Is it settling if you're still getting exactly what you wanted?

“What the hell, Raf?” Carisi demanded as he let himself into Barba’s office without knocking.

“Please, come in, make yourself at home,” Barba snarked tiredly without even looking up from the casefile he was reviewing, his feet propped up on his desk.

“You’ve been getting death threats again.”

Carisi didn’t bother phrasing it like a question and Barba did look up at that, his eyes narrowed. “Olivia wasn’t supposed to tell you.”

“Why the hell not?” Carisi snapped, crossing to Barba’s desk in two long strides. “I have the right to know—”

“No, last time I checked, you lost that right,” Barba said coldly, glaring up at Carisi. “Right around the time when you told me that you weren’t in love with me anymore.”

“Well, then, let me help you.”

Barba blinked at him. “You can’t be serious.”

“I do have my law degree,” Carisi reminded him, rather unnecessarily. “Pretty sure I can manage to read through some case law and pull precedent for you.”

“For once, I wasn’t questioning your ability,” Barba said, leaning back in his seat and looking at Carisi appraisingly. “But why in the world would you voluntarily spend the evening helping me sort through case law?”

Carisi shrugged. “Well,” he hedged, “You said you were too busy for harmless flirting, so…”