by Tia Siren
"Probably another hour and a half."
"Chicks," he spat. "They take forever."
"I just cooked you breakfast, buddy."
"That's true."
"So you better show some respect if you want any of this bacon."
Casey exaggerated zipping his lips. I turned back to the bacon and started to hum. He immediately ruined the silence by asking, "Did you get a good look at that guy's face?"
"Yeah. I mean, not incredibly great, but yeah."
"So you can describe him to a police sketch artist?"
"Sure."
"Do you think they'll ask you about it?"
I put down the spatula and turned to him. "Since that jackass has my car, I think so."
"What do you think your odds are of getting it back?"
"Pretty low," I sighed. "If they're competent at all, they'll disable the tracking system. It's in every car nowadays. I need to file the police report in order to get my insurance to cover this."
"It's awful," Casey said. "I know I make fun of you, but I know you love that truck."
"Loved," I said. "Past tense."
Casey came to yank two pieces of bacon out of the sizzling pan. He promptly dropped them right back in. "That's hot!"
"You idiot," I laughed, "of course it's hot."
"I'm going to get dressed. I'll be back once they've cooled down."
"Aye, aye, captain." I saluted my best friend as he walked down the hallway and into his room. I started moving the cooked bacon onto a plate with a paper towel on top. It was disgusting to see the fat dripping out of the bacon but not enough to make me lose my appetite. I didn't even feel like eating a blueberry waffle anymore, even though there was still batter. We might have some for dinner or dessert later. I covered the bowl and put it in the fridge. Then I indulged in one giant bite of a piece of bacon. It was slightly too hot for comfort but totally worth it. I contemplated eating every slice before he came out and dropped a rueful hand on my stomach. It was probably better if he ate two slices.
By the time he was out, I was grumpy from torturing myself by staring at the last two slices. He scooped them up in one hand and ate them at the same time. "Thanks for the bacon," he said, spraying bits at my face.
"Gross!" I yelped. "Eat first, talk later."
Casey at the rest of them and swallowed. "I love it when you make breakfast. Thanks."
"I'll clean up when I get back and start making dinner. It'll just be osso buco." Even though osso buco had a fancy Italian name, it was absurdly easy to make. "You can have some when you get home."
"Do you need a ride from the police station?"
"Nah, I'll get a taxi." I was lucky that my phone and wallet were in my pockets when I slept, or I would've been in trouble. Come to think of it, my car keys were chained to my wallet on a little key leash. So he must have hot-wired my car, that bastard.
"You have at most an hour," Casey said. "I have a meeting and need to be there on time today."
"Ugh," I said before stuffing three slices of bacon into my mouth. "On it," I mumbled around a mouthful of salty deliciousness. I went into the bathroom and washed my face before brushing my teeth. I was insanely lucky that I had spare clothes at Casey's place, because if I didn't, I'd be up a creek and wearing yesterday's gross clothes. I realized that I should've thrown them into the laundry last night, but that was hindsight.
I cleaned up enough to be presentable. Casey was waiting by the door, staring into his phone.
"Are you on Grindr again? I thought we talked about this."
"I can't help it that all the cute boys are straight," Casey whined.
"You need to stay off Grindr! You know what happened last time. And the time before that. And the time before that!"
"Just because I've had really bad luck doesn't mean that I can't find love."
"I'm telling you that Adam4Adam is better." I shook my head. "You keep getting your heart broken. What's going to happen if you do that when I can't buy enough Chunky Monkey to put you back together?"
Casey touched his abs. "I'm going soft."
"Asshole," I retorted. "You have great abs."
"Get in the car," he said.
I slid into the car and mentally rehearsed what I wanted to tell the police.
4
Station
When I got in, I put my name down and took a number, waiting for someone to come and get me. I could see that some people were going off duty and yawning. I wondered if a peace offering of donuts and coffee would've been good, but maybe that was something from movies and not real life. Looking at the cluster of policemen standing around the coffeemaker, maybe it wasn't.
I waited about a half hour before a pretty policewoman with her hair back in an efficient bun sat down with me.
"Name?"
"Alicia Ramirez," I said.
"And what is the nature of your complaint?"
I launched into a long explanation of what had happened last night.
"And you say that you were picked up by a friend of yours? This Casey?"
"That's right. I'm staying on his couch for the near future."
"You have your phone and wallet?"
"Yeah. And my car keys."
"He's remarkably polite for a thief," the policewoman sniffed. "Are you sure you got carjacked? This doesn't fit the MO of a carjacker."
"I told you, I was wrapped in a black blanket at night in a truck bed. He didn't see me before he stole the car."
She sighed. "I'll put it into my report." She shook her head. "We can turn on the tracking. If he's any kind of criminal, he'll have undone all of the tracking devices. I think you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Coffee?"
I looked up at her, startled.
"You had a late night. I can tell that you've had breakfast from the scent of bacon, but I doubt you've had coffee. You can barely keep your eyes open."
"I'll get it," I said.
"I take it with cream and two sugars," the policewoman said, leaning back in her chair. I went to the coffeemaker, my heart hammering at being surrounded by so many policemen. I picked up two spare cups and poured some out, only spilling a little.
