Archive of Our Own ^beta

It was 10pm on a Tuesday, and Jake Peralta was officially experiencing the Longest Day in the History of Days.

He had been up since the early hours, chasing a lead on a case that had nearly driven himself and his partner Charles to the point of insanity. Their perp kept leaving obscure clues around the city, sending the two of them on a wild goose chase. They had travelled uptown, downtown, midtown, even underground before finally catching him in the act in a bodega three blocks from where it all began. The subsequent interrogation had been long but fruitful, and the sky had been just as dark when he finally left as it had been when he’d arrived this morning.

Waiting for the subway and choosing a quieter, less populated carriage, Jake drops into the first seat he saw, muscles beginning to throb as he finally gives in to the cries for rest they had been making all day. It was a twelve minute ride to his stop, but he has a feeling it was going to feel much longer.

Eager to switch his brain off for a moment, he pulls out his phone, opening up Kwazy Kupcakes and getting to work. He was one level from beating Gina, and he would be damned if he was going to let the opportunity to beat her slip.

His ride home can’t have been going for more than five minutes before it all appears to fall apart - train shaking as it struggles to push itself along the tracks before screeching out in protest and stopping suddenly. The inertia of it all pushes Jake’s body forward, gravity forcing him back against the plastic seats with a slap. He looks up from his phone, throwing his head back and groaning in frustration as the familiar half-lights of a broken subway flicker on. A garbled message that only native New Yorkers could possibly understand cuts through the carriage, confirming his worst fears. The train had broken down, and would be underway again ‘soon’ (which Jake already knew to mean an hour, minimum). It was official. He was going nowhere, fast.

“Looks like we’re stuck.” An unfamiliar voice breaks through his self-pity party and Jake drops his head, actually paying attention to his surroundings for the first time since entering the carriage.

And oh, how he wishes he’d looked up earlier.

Across from him, in a red dress, sat truly one of the most stunning women he had ever seen. Her hair was dark; her eyes sparkled, and in her lap she held a book - one finger tucked between the spine and the page she had obviously looked up from. She had a smile on her face that felt incredibly inviting, and when she raised her eyebrows slightly, he realised that he had been staring for probably a beat too long. Taking a nervous swallow, he nods.

“Yeah, looks like it.”

She looks around the carriage, glancing over at the teenager sitting at the other end of the carriage, staring blankly ahead with headphones covering their ears. Her eyes return back to him and shrugs. “At least they said it would be underway soon?”

Jake grimaces, leaning forward until his elbows are resting against his knees. “I’ve been stuck on these things more time than I care to count. I hate to tell you, but it’s going to be at least an hour.”

“ …. oh.”

Way to be a killjoy, Peralta. “Sorry. Hopefully I’m wrong.”

She shakes her head, soft curls shifting against her shoulders as she moves. “No, it’s okay. I was being foolishly optimistic, anyway.”

He blinks. “There’s nothing foolish about optimism.”

Watching him for a beat, a small smile crosses her face. “Maybe you’re right.”

Jake rubs one hand along the back of his neck as he feels his skin begin to flush. He really shouldn’t be feeling as skittish as he is right now, but ever since this woman had broken the silence, his heart rate has been on a steady increase. There was something about her that was incredibly intriguing, and it had made him completely tongue tied.

The lights dim further, and without a subway station outside the window to provide extra illumination, a chill begins to run through the carriage. He catches the other woman shiver slightly, pulling on the sleeves of the cardigan she was wearing until they cover her hands. Without hesitation he stands, shoes scuffing against the linoleum as he shrugs off his jacket, offering it to her with a smile.

Her dark hair swishes against the shoulder of her dress as she shakes her head politely. “Oh, no. I couldn’t possibly.”

He gestures at the hoodie he was still wearing and shrugs. “It’s fine, really.”

“Honestly, I’m not even that cold” she protests, right as a visible shiver runs across her skin. Her fingers tighten their grip on the cardigan, and she looks up at him with a rueful smile.

He extends his arm further, a silent encouragement to take his jacket. “Please, take it.”

She pauses for only a moment before nodding gratefully, wrapping the leather around her shoulders and letting out a quiet sigh of relief as the thicker material shields her from the cold.

Looking upwards and noticing that Jake is still standing, she gestures to the empty bench seat next to her, inviting him to sit. He hesitates for about 3.87 seconds before settling in, still leaving enough distance between them that he doesn’t automatically put himself in the category of Creepy Subway Guy. Pretending not to notice as she pulls a bookmark out from the back of her book before closing and setting it to the side, he drops his head back onto the window behind them and covers his eyes with one hand, letting out another heavy sigh.

