Love Me Tender (A Kaimelia - Kai Bartley/Amelia Shepherd - fanfiction)

Part 8

KAI'S POV

I've been excited and nervous the whole morning. Fiddle sensed my anxiousness when we were on our morning walk and kept looking back at me quizzically. But I was not about to explain to a dog how I kissed my coworker and now don't know where we stand and what to say to her when she gets in.

If she ever gets in, that is.

I've been here for an hour now and although I'm always here first, Amelia is usually early as well. I try to ignore the thoughts in my head telling me that perhaps I messed up, misread the signs, scared her off.

If I think about it rationally, it seems unlikely. The evening was great and we left each other with promises of repeating that. But maybe she had time to think and decided against it..?

Finally, the door to the lab opens and I smile involuntarily, only to be welcomed by.. Dr. Grey.

My smile drops and she raises an eyebrow knowingly. She and Amelia aren't sisters by blood but they still seem very close and I get the feeling that Grey knows everything already. I still decide to act as if nothing happened. Because it didn't. Just a small kiss. That rocked my world.

No biggie.

"Good morning, dr. Grey," I say nonchalantly, resuming my work. She greets me as well before heading to what has become her desk. We have all kind of stolen different corners of the big lab space. From the corner of my eye I notice her sneak a glance towards Amelia's desk - untouched and empty.

I decide to take this opportunity to possibly make a fool out of myself, but I just can't not know any longer. "Is dr. Shepherd not joining us today?" I try to frame my question to be as professional sounding as possible.

Much to my surprise, Grey doesn't smirk or show in any way that she knows what happened between me and Amelia. Instead, she furrows her brows and looks towards the empty desk again.

"Actually I thought she was here already. I went by her hotel room and knocked but no one answered so I figured.." she trails off, shrugging her shoulders.

It had become kind of a tradition whenever the three of us were working together that I was always first, followed by Amelia and the crappy coffee she brought in each morning, which I actually looked forward to. And then Grey would join us soon after, always complaining how Amelia never waits for her to get up.

"Okay," I say, after a pause that lasted a bit too long. Grey looks at me for a few seconds before resuming work. But I am unable to concentrate now, only scrolling the page in front of me to make it seem like I'm doing anything.

I'm confused. I thought last night was great, but it seems that Amelia is definitely ignoring me. I mean, I haven't texted her yet. I figured we'd see each other today anyway and wanted to give her time to.. process? I guess she had and she'd decided that she was too embarrassed to come in today.

Great.

--

I'm all alone in the lab now. This day feels like a waste due to my complete lack of concentration. Grey left on an evening flight, having to go back to her job and kids in Seattle and knowing my luck, Amelia is on that flight too. Even though she's supposed to be here for another two days.

I try to drag my focus back on the laptop screen in front of me but it's useless. So I close it, making sure to save all the progress, and grab my phone instead. Calling seems too invasive, especially if she actually is ignoring me on purpose. A small part of me is still hopeful that's not the case.

I open our recent messages and smile involuntarily. I had tried to come off just flirty enough for her to notice but not too much so that I could play it off as nothing if need be. But when I finally blurted out that I was indeed trying to flirt with her, she had said that it was mutual. I sigh and tap on the new message box.

I try to think of something witty to text her but come up short. What do you say to someone you kissed, who is now ignoring you, even though they absolutely seemed to enjoy it in the moment?

With a frustrated groan, I shove the phone back into my pocket and grab my things, stuffing them into my bag.

Whatever I'm supposed to say, I'm gonna do it face to face. I just have to hope she didn't actually get on that flight.

--

I'm almost ready to leave after the third knock. The administrator downstairs said that Amelia hasn't checked out of her room so I am fairly confident knocking the first time. The absolute silence that follows really kicks my confidence down a few notches though.

After a few more moments I manage to convince myself that she simply didn't hear it. So I knock again, louder this time.

Again.. nothing.

Now it's just pathetic. She's ignoring me and I'm left so confused, trying to think back on these past weeks and decipher her behavior.

Did I really read it all wrong? Maybe I just wanted her to be into me so I saw it as more than it really was. And those expectations scared her off. All the more reason for me to leave her alone then.

But just as I'm about to leave, the door opens. So slightly that I can't even see her, just her slim fingers grabbing the wooden edge of the door. But that's more than enough right now. She's here and she opened the door.

And all of a sudden, I have no clue what to say. "Hi," is the only thing that comes to mind and I smile awkwardly, knowing full well that she can't see it. Everything I had prepared in my head on the walk over here has disappeared in a single moment.

I'm prepared for her to laugh at me or tell me to leave or not say anything at all.

What I'm not prepared for is a quiet sob, followed by the door shutting again.