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“Like trying to catch that SUV on some traffic cameras. See if I can trace it to some endpoint. Get better images of the woman in the wig, so I can do some facial recognition. Then set up some people to come hang at your shop tomorrow, so you can be open for a while.”
“I have no good way to thank you for all of this. Save for… free coffee for life,” I said, knowing how short that fell for all he was doing for me.
“Careful. I don’t think you want to underestimate just how much coffee I can drink,” he said. Then his hand landed on my thigh, giving it a squeeze. “You don’t need to thank me for shit, doll.”
His hand stayed planted there until he needed it to parallel park outside of his place.
We made our way up.
I made coffee.
We each brought our cups to our respective places for the evening. Junior, his desk. Me, the TV with the gaming system.
It was all so… domestic.
And not at all awkward.
I didn’t really know what to make of that.
But I also didn’t actually spend any time thinking about it either.
I’d barely managed to get into my game when Barry was asking to join.
Junior and I spent the next few hours in “parallel play.”
Him at his desk.
Me at the game, trying like hell to best Barry as I wondered if he was streaming while we played, if other people would be watching me play as well.
I made a mental note as we went through the game to look up Barry on his socials, to see if he was as popular as Junior seemed to think he was.
It wasn’t until my stomach was grumbling that I snapped out of my focus, finding the loft had gone mostly dark, save for the Christmas lights around the windows that cast the space in a festive glow.
I’m starving, I messaged Barry.Maybe we can play again some other time.
With that, I signed off.
Junior seemed fixated on his screen and I didn’t want to break his concentration, so I flicked on some lights, then made my way to the kitchen to look for something to eat.
I was just looking through the leftover breakfast stuff that Barry had picked up when there was a chime that had Junior jerking away from his desk in surprise.
“Expecting someone?” I asked, watching as his head whipped over like, for a moment, he’d forgotten I was there.
“No,” he said, walking over toward the intercom. “Who is it?” he barked.
Even if I was there for some legitimate reason, the menacing tone of his voice would have sent me running with my tail tucked between my legs.
Alas, it wasn’t just anybody.
“Shale said she was hungry,” Barry’s voice filled the loft. “I figured I’d come by for dinner too.”
“Christ,” Junior said, shaking his head.
“Sorry. I was just telling him I was hungry, so he knew why I was signing off,” I told him.
“Not your fault he can’t function on his own,” he grumbled, but I noticed he didn’t even pause to let Barry up.
He might have been a big, moody guy. But he was a big ol’ softy on the inside.
