OK so from here on... enjoy the roller coaster :D hehheheheeheheehehe ... let me know what you think!

It hadn't been fair of him to take advantage of her while she was hung over and vulnerable, she thought, as she walked the halls of the hospital, hoping to arrive before him to avoid the fact that he wanted to talk and catch up and grab coffee.

She felt heavy, like she struggled to breathe but everything was fine, it was only anxiousness of what was going to happen that was creeping up on her.

You knew you would fuck this up…

She shouldn't have got home and replied to Charlotte's message with retaliation and anger when she was still feeling seedy and remorseful about all the alcohol that they had consumed and the way that Trevor, innocently or not, had wormed right in with his unwanted platitudes and comfort.

She wanted to vomit up her insides when she thought of all the things that she had told him, her declarations— in her sober brain, if she hadn't been so bereft after losing a patient, she would have never said the stupid things that she had aloud and Trevor should have known better.

"Olivia could you please help?" Meaghan stuck her head out of one of the rooms. She'd been on her way to grab a coffee but she put down her things on the empty nurses station and made her way inside to follow Meaghan. She stood just inside the doorway, "Sorry, I know you've barely put your things down — she's just a little slow in her responses, wheezing — should I turn the oxygen up or is something else going on?"

Olivia sanitised her hands and stepped in front of the curtain. She smiled warmly at the young teen who looked worse for wear. "Hi Dani, I'm Dr. Olivia, I don't think we've met yet…"

Danielle looked at the doctor and blinked slowly, "hello," she greeted her.

"How do you feel at the moment Dani?" Olivia wanted to know. She took her stethoscope from around her neck and put the buds in her ears.

"Okay," she replied timidly.

"Are you feeling like your heart is beating okay? There's no feelings like a double beat or a big thump that takes your breath away?"

"No, but I feel a bit dizzy," Danielle replied.

"Okay, I'm just going to take a little listen to your chest, is that okay?"

The girl nodded.

Olivia gave her an encouraging smile before warming the flat bed of her stethoscope up on the palm of her hand. She placed the flat surface on the top of the girl's pajamas and listened for any murmurs or any fluid or anything that seemed out of the ordinary.

She sounded slightly wheezy, but it wasn't too out-of-the-ordinary.

She pulled stethoscope off and placed it back around her neck. "Okay, I'm just going to check a few other things," she informed the teen.

She took Dani's wrist to measure her pulse and then began to check for any signs of edema. She turned to the nurse. "What's Trevor got her on in terms of diuretics? Anything?"

"Yeah, a small dose, should we increase?"

"Mmmm, when did she have her last dose?" Olivia wondered.

"Yesterday morning, she's almost due," Meaghan informed her, glancing over her chart.

"Am I okay?" Danielle asked softly. Olivia glanced at her and smiled reassuringly, "of course you're okay, sweetheart, I know you're feeling a little off right now, but Meaghan and I are just going to make some tiny adjustments to your meds this morning to see if that makes a difference and then Dr Trevor can make some better decisions about what we can do going forward."

"Am I getting more sick?," she asked as if she was scared of the answer.

Olivia paused, she took a seat on the edge of the bed facing the fearful teen. "Danielle," she took her hand, "did you know that regardless of how sick you are, we have medications that can help with almost anything — and when we run out of ideas with medication, we have surgery and we have organ donations and we have such great technology that I am confident that even though you might feel worse some days, you can have a bounce back, or a new solution if an old one is no longer working — we just want you to rest and let us worry about the problems."

"I just need to know if I am going to die soon," she blurted out, staring Olivia in the eye, almost shaking the doctor's confidence for a second. In an instant she felt angry that she was doing Trevor's job for him; he should have been tending to his patient, not downstairs lining up with an endless stream of idiots who couldn't function without caffeine.

Instead, it was her dealing with the questions that were meant for him. There was a reason she quit medical to go in to psychological care.

And why the fuck did she choose a hospital, she asked herself.

She didn't flinch. She gave Danielle's hand a little squeeze, "Dr Trevor and I aren't going to let you die, Danielle, we are going to do everything that we can to make sure that you'll be going home with your family as quickly as you are well enough."

"Promise?" She asked tearfully.

Olivia nodded with a little smile. "Yes, I promis-"

"What's happening in here?" Trevor asked clearing his throat, sounding peppy, holding on to an extra large coffee.

