The unquiet mind of Chenford

Chapter 2: Lucy

I hear myself saying: "Good work tonight."

I regret it the second the words leave my mouth. So, I spin around not able to look as he leaves my apartment and runs out the door.

The door shut quickly, and I'm standing in my living room not knowing what to do or say to Tamarra. So, I turn around and shut the door to my bedroom without a single word.

Ten minutes had passed, and I'm still standing with my back against my bedroom door, trying to process what had just happened. I don't know what to think about it. Do I have feelings for him? Did he felt, what I felt? No! that's not possible. He was just doing his job, being professional. But what if he-. No!! I tell myself to remove the idea out of my head. Nothing can ever happen between us and nothing ever will.

After about an hour of spinning around in bed trying to get comfortable, I can't take it anymore and get up to get some water.

I see Tamarra's bedroom light still on, so I quietly peek through her door and see her sitting on the bed with her laptop.

As I open the door I ask: "Hey, what are you still doing awake?".

"Oh, I'm writing a paper that's due tomorrow".

"Ok.", I say, but I can feel the tension hanging in the air.

"Hey Tamarra, can we talk about what you saw earlier?". I want to explain myself to her. 

"It's pretty clear what I saw Lucy, it's ok. I'm happy for both of you.".

"No, you got it all wrong, we're not a couple, I'm still with Chris I would never cheat on him. Tim and I needed to practice for our UC opp".

"Huh, right if you say so..." says Tamarra as she returns to doing her homework.

I give up, leave the room and go back to bed, not feeling any better. On top of all of it, I still have to do the undercover opp with Tim after what had just happened. I still couldn't fall asleep, so I allow my mind to take me back to the kiss. I'm out like a light in about 3 seconds into my thoughts. For the first time since Caleb, I don't have nightmares about my kidnapping.

The next morning, I get up and go to work. As I pull into the parking lot of the Mid-Wilsher station I see Tim's truck already parked at his usual spot. I get out of my car only to see that Tim's still in his car. Was he waiting for me? We lock eyes at the same time. His expression's different, lighter somehow.

"Hey," I say to which he replies the same.

"Any news on Hajek?" I ask.

"No, nothing yet" is Tim's answer. After a few moments of awkward silence, we start talking at the same time.

"Listen, I - ". "We should probably-".

"Oh, sorry, what did you want to say?" I feel like I cut him off.

"We should do more work on our backstory, make it airtight," says Tim. To which I happily agree, I love spending more time together at work. We walk into the station, but I can feel the tension in the air between us as we walk.

We search for a quiet interrogation room and talk some things over. Both of us avoiding eye contact with each other.