"When you fall in love, the natural thing to do is give yourself to it. That's what I think. It's just a form of sincerity."
― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

Knock Knock Knock

"The answer is no."

Michonne didn't bother to look up from the bridal magazine she was skimming through, to see exactly who was at the door intruding on the minutes before her next client was due.

"Okay."

Michonne's attention traveled quickly to the direction of where the voice was making an exit from her open doorway. The bowlegs in the tan uniform, with a firmly attached holster at his hip, was ready to make haste without another word.

"Grimes wait! I thought you were someone else."

"Is this a bad time?"

Rick gripped the two brown paper bags tightly in his one hand and the manila folder he kept between his arm and body. He braced himself.

"I have my next Pro bono in twenty minutes. What you got?" Michonne eyed the paper bags and the folder.

"Lunch."

"Lunch?"

"Um, yeah. Mabel's Cafe is open again. Mabel made sure to make your sandwich just the way you like it. I told her you were back in town. I figured if you weren't there at the Café at around this time you would probably be here and probably hungry."

"Oh my God Grimes. Come in! Close the door."

Michonne eagerly awaited for Rick to do as requested. She moved aside her bridal magazine and closed her laptop. She cleared space for her lunch, giving Rick her full attention.

"Have a seat. I am starving. Please, I won't refuse to be fed."

Michonne grabbed her hand sanitizer and gave herself a small dollop and graciously gave Rick who held out his hand a small amount before he reached into the bag and handed her a neatly wrapped sandwich. The other bag held her bottled water and an ice tea for him.

"This, unfortunately, has to be a quicky." She winked playfully.

Rick paused for a split second before his breathing resumed. He had momentarily lost his train of thought.

"I have bottled water for you too. I don't recall you drinking anything but bottled water."

Dasani... Not Aquafina...

Michonne was surprised that he was aware of her preference but disregarded it as pure coincidence.

"What else have you noticed Deputy?"

Michonne sat erect in her seat batting her eyelashes at him playfully.

"I noticed you were back in town. Sheriff Herschel said you were and you were...are."

Rick could feel the heat in his cheeks. The room became suddenly warm. Just him and Michonne together in a borrowed office space with the door closed. He relaxed just a bit enjoying the upbeat side of Michonne versus the hard as nails lawyer side that most people knew.

"I am. Been back in King's County for a few days now. How are you, Deputy?"

"Good. Started jogging more. You were right about how it helps to clear the mind."

"Good to hear. You look like you are taking better care of yourself. You had me worried for a second."

"I am doing alright, Michonne. Much better."

Rick thought to ask her something about how she was keeping herself up, but he lost his train of thought again by just looking at her. She was very attractive, and he found it quite distracting. To him, her dark skin appeared flawless, and he imagined very soft to the touch. The hint of her perfume was nice. She smelled good. The scent reminded him of something floral. Even with the desk between them, he wanted to be closer to get a good whiff.

"I scaled down to just Yoga. Now, if you plan to feed me this every day from Ms. Mabel, it will be the gym with plenty of sweaty cardio."

He realized then he must have asked her something about how she was able to keep herself up and all he thought about was her sweat. Their sweat. Sweat. Sweaty. Rick imagined how her dark skin would glisten and what it would taste like.

"You going back to Atlanta would keep every day from happening. You would have to remain here or live much closer for me to feed you every day, Michonne."

Michonne found his response interesting. It gave her a long pause.

Michonne waited for Rick to look like he really wasn't ready to bite into his sandwich to say a quick prayer over their lunch. It helped to distract the slight awkward thing that had the potential to grow if she focused too long on hidden meanings or outright declarations she thought she heard.

She bit into her sandwich, and her mind went with her taste buds.

"Ohh...this is so frigging good. Mmmm. Yum. Mmmmm... Incredible."

Rick sat transfixed. The sounds. Her facial expressions. He couldn't take a bite of his sandwich. He was lost in his head again. He placed his lunch back down and readjusted himself in the folding chair that her clients would sit in.

"Have you ever had something that was almost better than sex?"

Michonne asked after she swallowed.

The word sex leaving Michonne's lips when she finishes chewing caused him to be present and confused. He really needed to readjust himself in his seat.