Olivia whipped around to face him. "Danielle needs a full work up, re-assessment of diuretics, dizziness, shortness of breath and edema in the lower extremities." She got up off the bed. "Heartbeat is stable, no arrhythmia that I can hear but I would suggest that is based on when and if her current dose of meds have been taken…"

"Okay," Trevor replied a little taken-aback. He could hear the edge in Olivia's voice and wasn't sure if she was upset or if she was angry. She hadn't called him back the day before which he was a little bummed about, but he figured she just needed time to get her head around the weekend that they'd had. He didn't want to be pushy, he knew he had to be patient and give her space. He glanced at Meaghan as if for a clue, her face was blank — also a little surprised with Olivia's bluntness.

Olivia looked back at Danielle, "we're going to take very good care of you, Dr Trevor will figure out your meds and if you need to talk to me, you just let Meaghan know, okay?"

Danielle nodded. Olivia gave her a little smile and avoided both Trevor's eyes and the nurse and threaded past them both back to the nurse station to pick up her things and head to her office.

/

She could have set her clock by it, the knock that came just before 10am. She had to almost remember that she was angry — reminding her was the fact that he let himself in as if he had the right.

"I'm busy Trevor, what do you want?," she asked, writing notes, not even bothering to look up at him.

"Is this like… a bit that you're doing to throw people off… or…?," he asked quietly, looking behind him.

"What?," she asked; the word came out like it tasted bitter. "What are you talking about? What do you want? I just said I was busy."

Hurt, reproached and a little confused, Trevor stared at her, surprised. Olivia finally looked up, seeming irate by his presence. She couldn't help but feel her insides churn at his wounded expression.

"Wait, are you upset with me?," he was surprised, they had left on such a nice note over the weekend. "What did I do?"

"I don't want to have to treat your patients medically half-cocked because you can't get to your rounds on time and I don't want you to barge in to my office without waiting for me to invite you in and I don't want to talk to you. I want you to leave me alone."

Instead, he closed the door behind him. "OK," he began firmly, "Olivia, what's going on? You don't get to unload 'I love you's on me all weekend and then treat me like a piece of shit on Monday. What is going on?"

"I was vulnerable and drun-"

"Don't you dare," he warned her, "don't you dare," he breathed in, his entire body feeling tense and full of disappointment and confusion. "You left my apartment on Sunday morning fresh as a daisy, loved up and feeling incredibly good about yourself, you don't get to take whatever shit happened after you left my place on me. I don't deserve it."

"I warned you-" she said softly, realising that she was running out of excuses to be mad.

"You told me that you would find a way to fuck it up — and I told you that I wasn't going anywhere and that I would not let you and that still stands. You can push me away as much as you want, Dr Olivia Benson, but I will not budge until you can stand before me and look me clear in the eye and tell me you lied about all of your feelings."

She dropped her pen, he had been advancing toward her behind her desk the whole time.

"Olivia stop doing this, it's not cute, it's really hurtful and you say you don't want to hurt me — so just stop it,"

She dared to look up at him. His jaw was set in a firm line and he did look hurt.

"Sorry," she said softly, clearing her throat, "I'm sorry."

"I get that treating my patient while I wasn't here probably mixed up some feelings after what happened on friday — that's a fair point, I should have been here and it's not your job to medically treat them, but that's not what this is about, is it?"

"I can't get in to this, Trev-" she sighed, "I have an appointment in three minutes and I don't need to be emotional."

"Okay, well… I'd like us to talk later, okay?"

She didn't know how to say no to him. She wasn't even sure if she wanted to. He leaned in close and touched her hand that rested on the flat surface of her desk. She almost jumped a mile. "Liv?"

"Okay," she agreed.

"I don't want to upset you," he added, "I just want you to find me a comfort and someone to lean on when you're freaking out and don't trust your own instincts anymore."

"Okay," she repeated, a little louder.

He took her hand and pulled her to her feet. "Can I give you a hug at least? I really missed you yesterday."

Olivia got to her feet knowing that she had to follow him out to her waiting area. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight for a moment. She was able to close her eyes and let all of her concerns go. She desperately didn't want to cry.

