Hooked Into You

Lucy stared at herself in the mirror, hyperventilating.

She had only heard snippets of what Tim had said as she approached him and passed him by.

I've got a lot of roadblocks to get through before I can be what she needs but I'm determined to get there.

Without the previous context, Lucy couldn't be sure of what Tim was saying, but it sounded like he was holding out for someone.

And he had said her name.

Lucy is– great. She's– God, she's more than great...

As soon as she heard her name, her instinct to listen in fought tirelessly against her desire to respect Tim's privacy, and unfortunately lost the battle. Lucy frankly didn't want to know what they were talking about, afraid it might shake up her loosely laid out plans she made earlier that day.

If Tim had feelings for her, now was not the best time to act on them. Now was quite possibly the worst time to acknowledge the tiny elephant that sat cozy in the corner of the room ever since they first met. No, if this had happened while he was her training officer, that would be worse than now. How long had he been hiding these feelings?

That elephant represented the constant physical chemistry sizzling between them sparked by her first glance back at him during Training Officer assignments. Officer Bradford, you get our hot shot, Grey had said. She knew it was there- only hoped he wasn't too dense to see it too. One could chalk it up to basic biology, but to do that would disregard their unintentionally intense emotional bond.

Deciding to shoot Tim down, to try and force something to work, or to lose him altogether all sounded like horrible considerations to a decision she had no desire to make any time soon. She closed her eyes and willed forth her mental fortitude. She'd given herself this pep talk before.

Tim Bradford was nothing more than a co-worker with whom she held deep mutual respect and admiration. He was her boss and nothing romantic would happen between them while he held a position of power over her at work.

These things she knew, and these things she reminded herself of any time her brain decided to wonder and conjure sexy dreams about the man she sat next to for 13 months' worth of 40-hour-plus weeks.

She and Tim were fine, and if either one of them ever wanted to move them out of the territory of fine, she believed they had enough mutual respect for one another to say something.

Right?

But then, his words in the car echoed in her head too.

I want my next marriage to last ... I need to learn how to be a better partner.

Was this entire trip an ulterior motive? Did he?— No, Lucy. Not now. Not for a while.

Lucy took one last look in the mirror, adjusted the sleeves of her dress, and made her way back to the ballroom now that her breath was calm. She should at least tell Tim goodnight before hiding away in her room until they needed to check out tomorrow and head home.

It was easy to find him again since he was searching for her too.

"Lucy!" He called when he spotted her scanning the room. It was easier to see a spotlight of green and blue than it was to find Tim camouflaged in the crowd. "Got one more dance left in you?"

Lucy gulped at his hopeful smile and nodded unsurely.

"Are you good?" He asked before taking her hand and guiding her to the dance floor.

"Yeah, just getting tired. I'm going to head to bed after this dance," Lucy tried to pick herself up, finding her heart clenching at the thought of turning him down and seeing his smile go away.

"Okay," Tim agreed, walking beside her and reaching for her hand. He placed her left hand on his shoulder and brought her right hand up to his chest, resting over his heart. This position was much more intimate than their last few dances and Lucy felt her heartbeat skip irregularly.

"My friends think you're too smart, too good to be friends with me," Tim told her.

"Really?" Lucy blamed her next words on the fact that the way he wound his arm around her waist short-circuited her brain for a moment, "I overheard you talking to Charlie about me, you don't think you're good enough for me." She scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"You heard that?" Tim stopped dancing and felt his heart plummet into his stomach. He wanted to tell her all those things, not have her overhear it.

"I- I was on my way to the bathroom," She was on her way to the bathroom after she heard that part.

"Oh," Tim breathed, resuming dancing and tightening his hold on her. Guess the cat was out of the bag now. "I meant it, Lucy. All of it." His thumb on her right hand reached over to scratch at her ring finger, "Not anytime soon, but I'm in this for the long haul." He thought she had heard all of what he had said.

Lucy saw the conviction on his face and just nodded silently, overwhelmed by it all and willing her breath to stay even. She rested her cheek on their enclosed hands until the song was over. Without a word passing between them, Tim comfortably walked Lucy up to her hotel room and said good night, the only sound passing between them since his loaded promise.