Beneath Your Beautiful (A Chenford | The Rookie Fanfic)

Part Ninety-Five: Are You in Love with Her?

Week 6, Day 7: Saturday

"So... Isabel, huh?" Angela asks, cutting straight to the chase, in typical Angela fashion, not even five seconds after she, Genny, and Tim have taken a seat at a small round table, fresh beers in hand.

"Wait, I'm sorry, did she really just show up at your apartment unannounced?" Genny interjects.

Tim sighs, as his younger sibling fixes him with a concerned look. "Are you okay?"

He shrugs and nods. "I'm fine," he responds without expanding, in typical Tim fashion.

Both women just stare at him until he groans and rolls his eyes. "I am. Look, yeah, it was a little jarring seeing her again. But I don't have any interest in getting caught up in the past. I'm happy, and I want to focus on that right now."

Both Genny and Angela are speechless, the surprise evident on their faces at his unexpected declaration.

"Look, I'm glad she seems to be doing better, and I'm glad Wes is helping her, but that's all I have to say about it, okay?" he looks back and forth between the two women, his gaze pleading for them to just to leave it.

"Lucy's okay?" Angela asks, and Tim can feel his temper flare, a familiar defensiveness clicking into place at the reminder that he'd come very close to letting the situation with Isabel prevent him from being there for Lucy this week.

"Why wouldn't she be?"

Angela presses her lips together and then exchanges a look with Genny. "Well, I don't know... maybe cause if Wes had an ex-wife that randomly showed up at our door, let's just say I'd certainly have some feelings about it."

He frowns, turning the bottle in a circle on the table as he picks at the label and avoids the gazes of the two women who know him better than anyone else.

He swallows. "I messed up," he admits. "Isabel showing up — it was a lot. It was confusing. And Lucy knows how much Isabel — she knows what a big part of my life she was.

"I knew Lucy was upset about something, but I went to help Isabel anyway. I just — sometimes it feels like I can't get anything right when it comes to her. Like I want to do right by her, but no matter how hard I try, I always screw it up."

"But Wes said you called him because you needed to get home."

"I did."

"And you guys seem more than okay today — to be honest, y'all were making me a little nauseous earlier with all that hand-holding and cuddling during dinner," Angela continues.

Genny nods her agreement.

"We are. We worked through it."

"You talked to her about Isabel?" Genny asks, eyes widening in surprise.

He shrugs. "I owed her an explanation, and she was dealing with other stuff — we had a lot to talk about."

"So, let me get this straight. You ended up in a difficult situation, realized your partner needed you, dropped everything to be there for her, and then actually talked to her so you'd both understand where the other was coming from?

"Sounds like you got a lot right to me, Tim," Genny concludes. "In fact, who even are you? This is not the Timothy Bradford I know and love."

He rolls his eyes, despite feeling genuinely reassured by her words. "It's not that surprising," he grumbles.

"You're right. It's not," Genny reaches over to give his hand a reassuring squeeze. "And I'm really happy that Isabel is doing so much better, and I'm even happier that you were smart enough to let someone else help her, Tim."

He nods.

"So things are getting pretty serious with you and Lucy, then?" Angela prods.

Tim shrugs, "She's pretty amazing."

The two women exchange another one of their annoying wordless glances.

"Tim, are you — are you in love with her?"

He groans out loud at the invasive question, but then allows his eyes to wander across the room until they settle on Lucy — belting karaoke at the top of her lungs in a way that would leave people shocked to learn that she is actually a very talented singer.

Her commitment to shrieking the lyrics as far off key as possible makes him want to laugh out loud. It also makes him crave the sound of her real singing voice — sultry and silky smooth — in his ear again. Just the two of them.

Her eyes meet his, and though he would have thought it impossible for her to look any happier, she somehow manages to make him feel like he is her very favorite person in the room with only a single look. Her eyes crinkling, her nose scrunching, and her smile widening just enough for him to notice.

Tim shakes his head, gesturing toward the woman that has utterly and completely stolen his heart. "She's just..." but there's not a single word that can encompass what she is in his eyes. She's everything.

He shrugs again, swallowing, "How could I not be?"

"Oh my god!" Genny and Angela yelp in unison, and if they were the bouncy type — like the other most important woman in his life — he has doubt they'd be bouncing in their chairs with excitement. Thankfully, they are not.

"Have you told her?" his sister asks excitedly.

Tim's eyes widen, "No! And you two aren't going to say anything either." He immediately regrets his choice to divulge this information when he remembers that Lucy will be brunching with them both tomorrow morning.

"I'm serious, okay? This whole thing has been a lot for both of us. It's been chaotic and dramatic and —"

"Kind of like a reality TV show?" his best friend helpfully finishes for him.

Tim rolls his eyes, glancing toward the various crew members and cameras set up around the bar, including around their little table, momentarily surprised to realize that he wasn't even particularly concerned that this entire conversation was being filmed. The irony is that most of their drama and chaos hasn't even been on camera, but no need to announce that now.

He turns his focus back to the conversation at hand. "Look, she could run circles around me when it comes to emotional maturity, but when it comes to relationships..."

"Oh," Angela says, a knowing that only comes from the firsthand experience of not having been seriously in love before she'd met Wesley in her eyes.

He shrugs, unwilling to betray Lucy's confidence any further. "Look, I don't want to pressure her or overwhelm her. After what happened in Mexico, I need her to be sure about what she wants and how she feels, without any pressure from anyone, okay? I want her to set the pace."

"Oh my gosh, you really do love her," Genny squeals as she and Angela fix him with a look that has him getting to his feet. "We have to plan out how you're going to tell her! That picnic on the beach is going to be hard to top, but, hear me out, what if we got a hot air balloon...?"

Tim shakes his head. Did they hear nothing he just said? "That's it. I am done with this conversation. You two are nuts."