Jane resolved not to be discouraged by the outcome of their first date. If at first you don't succeed, etc.
The following Tuesday evening, he knocked on her office door again. He went in without waiting for a response this time, since it had caused such suspicion the last time.
Lisbon was at her desk, surrounded by stacks of files and looking decidedly harried. He belatedly remembered she'd said something about an audit, one of those things he never had to bother with himself, but seemed to consume a considerable amount of time for the rest of the team.
"Evening," he greeted her. "Can I interest you in some Chinese food this evening?"
Lisbon lifted her head and gave a little groan. "God, yes. I'm starving. Can you order extra egg rolls?"
Jane had intended this as an invitation to leave the office, not a means to enable her to stay here even later. "Wouldn't you rather go out and leave all this til tomorrow?" he said dubiously.
"Jaaaane," she groaned. "I have to get this report to Bertram first thing in the morning. Running down that lead in Chico this morning put me way behind."
Jane suppressed a sigh. "Okay, okay," he said, giving up. "Extra egg rolls, coming right up."
He called the restaurant to put in the order, then walked six blocks to go pick it up.
By the time he returned, Lisbon looked marginally less harried. She practically pounced on him when he got back, tearing into the bags with enthusiasm.
"I take it you made some progress?" Jane said, opening the lo mein and handing it to her.
"Yes," Lisbon said. "Almost done. Only another hour or so."
He shook his head. "You shouldn't work so late all the time."
"What am I supposed to do?" she asked. "There's always more bad guys, always more paperwork, and never enough staff."
"What would really happen if you didn't submit this to Bertram tomorrow?" Jane said. "Why indulge his petty tyranny by slaving away for an arbitrary deadline?"
Lisbon, her mouth full of noodles, glared at him. "Do you seriously have no idea how this stuff works? The state legislature asked us to send this information in support of the annual budget request. Bertram needs this by tomorrow so he can get it in front of the budget committee before the legislature votes to approve the appropriations bill next week before the session ends. That's not an arbitrary deadline. It's a fixed, immovable one that drives the funding the entire organization depends on."
Jane paused. Okay, so this one time, it seemed the paperwork wasn't entirely pointless. "All right, I suppose if people's salaries are on the line, I can see how you're on the hook for dealing with this last minute request."
"So good of you," Lisbon said sarcastically, still scarfing down noodles. "Where are my egg rolls?"
He handed them to her wordlessly.
She devoured the egg rolls, half a carton of Mongolian beef, and three potstickers, then made a move to return to her desk.
"Break's over, huh?" Jane said, making no effort to conceal his disappointment.
"'Fraid so," she said, sitting back down at her desk and starting to type again.
"Anything I can do to help?" he said recklessly. Offering to help with paperwork was very much not on brand for him, but he hadn't entirely given up hope of salvaging the evening. Maybe if she finished up here quickly, she might be up for a late drink…
Lisbon's fingers froze over her keyboard and she stared at him like aliens had taken over his body.
"Never mind," Jane said, defeated. "I'll just—make you some coffee."
Lisbon relaxed. She shot him a grateful smile. "Thanks, Jane."
He brewed her a cup of coffee just the way she liked it. For dessert, he bought her a package of the stale cookies from the vending machine that she was unreasonably partial to despite his insistence that they were not real food.
She took the coffee greedily but looked surprised by the cookies. "Thank you, Jane," she said, fiddling with the package and giving him a shy smile. "That's really sweet of you." Then blushed.
Yes! He'd gotten a blush out of her. It had been a successful date after all. Jane smiled, inordinately pleased. "Any time, my dear. Any time."