Three Club

Collate

Damn Hyūga, she lifted the chair from the floor and sat down again, since she was alone she took the opportunity to gather her hair with one of the pencils, she had never liked to wear it loose but circumstances had forced her. Fortunately she had a good healing, and her initial red mark was already pink, surely by the middle of the following week it would have disappeared and she could go back to combing her hair as she was used to.

She tore up the sheet on which the false signatures had been made before throwing it in the trash, and began to send some emails, the research done by her missing partner was amazing. After almost half an hour without him showing up, she went to scan the signatures of the heirs, and since he had left the computer on and unlocked the file of the collected signatures was sent, she organized an email to the expert and after attaching the evidence she prayed that it was a solid lead to follow. She knew that something didn't fit in the case, and that those heirs gave her a bad feeling, if it was true, she was going to destroy them.

The next day she arrived on time, everything was as she had left it. She had no time to waste, she had to wait for the answer to the previous day so she continued working on other issues, at 9 o'clock she got up to go to Neji's office, she thought about calling him but the truth was she didn't feel comfortable with the idea.

"Good morning, Shino," she greeted the man who was casually passing by the front of the meeting room when she went out.

"Good morning, Tenten," he answered with a smile.

"Have you heard from Hyūga?"

"He called in sick this morning, didn't he let you know?" she counted to 10 in her mind, first he tells her not to get incapacitated, and now he was getting sick.

"Evidently not, thank you," she turned to go back inside.

"Can I invite you to lunch?"

"You're very kind, but I brought my lunch."

"I could order something and join you," he insisted, "Neji isn't here and I don't like to eat alone."

"Sure," she continued on her own for the rest of the morning, being interrupted the moment the door was knocked. 

The Aburame had ordered sushi, she just lifted some of the folders she had spread on the table so he could settle in, and she took the food container out of her purse, it was a cold salad so she didn't need to heat anything up. She nibbled a little while her attention was mostly on the sheets.

"Do you always eat your lunch like this?"

"Yes," she looked up, "I'm sorry, I usually eat alone."

"Neji told me that you don't talk about anything that's not the case."

"And he told you the truth, I don't have anything to talk with him."

"Wow, you really can't bear him," she shrugged, silence ensued for a few minutes, "How much time did you work in the courts?"

"A little over 5 years, counting my judgeship, time as an assistant, and finally as a defender."

"Why did you retire?"

"Changes in the city's budget, several of us were fired at that time for that reason... my particular case was justified by the fact that I was finishing my second master's degree and that implies a different level of salary."

"Are you this dedicated to all your cases?"

"That's right," he seemed interested, and although he tried to hide it, she could clearly notice what part of her body he was staring at.

"And..." he started to speak, she thought about flipping a coin to guess the next question, either he would ask her out or he would ask her about her private life, "would you accept an invitation to dinner?"