An Internal Affair

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Andrea had just finished her morning shower and had her head stuck in the refrigerator to search for breakfast when her cell phone rang. She had to suppress an entirely irrational desire that it was Chad and frowned at the display since it was telling her that Rita, of all people, was calling. “What in the world…Rita? Hey,” she greeted cautiously.

“Hey, Andrea – I hope I didn’t wake you,” Rita apologized.

“No, I was already awake…what’s up?” She listened as Rita explained about not having heard from Hopper and confessed to worrying about him. “He’s probably out searching for the perfect gift for his nephew; he said something about it yesterday.”

Rita’s exaggerated sigh of relief made her smile. “Well, that’s probably it then – I think he forgot to charge his phone battery again.” There was a pause which made Andrea wonder if she should end the conversation on her end, but Rita started talking again and asking exactly the sorts of questions she’d been afraid to hear. “So, Andrea; Brett tells me that you’re seeing someone?”

Can this get any more awkward? She cleared her throat, trying to decide what to say. “Well, yes. We’ve been out several times so far.”

“Really? That’s wonderful – we should all go on a double date sometime!” Rita enthused.

Andrea fought back the urge to laugh. Apparently it can get more awkward. “It’ll probably be a while; I think he’s skittish about that sort of thing.”

“So what’s he like?”

Oh, God. I’ll have to discuss this whole secrecy thing with Chad… “Um. Well, he’s very sarcastic and funny… a lot taller than I am…” She almost lost it when she heard Rita’s approving murmurs. “Dark hair, blue eyes, athletic...” Because she couldn’t help herself, she threw in a few more descriptives. “He’s actually very good looking. Fantastic kisser, too.” This is so gonna come back to bite me in the ass when she finds out about us.

“Oooh, sounds like a keeper.”

That was it. Andrea dropped the phone and ran into the other room to indulge in a gigglefit, returning to the kitchen to pick the phone up and make up a lie about leaving the stove burners on. “Nice talking to you, Rita… I’ll send Hopper on over if I see him.”

“Sure thing – you know, we should get together one of these days; have a girl’s day out,” Rita suggested. “Talk to you later!”

Sure. We can talk all about how I nearly made your ex-husband have an orgasm in public. “Bye.” She hung up the phone and resumed her hunt for food, finally pulling out two slices of day-old pepperoni pizza and a small tub of lemon yogurt. Chad would have a heart attack if he saw what she was eating, she thought to herself with a smile as she snagged a can of fruit punch to wash it all down with. “Breakfast of Champions.”

A trip to the gym served to burn off most of her excess energy, and she thought about her new situation as she climbed onto the elliptical machine. How stupid was it that the slightest thought of Chad made her smile? She’d never been one to believe in the ridiculous notion that love made all problems disappear and from what she’d seen in other couples, she had always distrusted how they seemed to change when they were around each other. It seemed like such a lie to her, like one or the other tried to change to make themselves more suitable – what was the use in that? If you were together, you were together because you liked your partner as is…she’d tried to be what she thought one of her previous boyfriends wanted, once. She’d allowed him to guide her choices in music, clothes, food, art…and in the end when he had made her into a caricature of herself, he had decided that he didn’t want someone so malleable.

Since then, she hadn’t let herself be pushed around; not even when most of the men in her family tried to dissuade her from joining the police force, some of them even going so far to say that it wasn’t a feminine occupation and she had no business there. Like she should spend her life at home baking cupcakes and waiting to be told what to do. Andrea snorted at the recollection. Cupcakes, my ass. Of course, her forcefulness and rigidity to change had cost her a fair amount of relationships…the last one had been a particularly draining experience. Men generally stayed away from her, finding her aggressiveness off-putting. But Chad… She smiled. It was as if that very quality only drew him closer, just as his confident arrogance drew her.

But that’s not all he is. The look on his face whenever anyone mentions Rita… and the hesitance he showed when I asked him out… I wonder what really happened to make him that way… Maybe he would tell her about it later, and maybe he wouldn’t…only time would tell. But after waking up with a smile on her face for the third week in a row, she knew that she wanted to be with him. It wasn’t love she felt for him; not yet, anyway…but she intended to have as much fun as she could for however long this lasted. On a whim, she decided to drive past Chad’s house to see if he was home – maybe she could find out what exactly he did on Saturdays, since he never seemed to want to tell her about it. Andrea narrowed her eyes thoughtfully as she saw him carrying something from his car into the house...from where she had pulled over down the block, she could see that it was riot gear. Why on earth does an IA officer need riot gear? Maybe I’ll ask him about that, too…


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Chad dropped to one knee to tighten his shoelaces, and Meredith took the opportunity to lunge against his leash. “Damnit, Merry – no..! ” He sighed as he looked up to see the S.S. Andrea pull up to the curb, and stood. “So that’s what you’re excited about.” The pitbull was wagging his tail so hard that his whole body shook, and Andrea laughed as she walked up.