"You need a double dose, huh?" a guy next to me said. I looked up into his eyes. They were green-grey with little laugh lines around the edges.
"One is for her," I said, pointing at the policewoman who was writing a report.
"Oh, her," he said. He leaned down. "Let me give you a tip. She's not in a good mood today."
"I figured," I said. I took one cream and two sugars and dumped them into her cup.
"You drink it black?"
"I don't really care," I told him. "I'm fine with black. I'm fine with coffee-flavored sugary milk. Whatever."
"Interesting," he replied, a spark leaping in his eyes.
"Gotta go." I made my way back to her and carefully set down her cup.
"I see you met Luis."
"Who's he?"
"A newbie," she grunted, inhaling half of her cup of coffee. "And a pain in my ass."
"Luis who?"
"Luis Martinez," she snorted. "What, you gonna ask him on a date?"
I turned to look at him. He was looking straight at me. A shiver went up my spine. He gave me a slow smile. Shit. He was so good-looking and he knew it. I couldn't stand cocky assholes like him.
"Nah," I said. "I just want to finish up this report."
"Sign here and here. I'll give you a copy to send to your insurance." She rolled her eyes. "Don't be surprised if it takes a while for them to get back to you. Stingy bastards."
She was a little more talkative now with a tiny bit of coffee in her. I signed where she indicated and she went off to the copy machine.
"What're you here for?" Luis asked behind me. I jumped in my seat before twisting to look up at him. He was mouth-watering hot. I stuttered and always got shy around really cute guys.
"I...I..."
"Cat got your tongue? Or did she tear it out when you were talking to
her?"
"No," I said, swallowing and trying to behave like a normal human being. "I was tired last night from the library." I picked up a shift here and there. They’d had a huge backlog, so I’d come in to lend a helping hand.
"You're a librarian?" Luis looked me up and down. "I like it."
"Perv," I said under my breath.
He just grinned at me.
"Anyway, I came home from work yesterday and I woke up when someone stole my truck." I shook my head. "My black F350 was my baby."
Luis was perfectly still. "Did you say that your truck was stolen? A black F350?"
"Yeah. It's going to be a bitch to get the insurance to pay out, but I'm going to make it happen."
"Where is it now? Where were you?"
"I was sleeping in the back in a black blanket. Well, it was a space blanket with the dark side out.“
Luis blinked at me.
"And then I tried to strangle the guy in the driver's seat."
Luis choked or laughed, I couldn't tell which. "You what?"
"Yeah I sprang at him. He didn't know that I was in the back, so I had the element of surprise. But it was hard to get at him through that tiny window.
Luis shook his head. "You're lucky to be alive. You tried to strangle someone who was driving a vehicle you were a passenger in."
"It was my truck!"
"You would've been better off jumping out when you started moving."
"Fuck no," I said. "I worked hard for that truck. That thing is my baby. I wasn't going to let him just have it."
"You're reckless," he said. "You make bad choices."
"That truck is my home," I said, my voice with more sharp edges in it than usual.
"You live in your car?"
"During the summer," I said, picking an invisible piece of lint off of my clothes.
"Then where did you stay last night? With your boyfriend? Those clothes look like they've been folded." Luis crossed his arms.
"I stayed on my best friend's couch."
"I see," Luis said, uncrossing his arms. "And she let you borrow her clothes? They fit you well. Very well."
I shook my head. "No, Casey's a guy and a giant one. No way would I ever fit into his clothes."
His nostrils flared. "Your best friend is a man? Who you sleep with at night?"
I shook my head. "You're getting the wrong idea. Casey isn't attracted to women."
"Oh," Luis responded. "I see."
I grinned up at him.
"It's way too early in the morning for you to be so cheerful," the policewoman said. "Go call your insurance and make them give you money."
"Sure," I said. "Bye."
I waved to the two of them and walked out the door, the piece of paper in my hand.
5
Osso Buco
I felt butterflies in my stomach still from meeting Luis. It was as if I'd met my future husband, which was a stupid thing to think. I blamed it on the lack of sleep and the coffee. Caffeine was a brain-altering drug, right?
Instead of taking a taxi like I'd told Casey I would, I walked slowly towards the center of town, where there was a big bus stop. It'd give me time to think about what had just happened.
I thought that my insurance company might drag its heels, but they'd ultimately help me out. It wasn't as if I'd staged the theft of my truck. When I got the money, I'd probably buy a used F350. I sighed. That truck was supposed to last me ten years and had lasted less than one. I hoped that I'd get enough money for a car nice enough to replace my stolen one, but I didn't have high expectations.
When I got to the bus stop, I went into a parked bus and got an all-day ticket. That way I could just bus hop before starting the osso buco, which took about a half hour. Since Casey and I had already bought the ingredients, it was mostly a case of throwing them together and cooking them. I occasionally worked as a website designer on a contract basis, which meant that I didn't have to work when I didn't want to. I rented a high-performance laptop when I had a contract and was otherwise computer-free; I was lucky that I hadn’t been working when my truck was stolen, or I’d be liable for replacing that laptop. I kept enough money to get by, but it would’ve been tight. It was shocking how little money I had to spend to keep things going, even with my beautiful gas guzzler.
