missed our lunch date." She was gone for a moment, and then returned.
"He's not in the building. Would you like me to connect you to the Jeffersonian Institute? He's probably there if he's not here."
"No thank you. Thank you for your time." I hung up and waited patiently for the rest of the ride. As the cab approached the mostly glass building, I looked in awe at the immaculately kept sprawling gardens. At the door, I got a visitor's pass and directions to the lab of Dr. Temperance Brennan. I walked up the flight of stairs and through the open sliding doors into an open room with a raised platform in the middle and what looked like offices behind it. Dr. Brennan was working on it and looked up at me when she heard the low click of my heels.
"Can I help you?"
"Um, yes, I'm looking for See-err, Booth. Please." I smiled in an attempt to be friendly. Se coldly pointed towards an office.
"Angela's office." I made my escape in the direction she pointed anxious to get out of her judgmental gaze. As I walked in, I saw Seeley, Angela, and another man with a mass of curly hair all looking at a virtual 3-D thing. As they heard the click of my flats, the curly-haired man turned and looked at me with piercing, child-like joyful blue eyes.
"Hel-lo," he said, still the only one facing me.
"Hodgins," Angela scolded, and then smiled at me. "Hi," she said calmly, in that cool tone she always used, but my attention was fixed on the handsome man in the black suit who was avoiding my look. He was the last one with his back to me.
"If you were going to stand me up, you should have made yourself more difficult to find." I shifted my weight to my right foot and tugged at the bottom of my dress nervously. I didn't know how to handle this. I didn't have much experience with men at all. Oh dear god I shouldn't have even come.
"Oooh, Booth, man, you are in trou-ble," the man Angela called Hodgins said as if it was second grade again and someone got called to the principal's office.
"Jay, I am SO sorry. Angela made a graphic of the ballistics and then Hodgins found some slime," Hodgins waved, gesturing that Hodgins, was in fact, he, "and I just got so caught up, I'm sorry," he pulled me into him and kissed my forehead. "Can you forgive me?" I put my hand on his cheek, then looped my arms around my neck and gently touched my lips to his.
"With a face like this," I said as I ran a thumb across his cheek, "I couldn't stay mad for long." He looked back at Angela and Hodgins, who has his arms around her.
"Booth, you got a free pass out of the dog house. Take it, man, and run," Hodgins said with a laugh.
"The graphic and the slime will still be here when you get back," Angela added logically. I flashed a smile and a quick thank you as Seeley knotted his fingers in mine and we rushed past Dr. Brennan's platform.
"Booth, where are you going?" she called almost angrily.
"Lunch," he called back without stopping.
"You can't! We need you!"
"Too bad, Bones, I've got a date." As we got to the door, we were stopped by a very beautiful woman, tall and thin, stopped us.
"Booth, where are you going? Who's this?"
"Jay, Cam, Cam, Jay." He said, introducing us. "Lunch. Gotta go." He pushed past her and we ran to his car and laughingly turned on the sirens as we sped off to the diner. We stumbled in, tripping over ourselves and laughing, at one thirty, an hour and a half after our original plan. He ordered a cheeseburger; I ordered a chicken and cheese quesadilla.
"So, he said, putting a fry in his mouth, "Give me your story. Madam Writer." I took a sip of water and took a breath.
"I grew up in Connecticut and I was the definition of a rich bitch, but we truly weren't all that rich. I had my own horse, which was the very best part of my life, I went to a catholic high school, I complained about everything," I chuckled a little, "But when I was seventeen, my fifteen year old brother Tim died in a car crash, one of my best friend got pregnant and kicked out of school. Dana miscarried, but never went back to school. I think she's a hair dresser now. My parents are still dysfunctional. I left right out of college, so I haven't even spoken to them in five years. I'm trying to get published and I have a good gig waitressing. And," I said playfully, "I met this cool new guy and I think there might be something there."
"Cool new guy?" he asked. I wasn't sure if he was serious or playing.
"Yeah. With a name I'd never heard before."
"Hm?" he said, asking the name.
"Seeley." I dropped my hand on his. Before long, we finished and paid, and I asked him to come back to mine for a little while, to hang out. As soon as we were behind closed doors, he kissed me with an intense passion. I laughed and ran over to my laptop.
"Silly, I'm not thinking that. I want you to read this." His face fell. "Hey, this is special. I've never shown anyone." he smiled a little and sat in the chair at my desk. I perched myself lightly on his knee and watched his face as he read. His eyes moved across the page slowly at first, absorbing every word. His brown eyes sped up, hungry for more enchanting words. As he reached the bottom of the page, he looked up at me in awe.
"Jay, this is amazing."
"I hope so," I chuckled. "I majored in it in college."
"Wow." I stood up, pulled him over to the couch and settled myself into his arms. I rested my head on the warm corner of his neck. He rolled up his shirtsleeves and loosened his tie. He rested a hand on his knee and played with my hair.
"I really like you, Seeley."
"I really like you too."
"I don't want to be any secrets because I think this could last for a really long time."
"Alright?"
"When we went to the diner," I said, and then took a breath. "Parker said something about how I had better not hurt you like Hannah. If Parker knows about it, it must have really affected you. Tell me. I want to help."
"Hannah…" he said with a sigh, remembering. "Last year, I was in Afghanistan training soldiers. Hannah was a journalist who decided to go in an area she wasn't allowed. I brought her out and we hit it off. We came back to DC, I went back to Bones and the Jeffersonian and after a little while, I proposed."
"Oh my gosh, Seeley. I'm so sorry."
"Obviously, she turned me down with the words 'I'm not the marrying kind'." I scooted over onto his lap and wrapped my arms around his neck. I felt his strong arms around my back and his lips quickly on my cheek. I let my fingers twist in his dark brown hair. He slipped one arm under my knees and carried me into my bedroom. I wasn't ready for that yet. We'd been together for less than a week. And I'm still so young…
"I can't," I said as he kissed my neck. "Seeley, I can't. I'm not ready for that yet." He lay on his back and I put my head on his chest. I could tell he was frustrated. Or disappointed.
"I'm sorry, Seeley," I sighed. I then realized how he'd perceived everything. Inviting him back here, listening while he bore his soul… "I'm so sorry I made you think—"
"No. Stop apologizing. It's fine. I understand. You're what…?"
"Twenty five."
"Twenty five. You're still so young. I'm a lot older than you."
"You can't be that much older."
"I'm thirty five."
"No way. And age doesn't matter to me."
"It's just…I've fallen in love before. A lot. I have a son, I've made two different marriage proposals to two different women. I've lived a lot more life. It's okay if you're not ready. I'll wait." he smiled lightly down at my and kissed my temple. I rested my hand on his chest. Thank our GOD that he'd wait with me.