"I don't know if I can do this with you…" she murmured, pulling away and avoiding his eyes. "I just-"

"If you're not ready it's okay," he murmured, quieting the stir of disappointment within him. He had to understand though, there was a lot going on for her, a lot of trauma that while in the weakness of love seeping in wasn't an issue, but push-and-pull games and coupled with alcoholism— it may have not been the best foundation for a relationship.

He had to be patient.

"I'm not ready," she repeated, "but I love you."

"I'm here… and I'm here for you when you're ready, but maybe for now we're just friends."

"Okay," she agreed.

Trevor felt her draw in a deep breath before letting it go slowly. He kissed her forehead. "I mean it," he added, "I'm your friend before anything else, I'm always cheering you on, Olivia, no matter what."

"Me too," she replied.

"Let's talk later, k?"

She nodded. He couldn't resist drawing her back in, giving her a little squeeze before kissing her forehead again. Olivia almost melted in to his body but held back. She watched Trevor make his way out of her office, giving him a little wave.

She collected herself before making her way to the little waiting area between her and Trevor's office. She found her professional smile as she found her patient bouncing her leg nervously. "Hi, you must be Naya?"

The girl looked up, a little startled, to find Olivia. She had long, black curls that almost reached her waist and the most beautiful azure eyes. "Yeah, I'm Naya," she replied in a little voice.

"Where's Mom or Dad?," she wondered, "are they here?"

"Mom just went to the bathroom," she replied.

"Okay, well, why don't you just wait here for your Mom to get back-" a woman appeared around the corner who was an absolute replica of the girl before her. "Oh, here's Mom now," Olivia smiled.

"Hello, sorry! I had to run to the ladies," she apologised.

"That's okay," Liv replied, "I'm Dr. Olivia Benson, it's a pleasure to meet you both."

"For us too," her mother replied. "Nay's a bit nervous this morning, she's never seen a therapist before."

"Oh, Naya you have nothing to be nervous about, I promise! We'll just chat and get to know one another and I promise we'll have fun!" Naya managed a smile. According to her chart, she was 14. "Mom did you want to go and grab a coffee or something to eat?"

"Yeah, I have some work to do, so I might go grab a coffee and get something done." She glanced at her daughter, "honey, when you're finished with Dr. Benson, you send me a text if I'm not here, okay?"

"K Mom."

"Good girl." She leaned forward and kissed her forehead.

"Come on, Naya, let's go have a chat…" Olivia motioned for the young girl to step in to her office. She smiled at her mother. "Thanks Mrs. Levine, I'll have Naya send you a message or give you a call when we're done."

"Thank you Dr. Benson," she waved goodbye to her daughter who peeled her eyes away from her mother. Olivia knew the look; it was fear, she was used to seeing it from her initial appointments.

Naya stepped ahead and followed Olivia's guidance to the leather couch. "Take a seat, Naya, make yourself comfortable, okay?"
"Okay…"

Olivia quickly put Trevor and her troubled morning to the back of her mind and paid attention to the child in front of her. "So Naya, I can see that you're a little bit nervous and maybe a little scared to be here without your Mom, so I want to do my best to put you at ease."

Naya nodded.

Olivia looked around her office, behind her was a shelf with books and toys and puzzles. "All this stuff behind me, you can help yourself to, if anything takes your eye, you can get up and have a look around, I don't mind at all."

"Okay," the girl replied meekly.

"And this is entirely your time, so we can talk about absolutely whatever you want to talk about. If you don't feel like talking very much, you can rest on the couch, or if you want to tell me some fun news or talk about something you find really interesting, then we can discuss that too… do you want to ask me anything?"

"Mmmm," she took a deep breath and shrugged, fussing with some beaded bracelets on her wrist. "I dunno, am I here because I did or said something wrong?"

"No," Olivia smiled, gentle in her approach, "not at all, you're here because there's a lot going on with your health and sometimes when you have a lot going on, you might have some feelings that you don't always want to talk to your Mom or Dad about, so you can talk to me… or you can come here and we can chat about normal things when life doesn't feel entirely normal."

"Oh, okay."

"So… let me tell you a little bit about me," Olivia began, realising that Naya was perhaps going to be a little tough to ease in to conversation, "I'm from California and I've been working here for around six months now. I'm 37 years old and I'm slowly falling in love with New York and when I have spare time, I love to read and I love plants, I have a lot of plants in my apartment that I love taking care of."

"I've never been to California before," Naya replied, her interest piqued, "Did you ever see any movie stars?"

