Chapter Text
The first time Duke crashed one of their dates, it was genuinely an accident. He honestly didn’t know it was a date, and seriously, how was he supposed to know it was any different from any of the dozens of other times the two of them had shown up together at his restaurant? It wasn’t like it was uncommon- Audrey lived upstairs, they had dinner at the Gull three times a week- and they were his friends, he usually made an effort to stop by their table and socialize when they were there. If they’d expected anything different, they should’ve told him it was a date.
It wasn’t like he wouldn’t have cleared out immediately if they’d implied, even indirectly, that his presence was unwelcome.
As it was, when he’d dropped down onto the bench next to Nathan, Nathan had only blinked once and shifted over enough to make space for him, the way he always did, and Audrey had greeted him with a warm smile and a faint flicker of surprise before including him in the conversation, the way she always did, and they’d had a perfectly pleasant dinner, the way they always did. The only thing Duke noticed as being different was that there was absolutely no talk about work whatsoever, that Audrey and Nathan were both deliberately working to keep the conversation away from the most recent case they’d handled. Which was a nice change of pace, actually, and it was Nathan who’d started bringing up some of the mischief he and Duke had gotten into, back when they were idiot teenagers, and Duke had just kinda run with it, and Audrey had laughed, warm and open and happy, and encouraged them.
When dinner was finished and Duke had insisted they try the new dessert he’d added to the menu and they’d had coffee and wine and it was technically an hour past closing- benefits of owning the joint, he could send the rest of the staff home and keep socializing- it was Audrey who reluctantly acknowledged that it was time to call it a night. If Duke was a little surprised that, when he and Nathan stood up, she leaned up on her toes to kiss Nathan on the cheek, and then repeated the gesture with him, well, she’d had a lot of wine, it’d been a good night, and hell, Audrey could be affectionate sometimes. Not usually that obviously, but it happened, on occasion.
And if he’d smiled and teasingly dropped a kiss of his own on Nathan’s cheek, well, he’d had a lot of wine too, and it’d been a good night, and he and Nathan had never had a particularly strong sense of personal space. Nathan moved to walk Audrey upstairs, Duke went off to actually close up the Gull for the night, and he thought no more of it.
Until the next morning, when he was at the station, and Audrey had greeted his arrival with coffee with a slightly warmer smile than usual, and Nathan had actually greeted his arrival at all, and the atmosphere in their office was just a little different. It didn’t set in precisely what was different until he’d wandered off to find something for Nathan (because he could be useful when he was just hanging around, really he could) and happened to notice Jennifer pulling Audrey aside. Curious, he shifted just enough to listen from around the corner of the hall.
“So? Last night?” Jennifer prompted, and Duke knew that tone, the deliberately significant way she was asking, and a flicker of suspicion formed. “How did the date go?”
And Duke swallowed down a rush of chagrin, because wow, okay, he’d definitely overstepped, how had he not figured that out-
“It went great,” Audrey replied, her voice warm, and full of a comfortable sort of joy. “It was- seriously, it was perfect.” Jennifer made a high-pitched sort of sound, and there was a shuffle of noise that was probably somebody bouncing up and down, and Audrey laughed, quiet and real.
“Ugh, I am so jealous, I swear,” Jennifer said, “I can’t even tell if Dwight and I are actually a thing.”
“You are,” Audrey said, with another laugh. “Trust me, he’s into you.”
“Okay, okay, I know you’re at work, but you have to tell me all about it later,” Jennifer said.
“I promise, drinks tonight, just us girls.” There was another decidedly gleeful sound, and the sound of people moving, and Duke quickly found somewhere else to be standing. And okay, so, fine, he’d date-crashed, but apparently it hadn’t actually spoiled Audrey’s enjoyment of the evening, so he was not going to feel guilty about it. They could’ve said something, after all. He’d just have to pay more attention, next time, make sure it wasn’t supposed to be a private event before he made himself comfortable at their table.
And hell, at least he knew they were happy.