Later that night, Montserrat and her roommate Kara were in the living room with the latter painting the former's nails. Montserrat thanked the Lord that Kara was an expert in all things beauty because sometimes a woman just needed to relax. And since Kara ran a salon, she had everything required for a perfect relaxing night. Of course that only happened if unexpected visitors didn't drop by in the middle of it.
"Casey, what are you doing here?" Montserrat blew air to her right hand's nails. They were painted a neat glossy frosty blue.
"I came in to see how you were doing," Casey walked right on in and was immediately hit with the smell of acetone. She waved a hand in front of her face, her nose crinkled. "But I guess I was worried over nothing."
"Hi Casey, you want me to do yours?" Kara greeted in her usual cheerful way.
"No thanks," Casey turned sideways to see her cousin closing the door. "I hear you're planning on taking Jolene Castillo to trial. Brave souls..."
Montserrat turned to face her cousin with an unusual smile. "Wonder where you heard that…"
"I want to make sure your problems aren't still affecting you—"
"Oh, you mean my problems that I told you in confidence but somehow my ADA already knows them?"
Casey expected that type of sarcasm that usually came before Montserrat burst into anger. "I know you're a little upset but I was just trying to make sure neither Rafael nor Olivia were hard on you on this case. They can both be a little persistent and intense—"
"Then how about you let me conclude that?" Montserrat sighed in annoyance and returned to sit down next to Kara. "I don't know either of them that well - I don't know anyone there actually - so the last thing I need is for someone to get the idea that I'm not tough enough for the squad. And just so you know, I did already have a somewhat conversation with Olivia so you telling Rafael everything did nothing for me."
Casey tilted her head, her expression swirling with guilt that even Kara saw straight away. Montserrat didn't bother feeling sorry about her words. She was so irritated that Casey took it upon herself to speak about her problems to someone else.
"I'm serious," Montserrat insisted before Casey got into the idea she was wrong or just being dramatic. "He said I lacked self confidence right to my face." Kara laughed out of her surprise but Casey attributed Rafael's words to it just being him.
"That's just how he is. He's straight forwards—"
"I hadn't noticed!" Montserrat exclaimed, still mighty irritated about the moment. "He's so rude!"
Casey released a big sigh and sat on the arm rest of the couch. "Maybe it's what needed to be done." Her new alternative way of thinking made her look no better in the eyes of her cousin. "I would have never been brave enough to tell you that you lacked self confidence but Rafael doesn't really have that problem. Whether it's business or personal he'll say what needs to be said."
"Yeah, I learned that, thanks," Montserrat leaned against the couch with a great big frown, reminding Kara and Casey of a child. "I do not lack self confidence," she muttered and made the other two women laugh.
~0~
With extra fuel gained against Jolene, a trial was inevitable. The woman was accused of shooting an unarmed, innocent boy and if all went well she would pay for her crime. The press was gobbling up the case as a common racism act and unfortunately Jolene was the only one who could give the facts of the case, which meant she'd be the one with the most abilities to change the perspective of the public. The M.E.'s report of Mehcad being in reality five feet away from Jolene was a strong suit, but it still didn't do much when all the prosecution had was what other people had to say about Mehcad. It was fairly difficult for the team to see Mechad's mother take the stand when the woman practically broke down over her dead son.
It didn't get any better when Montserrat got a lovely request from the defense.
"I wasn't even part of the case from the beginning!" she raged in front of the team without interruptions for a good minute. The conference room played host to her pacing and the squad's quick get together to plan for the trial that afternoon.
"It doesn't matter, you know all the details of the case," Olivia tried to calm her down but Montserrat was focusing on the reason she was called.
"And do the rest of you," Montserrat gestured to the rest of the squad. "How come they haven't been called up to testify?"
"Well, some of us don't want us to be called up…" Fin couldn't help make the remark at Rafael, the latter rolling his eyes.
"We've been through this!" went the ADA. "It's just better if you don't—"
"But the defense already has me lined up for tomorrow," Fin reminded then brought a hand to point at Montserrat. "And they clearly have a plan because she's right, she wasn't in the case until the very end. Why bring her in at all?"
Rafael took a moment to consider the motive the defense had for this particular move. Montserrat really did come in at the very end of the case, even though she was there when Jolene made the shot. Still, it would have been a smarter move to use another detective to talk about the case. It absolutely irked him that he was blindsided by the motive - what was the motive? His finger pointing at Montserrat made the ginger slowly come to a stop. "You need to pull yourself together, Detective. It's not the first time you're on the stand and I doubt it's the first time you've been suddenly placed on the stand. Correct?"
