si una vez

"Since when do you ask? You usually just sort of…well, do it."

Allistair put his hands in defeat, “Fine. We’ll stop talking then.”

"Right, yeah. I prefer that we don't talk anyways."

"Since when do you ask? You usually just sort of…well, do it."

"I decide whether I take more time off for you or not. And if I do, it’s because I want to, not because you told me to."

"Well, I don't want you to regardless. Just.. ugh. I just wanted to kiss you, I don't want to talk about this, alright?"

"Since when do you ask? You usually just sort of…well, do it."

"Says who? You have a drawer in my apartment and spend more time in my bed and on my furniture in general than I do. I’d say you get to have an opinion."

"Because that's stuff that married couples argue about. Not us. Do I wish you were less busy? Of course, but I can't tell you what to do and what not to do."

"Since when do you ask? You usually just sort of…well, do it."

"Am I really that bad?"

"I don't get to have an opinion on that."

"Since when do you ask? You usually just sort of…well, do it."

"That means you’re not a pest," He smiled, keeping their faces close, "And that I don’t know how to work less."

"I'm glad. Don't worry about that. You have to work, I understand. I just miss you sometimes, that's all. Even when you're here, it's like you're gone.."

"Since when do you ask? You usually just sort of…well, do it."

He opened his mouth to speak but no words came out. When he realized that everything she’d said was true, he simply leaned forward and pressed his lips to her’s.

Julie smiled into the short, but sweet kiss, glancing up at him. "That mean you don't think that I'm a pest?"

"Since when do you ask? You usually just sort of…well, do it."

"I don't know. You've just seemed busy lately, if I do it without warning I risk you losing your train of thought or something. It's dumb."

"As frequently as you mess with me, you can’t get mad at the few times I get to do the same to you." There was a sudden, overwhelming urge to take her hand. Why? He managed to fight it back and kept his hands to his keyboard as he filled out his report. But little urges such as those had been more and more frequent. At his apartment when they were on the couch or in the bedroom was one thing, but in everyday life? He glanced up at her just as her smile fell and he felt a drop of guilt, "…If I’m not at the apartment by ten, then it’ll be an all-nighter. I’ll call you if I can, alright?" He moved onto the next line of the report, hoping that’d been enough to keep her content, "I know you are, but my boss said, and I quote ‘Unless your girlfriend wants a secretarial position and distributes the cases, she has no bussiness looking at the files’."

"I'm not going to sit around all night and wait. I'm not some housewife, Al. I get it okay, you're busy. You can just say no. I'm not a kid, I'll understand." Julie sat up on his desk like she usually did, all except having one of his many files in her hands since she apparently wasn't allowed to do that anymore. "That old crab." Julie grumbled, pursing her lips. "Secretary? Like a job? Gross.." the girl wrinkled her nose at the thought of actually working. Her father had financially supported her entire lifestyle, working for a living wasn't something she had prepared to do, though she was definitely at the age in which she should have been doing so. "And I'm not your girlfriend, haven't we made that clear enough to everyone?"

Allistair shook his head in response, his eyes closing as he smiled a little. Considering everyone in the office must have assumed he and Julie were something else it made sense they wouldn’t say anything negative about her when he was around. As such, he had stupidly believed that her brash manner went relatively ignored or didn’t bother many. Clearly he was wrong, but he also wasn’t interested in revoking her visiting rights. When Allistair had his computer started up, he clicked into his office e-mail to see something forwarded to him from the officer four cubicles down from. The message was titled ‘Case 491 / Drug Trafficking’—Allistair clicked to send the e-mail to his ‘Favorites’ folder to look at later, then pulled up the report form to fill out a very lackluster description of his patrol. He shrugged a bit in response to her question, “Maybe. You’re not usually so subtle with your proposals that involve my couch and not watching movies.” He tossed her a playful smirk before continuing, “I don’t know what time I’ll be done today. I was assigned a new case and I’ll probably have to stay late to look into it a bit.” He raised his hand and pointed at her, “And before you ask, He raised his hand and pointed at her, “And before you ask, I’ve been told I need to stop telling you about my cases. So. Classified.”

