Rewatched Silicon Valley and found nothing that out there that was scratching my Monica/Gilfoyle itch. There are some close contenders, but nothing quite right. So, I wrote my own. I don't love using OCs but when there are so few characters it's an easy way to move things forward.

Monica had been wondering for the better part of a week how Gilfoyle thought she was so stupid. Yes, she knew what he meant. He meant it like a middle schooler, and when he saw the shock on her face he backtracked. She was not an on-the-spectrum tech nerd, she had an emotional IQ, people skills, eyes, and years of experience with nerds with crushes. Despite his own attempts to establish identity outside of being an awkward tech genius, Gilfoyle was an awkward tech genius who was about as subtle in his advances as a kick in the teeth. She'd seen him staring, she could always feel his eyes on her. Not typical nerd-in-lust eyes where you just have an inkling, no this was tangible staring, she could feel it burning in to her soul. She knew if she went to the kitchen approximately 35 seconds later, he would also be in the kitchen and conveniently need something that would cause him to bump shoulders with her; the first few times it's coincidence, every day, multiple times a day, was a clear pattern. The first day she noticed, she had tested it, going to get coffee or a snack and sitting down at her desk, only to get up 2 minutes later to do it again, internally laughing when he would inevitably also follow her. And if he was being particularly dickish to everyone, she did it as her own form of revenge. During the 51% attack, as they stayed up all night, she knew he was purposely shifting to touch his knee against hers, that even if she offered him the handle of the coffee cup, he'd take the cup part so their fingers would touch.

How stupid did he think she was?

And how stupid was he?

She could work anywhere in the office, in fact it would be better for her not to have her desk front and center where everyone walked past and she had to listen to him bicker with Dinesh, but she had it set up to sit in the same aisle as him. He didn't notice she would also maneuver to bump against him in the kitchen too, and that she didn't move when they touched.

Better yet, all she did was make him coffee during the 51% attack, something he could have easily done himself because it wasn't like he coded 12 hours straight, he took breaks, but instead she stayed up all night sitting next to him, bumping knees, handing him cigarettes—sometimes starting them and putting them directly in his mouth so her hand would brush against his face—and getting his coffee.

She knew Gilfoyle had a girlfriend, they were polyamorous and long distance, she had assumed because of the emotional maturity required for such an arrangement he had the social skills to not be a total nerd about this, but as the past few weeks had shown he clearly didn't. In fairness to him, she wasn't much better, stolen touches and all, but she never stared, and she'd never have just blurted out "I like you." She was just a little off her game. She normally went for a different sort of guy: tall, broad shouldered, muscular, clean shaven or with fashionable hint of scruff, conventionally attractive, charming, and who were preferably not in tech or VC. How was she even supposed to respond to that fuckery? Honestly, was she supposed to throw herself at him in the middle of the office, what did he expect from a declaration in the middle of their office, surrounded by their coworkers? Unlike Dinesh and Richard, she kept her personal life private.

It's also not like he gave her any time to formulate a response either. He immediately backtracked. The fucking common nerd.

She replayed every moment they'd ever had, every touch, everything leading up to "I like you… not in a…. uh… you know what I'm saying". Her own response wasn't much better, "sure" but it's not like he had given her time. She was in shock, how was she supposed to respond, she didn't even have time to swallow before he backtracked the nerd bastard.

"You know what I'm saying…". She could feel her face distort in to a sneer while she heard his voice her head, like it always did when she replayed that moment. God, she hated that smug fucking nerd. Sitting back at her desk after lunch with her friend, the majority of which she had spent raging against Gilfoyle—all of which of with Matty had heard before—instead of helping decide floral decorations for his wedding, she glanced at him where he stood in the kitchen. He immediately averted his eyes, pussy Monica thought in a particularly uncharitable way.

He had been avoiding her since his little disclosure, once she even saw him start to follow her toward the kitchen only to go willingly make small talk with fucking Becky when he realized what he was doing. He wasn't even making eye contact, only staring at her then looking away when she looked at him. Even at the fucking new office, she had felt his eyes on her as he walked up the stairs, but the second she looked at him he looked away and commented on the space. Even though it was a statement made to the general group, she counted it as the only thing he's said to her since the incident. Because "It's a little bright but I could find a dark corner to settle into", is in fact the closest he'd come to speaking to her in a week.

