No kiss good night, no hug, no promises of a call or another date. “I had fun,” is all he says.
She smiles, lets him walk away. Sighs with relief.
Talk about an ordeal.
•••
Next day, she partners with CO Halifax Shopsovitch, and he asks right away, “You have your date with that guy?”
“Yes.”
“Go okay?”
“It’s over,” she says. “Done.”
“Give him the Italian bit?”
“Both barrels.”
“Think he’ll be bugging you any more?”
“Don’t think so,” thirty-year-old Sicilia Turberville said. “How come you asked about the guy and didn’t use his name?”
“I can’t remember it,” her partner admitted. He was the best partner, always had her back, lifted her when she was down, calmed her when she got hyped, allowed her whimsy to run free.
She chuckles. “Me neither.”
“Last night you couldn’t remember?”
“Total blank, not even after I got home. It went bye bye, I guess.”
“Why go through the agony of dating if you’re not interested?” Shopsovitch asks.
She shrugs. “You never know.”
Harder Ground Page 25
