Unexpected

"Yeah, I was about to figure out what I wanted to eat when you called." I said.

"You know I haven't eaten either." she said. "You want to get something together? I'll buy."

Now this was a surprise. Kaitlyn and I up to this point had at best an antagonistic love/hate relationship and now she wanted to go out to eat with me.

"I don't know." I said tentatively.

"Aw come on Matt." she said. "Let me buy you dinner. I'll feel bad for what happened earlier and want to make it up to you. You'll make me feel better to."

In an effect that I didn't expect this melted my resistance. Something about the way she asked pulled at my heartstrings. "Ok, you win. You like Harry's Diner? They've got good food and it's not too expensive."

"Ok if that's what you want." she said. "Meet you there in 30 minutes?"

"Yeah, that'll work." I said.

"Great. See you there." she said cheerily. "Don't stand a girl up now." she added with a giggle.

"Don't worry I wouldn't do that." I said. As we hung up and I went to take a leak and wondered what had just transpired between us. How did we go from having a hot and cold relationship that was purely based off of my position as task force head to her almost flirting with me? At that point I wasn't about to worry about it too much. Being head of a serial killer task force left little time to think much about whether or not a woman was flirting with me.

I made it to Harry's Diner a few minutes before Kaitlyn did and waited on the sidewalk for her. A few minutes later I saw her walking towards me from the parking lot. She was wearing jeans and a white graphic t-shirt. I couldn't help but think she had a cute 'girl next door' appearance to her. I quickly shook the notion from my head as she got to me.

"Hi Matt." she said smiling.

Pretty smile I thought as I returned her greeting, "Hi Kaitlyn. Shall we?"

We went inside and got a table and started looking over menus. After we ordered drinks I as she continued to look at the menu I said, "You know this could get me in trouble."

She dropped the menu and looked at me with a semi shocked look and said, "What do you mean?"

"Captain Jones ordered me to go home and get some sleep and not think about the case until tomorrow." I said slightly smirking. "Having dinner with a victim's sister hardly qualifies as sleep or not thinking about the cases."

She scowled at me and said, "Oh you little shit! You had me going for a second." Then we both laughed.

"I do have a sense of humor." I said.

"I do to, although you might find that hard to believe as many times as I've yelled at you." Kaitlyn said.

"I don't take it personally." I said. "Today you found me exhausted and irritable, and it brought out my worst. I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize Matt." she said. "You're doing as much as you can, and I didn't help you." I nodded and she smiled at me.

After ordering our food I tried to somewhat change the subject, I said, "So, you're going to be a journalist. You going to write up a story on the Black Woods killings when we figure it all out?"

"I might." she said as our food arrived and we began to eat. "If I did, would you let me interview you?"

"Sure." I said. "As long as it makes me look good."

"Of course I will Matty." she said grinning at me. No one had called me Matty since I was a kid. Normally I wouldn't let anyone call me that, but somehow it didn't bother me when she said it.

We spent the rest of the time at the diner chatting about any subject that came to mind. I was surprised to find out that when Kaitlyn wasn't bullishly pursuing whatever she had her teeth into she was actually easy to talk to and we got along well. When we left, she pulled me in for a hug and I couldn't help but feel warm and content in her arms. I went home feeling much better than I had in ages.

After that day Kaitlyn and I became fast friends. Yes, it was still antagonistic at times when one or both of us would allow ourselves to get worked up and we would end up in a shouting match. But neither of us could stay mad at each other and within hours one of us would end up re appearing hat in hand to apologize. After that we would usually end up at the diner. I joked one time that we started arguments just so we could go there, and we both laughed.