I stayed in the back of the bus as we made a loop around the city. I could see the bus driver looking in the mirror, so I jumped to another bus. It smelled like stale air, the kind that you found in an airplane. I was next to a mom with dark hair and a pinched expression on her face. Her kid was maybe 5 and had a coloring book in his lap. She was so tense that I wondered if she was going through a divorce or something and bringing the kid straight to his dad. Whatever. It was none of my business.
Around 2, my stomach rumbled. I needed to go home. I caught the right bus and went to Casey's house, which was a quarter mile from the nearest stop. I let myself in and washed my hands before throwing the osso buco together. The nice thing about slow cookers was that they took something that could be a boring and complex process into something simple. I set it for the time that Casey would get home and cleaned up the rest of the kitchen. Bless his cleaning crew. They did a great job in here. If I decided to stick around for longer, I'd need to get more food. I didn't think that Casey would be thrilled about it, but he'd tolerate it. Having a live-in cook was probably worth a little hassle. I started to make a grocery list for things that would last us for a week. I owed him some food runs anyway.
By the time that the front door opened and the alarm system chimed to let me know that the sensor had gone off, I knew that the osso buco was done.
"Honey, I'm home!" Casey called.
"In the kitchen," I told him.
"Oh man, that smells like heaven." He put a hand on his stomach. "I only ate a club sandwich for lunch. Thank goodness you're here." He pretended to be on the verge of fainting.
"Sit your ass down," I snorted, although his antics made me laugh. "I'll plate our osso buco."
I made a last-minute gremolata before pulling the osso buco out. I didn't often work in restaurants anymore, but that'd been my first job. First, I'd just washed dishes. When one of the line cooks called in sick and none of the others could make it, I'd been thrown in the deep end cutting and chopping. I'd stopped working in kitchens after a few years, but those skills stuck with me. I cared about presentation.
"Ta-da!" I said.
"I hope you're not hoping that I'll wait for you, because I won't." And with that, Casey sliced off a big piece of the veal and put it in his mouth. "So good," he mumbled with a full mouth.
I shook his head. "I know your mom taught you better than that." I got another plate for me and began to eat it. Casey was ultra-focused on his food. If he were someone else, I would be asking about work or something, but Casey and I had gotten down the art of companionable silence early on. We were both introverts, although he'd found a job where he could be as introverted as he wanted and nobody would care. Years ago, I'd wanted to do what he did but it bored me out of my mind and gave me a headache. I was capable of it if I wanted to take Tylenol on a daily basis. Doing a design contract here and there was a lot easier.
When his plate was empty, I asked, "Do you want more?"
Casey shook his head. "Food coma. I may have eaten too fast." He got out of his chair and went to sprawl on his couch, my bed. I chuckled and cleared his plate. The nicer I was to him, the longer he'd probably let me stay. I heard him turn on the TV for some white noise. Casey always slept better if there was some kind of background noise. I wouldn't be sleeping on the couch anytime soon, that was for sure.
I hummed a tuneless song while I cleaned up the kitchen. Casey was snoring now. I'd probably steal his bed if he was going to steal mine. We'd been sleeping in each other's spaces for a long time, ever since we went to college and were too lazy to walk back to our own bedrooms. Casey didn't date much, but he'd moved out the semester after he started dating guys. I'd walked in on him and a slender
Asian guy with a six-pack who'd been doing something I'd only seen in a certain kind of video. After that, he left a sock on the doorknob, but neither of us could forget it. I'd started dating more when he was out of the house, too.
As I washed everything, my mind fluttered back to Luis Martinez, the hot cop I'd met today. What had the policewoman said? He was a newbie? He didn't feel like it. He felt like a pro. He wore confidence and power like a cloak or something. But the power was kind of weird, considering that he was new on the force.
I shouldn't think about his knowing smile and flirty ways. I needed to focus now on getting another vehicle so I could get out of Casey's hair. Poor Casey was sleep deprived from helping me out. I went into the shower, took a very quick one, and went out to the living room to check on him again. He was still sprawled out with his mouth dripping drool on my pillow and his snores increasing in volume. I just shook my head and went into his bed. His mattress sucked. It was thin and the springs felt like they were about to give out. I realized he'd probably taken the better bed tonight. Whatever. When he woke up and kicked me out of his bed, I'd go back to the couch.
6
Bacon Omelettes
"Get outta my bed," Casey said. "I need to shower and change for work."
"Ugh," I replied. I wasn't the most chatty person upon waking.
"And there better be a good breakfast, considering that I let you have my bed."
I thought about telling him that his bed sucked. My whole body felt sore from a night spent tossing and turning, but I figured it was adding insult to injury.
"Bacon omelettes," I managed.
"Good. Have 'em ready when I get out of the shower."
"Aye, aye, captain!" At least I could dig up some snark even though it felt like the crack of dawn.
