Sick of Love (A Mentalist/Jisbon Fanfiction)

Chapter Ten; Miscommunication

She was standing in front of the door of his office, staring at the nametag in front of her that read 'Marcus Pike', planning on knocking on the door. Emphasize the word 'planning', because she was definitely going to knock on his door, but she couldn't find the courage to do so. Last time she'd seen Marcus, she had behaved like a total bitch and she had said some nasty things to him.

And then she finally decided to take action, but instead of knocking, she just opened the door. Her body was screaming to run, yet she was paralyzed looking at him. He sat at his desk with his phone sticked to his ear. She strained to keep her gait casual as her heartbeat hammered in her ears.

"Yeah, right. Bring him to the place we've talked about. No, the other place. " he said, looked up and noticed her awkwardly standing in the doorway.

"Oh, I gotta go, give me an update as soon as you've got one. Don't forget." he ended the conversation and put his phone away in one of the pockets of his trousers. He then looked at her with a pleased look.

"Teresa. What a surprise. I wasn't expecting to see you here."

"Ehm, I wanted to talk to you about something, but I see you're busy. We can talk later." she bit her lower lip. In fact, she was hoping he'd let her stay. They could get some coffee, go to the park, do it all again. But this time, in a manner that was nice for the both of them. 

"Yeah, you're right. We'll talk later." he smiled, gently pushed her out of the way and closed his office door behind him. He waved at her, turned his back and walked in the direction of the elevators. Lisbon sighed in disappointment, not believing he'd just impassively walk away from her like that. That was the second guy today who had rejected her, and she had enough of it. Well, it wasn't sure if Jane was actually cheating on her. But what other reason would there be to go with an attractive looking woman without telling her? It couldn't have gotten something to do with Red John, could it? No, Red John has been dead for a couple of years, there was absolutely no way... And other than that, Jane hadn't even called her to tell her he was going with that woman, to even tell her he was going somewhere. No, he was definitely cheating on her, but that wasn't Jane-like, was it?

She just needed someone to talk to, to express her how she felt, to hear someone else's opinion. Now it might not have been the greatest idea to seek help at her ex-fiance's office, but she knew he'd take cases like these serious. Yet, he was leaving right now. 

"Wait! Marcus, I think Jane is cheating on me. Please, just..." she confessed, ashamed of the choice of words, she wasn't even sure if Jane was really cheating on her.

He stopped in the middle of the hallway, smiled with his mouth shut but made the smile disappear again before turning around to face her. "Cheating on you?"

-

"What is your name?" asked Jane. They were walking in the city, slipping through the enormous crowd, a river of people all moving in different directions. Still focusing on the back of the woman walking in front of him, he observed people walking past him from the corners of his eyes; business men talking on the phone, late-comers hurrying to get on time, kids who lost their parents in the crowd, couples arguing, couples holding hands, the list doesn't end. The couples reminded him of Lisbon. Was it okay for him to go with this strange woman? Lisbon knew him, she knew he wouldn't possibly cheat on her, right? 

"Aliah." 

"Nice to meet you."

"Right. You can stop honeying me Patrick." 

Well, this woman surely wasn't the brightest apple at home. She did look quite fancy though, her milky white jacket and sky blue trousers with two black stripes on both sides definitely fell out. Which meant she had either a well paying job, or a husband with a hell of a fortune. But, he hadn't seen a wedding ring, which meant she wasn't married, or she was hiding it from him.