The office around her was suddenly quiet, looking around curiously she couldn't help roll her eyes, as Matty, a man who made the Hemsworth brothers look like trolls strolled in to the office.

"Hey beautiful, you forgot your leftovers in the car" he said, as she stood up from her desk and gave him an irritated quizzical look. She didn't have any leftovers, and beautiful? But she was too confused and uncomfortable with everyone in the office staring to say anything.

"Oh, thank you" she grabbed it, noticed it was the take away for his fiancé, but started toward the kitchen none-the-less, as Matty fell in next to her he placed his hand dangerously low on her back. Matty was talking about how great their date was, confusing Monica even more, but as she stole a glance at Gilfoyle and saw his usual unreadable mask looking thunderously angry it clicked in to place. Matty wanted to get a look at Gilfoyle and see if he could make him jealous. It physically pained Monica to not roll her eyes at this childish gambit.

As she leaned to put her left overs in the fridge, Matty let his hand fall intimately on to her ass for a brief second before turning to Gilfoyle.

"Hey man, I'm Matt" Gilfoyle turned and walked away, but even Matty, who didn't know him at all, could feel the anger rolling off of him.

"Uphh, Mon he's sexy in a smoldering way, I get it now" Matty told her as they walked to the elevator.

"Off all the things you have done to embarrass me Matty, this is the worst… but I know, right?" They continued to discuss on the short ride downstairs.

"Complex, maybe a little emotionally guarded, not your usual type at all, I think the new type is making you revert to high school. It's like you're starting over emotionally at puberty" Matty half teased, half seriously theorized as they approached the car.

"If only they could all be bisexual, emotionally intelligent, Adonises like you Matty, I know how to handle those" Monica smiled up at him with a wink, before giving him a quick peck on his cheek, "and I'm telling El to go with the pink roses, you do not have my vote for the orange, it's an awful color."

"After all I've done for you." Matty laughed as he got in his car.

When Monica got back upstairs Gilfoyle was gone.

Gilfoyle couldn't be in the office anymore. As he rode home in the OutRider, actually pedaling for a change because it helped relieve the tension. He tried to think of a time when he'd felt jealousy or insecurity and couldn't. But seeing that fucking guy put his hand on the small of Monica's back sent Gilfoyle in to a rage he didn't think he'd ever felt before, only for it to reach new heights when that hand fell briefly to her ass. Gilfoyle was brilliantly smart, confident in himself—odd as he may be—and he felt not bad looking when compared to other smart tech guys. He couldn't compete with the average intelligence tech bros, but against the ones inventing new things and pushing the boundaries, yeah, he was more attractive than Erlich or Richard.

But if that guy, a guy so attractive he makes the room go quiet, is who Monica normally dated, it was no wonder to Gilfoyle why she's wasn't interested.

He'd have to break up with Tara too, you can't experience jealousy like this and healthily continue a relationship like the one he had with Tara. It's something he'd been considering for a while. He liked Tara, always had, but when his interest in Monica started, he realized that how he felt about Tara wasn't the same, and never had been. Brushing up against Monica made his skin tingle, her attention on him made his stomach flip—which he supposed was butterflies—and he'd never felt that way with Tara. It was more of a trusted friend he fucked, and who he liked to watch get fucked.

He ran the new data on how he felt about Monica in his head. Watching a man touch her in a familiar way had made his hands ball in to fists on their own accord and his chest ache. He thought of compersion, with Tara he liked watching her. It was like personal porn, it was arousing and nice to see her enjoy herself. He tried to think of Monica fucking someone else, and if it would make him happy to see her receive pleasure from that guy at the office, if it would turn him on to watch Monica moaning underneath that muscled asshole. He felt like punching something, so no it would not make it happy or horny. Clearly he didn't feel about Tara as intensely as he did Monica, and as he was no longer abiding by the tenants of a hedonistic polyamorous relationship, he knew he needed to break up with Tara sooner rather than later.

This is mostly going to be Monica POV unless I feel I can do the mind of a brooding, monotone, tech man well.