“So, who are you smashing pissers with?” I asked, sitting across from Callie in her apartment. She called for a poker game, which is something everyone on the detective squad seemed to do when they want to get away from their families or their loneliness. It was nine o’clock at night, and everyone, but me, had left. I helped her clean up and stayed for another beer.
“Has anyone ever told you how crude you are?” she laughed, sipping at her own drink.
“Yes. Numerous people. Thousands of times,” I answered, smiling.
“I’m not smashing anything with anyone at the moment,” she sighed.
“You ever get serious about anyone? Think they’re something different than all the others?” I asked, mostly for myself and the Brooke-filled thoughts that had been flying around my head all day.
“No.” She closed her eyes and shook her head. “Men are all the same.”
“No knight-in-shining-armor for you? They’re all a pack of dicks?” I chuckled, taking another sip of beer.
“I never believed in knights-in-shining-armor. I don’t even know why…maybe because my life is filled with so many villains,” she laughed.
“What was his name?” I asked, setting the beer down on the table.
“Whose name?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at me.
“The guy who made you think so little of my gender.”
She looked down and shook her head. “No one.”
“So,” I said, leaning forward. “You’ve never had a serious relationship with someone?”
“I just don’t see a reason to,” she said.
“Why?”
She shrugged, “I just don’t.”
“Is it about you not being able to have kids?”
“Holy hairy buffalo balls, Cage. You don’t give up, do you?”
“Nope, not usually,” I admitted, leaning back.
She sighed, frustrated. “Okay, fine. Why get into the whole relationship thing if I can’t have children? Whydothat? I just want to have fun, that’s all.
She was lying, I could tell.
She twisted her lips and tapped her fingers on the neck of her beer bottle. “You like her, don’t you?”
“Who?” I asked, knowing damn well who she was talking about, but not wanting to change the subject. I brought my beer back up to my lips.
She rolled her eyes. “Your Future Baby Mama?” she teased. “Where is she now?”
“Probably in my apartment putting my brother to bed,” I said, taking another sip.
“Why aren’t you there with her?”
I shook my head and exhaled loudly. “It’s killing me, that’s why.” I slid my beer onto the table and ran my hands over my head. “It’s like this perfect shit to come home to: a cooked dinner, a gorgeous woman, always laughing and God the way she blushes. It just drives me insane.”
“Youreallylike her. Oh my God. Dean is going to kill you!” she laughed.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I’ve heard,” I chuckled. “Dean is at the point where I mention Brooke’s name, and he sits and growls at me.” I shrugged, and stood up to get my jacket. I slid my arms into the sleeves and turned to face her. “One day, when you’re not looking for anything, you meet someone that changes things. Makes you see things a little bit differently.” I tugged the rest of the jacket on and smiled. “You get excited when you know you’re going to see them. You think of future things. You accept them for all the good and bad shit they got going on.”
“And this is what you feel like with Brooke?”
