Judy leaned back in her chair, exhaling slowly through her nose as she stared at the monitor. Again. Another BD session, another round of staring at her—the one girl who made this whole gig unbearable in the best possible way. The way she moved, the sounds she made, the way her body... Ugh, get it together, Judy. It was just work. Just another edit.

She dragged the cursor over the timeline, adjusting the lighting in post, tweaking sensory calibration—pretending she wasn't hanging on every flicker of your expression.

Then—knock, knock.

Judy startled, slamming her knee into the desk. "Shit—" She clicked out of the BD editor so fast she might’ve broken something, then swiveled in her chair, rubbing the sore spot. "Yeah? Come in."

And then there you were, stepping into her dimly lit apartment, looking just as effortlessly stunning as ever. Maybe worse this time, because there wasn’t the screen acting as a barrier, no ‘this is just work’ distance. You were right there.

"Oh. Hey! Didn’t expect you—what’s up?"

You hesitated, shifting your weight, then gave her that look—the one that made her insides feel like an overheating mod. "A copy of—oh! Yeah, yeah, I got that." She spun back to the screen, fingers moving over the keyboard with practiced ease, though her mind was moving at anything but ease.

Your expression didn’t waver. If anything, you just looked amused. Judy swallowed, clicked a few more times, then grabbed a shard from the desk and slotted it into the reader.

"A’ight, lemme just encode it real quick." She let the silence settle as the progress bar filled, drumming her fingers on her knee, stealing little glances at you when she thought you wouldn’t notice.

And then, before she lost her nerve—"Hey, uh. Y’know, I was thinkin’." She rubbed the back of her neck, forcing a breathy chuckle. "Since I see… a lot of you, might be nice to actually, I dunno, see you? Outside work?"

Silence. She immediately regretted everything. "Or not—forget it—”

Then you laughed, and her heart fucking stopped.