Logan

177. Mi Rosa

*Natalie's POV*

Natalie: I need a girl's night!

Ophelia: I'm in!

Ophelia: Do you want to meet up after work, or should I meet you somewhere?

Natalie: I'll text when I'm ready! Not sure what time I'll be getting out of here today :/

I tuck my phone back into my pocket as Aeron comes up behind me.

"Hey," I say, handing him a k-cup for the machine.

"How's your first day going?" He asks.

"Let's see, late for the first day, awkward ceremony with Desmond, everything's just fine."

Aeron laughs, "Cheer up, you get to work with me and Everett," he grins.

"Oh yeah, you and Everett get to catch bad guys." I joke but it doesn't land and I see Aeron stiffen. I try to recover, "I mean, what you do is extremely important. You're helping bring clarity to people, and taking dangerous people off the streets."

"No, it's not-" he stops, "speaking of obligations, how did things go with your da- I mean, Captain Ripley."

I shrug, "Things between us are different, but the same? Smoothed over for now until he gets better, really. But Desmond-"

"Said a shitty thing and apologized, and yet you're still mad with him I gather?" Aeron asks.

I look down, "I think it's less of his fault versus my issues creeping up. Logan would skip out for days when we were fighting, we needed space. Yet Desmond seems to always run on a full tank. He likes to talk everything over, smooth over all the parts, but yet he doesn't seem to know what to say."

"Natalie." Aeron says, looking at me. "You can't really be the first girl he's ever tried to be with?"

I sigh, "There was someone before me but," I pause, "they weren't official."

Aeron takes a sip of his coffee, "Desmond still has a while to go, maybe you should just be honest, talk things out with him."

"You think it would help?" I ask.

"For him? With you? Yes, it would really help." I scoff as if I'm offended but we laugh. Aeron looks around quickly, before kissing my cheek. "Cheer up, love. You'll get it sorted." Then he walks away, leaving me with my thoughts.

The rest of the day I keep busy, making copies, highlighting reports, coffee, copies, coffee, repeat repeat, ignoring the way Jack stared at me in my dress, highlighting, coffee, coffee.

His hair was soft, the way it brushed against my body when I stood behind him, I resisted the urge to run my hands through it. Special Agent Bohannon left promptly at 5pm, Grace and Jocelyn at his heels.

"Natalie, you can go home whenever you want," Jack said, walking past my desk.

"No, it's okay, I'm listening to this audio Special Agent Bohannon's working on. I think I might be able to fix it."

Jack leans over me, one holding the mouse, the other on the other side of the desk. "okay, let's see," I go to hand him the headphones and he shakes his head. "We'll do this." he turns the audio all the way up so we both can hear. His hand moves mine on the mouse, and he's showing me tips on how to enhance the audio,  but not in a mansplaining way, he's genuinely explaining. I take a few notes on a post it, and he waits for me to put my hand back on the mouse for him to move it. His hands remind me of just the other night, when-

"Have dinner with me," he says, popping me out of my thoughts.

I should say no, the professional thing would be to say no.