Annoyed, I look at the phone on my desk, then back to my door. “Did you come up here to tell me that in person?”
“No. I was on the ninth floor anyway, so I figured I’d stop in and make sure you listen to me.” Flashing a sadistic grin, she glances across to the clock on the wall. “What shall I tell the mayor?”
“That I’ll call him when I’m good and ready.” I look back to Aubree. “Call Fletch and get dinner with him and Moo. They’d love the company, and it’s not good for you to go to Tim’s bar while he’s making out with other bitches.”
Intrigued, Seraphina sheds a little of her savage professionalism and steps into my office so the door closes at her back. “Your man is making out with other people? What the hell?”
“He’s not her man! He’s a man she likes. And he’s a free agent, able to do as he pleases. I don’t like it,” I add before the sisterhood comes at me. “I think he’s a dick for being so damn obnoxious about it.” I bring my gaze back to Aubree. “But he’s a single man who has never made you promises. He never led you on. He’s actually been entirely decent, as long as I’ve known him, and now he’s exploring other relationships. Your hurt feelings are valid, Aubs. But his feelings are valid too.”
“He’s damn lucky I don’t go to his bar right now and show him what’s up.” Growling, she shoves up from her chair and slams it in till the metal smacks my desk. “He hasn’t met my nasty side yet, Mayet. He doesn’t know how dangerous I can be.”
“Uh-huh.”
Andshedoesn’t realize the Tim she so openly ogles is Timothy Malone the Third, of the New York mafia family.
“You honestly sound unhinged right now,” I tell her. “So maybe this is a good time for you to take the afternoon off. Go find Fletch, have a night in with him and Moo, watch trashy TV, and eat something sinful. It’ll make you feel better.”
“Fletch?” Seraphina questions. “As in, Detective Charlie Fletcher?”
“Yeah,” I respond, since Aubree’s still dealing with her anger issues. “He’s—”
“Not a very nice person!” Seraphina cuts in immediately, then looking to Aubree, she adds, “Don’t go searching for love there, Doctor Emeri. You’re better off with the guy who has a girlfriend.”
I choke out a soft laugh. “Oh dear, Fifi. Have you been burned by the charismatic Detective Fletcher?”
“Gah!” She spins away from my desk and heads back toward my door so her heelsclick-click-clickon the tile. “Do not, under any circumstances,evercall me Fifi. I do not give you permission to do that. And no, I’venotbeen burned, because unlike the thousand other females he crooks his finger toward, I say no and go about my day.”
She grabs the door handle and yanks it open so a blast of air crosses the room. “He’s difficult to work with under the best of circumstances. He’s downright impossible to work with when you reject his offers for a romp in the broom closet. And now he has a daughter?” She scoffs out loud, harsh enough to pull Aubree from her own worries and around to study the woman with a challenging brow.
“That man-whore has a daughter, and hestilltreats others the way he does?” Seraphina shakes her head and turns away—not a moment too soon, considering Aubree and I are quite fond of the ‘man-whore’. “Good luck to him when karma comes around and slaps them both in a few years. That little girl will be treated poorly, and we’ll all know whose fault it’ll be.”
“Ah… no.” I push up to stand.
It’s the end of the day anyway, time to pack up and go home. But that doesn’t negate the fact I’m standing in defense of my friend.
“If that little girl—who isthreeyears old, by the way—is ever treated poorly by a man, it’ll be the man’s fault. Not Fletcher’s, and not Mia’s. And it won’t matter for long anyway.” I pause and beam. “I doubt he’ll have hands left to do it a second time. You may go, Seraphina.”
I brush her off with a flick of my wrist and look to Aubree instead. “We’re leaving early today. We have nothing current on our slabs, and you have a little anger to work through.”
“You’re going home to primp and pretty yourself for your date?”
“Mmhm.” I snag my phone and briefcase, sure as hell not saying a word about the pesky marriage proposal sitting on my shoulders. “Archer and I are trying for a normal relationship. Ya know, without all the bickering and breaking up and whatnot.”
“Well, I think it’s super sweet.” She crosses my office once Seraphina steps into the elevator and the doors close her in.
Seraphina is cool—usually. She’s harsh in her work and unrelenting when she wants me to do something, but it’s a relationship we tolerate. An odd friendship that’s been blooming slowly.
But then she had to go and talk shit about Fletch, so now she’s on the outs again.
“I don’t know what he said to you on the night of the mayor’s ball,” Aubree continues as we step through the door and exit my office, into her space. Quickly, she shuts down her computer and swaps out her white coat for something a little… louder. “I knew you’d been fighting, and we kept hearing about how you and he couldn’t come together on some pretty big decisions. But since then, you’ve been…” She stops, drops her hands into her pockets, then shrugs. “I dunno. Happier. More at peace.”
I scoff and head toward the elevator. “I don’t feel at peace. I feel like he’s waging a war against my good sense, and I’m doing everything I can to maintain the lines I’ve drawn.”
Slapping the call button, I wait only seconds before the doors open and reveal an empty elevator. Stepping in, Aubree and I stand shoulder to shoulder, and I hit the button for the lobby.
“He’s pushy, Aubs. And stubborn.”
“And a snitch,” she sniggers. “Allegedly.”