Every Second Counts

It’d been a week, and I still hadn’t heard from Kris, making me wonder what was going on. I would have thought for sure that I’d have heard from him by now. Granted, the team had played three games in that time, so it wasn’t like Kris had all the free time in the world, but I still would have thought at the very least he would have texted me.

Every time I checked my phone and saw I had no missed calls or texts, I became more and more angry with Kris. I had started taking extra shifts at work, just to keep myself occupied and to keep my mind off of Kris. I stood in front of my mirror, making sure my outfit looked okay before I headed out to the living room, grabbing my gun and holster off of the table next to the door, heading out. I pressed the down button for the elevator, and when the doors opened, I was in for a surprise. There, leaning up against the wall of the elevator was Kris.

“Mara,” he smiled, and I simply walked into the elevator, turning my back to him as I looked up at the ceiling. “Mara,” he repeated, and I glanced over at him before looking at the ceiling once again. “What’s going on?” he asked. “Are you mad at me or something?”

I spun my head around to stare at him in disbelief. “Am I mad at you?” I questioned. “Yes, I’m mad at you. It only took you a fucking week to figure that out!” I snapped as the doors to the elevator opened up and I stepped out. I felt Kris’s hand wrap around my arm, and I spun around to look at him.

“Why are you mad at me?” he asked me, and I rolled my eyes at him. “Seriously, what’d I do? Why are you mad at me?” he repeated.

“You’re kidding me right now, right?” I asked, but it was obvious that he wasn’t. “Kris, why didn’t you say anything to your mom when she was saying all of that stuff about me? About me being with you so that I could brag about sleeping with you or that I’m hoping that you ask me to move in? For God’s sake, Kris, I live in a condo identical to yours!” I exclaimed, not caring that we were having this fight in the middle of the lobby.

“You heard all that?” Kris asked, shutting his eyes tight, wishing that I hadn’t.

“Yeah, I did,” I nodded my head. “Now answer my question. Why didn’t you defend me? Why didn’t you correct your mom?” I asked.

“Correcting my mom wasn’t going to do anything,” Kris began. “She’s going to think whatever she wants about you, and nothing that I said was going to change that. I mean, Mar, you kind of made a bad first impression,” he said, and I bit my tongue to prevent me from screaming at him. “Besides, I didn’t think it was a big deal. I didn’t think you’d care about what one person thought of you,” he said offhandedly.

“Kris, that was your mom!” I exclaimed. “Of course I want her to like me!”

“So, you’ve been mad at me because of that this whole time?” he asked.

“Kris, have you even realized that we haven’t talked in a week?” I questioned, and the look on his face made it clear that he hadn’t. “A week, Kris. Seven days. You haven’t contacted me in seven days,” I stated.

“Well, in all fairness, you haven’t contacted me in seven days either,” Kris argued.

“That’s because I’ve been mad at you!” I exclaimed, and the security guard stared at us. “Whatever,” I said, shrugging my shoulders. “I’ve got to get to work,” I said, walking towards the door.

“You’re just going to leave it like that?” Kris asked in disbelief.

“Yeah, I am,” I said, continuing out the door.

“Wait!” Kris called, jogging over to me. “What about Christmas?” he asked. “Are we still going to do something? Me, you, and my mom?” he asked, and I shook my head. “What? Why not? Because you’re mad at me? This is your chance to make a good second impression,” he stated.

“I’m working on Christmas,” I told him, leaving out the part where I had volunteered to work, initially having the day off.

“What?” Kris questioned. “We’ve been planning this for a long time!” he exclaimed, both of us stopping outside of my car. “And, now you’re just planning on working? Can’t you get someone to work for you? Davis? Logan? Parker or Fiona?” he questioned.

I turned around, leaning my back against the door of my car. “No, I can’t,” I said. “It wouldn’t be fair to ask Davis or Logan to be away from their wives and kids on Christmas,” I told him.

“And, Parker or Fiona?” he asked.

“There’s no way I’m asking either of them to come into work. Parker’s planning on proposing on Christmas Day, and there’s no way I’m not letting that happen!”

“Reed?” he asked.

“Reed’s working with me,” I told him.

“So, that’s why you want to work so badly, eh?” he asked, and I looked at him like he was crazy, wondering what the hell he was talking about. “Of course you want to work if Reed’s going to be there. It’s obvious that he’s into you, and you’re liking that attention, right? So, since you’ve been mad at me this last week, how many times have you fucked him?” he asked angrily.

