by Emma Vikes
“Thanks for the coffee and it’s nice to know that there are still some decent guys that you get to meet in a club,” she paused for a moment, an emotion I couldn’t decipher flickering in her eyes, “and I hope the next time we meet, we know how to manage our time better.”
She made her way to the door but there was something about what she said that bothered me. I followed her out, just as she was trying- and failing- to hail a cab. I placed a hand on her elbow, turning her around to face me. “What did you mean?”
Her eyebrows furrowed. “What?”
I wasn’t even sure why I was stopping her or what I wanted to know. But there was something about what she had said, about managing our time better that seemed to have sparked something inside of me, something that hadn’t been there before. “What did you mean by managing our time better?”
She tilted her head to one side, the corner of her lips twitching into a small and almost non-existent smile. “I hope we find the courage to do the things that make our heart flutter, even if it’s for just a moment.”
“Like what?”
There was a flicker of hesitation on her face, a momentary glimpse of uncertainty, but she set her mouth into a tight line, and I could see the determination in her eyes. I wasn’t sure why I felt this way. We didn’t even get to talk about anything substantial other than both of us making it clear that dating wasn’t a part of our lives.
But then she took a step closer, her face inches away from mine. I watched as she visibly swallowed, closed her eyes and pressed her lips against mine.
And for a moment, time just stopped.
Everett
1 Month Later
I was already awake before my alarm rang. I’d been awake since 2AM. I’d desperately tried to get some sleep but I hadn’t been able to. It was around 12:30 AM when I had decided to give up on finishing the cases that had arrived last week. The thing was, these were all cases that I could do the coming week. But I wanted to finish them tonight. I wanted to finish all of it tonight.
I wanted to finish it all tonight so that I could be distracted from the news that I had received earlier today when I had stopped by the office. I had been meaning to check on the cases that had come in last week, because I had been in Chicago for a wedding.
But the moment that I arrived in office I could hear the detectives, who were working overtime, buzzing about a new recruit. I had joined in on the gossip, asking if it was a new detective or an intern. To my surprise, the new recruit was a forensic scientist, which only meant one thing.
I had a new partner and I hadn’t even been informed.
Un-fucking-believable.
“You look exactly like one those post-apocalyptic zombies that are set to eat people’s brains,” Leo commented when I went downstairs, still in my boxers and white wife-beater. He had a coffee in his hand and I could see the steam rise from it, as I moved towards him. Unlike me, it seemed that my brother was already dressed and ready to head out at 6 in the morning.
“Early shoot?” I asked, completely ignoring his comment. My older brother had been in love with photography ever since, as a kid, he had found a camera lying in the basement of our house. For a while, it seemed as if the camera was the only thing that he was genuinely in love with.
He glanced down at himself, and I noted how he had actually made an effort to dress himself in proper clothes this time, unlike the usual outfits that he had been wearing since he had resigned from his job with Steve Maddock. Leo had been in college when Steve Maddock had offered him a spot in his team, and at that time, my brother didn’t hesitate to leave his family- and apparently the woman he was in love with- for his career.
“No. But I know that Eleanor needs to get to work early and so Max needs someone to watch him.”
I poured myself a cup of coffee, and ignored the sugar and cream that Leo pushed towards me.
Eleanor Black had been one of Megan’s bridesmaids. Megan was Milo- our older brother’s- wife. She had been my niece- Violet’s- nanny. Which is how Milo had met and fallen in love with her. It was only last week when we all found out that Leo and Eleanor knew each other already. But yesterday Leo confessed to me that what he had with Eleanor wasn’t just a casual hook-up.
“Does wooing Eleanor include you babysitting her son?” I asked with a smirk.
Leo pursed his lips. Max was Eleanor’s six-year old son, who had developed a bond with Leo when we had all gone to Chicago. But then again, Max was easy to entertain and we had all formed a bond with the kid, not just Leo. “I don’t think you understand the lengths that I’m willing to go through just to have her back, Ev.”
Raising an eyebrow, I looked at my brother and shrugged. “It’s just surprising how you seem to be so determined to win her back. Don’t get me wrong, I love seeing this side of you. But there’s still a part of me that only thinks of you as a casanova who will eventually break Eleanor’s heart.”
“Do you really think of me that way?”
I paused and looked at Leo. Of my brothers, I had always been closer to Milo. That is, until Leo and I moved in together. Growing up, I wanted to believe that Leo hated me because I was smart and didn’t have any problems at school, unlike him. Or maybe because I was this nerdy brother who- no matter how many times our parents and Milo had tried- he simply had zero things in common with. But whatever non-existent relationship we had when we were teens, it felt like that phase never existed, because ever since Leo permanently moved back to Irving, things between us had been great. He wasn’t the asshole brother that I remembered.
Sometimes, I think Leo was just making up to me and the rest of the family, for the time he had spent being away. Six years. He had been gone for six years, chasing his dreams.
Shaking my head, I watched as Leo let out a relieved sigh. “I used to, but now I know that you can be better. I hope you become better for Eleanor. Everyone deserves a second shot.”
A small smile crept onto his lips.
