(Not So) Secret Admirer

I'll Just Say...

Linda Rose O'Shea sighed as she got ready for her date. For weeks now, she had been trying to breakup with her "boyfriend", but never had the courage. "Tonight. Tonight for sure." She nodded determinedly. "I'll just say, 'LaRue'. 'LaRue,' I'll say... 'LaRue, I like you and all, but you and me? It's just not gonna work out'." Linda nodded again, "Yeah."
A knock on the door prompted the interning nurse to look up. She walked to the door in her bathrobe with a towel on her head. Her mouth dropped open, "Tom!"
"Hey, Linda Rose." Thomas J. LaRue. No one knew what the J stood for; LaRue was a tall twenty seven year old who worked at the same hospital Linda did. He had a fancy haircut, sexy glasses, and all the girls swooned over him. All the girls except Linda, so why was she sort of dating him? She asked herself the same question often.
"Y-y-you're early! An hour and a half early!"
"So I'll wait." He walked in and sat on the couch.
"Wha-"
"You got ESPN?"
"What?"
"ESPN! The sports channel!"
"No!"
"And why not?" LaRue wondered sincerely.
"Because I don't like sports! I don't know the difference between a touch down and a layup."
"Linda Rose, those are completely different things, babe."
Linda bit her tongue from calling LaRue a bad name. She was not his 'babe', and she hated that he called her Linda Rose. "Okay. Gimme some time."
"For you, babe? I've got all the time in the world."
She bit her tongue again, "I'll try to hurry."
"Take your time. You can't rush beauty."
Linda quickly went back into the bathroom, letting her curses flow quietly off her tongue.
******
"Reagan!"
Rookie cop Officer Daniel Reagan looked at the Sargent. "Yes, Sarge?"
"I'm riding with you for a bit."
"Alright, sir."
"Stop with the 'sir'. Call me Sarge or Gormley. No 'sirs'." Sid Gormley shook his head.
The rookie smiled a little, "I can do that." He followed Gormley out to the car. "So.... can I drive?"
Gormley laughed, "you're eager, kid. But I'm the superior officer. I get to drive."
Danny shrugged, "fair enough."
"Don't do anything stupid!" Officer Joseph Reagan, Danny's younger brother, called to him. He had joined the academy as soon as he could, when he was eighteen. A year later, he was a beat cop, working towards detective or Sargent, he hadn't quite decided.
"Don't ogle your partner." Danny smirked, teasing his brother. Joe's partner was a forty year old man.
"You're gross, Dan!"
"Yeah, up yours."
Joe shook his head, "see ya Sunday dinner?"
"If nothin' goes wrong."
Joe smiled and got in the RMP.
"He's your kid brother, right?" Gormley wondered as he got in the car.
"Yeah. He's a good kid, but don't tell him I said that."
Gormley smirked and pulled out of the parking lot.
"I'm dead serious."