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"Hey, man, congratulations! Really!" Tim had made his way to the door, where Nolan was saying goodbye to one of Bailey's firefighter friends.
"Thanks, Tim! It means a lot!" They shook hands. Tim had no idea how Nolan's cheeks weren't hurting from smiling so much throughout the night. Actually, thinking about it, Nolan had been smiling from ear to ear since he told the group about his and Bailey's engagement.
They were having what was supposed to be a small gathering to celebrate it. But with the Mid-Wilshire group and Bailey's firehouse friends, adding a few plus-ones here and there... Well, it was practically a party. But Nolan and Bailey seemed extremely happy, and that was all that mattered.
The night had been pretty nice, and all first responders mingled well. Any possible incidents that could have escalated due to the police versus firefighters' rivalry were avoided at all costs: the guests learned too soon that the newly engaged couple loved to use the old feud to spice things in the bedroom and that information alone was already too much for everybody there.
"Listen," continued Tim, "I'm going to go, but I'm beat and had a few drinks. I prefer to uber home. Do you mind if I pick up my truck tomorrow?"
"Yeah, yeah, no problem!" Nolan dismissed Tim's concern with a wave. "Goodnight, man."
"Night."
Nolan closed the door when his sergeant stepped out, leaving Tim alone with his thoughts.
-
Even tired from his shift that day, Tim had fun. For most of the night, anyway.
At some point, Grey started saying that there must have been something in the water at the station: if people weren't getting married, they were having babies - or both. "First Lopez, then Harper, now Nolan... how is going to be next?" Their Watch Commander joked, looking around.
Tim felt a strange knot tightening in his stomach as if predicting that the several familiar eyes roaming around, looking for possible couples, would end up on him, despite Ashley not being there, and Lucy, who had Sanford by her side.
He raised his eyebrows and crossed his arms, daring anyone to even think about saying something about his love life. That made Lucy the easy target, especially with a love-struck ADA beaming heart eyes at her.
Tim saw she had become a little uncomfortable with the attention, the dim lights from Nolan's backyard lessening the redness that rose on her cheeks. She smiled and looked shyly at her boyfriend while the knot in Tim's stomach became tighter and heavier.
-
Grey and Luna were the first of their group to leave. Harper and James followed, not wanting to leave their baby girl with the sitter for much longer. Lucy and Sanford must have left because, at some point before the last half hour, she hadn't been in Tim's line of sight anymore; and if there was one thing his instincts knew how to do was to find Lucy Chen in a crowd. Lopez and Wesley were still inside, enjoying a night out while Patrice took care of Jack, and Thorsen seemed to be flirting with a paramedic on the corner of Nolan's living room.
Starting to feel out of place, Tim decided to leave, only having Kojo and his own bed in mind. But the cool air outside was refreshing, serving not only to wake him up a bit but also to stir some nervous energy inside of him.
Too bad Nolan's place was so far from Tim's. It would have been a good night to walk it off. Tim was unsure of what "it" entailed, but he could use the walk nonetheless.
He sighed. A few cars were still parked outside, and he could hear the laughter of the guests that remained at the celebration. Unable to stay still while calling for a ride, he decided to stroll for a couple of blocks.
He didn't go far. Before reaching the corner, his eyes were drawn to the shape of a woman, faintly lightened by the street poles. Her face brightened by the glow of her cellphone. He stopped, his lips curling in a smirk: social media addict.
Lucy was standing with her back leaned against the wall, biting her lower lip, her eyes focused on the screen. Tim furrowed his forehead, imagining where Sandford would be.
Tim started slowly walking in Lucy's direction, preparing himself to reprimand her about the need to be constantly aware of her surroundings. She didn't give him the pleasure. As soon as he restarted his steps, Lucy lowered her phone and turned her head in his direction. It took her a second, but a timid smile appeared on her face once she recognized him.
"Hi," she said when he got close as if they hadn't spent way more than twelve hours together, plus the ones at Nolan's.
"Hi?" It was a greeting and a question. Her gaze broke away from his; he kept waiting for an answer, but sensing it wouldn't come, he decided to pry. "Uh, where's Sanford?"
Her smile faltered. Lucy opened her mouth as if she was going to answer but then closed it into a pout, motioning it like she always did when formulating an answer to a difficult question. She opened it again, paused, and then abruptly waved her hands as if to say, well, since there's no other way of putting this: "We broke up."