She’s watching him when he opens his eyes again, and he sits a little straighter.

“Sorry. It’s … it’s been a long day.”

“I hear ya. I’ve just been through one of the worst dates I’ve had in a long time.”

His mouth twists. “I bet you I could beat your story.”

“Is there anything worse than being pushed into a date with your family dentist, who then speaks in great depth about your mother’s dental history for the majority of the evening - hello, denture talk - only to use the very utensils you were about to crack into your delicious creme brulée with to give you a dental exam, at the table, and then proceed to tell you that under no circumstances should you be having any dessert?”

“Okay, yeah. That is pretty bad.”

“Yep. So not only did I waste several hours of my life at a mediocre restaurant with a man I hope never to see again, I went without dessert. Which, to be honest, was the only thing I was looking forward to the entire time he was talking. Not a great sign for a date.”

Jake smiles, pointing to the jacket still wrapped around her shoulders. “I’ll let you in on a secret. If you look in the left inner pocket, you might find something that could help you.”

She cocks an eyebrow, eyeing him curiously before moving one hand in trepidation. Laughing, she pulls out a packet of sour straws, crying out incredulously - “Wait, do you always have sour straws in your pocket?”

“No, of course not, I was .. going to see a movie later.” Jake lies, face turning red because she had, in fact, hit the nail totally on the head. He was never far away from a packet of sour straws, or gummies, or candy of some sort. So he had a sweet tooth. What of it? It still made him an adult. A slightly less responsible one, but an adult all the same.

Her laugh grows quieter, lips turning into a soft smile as she takes in his reaction. “It’s no big deal, really. Kinda endearing, if you think about it.”

His blush takes on a new lease of life, and she rips open the package with her teeth, taking out a straw before offering him the packet. He takes one readily, eager for a distraction (and also, let’s face it - if he’s chewing on something, he’s less likely to embarrass himself).

“So, I’m curious.” She looks over at him, eyes narrowing slightly as her hair falls in front of them. “What was the ‘worst date’ story that you were going to bring to the table?”

Chewing on the candy as he thinks it over, Jake grabs for another from the packet he’d placed on the seat between them but doesn’t devour it straight away. “Well, it’d be like a fifty-way tie, I think. I could start with the girl who burst into tears when I told her my star sign.”

Her eyebrows raise. “Which is?”

“Uhh, Gemini?”

“Ah.” She nods quickly. “I get it. Okay, continue.”

He gives her a slightly affronted look before continuing. “Oh! I’ve got a good one. Last week. I went on a date with this girl I knew through mutual friends. We went to this great little restaurant, and things were going .. okay. But then about ten minutes in, she takes a phone call, which lasts about twenty minutes - during which she never leaves the table, mind you - and proceeds to tell her friend all about this guy she’d met two nights ago that she’d ‘totally banged’ and how she’s hoping they’ll meet up again”

“Not at all rude.” She answers with a roll of her eyes.

“Right? And then, to add insult to injury, starts to describe me to her friend over the phone. She wasn’t even subtle about it. Like, I know I have a big nose - I see it literally every day. I don’t need to hear somebody using it as my leading feature.”

Her eyes widen, mouth dropping open. “Oh my god. Please tell me you left after that.”

“Totally. I mean, sort of.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realise you were insane.”

“I think by insane, you mean ‘gentleman’. New York is a nightmare. I wanted to make sure she at least got a cab home, so I escorted her to the door. And you’ll never guess who was waiting outside.”

“The guy from the phone call?”

“The guy from the phone call! Who, after having to sit through a one-sided conversation, I knew to be named Brett. And, not gonna lie, it kinda felt like I already knew him. In a biblical sense.”

Throwing her head back she laughs, the sound of her joy bouncing off the carriage walls and uplifting Jake’s mood considerably.

“This is playing out like some kind of bad soap opera.”

He laughs along with her, running one hand through his hair as he shakes his head at the memory. “So anyway, as you can imagine, the two of them took off and I took a cab home on my own. And that was the end of that.”

Her laughter has died down to a soft giggle by now, and as she catches her breath she reaches for another straw, studying it carefully as she wraps the candy around her finger. “I really hate to admit this, but I think maybe you win the ‘who had the worst date’ award.”