We sat across from each other in silence, while we finished our coffee. Just as Leo finished washing his mug, he leaned against the sink, facing me. “You know, Everett, one day I hope you find someone to fall in love with.”
Rolling my eyes, I stood up and began to grab the ingredients for my protein shake. “And you know that I don’t have time for love, Leo.”
He smirked, bumping his shoulder into mine. “You’re going to realize that you have all the time in the world for love.”
When Leo left, I pushed away the blender that I’d been using and sighed, remembering the girl in the coffee shop from a few weeks ago. This was before we had flown to Chicago for the wedding. I could still remember how her lips had pressed against mine, her body hovering lightly, how her hand had pressed flat on my chest, the other one caressing my cheek. I remembered how time had seemed to stop when she had kissed me.
When her lips pressed against mine, I wasn’t sure what I was meant to do. It was as if all rationality had left me. Her hand was pressed flat on my chest while the other was on my cheek, and it was only then that my brain finally registered the idea that I should kiss her back. I placed my hand on the small of her back, pushing her closer to me, opening my mouth to deepen the kiss-
And suddenly she pulled away.
Her eyes were wide as she stared at me, “I-, I shouldn’t have done that. I, I’m so sorry. I need to go.”
“Hey, it’s okay-,” but she was already backing away, almost tripping on the laces of her white shoes as she did so. She glanced back at me as she rushed to leave and I tried to run after her. “Miss! Hey, wait!”
But she was already gone.
With a sigh, I finished my protein shake all in one go. I went back to my room and changed into my sweats. I needed to go out for a morning run before I got ready for work, and I needed to lose the feelings that the memory of the girl and that quick kiss had given me. It wasn’t like me to think of a girl after hooking up with her- and I didn’t even hook up with her- but it seemed as if e
very time she crossed my mind, I couldn’t help but wonder if, by any chance, I would ever meet her again.
And then what?
Like I told Leo, I didn’t have time for a relationship. There were too many crimes in Irving that needed my forensic expertise, and I had my plate full with the growing number of murder cases. There wasn’t any way that I could squeeze in any sort of relationship. A fling, maybe. But a serious relationship like the one Leo seemed to be pursuing or the one that Milo had committed himself to, those weren’t things that I could have on my book at the moment.
And then there was this issue about the new forensic scientist that the department hired. I called the chief about it and all he told me was that because of the rising number of murder cases in Irving, it seemed fitting to hire an extra pair of hands.
To be honest, I would’ve appreciated the thought, if only I didn’t mind working with a partner. And it really bothered me that I would have to work with someone and share the office that I’d had all to myself for three years.
I’d only been back in Irving a day and everything seemed to be a mess.
It was 7:30 when I got back from running. The sun was up so high that the glare was almost blinding. I rushed to take a shower, changed into my work clothes, and dashed out of the penthouse that I shared with Leo. I had a strange feeling that in the next weeks, I would probably be living alone. It wasn’t that I was overly confident that Leo could win Eleanor over immediately, but because I could see the way Eleanor looked at him too. She had the same flicker in her eyes that Megan had whenever she looked at Milo.
By 8AM, I was taking my usual walk to the department. Fortunately, my workplace wasn’t too far from the place that Leo and I had gotten.
I made a beeline for the coffee shop- the same one where I had taken that lady, and where she had ended up kissing me and sprinting away. I ordered myself a cup of coffee, my second one for the day. I always had trouble sleeping, ever since I was hired as the forensic scientist for the police department. There were certain crimes that haunted you in your sleep, and sometimes, it was hard to erase them from memory, and they popped up the moment you closed your eyes.
Suddenly, my phone buzzed in my pocket. It was Leo, sending me a selfie of him and Max. I studied the picture, noting how surprisingly alike my brother and Max looked. A tiny part of me- the desperate detective wannabe- was begging me to act on my intuition. Leo and Eleanor knew each other seven years ago. Max was six years old and Max had the same haunting gray eyes that we Hudsons had. What if…?
I was too wrapped up in my thoughts and bumped right into a woman who was rushing to leave with her coffee order. The contents of her coffee fell on my neatly pressed white dressed shirt.
“Fuck.”
“Oh my god! I’m so sorry! I thought I could dodge you but I’m so uncoordinated…” she started rambling and when I looked up to take a better look at her, my heart dropped.
Those hazel eyes.
“It’s you,” I whispered, almost inaudibly, but she seemed to recognize me because her eyes widened, clearly recognizing who I was. I cleared my throat and said “Look, could you like maybe give me just a minute?”
She pursed her lips, her eyes darting to the door and then she flashed me an apologetic smile. “Would really love to but I can’t. I really have to get to work and I’m already running late. Maybe next time. Bye!”
And she left, in the same way that she had done that first time. I pursed my lips in annoyance, huffed and ordered my coffee. “Pretty lady, but seems all over the place. I don’t think she’s interested in you though.”
Devin, the barista, looked at me with a sly smirk. He had been working here since we graduated from high school and the only thing that progressed in his life was him becoming a full-time barista from the part-time janitor that he used to be, in this same café. I scowled, shaking my head as I paid for my coffee. “As if I’m interested in her. Have a good day, Devin.” He rolled his eyes and ignored me.