Montserrat swayed her head. "Well...I mean, it's not—"
"Correct?" his sharpness made her flinch.
"Yes, fine, it's not."
"Then compose yourself and start heading out."
Montserrat glared at him for the way he ordered her. If it wasn't for the fact she really did need to get going, she would've had something to say. Silently, she turned on her heels and walked out of the room.
"You really think talking to her like she's some kid is going to help anyone?" Amanda was the one to ask after Montserrat had left.
"It's the only way she seems to be responding right now," Rafael gave a careless shrug of his shoulders. "Not my fault. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to figure out a motive in one hour."
He was wrong - he needed to figure it out on the way to the courtroom.
~ 0 ~
It was difficult for Montserrat not to picture the last time she'd been in a courtroom testifying. Her hand settled over her non-existent pregnant belly when she sat down at the stand. At least this time she wasn't in danger of popping out a human being before the trial was over.
"Detective Novak," called the defense, an old man with stark gray hair. Mr. Cohen had proven to be a lawyer with a ridiculous talent of twisting things. He'd already made Mehcad's reverend look like a clueless man. Montserrat wondered what he would attempt to do with her.
Rafael wondered the same thing.
"Your team arrested Willie Taylor two days after Mehcad was taken to the hospital?" Cohen made a slow walk towards the stand, eyes intensely on Montserrat.
"Yes," Montserrat nodded, intending on speaking slowly just in case Cohen intended on tricking her. "We linked him to the three open rapes on the West Side."
Cohen took a moment of pause before he asked the next question. "Detective, you just transferred into SVU, correct?"
"Objection," Rafael cut in with the same confusion Montserrat - and the rest of the squad for that matter - had. "The detective's duration in SVU has no relevance in this case."
"I am leading up to a point, your honor," Cohen simply explained, leaving an air of curiosity on just what point that was.
"Overruled," the judge ended up saying. She glanced at Montserrat and indicated the ginger had to answer.
"Yes, I transferred to SVU about four days ago."
"And this case has been open for about a week and a half meaning you've had to read files in order to catch up?"
"...yes. SVU is a very organized division, it didn't take long for me to know what the situation was."
"So you were like any other civilian reading details of a dangerous man in the streets raping women?"
"Well, I...I don't think so - I did what protocol demanded," Montserrat knew if she began to sound frantic or even upset it would give the jury a reason to doubt her assurances.
"But unlike the rest of your team, you only knew what you read - you never went out to the field to see evidence."
"I was out."
"You didn't meet with the victims—"
"Because I was out!"
"So in retrospect, weren't you almost like my client in that you only had what the media said about the rapist?" Cohen gestured back to Jolene sitting at her table.
Montserrat opened her mouth to answer in a snap but she crossed looks with Rafael who was narrowing his eyes on Cohen. He'd figured out Cohen's motive.
Montserrat promptly closed her mouth and turned her attention back to Cohen. "No, I was not." Her calm response elicited a rather irritated response from the defense. Clearly, he wanted her riled up. "I am a trained detective. I know what I'm doing."
"As far as you knew, Detective, Mehcad Carter's appearance fit the rapist's profile due to the way he was dressed and he fact he followed my client, correct?"
Montserrat raised an eyebrow at the man. "You're asking me if he was a young, black male on a public sidewalk? That's your question?"
"Your honor," Cohen sounded like he was whining to his mother. Montserrat barely held herself from rolling her eyes when the judge ordered her to answer the question.
"Yes, based on what I read off the case files, he did fit the pattern."
"Based on what you read," Cohen repeated, pointing at Jolene again. "So you claim you're a trained detective - you know what you're doing - so how is it that with all your experience as a detective, you wanted my client to figure out in a single minute that Mehcad was the rapist the media talked about when it took you and your team two days to figure out?"
Montserrat knew that however she answered that she would fall right into Cohen's trap. He had twisted her words to benefit Jolene and it worked.
Welcome to SVU indeed.
~ 0 ~
"What just happened in there?" Nick was the first one to ask after they were released from court.
Montserrat was coming towards them with arms crossed and a rather restrained frown. "I let them fool a jury, that's what I did."
"It's not on you," Olivia tried to say but Montserrat shook her head.
