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It’s not like you have never ever given anyone a compliment before, but the fact that you now have to offer some unlucky soul more than one while sitting in the middle of this large circle, surrounded by all your colleagues with their judgmental eyes on you, that is what’s going to make this exercise all the more unbearable. You’re just thankful that it won’t be Price sitting across from you otherwise you would never hear the end of how you value her as a police officer and care about her general well being. After several hours of team building exercises you are ready for this day of bonding to be over.
"Dr. Stewart! Come on up darlin’!" Oliver calls out from the front of the conference room and the crowd parts to let your friend through.
"Holly’s here?" You say, even though she is already sitting down cross-legged in front of you, your knees almost touching. You lean forward, at a bit of a loss. "What on earth are you doing here?" You ask her, your voice barely registering above a whisper.
"Officer Shaw needed bodies and I offered." She shrugs, smiling at you. She is always smiling at you, you note.
"Well that was stupid, Lunchbox. I thought you were smarter than that."
She rolls her eyes at you but remains smiling.
Of course, you’re hardly surprised that she offered. She is a decent human being after all and you? Well, not so much.
"So? Who is going first?" Oliver interrupts and you both look at each other somewhat apprehensively.
"You go," you insist, gesturing both hands towards her.
"No, no, you go," she replies, adamant, shaking her head.
"But I insist."
"But I insist more." She smirks.
"But-"
"Peck! You’re first," Oliver cuts you off, unceremoniously depriving you of the opportunity for a witty comeback. You had a good one too.
You look up at him in mock horror and shake your head disapprovingly. “Oliver this is so dumb.”
He pops his pen cap off with his teeth and peers down at his wristwatch checking the time and soon enough you find he is scribbling in his notebook. “3:25pm. Officer Peck thinks this is so… d-u-m-b,” he transcribes or at least pretends to before recapping his pen, appearing thoroughly amused with himself. “Noted, Peck, but this session is mandatory and the sooner you get this over with, the sooner you can eat those donuts.” He points across the room and your eyes diligently follow his direction until they’re locked squarely on their target. He knows your stomach too well.
You lick your lips because iced chocolate donuts covered sprinkles are your favourites, and the two that you see, have your name written all over them.
"Fine," you relent in a huff and Holly pinches your knee. "You suck." You cross your arms across your chest and pout, hard.
"You give in too easily." She grins back at you, however, you find your gaze has naturally fallen to her lips. They have been doing that a fair bit lately, and without warning too.
Either she doesn’t notice you’re staring or she doesn’t care, either way, you’re having the hardest time stopping yourself.
"Okay, hush everyone.” Oliver raises his hands in the air. “Quiet down please!" He raises his voice louder as you try to focus on anything other than Holly’s lips. "It’s Peck’s turn."
The loud chitter-chatter eventually dissipates until it is so quiet you could almost hear a pin drop.
Happy with the volume of the room, Oliver backs away from you, urging you to start and you begrudgingly roll your head back to face Holly. Holly, who is staring at you with an intensity that would normally have you to looking away in dysphoria.
You clear your throat, readying yourself to begin, and while you look into those warm brown eyes, you question what the hell you’re supposed to say.
"Lunchbox," you start and raucous laughter from your colleagues soon follows. Your not-so-creative nickname can hardly come as a surprise to them though, as many of them already have the honour of one as well. "I mean, Dr. Stewart." You immediately correct yourself in an attempt at gaining back even an ounce of professionalism.
Your cheeks redden as Oliver swiftly shushes everyone to be quiet once more.
A casual wink from Holly surprisingly helps in settling your nerves and because there are now donuts on the line, you try to regain your composure as quickly as you can.
"Dr. Stewart," you begin, again. "I think-"
And you’ve frozen, because what could you possibly say about Dr. Stewart that would ever do her complete justice?
You ponder this for a moment, successfully blocking out the mindless chatter from all of those around you to focus solely on your friend directly in front of you.
You take a deep breath as she looks back at you with earnest, sweet eyes and she smiles.
Well, for one, she is very professional, you think. ”I like your glasses.”
Two, she is a great teacher. Always happy to explain things to you and answer your questions. It doesn’t matter how stupid the questions may be or how inconvenient your timing is, she will always make time for you. “You’re so patient, especially with me. You get me and my weird ways. No one has ever taken the time to get to know me or ever really wanted to, but for some strange reason, which I am eternally grateful for, you did. You do. You’re the exception, Holly.”
Three, she is always thorough, efficient and meticulous in performing every task that is given to her. Each case is handled with the utmost care and respect, which is all a mourning family can possibly ask for. “You’re so kind and sometimes it’s- it’s just so overwhelming, I literally can’t breathe. You take my breath away, Holly.”