"Oh." He didn't know what to say; it's not like she was looking really upset about it. A more pressing thought hit him. "And he left you here stranded?" Whatever the circumstance was, the guy could have had the decency to drop her at her place.
"No!"
Tim's eyes were insistent on hers. She caved. "Well, kinda..."
His eyes widened.
"No, not like that... I mean..." She took a deep breath. "He offered to drive me home, but I didn't want to. So I said I would go back to Nolan's and get a ride with... with you or Thorsen. But, as I was coming back, I realized people would notice Chris's absence, and then it would raise questions. I was going to call an uber or something, but then I needed to clear my head and, then, time passed, and then, well, here you are."
Tim had to admit he was slightly impressed how she could ramble like that under one breath or two. He studied her face, founding nothing to be really preoccupied. She seemed uncomfortable, sure, and maybe even a bit annoyed (at herself, maybe? ), but she wasn't upset or angry.
Her answer only partially explained why she was out there alone. Through a fake phone call and a lot of experience, Tim knew Lucy was the kind of person who needed to talk things through, aloud, with another human being, preferably one who would actually listen and give her honest and thoughtful feedback. He wasn't entirely sure how this "other human being" ended up being him though. Not that he was complaining - not at the moment, anyway. That's why Tim also knew that what she didn't say was as important as what she did.
She was looking at him with expectant eyes, maybe hoping he would give her an out in explaining the sudden breakup, maybe simply wishing for a ride home.
Her love life with Chris Sanford was undoubtedly not one of his preferred topics of conversation, but that was Lucy. And if something was troubling her, well... it was inadvertently troubling him too. "Wanna talk about it?"
Lucy took a deep breath, considering. "Maybe somewhere else?"
Before he could reply, she abruptly shook her head, seeming to remember something. She stood from the wall and turned her body to face him fully. "Wait, but what are you doing here? Wasn't your truck parked around there?" She pointed in the opposite direction.
"Hm, I had some beers, then Nolan offered a nice whiskey... I thought it would be best to call an uber, but then I saw you here." It wasn't a lie, right?
She nodded. "Smart."
"So what if we make a win-win out of this?"
"I'm listening..."
"You can drive me home," Lucy's eyebrows shot up, but Tim continued, "and on the way, you can tell me what actually prompted this breakup of yours. This way, we don't need to spend on two cars, and the ride is cheaper from my place to yours than from Nolan's."
"You want me to drive your truck?" Of course that would be her takeaway from his offer.
"Well... I thought that was implied." His annoyance was utterly harmless. If her amusement was genuine or if she was just mocking him, Tim couldn't tell. Maybe it was a bit of both if that new glint in her eyes were any indication. "Do you want to do your whole need-to-talk-to-process thing while driving me home or not?"
Her response didn't come with a verbal reply. Instead, Lucy lifted her palm open in his direction, waiting. With a smile, he grabbed his keys from his jeans' front pocket while dramatically rolling his eyes. "Go easy on the pedals, and don't let this go over your head."
When she walked past him, jiggling his keys, he knew the warnings had been fruitless.
-
While driving, Lucy talked about everything but her breakup with Sanford.
Paying attention to the road ahead, she went on and on about Nolan's engagement. How she had seen first hand when he started to think about proposing when they caught the jewelry robber, and how he surprised himself when he noticed that Bailey had accidentally moved in.
Tim let her talk, only half absorbing what she was saying about Nolan but very attentive to the shift he knew was about to come. And it came; slowly, but it came.
Every time she took a turn that drove them closer to his place, the silence between one topic and another became longer. Lucy was not the type to run out of things to talk about, but it was like her mind was failing at distracting her from what was really on her mind but that her heart wasn't ready to dissect.
Tim could see her attempts of idle conversation whimpering, and she went quiet as soon as she turned the truck into his street.
Her eyes zoomed in on his house, knowing there was no more postponing. Her voice lost all the excitement. "I'm happy for them, you know?"
She was talking about Nolad and Baley.
"I know." He knew, and it was entirely accurate. Lucy being Lucy, it would be impossible for her not to care and be happy for her friend. "But...?"
She parked the car in his garage. Her hand was on the seat belt locking clip, but she made no movement to take it off and get out of the car. Neither did he.