"That guy made me look like a detective with questionable skills—"
"—so you would defend yourself and give him the perfect opening to show that if a well trained detective took some days to figure a case out, Jolene would have less of a chance to do the same thing," Rafael finished for her in one quick phrase. He was livid as well for the blind-side trick.
Montserrat took his silence as him blaming her for being so naive. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize what he was going to get at—"
"Neither did I." And that's what irritated the hell out of Rafael. He was so focused on getting to the motive before Cohen could pull his trick and he'd failed. He'd only realized it just before Cohen pulled the trigger. "It was an obscure trick, I should have realized it sooner. But it's not going to be the end."
"Any ideas?" Fin walked up beside him. "Preferably before I take the stand tomorrow?"
Montserrat dropped her hands to her sides and pointed an index finger at them. "I'll get back to you on that."
"Where are you going?" Amanda asked her just as the woman turned to leave.
"To get some new ammunition," Montserrat answered in the form of a promise. "Cohen thinks my skills are oh-so-grand so I'll just prove it with some valuable evidence."
"Liv, can I go with her?" Sonny's sudden request earned himself some curious looks from the team. "She's not in a good state," he shrugged.
Olivia gave him the nod to go ahead. "Make sure she gets home...and maybe we should call Casey…"
"Don't," Rafael pointed a finger at her. "It might be productive if Novak actually finds something for us to use because Cohen really upped Jolene's innocence today."
That was a mutual agreement amongst them.
~ 0 ~
Montserrat took her promise very seriously. She returned to the station only to pick up her things and head home in order to work all night - comfortably - if she needed to. Of course, even with Sonny there, she wouldn't retract her intentions.
"We've been looking at these things, Montse. Trust me," Sonny thought it was a long shot since, as Montserrat once put it, she was still new to the team. Trust was earned slowly.
"Thanks for the words of encouragement but I just basically screwed Rafael's case over so I'm not stopping until I get something to help him," Montserrat stuffed her laptop into her bag.
"Trust us - sorry," Sonny shook his head and started anew, "He's had cases much worse."
Montserrat paused all of a sudden when an odd smile started worming its way across her face. "My God I'm awful," she mumbled and actually chuckled a bit.
"What?" Sonny watched her with curiosity. "How come you keep smiling like that? You do that a lot, actually."
"Inside joke," Montserrat left it at that and continued to take her belongings. "Listen, Sonny, I think it's nice of you to check up on me like this but it's not necessary. My last partner knew that when I got like this I was best on my own." And judging by her warm smile it didn't appear like it offended her in any way.
"Well that was Homicide, but now you're in SVU," Sonny gestured to the bullpen as a reminder. "And we're a team here, but beyond that we're like family."
"Even when it's so clear some of you guys want to kill each other a lot of the time?"
"Isn't that like family?"
Montserrat laughed lightly. "Maybe. My brother and I can attest to it."
"You have a brother?"
Montserrat nodded her head. "Older brother. Gael and I get into arguments every once in a while that usually feels like we'll strangle each other."
Sonny laughed next as he thought about his own family. "I have several sisters and I'm pretty sure each one of them has had a reason to nearly bury me alive. But see? That's the point I'm trying to make. We're a weird little family but we help each other out, so…" he went back to his desk and picked up his own laptop. "Where do you want to work?"
Montserrat smiled.
~ 0 ~
When Kara entered her apartment, she was most looking forward to a nice, relaxing bath. After a long day at the salon - that left her smelling like hair dye - she really just wanted to bathe, pull up Netflix and fall asleep on her bed. What she found on her way in was a much different expectation.
"What the hell happened to my living room!?" she shrieked at all the papers sprawled across the living room. She saw charger cables underneath her coffee table, one of them knotted by the couch. She got the whiff of coffee from the kitchen and groaned, throwing her head back. She almost dropped her shopping bags on the ground when she yelled, "Montserrat Irene Novak - what have you done to my apartment!?"
"Montse's middle name is Irene?" Sonny emerged from the kitchen with a coffee mug in hand.
Kara's eyes snapped open to see the stranger holding her mug. She had half a mind to scold him but she very rapidly concluded he was really good looking. "Who are you and should I call the cops or do whatever the hell you want?"
