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“I can wait those out, too,” I said. “Is this still about Molly?”
“No,” he said.
“Liar,” I said.
“No, really.” He pushed the basket away which alarmed me because there was a lot of food in there and it wasn’t like Mac to not eat. “Look, she’s really happy with Rain and let’s face it, I knew I didn’t have a chance even before I found out she was gay. She never gave me the slightest encouragement—”
“Oh, come off it.” I pushed my basket away, too, annoyed with him now. “You guys went everywhere together. Whenever one of you showed up, the other wasn’t far behind. The whole town considered you a couple. You were paired with her for twenty years, since junior high.” I stopped because the look on his face was awful. “You didn’t make a mistake thinking she loved you,” I said finally. “She does love you. She’s just not interested in sleeping with you. Have you seen her since . . .” I was going to say, "Since she met Raina Still,” but that seemed like rubbing salt in the wound.
“She’s pretty busy with Raina now,” Mac said. “Understandably.”
I decided I’d pushed my basket away prematurely and pulled it back to point one of my fries at him. “Do not go noble on me. If she dropped you so she could spend all her time with Raina, I’m going to have words with her.”
“Why?” Mac said, pulling back his own basket. “If she wanted to spend time with me, she would.”
“Maybe not. Maybe she feels like she jerked you around for too long, that she should have told you.”
“Maybe I already knew,” Mac said. “Maybe I thought she was bi and would get girls out of her system. Maybe I liked having her to talk to while I still had sex with other women. Maybe I’m just screwed up.”
“No,” I said firmly. “You’re the best guy I know.”
“I thought that was Vince.”
“No,” I said. “He’s the guy I love. He’s the rest of my life as soon as I figure out what I want the rest of my life to be. Best guy? That’s you.”
“Yeah, I’m working on the rest of my life thing, too,” Mac said.
“Well, you’re doing it right, figuring that out before you fall in love with somebody. Because negotiating it later is the pits.”
“Trying to find somebody to love isn’t that much fun, either,” Mac said. “I’d rather have that person lined up so we could figure out the future together.”
“So, we’re both screwed,” I said, and Mac laughed, and then I did, too, because we were both hopeless.
“Well, this is cozy,” somebody said and I looked up to see Brandon Bartlett, Vince’s new boss, standing at the end of the booth. “No wonder Vince has been such a broody boy today.”
Mac looked at me. “Broody boy?”
I shook my head. “O’Toole fired George and put this guy in as chief.”
“Is that a joke?” Mac said.
“Yes, but it’s also true. That’s why Vince has been cranky today.”
“That would do it,” Mac agreed.
I looked back at Bartlett, who appeared like he was searching for something to say and would certainly say it when he thought of it.
“You and O’Toole did a bad thing,” I said.
“I’m the police chief,” he said, as if those were the magic words.
“The title doesn’t give you respect,” I said. “You earn that. And so far, all you’ve earned is contempt. You know O’Toole put you in there as his minion. The problem for you is that everybody knows you’re a minion. As long as you’re O’Toole’s little yellow buddy, nobody is going to respect you. Now go away. We’re eating here.”
“I wonder if Vince knows you’re dating his girl,” Bartlett said to Mac.
“If you think every woman you have dinner with is dating you, you must get really confused at banquets,” Mac said. “The lady asked you to go away.”
“Free country,” Bartlett said.
