Hank was still feeling the youthful sense of excitement when he parked his car at the building where Kalinda was currently living, in her friend's apartment. It was a building that had some office spaces on the lower floors, with apartments above. Not the kind of place he would want to live, but then he already knew Kalinda was looking to get herself a place of her own as soon as she could. This wouldn't be her home for long. She had sent him a text to say she would meet him in the lobby.
Getting out of the car, Hank took a quick look down at himself to check his appearance. He had put on a leather jacket over the smart grey shirt, and he thought it made him look quite good. Hopefully good enough that Kalinda might like what she saw. He already knew he would like what he saw, no matter how she had chosen to dress.
When he entered the building, he was not disappointed. He found Kalinda waiting near the building's reception desk. Like him, she had chosen to wear a leather jacket, open, with a smart black pinstriped dress underneath. Her look was completed with leather boots, as always seemed to be the case. Hank liked her penchant for leather. There was no doubt that it made her look great. Her hair was worn up, which also seemed to be a mainstay, to his disappointment.
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"Hello, Hank. Looking very dapper," she said in that delightful accent, a pleasant smile on her face.
"Thank you. You look incredible."
"Ah, thanks," Kalinda said. She was happy to be going on a date, if that's what this was, for the first time since who the hell knew when. But at the same time, it was a date with the boss she had worked only two shifts for. That was an almost insane thing to do. But something had clicked between them, there was no way to deny it. However, while she had been getting dressed and quickly doing her makeup, the thought had been in her head that she might be getting on the fast track to blowing her career in Intelligence, which was definitely not something she wanted to do. For that reason, she wanted to speak frankly to him before things went any further.
"Hank, before I go out with you, I want some reassurance that if this doesn't work out between us it's not going to affect my position with Intelligence. This is a job I want to keep. The last thing I want to do is throw it away by getting into some awkward situation where we can't work together because of something that was tried and failed outside of work."
Hank nodded slowly, considering how to reply. "Those are valid concerns, Kalinda. All I can do is give you my word that won't happen. If things don't go well for us, I'll continue to treat you with respect and professionalism at work, just like the rest of my people. I will not hold anything against you."
"That's good enough," she decided. After all, he was right, his word was all he could offer. She had to either accept that or back out of going to dinner with him. That decision had been made. "So, where are we going?"
"Do you like Italian food?"
"Sure do."
"Then you're going to love this place. It's been around forever. Used to go there with Camille. The same guy still owns it, Vito, and the food is out of this world. Probably not a good idea to mention my former wife when we're going out on a..." he stopped short of saying date, suddenly wondering if that was even the way she was looking at it.
