“Hello, Penelope,” He greeted informally, and she jumped slightly as she locked her wide, surprised eyes up at him, and he cast a slanted smile back at her. He raised his brows a bit in anticipation of her reply, but she sat silently with her mouth ajar as she glanced between where he stood, and her companion who sat across from her. And her companion smiled as he also waited for her to speak and make introductions.
“Lu-Luke,” She finally stammered out, and then shifted in her seat as she regained her barring and composed herself. “Uhm, Charlie,” She spoke directly to her companion while she held out her left hand in his direction, and then waved it over to where Luke stood. “This is Luke Alvez, he’s an ex-co-worker of mine,” She explained, and Charlie’s face held an a-ha expression, and then he turned to regard Luke with a kind smile and a nod. Luke frowned a little at how yet again she would dismissively refer to him as someone other than a friend. For him, it had moved past simple teasing and was now quite hurtful for him. “Luke, this is my current co-worker and friend, Charlie Lopez,” Luke only tossed the man a curt nod as he dug his free hand into his front pants pocket, to ensure he had no hand free for shaking. The move hadn’t gone unnoticed by Garcia or Charlie who had already started to offer his hand but just as quickly sat it back down atop the table. “What are you doing here at this time of night, Newbie?” She asked and purposely used the nickname to prod him as she knew how it irritated him, and well, at this moment she felt he deserved it for being micro-aggressive and rude to Charlie.
“We just got back from a case, and I’m too tired to cook anything,” He answered honestly with a heavy sigh. She could now see how tired he was. His unshaven face and the small curly fro on his head told her they had likely been out of town for a week and it had been a difficult case. She felt a strong urge to stand up and give him a hug but she pushed it away. “I just wanted to grab Roxy and a quick meal before I head home,” He ended and her face instantly lit up which Luke took note of and also knew why. “Sorry, I haven’t picked her up yet from the sitter,” He tacked on and she frowned slightly. “We can have a pet date sometime this week, Roxy, would love to see Sergio,” He said and she smiled sweetly at him and nodded eagerly to the idea.
“Sergio?” Charlie interrupted as he looked back and forth between them.
“Her elderly cat,” Luke was the one to answer and Charlie nodded his understanding. It pleased Luke that this man didn’t know Garcia well enough to have ever met Sergio. He knew this meant that Charlie had never been to Garcia’s apartment, and this made him feel good.
“Well, I’ll call you tomorrow and we can schedule a good time for Roxy and Sergio to hang out,” Penelope said. “You have a good night, Luke, and get some rest,” She continued, and her dismissive tone and demeanor brought a slight scowl to Luke’s face as he looked at her. Was she giving him the brush-off so she could get back to her date, he wondered. And the thought angered him.
“Right, sorry I interrupted your ‘date’,” He nearly hissed the last word out and it instantly caught her attention, and she looked up at him baffled. “You two enjoy the rest of your evening,” With that said Luke turned and practically stomped from the diner. He had just exited and made it to the bottom of the steps to the diner when he heard the ring on the bell at the top of the door, but he had not bothered to turn and look as he assumed it was just another patron leaving. So, he kept walking through the parking lot to where he had parked his truck.
“Hey,” Upon hearing Penelope's voice he quickly stopped and turned to regard her as the clacking on her heels struck the concrete as she walked over to where he now stood. “What is your deal?” She asked and he could see she was upset.
“My deal?” Luke replied with a frown on his face when he turned fully to her as she was now stopped and stood right in front of him with her arms folded across her bosom. “I don’t have any deal.”
“No? Then why the fuck were you being so rude in there?” She further questioned him.
“Me? I was the one being rude?” He countered as his voice rose a little, which he would have never normally done to her, but he was agitated. “He’s my ‘ex-co-worker’ … ‘Newbie’,” He spat her words back at her in a mocking girlish tone and she briefly bit her inner cheek nervously. “Why do you always go out of your way to tell the outside world that I’m not your friend, and make me feel like shit in the process?” He asked her and she flinched at the words. And they both stood there in silence for a few seconds; her looking down shamefully at his boots and him staring at her as he waited for the answer.
“I don’t know,” She finally said meekly.
“Do you even like me as a friend, Penelope?” He probed further and she quickly shot her eyes up to his and her face held a look of disbelief.
“Yes, of course, I do, Luke,” She answered truthfully and then became filled with sadness that he had been unsure and that it was due to her behavior toward him.
“Do you like me as more than a friend?” Luke added on, and her eyes doubled in size and her mouth fell open in surprise. Upon seeing the uncertainty and panic on her face he decided to expose himself and confess some of his feelings to her. “Because I like you more than just a friend, and I have for years now,” He declared as her eyes enlarged more, and her jaw dropped more to hearing this. “I had never said anything to you while we worked together because, well, we worked together, and I will never mix my professional and personal life like that. But when you left our team to work for the non-profit, it was a sad and happy day for me. Sad because I knew I would really miss seeing you at work every day, and I do, every day. But I was happy too because I could finally ask you out on a date. And it was a great date I thought, I mean, we had a really wonderful time, right?” He probed and she smiled in remembrance and nodded her head.
