"Your honour, the prosecution calls for a recess." Florentina stood from her seat after getting a shake of the head from one of the detectives that a witness hadn't shown.
"Recess granted, we will resume after lunch," The judge banged the gavel as people began to filter out of the courtroom.
"Flory," She heard as she walked out of the courtroom, texting on her phone, looking up she saw Tim walking toward her, dressed in his uniform.
"How's the case going?" He asks quietly, noticing her tapping her foot repeatedly.
"I've got a witness to subpoena and a trial going sideways, so not great," She replied, tapping her foot another three times, stopping and then turning her body towards him fully.
He notices she's tapping her foot, but his face remains expressionless. "What's the issue with your witness?"
"Didn't show," Florentina shrugged.
"He can't be that reliable then," Tim replies, his stare still unwavering. "So... is this one of those times when you really could use a distraction?"
"Like what?" Florentina asked.
He leans in closer, getting right into her personal space, his face still expressionless but his eyes studying her with intensity. "How about we get out of here and go grab lunch at that burrito joint you love?"
"You're on duty," Florentina reminded him, adjusting her bag on her shoulder.
"The burrito place is only five minutes away from the precinct," he points out, his eyes still locked with hers. "And I'm on lunch."
"Fine," She groaned as she stretched, "I don't even know what to get."
"Get the same thing you always get." He starts to walk towards the exit, assuming she'll follow.
"I can't get anything too heavy, makes me queasy in court," She said as he slowed down for her to walk beside him.
"Then get a light burrito." He says, holding the door open for her as they exit the courthouse.
"If I don't win this case I'm screwed," She sighed as she walked down the steps.
"Why's that?" Tim asks, following her closely as they make their towards the burrito joint he was talking about.
"The DA's gonna have my ass because I withdrew a deal because I thought he should get murder first degree," She huffed as she checked her phone once again.
"Sounds serious." He says in a slightly deeper tone, still looking at her and noticing her checking her phone for the fifth time.
"It is," Florentina took her hair out of the clip, "Most of them are."
"But you enjoy it, right?" He follows up on his question, watching her take her hair out of the clip.
"Oh I love it," She admits, "But I am on set to have a heart attack by 50."
"From the stress?" He asks, walking closer to her as the burrito place gets a bit closer, the smell of freshly cooked meat and beans starting to fill the air.
"From those and Mikey," She nudged for him to go inside, "Order and I'll give you the money, I just need to make a call."
"Sure thing," he does as she asks, going into the burrito place and ordering for the both of them. He's back out within minutes, handing her a burrito as the burrito guy hands him some change. He waits patiently for her to finish her call, tapping his foot on the path before he stops, aware of what he is doing.
"They found my witness," Florentina tells him, "No subpoena needed," She grabbed the bag off of him.
"Well, that fixes some of the problem, right?" He says, still tapping his foot and noticing she has also started to do so. He stops as he thinks for a second. "...You're tapping your foot."
"Heels kill," She tells him, "And pantsuits are uncomfortable on the legs after so long."
"Have you tried going for flats?" He follows up his question with another as he looks down at her feet, noticing her heels.
"No," She scoffed, "I like the click, it gives me kind of a power trip."
"So it's not about being uncomfortable... it's about power trips." He says, starting to think this whole situation is more psychological.
"What can I say?" She shrugged, "Yelling at men must help me sleep at night."
"You could be a police officer," he says sarcastically as he takes the burrito from her and takes a bite.
"Who says I didn't want to be?" She took a bite of her own, feeling his gaze burning into the side of her head.
"You didn't, did you?" He asks, looking away from her as he takes another bite of his burrito.
"No, idiot," Florentina scoffed as she leaned against the wall.
"Hey, I'm just asking." He says, leaning against the wall as well, the two sides of their bodies touching as they eat their burritos.
"Besides, I bet you'd make a good cop."
"I bet you'd love that, wouldn't you?" She taunted jokingly.
He doesn't respond for a few seconds as he eats the burrito. "You have no evidence to back up that statement." He finally replies in a half-sarcastic tone.
"You're telling me you have no thoughts of me late at night Tim?" She tried to keep a straight face before bursting into laughter, nearly spitting her food out.
He lets out a cough as he takes another bite of his burrito. "I'm not about to share that information with you."
She raised a brow at him before turning away with a grin. He keeps quiet for a moment, still chewing on the bite he'd taken, staring at her. "Are you trying to bait me into saying something?"
"What do you take me for?" Florentina defended herself.
"A pain in the ass." He says back half-jokingly as he finishes off the rest of his burrito and tosses the foil wrapping away in the closest trash can.
"Okay, great inhaler," Florentina's eyes widened as they began to walk, "I haven't even gotten halfway down mine."
"You eat too slow," he says as they walk towards the exit, "Next time I'll just buy you a half portion."
Florentina passed him the rest of her burrito, "Here have the rest of this otherwise I'm gonna release a biohazard in court when my witness probably purgers himself."
He takes the burrito from her and starts taking some bites from it. He finishes it rather efficiently, and then tosses the foil wrapping away as well in the trash can he'd passed before. "Better?"
"No," She reapplied her lipgloss as she walked, "I'll just have to sustain myself until dinner."
"So, you got dinner planned already?" He asks, following closely behind her as she reapplies her lipgloss.
"Mhm," She nods, "Mikey's at my mother's so that means takeout and watching 27 dresses."
"So I'm guessing you're expecting me to join you?"
"No actually, just a night to myself," She counteracted.
He stops and stares directly into her eyes for a moment. "You're lying."
"You're expecting me to join you, aren't you?"
"Well if you're offering Tim," Florentina nudged his hip with hers.
✰✰✰
The two of them lay on the couch in front of the TV, having ordered takeout from the same delivery service Tim always used.