"Don't look at me like that. This sandwich Mabel makes is damn near an orgasmic experience for the taste buds." She took another bite and continued with her pleasure induced sounds.

"Really?"

Rick's eyes were trained on the small crumb and a tiny amount of sauce on the corner of her mouth. He imagined licking the corner of her mouth since he had an idea of what her orgasm would sound like. He felt compelled as his mind staged a sexual scene but her own tongue found and removed it, and the napkin she wiped across her mouth was like the curtain call.

"You aren't eating your sandwich." Michonne pointed out to Rick.

"Oh...yeah. I may have to get a sandwich like yours next time I go to Mabel's. I think I would like to experience your level of enthusiasm."

"What did you get?"

"Turkey."

"Tell me about your turkey."

"It is on white bread with lettuce and Mayo?"

"What else?"

"Nothing else."

"Oh."

"I have been accused of not being more adventurous."

"Who made this accusation?"

"My ex-wife.."

"Well, it's been said that an ex-wife can make you into a better man for the second time around." Michonne chuckled lightheartedly as she continued to enjoy her sandwich.

"I am trying to improve. It's just that sometimes I'm not aware that I am boring."

"Don't look to me. I don't find you boring. You may have to find a very fascinating adventurous person to point out that you are less so. I am not that person."

"You don't think I am boring?"

"Nope." Michonne took a sip of her water.

"Still area of improvement," Rick admitted shyly.

"For your ex-wife or just in general?" Michonne was curious by his reaction.

"General."

"Proceed with your exploration." Michonne shrugged.

"What were you reading?"

"Admiring. I read case files. Bridal Magazines-I admires dresses. I have this obsession with wedding dresses."

"Designing or getting married in one?"

"Married."

Michonne's instant confirmation caused Rick's heart to sink heavy into his chest.

"I have been claiming it for the longest time. I refuse for my future husband to be an ex-convict or a dope dealer or some small-time hustler in general."

"Claiming?"

"I am speaking Mr. Right into existence. The perfect man will come my way and sweep me off my feet. I am making room in my life for him. I cleared a drawer and moved things out of the extra closet to make way for this future husband of mine. I even purchased an outfit for our first baby."

"Boy or Girl?" Rick laughed.

"Boy. His name will be Andre."

"Will your husband have a say on anything?"

"My husband would have a say on everything. Those are the only two things I am trying to speak into existence. A husband and a son. Do you think that is too much?"

"It's not too much Michonne."

"I need to be more approachable. I was told I need to soften up a bit."

"You must have plenty of choices, like the real confident guys, or fancily dressed attorney's from ivy league schools."

"Believe it or not, it's the fucking criminals or clients. The very bold ass guilty ones. I know I can do better than that. I know I can." Michonne spoke with certainty.

"You can," Rick confirmed. He felt he was staring a little too long. He found it difficult to just look away from her when he wanted her practically more than life to see him as a possibility or a potential option.

"Thank you, Deputy Grimes. Now take a bite of that plain sandwich of yours."

Michonne wanted those blue eyes to focus on his sandwich and not on staring back at her. It made her feel a certain way and plus their time together was running out.

She watched him take a bite before she took another sip from her water. His curly hair, eyebrows, eyelashes, jawline, slightly tanned skin, his bobbing Adam's apple as he swallowed. Soon her attention traveled along the broad planes of his shoulders and down along what she imagined his bare chest was like...

Michonne was startled when Rick spoke. She found herself back to the beginning locked by his curious blue eyes. Everything about him was no longer vague.

"That magic way of thinking or speaking things into existence, how long you been up to it?"

"It's not magic. And I am done talking to you about it right now." Michonne smiled back at Rick. "I revealed more to you than I have to anyone and I have no idea why I did that."

"I'm good at keeping secrets."

"I have no idea who would be interested in knowing all that makes me, ME. But I will be forever grateful in your ability in keeping your mouth shut if I indeed decide to share anything else with you, Deputy Grimes."

"You can call me, Rick."

"Rick?"

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I am trying to be two steps ahead of you, but I have no clue what the hell is going on."

"We are eating lunch."

