Chief Wilks was storming around in his office when Mason arrived the next morning. The officers that were already there seemed to be tiptoeing around the station. "Whats going on?" Mason asked on his way to the locker room. Jerry was headed in the same direction. " Chief got a complaint at home this mornin'. Somethin 'bout us no count lowlifes spendin to much time down at tha Circle K when we need to be "Poe-licin". Got his feathers all rustled first thing. Haven't seen him this riled sense last halloween when someone attached that there monster mask to the license plate on his car."
It seemed to take Jerry longer to answer a simple question than the average person. Mason thought he was going to die of old age before he was done talking. Jerry's night shift captan came into the room, catching the last of the explanation "I told Chief whatn' nothing to it! By God he's done gone and got his "Dandruff" up!"
Charlie had been working at the police department for almost 30 years. He had worked with Mason't father. He had half raised some of the younger officers. He was a smart man with a lot of policing experience and a good supervisor. But sometimes, in the heat of the moment, what he meant to say, and what he really said, are two different things. These became known as Charlie-isims, and "dandruff" was one of them.
Mason just laughed, making a mental note to stay out of Chief way for the rest of the morning. Jerry punched out just a Johnny came walking through the front door. He almost had to duck to make it through the doorways. "Well?" he said to Mason as he opening his locker and started pulling his duty belt out of it. Mason didn't look up from polishing his boots "Well what?"
"What do you mean well what? You know very well what! What happened with the cute chick from Ricky's?"
Leave it to Johnny to not beat around the bush. The man was about as subtle as a 5 car pile up on the 4 lane at 5 o'clock on a Friday.
"Why do you assume something happened? I gave her directions. Something I do daily on the job. Why should this be any different?"
"The difference is most of the people who ask for directions aren't a knockout brunet chick with beautiful doe eyes! And being off duty, the possibilities are endless..…." Johnny trailed off with a chuckle.
Mason shook his head " Wow, I didn't know my reputation as a ladies man was so well known. Guess I'll have to be more discreet in the future."
"Ok fine, if thats the way you want to play it. But I'm on to you Mason. You wouldn't be so dodgy about it if you weren't the tinniest bit interested!"
Mason walked out to his car, duty bag in hand. Was he interested? He couldn't help but ask himself. He hadn't been in a relationship in,well, quite a while. He wasn't exactly picky, he just didn't go out of his way looking for someone. He was contented with work, and his life in general. He had never been one to mind being alone. So why then, after seeing Blair, touching her, feeling her warmth, had his house seemed so cold and empty last night?
No comments:
Post a Comment