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Paper napkins were thrust in front of my face, and I took them, wiping myself up as I sat up straighter.
Just as I did, I saw someone walk in the side door.
I winced and returned my attention back to my food, absently picking up fries as I glanced surreptitiously out of the side of my eyes.
Nivea didn’t see us at first. I had a handful of fries I was shoving into my mouth, and Flint was taking a massive bite of his burger when she finally turned and spotted us.
The man she’d walked in with, another cop who was in uniform, stopped short when Nivea did.
He placed his hand on her lower back to urge her forward so that he wasn’t stuck half in/half out of the door.
Nivea went, but she glared at us with every step she took.
“You know,” Flint said brightly, not missing a single thing. “I tried to get her to go here like four times, and each time she went she acted like she would gag with each bite of her salad she took.”
I snorted. “That’s because you’re not supposed to get salads at fast food joints.”
He shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. But I didn’t tell her to order that shit. Unless it’s Chick-Fil-A salads, because those fuckers are actually really good. With the nuggets on it and all those juicy tomatoes? Yum.”
The words ‘juicy’ coming out of his mouth made my stomach muscles clench.
“I’ve probably gained eight pounds eating this,” I said, trying to distract myself.
“No,” he said. “It takes like three thousand calories over your allotted caloric intake to gain a pound. What’s more likely to happen is you’ll gain weight, but it’ll all be water weight because of the influx in salt that you took in,” he said, gesturing to my French fries. “That’ll go away as you work out. Then you’ll be back down to baseline.”
I licked my lips.
“Isn’t it a little late for the two of you to be out?”
I looked up to find the man that’d come in with Nivea standing at the tea dispenser filling up a massive cup.
“No,” Flint said. “There was a game today, and it got done late. Then we went home and showered and changed, and decided we were hungry. What’s it to you, Schultz?”
The Schultz guy grinned. “Why’s my sister mad as fuck right now?”
Flint shrugged. “These two don’t get along.”
Schultz’s eyes came to me. “So, she has good taste?”
My mouth fell open.
Did he just say what I thought he said?
“Yes,” Schultz said. “I dislike my sister. She’s not an easy person to get along with. I’m still not sure why this one decided she’d be fun to date…I told him she was nuts.”
I looked from Flint to Schultz and back.
“I’m confused,” I admitted.
“This is our obligatory weekly meeting,” he said. “I like to make it after my shift because it annoys her.”
“Why do you have obligatory meetings?” I couldn’t stop myself from asking.
“Schultz and Nivea share custody of their two nieces. Their sister went into drug rehab and the two of them got shuttled to Schultz,” Flint explained.
“But then my sister threw a giant bitch fit and demanded that she be part of their lives. I agreed, and now I regret every second of it,” he explained. “Nivea and I hadn’t talked in years before the kids came into the picture, and now we’re having to talk, and interact, and make decisions that affect two little people’s lives.”
I winced. I felt sorry for him.
Terrible even.
For anyone to be forced to deal with Nivea on a daily basis sounded like pure torture.
“Ugh,” was all I managed to say.
Schultz grinned. “I like this one.”
Flint grinned back at him. “Me, too.”
“Bummer,” Schultz replied.
Before I could ask what was a ‘bummer’ about liking me, Nivea arrived with one of the bright orange triangles with her order number on it pinched between two fingernails as if it had germs that would jump out and infect her.
“Can we sit and talk about this already?” she sneered. “The babysitter won’t stay there forever.”
Schultz snorted. “It’s our mother. She’ll stay there as long as she needs to.”
Nivea sniffed at him in disgust. “Well, then I would like to get this over with so I can go home and go to bed like normal people do at these hours.”
She looked at us pointedly, and I didn’t miss the glare she aimed my way.
I smiled at her. “Have a nice night.”
Nivea walked away as Schultz silently laughed at her.
“Have fun with that,” Flint said, nodding his head in Nivea’s direction.
Schultz scoffed. “I’m sure that it’s going to be loads and loads of fun. Have a good night, man. It was nice to meet you, ma’am.”
With that he left without another word, leaving me looking at Flint expectantly. “You slept with her despite being warned away?”
