Always You || A Chenford AU

Chapter 7

Lucy's POV:

Tim looked sad all day. When I asked what he did yesterday evening, he told me the same thing as he did the day before. He's been doing the same things for weeks now. It started right after the divorce. How isn't he bored of anything yet?

"Hey. I know you're gonna say no, but - I think I can help."

"With what?" Is he that oblivious? As if the only important thing in his life is football. When baseball is much better anyway.

"Well, you know, I know how hard it is to meet people in L.A. It's what keeps them in business."

"Wait. You wanna set me up? Forget it. Even if this wasn't your dumbest idea yet, there is no way you'd be able to pick someone right for me." He just needs to get out of his damn house sometimes.

"Um, I bet I can. I'm serious. If I can fix you up on one good date, just one, I get to, uh - I get to wear short sleeves."

"Okay, okay. But you're paying. And if you lose, you're gonna do 50 push-ups after every call we take." Guess we have a deal Timothy Bradford. He just doesn't know what I have up my sleeve.

A few hours after our conversation, I bumped into Rachel. An old college friend. She was telling me all about her problems with the LAPD response time to her CPS locations, when Tim said I had to stop talking and start finishing paperwork instead of having tea time. Rachel said he acted like a jerk and wouldn't go out with him, until I said it was to win a bet against the said jerk.

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Is it weird to stalk your friends with your best friend while they're on a date that you set up? Cause Jackson and I are totally not stalking Tim and Rachel...

"Yes! I'm so glad she wore that dress. She didn't want to look too sexy, but, uh, Mama needs to get into some short sleeves. Yo. Where did you go?"

"Sorry. I can't stop thinking about my guy. He killed someone, and I just let him walk."

"Dude, you did what the ADA told you to do, and now you're trying to fix it. Night shift is on the hunt." Jackson did what he thought was right in the moment and he followed protocol. No one should feel bad for following it.

Not long after they stopped talking, then started fighting over something and before I could leave, threw Rachel a glass of water in Tim's face.

"I'm gonna be in long sleeves forever. Tell me again, why do I do this?" Why did I care this much about Tim, I'm a 100% sure he doesn't care about me. At all. Atleast not about my personal life.

"Do what?" Jackson asked. As if the answer isn't obvious.

"Infiltrate myself into everything. I'm like a virus."

"You're not a virus."

"Yes. I am. Why do I care if Tim dates? Why do I care why anyone does anything?" Because that's who I am, I guess. I always have been like that...

"Okay, you just want everyone to be happy. That's a good quality." A good quality to others maybe, but it is such a difficult thing to do...

"No, you know what I want? To get drunk. Let's get a butt load of tequila, get up on the roof of our building, and listen to music from the Hollywood Bowl. That's what I want."

Looking back at my conversation with Jackson and thinking about the way he stopped talking with Rachel , I was wondering if Tim really doesn't care about me. Or my friends. Until this morning. When I went to Rachel's house to give her a Bordeaux, hoping the date wasn't too unbearable. It wasn't at all, cause Tim walked out in a towel. He looked very sexy in a way, you can see your boss in a friend way and think he is sexy right? The most important thing is that Tim and Rachel hooked up and that I am in short sleeves now. Finally.

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Clearly, I didn't think it through. The whole setting your friend and your other friend, who is also your training officer up to go on a date. Because that friend, TO thing, colleague, is stupid enough to not get your other friend a birthday gift.

It's Rachel's birthday and I got her a book where her grandfather was the illustrator. But Tim? He wants to give her NOTHING. Because they've 'only' been dating for two weeks.

"We've been dating for two weeks. If I get her something, it'd be weird."

"So, you just wished her happy birthday, and now you're done?" Only a stupid person would answer yes to that question. And noe Tim qualified for stupid person.

It didn't take long until hr saw the look on my face that screamed you are stupid and he started doubting himself. "Maybe I should get her something small."

It took a lot of convincing while arresting two influencers who broke in to take pictures with a sick kid and Tim and I ended up taking pictures with him, to have Tim not take Rachel to a sports game.

Then a while later he wanted to take her to the shooting range. Aren't you supposed to get to know each other in the first two weeks of dating? Atleast at the I don't like sports and shooting gives me ptsd level, right? Those were things Tim likes, not Rachel.

"You hate every gift idea I pitch."

"Because they're all things you want."

"It's not just guy stuff. Isabel loved going to the shooting range."

"Isabel was a cop, you're basically the same person. Rachel has different interests." How wasn't any of this obvious to him? Not everyone is like him, or Isabel.

"So, what you're saying is I should stop coming up with my own ideas - and just listen to you?" Finally, something clicked inside his head.

I made sure Tim gave Rachel a model of a plane she used to watch with her grandpa. No one is more important to her, than him. And Tim should know that, just like how he should know he's important to me...