Jake looks up in surprise, hand frozen in shock halfway into its journey back towards the candy. “No way. I hate the dentist. The very fact that you went on a DATE with one instantly put it into the Worst Date Ever category, regardless of whatever happened next.”

She laughs again, this time softer as she watches him shove another straw into his mouth. “And there’s no correlation to your secret stash of candies, and your hatred of dentists?”

“Total coincidence.”

“Of course. My mistake.” She unwraps the sweet from her finger, keeping it in a curl and shoving it into her mouth, dusting off the excess sugar as she smiles over at Jake. And he doesn’t mean to stare, but he kind of can’t help how captivating he was finding everything about her.

Desperate to break the silence that had fallen over them, he clears his throat and points toward the book on her side. “So, ahh … is it good, so far?”

She blinks in confusion, twisting slightly as she looks down at the item next to her. “Oh! Yes, actually. I mean, it’s okay. I just needed a bit of a distraction, and its doing that well enough.”

“A distraction?”

Nodding, she takes another look around the carriage before turning back to him, chewing on the edge of her lip slightly before confessing. “Yeah, I get a little claustrophobic sometimes.”

Jake nods, keeping his expression carefully blank. His aunt Linda had a similar problem, and he knew that panic often fed off of other people’s reactions. “And .. how are you feeling right now?”

She looks at him for a moment, tucking her hair behind both of her ears. “I’m doing good.” Ducking her head down, she mumbles, “Really good, actually.”

Another nod, lips clamping down as the word noice bubbles up inside his chest. And he doesn’t know why, but before he knows it he’s just talking. About nothing and everything - from the result of last night’s Mets game (he was devastated, she indifferent) to the age-old debate over whether pineapple had any place being on pizza (him an emphatic no, she impartial to the occasional slice, but refusing to call it her favourite).

The conversation is easy with her, the gap between them lessening as topics bounced between them. She laughs as though it has been too long since she’s had the chance to do so, her smile drawing him closer every time - and his jacket looks so perfect on her shoulders that he’s almost certain he’s never going to be able to wear it again without thinking it’s actually hers.

Jake’s halfway through telling her a story about the time he skinned his knees in the seventh grade when the lights in the carriage switch back on, the surprisingly loud sound of the engine whirring to life giving them both pause as the familiar rocking sensation of a moving train commences. And then she asks a follow up question, and the story continues, until suddenly he can see his stop coming up.

He wants to stay forever on this carriage, talking to this beautiful woman he still doesn’t know the name of, but its also been an incredibly long day and another early morning wake-up is looming. Reluctantly he stands, mouth dropping in surprise - and, dare we say, a little joy - when she stands as well, and in unison they realise that they must share the same stop. His head drops to the side a little, and he wonders how many times he must have walked past her and never even realised it. (Perhaps his mother was right, every time she scolded him for not looking up from his phone. Maybe, this whole time he had been missing out on something amazing.)

They’re still talking, walking against the crowd pushing to board the Very Late train when her phone begins to ring. She looks at him apologetically, mouthing a quick sorry before picking up the call.

“Kylie, hey - can I call you ba-” her brow creases, and she stops in her tracks. Jake, by default, stops as well - ignoring the muttered expletive of a disgruntled local as they bump into his shoulder. Her eyes turn towards his, wide and alarmed as she listens to the person on the other end of the line.

“Wait, where are you right now?” She drops the phone to her chest briefly, taking a few steps away from Jake as she shakes her head. “I’ve gotta go - I’m so sorry! It was really nice to meet you, uh - ” the last few words are softer to his ears as she’s already turning, moving further away, phone glued to an ear as she pays more attention to her friend’s obvious disaster.

“Jake!” He calls out across the station, already knowing that she’s too far gone to hear him. “My name is Jake.”

An apparent solution arrives the following morning.

“I think it’s pretty obvious what we need to do here.”

Jake gestured around the crime scene they were currently standing in. “Dust for prints and start interviewing witnesses?”

“No! We have to find her, Jake!”

He looks up from an evidence marker, furrowing his brow. “I’m sorry … her?”

“Your mystery woman! The beautiful woman you were stuck on the subway with. She’s obviously your soulmate.”

“Charles. You’re insane. There’s no way any of that is true.” Jake hoped he sounded convincing, because if he was being really honest with himself, he’d have to admit that a certain someone’s dark hair and incredible mind had yet to disappear from his thoughts, since finally getting home and collapsing into bed last night.

“Even if you can’t hear the wedding bells, I can. We cannot let her slip away.”

