'Which one of you lovely ladies wants to bet I can make the shot from here?' Danny grinned infectiously as he wadded his paper basketball tightly together. It was an ambitious proposal, shooting from the doorway of the break-room to the trashcan beside the refrigerator, which was more than halfway across the room.
Olivia and Lindsay shared a hopeless glance. The end of their shift was almost done and the day had been relatively quiet. Still, it had been a long week and they were all thankful for a little down time. Even if it was only Danny and his trashcan hoops.
'What're the stakes?' Lindsay asked with only mild interest.
Danny considered it for a moment. 'How about spaghetti and meatballs at Casa de Messer?' he playfully suggested.
'There's an offer a girl can't refuse,' Olivia said dryly to which she received a pointed look from Danny.
'You dissin' my cookin' abilities, Duke?'
'No offense, Messer, while you are indeed a man of many talents - '
'Cookin' being one of them,' he interrupted. 'After all, I am Italian.'
Olivia lifted one eyebrow. 'Please, that automatically makes you an excellent cook?'
'Naturally. Would you expect anything less?'
'Tell you what, just to be super safe all round,' Lindsay jumped in, 'how about a beer instead? You miss, you buy.'
'I'll take that action,' Danny nodded. 'We all in?'
'Not me,' Olivia shook her head, leaning further back in the chair. 'I have plans.'
'With who?' asked Danny.
'Wouldn't you like to know.'
'Isn't Flack on night shift?'
Her look was heavy-lidded. 'What makes you so sure my plans involve Flack?'
Danny shrugged. 'You've been out a couple times the last few weeks. Figured it must be getting serious.'
'We've been out twice in four weeks,' Olivia corrected him. 'And it isn't serious. Not that it's any of your business, we're just having a good time.'
'S'cuse me for asking,' Danny said. 'Montana, drum roll, please.'
Lindsay sighed wearily but dutifully banged on the tabletop. Danny lifted the ball of paper, and took aim.
'He carefully aims, look at the steady way he grips the ball, we haven't seen anything like it since Joe - '
'Is the commentary necessary?' Olivia said. 'Just take the shot, Messer.'
Danny lowered his arm. 'Now you put me off.' He gave his shoulders a roll and cracked his neck, and both women groaned. 'Okay, here we go. He takes aim, pulls back his arm, he shoots and - '
The paper ball missed the trashcan by about a foot.
'Misses,' said Flack who had just appeared in the doorway. 'Better luck next time, Danno.' He slapped his friend on the back.
'Your girlfriend put me off,' Danny said pointing at Olivia.
'Seems I do that a lot, huh?' she grinned, a gentle reminder of their pool match. 'And you owe Lindsay a beer.'
'I never welch on a bet,' replied Danny. He turned to Flack. 'Aren't you supposed to be doing nightshift?'
'Not tonight. Managed to pull a few strings.' Flack smiled at Olivia. 'So I got the whole night.'
Danny caught the exchange between the two and grinned lightly. 'Taking time off work, Donny? Must be getting very serious between the two of you.'
Olivia rolled her eyes and got up out of the chair. 'You ready to go?' she asked Flack.
'Yup. So what we eating? Chinese, Italian...'
'I've had all the Italian I can stomach tonight.'
'Sounds bad for you, Flack,' Danny shot back. Like Danny, Flack came from an Italian background. On his mother's side. His pops was Irish.
'But unlike some Italian, this one doesn't give me indigestion,' Olivia told him with a saucy wink as she linked her arm through Flack's and the two of them walked out the door.
Flack shot Danny a grin over his shoulder. 'You either got it or you don't, Mess.'
Danny looked back at Lindsay, who was smiling and shaking her head from side to side. 'What you grinnin' about, Montana?'
'C'mon.' Lindsay stood up and grabbed her purse. 'You owe me a beer. And I'm not about to let you hustle me out of it.' She moved by him out of the door.
'I'd never do such a thing. Might even spring you some beer nuts,' Danny said following her out.
'Don't you know how to show a girl a good time? How are you still single?'
He fell into step beside her as they made their way down the brightly lit corridor of the crime lab. 'Because I'm too damn nice for my own good, that's why. There aren't surefire ways to seduce me, Montana. But over the years, I've noticed a pattern in the types of women I'm attracted to.'
'You're attracted to the wrong type,' Lindsay stated.
'Boom. I always reach for the unobtainable. The women that are hazardous to a guy's health.'
'So quit reaching so high.'
'Easier said than done. I'm a very nice guy, is it my fault women read me wrong?'
'Your attitude doesn't do you any favors,' Lindsay said as they reached the elevator down.
'Underneath this cocky attitude and dangerously handsome exterior there lies a seriously misunderstood man and a sensitive soul.'