"I was happy for them during the party; I was honored, really, that they were sharing their moment with all of us, you know?" She risked a glance in his direction, then she looked out of the window, staring at no place in particular. "But then Sgt. Grey made a comment about who would be the next couple to tie the knot, and everybody started looking and... and Chris looked at me with such expectancy...
"It's been a while since he started talking again about meeting each other's parents and other things that hinted not so slightly to a very, very serious relationship, and I..." She took a deep breath.
"...you're not ready for that." He tried to complete it for her.
"...don't want that with him." She was able to finally say it.
Oh.
They spoke simultaneously, then silence surrounded them. Lucy risked another glance, finding Tim's patient eyes waiting for her to continue.
She gave a sad chuckle. "Thinking back at all my relationships, I know that it is easy to deduce that I wouldn't be ready - whatever that means. But I don't think that is the case now...
"Being around Nolan and Bailey, and Angela and Wes, and Nyla and James, and Sgt. Grey and his wife... Gosh, that is a long list." Should she have added Tim and Ashley to if? An unfamiliar bitterness stained her following comment. "Sometimes, I look at them, and they are so happy that it is almost tangible, you know?"
He knew.
"You can see how they are each other's person," she continued. "And Chris is a nice guy, he really is. I like him, I do, but..."
"But not like that." He completed it for her, rightly this time.
Lucy shook her head. "Not like that."
Tim knew the feeling. Things had been light and easy with Ashley for quite some time. But when she said she would never want to get married or have kids, it was like a bucket of cold water had washed him all over.
Looking at Lucy and seeing her bit her lower lip, Tim knew she had more to unpack, to process. The air on the truck was heavy, and he wasn't ready to say goodnight just yet. "How about we continue this conversation inside the house?"
She looked at him then, considering.
"I bet Kojo would like to see you..." He said it casually, but he knew she wouldn't need more convincing.
-
After climbing out of his truck, they made their way into the house in comfortable silence. Tim unlocked the door and stepped aside, indicating she should go in.
Lucy rarely came into his house. She sometimes gifted Kojo with new chew toys but handled them over to Tim instead of dropping them off. She gave him a ride a couple of times when his car was in the shop. And, once in a blue moon, drove him back after the whole gang gathered to watch a game in one of their favorite bars.
On all these occasions, she had only parked outside. There was one occasion in which she had come in, an occasion when Tim suggested she should be alone, an occasion that involved a hug and something more that she couldn't entirely forget. She couldn't think about it now, so she shook the memory out of her head and toed off her shoes near the door, watching Tim handle the alarm and call Kojo. She used the moment to absorb a little more of his offduty world again. His house was so organized, elegant, functional, so Tim.
He took off his shoes while she kneeled and patted Kojo. Looking up, she saw Tim giving her a soft smile. "He needs to go outside. Wanna talk in the fresh air?"
She followed Tim through the glass doors, Kojo right by his heels, swinging his tail. They stopped by the chairs while Kojo went on to do his business.
"I'm actually gonna grab a glass of water. Do you want something?"
"No, thanks." Lucy flopped in one of the lounge chairs, bringing her legs close to her chest and holding them with her arms. She had never been in his backyard before. She admired the view and couldn't help picturing how cute and warmer the place would look with some strands of string lights hanging from above.
Tim silently made his way back and sat on a chair next to hers. Kojo couldn't stay still and kept running around from one place to the next.
"He spent most of the day inside," Tim explained. "Somedays, he needs to spend some more energy to be tired enough to sleep."
Lucy then noticed he had a tennis ball in his hands.
"Kojo! Catch!" He was firm like she had seen him be once upon a time when he ordered Kojo to sit amid a mess in her apartment.
Tim threw the ball, and Kojo was more than happy to follow its trajectory and catch it when it fell. Then, he ran straight back to Tim, giving him the boy and receiving a friendly pat. "Good boy!"
Tim smiled at Lucy, and she swore she would never get tired of seeing him as carefree as he was now.
He threw her the ball. "Your turn."
It took her a couple of tries until Kojo followed her command. And another couple more for him to return the ball to her instead of Tim. After a while, they started to take turns.
Tim risked a glance when it was her turn to throw the ball. "Ready to talk?"
She looked at him and sighed. "Not really."
"Lucy, come on, when don't you wanna talk about something?"
"It's not that I don't wanna talk about it. It's just... right now, I feel a bit disillusioned, a lot like a bad person."
"What? You don't like Chris like he wants you to. That is fine. Well, it sucks to be him, but there's nothing you can do to change that."
