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Tim is not sure how he found himself in the position.. yet again. He sits next to Lucy and across from Ashley at a small squishy table where their legs are touching. Lucy is nervously playing with her glass of water, drawing circles on it while Chris stares at her a weird look in his eyes. Ashley keeps side eyeing Tim and then Lucy. And Tim is wondering how he can pretend to be sick to get out of this.
It started when Ashley told him she had reservations with two of her friends but they couldn’t come and this restaurant was hard to get in to so she wasn’t giving it up. Chris had somehow overheard and invited himself (the man was a bit of an idiot really) and Lucy. Both Tim and Lucy, had protested a little bit but then Lucy gave in and so did Tim and he really wish he had stood his ground.
“So.” Says Chris and he glances at Ashley. “How has everyone been?” There’s an awkward silence as everyone looks at each other. Tim chances a glance at Lucy who is doing her best to avoid Tim’s eyes.
“Good!” Ashley finally answers when no else talks. “And you?” Chris shrugs his shoulders and raises his arms as if he’s going to show her the scars from where Rosalind cut him.
“It was pretty difficult there for awhile.” He says. “You know almost dying.” Lucy’s head snaps up and she looks at him.
“Oh my gosh I heard about that.” Says Ashley and she reaches across to grab Tim’s hand. “That’s awful.”
“I agree.” Says Chris looking at Lucy as if it’s her fault. “I went into a spiral and then Lucy left.”
“Because you told me to.” Lucy snaps at him. “You told me to go to UC school. You even called Tim to tell me to go.”
Tim’s heart sinks a little at that night when he told Lucy to go, to move on. He left her with tears in her eyes and it was awful.
Ashley squeezes Tim’s hand a little too tight. “I didn’t know that.” She says tersely. Tim yanks his hands away and puts them in his lap. Lucy knocks her foot against his and he looks up at her, sos she’s just as uncomfortable as he is.
“Yeah.” Says Tim shrugging. “She’s good at undercover work. She deserved to go.” Lucy subtlety reaches over and taps his arm once. A silent thank you.
“Right.” Says Ashley narrowing her eyes. “You two went undercover together right?”
“Yes.” Said Lucy. “We uh have doppelgängers.. so we went as them.” Chris looks at her and then Tim. Tim shifts in his seat at the look on Chris’s face.
“And what did you do?” Ashley asks trying to sound curious but Tim knows she’s just digging for more info.
“We had to act like a couple.” Tim says and both Ashley and Chris freeze. “No big deal. Jake and Sava were so..”
“Your doppelgängers were a couple?” Chris asks incredulously. Tim and Lucy look at each other wondering how to answer without saying too much. Like they kissed. Twice and Tim still feels the sparks and the electricity whenever he thinks about it. It was more than anything he felt with Ashley, it was like it was meant to be.
“Yeah.” Says Lucy. “Weird huh? They were nothing like us either.”
Ashley laughs but it’s coarse and hard. “And you two aren’t a couple so—” Tim frowns at her, not impressed with her attitude. He gets this is awkward but she doesn’t have to be so rude.
Chris looks between them. “How exactly did you act like a couple?” He asks. He also has a hard edge to his voice and it’s directed at Lucy who squirms in her seat. Tim reaches under and taps her knee and she shoots him a grateful look. It’s amazing even when they are on the outs, they somehow find a way to still comfort each other.
“You know.” Says Lucy. “We held hands.. and stuff.” Chris frowns at her answer but Tim’s not sure what he was expecting.
“Did you kiss?” Chris asks. Lucy squirms again and Tim looks up at the ground wishing it would open up and pull him down. Anywhere would be better than this.
“Yes.” Says Lucy and Ashley kicks his shin hard. He glares at her as Chris’s face turns beet red.
“You kissed?!?” He practically screeches. Several people from other tables look over and Lucy sinks down in her seat a little.
“For the undercover op to sell us as a couple. It meant nothing.” She snaps at him. “This is my job Chris. This is what happens sometimes.” Tim heart sinks at it meant nothing. Because it wasn’t nothing to him and he could swear it was something to Lucy too but she was scared. He was scared too but that didn’t mean he didn’t want to try with her to see where it would go.
“Are you sure it meant nothing?” Ashley snaps at her. “You look at my boyfriend the way you should look at yours. You two have like a short hand and why are you sitting next to each other? Tim is my boyfriend, not yours!”
“This is how we sat down.” Lucy replies. “And Tim and I are close so of course we have a short hand—”
“Too close.” Says Chris cooly. “There’s no way it was just for the job. Ashley is right you two went on the operation as a couple and then never really stopped.”
There’s a tense silence between all of them, and once again Tim wishes the ground would swallow him whole. It would be a lot less painful than this. Lucy finally speaks up, her voice confident as she looks at Chris. “I’m telling the truth about the op, it was for the operation we did have to act like a couple. But I did lie, it didn’t mean nothing. I felt something when I kissed Tim, and I have been denying it for a long time but it’s not fair to you Chris. I can’t be in a relationship with you when I have feelings for someone else. I’m sorry.” Tim, Chris and Ashley all stare at her in disbelief. Tim’s heart is racing a mile a minute and he just wants to wrap Lucy up in a hug. I felt something echoing in his head.
“You are a bitch.” Says Ashley to Lucy. “He’s not going to leave you for me.”
Tim looks over at her and he knows what he has to do. He should have done it a long time ago. “Actually you and me? We are done Ashley.” He says and her mouth drops open. “You have been nothing but rude and prissy this entire night. I’m not some possession you can just push around. We aren’t going anywhere and we don’t want the same things anyway.”
Ashley stands up abruptly and knocks over the chair. She glares at Tim. “Fine. I was going to dump you anyway.” She says hotly. Tim raises his eyebrows at her and she stomps away. Chris looks at Lucy and then at Tim and stands up too. He glances at them both and then zeroes his eyes on Lucy. He opens his mouth to say something but then just shakes his head and walks off. They watch him disappear and then Tim turns to Lucy who looks like she’s about to start crying.
“Hey—” He starts but Lucy cuts him off.
“I’m sorry Tim. I didn’t mean to.. Chris was just irritating me and I didn’t—” She trails off and Tim turns his whole body towards her.
“It’s okay Lucy. I needed to break it off with Ashley anyway.” He says reaching out to rub her arm.
“I needed to break up with Chris too but this is not how I wanted to do it.” She says. Tim sighs and blows out a breath. He definitely didn’t want to do this way either.
“I know Luce. I’m sorry too.” Tim says. But her words from earlier echo in his mind again. I felt something. I have been denying it for a long time.
“I meant it.” Says Lucy before he can say anything like he knows what he’s about to say. “I do have feelings for you Tim. I just was caught off guard and then things got weird between us and—”
“I know Lucy. I get it. I—” He says. “You and me? We are worth it. I mean if you want to try that is.”
She smiles at him and takes his hands playing with his fingers a little, and for the first time in awhile he felt free. “I do. I do want to try and see where this takes us. Because I think it could be really really good.”
His heart soars at her words and he squeezes her hands and then leans in a gives her a soft kiss.
“Do you want to get out of here?” He asks. She looks at the table with only water on them. They didn’t even have a chance to order.
“Oh for sure.” Says Lucy standing up and grabbing her things. Tim laughs as he follows her out. She’s right this is most definitely was the start of something real and something very good.