Olivia smiled warmly at the young girl, "Yeah, actually, once I saw Reece Witherspoon at a Wholefoods, do you know who that is?"

Naya finally smiled, "Yes, did you talk to her?"

"No, I couldn't think of anything to say," Olivia chuckled, "she was with her daughter so I didn't really think it would be appropriate to interrupt, "but what about New York? There are a lot of celebrities in New York too, have you ever met a celebrity?"

Naya shook her head, "No but my Dad took me to Madison Square Garden to see One Direction, that was really cool."

Olivia smiled, "Oh, that is pretty cool! I know a little about One Direction… there's another patient of mine that loves them very much and told me all about them. Who's your favourite?"

Naya giggled, "Harry, he's so cute."

"Nice! What other music do you like?"

She thought for a moment, "I like Taylor Swift too, Dad promised me when she comes back to New York to do a show he would take me to that as well."

"That'd be awesome! You know I like Taylor Swift too. She has some really fun music and I think she's a great example for young girls."

"What other music do you like?" Naya asked her, opening up a little.

"Oh, I like a lot of music that was popular a long time before you were born," Liv winked, "I'm pretty old."

"My Mom's older than you," Naya told her, "you're not that old."

"That's so kind of you, Naya." Liv replied with a little smile. "You look a little uncomfortable sitting on the edge of the couch like that," she remarked, using her usual tactic to put her kids at ease, "you can make yourself as comfortable as you like, I'm going to kick my shoes off and get comfortable over here so please feel free to do the same, or you can kick back as you please."

Naya slipped off her sneakers and eased herself back in to the corner of the couch, taking a cushion and holding it in front of her. "That's better…" Liv sighed, "would you like a drink?," she asked the girl, "I can get you a juice or something if you like."

"I'm okay right now."

"Okay, well if you change your mind, you let me know. One of the lovely nurses will come and bring you a juice or a snack or whatever you need."

"Thanks Olivia."

Olivia smiled, "Okay Naya, I just want to briefly talk about your doctor's appointments and how it's working out for you at the moment?"

She shrugged, "I guess its okay…"

"And your dialysis, how is that? Is it bothering you?"

"Not really, I just really want to go back to normal… I don't want to have to do it, but I guess it could be worse."

"And what about school? Is everyone still treating you normally? Do you have some good friends?"

"Yeah," she nodded, "there's some jerks at school because when I got sick I had to have a lot of time off til the specialist figured out about my kidneys and they have some stuff to say, but I still have good friends. Its just hard when I can't do the same stuff anymore because of my appointments, or infections or… just being really careful, I guess."

"I imagine that must make you feel a little sad sometimes."

"A little bit, but its okay. Mom and Dad keep telling me that I could get a kidney donor soon and maybe I could have a normal life again."

"That's exactly right, we're really hopeful about that. Dr Trevor is really happy with how you're doing at the moment too, so that's good to know."

"Yeah," Naya replied.

"So, you're almost 15 now, how do you go with school? Tell me about that, what's your favourite subject?"

Naya thought about it for a moment, "I like Science and Math, numbers make sense to me and I'm taking advanced Maths this year, but … I wanna do more but I don't wanna be known as the dorky kid who's in to numbers, you know?"

Olivia smiled, "I was the dorky kid that was in to science and math, you know, I was taking an advanced science program in middle school, I was so proud and you should be too, that's amazing."

"Mmm I was told I could take chemistry early, but my bestfriend, Sophie, she said that I was turning in to a nerd and I got embarrassed so I turned it down, but chemistry would be so much fun, I think."

"Aww, well, we should never let our friends dictate things that are going to hinder our learning or development; I know its easy to say that because school can be brutal, but friends should understand."

"I know," Naya agreed, "I should do it, huh?"

"Only if it's what you want, if you think it might be too much of a workload then take it at your own pace, but… do you know what you want to do when you get older?"

A little smile crossed her mouth as her cheeks turned a little rosy. "I wanna do medicine."

"Oh," Liv raised her eyebrow, "that's a good choice, there's a lot of hard work and studying involved. Even Dr. Trevor will tell you that he still studies on cases even now at his big age."

Naya laughed. "I'll ask him."

"Good idea, but if you're dedicated, you can definitely pursue medicine, its a fulfilling career," Olivia lied, smiling through her teeth, thinking of the all the politics and sexism and how it all but broke her down as a person.