"I know."
"So, what's the problem?"
Kojo was still having fun around them, catching the ball whenever they threw it, but his energy was dying down.
"Did Chris not take it well?" An idea started to form in Tim's mind.
"No, no... he was super chill about it. Well, as much as he could be... It's just..." Lucy received the ball from Kojo and, instead of throwing it again, just petted the dog as if needing his comfort there. "When Grey said what he said, it hit me how everyone around us, around me, "she corrected, "is moving on and finding happiness outside of work. And, don't get me wrong, I'm happy for them, and I thought I was happy with Chris. But then... the way he looked at me tonight, I saw that we are in very different places and, the worst part is, I realized I knew that all along. I just kept hoping that at some point things would change, my feelings would change, but..."
"They didn't."
"No... And instead of letting him go, I strung him along. And tonight, we both recognized that."
Tim wanted to tell her: been there, done that. But he didn't want to make it about him. She seemed upset now, pressing her lips into a straight line, eyes glued on Kojo.
"That doesn't make you a bad person, Lucy. Disillusioned, yes, but not bad."
She gave him a side-eye. "Thanks, I think. But I wasn't referring to the Chris-situation-thingy when I mentioned the disillusioned part."
"To what, then?"
She moved her hand from Kojo to place them on her lap, and the dog took it as an opportunity to get inside the house. Tim bit back a smile when Lucy pouted about the loss of Kojo's warmth. They watched the dog through the glass as he lay on his bed in the living room corner.
Lucy slouched back on the chair, stretching her legs and looking at the sky. "You're gonna think it is silly..."
"Well, I make no promises," Tim said. She turned her face in his direction and glared. "But I'll do my best."
"I want that," she blurted out.
"That what?"
"That," she said like it was the most obvious thing. "What they have.
"Nolan and Bailey were so happy tonight, like, it seemed impossible that they could be any happier than they already were. But every time I saw Nolan looking at Bailey, he seemed to become even happier, and I was like: how is that even possible? I thought he was about to burst at some point."
Tim chuckled.
"And I know Grey was trying not to snarl at the firefighters, but we could see Luna making faces at him every time he went for an eye-roll. And, and James... Nyla gave him one look, one single look, and he started saying goodbye for both of them, stirring her to the door so she could avoid the whole goodbye-greetings commotion she hates so much.
"That. That's what I want.
"And I'm not saying that their relationships are easy, that they don't have their struggles, but... You can see how much they share with each other, of each other. They are..."
"Partners." And if he thought about Lucy bringing him lunch from his favorite food truck because he couldn't stop doing paperwork. Or grabbing the stack of accident reports she knew was his least favorite to examine. Or meeting his eyes after Smitty said something so absurd that made them bite back a laugh to look respectable in front of a witness. If he thought of anything that had happened throughout their day together, it was just a coincidence, right?
"Yeah." And if she thought about Tim scooping an extra vanilla creamer for her coffee that afternoon. Or bringing an extra pen when they rolled out because the ink on hers was running low. Or about that very moment, giving her the time and space she needed to be ready to open up. She didn't even need to go any further than that exact day, but it was just a coincidence she was thinking about him, wasn't it?
For someone who usually said too much when nervous, Lucy couldn't find a single thing to break the silence. If she could hear her heart drumming in her ears, was it possible for him to hear it too?
She needed to go. She needed to reach for her phone, make a comment about how late it was, and order herself a car. Yes, that was what she needed to do. So why wasn't she moving?
"I thought I would always want a white-picket-fence life, you know?" His voice broke her trance. Her heart started to slow down, and she looked at him. Somewhere along her speech, he had laid back on his chair too. He was looking at the sky. His hands were resting on his head, and she was definitely not looking at how good his arms looked in that position.
"I think, every since the Army, I always had this idea of a big house, loud family, a happy routine. And, when I met Isabel, I was convinced I would get there. We would get there."
"And now?" Her question was quiet. She didn't want to pry, only show she was paying attention.
Tim didn't answer right away. It was Lucy's time to wait while he got ready.
The silence was comfortable again. So comfortable they couldn't help cackling when they noticed Kojo had started to snore in his sleep.
"He does that sometimes," Tim explained.
"Adorable !"
He rolled his eyes. "Of course, you would think that!"
She smiled at him and then returned to look up, shrugging.
"I want a family." There, he had finally said it.
