When the Bus Stopped

Chapter 7

"Hold that thought!" Lucy whipped a serviette from under her plate. "Do you have a pen?"

Daniello fished one from his pocket, "Here." A confused look on his face as he watched what Lucy was scribbling.

"Keep talking naturally." She wrote down the car's registration and the time. "While I keep an eye on the perps. Oh, look! The plot thickens."

Lucy prodded a finger at the two men who were now in a passionate embrace. Sitting back she allowed her dinner date to fill her glass to the brim with bubbles. Lucy felt celebratory... helping him with his case, as he'd helped her with her room.

As the men disappeared she passed the serviette to him. "The information you needed. Now what was it you were going to say to me?"

Daniello rested the champagne bottle back on the ice and stared at the serviette for a long time. Conflicting expressions crossed his face before he finally spoke. "I have to admit that I find you very refreshing."

"Oh." Lucy smiled in surprise. "Is that all?"

"Yes. No- Well... Sort of."

"Thank you!"

"I usually spend time with very complicated women but you... you are so... simple."

Simple?

"What makes you say that?" she asked, containing the menace in her voice.

"Most women wouldn't live the way you have for so long. And even if they did, they would have some form of insurance."

"I hardly think it is 'simple' to not have insurance. There are people with insurance policies that are plain ridiculous. I heard about a celebrity who had insurance on her bottom. Her bottom!"

"Well if anything happened to her bottom she would probably be unemployed," Daniello justified. "Some people have been famous so long that they have no education whatsoever."

"Gosh. How depressing. I wouldn't have that type of lifestyle if anyone paid me. Imagine how horrible it would be, they're like prisoners. I can have a bad day and say a few tactless and obnoxious statements and that is it... it's all over. But if you are famous and you say one thing that can be taken out of context it will be. And then a million people hear about it and no one ever forgets. Not even you."

"Me?" Daniello sat bolt upright.

"Not you... you know, you 'the person who is famous'. It really is such a crap way of living."

"What are you saying?" Daniello asked.

She decided on the spot that he had serious issues. "All I'm trying to suggest is that these celebrities have a crap life and we are lucky that we have nothing to do with that. I'd prefer to be a detective any day."

"Me too," Daniello said. A fleetingly sad look crossed his face.

There was a long silence.

"That's a nice handbag."

"Thanks," she gazed down at the creation in front of her. "I repurposed it."

Daniello was suitably confused. "You what now?"

"It is eco-friendly fashion. I take second-hand pieces and cut them up to make unique one-offs. You look good while saving the planet. It is what I do for a living." Or at least what she'd done that winter in the hopes that she would make a bit of money over Summer. Lucy had spent the few previous months in Riverton, a quiet seaside village in the south, where she'd spent her days scouring the region's op shops for garments to upcycle for her brand new business "Boho Chic".