A Little Unsteady.

The Italian soon found her well-intentioned, vulnerable apology to be confronted a frigid cold reaction. Vulnerability was not one of Amelia’s strengths; in fact, the skill of being so had become into one of Amelia’s biggest vices. After living an untruth for seven agonizing and excruciating years, the blonde had almost lost touch with all sense of authenticity. Days would pass where she had dissociated so far from herself, Amelia no longer knew if she was even in touch with this tangible reality anymore. She simply acted her days, in and out, without feeling at all; she was surviving. The anti-psychotic, anti-depressants and anxiety pills helped the Italian cope in the unpredictable moments when all the deeply buried, devastating feelings would come on all at once. Had her ex-husband not been as pathetic as he was to her, perhaps the blonde easily could’ve lost her sanity enough to wipe his existence from earth. Perhaps a kitchen knife could’ve “slipped” while preparing the ossobuco ever so amateurishly. Or rather, a pillow could’ve been placed over his face after the countless rejections of intimacy before drifting into the only place that offered Amelia momentary solace. Though, she executed the best possible choice for her hope at living a semi-functional life: she broke Adriano’s pitiful, wretched heart.

Amelia swirled her tongue into the side of her cheek to keep her reactive emotions from getting the best of yet again, amidst Cash’s response. Any sort of defenseless began to dissipate from the woman’s expression, and it became rigid as a statute in a matter of seconds. Knowing the deep shit she was in after her little stunt at the mall, it would take every inch of Amelia’s being to not lose her sense of poise at Cash’s house. Letting out a scoff with a snarky grin, Amelia glanced over to the detective. “Good to know some things never changed. You were always one to take such good care of gifts from others.” The sarcasm was sharp enough to cut the air between the two after Amelia stepped into the house – handing the brunette back her phone as she entered. “Especially glass vases and flowers. You could work on that, love.” The blonde shook her head disappointingly at Cash, as a retort to Cash’s harsh comment about the gifts. Just like that, Amelia’s malice had returned at the drop of a hat.

Her dark hues began to scan the house and Amelia tried to halfheartedly refrain from cringing, though she was, by far, no one to talk; the house looked as if it were maintained by a bachelor pad of a freshman frat boy. The blonde maintained a healthy distance away from Cash, as she watched the detective open a beer for her at the counter. Amelia walked over to the it, snatched up the beer, and leaned up against the sink behind her – refusing to sit anywhere near Cash, or even in the same room. Still, she could see Cash from the kitchen. “But, let’s cut the bullshit, Cash,’ Amelia cleared her throat, clearly not entertained by Cash’s display of ‘hospitality.

“I’m sure after what happened at the mall, I can guarantee you with absolutely certainty that you looked up my file. I’m positive that you saw the eight counts of theft of property in the fourth degree I have been found guilty of and the two counts of theft of property in the third degree I have been found guilty of. You couldn’t have possibly missed the multiple violations of my probation.” The blonde locked eyes with Cash, furrowing her brows in puzzled manner, but Amelia’s expression relaxed slightly when she left out another scoff in disbelief at what she was saying. “So, for you not to report an assault against another civilian, in addition to destroying public property and theft of property sounds like a whole lot of a big scandal, there, Cash.” She raised her eyebrows, shrugging her shoulders in the direction of where the brunette was sitting in the living room.

“I’ll save my thank you for later – I just want to know why you didn’t do it.” The blonde brought the bottle of beer up to her face before taking another swig, clearly intrigued as she slowly began to inch towards the living room.

Words. They could clearly have an affect on a person and hurt like a son-of-a-bitch, but everything that Amelia was saying just seemed to go in one of Cash’s ears and out the other. She had grown numb to just about everything over the years. Even praise from her commanding officer just seemed to have no affect on her most days. She had gotten used to returning hollowed out emotions. A smile as empty as a bar after closing time. Tears that only provided a means to an end. It was most like she was living deep inside, screaming to get out of the darkness, but couldn’t. Like some alien side had taken over leaving her void of emotion, except anger, on most days. And right now, Amelia was trying her patience with the little jabs and insults she was throwing her way. But those had stopped and, instead, facts were thrown her way. Facts, she could handle. They were hard and true. No emotion needed. However, she was more so puzzled by what brought on this side of Amelia. She had no room to talk, though. She had completely changed herself. The sweet, outgoing and albeit clumsy young woman had turned into a straight up, heartless bitch.