They chatted for awhile longer until the time was up. Naya and her Mom left and Olivia started seeing some of her patients in the ward, avoiding Trevor as much as she could.

"Dr. Benson?" Meaghan called softly from her desk. Liv glanced up from the outside of one of the children's rooms. She was updating a chart and placing it back down. She turned and made her way over to the desk. "Hey…"

"How are you doing?" Meaghan asked with a smile, "you look a little down in the dumps today."

Olivia plastered on a smile and shrugged, "I'm a bit tired, I had a huge weekend and I didn't get to sleep enough, I don't think…"

"Okay," Meaghan replied, "I was just checking in on you."

"Thanks, that's sweet of you."

"Hey ladies," Trevor greeted them, leaning over the desk with some papers. He put them in to the staff inbox for processing. "What's happening this afternoon?"

"Not much, just finishing up with my patients," Liv replied.

"Me too," he replied, "what a day, how'd you go with Naya Levine?"

"She was okay, a little skittish but we got to a good place and she's looking forward to our next appointment. Thanks for the referral."

"My pleasure," Trevor replied. "Right," he turned to Meaghan, "I've gotta meet up with the Pharma rep in about fifteen minutes. I have my phone, so if anyone needs me, just give me a call," he told them, drumming the desk. He turned to Liv, "I need to pick your brain about something later, can you make about 10 minutes for me after 2?"

"Sure," Liv replied, "just come and see me in my office, I have a couple of things I need to work on."

/

Olivia drew in a deep breath and sighed. She had a headache. Re-establishing herself back in medicine was something else. She had to update herself on new procedures and technologies before she decided to do much else.

She could have done with a coffee, she thought. She was almost tempted to go and get a black coffee from the visitor's room down at the end of the hall but she didn't think she could stomach it.

A knock on the door made her sit up straighter. She called out for him to come in, she knew it had to be Trevor. The door opened and Trevor came in. Olivia found herself smiling, noticing that he held two take-away cups of coffee. "Coffee break?," he offered.

"Sweet, sweet caffeine angel…" Liv murmured with a little smile, too tired to keep up the ruse with him.

He shut the door behind him and made his way to her desk, pulling a coffee out and placing it before her. She took it and managed a smile. "I was literally just considering going and making myself a black coffee from down the hall."

Trevor made a face, "lucky I came in when I did…" he took his own coffee and took a seat across from her. "So… how has your day been?"

"Okay," she replied, sitting back in her chair, taking a sip of the coffee before closing her eyes with relief. "Oh man, I really needed this. Thank you."

"You're welcome," he smiled faintly. "Liv, I was thinking about the weekend and I don't want to make you uncomfortable but I just wanted to tell you something."

She put her coffee down slowly and focused on the lid. "Go ahead…"

"On Sunday we talked in the kitchen and you were really in to me and I don't think you faked it and I know you're scared and we can take this so slow, but… I really don't want to give up on you just because you're scared."

"Trevor-"

"Olivia, please," he sighed, "you owe me a date. I asked you if I could take you on a date and you were so enthusiastic about it, I want that Olivia, that is who you really are, the soft, warm, unapologetically forward."

"I'm just confused and I don't know if a relationship is going to be good for us."

"I'm not asking for us to get married. I'm asking for us to hang out and I am asking you to let me take you on that amazing date that I promised and then we take it day by day, hour by hour if you need…"

"But what if I'm not ready? I don't want to hurt you."

"I think we're non-exclusive, you won't hurt me, we don't have to tell everyone."

He watched the tension on her face seem to take over and it was slowly twisting his insides. He had her and now it felt like he was losing her. "Okay," she replied with a slow nod. "Okay Trevor, you win."

"It's not about winning or losing, Olivia, it's about just being real with one another. I know you like me…" he paused, "but I guess if you tell me to keep my distance, if you can look at me and tell me without flinching that you're not interested, then I'll respect it, I'll leave you alone. I don't want to push you in to something that you don't feel comfortable with."

She took another sip of her coffee and made eye contact with him. He stared back at her with his piercing green-blue eyes and found a smile slowly surfacing upon her lips. "I hate that you're so cute," she managed to chuckle in spite of herself.

Trevor finally smiled too, his seriousness seeming to dissipate from his expression. "So, is that a yes?"