"We have eaten lunch plenty of times before in Mabel's Café, and this is the first time I noticed that you are shy."

"You got that out of me asking you to call me Rick?"

"Well without your partner Shane to overtake a conversation..."

"He's a good guy. He's misunderstood most times."

"First impressions are important, and each time he has proven he is a bonafide-Asshole."

"Well, this folder is courtesy of Asshole. His way of saying sorry." Rick slid the folder over to Michonne who noticed the name on the tab.

"I asked for this yesterday. Tell him that he did the right thing by not coming and giving it to me himself. Was that what this food was for to -"

"There is Sheriff's Ball Saturday Night and-"

"No. You tell Shane, I said exactly that. NO! I am not going to a Sheriff's Ball with him. The hell."

Shane stopped the Sheriff cruiser he was driving in the middle of the parking lot with his partner in the passenger seat.

"Twenty Minutes later and you still didn't ask her?"

"I have no idea where it all went wrong."

Rick kept knocking the back of his head into the headrest three times. He felt utterly defeated.

"Are you shitting me? Twenty minutes?" Shane couldn't believe the amount of time wasted sitting in their work vehicle supposedly waiting for his friend to ask Michonne to the Sheriff's ball.

"I have no idea why she thought you were asking."

"Me asking what?"

"That I was asking for you."

"Asking what?"

"Asking her to the Ball for you?"

"Why in the hell would she think that?"

"I'm re-playing it in my mind, Shane. I have no idea."

"Why in the hell would she think I would send a boy to do a grown man's job. If I wanted to go to the Sheriff's Ball with Michonne, I would have asked her myself. I wouldn't send you to ask like we are in fucking 7th grade. That woman is crazy with a twisted imagination if she thinks I want to date her or anyone associated with her."

"If you would have asked, the answer was, NO."

"Well damn. Lucky for me I was never ever going to ask her, and just the way you're relaying the shit makes me want to go inside there and inform her, face to face."

"She is with a client."

"I don't give a shit. I am an officer of the law."

"Good luck using that logic with her." Rick half smiled at the thought,

"Why didn't you correct the situation and tell her you were asking?"

"The way she said no..." Rick knew he would have been crushed beyond repair.

"Can we just move the fuck on to easier fish? How about Jessie Anderson in dispatch, or Maggie, the waitress at Mabel's Cafe, or how about Dawn in the investigative unit? That's just the three I am throwing from the top of my head. Hell!"

"I'll just go alone. No big deal, really."

"This is a side of you I wasn't aware of, and it's magnified. The shit is disturbing."

"What?"

"When the hell you become fucking shy?"

"She said the same thing."

"Holy hell, man!"

"I'm not shy! She's just different."

"No. You are different. You didn't have these difficulties with Lori in the beginning."

"Well, Lori did much of the leading and I pretty much followed."

"I told you to get as much pussy as possible before marrying Lori. You didn't listen to me then, but I sure hope you listen to me now. Move the hell on. You ain't got the right kind of bait or strong enough line to hook that type of fish, plain and simple."

"Look at that pretty lady stepping up in here at this hour in the day. You are early."

Michonne stepped inside of the Diner. She loved the ambiance of feeling like she stepped into the 1950s when entering and hearing music from that period.

"Morning, Mabel." Michonne greeted the older African American woman who owned the place.

"How are you doing, Michonne?"

"Doing well."

"Good to hear."

"Glad to see you are back in business." Michonne looked around the busy diner.

"Yes, Lawd. I am glad to be back up and running. The devil was trying to keep me down, but I wasn't bowing out, and I wasn't bowing down. I said somebody hold my mule when that Pattybelle Dixon came up in here stirring up trouble. Not in Mabel's Café. Not here. You take that shit down to the Honky Tonk."

"Hold my mule, Ms. Mabel?" Michonne laughed with no understanding of the term.

"Yes, Child. Next thing I know I'd made it on the front page of King's County Square newspaper. We too old to be fighting but we fought that day. Yes, indeed. Pattybelle may look like a man, but I was ready to beat her down like I was one."

"I hope you invested in a more break resistant window this time?"

"Invested in a lot more things. I hired T-Dogg and Dale that you sent my way. They both some good workers. I was leery about felons and even more leery about a felon who lives in an RV, but they had your and Andrea's stamp of approval. I took a chance."

