"Fredrick, are you in love with me?"

Fredrick blinked, staring at the woman sitting across the table from him, her head resting lightly on her hand. Her face was deceptively bland, innocent... uncaring. Except that she had actually called him 'Fredrick' instead of 'Freddy', 'Fredhead', or some other annoying nickname, so she was serious. It was a simple question. He ought to be able to answer it without any trouble. And yet, he was floundering. Did he love her? He'd always thought that he still loved Lisa, his ex, but now that she mentioned it, that didn't seem right any more.

So, he would think about this rationally. What was Sadie to him?

She was like a fly, annoying, and hard to get rid of. But now that he thought about it, recently he hadn't been trying to get rid of her. In fact, he realized, he enjoyed her company. There were times when he felt altogether too old and worn by himself. She made him feel younger. She made him remember that he might oversee the company, but he was still only twenty-nine years old.

She kept dragging him places. Failing that, she would hang around him all day whenever she decided it was time to visit him again. She'd clean his apartment, chattering at him endlessly about her family. She had thrust a kitten upon him, saying he needed a pet, and that she would feed it, and clean up after it, and train it, but he needed it. He named the black bundle of fur "Samar", which meant ‘midnight’. The little scamp liked to trip him on his way to the toilet in the middle of the night.

She was a ray of light, he decided. She kept him from succumbing to his demons. She kept him sane. She reminded him that for all the terrible things in this world, there were twice as many good things. She found something wonderful in every day. Her laughter lit up his heart. He'd go looking for anyone that made her cry.

And yet, she was not pure light. He'd seen her fall into spirals of depression, often during long weeks of rain, or after fighting with her father. She cussed up a storm when she was angry. But her imperfections gave her character. Without them she would be static, and boring, and they would not be having this conversation in the first place.

He couldn't imagine life without her, he realized. He couldn't imagine her just not being there. He missed her when she was too busy at home to come see him, and he missed her even more when he was busy with work. More than that, he missed her when he woke up in the morning, and when he went to sleep at night. She’d slept over during the first week he’d had Samar, to help train her. He hadn't appreciated her presence until suddenly, she wasn't there anymore.

Yes, he decided, he probably did love her.

"Yes." He said simply. It was nothing to be embarrassed about, after all. People fell in love every day, all over the world.

"Oh good." She said with a grin. "Cause I'm in love with you too, and it would have been real awkward otherwise."

He took a sip of his coffee, ignoring the stares from everyone else, and tried to refocus on his work. Sadie, ever oblivious, went back to working on her part of the proposal. She seemed completely unaware that the entire office was staring at them. The others slowly went back to whatever they had been doing before she had asked her question.