A part of me wanted to run after her, but she was already nowhere to be seen. Besides, why would I run after her? Admittedly, she wounded my ego by rushing out the way she did after she had kissed me. And what would I even say to her when we were right in front of each other again? It would be awkward, and clearly, that night was just a one-time thing, even if it was a simple conversation over coffee that had ended with a kiss.
And besides, I didn’t have time for this.
I jogged a little to get to work. I was never really on time. I could work overtime and stay up late in office but I could never, for the life of me, get to work on time. Punctuality wasn’t simply a part of my vocabulary. “Hudson! Ah, there you are! Will you be working on the evidence for the Collins case?”
Collins case. Domestic abuse. The woman’s thirteen-year old son had come forward, telling the cops that his father had been beating his Mom for long and had been hurting him too. When the police and two detectives went to their house, the mother denied his son’s claims and the son didn’t have any evidence that could indict his father of the crime. The son had sent evidence of his claims last week, begging the station to run tests on the samples he had sent.
“I’ll have to run tests to confirm the blood samples on the glass, but the mother could still claim that it was an accident. That kid must really hate his father to go to such lengths.”
Wang shook his head. “I met the father. He’s not exactly Daddy of the Year so I can get where the kid is going with this.”
I nodded, understanding what Wang meant. In the three years that I’d been working with the police, it was clear that there were parents who weren’t simply suitable to hold on to the title. “Don’t worry. I’m sure we can find more evidence that’ll put him behind bars or atleast get the mother to talk.”
“And oh yeah, your new partner just came in, and you’re in luck, Hudson, I’ve never seen a scientist as good-looking as her,” Wang said with a wink, “Give me her number later, will you? She’s exactly the kind of girl that guys like me should be seen with.”
I scoffed, shaking my head. “If she has a good head above her shoulders then I’m sure she’d see that you’re exactly the kind of guy that girls should stay away from.”
While walking up the stairs to the second floor of the building where my office was, I tried to mentally prepare myself to meet my new partner. I was never really good with meeting people, and had always been socially awkward.
I took in a deep breath before making an attempt to knock on the door, and realized that this was my office too. So instead of knocking, I turned the knob and went inside, and just as I stepped in, I heard a female voice. “Hi! You must be Hudson. The Chief spoke about you earlier. I’m the newly hired forensic scientist. I’m Alexa Stone-,”
I was closing the door as she spoke, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that her voice sounded familiar; but maybe her voice just sounded the same as Megan’s and Eleanor’s. I straightened my back and then turned around to face her. “Hey. I’m Everett-,”
I almost choked on my name when I saw her.
It was her.
2
Alexa
I’d always known that I seemed to attract the unlikeliest of circumstances. Once when I was in high school, I decided to lose my virginity to a guy from a different school, who just happened to be the guy that my cousin was seeing; and I only realized that when we were undressing each other and I noticed a strange birthmark he had that my cousin seemed to have mentioned about her boyfriend. The only good thing about that situation was that when I confessed to my cousin about what had happened, she broke it off with the guy and didn’t hate on me.
But the kind of predicament that I was in at the moment wasn’t anything like I ever had before.
A few weeks ago, I was looking for an apartment in Irving, before I officially shifted. I wanted to make sure that everything was in place, and that I wouldn’t be living in a dump despite the small budget I had for rent. Olivia, my high school best friend who
had moved here, had told me that she’d help me find an apartment. After finding the perfect studio apartment for me, we were only supposed to have dinner, but we ended up in a bar for her to meet her Tinder buddy.
And it also led me to meet a handsome but insanely awkward stranger, who bought me coffee after spilling my drink on me. In the end there was something about his awkward nature that drew me to him, and the night ended with me kissing him and running off like the stupid idiot that I had the tendency to be.
And now the stranger just happened to be my new colleague and partner in the department.
Oh such joy.
“Please stop staring at me,” I whispered, sighing and sinking in my seat, that was right across from his table.
Everett’s gray gaze remained fixed on my face and a tiny corner of his lips twitched into a small smile. “It just never occurred to me that you were a scientist too when we met.”
My eyes narrowed into slits as I glared at him. “Are you trying to say that I look dumb?”
Surprisingly, Everett laughed while shaking his head. “No, Alexa. It’s just that you didn’t look anything like a scientist when we met, okay? You looked so…normal.”
I raised an eyebrow and tilted my head to the side. “Should we all have the same dishevelled appearance as you, Mr. Hudson?”
The smile on his face vanished slowly as he glanced down at himself and it took him a moment before he looked up at me. “I’m not used to having to work with someone, Alexa, and having you around would be all new to me. I like really enjoy my work. Sometimes I feel I like it too much. So I apologize in advance if it ever comes in between us.”
There was a sudden shift in his mood, and whatever excitement he had shown earlier when he had seen me was gone. Well, I wasn’t entirely sure if he was excited, because one minute he looked like he had seen a ghost and in the next, an amused smile was painted on his face. I think he was relieved that I was someone he knew, if having a short conversation in a coffee shop counted as knowing someone.