"Thank you for giving them a chance."

"You come to check up on them? They ain't here just yet. It's just me, Zach, and I got Tyrese on the grill. Maggie should be in by Noon."

"I come to gain weight. That is all your food is going to do to me while I am here for the next couple of days."

"Deputy said he was going to take you that sandwich."

"He did, and it was good too."

"Can't believe he is shy."

"Yeah. He's a sweetie."

"He was definitely nervous about taking that lunch to you. Grown ass man that is shy. My Mama Beulah, may she rest in peace, always said to go for the shy ones. I never did. I went for the loud ones. Womanizers and the general no counts. It was kind of cute to see him practice how he was going to ask you to the Sheriff's ball."

"Sheriff's Ball?"

"He fucked up? Shane said he was going to fuck it up. Tyrese said so too. I wagered that he would ask."

"I thought he was asking for Shane."

"Why would you think Shane would need anyone to ask anything for him?"

"How did I get that so wrong?"

"Has Shane been showing you interest?"

"Shane is talkative. Rick in comparison didn't say much. My focus was on nipping any and everything in the bud with Shane."

"Don't start nothing, won't be nothing." Mabel laughed.

"Right. I had never considered Deputy Grimes...Rick."

"Sometimes we have it set in our mind what we want our Mr. Right to look like. We never seem to take into consideration qualities we want our Mister Right to have. You need to ask yourself do you want a man with good character or just a good-looking man?"

"Do I have to choose?"

"If you take your time you will realize you don't have to forego one for the other."

"Now your suit is dirty, Rick."

"It's okay, Michonne. Your tire is changed. That's what matters, right?"

"You were on your way to the Sheriff's Ball tonight."

"I was on my way, and I notice this particular white Mercedes on the side of the road with a flat. I know your car, when I see it, Michonne. Do you really expect me to drive on past and not help?"

"I had road service on the way."

"Where are they?"

"Oh my God, I feel terrible. What about your date?"

"I didn't have one."

Rick's candor hit Michonne in such a way she was slightly embarrassed that she thought Shane wanted her as his date for the Ball. It was Grimes. And if he were to have asked she wasn't sure if she would have accepted the invite due to her hectic schedule and no real chemistry until he stood before her in that damn suit.

"I have to make this up to you somehow?"

"I don't know how I keep making things so awkward with you or between us."

"Let me make this up to you quick. Please?"

"Would that make you feel better?"

"Yes."

"You want to follow me back to my house so I can get cleaned up? We can probably have a better discussion of how you can make this up to me so you can feel better while at my place."

The words left Rick's lips before he could get a hold of them. He wasn't trying to be too forward or make Michonne uncomfortable, but his wording was questionable. He just couldn't figure out how to clean it up to make it sound strictly platonic.

"I can't be out too late... I have to be back in Atlanta by morning. Do you have food at your place?"

"I do."

"I will cook something. As repayment."

"You want to cook?" Rick thought the suggestion was odd.

"I do know how to cook."

"I have no idea if you know how to cook or not. I just figured you would rather go to Mabel's Café."

"You had helped change my tire. The least I can do is cook something for you."

Rick was speechless.

Michonne didn't know what to do with his silence.

"I am negotiating here. Do we have a deal?"

"Deal."

"Okay."

"Okay."

"I live less than Three minutes from here."

"I will follow you."

"Alright. Follow me."

Rick climbed into his Dodge Ram his hands had only stopped shaking once he gripped the steering wheel. He tried to recall if he left his place a mess. Did he have plates in the sink? Did he tidy up his bathroom? He had no memory or if his place was in disarray. If Rick could have wished for death, he literally wanted to die.

Michonne glanced through her rearview mirror. Her heart was racing. She did not realize the man in the suit could look so fucking good. He was attractive in the Deputy uniform but Goddamn. Grime's work uniform had nothing on his Black Suit! Just watching him change her tire Michonne knew she was pregnant. Only by looking at him. Now she couldn't believe she had told him she could cook. She didn't know how to cook. Number one reason her kitchen was immaculate was that she didn't cook at all. She too wished to die.