“Yes, it was,” Penelope voiced.
“Then why didn’t we ever have a second one? I asked repeatedly but you kept coming up with all these excuses about why you couldn’t, until finally, I just stopped asking,” He admitted. “I told myself that maybe you were just not into me like I was into you.”
“That wasn’t why. It was just the opposite,” She stated as he frowned in confusion. “I’m attracted to you, Luke, like very, very attracted to you. And I have been from the first time I saw your stupidly handsome face and gorgeous body. There, I admit it, you happy now?” She huffed out and he smiled a little.
“Yeah, but I already knew that, and the feeling is very mutual, thus the reason I asked you out in the first place,” He countered, and she rolled her eyes dramatically at his cocky words. “So, why have you been giving me the brush-off these past three years since our first date?”
“Because of your stupidly handsome face and gorgeous body, aren’t you listening?” She replied aspirated and his confusion deepened. “Yes, we had a great date, and I had a great time but then I remembered something. Luke, men who look like you do not really like the girls that look like me. Yeah, they may ask us out, and yeah, they will hook up with us behind closed doors, but they don’t want to have a real relationship with us. They don’t want to introduce us to their friends and family. They don’t want to marry us or have children with us. And speaking from my own personal experience, they always hurt me both emotionally and physically. The last one shot me and nearly killed me,” She had to swallow down the sob that nearly escaped as she quickly wiped away the tear that had slipped out. And Luke himself had to swallow down his rage as he recalled being told she had been shot. “I just don’t want to ‘ever’ go through that again, so I now have a rule that I do not date guys that look like you,” She waved her hand at him.
“You think I’m like ‘those’ guys you just described?” He asked her genuinely offended by the idea of it. “I would never purposely hurt you, Penelope. And I would proudly introduce you and show you off as my woman to my friends and family. I’ve spoken so highly about you to Mi Familia so much over the years my mother constantly asks me when I will bring you home to meet her, and then she starts saying she’s ready for grandbabies from me,” He spoke this with a chuckle, and she couldn’t help the blush and smile on her face at hearing this. “And,” He frowned again with a newfound irritation. “Why do you put me under the ‘I don’t date hot guys’ rule, but Charlie in there gets a fucking pass. Why are you out on a date with him then?”
“I’m not out on a date, date with Charlie, but he will be very pleased to know that you think he’s hot,” She said with a teasing smile and Luke rolled his eyes and also smiled a little. “Charlie and I are just as I said, co-workers. He’s one of the few who actually lives here in town, and every so often we meet up. But it’s strictly platonic and you’re his type not me,” She said and this news relieved Luke immensely.
“Oh,” He replied as he scratched at the back of his head.
“Yeah, oh,” She repeated teasingly as she could now see that his behavior earlier had been due to him being jealous that she was on a romantic date with Charlie.
“All right, well, I’m sorry for interrupting your strictly platonic work-friend date,” Luke pushed out as he tried to hide just how much this knowledge pleased him. “I need to go pick up Roxy, but I will be calling you tomorrow to set up the play date for Roxy and Sergio. Oh, and I will be asking you about going on another date with me too,” He warned and when she opened her mouth to speak, he cut her off. “You’re not going to talk me out of trying to pursue you, Penelope. Especially, not now that I know that you want it as much as I do but you have some hang-ups that have absolutely nothing to do with me. I don’t mind the chase or trying to woo you, I welcome it in fact. All I ask is, no I beg of you, do not compare me to anyone else, please. Let’s go out on a few more dates to see where things could go and base your judgment of me on my actions only, all right?”
“All right,” She agreed as she smiled and bowed her head coyly. “But I was only going to say would you like some company picking up Roxy? I haven’t seen her in a while and I do miss her,” Penelope said.
“Sure, your company is always welcome and I know Roxy has missed you too and she’d be very excited to see you, but what about Charlie?” Luke asked as he shot his eyes to the large picture window of the diner to where he could still see Charlie seated in the booth.
“Oh, he’s fine, in fact, he was the one who sent me out here after you. He said he could sense a strong sexual energy between us,” She stated. “His exact words were, ‘Girl, you better go get that man before I do.’,” She giggled a little as Luke chuckled. “So, you don’t mind some company and maybe giving me a lift back home, I rode here with Charlie?”
“No, I don’t mind at all,” Luke replied as he offered her his arm, which Penelope grasped with a smile. After a few seconds of them silently and lazily strolling through the parking lot he spoke again. “So, how many children do you think you might want someday?” He asked nervously as he stared straight ahead but watched her closely through his peripheral vision, but then he full-on smiled and inwardly sighed in relief when he saw her blush and smile sweetly at his words.