I let out a laugh, “occupational hazard, baby.I’ve been trained in interrogations.We’re good.”
“Mmm,” she hummed against me, “they’ll ask how old you are.”
Ah, there it was.Yes, we had an age gap.She’s twenty-five and I’m thirty-seven.It’s not that I sought this out.But there was something about her that night I couldn’t shake.Building what we were, I didn’t want to let go regardless of our age difference or whatever her family throws at me.
“Matter of public record, baby.”
“Gonna want to talk about your occupation,” she countered.
“Badge speaks for itself.”
She shook her head, “not all cops are good, Dante.”
I reached out and tilted her chin up to look at me.“This isn’t about another cop.It’s about me.I got nothing to hide from you or them.Old enough to know better than to play games.I want this Char for as long as it works.Not young but I ain’t old either, damn.I want to meet your family and one day I’ll take you home to meet mine.”
She smiled at that.“It’s gonna be okay.”
I pressed my lips to hers again.“Easy day.”
She snorted, “okay, officer.Go get dressed before you’re late to work.Lamonte won’t let you live that down.”
This was us, two steps forward and tomorrow would most likely end in three steps back.She needed to have things at her pace, and I was a patient man.Plus, I had my own demons to battle.
I kissed her in a way to last before stepping back and getting my ass in gear to get to work.
Chapter2
Loco
Iwoke up before the alarm, like my body didn’t trust peace enough to let it stretch out.The bedroom was still dark, the kind of pre-dawn that made the world feel unfinished.My apartment smelled faintly like coffee because I’d set the timer last night because shift changes did that to me.
My phone sat face-up on the nightstand.I stared at it like it might blink first.No new messages.I told myself that was normal.It was five-oh-something in the morning.People slept.People didn’t wake up with their nerves already tight, waiting for a shoe to drop.
People like Char didn’t sleep.Not really.Not the way people were supposed to.I knew this because of the nights we had spent together.
I rolled onto my back and let the silence press down on me.For a second, I let my mind pull up her face from last night—her mouth curved around a laugh like she didn’t believe she deserved it.Her hand on my forearm when I said something stupid about a movie I hadn’t watched.The way she looked around the restaurant like she was mapping exits without meaning to.
The date had been good.Not easy.Not simple.But good in a way that made my chest feel too open, like I’d unbuttoned something I’d kept tight for years.The problem with good was that it tricked you into thinking you could have it.That you could keep it.That you could hold it steady without it turning into a liability.
I’d been divorced for long enough to know better.I sat up and rubbed my palm over my face, then swung my legs out of bed.The floor was cold.The world was cold.I welcomed it.
Cold was honest.
In the bathroom mirror, I looked like every other cop who’d seen too much and slept too little—shadowed jaw, short hair that never had a chance to grow too long, eyes that didn’t soften even when I tried.I brushed my teeth, stared at the man staring back, and thought about the fact that he’d asked a woman out after meeting her with a swollen cheek, busted lip, and bruised ribs.
That wasn’t normal either.My phone buzzed once, and my pulse answered like a gunshot.I snatched it up.
Char:Morning.I didn’t wake you, did I?
A breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding left my lungs in one slow spill.
Me:No.I’m up.You okay?
The three letters sat there on the screen like they’d been written in someone else’s hands.You okay.It was what I said to witnesses, victims, and rookies.It was what you said when you didn’t know how to ask the real question.
Are you safe?Do you still feel him on you?Do you think he’ll come back?
Char:Yeah.Just had a weird dream.But I’m okay.What’s your plan for the day?