"I'm sorry," Sonny realized this must have been the roommate Montserrat mentioned earlier. He left his mug on the coffee table and walked up to Kara (who hadn't stopped staring at him since she'd seen him). "I work with Montserrat. I'm Dominick Carisi, but people just call me Sonny." He extended his hand to shake with hers but Kara slowly looked down at her hands occupied with bags. "Let me help you with that!" He took the bags out of her hands, flashed her a smile, and took them to the kitchen table.
Wow, Kara mouthed. Maybe being a detective wasn't so bad…
"You're Kara Mackie, right?" Sonny turned back to the staring woman. "Montse mentioned you—"
"I did what?" Montserrat walked out of the hallway with her tablet in hand.
"That's my tablet," Kara frowned. "I was planning on Netflix tonight!"
"I just needed to open up a page my computer wouldn't," Montserrat waved a hand at her roommate, basically telling Kara to leave her alone.
"I have no idea what's going on," Kara bluntly said.
"Investigation, digging for details - that's a friend, Sonny," Montserrat once again waved her off. "Sonny, that's the roommate, blah, blah, blah!"
Kara raised an eyebrow at her. "I'm guessing the trial didn't go as planned?"
"Things went...a little wrong, but we're working on it," Sonny explained.
Kara immediately smiled at him. "Well, you can work here for as long as you want. I definitely feel safer with you around."
Montserrat looked up from her tablet to see Kara smirking and poor Sonny red-faced. "Don't you even dare, Kara Mackie."
"Whaaaat?" Kara leaned towards Sonny, her hands put together in front of her. "He doesn't mind keeping a defenseless civilian safe, right?"
"I-I don't," Sonny stuttered to respond, making Kara's smirk even wider. She had intense green eyes and a rather pretty smile. "It's my job, actually…"
"Would you like something to eat? I bet my rude roommate didn't even bother to offer you some dinner."
"Oh my God, you two quit it," Montserrat waved them off and cheered when the tablet finally loaded the PDF file she'd been waiting for. Her eyes skimmed a couple paragraphs before she cheered and jumped off the couch. "Sonny! I got something!"
"What is it?" Sonny apologized to Kara for leaving with a quick smile and hurried to see Montserrat's file.
"Something that'll put a sock in Cohen's little charade," Montserrat smirked.
~ 0 ~
Everything Montserrat and Sonny had found now laid in front of Rafael. His hand was placed right over it, his fingers tapping silently over it while they waited for Cohen to finish asking Jolene his questions. If he could get Jolene to trip over her own words, it could give the jury a reason to turn on her. Up until now they've only seen sweet, defenseless Jolene but now they held a piece of her true self.
It seemed like Jolene knew exactly what was coming to her because the moment Rafael got up from his seat, she straightened in her own seat. She'd been warned.
"Ms. Castille, you just said you love your black employees…?"
"I love all my employees. I have a gay Chinese assistant—"
"Good for you. But your black employees are the only ones that you refer to as 'field hands'?"
The direct question made Jolene pause for a moment, but even her answer came in the form of something made up on the spot. "Well, that was blurted out during a moment of duress. It's a vestige of the way I was raised. I meant no disrespect."
Rafael nodded to every word she said as if he believed her. "And when you denied black employees the use of the dining room bathrooms, that was also just a vestige?"
"Our restaurants are about hospitality. I have never denied an employee a fair working environment, promotion."
"As long as they don't serve food to white customers or use their bathrooms?"
"Objection!" Cohen immediately cried.
"Mr. Barba, move on," the judge motioned the man to keep going. And he was going somewhere alright.
"The first Chez Jolene was in new Orleans. Did you carry a gun then?"
"No, there was no need."
"What, so you only started carrying a concealed gun in New York? Why is that?"
Jolene very discreetly leveled Rafael's challenging look with one of her own. "When I moved up here, I was a public figure. I felt more threatened."
"Because New York was less segregated than you're used to?"
"I didn't say that."
"But you did say in 'Les Bons Temps Magazine'..." Rafael went back for the file left on his table. Jolene watched him read off God knew what and wondered when her lawyer would step up. "You said 'Nobody takes the subway in New York unless they have to. It's like a jungle train through the Congo'."
"Everybody knows that was just a joke. A telling joke."
Rafael left the file to drop back on the table and turned back to Jolene. "On the night you saw Mehcad Carter, did you see a field hand, a jungle animal, or just a boy trying to make his way home?"
Cohen rose from his seat in outrage. "Objection—"
"No, I want to answer that," Jolene told the judge before the latter could say anything. "I saw a hooded man following me. I told him to back off, and he came through my gate."
