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Zapata entered the lab only to find Patterson drinking coffee on her D&D mug, “She’s so nerd”, and trying to crack another tattoo. She had just finished her paperwork on the Leakhub case when Jane texted asking her to take Patterson out of the lab and go out for a drinks with her and Weller.
“Hey, you’re still here.” She spoke quietly to not scare the blonde.
“Hey. Yeah, I was trying to understand this one but I think she’s not ready to let someone in yet.” Patterson answered to her without taking the eyes off the monitor.
“Ha-ha. You’re funny.” Tasha couldn’t hold back the laughter. “Yes, she’s so funny and so adorable.” It’s getting hard for the brunette to hide how much she is in love with her best friend.
“I am but I know you’re not here to laugh at my bad jokes.” Patterson smiled and winked at her. “Damn, I love her smile.”
“You’re right. I’m not.” But she definitely could be. “Jane just texted and asked for us to meet her at the bar for a few drinks.”
“Sounds good.” Patterson said already turning off the computers. “Let me grab my things first.” She was meaning to leave the lab when Zapata stepped in front of her.
“Wait. I have something for you first.” Tasha turned her back to her as she reached for something in the bag. “Here.” She handed the rubik’s cube they found at the beginning of the investigation.
“Wow, the child’s toy.” They both laughed at the thing Kurt said earlier that day. “Why?”
“Well, you said today that you could have solved the cube in 30 seconds.” She gave Patterson a suspicious look before the smile. “I want to see if you were saying the truth.”
“Oh! Tasha Zapata, are you really doubting my ability?” Of course she wasn’t. She only wanted to bring some challenge to the game.
Zapata took the phone from her pocket to time it and raised her eyebrow the Patterson realized that she was just waiting for her to begin, so she did. The blonde was moving the cube so fast that Tasha didn’t want to blink and miss any move. While she was watching and remembering herself to breathe, Patterson finished the puzzle and put it on the table.
“What was my time?” Tasha blinked and quickly stopped the timer.
“Here is marking 26:32 but you can take a second of my delay to stop it. I mean, wow, seriously, how do you do that?”
“Well, It’s not that hard. It’s an algorithm thing. You only have to know the sequence of moves, to know in which position the cube has to be in your hand and do the thing.” Patterson started to explain as if it were the easiest thing in the world.
“I mean, I know that, but how you do it so fast?” Zapata wasn’t interested in knowing exactly about the cube, she just wanted to hear Patterson and her enthusiasm talking about something she likes. She can’t understand how Kurt and Reade could be so annoyed almost every time they hear her nerdy talk. “She is the smartest person I know, how can they be bored so fast when she talks.”
“The basic rule is that you have to start from the bottom whatever is the color you choose to stay there. Then you start the first step already thinking about what to do in the third and fourth steps. The cube is designed in a way that no matter how the colors are organized the algorithm is always allowed…” Tasha stopped listening after Patterson said the third word, she could only think about how much she wanted to kiss the blonde.
So she did. She was only thinking about wanting to feel the other woman’s lips on hers, she never thought about doing it. How could she be so impulsive? She thought. Patterson is her best friend, she can’t start kissing her friends like that. Tasha was so freaked out that she didn’t realize that Patterson was actually kissing her back when she broke the kiss.
“Oh my God! Patterson, I’m so sorry. I didn’t want to do that.”
“Tash…” The blonde said quietly.
“What the hell I was thinking?... What the hell I’m saying? Oh course I wanted to kiss you. I’m not the kind of person that do things unintentionally…” Tasha kept rambling and didn’t notice the moment Patterson put her hand on her face as approached to kiss until their lips touched. So they kissed, again. They kissed slowly for what seemed like an eternity then Patterson stopped the kiss.
“It was the only way to make you stop talking.” The blonde smiled but Zapata was clearly confused. “You didn’t even hear what I said.
“And what did you say?” Tasha asked.
“I said I was glad you did.”
“You were?”
“Yes! I like you Tasha, I mean, I’ve liked you for so long but I never thought of the possibility that you could like me back so I kept the feeling for myself.” Patterson took a step closer. “So what do we do now?”
“I can only think about one thing to do.” The brunette smiled and went to close the gap between them in another kiss but she heard the small low of the phone. A text.
Jane Doe [8:26pm]
“Where are you guys? Kurt said that he’ll pay. Are you really going to miss this event?”
“As much as I want to kiss you again we can’t miss the day that Special Agent Kurt Weller buy us a couple of drinks.” Patterson said grabbing her things to leave. “But only for you to know, this conversation isn’t over.”
“Well, Agent Patterson. I’ve to say one thing.” Tasha caught her hand and laced their fingers together. “You never fail to amaze me.”
Fin.