Lindsay rolled her eyes. She pushed the button and they waited. 'You just keep him covered up well.'
'I resent that, Montana.'
'I care.' The elevator doors dinged open and they stepped inside.
'I don't remember you ever being this cold. Not before the Queen of Siberia showed up, anyway. Must be rubbin' off.'
Lindsay pushed the button for the ground floor and the doors closed. 'Let it go, Danny. Olivia's a great girl. If you took the time to get to know her you'd see that.'
'Flack's gettin' to know her pretty well. She says it isn't serious, yet he's taking time off work to be with her,' Danny mused.
'So?'
'You don't know Flack. If ever there was a guy worthy of taking on Mac in the workaholic stakes, Flack'd be him.'
Lindsay shrugged. 'Maybe he just really likes her.'
'Obviously. You could say I was worried. That is one messed up girl.'
Lindsay shook her head, but didn't bother remarking. 'Don isn't some schoolboy with a crush. I think you're underestimating him and making Olivia out to be something she isn't. Didn't you just say that people read you wrong?'
'Which makes me well equipped to read people myself. And I'm tellin' you, I gotta feeling that girl is gonna break Flack's heart six ways from Sunday.'
*
Flack and Olivia ate at the Thailand Restaurant where they'd laughed and talked about the most random of things. The more time she spent with Flack the more she enjoyed his company. He was the kind of guy a person - male or female - couldn't help warming to. He was easy-going, down-to-earth; they pretty much liked the same things, shared similar taste in music and movies and were both career-minded. It helped that he was easy on the eye and that they were on the same wavelength sexually. All in all, the relationship - if Olivia had been thinking about starting one - had a lot of potential to become something really good.
Only she wasn't looking.
Just after ten pm Flack pulled his Denali to a stop outside of Olivia's building. He was waiting for her to give him a sign to kill the engine. This was only their third date in four weeks, including the night at the Blind Tiger, and he hadn't forgotten her "no-involvement rule". He didn't want to appear presumptuous, no matter how bad he wanted to spend the night with her. They weren't a couple, he wasn't even sure they were dating. It had been almost a week since their second night together and he hadn't touched or kissed her since.
She smiled at him. 'I had a great time.'
'Me too,' he nodded smiling back. Something about one of her smiles always drew one out in him. 'I always have a good time with you.'
She bit on her lower lip, still smiling and Flack wanted to lean over and kiss her until she couldn't breathe. He couldn't remember a time when he had wanted a woman so bad. And he certainly couldn't remember when a woman had affected him this deeply. He was actually aching to touch her.
'Well, we've got another seven hours until morning,' she said, her emerald eyes darkening. 'How about we go upstairs and make this good time great?'
Flack didn't waste any more time waiting. He killed the engine, as she opened up the car door and slid out and climbed the steps to the front door; the shape of her legs and the sway of her hips mesmerizing him. How was it possible for him to want sex so bad?
Olivia unlocked the door and stepped over the threshold, looking back at him. 'You look tense, Flack. Something wrong?'
He was like a horny teenager, that's what was wrong. He wanted to kiss her and he didn't think he could wait until they were upstairs. Reaching out he curled his fingers around the back of her neck and pulled her into him. He teased her mouth with his, her lips parted and they were soft and warm and tasted just as he remembered. When her tongue touched his he let out a low groan and when he pulled back the dark look had returned to her eyes. She wanted him as much as he wanted her.
'That answer your question?' he murmured, watching the movement of her tongue as she licked her lips. 'Can we take this upstairs now?'
She smiled softly. 'Let's go.'
*
They hadn't stopped kissing since she kicked the front door shut and they had just made it into the bedroom leaving a trail of clothes in their wake, when the sound of a cell phone came from somewhere out in the living room. While his hands slid over her body, Flack groaned at the interruption.
'You gotta be kiddin' me..'
'It sounds like mine,' Olivia said as they fell back onto the bed.
'Uhuh,' he mumbled between kisses, 'ignore it.'
'It could be work.'
'Could also be a wrong number.'
Flack's skilfull hands were making it easy to forget the ringing phone, but its incessant ringing was making it difficult for her to concentrate on him. Whoever the caller was, they weren't giving up.
'I didn't set my voicemail,' she said breathless, as his mouth began trailing kisses down the length of her body.
'Don't worry 'bout it,' he murmured, reaching the flat of her belly.
Stars were beginning to form before her eyes. 'Flack.' She caught his head between her hands, before he made her forget her name let alone anything else. 'I should answer it.'
He groaned and dropped his forehead to her belly. If it were his phone he'd have a hard time ignoring it, too. Especially if it was work. In that one way they were completely alike. He pressed a kiss to her hip and rolled off her. She ducked off the bed, grabbed her robe and sprinted into the living room to search for the phone, found it in her jacket lying at the front door, fished it out of the pocket and answered.
