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Turk barked agreeably.
“Yes, I know you like him,” Faith said. “I like him too.”
She sighed. “All right. I guess I should call him.”
She took her phone from her pocket and sighed heavily. She wasn’t looking forward to this. She dialed his number and was ashamed to realize that she hoped he wouldn’t answer.
He answered. “Faith,” he said, “it’s good to hear from you.”
Faith was unprepared for the rush of emotions that came when she heard his voice. “Hi, David,” she said, “it’s good to hear from you too.”
There was a moment of somewhat awkward silence, broken when David asked, “So, how are you? You kind of rushed off the last time we saw each other.”
“Yeah, I’m sorry,” she said. “I was called away on a case.”
“I know,” he said, “it’s not a problem. I just … well, I guess I’m a little afraid I might have freaked you out.”
Oh God, not right now. “Umm … No, not freaked out, just … look, I think we should talk when I get home.”
There was a moment of silence before David said evenly, “I see.”
“Yeah, I just …” Faith’s eyes widened as she realized what David thought. “No! No, I didn’t mean it like that. I don’t mean we should break up, I just—”
“Break up?”
“No!” she sighed. “Look, David, I—it’s—there’s a lot … going on with me right now, and …”
“And you don’t know if you can commit to anything long-term,” he said.
“No, it’s not that,” Faith replied. “I just … it’s just a bad time to talk.”
“You called me,” he said, a touch of irritation in his voice.
“No, I know,” she said. “I mean, it’s a bad time to talk about that.”
“So, why did you call me?”
“I …” Faith sighed, “… I don’t know. I just … I feel like I’m losing—I just missed you.”
“Faith, you’re not going to lose me just because you’re not ready to talk about the future,” he said gently.
Faith sighed again. What she had been about to say was that she was losing control, of her career, her partnership, her relationship with David, and even her own mind. That was true, but she wasn’t ready to talk to him about all of that yet, and that wasn’t why she called him anyway.
“I was just returning your text,” she said, “to be honest. I miss you, and I do want to talk to you, but I’ve been caught up in the case, and when I got your text yesterday, I just felt bad because I haven’t been talking to you, and—”
“Faith,” David interrupted, “it’s okay. I can’t even begin to imagine the level of stress your job brings you. You don’t need to explain yourself to me.”
It was as though a weight were lifted from Faith’s shoulders. With the Boss refusing to trust her, Michael growing suspicious of her mental state, and the looming nightmare of the shrink when she returned home, hearing someone tell her that it was okay for her to be stressed and distracted was like a ray of sunshine bursting through the storms in her mind.
She sighed and said, “Thank you. I really appreciate that. And I do miss you. A lot. Can we see each other when I come home?”
“Absolutely,” he said, “and when we do, I’ll have your wedding dress picked out and a nice house with a picket fence for us to move into.”
Faith didn’t answer right away, and a moment later, he said, “Sorry, that was a joke. Listening to it back in my head, it was a really bad joke even if we hadn’t parted the way we did last time. I’m sorry you had to hear that.”
She giggled, and he added, “Oh, so crickets to my attempt at humor, but my embarrassment gets a laugh?"
Faith giggled again, “Get used to it, Buster. I live to cause pain to those I care about.”