“Where the fuck is this coming from?” I questioned. “You know that I don’t like Reed like that. Sure, he flirts meaninglessly with me. But, that’s exactly what it is: meaningless. I have no feelings whatsoever for him. But, you know what? You’re right. I do like that he’s giving me attention. I mean, you hadn’t even realized that we hadn’t talked to each other in a week!”

“So, that’s what this is all about?” he questioned. “Because I’ve been busy this week and I haven’t called you?”

“No, that’s not all that this is about!” I yelled right back. “This is so much more than that. Like your mom talking shit about me and you not saying one word back!”

“I’ve already told you that nothing that I said would have changed my mom’s mind! You met her wearing my shirt. Of course she’s going to think you’re some whore!” he screamed. His last sentence sent me off the edge, and I flung the door of my car open.

“Fuck you!” I yelled, slamming the door shut. As I drove to work, the grip on my steering wheel continued to tighten as my argument with Kris repeated in my head. By the time I got to work, I was more furious than I ever thought I could be. I stormed into the locker room, slamming open my locker and throwing my coat into it. I slammed it shut again, leaning against it and letting out a loud scream.

“Whoa there, killer,” Parker said. “What’s up with you?” he asked as I punched the locker. “Seriously, Mara, what’s wrong?” he asked, and it was obvious that he was truly worried about me.

“I fucking hate Kris Versteeg,” I muttered, sitting down on the bench that sat in the middle of the room. Parker sat down next to me, looking over at me, waiting on a further explanation. “We had a major blowout this morning. It’s the first time we’ve talked in a week, and it ends up being this huge argument. He thinks that I want to work Christmas Day because I’ll be working with Reed, and he accuses me of sleeping with Reed.”

“What?” Parker asked, knowing just how ridiculous those accusations were. “Where did that come from?” he asked.

“He asked if I was still going to spend Christmas with him and his mom, and I told him no because I had to work. And, then he asked if I could just trade with someone, and I said no. He asked about Reed, and I told him that I was working with him, and then he went off on me about how I was happy that I was working with Reed and asking how many times I’ve fucked him,” I explained.

“Mara, I’m sorry,” he said, and I started laughing. “What?” he asked, as my laughter got louder.

“He didn’t even apologize,” I told him. “Kris didn’t apologize about anything!” I exclaimed, still laughing about everything that had just happened.

“I don’t want you and Kris to fight, especially now that it’s the holidays. I can work Christmas Day. I mean, I was supposed to work originally, anyways. You were just taking over for me. I can work, though, and then you can spend the day with Kris and his mom,” Parker suggested.

“No,” I told him, shaking my head. “You are not working on Christmas Day. You are going to propose to Fiona and become an engaged man,” I said with a smile on my face. “Besides, at this point, I wouldn’t even want to spend the day with Kris and his mom. In fact, I don’t even want to talk to Kris right now.”

“Mara,” Parker began.

“No,” I cut him off, shaking my head. “I don’t want to hear you defending Kris.”

“I wasn’t going to defend him,” Parker said. “I was just going to say that you and Kris need to talk this out.”

“When he apologizes, I’ll talk to him,” I said simply. “Now, let’s get in there. Logan’s probably trying to figure out where we are,” I said, glancing up at the clock on the wall. “We were supposed to be in there ten minutes ago,” I said as we made our way to the door. “Thank you for listening to me rant, though.”

“No problem,” Parker smiled.

As we walked into the lab, I was surprised to find Reed in there. “Where’s Logan?” I asked, and Reed looked up from the microscope, turning around to look at me and Parker.

“He’s out with Davis at a crime scene, and there was no one in here yet, so Davis called me and asked if I could come in for a little while,” Reed explained.

“Davis could have just called me, and I would have come in early,” I said. “Actually, that probably would have been better. Then, I wouldn’t have run into Kris,” I mumbled, and Reed gave me a look that asked for an explanation. I recalled what had happened this morning to Reed, who looked surprised to say the least.

“He actually thinks that we’re sleeping together?” Reed questioned, and I nodded my head. “That’s the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. Believe me, if I could ever convince you to sleep with me, you’d never want to go back to Kris,” he joked, but when he saw the look on my face, he immediately became serious. “Mara, just give him time to cool off. He’ll realize he’s being an idiot. Or, just take off and have dinner with him. I can handle it here by myself.”

“No,” I shook my head. “I’m not leaving you here by yourself on Christmas. Kris knows that my job is important to me, and he’s just being a complete asshole right now. Anyways, what case are you working on?” I asked, changing subjects, wanting to dive into my work and forget all about Kris.