Derrick rolled his eyes. She couldn't do better than that?
"No, no problem. That was quite an entrance you made. I don't think Supervisor Sanders ever let you say what you came in here on fire about."
"Oh it was nothing. Just, you know, some...reforms. For a children's shelter. That...caught on fire."
Derrick nearly choked on his coffee.
"Wow, sounds important. I hope he lets you talk about it soon." Derrick chanced a glance behind him and caught Flynn beaming down on a clearly flustered Jade.
"Yeah, it's my passion. Helping the less fortunate." She bit her bottom lip.
"I remember," Flynn said.
"Oh, right, duh. You totally would."
An awkward silence fell between them, and then Flynn knocked his knuckles against the wooden conference table and said, "You know, I should probably start in on that case file. By the looks of it, this unit moves fast."
"Super fast. So fast you might not even notice how...fast it is." She finished lamely and Derrick closed his eyes, a coil of embarrassment slithering through his stomach on her behalf.
"Right, well, I hope we can catch up later." Flynn nodded, then headed out the beige office door.
Derrick waited until the other man as gone to turn and face his friend, but as soon as their eyes met she hissed the word, "Don't."
"Don't what?" Derrick had to restrain his laughter.
"Just don't."
"I'm sure I don't know what you mean. Or maybe you're just talking so fast I didn't even notice how fast you were going." He grinned, and she shuddered.
"Okay, that was bad."
"Very. Very bad." Derrick nodded.
"It's not my fault!" Jade hid her face in her hands, then glanced up at him between her fingers. "Did he say what time the witnesses are supposed to come in? Do I have enough time to drown myself in my shame?"
"I don't think there's enough time in the world for that one."
She made a sound that was something like a cross between a gurgle and a cat dying.
"Look at it this way," Derrick offered, "At least you'll have a whole bunch of time to get used to him being around. There's so many more occasions when you'll talk to him and—"
"Ugh, you are so not making this better."
"Oh, that was never my intention." Derrick raised his hands in mock innocence.
"Why are you the worst?"
"It's a gift." He shrugged. "Now come on, you should probably prep before the interview. When we're done, we'll have lunch and go over the notes. It'll be fun."
"Like a root canal is fun," she groaned, then leaned back in her metal fold out chair until she was practically prostrate, her long gold hair swinging in the air behind her.
"Still more fun than that train wreck I just witnessed." He walked over to her and held out a hand. "Come on, work is calling."
She glanced at the hand, then allowed him to help her up. Walking over to the coffeemaker, she looked over her shoulder and said, "Did you really tell the supervisor that the new badge looks like a...you know what?"
"And deprive you of the honor? No." He smiled, remembering the horror-struck look on her face when the email had dinged into their in-boxes the day before.
"Good. I have a speech prepared."