Four, any idiot can see that she brings out the best in those lucky few who get to work alongside her. “You’re such a beautiful person and a wonderful friend. So wonderful. In fact, I am surprised it has taken me this long to realize that I have fallen so deeply in love with you.”
Five, “You have a great smile, even if it is crook-“
Without a moments notice, there are soft hands cupping your cheeks, and those desired lips are pressing against yours. They’re both unmoving but warm, and the longer they linger there, the faster your pulse races, making it harder for you to breathe.
Her hands slide from your face down to your shoulders when she eventually decides to pull back, because you were certainly not going to despite the lack of oxygen, and as your lips tingle, you moan at the loss.
Her breath teases your skin as she drops her forehead against yours. You open your eyes and not only do you see desire in Holly’s, you now notice that you two are alone. “Um, where did everyone go?”
"Something about a robbery gone wrong." She strokes your arms, soothingly.
"Uh, when-"
"Around about the time you were saying that you liked my glasses," she interrupts.
"Oh."
She smiles into a chaste kiss and your hands make their way to the sides of her face.
"So what now?" You breathe out, brushing your thumb across her bottom lip.
Holly pulls back, separating your foreheads, however, remains close, positioning herself comfortably onto her knees.
"I know that I am supposed to sit here and give you compliments in return but if it’s okay with you," she remove a stray hair from your eyes, "I would rather tell you one thing each day because I couldn’t possibly narrow my list down to just a few compliments." She searches your eyes for a response but your jaw was already on the ground before she finished because what you’ve just heard might have been the nicest thing anyone has ever said to you.
At a loss for words, you pull her in by the lapels of her jacket for another kiss, and as your lips meet for the second time, you feel her hands echo the need of her hungry lips as they journey up your thighs, up your sides and then around your back until they are finally up in your hair, pulling you closer.
When the kiss deepens, your hands hastily move up to gently hold her face while you slip your tongue inside her mouth and suck on her lips until you hear her moan. If this was a war, you’ve won, as she lets you control every movement, every kiss.
As you slow down your ministrations, you continue with chaste kisses and you open your eyes to witness her lust-charged emotions. It is then that your gaze wanders and she opens her eyes just in time to notice.
"What are you looking at?"
"What?" She looks at you with raised eyebrows and you lean in again, shaking your head. "Shush, Lunchbox! It’s nothing," you flat out lie as you go in for another kiss but she pushes you back from the shoulders.
"It’s not nothing." She frowns, her jaw tightening before your own eyes. "You were eyeing those donuts weren’t you?"
Well, you were eyeing one donut in particular.
You smile fondly at her obvious jealously and lean in again, “I only have eyes for you,” you tell her, trying not to barf and laugh at the same time at your sickening use of words. You flutter your eyelids and as you take in her unamused gaze, it’s hard to miss her desire for revenge as its seeping out through her pores.
Eventually laughter wins out and it earns you a playful push to your shoulders and you topple over to your side. She raises to her feet and for a moment you think she is just going to leave you there but it’s not long before you are taking the hands that are being offered to you and she is pulling you up flush into her body, you assume on purpose… Of course it’s on purpose.
She smirks, and remains so as she then leads you towards the table where the box of donuts are currently living out their final few moments in this world.
When you reach the table you learn that out of a dozen donuts only two remain; your favourite and banana.
Barf! You’d rather lick the floor than have to eat banana.
Unfortunately, Holly beats you to the box and your heart slowly breaks as she pulls out - yes, that’s the one, that is your donut.
It’s in these heartbreaking moments though that you see how happy she is, as she licks the mess of melted chocolate icing from her fingers.
When she realises you are watching her, she raises the donut up in front of your face. “Oh, did you want this one?”
You’re shaking your head but internally screaming oh god yes! but if this donut makes her this happy, you want her to have it. You can just scrape off the icing on the other one, you think to yourself.
Now blushing, she pulls off each sprinkle, one by one sucking them into her mouth. You can’t watch her anymore as she toys with what should have been your tasty treat and you look down at the sad rejected donut left in the box.
"What?" You ask, curious as to why she is blushing. You reach for the last donut and grimace as you pick off the disgusting yellow icing.
As soon as you realise she has been waiting for you to look at her, you turn and face her.
"You love me and my crooked smile?"
"Actually, I love you in spite of your crooked smile," you tease.
As Holly’s brow begins to furrow, her lips, which moments ago were turning upwards, are now slowly turning downwards into a frown and before you even have the chance to laugh, the chocolate donut is being smushed into your gob and all you can think about in this moment is…at least you got your donut back.