'First, what took so long?' said the voice on the other end. 'Second, the labored breathing makes me think I interrupted something, so I guess that answers the first. Oops. My bad.'
A grin spread over Olivia's face at the sound of her best friend Evan's voice. 'Lassiter,' she said tying the sash on her robe, 'you are one perceptive guy. I don't hear from you in over a week and you choose to call me now. What's the deal?'
'I do work, you know. It isn't all glam parties and meetings with Mr. Choo and Manolo.'
'Oh yeah, all that shoulder brushing and champagne must be a real bind, dahling. What the hell are you doing calling me so late on a Monday?'
'And there I was thinking my best friend might actually be missing me.'
'I miss you every day.' He was her only connection to home and the only person that had been with her through everything. They'd met at junior high at the tender age of eleven and had been the best of friends ever since. She'd even lived with him and his mom for a while after her mother had met Hickey. 'What's going on?'
'What, because I call you after ten on a Monday you automatically jump to the conclusion something's wrong? Can't a friend just call a friend?'
Olivia smiled knowingly. 'Save the speech.' She dropped down onto the sofa. 'You forget how well I know you.'
'Okay, okay. I'm going to be in the Big Apple this coming Wednesday, I have a meeting with Gloria Lennox, the fashion guru?'
'I got nothing.'
Evan sighed. 'Never mind, O Clueless One. One of the other stylists was supposed to take it, but he broke his leg water-skiing in Vermont. I ask you, who goes water-skiing in Vermont? Anyway, I'm taking his place. I thought after the meeting finishes, we could get together.'
'It'll be good to see your ugly face again.'
'You missed me that much?'
She laughed lightly. 'You know it. Where are you staying? Or should I prepare my sofa for your skinny ass?'
'Sofa indeed. And my ass is anything but skinny right now. You haven't seen me in over four months.'
'Whose fault is that?'
'I'm not the only one who lives and breathes their work, sister.'
Olivia sank deeper into the sofa cushions with a smile. God, she had missed this. Missed him. And their toxic, verbal judo. Given the amount of crap they gave each other, to most people this behavior would seem odd for two best friends; but that was just them and she wouldn't have it any other way. Seventeen years. There wasn't a thing she didn't know about him and vice versa. He was the only person she had ever trusted with her deepest, darkest secrets. If the guy weren't her best friend or gay, damn, she'd have married him years ago.
'Case and point,' she replied. 'So tell me where you're staying and I'll pick you up.'
'The Chelsea on West 23rd.'
Olivia let out a low whistle. The Chelsea was a beautiful, old neo-Gothic hotel and one of New York's most noted landmarks. 'Your firm never heard of Comfort Inn?'
Evan snorted. 'If they send the best, then the best expects no less than an expensive hotel.'
'You're such a snob.'
'I'm no such thing.'
'All that shoulder brushing has turned you into one.'
'You're just envious that while I'm dressing Tyra and Giselle and partying with Jimmy and Mr. Blahnik, you're trawling through seedy back street Dumpsters looking for epiwhatsits and blood spattered weapons. Oh, the joy.'
'Epithelials,' Olivia laughed. 'And y'know what, I wouldn't trade you for the world.'
'That we do agree on,' Evan drawled. They were alike in many ways but chalk and cheese when it came to their very different careers. 'So, how about we say eight on Wednesday?'
'Sounds good. Can't wait to see you, honey.'
'Ditto,' he replied. 'Although, I'm inclined to admit I'm more eager to learn what's going down where you are right now. Pun intended.'
Olivia chuckled. 'Wednesday. Eight. See you then.' She hung up and was still smiling when Flack appeared in the bedroom doorway. 'Sorry. I had to take that.'
'No problem,' he said, leaning up against the doorjamb. 'Important?'
She got up off the sofa and wandered over to him. 'An old friend of mine's coming in Wednesday, he wants to get together.'
Flack nodded. He. The flash of jealousy that wound through his system surprised him. He wasn't the type to go all green-eyed monster. She'd made it clear that this thing between them was only casual. But the idea of her with another guy was somewhat disconcerting.
She gave him a slow smile and began walking her fingers up his bare chest. 'So, Detective Flack, my motor's still running, you ready to pick up where we left off?'
He pulled her close, loving the way she fit against his body. What did it matter that she was meeting up with an old friend who was a he? Right now, she was here with him. That was all that mattered. He pushed her hair back from her face, looked down into those amazing green eyes and when he lowered his mouth and kissed her, he forgot all about the other guy.
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COPYRIGHT. © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Debra Jay. 2006