"Yes, it's a yes," she sighed as if it was the last thing that she wanted to agree to but they both know she was putting up a fight only because she was scared.

"So… what are you reading there?," he asked, deciding not to make a big deal of it. He nodded toward the giant book in front of her. He already knew what it was, but he was interested to hear her thoughts.

"Cardiac balloon advancements in paediatric surgery."

"And how is it?," he wondered.

"Hmmm…" she thought taking another sip of her coffee. "I guess it's a little dry reading, but… I spoke to Professor Carisi from Cardiac-care and I'm going to ask if I can sit in on their day surgery on Tuesdays. At this point Tuesday is my quietest day appointment-wise, so I figure if I can start after rounds, I might have a chance at seeing it all in action which might help the reading feel less dry."

She noticed his smile growing, "Wow, I love this for you, you sound motivated. If you need any help with Sonny, let me know, I know him quite well and he's only taken over from the guy who used to hate me, Professor James Lanis so now maybe I'll have some luck with Cardio not being jackasses to me."

"Well, that's something. Would you vouch for me?"

"Absolutely," he nodded, "and thanks for being comfortable enough to ask me, Liv."

She just smiled. "So what did you want to pick my brain about?"

"Mmm so I have this patient and I just can't deal with her, Liv, she's hard work…" he started to laugh, "I know that sounds so shit of me to say but she has absolutely the worst behaviour. She kicks and punches and Mom and Dad just sit there smiling, marvelling at how their little sweet angel deals with things, they think it's funny but shit— she has Pompe disease and it's really going to get worse unless I can get them to agree to do enzyme infusions - she has cardiomyopathy as a result and I think she's suffering hearing loss."

"How old is she?," Liv asked.

"She's six."

"Okay, set up an appointment and I'll be there. I'll help with the behaviour stuff, just use some techniques to calm her down and then maybe I can suggest some behavioural therapists. It might just be that she's frightened and if she is suffering hearing loss, that's an extra layer of frightened and anxiety," she explained. "It's probably just a bit of control loss, we actually see it far less than expected in this role."

"Maybe it's because by the time it gets to us we are at the stage of treating the issue instead of trying to cure the issue and most of our patients have been around the rodeo dozens of times before," Trevor countered.

"True," Olivia agreed. "It'll be nice to see a patient that we might be able to see a full circle with though, one that we can go home at night and not have to worry about."

"Well, we can only do our best…" he agreed, not quite having the heart to tell her that in this case this particular patient had damaged organs as the disease had gone on a little longer and was considered a later diagnosis. "What have you got for the rest of the afternoon?"

"I actually have Maisy coming in to see me. It'll be really nice to see her since she was discharged."

"She's your favourite, isn't she?" Trevor asked with a little smile. He knew without saying it that she saw a lot of herself in the 11 year old who had been driven to a suicide attempt at such a young age due to all kinds of extenuating circumstances.

"She's got more bravery than I'll ever have, that's for sure-" Olivia admitted, sipping the last of her coffee.

"In what sense?," he asked gently.

Olivia shrugged, "just in general I guess… and you know, people always talk about suicide as being a cowards move, but I have always thought that it takes a lot of bravery to be able to have the balls to jump in to the abyss without knowing what's on the other s-" she caught sight of Trevor's face and let her words extinguish in to the air. She realised she was speaking something out loud that she should have probably kept to herself.

He looked horrified.

"Olivia—"

"I shouldn't have said that," she said quickly, "I don't think that's what I meant," she stammered, "I mean," she paused, "with everything she's got going on, to not know what's on the other side, to have her sense of humour, her jokes, her attitude, she's a brave girl."

He let it go for the moment but quickly realised exactly how deep her trauma ran. Was it enough to make her feel suicidal? "She's a strong girl… is it a therapy session or just a visit?," he wondered.

"I think it's just a visit but I've put aside an hour so if Holly wants to go and take care of something she can just hang out here with me and we can chat. Feel free to pop in and say hello."

"I might do that if I don't get bunkered down in appointments. I actually have to go and meet with the board of transplants at 3, so I'm gonna get going in a moment and grab something to eat on the go."

He reluctantly got up from the seat and pushed it in. "Enjoy your coffee, don't be a stranger, k?"

"Okay," she agreed. "Thanks for the afternoon pick-me-up."

"Welcome," he replied. He gave her a wave and left her to it.