“Meredith, how’s my good boy?” she cooed. Meredith’s tail wagged even harder at her, and the dog snuffled joyfully at her track pants when she scratched his head.

“Hey, what about me?” Chad joked, dropping the leash to put his hands on her waist and pull her close playfully. She wrapped her arms around his neck and stood on tiptoe to give him a sweet kiss, drawing back just enough so that their foreheads rested together. “I thought we could just run in the neighborhood, if that’s okay – there’s a park we can take Meredith to,” he suggested.

Andrea pecked him on the lips once more. “Sounds good, let’s go. Oh, hang on just a sec…” she aimed her remote at her car and activated the alarm, punching Chad in the arm when he clapped a hand to his face in exaggerated disbelief. “Don’t laugh, it’s paid for!”

“Yes ma’am, no ma’am. No laughing.” Meredith barked loudly in agreement, and they both laughed in spite of themselves. “Okay, let’s go.” He stole another quick kiss and waited for Andrea to finish stretching before they started to jog down the sidewalk, Meredith frisking along to one side. He stole glances at her while they ran, aware that she was doing the same – she looked beautiful, especially without the scant makeup she wore to their previous dates and at work. “You shouldn’t wear makeup,” he blurted before he could help himself.

She looked up at him, nearly stumbling over a curb as a result. “Ouch! Damn it…and why is that, exactly?”

They were nearly at the park, so he slowed to a walk. “Because you don’t need any.” Chad tied Meredith’s leash around a nearby post and lowered himself to the grass while Andrea went to get some water. She came back to share it with him, pouring some in a bowl she had borrowed for Meredith, and sloshed the last drops out at Chad. Andrea giggled as he lunged at her and they rolled on the grass together, playfully battling for the advantage – Chad rolled her underneath him, feeling pleased at how readily she reached up for him, and kissed her before gathering himself to move away.

“Is that all I get for bringing you water?” she teased him softly.

He rolled onto his side, resting a hand on her hip. “What kind of payment are we talking about, here?”

“I can probably start you off with an installment plan, but there’s going to be a balloon payment somewhere in there,” Andrea warned.

“Oooh. That sounds vaguely dirty and exciting; where do I sign up?” She winked and tapped her lips, pursing them in a clear command that he had no inclination to disobey. One of her small hands worked its way under the bottom of his shirt, stroking his skin lightly as they kissed. Thankfully his problem of the other night didn’t reassert itself, though he would be lying if he said she wasn’t affecting him. He was surprised at how good it felt to simply lay there, kissing her and being kissed back with no expectations between them… it simply reinforced the thoughts he’d been having about her lately. Manly it might not be considered but Chad was finding that he missed being part of a couple, missed having someone to whisper things to late at night, missed waking up next to someone – he even missed getting into fights over ridiculous things like who had left a teaspoon of milk in the carton.

He was willing to bet that her refrigerator was full of nearly-empty milk cartons on a regular basis, and the thought made him suppress a laugh. Andrea smiled at him, rubbing the tip of her nose against his. “What’s funny?”

Chad stroked a hand down her back, liking how she had comfortably molded herself against him. “Milk cartons.” He kissed her forehead lightly. “Wanna go back?”

She shook her head and gave him another sweet, lingering kiss. “Not yet. I like being here with you.” Andrea snuggled even closer and he rolled onto his back so he could put both arms around her while she sighed happily, resting her head on his chest and closing her eyes. “Even though you’re sweaty.”

He tweaked her ponytail. “Hey, you’re sweaty too – I just didn’t want to say anything to hurt your feelings…and it sounds like you need food, so we should head back to get something to eat,” he suggested when her stomach growled loudly enough to startle Meredith, who’d been nosing around them curiously.

“Poor Merry, I scared him.” She let Chad pull her to her feet and waited as he returned the borrowed water dish, then they jogged back to his house where she looked down at herself with a frown. “I can’t go anywhere to eat when I’m all stinky…”

“That’s why there’s an extra towel in the bathroom with your name written all over it,” he grinned. “You go ahead and take your shower first – I’ll make up a list of nearby restaurants, then when I take my shower you can decide where you’d like to go.”