"We're at your work, I'm trying to be respectful. No one needs to hear me insinuating that we should sleep together. I'm turning over a new leaf here and it's going right over your head. I'm a little upset by that, Allistair." Julie couldn't help but smile as she teased him. Maybe it had been for the better than they didn't go into this any further. Mostly for the sake of not embarrassing herself. Getting into their not-so complicated situation had stopped them from taking for weeks before, Julie really didn't want to have to go through that again. Her smile faltered slightly as the plans that she was proposing were seemingly falling through. "Oh. Well, that's fine. Some other time. I can make different plans." Julie had to understand that unlike her, he actually had a job and couldn't just drop things when he pleased like she did. "Why not? I keep secrets. I'm great at secrets, Al." While she enjoyed learning about the different cases that they worked on, Julie always did have an ulterior motive for wanting to know about the cases. After all, she had to watch out for her father and his business.

"Probably a bit more sane, but I digress." He sat on the corner of the desk and took another sip of near lukewarm coffee, "You don’t work here. In fact, if we’re going to go absolutely official, you don’t even have the clearance to be back here. But people like you, so they don’t say anything about it—but yelling at people isn’t the best way to stay in their good graces." Another sip, and Allistair was beginning to consider making a coffee run for a hot cup. What Julie had given him wasn’t going to do much to remedy the afternoon lull that was slowly approaching, "And not watch a movie?" He arched an eyebrow as he settled down into his chair and started up his computer.

"No, they only let me back here because you've never said anything. I know a few here that would love to see me gone. Even a bit disappointed when they saw me come in. I'm a fucking delight." Julie sighed dramatically, but accepted the fact that he was one hundred percent correct. "I don't really have to spell that out for you, do I?" she asked, actually questioning it instead of her usual sarcasm. Not that she blamed him. Even after this little fall out, they never did really have a label. Whether they would ever be official as the last thing that ever came to mind but she did want to be able to enjoy all the perk that a relationship came with. All of which Julie realized was selfish, but was never willing to bring it to the surface to talk about.

"What would I do without my daily caffeine fix from you?" He said snarkily. It’d be a lie to say that a little bit of Julie’s personality hadn’t rubbed off on him. While he was already pretty sarcastic on his own, he was becoming quicker and wittier the more time he spent with the girl so comfortably settled in his seat. Sometimes it was the only way to counter her, though at the end of the day, he was still regular old Allistair. Police Officer with a tinkering hobby and a daily routine Julie was constantly trying to break him out of and disrupt. As of late, she’d been succeeding slightly, spending more and more time at his apartment and showing up with coffee. The fact that he gave her a key and a drawer in his bedroom probably aided in her disruption, "I don’t see how that’s doing her a favor. I have a report to log, and you’re in my seat."

"Let's broaden that statement, where would you be without me period?" A small smile formed on her face at the snark in his voice was evident. When they first met, things definitely hadn't been this way. Julie figured that this was what happened after people had spent so much time together. While she still refused to label whatever it was that the were, she knew that she liked it. Julie liked to be able to spend the night at his place then be able to leave not wearing the same clothes, to be able to be that much more closer to him than being home at her own place all the way across town. Even though Julie refused to admit it, she was spending more time at his place than she was at her own or with her father. The girl shrugged her shoulders, toying with the almost cool latte in her hands. "I'm preparing her for the real job. I don't know why people keep yelling at me for that. I did a good things." Julie insisted, rolling her eyes as he kicked her out of his chair. However, instead of sliding into her usual chair across his desk, she preferred to take a seat on his desk, watching as he worked. "When do you get off work tonight? Thought we could get some take out and not watch a movie later." she suggested.

"It’s alright." He answered, "She’s allowed back there. Don’t worry about trying to stop her" The woman gave him a very perplexed look, but it went unnoticed as Allistair entered the cubicle area and headed for his to find a familiar brunette settled comfortably at his desk, "Here’s an idea, maybe we shouldn’t yell at the interns." He leaned against the wall of his cubicle, crossing his arms over his chest.

Julie looked up from her latte when she heard the familiar voice, visibly much more happy then she had previously been. Even if he did keep his distance and she was out of line by being in his spot, it didn't really matter to her. It was accompanied by some weird feeling she always refused to acknowledge and only labeled as excitement. "Your coffee is getting cold." She said, pushing the cup forward in his direction. It was a stupid excuse to being here, he could have all the coffee he wanted here, but she could never really come up with a proper excuse to come and see him. "She's just an intern, I'm not officer but I know you get yelled at my people. I'm helping her. She should be thanking me for the favor."