Jake sighs. There was a part of him that knew this morning, when he began to describe his encounter with the mysterious woman to Charles, that it was going to end in some hare-brained scheme. “And how do you suggest we do that?”

“I mean, we’ve got a very comprehensive database at our hands that could definitely narrow our search down.”

Jake takes a step closer to his friend, lowering his voice. “Good idea, except for the fact that it’s highly illegal and a complete invasion of her privacy.”

“Right, right, good point, right. We could get Terry to do up a facial composite?”

He raises an eyebrow. “Charles.”

His partner falls silent for a moment, before giving Jake that smug smile that is almost definitely going to lead to a debacle. “Leave it with me, Jakey. I’ve got a brilliant idea, that absolutely cannot go wrong.”

“I’m almost scared to ask what it is.”

“No no, it’s fine … totally fine. Say, why don’t you finish up interviewing these witnesses, and I’ll meet you back at the precinct? Some … thing has just come up, and I’m going to need to take care of it real quick.”

“Flawless alibi, Boyle.” Jake rolls his eyes good-naturedly. “But yes, I will meet you back at the precinct. Just … nothing crazy, okay?”

“Jake. I am the King of romance. Trust me on this.”

“Oh my god, Charles, what have you done?!”

“Well I mean, you kinda tied my hands a little when you told me that the database was off limits, Jake.”

Lifting up the phone still in his hand as he approaches Boyle’s desk, Jake shakes his head in frustration. “That’s not what I talking about. I’ve seen the Facebook post. You put hearts where my eyes were. You’ve literally given me heart eyes. I am officially an emoji.”

“An emoji who is looking for his dream girl!”

“Charles!”

From her desk in the corner, Gina calls out. “Hey Jake, why oh why are you trending on twitter? When did your handle become @waiting4u? And who on earth is Mystery Subway Girl?”

“Mystery Sub - Charles! Come on, man!”

His partner shrugs, not even bothering to look contrite. “You’ve got to put all of this stuff on the line if you really want to meet her, Jake. The universe has already given you the first shot. We cannot afford to lose the next chance.”

“For the billionth time, I did not ‘lose’ my first shot. Her phone rang, and her friend was having an emergency. She had to leave. What did you expect me to do, chase after her?”

Rosa diverts from her path to the break room, empty coffee mug still in her hand. “Hold up. You were talking to a woman last night, and her phone rang with a friend having an emergency on the other end, interrupting your conversation?"

Jake frowns, staring at her with a puzzled look. “Yeah. Why?”

She snorts. “Dude. That’s the oldest trick in the book. Classic diversion tactic. Hate to tell you this, but she was obviously trying to get away from you.”

He shakes his head at her obvious error. “No way, Rosa.” And then his mind begins to replay the events. “Wait. No. I mean …” his head drops. “Oh my god.”

“You’re totally right, boo!” Gina calls out from the corner, throwing Rosa a wink when she turns.

“I don’t understand,” Jake mumbles, head still shaking in distraction. “We were totally hitting it off. The whole time we were talking, neither of us used our phones once. It couldn’t have been a set up.”

“Girls plan, Jake. She would have set it up for her ‘friend’ to call with an ‘emergency’ at a certain time. Her picking up was a signal that she needed rescuing.” Rosa shrugs, moving to refill her coffee. “Don’t take it personal. It happens.”

“I got played.” He says dejectedly, shoulders slumping in defeat. “I totally got played. Oh no. Charles. You need to take this stuff down, right now.”

From his position at his desk, Boyle leans forward, shaking his head vehemently. “No way, Jake! This is all crazy talk. There’s no way that she was using some tactic to get away from you.”

“Charles, it’s embarrassingly obvious. Please take it all down, before more people see it.”

“Trust me Jake, there is no way that you could flash your baby browns at someone and not have them fall in love with you. You’re a total catch! Not to mention that she’s obviously your perfect match. Who wouldn’t want to fall in love with the handsome, funny cop you got stuck with on the subway?”

Jake shakes his head. “She doesn’t know I’m a cop. And she’s not my perfect match. She literally ran away from me. Take it down, Boyle.”

His partner gasps. “She doesn’t know your a cop? But Jake, that’s your signature move!”

He shrugs in response. “It just never came I up, I guess.” Lifting his phone, he checks the time and sighs. “Look, I’ve got a couple of witness interviews to get through. Will you just promise me that you’ll take all of this down, and give it up, Charles? Please?”