Andrea tossed him her keys, and headed to the bathroom. “Do me a favor and get my clean clothes from the back seat?”


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Closing the bathroom door and shucking off her clothes, Andrea tried not to laugh at the bright pink towel that was hanging right beside the plain white one that was obviously for his use. “My name written all over it? Yeah.” After doing some reconnaissance and snooping through his things, she found nothing more incriminating than a pack of women’s razors beneath the sink, so showered quickly and found her clothing neatly folded and placed beside the bathroom door. “Do you have that list ready?” she called as she dressed, and heard his muffled assent from somewhere in another room.

“It’s on the table, and you’re not allowed to pick Carl’s Jr.,” he said as he breezed past her into the bathroom. She heard him turn the shower on, and wandered into the kitchen to look at the list he’d made up. Maybe her continued association with him would break him of his anal retentiveness, she wondered as she saw that he’d listed each place in alphabetical order and had written the driving distance to each below the phone numbers. Andrea took advantage of his absence to snoop some more, frowning at the almost-empty milk carton in the fridge and rummaging through his CDs. Mostly hard rock, some blues, and…wait a minute, was that Celine Dion? Her eyebrows went up further when she saw that it was a karaoke version of “My Heart Will Go On,” and she snickered as she heard the bathroom door open.

“Hey, Chad…” she trailed off as he appeared, slightly damp with nothing but the pink towel wrapped around his waist. Oh, my. That’s a sight that will never get old, she thought appreciatively.

“You used my towel, Crackhead.”

Andrea made a production of stroking her chin and looking at him. “Oh, I don’t know – I think you look good in pink.”

“Really?” He stood up straight to strike a pose, puffing up his chest. “They do say that pink is supposed to be a slimming color.”

She laughed at him. “Oh, quit messing around in that towel and get changed, will you? I’m hungry.” Chad’s eyes glinted with mischief as he looked at her, and she barely had time to register his intent before he tugged at the towel and it fell to the floor at his feet with his insincere “Oops.” She couldn’t do anything but stare as he turned to walk into his bedroom in search of clothes. Oh my GOD.

“Ready?” he asked scant minutes later, reappearing fully clothed in jeans and a shirt to catch up his keys and wallet from the table. She nodded mutely, and he grinned in response. “Good, I’m starving.” He teased her all throughout lunch with questions like “Do you see anything you like? On the menu, I mean”, but she had recovered her equilibrium with the arrival of her food so tried her best to ignore him and concentrate on lunch.

“You do realize that I’ll be picturing you walking around headquarters completely naked, right?” she finally said just as he took a bite of his food. He humphed his amusement and she indulged in imagining him riding the elevators and terrorizing everyone in his path – and she’d be willing to bet that Chad wouldn’t even bat an eye if he ever had to do such a thing.

They spent the rest of the day together, and even went to the beach when it was nearing sunset so that they could take a walk together. Her mind screamed cliché, cliché, cliché! at her, but she firmly told it to shut up…she was long overdue for some romance, wasn’t she? One thing was missing, though, and she took a deep breath to prepare herself for it as she walked by Chad’s side. “Are you okay?” he asked, concerned.

“What? Why wouldn’t I be?” She colored slightly at the realization that he had heard her trying to get her courage up. “I’m fine.”

He blinked. “If you say so. I promise not to walk around naked in front of you again, if that’s what’s worrying you – I’d be scared to see me nude, too. Hell, I scream like a little girl whenever I pass in front of a mirror.”

Andrea snorted a laugh. “No, that’s not it. You have my express permission to wander around naked all you want. But really, I said I’m fine.”

“Okay, then.” They walked along for a while longer, and she steeled herself once again. This time, she’d do it… Andrea drew in another deep breath and reached tentatively out for him, her fingertips brushing the back of his hand before her courage failed her and she jerked away. Chad stopped immediately and looked down at her silently for a few seconds before he reached down and took her hand in his. “Sunset’s nice,” he said conversationally as he started walking again.

Her accelerating heartbeat started to slow gradually, and she found that she liked the way his hand nearly swallowed hers up. It felt comfortable. And she felt…safe. “Yes, it…it is nice,” she said softly, looking up at him as she moved her fingers so that they threaded with his.

Chad smiled down at her, pressing her hand before looking back across the ocean.


tbc…
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It’s serious, folks…the hand holding proves it ;)