Are he and Emily a thing now? I thought I’d heard she had a boyfriend overseas. They could have broken up. Did they break up because she and Jack realized they had a thing for each other? I bet they’d make cute babies.
What the hell?! Where did that random ass thought come from? I’m blaming it on my mother. It’s her fault because she’s always going on and on about how she’ll never get grandkids. I have to push all thoughts of babies and Jack out of my mind.
Today has been pretty uneventful, but most days are. There was only one 911 call, and it was from Sally. She was all worked up because her alarm hadn’t gone off. Last week, she claimed someone broke in and replaced some of her light bulbs with ones that were burned out. In reality, she just wanted someone to come change them for her.
I always go over and help her. Today she had the alarm clock set at p.m. instead of a.m. This wasn’t out of the norm since I get a call from her about once a week. It’s always around lunch time, which she has conveniently ready for me so I can eat with her.
As the end of my shift grows closer, I pull up Jack-ass’s tickets to see if he paid any. “What the snowball!” I hiss when I see they’re all gone, and I don’t mean paid. They have been completely taken out of the system.
There’s only one person that could have done this, so I turn on my lights and drive over to City Hall where I know my brother North will be. The man is a workaholic. If he’s not in his office, then he’s out doing something that has to do with work. My brother has a bit of an obsessive personality.
Joy's eyes widen when I come storming in. I give her a quick smile but go right into my brother’s office without knocking.
“What the hell!” I shout, and North glances up from whatever papers he was reading.
“Aren’t you a ray of sunshine? Did Sally make tuna salad? It’s not the best, but it’s not terrible.”
“I know, right? It just needs a little more mayo or…” I trail off while my brother smirks. “You cleared all his tickets.”
“I did.” He doesn’t even try to hide it. Though my brother is not one to lie. Ever. At times I think he can be a bit too by the book. “Jack’s resort brings in more tax dollars than the rest of this town combined. You don’t need to write stupid tickets for no reason.”
“Stupid?” I hiss at my brother. North isn’t wrong; Jack does a ton of stuff for the town for free. It’s because he’s nice to everyone but me.
“I don’t know what your deal is with Jack, but he's a good guy. Stop being an asshat.” I gape at him.
“I’m the asshat? He’s the one that’s rude to me!” My brother can’t be this blind. “You’re a traitor.” I point my finger at him, and he shakes his head before he goes back to reading the papers on his desk. “You really want to play with me, North?” I put my hands on my hips.
“You can’t write me tickets.” He doesn’t bother to look back up at me.
“No, I suppose not, but I’m sure I can think of other things to do.” My sweet tone has him lifting his eyes in suspicion.
“Tins,” he warns.
“North.” I give it right back. “You know re-election is around the corner.”
“No one is running against me. Nice try.”
“As of right now.” I’m so bluffing.
“I’ll call Mom,” he says and makes a grab for his phone.
“You snitch!” I lunge across his desk, trying to rip it out of his hands.
“You’re a cop and you’re calling me a snitch?” he laughs.
“You know what?” I push off his desk and ignore the crap I knocked off.
My brother, being the A-type that he is, gets up and starts putting everything back in its place. While he’s doing that, I tuck my uniform back in place and push my hair out of my face.
“Go on.”
“What?”
“You said do I know what.”
“Oh right.” I get back to the task at hand. “You’ve chosen your side. Now you will have to deal with the fallout.”
“Is the fallout a snowball to my face?”
“I could add that on, I suppose.”
“Are we done here? I’ve got shit to do.” He drops back down in his chair behind his desk.
“Are you going to work all night?” He shrugs. Of course he is.
“Mr. North,” Joy says as she pokes her head into the office.
She moved to Troping two years ago to help take care of her sick grandmother. She’s sweet, but shyness clings to her and it makes it hard to get to know her. Even now, her cheeks are turning pink.