Charles fiddles with the mustard coloured tie that rested against his chest, looking over at his computer monitor before sighing. “Fine.” Satisfied, Jake walks quickly towards the interview rooms, already eager to keep his mind off the morning’s events.

It’s several hours later before Jake resurfaces from the room, rubbing his tired eyes as he makes his way back to his desk, almost running into Captain Holt on the way.

“Detective Peralta.”

“Sir?”

“While you have been conducting interviews, I have fielded phone calls from NINE different television broadcasting companies, all of whom are inexplicably eager to take time out of their days to drive out to the precinct and take video footage of you speaking to them. I am presently unaware of any high profile case that would warrant such a desire. Do you care to explain the situation to your superior officer?”

Instantly alert, Jake shakes his head in anger. “Charles was supposed to have taken care of this.”

Holt nods. “Ah. I had an instinct that Detective Boyle would have had some sort of role in this fiasco. As such, I have thwarted his last three attempts to leave the precinct before your interviews were over. He is presently in the bullpen. I suggest that you go speak to him, and sort this matter out before I receive yet another phone call.”

Jake’s already taken four steps in that direction before his captain can finish. “Already on it, sir.”

The other man at least has the decency to look remorseful as Jake storms up to his desk, momentarily lost for words as the anger supersedes him. “I know, I know. But I believe in love, Jake. And I really thought - ”

“Charles! Come on, man!”

His partner stands, raising his hands in surrender as he tries to calm Jake down. “If I’m wrong, I’m wrong. I’ll be man enough to admit it. But, I’m not wrong on this. We were just working too small at the beginning. I had to bring in the big guns to really get the message out. We’ll find her, Jakey. I just know we will.”

“P.S. Jakester, you’re now officially number two on the trending list on Twitter. You’ve made it.” Gina butts in, patting him on the shoulder as she moves towards the copy room.

“There was a man with a camera outside who stopped me when I went to get a hot dog!” Scully calls out, eyes wide with excitement. “He wanted to know my name and asked if I knew who you were. Don’t worry Jake, I totally told him how cool you are.”

“Our lovelorn detective!” Hitchcock cried out in agreement.

Jake throws his hands up in confusion. “I’m sorry, does nobody see how straight-up INSANE all of this is?”

From behind them a new voice interjects, clearing their throat softly before speaking. “Um, pardon me? I don’t mean to interrupt, but ..”

Jake pauses, tirade dying in his throat. He knows that voice.

His heart bouncing up and down like it’s found a jumping castle inside his abdomen, Jake holds his hand up to Charles in a silent warning. Slowly he turns, scarcely believing that perhaps one of his partners crazy ideas actually worked.

But it was true. As impossible as it may have seemed, one of Boyle’s plans had worked. And the beautiful woman from the night before, that his mind has refused to let go of once, is now standing in front of him.

She smiles, raising her hand in a tiny wave. “Hi.”

She’s here. From behind Jake, Charles clears his throat, and it’s enough to pull him from his stupor, smiling back at the woman so wide that his cheeks started to hurt. “Hi!”

Shoulders raising in a tiny shrug, she lifts up her left hand and for the first time Jake notices that she’s holding his jacket on her arm. “I’m sorry if I’m pulling you away from something important. I just wanted to return your jacket before the day turned cold again.”

She’s just a beautiful as he remembers - perhaps even more so, in a floral patterned blouse and perfectly fitting jeans. And then she gives him another smile, reaching out to hand him his jacket, and Jake knows he’s falling in deep.

“Thank you - you really didn’t have to go out of your way to bring this back to me. But … thank you.” He hears a tiny squeal escape Charles, and resists the urge to swing back around a clamp a hand around his mouth.

“Please. It was the least I could do.” Her voice is so soft, he could listen to it forever.

You can do this, Peralta. Just ask the beautiful girl out for coffee. “Hey listen … oh god, I just realised that I still don’t know your name.”

The beautiful woman smiles at him again, reaching out her right hand. “Amy. My name is Amy.”

Amy. “Well, it’s really nice to meet you, Amy. I’m Jake.”

His hand grips hers as they shake, and he has this overwhelming urge to never let go.

And then, there is Charles.

“So tell us, Amy - which one of my incredible plans drew you here? Was it my tweet? My post on Facebook? Or Instagram? The article I paid for in the evening edition? Or was it the billboard on -”
“Billboard? Charles, please tell me there isn’t a BILLBOARD out there with my face on it.”

“Uhhh … Maybe just avoid 83rd street for a little while?”