Rafael could see she was beginning to cross into that frantic state. It was just a matter of pulling at the right strings. "So if it had been a white man who was walking behind you, would you have told him to get back? Would you have pulled your gun?"
"Objection!"
"If it was a white boy, I wouldn't have been afraid!" Jolene's outburst promptly came after successfully pulling the right string.
Rafael pretended to be surprised, even though he and the rest of the team knew it was just the woman's natural self. "So, let's be clear. Mehcad Carter didn't have to do anything. He didn't have to say anything. He just had to be a black boy standing on your sidewalk and that gave you the right to shoot him?"
Jolene's eyes flickered to the jury now staring at her like hawks. "That's not what I said…"
"Isn't it?" Rafael knew she wouldn't even try to argue her way out of that. If she did, she would just give the jury an even uglier side to see. Even he wished hard enough, it wouldn't be that easy. "Nothing further." He turned and headed back for his seat, but not before catching Montserrat smiling widely in her seat.
He was good, Montserrat thought.
~ 0 ~
Come Fin's testimony, the game was once again half and half. It didn't exactly benefit nor hurt either side, but it did mean the jury could go either way on their verdict. So, when the jury did return, everyone on both sides were anxious to know the decision made.
"In the matter of the people versus Jolene Castille, on the charge of manslaughter, how do you find?" the judge asked the woman speaking for the jury.
"We find the defendant not guilty."
"Hell no!" someone in the crowd immediately shouted, jumping to their feet. It started a whole commotion of the same outburst.
"Order! Order!" the judge banged her gavel to quiet them down. "Jolene Castille, you're free to go. The jury is dismissed. The state of New York thanks you for your service."
"How the hell did that happen?" Montserrat couldn't find the answer herself, and it didn't help that the first thing they saw was Jolene giving one interview while Mehcad's parents did another across her.
"A juror told me they were split on the first poll," Fin admitted, gaining several looks from his Squad.
"What happened?" asked Olivia.
"Fear won out."
"I'm sorry," Rafael's apology came in a blurt. He was looking directly at Jolene at the bottom of the courthouse stairs. It made him sick that she got to give interview where she could freely say she didn't do anything wrong.
"No. It's not on you," Fin meant to absolve him of guilt since it really was not their fault. Everyone knew they did their best; they gave Rafael the best they could and he himself did the best he could with the trial. "It's just how it is."
~ 0 ~
"The first case I got to work with in SVU and...we got a 'not guilty' verdict," Montserrat relayed the case and the trial to her therapist. Dr. Weslin had of course known about the trial thanks to the media, but Montserrat still gave her the details. "I worked hard - I mean, I was doubting myself 80% of the time...I actually thought maybe that's why we failed…"
"You mentioned that your squad got all the evidence they could," Dr. Weslin said as a reminder of reality. "You yourself went ahead and pulled out new evidence against Miss Castille. Do you truly believe you were the reason the jury gave a not guilty verdict?"
Montserrat remained quiet for a minute while she thought about it. "...I did, actually. I truly thought it was on me because...because of my testimony. The defense twisted my words and...it gave Jolene an upper hand."
"What made you change your mind, then?" Dr. Weslin was curious of what led Montserrat to completely change her mind on the matter. Ever since she started SVU she'd mentioned she was full of doubts.
A light smile appeared on Montserrat's face. Her gaze was to the side and it seemed like she was thinking of something else. "I...talked to someone…"
The night before:
"I'm beginning to think this is a common thing for you," Montserrat motioned the bartender to come by then shifted in her seat to look at Rafael. He was nursing a glass of scotch, which also made Montserrat think it was his usual thing.
"You're learning," Rafael's light sarcasm was notice enough of his mood.
"Is this where everyone goes when they have a bad case?" Montserrat looked around the light-lit restaurant with some curiosity. "I've only ever been here a couple times since I moved to Manhattan. I might join the club." The silence between the two made her feel even worse.
The trial finished earlier in the day and it seemed like everyone had their own way of grieving. Montserrat didn't feel like bringing her sour mood home to Kara - it wasn't Kara's fault after all.
"I'm sorry," Montserrat spoke after she'd gotten her drink. She gazed down at the glass, her hands firmly planted on either side of it. "I thought with the new evidence I gave you it would be enough to help after my oh-so-grand testimony. Clearly, I was wrong."