"Yeah, I absolute adore the girl who coerces me into regular dinner and lunch dates when I should be on patrol. My wallet thanks you.” He smirked, more amused by how their relationship was developing than anything.

Allistair shook his head and held up his glass for a playful sort of toast, “Only friends would have put up with what you put me through. So, to friends. Even if it’s short lived.”

The girl laughed softly, bringing her glass up to softly clink against his. "I haven't put you through anything. And if I did, you can't say that you didn't enjoy every last minute of it. To friends."

"Yeah, I absolute adore the girl who coerces me into regular dinner and lunch dates when I should be on patrol. My wallet thanks you.” He smirked, more amused by how their relationship was developing than anything.

"That’s not what I meant. But alright…I can’t stop you." It was one of those strange ‘You don’t realize what you have until it’s gone’ situations. His stomach did a tiny little twist, which he immediately ignored and shrugged as well, "In the story of my life, I’ll write this up as a wierd, slightly forced friendship type of thing that ended to soon. And I’ll leave out the sleeping with me bit." He put the drink to his lips, debating what else to say that woudln’t make him sound sentimental. When nothing came, he took a sip.

She gave him a bit of a smile, returning her attention back to her drink. It almost felt like breaking up, only she was leaving a friend which hurt just a little bit more. "I think I would really appreciate if you did that. I'm sure we'd make great acquaintances. But maybe friends is just too much of a stretch, yeah?" She wasn't quite sure what he thought of all of this, but even she wasn't too thrilled about her choices.

"Yeah, I absolute adore the girl who coerces me into regular dinner and lunch dates when I should be on patrol. My wallet thanks you.” He smirked, more amused by how their relationship was developing than anything.

“‘If’ doesn’t imply ‘may’. ‘If’ means 'If'.” He took another sip and leaned back in his seat, smiling softly, “I’ve dealt with more difficult people. If I wanted things to be easy, I wouldn’t be in this line of work. You haven’t been leading me on, but if you want to stop coming by…then stop coming by.”

"I don't want to be someone that you deal with. No one wants to be that person. I think that I will." Julie gave a one sided shrug, half of her attention being placed on poking the ice in her drink with her straw. "I don't really know what we are, maybe nothing. But we weren't supposed to get here. I figured I'd sleep with you once or twice and that's it. Definitely not having this conversation."

"Yeah, I absolute adore the girl who coerces me into regular dinner and lunch dates when I should be on patrol. My wallet thanks you.” He smirked, more amused by how their relationship was developing than anything.

Allistair looked down into his drink, trying to find the right thing to say “I do find you annoying and frivolous and you do drive me a bit crazy at times…but if I didn’t think you were worth my time, I wouldn’t continue these non-dates with you. If I didn’t think you somehow fit in my life, why would I even bother?  And if we were ever to date, I think it would work because I’d make it work. Man of the law, girl going nowhere good doesn’t matter, if it’s important, I hold on to things.”

"By saying if, you're suggesting that one day we might happen. I don't want you to get the wrong idea, which I guess is what I have been doing by showing up at your desk and asking you to take me out to all the places. I may fit in your life, but probably not in the way that you would think. I don't think we would ever date, there's be no point in us being committed to each other. You can try to hold on, but I'm telling you that it wouldn't be one bit easy. Maybe I should stop coming by."

"Yeah, I absolute adore the girl who coerces me into regular dinner and lunch dates when I should be on patrol. My wallet thanks you.” He smirked, more amused by how their relationship was developing than anything.

"And it’s the lack of additional reasons that give off the ‘passive agressive dating’ vibe to everyone." He ordered himself another drink, and a mimosa for his…whatever she was to him, ”I’d be a waste of time? I’m having a hard time working out if I should be offended or relieved by that statement.” , “

"One person is not everybody." she corrected, "It's not that you would be a waste of time, the relationship would be. I'm willing to bet you find me annoying and frivolous. We don't have much in common, we'd only drive each other crazy and it just.. wouldn't work, alright? You're a good person and a man of the law, and I'm just some girl going nowhere good."