“Um, it was none of those things, actually.” Amy’s voice broke through the noise, saving Charles from what was about to be a Very Serious Discussion from Jake.

Charles blinks. “Wait … you didn’t see any of it?” She shakes her head. “So … how did you know to come here? Ohmygod you followed your heart! Jakey! I knew it! I knew you two were-”

“Hold it!” Jake raises his voice slightly, noticing the bewildered look that had taken over Amy’s feature, desperate to stop his best friend before he said anything too terrifying. “Charles, let her speak.”

Amy gives him a grateful smile, glancing over at his partner warily before speaking. “I’ve been at work, at Brooklyn Library, all day. Deep in the periodical section, which was in serious need of updating. So I haven’t really looked at any social media all day.” She shrugs. “It was kinda nice, actually.”

Jake nods, and she continues, gesturing to the jacket he still gripped in his left hand. “Your business card. It was in one of the pockets. Along with a receipt for five packets of sour gummies, might I add."

“Huh. I have no idea how that got in there.”

She shakes her head, eyes crinkling as she smiles at him, and Jake could swear he could almost hear the angels sing.

“Anyway. Last night when I got home and realised I was still wearing your jacket, I figured - worst case scenario, I’d just catch the subway again tonight and maybe run into you. Which, in hindsight, could have been a really long night. Safe to say I’m glad some part of me decided to go digging a little. Because there you were - Jake Peralta, Detective for the 99th Precinct.”

“AKA, the love of your life” Charles mutters behind Jake, thankfully low enough that nobody else hears him.

Okay. Time for a distraction. Grabbing a nearby pen and post-it from Charles’ desk, Jake quickly scribbles down a series of random numbers and letters before handing in quickly to his partner. “Charles, before I forget - could you please do me a favour and retrieve this file from the evidence locker? I really think it could help us with this case.”

The older man judges Jake with careful eyes, eventually nodding and pocketing the paper square. He turns to Amy, giving her an overly excited smile before spinning on his heel, taking his tan pants to a room far away from the bullpen, for the moment unaware that such a case file does not exist.

Jake turns back to Amy, catching her as she exhales a calming breath. “Sorry about that.” He begins, gesturing behind him. “It’s been an interesting day, to say the least.” She nods, and he can feel the cogs in his head begin to turn, trying to figure out the best way to ask this beautiful woman out before she walks out of his life forever. The stakes were sky high for many reasons, and he knew he couldn’t afford to mess it up.

Thankfully, she speaks before he can. “Hey … listen. I know that I said that I came by to drop your jacket off, but I have to confess something.”

“Oh, no. Don’t tell me you’ve committed some obscure crime and you need my help to make it ‘go away’?” He asks, lifting his hands up to make quotation marks at the end of the sentence.

“What? No! I wanted to tell you - wait. Has that actually happened to you before?”

“I told you, I’ve had some truly terrible dates.”

Her eyebrows lift in surprise as she blinks. “Wow. Anyway, I kind of wanted to tell you that I had a really great time last night. Which is something I never thought I would say about a ride on broken down subway. But I really hadn’t been enjoying my night, and then you came along, and you completely distracted me from everything, and … well, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since. Thinking about you, actually.”

Jake smiles, trying not to be too obvious about the pounding rhythm his heart has since taken up. “I’ve been thinking about you, too. Although I feel as though I need to warn you about going on any sort of social media for the rest of the day. Charles kind of went a little overboard in his obsession to reunite us.”

“Oh, yes. I heard him, but honestly I was terrified to ask what he meant.”

“It’s probably going to look a little insane. But in all honesty, he has the purest of intentions. And he is, like, certain that we are meant to be together. And …” he pauses, rubbing a hand along the back of his neck, “I don’t want to come across as a weirdo, but I’m beginning to think that maybe he’s onto something.”

Amy nods, teeth clamping down on her lower lip gently as her face turns a soft pink. Taking the chance while it’s in front of him, Jake takes a deep breath, summoning up all of his courage. “So, with that in mind … Would you like to go on a date with me sometime?”

Her smile is wide and bright, and with her enthusiastic nod Jake can feel his heart rate return back to its normal speed, relief coursing through his veins at the realisation that she wants to date me.

(It is also very possible that he just heard Charles squeal from the hallway.)

It only takes another evening before Jake takes Amy on what turns out to be a Very Good Date - perhaps even the greatest date ever. And when he kisses her goodnight at the front steps of her apartment, he knows that he’s not ever going to want to let her go.

Thankfully, she never asks him to.