Pretend

Maybe

Jake's visits became a common occurrence in the Santiago household, with every joint day they both had off being spent watching cartoons and eating Chinese food with Emmy. In a way, Amy thought it was a way for the both of them to have the kind of family they'd always wanted, and Emmy had grown increasingly attached to Jake. In the beginning this was a major worry for Amy, but she figured that they were just friends, and nothing bad was going to happen in their relationship.

After about 4 months of them spending every day off together, the precinct finally figured it out, and it wasn't as big of a deal as she thought it was going to be. Obviously, there was teasing, but other than that there wasn't much else anyone said.

"Ugh, Arnie really?" Gina mocked as soon as figured it out. Yes. It was Gina. Of all people. "Mine and Jake's friendship is little boy holding little girl's hand and you have the audacity to go after him?"

"Oh my God! This is perfect! Oh, I am so happy that you two are finally together. Oh, Peraltaigo lives!" Charles' bone crushing hug was kind of worse than Gina's mocking. It was only Rosa that remained almost completely impartial to the news.

"Have you two grab each other's asses yet?"

"What?" Amy asked. "What, no we haven't even kissed Rosa!"

"Cool. Call me when you grab each other's asses." She said, turning on her heel and leaving the crowded breakroom.

"Diaz can I remind you that we are in a workplace!" Terry called hopelessly after her.

After everyone else had filed out of the briefing room, Amy caught Jake by the arm, pulling him back in and sitting him next to her at one of the desks.

"Whoa Ames, what we doing here?"

"Jake, we need to talk about what we're doing." She said sternly, trying to hide the smile and rising heat that happened whenever he called her that. "What are we?"

"I don't know Ames." She could tell he was uncomfortable, he always was when he had to talk about ~emotion~. "We're just two friends who hang out."

"Oh." Wait, why was she said about that?

"I mean don't get me wrong, we're close. And yeah, I might consider you as more than a friend but that doesn't mat- "

"Wait. Stop." He'd skipped over the last part of his sentence. "What did you just say?"

"We're close?"

"No, after that, the bit about being more than friends?" A dark blush was slowly creeping up his neck and onto his cheeks.

"Um, well maybe, at some point, I have possibly seen you as more than a friend BUT I know that you don't want that and I know that you don't really want anyone throwing themselves into Emmy's life because it might not last and so judging by the look on your face I should stop talking right now."

What was she hearing? Was it possible that he was actually being sincere or was he just joking? No. she knew when he was joking and he had a definite look of disbelief on his face, as if he couldn't quite believe what he was saying.

What was her face even doing?

Snapping back to reality she reached out to grab his arm, desperately trying to stop him walking away, choosing to silently ignore the slight tingling sensation it brought her hand.

"No, wait, um I – Jake!" Stopping, he slowly turned his face towards hers.

"What?"

She snatched her hand back from his arm, rubbing her sweaty palms together and focusing on that. "It wouldn't be a bad thing you know. Us. I wouldn't mind if you maybe wanted to throw yourself into Emmy's life and stay there a while, you know, if you wanted to."

She hadn't realised he'd turned back until she felt the lightness of his hands in her hair, lifting her up to face him. It wasn't much but the slight gesture made tears start to form behind her eyes, and for once she didn't care that she was in a work place.

"Yeah. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad."

Sorry it's been so long! I promise I'll be back on it as soon as possible but for now enjoy a pretty crappy edition that I just couldn't get right. My next will be better!
XO JacobsBeloved