"I know." Her voice was so soft. "Still thinking about the three kids?"
He frowned. "Not with my age."
"Hey, you know when I say you are old I'm just joking, right?"
"Can you say that again so I can record it?"
"Funny. I'm just saying that medicine is pretty advanced now..."
"I know, I know. It's just... I always dreamed of teaching them sports, coaching their teams, playing games with them." Lucy could hear the wonder in his voice. "But I want to really do those things with them. Be physically fit for all of it. And I don't know if I'll have the time."
Her heart was tight. Tim deserved all the happiness he could get. Sensing she was about to say something too supportive for his liking, he asked, "What about you? Egg-freezing doesn't give more chances for twins or something?"
She bit back a horrified look. "Nothing against twins, but I think I'd like to go one at a time."
"So, more than one?"
"Yeah... I always wanted a sibling, you know? A partner in crime," she smiled. "I think I would want that if I ever have kids." She bit the corner of her mouth. "But maybe three is a bit much, though" she risked.
He laughed, "Because I said Isabel and I thought about popping out three kids?"
"Yes! And you say popping out because you weren't the one to do the actual popping," she accused, loud but with no bite to it.
"Maybe..." He shrugged.
Lucy's phone suddenly rang. "It's Tamara." She got up and went inside to answer.
-
He got back inside the house when he overheard Lucy wishing sweet dreams to Tamara. It had always impressed him how much Lucy put her heart out and cared for the people she loved. And if the flash of some audiobooks came to mind, he did his best to ignore it.
" She was just letting me know she's staying with a friend to finish the project they are working on," Lucy explained when she saw him coming in.
He nodded.
"I should go...," she said slowly.
Suddenly he didn't want to part with her. "No, it's late. I'm more alert now; I'm sure some of the alcohol has left my system. I'll drive you."
"No, no, no. I can call an uber. It's fine."
"How about the couch?" he suggested. "It is a comfortable couch," he stated matter of factly.
She didn't want to bother him and make him drive all the way to her house and then back again. But she also wasn't in the mood to wait for a car, choose between having small talk with the driver or sulk thinking about their night's conversation, and then arrive at an empty apartment and go to bed alone.
"You sure I wouldn't be imposing?" And Ashley wouldn't mind?
He tilted his head, "Lucy, I offered."
"Okay, then..."
-
Tim went to his room to grab Lucy some comfortable clothes and bedding for the couch.
He handled the clothes and ushered her into the bathroom so that he could set out the couch without her thinking she was imposing herself again. But before she entered the bathroom, she turned around to face him: "Tim?"
"Hm?"
"There's one more thing I kept thinking about tonight. When I said stringing Chris along made me a bad person..."
He paused what he was doing, waiting for her to continue. Lucy leaned on the door, one arm bracing the clothes close to her, the other placing a strand of hair behind her ear.
"I... I think I kept waiting for the moment my feelings matched Chris, not because I genuinely hoped they eventually would, but because I was afraid? Maybe? Thinking he was a safe bet on getting to a future that only lives inside my head?
"I was afraid that if I let him go maybe I would never find someone to share my life with the way I want to." Her voice was quiet now. "And I know I said to my mom that I wasn't even 30, and my fertility was far from expiring. And, no, I do not think there is a proper timeline to do things in life. But sometimes... sometimes, I fear that everyone is moving on, except me."
"Like Nolan and Bailey tonight," he said, understanding what she meant, where she was coming from. But it did nothing to appease the sense of wrongness that came from Lucy Chen thinking she needed to settle down and go for the safe option.
"Like Noland and Bailey tonight," she repeated.
"Lucy... fear is never a good reason to do something. Much less settle down for something that doesn't make you completely happy.
"We mentioned Nolan, right? Nolan, the guy who is going to his second marriage nearing his fifties? Who became a rookie past hid mid-forties?" She scoffed and rolled her eyes.
"Well, when you put it like that..."
He gave her a soft smile.
"Okay, okay, you have a point...," she conceited. She went inside the bathroom to change.
-
When she got out, the couch was ready, and Tim was sitting at the edge, seeming lost in thought. Lucy leaned her shoulder on the wall again. It took him a moment to notice she was there.
"What?"
"What were you thinking about?"
"Nothing."
She sat on the couch, a respectable distance from him. "Seriously, Tim, after everything I just said, you could very well tell me what's on your mind."
He looked at her, considering. Then got up and asked, "Do you need anything before I go?"
