You ready for that beer?

Girls

"Hey you guys, listen up!"

As Hondo enters the room, all the chit-chat and laughter fades away and is replaced by pure concentration. Chris, too. But not me. I can't stop looking at her, going over yesterday's situation over and over again in my mind. Why won't she go out with me? I mean, I know I've got my flaws, but come on, I can't be that bad. And I don't mind being rejected by her (although it does hurt my pride a little bit), I'd just like to be sure I'm not the reason why. Maybe she's got her own issues. I don't want to get in the middle of that. But she could at least give me a reason, right?

"Street, hey!" Hondo's voice pulls me back into reality. "Save your sleep for nap time. We've just got a new case. Did you even listen?"

"Yes, er, yes, of course."

I have to get Chris out of my mind. What did she say yesterday? Something like: There are hundreds of girls in L.A. you can hit on. I guess she's right. Maybe I should sign up for some of those dating apps one time. Couldn't hurt, considering that being a S.W.A.T. officer doesn't affect your love life well, as you can see with Hondo, or with Luca. And Chris is single, too, as far as I know. Or not? All the time I thought if she had a boyfriend, she would had told me right away. But then again, she doesn't tell anyone anything really, does she?

"Street!"

"Sorry, Sergeant!"

I should really stop thinking about Chris now. Why is that so hard?

"So, Captain Cortez has just given the blueprints through", Hondo goes on, as we hurry outside and climb into the Black Betty. "It's an hunting box in the woods between Lancaster and Pasadena. So pretty much in the middle of nowhere."

"Any ID on the kidnapper yet?", Chris asks. Obviously, I had missed something, and obviously, yesterday's events didn't sway her concentration the way they did mine. That should really give me something to think about.

Hondo nodds. "Alice Becker, just out of prison and still on parole. The hostage being kept in that hut is 9-month-old Tariq Lewis. He's the son of Beckers ex-wife and her new fianceé. Looks like hatred between that fiancée and Becker goes deep, they already almost killed each other in a knife fight two years ago."

Chris chuckles sarcastically. "Sounds like true love."

"Speaking of love", Tan says, grinning. "Chris, don't you have a date tonight?"

Suddenly, I'm full concentrated. Date? What date?

Chris rolls her eyes. "Well, yeah, I guess. Afterall, we've been dating for three months now - which means that we went on two dates. I know that she's fed up to the back teeth by my job."

Wait a second.

She?

A girl?

Strange that it never occured to me Chris might be into girls. It all makes sense, though. Why she doesn't want to go out with me, not even when I asked for the god-knows-how-many-time? Still, she could have just told me she's a lesbian. That would have saved me a lot of time. And embarassment.

Well, anyway, it's a good reason. And it means she didn't reject me because she doesn't like me, it's because she can't even like me, not like that. Which is good to know.

Oh man, that sounds really arrogant, even in my mind. I know I've been in a lot of trouble. I probably don't even deserve someone like Chris. But anyway, I don't have to worry about that anymore - because she's a lesbian and I now have to concentrate on catching this jealous ex-wife and rescuing that baby. And, after that, signing up for a dating app. After all, I don't wanna be single forever.