The Detective: Frankiana

CHAPTER 12: Girlfriend

The smell of the liquors surrounding her soothed her nerves. She decided to pick a Macallan 12 Year Old Sherry Oak Scotch and immediately headed to the Captain's house after she had paid for it.

She pressed the Captain's doorbell twice and she was greeted by the Captain's wife. "Mrs. Romero! Nice to see you. Good evening." She greeted happily.

"Good evening Hannah. Come inside, the other detectives are there by the grand piano. My husband's there, also." Mrs. Romero said.

"Okay. Excuse me po." Hannah courteously said as Mrs. Romero just smiled in return.

"Happy birthday Captain!" Hannah exclaimed as she headed to the group.

"Oh, 'andito ka na pala. Wala pa yung partner mo." The Captain said.

Hannah roamed her eyes at the group for a while and indeed, she had not seen Salazar. It was only the captain, Jonas, a girl, Julia, and another guy standing by the piano. The girl and the guy, she assumed, were Jonas and Julia's dates for the night. She began feeling out of placed for bringing no date for the night. 'Who am I kidding, I even have no one to bring to.' She mentally chuckled at the thought. She just hoped Salazar would arrive already so she would not be left alone.

"Captain" She called, "Scotch for you. Happy birthday again." She smiled widely.

"Thank you, Hannah." The captain replied. "Now, would you excuse me, I have to tend to the other visitors." And he headed to another group of people by the couch.

"Hannah, I want you to meet Nina." Jonas said. "My girlfriend."

"Hi Nina!" Hannah exclaimed and hugged the girl as the latter replied her hello.

"And this is my boyfriend, Miguel." Julia said.

"Hi Miguel!" Hannah exclaimed again and proceeded to hug the guy.

"OP yata ako ngayon ah." Hannah said and chuckled in her thick Aussie accent. The others chuckled along. "I just wish Salazar would come here already so I'd not be alone anymore." She said chuckling.

"And what even makes you think that Salazar would not bring a date?" Jonas asked seriously.

Hannah became silent. "She has just arrived. She's by the door, with a date." Julia said and pointed to the door where Hannah's back was facing against. She turned around and saw Salazar.

Her mouth almost dropped to the floor as she saw Salazar who was wearing black leather pants and sparkly black fitted off-shoulder long-sleeved top, completed with black two-inch heeled boots. 'Dead hot.' She made her way to Hannah, thumbed through her hair once and spoke. "Good evening, detective."

Hannah recovered and said "Good evening, detective."

"Hannah, Jonas, Julia, and the two other people" She called their attention. She paused for a while and looked at the girl beside her. Hannah almost forgot that Salazar was with someone. She switched to look at the girl. 'Wow.' She mentally said. The girl was a foreigner, if not Half-Filipina. She was wearing a black sparkly dress that emphasized her curves, paired with sparkly black stilettos. Her hair was long and wavy and her face was smoky. 'Smoking hot.' Hannah mentally said again.

"This is Beatrice, my girlfriend." Salazar said with no hesitation.

'Girlfriend. Girlfriend. Girlfriend.' It was as if the word echoed loudly in Hannah's head. She didn't know what but she felt something inside her just crashed and broke.

"Bea, these are my colleagues. This is Hannah, Jonas, and Julia. This girl, I assume, is Jonas' date. And this guy, I suppose, is Julia's date." Salazar continued.

"Hi Bea!" They said in unison and smiled widely at the girl, except for Hannah who only gave a light smile.

"Hi!" Bea replied enthusiastically.

"I'll leave you here with the group, okay? I'll just give this present to the Captain and I'll bring you some drink when I get back." Salazar said to Beatrice and the latter nodded in response.

"So, are you from around here?" Jonas asked.

"Uh, no. I'm actually from Sweden, I just arrived this morning." Beatrice replied. 'So that must be why Salazar came late this morning.' Hannah thought.

"Are you Swedish?" Julia asked this time.

Beatrice chuckled. "No. I'm ItLog."

"A what now?" Hannah replied in confusion which sent Beatrice slightly laughing.

"My dad is Italian, my mom is Tagalog. So I'm ItLog." Beatrice replied and it sent the group laughing, even Hannah.

"What's the laugh about?" Salazar asked as she came back to the group bringing two drinks in her hand, one for herself and one for Bea.

"I told them your ItLog joke." Beatrice laughed and Salazar laughed along.

"She was actually the one who invented that." Beatrice pertained to Salazar.

"So are you guys together for a long time now?" Jonas asked curiously. 'Thank you Jonas, you've been asking the questions I've been aching to ask.' Hannah mentally commented.

"We've been together for three years now." Salazar stated proudly as she looked at Beatrice and smiled.

"Wow." That was all Julia could comment.

"So are you a detective too?" Jonas asked again. 'Wow, Jonas, remind me to thank you later.' Hannah mentally commented again.

"She's actually a member of the Swedish Police." Salazar answered for her. "She just got promoted to Captain. She came here to relax a bit, reward herself."

'This girl is something. She's been running on compliments all evening.' Hannah thought before saying. "Wow, congratulations on that Bea!"

"Thank you." Bea replied and paused for a while. "Shall we head on to dance?" She asked the group, and the group agreed, except for Hannah.

"Uh, you guys head on, I'm actually about to go now. I had other plans for the night." Lie. She just didn't want to feel out of placed. She was the only single in the group. She actually has nowhere to go and nothing to do, but she decided she'll just figure it out later. All she wanted at the moment was to escape.

"Oh, okay. Take care of yourself." Salazar replied, not hinting the avoidance.

"Yeah, enjoy the rest of the night, you guys." Hannah said before finally heading to her car. She started it and drove to where the roads had taken her. She felt heavy. She didn't want to admit it but seeing Salazar with a girlfriend actually broke her heart. Had she fallen that hard, already? Was she in love with her all along? She doesn't know. All she knows is that she was happy when she's with her, and discovering that the girl had a girlfriend kinda messed her up.

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