She couldn't help but feel disappointed, "No, thank you."
He turned his back to her and started his nightly routine of checking all doors and windows, setting the alarm, and turning off the unnecessary lights.
While she was in the bathroom, an insane idea hit him. He wasn't sure he could pull off proposing it to her as a joke. Or even if he could tell her while looking at her and not feel his cheeks and ears burning red. Would he have the courage to get it out of his chest?
"Look," the word came out of his lips without much thinking, maybe it would be easier if he just put it out there all at once, "I also want that, you know? But I don't think either of us needs to settle ourselves only because time keeps moving, and people around us seem to have found that with someone."
He kept moving while talking, concentrating on what he was doing instead of what he was saying. If he had turned around and looked at Lucy, he would have seen the extreme confusion that transpired on her face.
"My point is... If we knew that, even way down the line, there would be a certainty of... of not ending up alone," he spoke that part as fast as he could, "we would not consider settling for something, for someone, who we don't care as much as we would... you know, care for the right one."
As confused as she was with where he was going with this line of reasoning, she dared not speak, afraid she would scare him off.
With no more windows or doors or alarms to check and a Kojo sleeping soundly on his bed, Tim had nothing left to keep him from facing Lucy. "We are friends, right?"
"Uh, yes!" Of all things she might expect him to say, that was definitely not it. "Although sometimes you are reluctant in admitting it..."
He shook his head. That's not the point. "We get along well, we know each other, we..." He could feel his face burning.
"Tim," she interrupted softly, trying to end his misery (and hers). "What are you saying?"
"What if we made a pact?"
"A what?" She laughed, but seeing he was about to tell her to forget all of it, she schooled her face and tried more seriously. "Sorry, sorry. What kind of pact?
Tim was looking up then, coursing the moment the idea came to him and begging for a hole to swallow him at that moment. "A marriage pact."
She was too shook even to react.
"My point is..." He forced himself to look at her, trying to share his reasoning in a way that didn't make it seem desperate or weird, but mostly weird. "My point is... if we knew that, down the line, we wouldn't be ultimately alone, maybe we would make riskier choices towards what makes genuinely happy. You know?"
She did. She sure did. But then a thought crossed her mind. "What about Ashley?"
"What about her?"
"Uh... What about your girlfriend?" That one you said you could see yourself married to, she thought.
"Oh, we broke up."
"What? Are you okay?" Her concern was so genuine that he was sorry he hadn't told her sooner. He was going to, eventually. He didn't know exactly why, but the timing never seemed right.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." He sat back on the couch, looking ahead instead of at Lucy. "We just wanted different things moving forward and thought it was best to part ways."
"Oh." Lucy sat back on the legs, propping an elbow on the back of the couch, leaning her head on her hand. She kept studying Tim and saw no indications of sadness there; he seemed okay, resolute that ending his relationship had been the best outcome.
Lucy had always cherished the moments Tim shared himself with her. She thought they were at a point in their friendship where she didn't need to pry as much. Not that she wouldn't give an occasional push, but she could see he was done talking about the breakup, and that was okay if it was what he needed. So, she decided to change the subject. "How would that work?"
"What?"
"Our marriage pact!" Duh.
"I think ten years is a good time to wait."
She nodded, still not 100% sure either of them was taking this seriously. Tim continued, "We can live our love lives to the fullest, without the need to settle down for fear of growing old alone... and if we don't find anyone else..."
"We get married?" She laughed. It was stupid, right? It was ridiculous. And both knew it would sound preposterous to the ears of their friends if they ever found out about it. They wouldn't. And yet imagining it seemed everything but absurd.
"Yeah, we get married." His smile reached his eyes when he looked at her. "I think fifties is not too bad for a man to have kids; many women get pregnant in their early forties. And there is always adoption... I have a big house. I know we both love dogs..." Tim Bradford, shut up, shut up, shut up. What are you saying, man?
"Wow, you really thought this through." She didn't seem scared. Amused, yes; she had a feverish blush on her cheeks, yes; but not scared. "Okay!"
Just like that. Simple.
"Yeah?" How serious are we?
"Yeah, why not? If nothing works out for both of us, we revisit this pact and work on its conditions."
"Conditions, hun?"
"Definitely!" He shot her a look. So she elaborated. "Look, I agree that you have a big house. But you need some coloring here." She used her hand to indicate the living room. "And that backyard?" She pointed at the place behind her. "It could definitely use some flowers!"