"Novak, this had nothing to do with your testimony," Rafael put down his glass and side-glanced her. Montserrat gave him a sharp look in return - she was new, but she wasn't stupid. Rafael sighed and amended his statement. "Fine, maybe it was part of an overall reason. Each evidence, each testimony is like a puzzle piece. Every piece carries weight and sometimes it's a combination of all the pieces that'll become the reason for a verdict."
"It was the first case I got to work on after...after a while," Montserrat sighed. She swallowed hard as she really thought about her year. "I stopped working almost a year ago so...so when I showed up at SVU, I was out of sync with everything."
"Your self confidence took a dive for sure," Rafael picked up his glass to take a drink.
Montserrat shook her head at him. "Give me a break. I got pregnant, I went into a 12 hour labor period, I moved cities, I transferred into a whole new division, I...I was not in my place. This case threw me off even more. I just wanted it to go well…"
"And I didn't help," Rafael sourly finished for her. "Sorry, Detective, that your first case was a not guilty-verdict one."
"It wasn't on you either," Montserrat sighed. No matter her feelings towards the case, she couldn't deny what she saw, and the truth was that she saw Rafael do everything he could to give Mehcad justice.
"Would you say that to your old ADA?"
Montserrat internally shuddered at the thought of her old co-workers. She propped an elbow on the counter so that she could rest her cheek on her hand. The smile that came to her face confused Rafael as he once again drank from his glass.
"What?" he frowned.
"The last ADA I worked with was talented, he was annoying but...decently talented. It took me awhile to see it, though," her story still answered no questions. "I'm talking months. With you, though, it took me about two days."
Now mildly interested, Rafael left his glass on the counter. "Why's that?"
"I was feeling...down, so I talked to Casey and I asked her how was her first case at SVU. Somehow, she mentioned you. Your first case you took from SVU."
Rafael gave a curt nod as he thought about that particular case. One of his hands instinctively came to rub his neck. He dropped his hand, though, the second he saw Montserrat smiling like she would laugh. "Is that why you've been doing that!?"
"Guilty as charged," she raised her hands and finally got to laugh freely. "I can't believe you nearly got yourself choked with a belt - your belt!"
"How unprofessional, Detective," he scowled at her. "I did a fine job with that case—"
"Yeah, you did," Montserrat agreed with the same determination he used to make his point. "I was impressed that someone would go to that extent to help give the victim justice. So, that being said, I know you did what you could for this case. Maybe neither of us are at fault."
Rafael stared at her for a while. He learned straight off that she tended to switch through emotions - which, at first, he attributed to the fact she'd been pregnant - but for the first time, she seemed sure of things. "Detective, have you finally overcome your self confidence issues?"
Montserrat smiled and turned her head away. Her gaze found her untouched glass on the counter. The case really had been problematic from the start, and yes she did own up to her self issues. Part of her issues derived from her troublesome year but maybe it was time to start letting them go. She brought her forearms to once again rest over the counter, keeping her glass in the middle. "I do not lack self confidence."
Rafael noticed the change in her tone right away. Each time she went near that topic she was defensive, mad as hell. Now, it just seemed like she was correcting a mistake someone made. "I never thought you did." His admission confused Montserrat. He did, after all, practically shout it to her face. "Listen, Novak, you were getting dangerously close to doing something rash because of your first case. Casey talked to me and she told me things about you. I said what I said to get you to snap out of it. I've been here a year and it only took me the first case I took on from SVU to figure out the structure of the division."
"Clearly," Montserrat bit her lip to keep herself from laughing. Rafael playfully rolled his eyes.
"The cases will never be perfect, Detective," he began again, completely serious as he shifted in his seat to better face her. "Your choices will never be concrete and they most certainly will include doubt every once in a while. That being said, you shouldn't be doubting yourself at every corner. And, just to be clear, I don't believe you lack self confidence. As you once said," he paused and pointed at her, correcting himself, "well, shouted at me, actually, you witheld labor during trial. Anyone who does that has absolutely no problems with confidence in my book."
Montserrat felt a warmth creep across her face. She took a moment to let the heat pass but when she saw Rafael still looking at her, it just came back. "Thank you," she smiled at him.
As she reached for her drink - to taste it for the first time - Rafael concluded she had a pretty smile.
Author's Note:
So sorry for the delay in updates! I was on vacation! :)
P.S. As always, I have an AO3/Wattpad account under "noblecrescent" and a tumblr account under "saiilorstars" if you'd like to follow :)