Florentina was on the couch, dressed in comfier clothes. She was halfway through her can of Dr Pepper and there was a bottle of wine on the table that hadn't been touched yet.
Tim lay beside her, his head resting on the side of her thigh as she sat with her knees bent to her chest. The two had gone from watching Florentina's choice of genre of movies to somehow watching an American football game.
"I will never understand this sport." she sighed as she took a sip from her can of soda, her head still tilted sideways as she watched the television.
"It's not that complicated," Tim replied half paying attention to the game and half paying attention to her.
"No that's not what I mean." she retorted, "I have no idea why it gets men so riled up, it's not even that enjoyable, some of them are nice to look at but that's where the joy ends for me."
He laughed, taking a bite of the fries that he was picking at as he thought about what she was saying. "It comes down to the team you support."
"And you chose LA Rams?" she looked up at the television screen and asked, she had no idea what was happening with the game.
"Yeah because I'm from LA," he replied as he looked back at the television, taking another bite of the fries.
He continued to glance between the television and her as he spoke again, his eyes flickering between both for a few moments.
"Why don't you support the other one?" She asked as she looked at the food on the table.
"The Chargers?" he looked back at her as he ate another fry, he shrugged his shoulders, he wasn't entirely sure what she was getting at, but he was going to entertain the conversation for now.
"You got a team?" he asked her, looking towards her again.
"Chicago Bears," She grimaced as she saw his reaction.
He scoffed, a smirk forming on his face as he laughed. "Really? You decided to become a fan of the Chicago Bears?" he asked, his voice teasing.
"I am from Chicago," Florentina slapped his forehead, "It's my form of patriotism."
"You could've gone for a better team though." he took another bite out of the fries, "I mean, the Bears?" he scoffed as he laughed, shaking his head, leaning back into the couch as he did so.
"You can leave my home," She pushed him off her lap and went to stand up.
He smiled, a look of amusement forming on his face as she pushed him off her lap.
"Oh come on." he laughed, sitting upright and grabbing her ankle to try and pull her back down.
"No," She said as she attempted to take her foot back.
"Yes," he said back, grabbing her foot with both hands as he pulled a little harder and made sure he had a firm grip on it so she wouldn't be able to get away.
"And don't think I don't know you bought Mikey a Rams Jersey, I see it in the laundry," She berated him as she continued to try and pull her foot away from him again.
He smiled, holding on to her foot tightly as she pulled. "He's a Los Angeles boy now, that means he needs to be repping his home team. You're just lucky I didn't buy him a Chargers jersey." he chuckled as he continued to pull her foot.
"You're turning my baby boy against me," She joked and then screamed as he pulled her down and she toppled over.
"It's what I do." he laughed, letting go of her foot as she fell on top of him. "I can't help myself. I'll even buy him season tickets for both teams just to turn him against you." he chuckled as he wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her up on top of him slightly so she was almost lying on his chest.
"I'll move me and Mikey back to Chicago just so I can suffer through Bears games just to spite you," Florentina laughed in his face.
"You know I'd come to visit you all the time." he chuckled, taking another fry out of the container and popping it in his mouth as he continued to talk to her.
"You wouldn't be able to handle the winters in Chicago any more," he smirked, rolling his shoulders a little as he ate more fries.
"It's way too warm here," Florentina complained, "It's not good for my hair."
"Your hair looks just fine." he chuckled, letting out a small chuckle as he saw her wrinkle up her nose in annoyance.
"I personally think you just like to complain for the sake of complaining."
"Oh it is my job," She said as she sat up, practically sitting on his stomach, "I am literally a professional complainer."
"I'm aware." he chuckled, wrapping his arms around her waist as he looked at her, "And what do I get for having to listen to all of your complaining?" he asked in a teasing voice.
"My presence," She tilted her head.
"And that's supposed to be appealing?" he teased back in a playful tone, "You know I can find someone else to be around."
"Go for it," She responded, crossing her arms.
"Would that bother you?" he asked, looking at her slightly as she crossed her arms, he'd seen her do this before whenever she was annoyed with him or not getting her way.
"Nope."
"If I brought someone else home who had an annoying laugh, would that bother you?" he asked, hoping it would get under her skin, "Someone with horrible taste in food, someone who is incredibly needy."
"I'm glad to know you look for me when you choose your friends," She remarked.
"You're not even denying the things I mentioned." he chuckled as he watched her look slightly annoyed, her face becoming stern as she turned her attention back to the television screen. "Oh, hit a nerve have I?"
"Nope just thinking about ditching you when I get a boyfriend," She snarked back.
"A boyfriend?" he chuckled, his eyebrow lifting as he looked at her. "You're talking about that as if it'll actually happen."
"I think we need to talk Tim," Florentina told him as she stared down at him.
"What about?" he frowned as he noticed her change in expression, he was used to her being playful and sarcastic so when she became serious he took notice.
"The kiss Tim," Her tone was quieter and softer, "We can't just pretend it never happened."
The smile that had sat on his lips faded as he looked directly into her eyes, remembering the kiss they had shared. "Don't tell me you're regretting it now?"
"No-"
"So what is it? What's on your mind?" He was confused by her sudden change in tone; they had been joking around with each other and then suddenly she was bringing up the kiss they had shared.
"We need to talk about it," She reaffirmed.
"We do," he agreed, "What's there to talk about though? It was only a kiss."
"Alright Mr Brightside," She joked with a blank expression as she looked down at him
"You're right, it is." he admitted, shifting his body slightly so he could lean into her more, "It is different, but what is there to talk about? We did it once we can just forget it happened."
"But Tim," She paused as she took a breath, "I can't stop thinking about it."
———————————————
All three updated in three days, gonna treat myself to an SVU marathon