She seemed so resolute that he could see himself agreeing with her in this imaginary future of theirs. Not that he would ever tell her that.
While she talking about how some string lights would definitely look charming, her eyes met his.
She topped mid-sentence and pouted, that charming pout when she got too carried away with something, and that something ended up being a nonsensical marriage pact with whom he was yet to assume (to himself and to her) was his best friend. A best friend who definitely did not light up his days or made his heart do funny things when looking at her.
She had lost her train of thought when she saw the amusement look he had on his not-at-all handsome face. She was sure she had been rambling, but what could you expect when your no-nonsense best friend propositions such a thing, such a thing making her envision herself waking up and falling asleep with someone to whom she was absolutely not attracted.
They cracked up laughing.
When it became quiet again, Tim stretched his arm so Lucy could shake his hand. She looked at his eyes first and saw no doubts there. She shook his hand, eye contact never wavering, a light smile on their faces. And if they took more than a reasonable amount of time on that handshake, no one would ever know.
Tim said goodnight and went to his room. Lucy made herself comfortable on the couch but checked her alarm on her cellphone before going to sleep. They might have the next day off, but she knew Tim was an early riser no matter the day and didn't want him to find her all disheveled on his couch.
Tim closed his bedroom door and sat on his bed. Somehow, the night ended way better than he had expected. He could still feel the nervous energy inside of him, but it had morphed into a form of excitement that he couldn't quite explain. It had become a funny feeling, which at least would let him sleep through the night. Lying down, he was practically sure that Lucy had something to do with that change but couldn't pinpoint precisely the why.
-
He woke up to his phone ringing.
It was already morning, and it took him some time to woke up from the haze of a good night's sleep.
Nolan? He looked at his phone and could imagine why the man would call him so early.
"Nolan?"
"Oh, Tim, thank God." Nolan seemed to be out of breath on the other side. "It's not here! I sware this is a quiet street, but it's not here!"
"Nolan, you are not making any sense. What are you talking about?"
"The truck! I went to check on it before going to work, but it's gone!" Tim could hear him talking on and on; it was hard to get a window to actually say something. "Nolan! NOLAN!"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm here."
"I got the truck." Tim heard Nolan exhale heavily. "Sorry I forgot to tell you, but I already got it back."
"Oh, okay then." Nolan seemed to expect an explanation. Had his sergeant woken up so early to have already retrieved his car? But Tim was not about to tell him about Lucy driving him home, much less staying on his couch. Lucy. Couch. His couch. Curiosity peaked.
"Yeah, thanks. I'll see you in a couple of days at the station."
They hung up. Now, completely alert, Tim noticed his house wasn't quiet like usual.
Barefoot and with his hair spiking in different directions, Tim made his way out of the bedroom. His brow furrowed when he saw the couch was tidy; all the bedding had been folded and placed on the armchair.
Kojo wasn't in his bed. Walking a little further, he noticed the backyard doors open. Outside, laughter from a known voice filled the air. His heart did a flip Tim didn't know it was still capable of.
Lucy was still wearing his clothes, her hair up in a messy updo. She kept throwing the ball for Kojo to catch and petting him enthusiastically when he gave her back the ball. She laughed widely every time Kojo stopped in a weird position to track the ball.
"Hey, you're up!" She turned that bright smile to him, that nervous energy waking back up. "I thought I could buy you some breakfast at Nevin's."
"I wouldn't say no to that," he said as he approached her. "But I think the boy will have more energy to burn after his breakfast and will need his morning walk." If he didn't know Lucy well, he would have missed the little glint of disappointment. "There is a small cafe a couple of blocks from here. How about we go there instead?"
"Yeah, sure!" Her eyes sparkled again. "I'm gonna change then."
Lucy gave his arm a light squeeze while passing by his side. And he couldn't help but hold his breath for a second or two. He crouched to pet Kojo, then stood up and called his name to follow him to the kitchen.
While pouring the boy his breakfast, Tim could hear Lucy humming some pop song in his bathroom while changing. The situation was so foreign and yet so familiar all at once. His head went back to their crazy pact from the night before... If they were (un)lucky and took what they said seriously, that might be his reality in ten years.
And then it hit him. The nervous feeling inside of him quieted. His heart sunk. Then, he just knew. Ten years, who was he kidding? He wanted her like this in his life way sooner than that.