Taking a swig of her own beer, she lowered the bottle and looked towards her ex with a hollow stare, “Why?” It was the only thing she had released in all the facts and insults that had been directed her way. Amelia had always had a good head on her shoulders and to let her family take away the feelings in her heart. Cash knew why she had turned into someone completely different. She could remember the day crystal clearly. Walking home from one of the last remaining days of her senior year of high school with news of a scholarship she was going to get. Eyes bright, smile wide, only to see the door standing wide open. Confusion soon turning to horror as she noticed what seemed like spilled paint from her nephew leading to what revealed itself to be blood. On the floor, on the walls, on furniture, and on the three lifeless and mutilated bodies spread throughout the house.

“Why did you do it, Amelia? Why did you let them take your spirit? And why theft? Are you hoping that stealing other people’s shit will somehow give you solace for the fact that your family were a big old bag of dicks to you? Do you think that taking other people’s property will return a little bit of the pain that they caused you all of these years? I mean, thank God it is only just theft. Still a hefty fine to pay and prison time, but why? Why not just live the life you wanted to live when you were younger?” It came out of nowhere. In fact, Cash hadn’t shown that much concern for somebody in quite a long time, and it’s probably why she always ended up alone in the end.

Amelia knew it would be completely mindless of her to show up at Cash’s place, after their altercation in the department store. By some miracle, the Italian was on her fourth day in hiding without hearing one word from any law enforcement officer and she hadn’t slept a single night since then. All she could bring herself to do was sit in front of her apartment door and wait for her impending doom. Occasionally, she meandered off into the kitchen to make some boxed macaroni and cheese or some jasmine rice, just enough to hold her over in her highly anxious state. Amelia had never been a great cook, since she had lived with her family most of her life; they were the real cooks in the family. Now, at 29 years old, the woman looked more like a 21 single bachelor just trying to make it to the next day.

In her spare down time when she wasn’t monitoring the door vigilantly, the Italian found a new past time: going through Cash’s phone. Amelia didn’t care much for the photos, videos, or even old conversations that the brunette detective had with others; it held no relevance to her at that point in time. What piqued her interest though, was Cash’s accounts linked to her credit card – and there were plenty of them. You would think that for a detective, the woman wouldn’t have had all her passwords saved to her phone. But then again, people never ceased to amaze Amelia – even herself.

Although the last thought on Amelia’s mind was causing more damage to the already colossal-sized problem between her and Cash, she had the “bright” idea of sending a few heartfelt gifts to help pull on the brunette’s heart strings and maybe help to move past whatever the fuck went down the last time the two saw each other. It wasn’t so much that Amelia meant to send these gifts in a condescending way – it was honestly her just being naïve, which due to her sheltered upbringing, happened much too often. Much to her disadvantage as well, Amelia didn’t know that after everything that had happened in the detective’s family, Cash’s heart was a hollow shell compared to what it used to be more than a decade ago. It obviously wouldn’t fare well for Amelia.

_______________________

Amelia approached the front wooden door very hesitantly, as if she were getting ready to shield her face from any flying object that might be projected out of the door window, ironically. The blonde shot up easily a foot when she heard a loud pitbull lose its ever-loving mind with just her presence on the front steps; hell, Amelia didn’t even have to knock at this point. As soon as she heard the door unlock and begin to open, her heart jumped straight out of her chest. Instead of freezing though, the young girl jumped back, and her arms immediately flung up in the air – holding them up as if she had just dropped some sort of weapon in front of her.

“Cash, please just hear me out. I know I really, really fucked up at the department store and I’m so sorry that I hit you in the head with that vase. I know no matter how many times I say that I’m sorry or try to explain whatever sort of reason why I did it, it doesn’t justify my actions at all,” the words shot out of her mouth quicker than a bat out of hell. In fact, Amelia was speaking so fast, that she almost began to combine and jumble her words. The blonde wasn’t even sure if it was Cash behind the door after all, since she started speaking even before the door opened all the way. But she kept rambling on anyway. “I don’t know why, but nobody has come to arrest me for what happened in the store and I don’t know where I should go to turn myself in or who to go to, so I came here because I know I owe you a huge apology for what I did before they take me in.” 

Another large round of barking from behind the door caused the blonde to shoot up another food, while letting a small yelp out herself from being so startled. When Amelia’s face briefly caught a glimpse of the brunette’s silhouette, she immediately felt a sense of overwhelming guilt grip at her emotions. Though still tense from the moment, she lowered her head a bit and cleared her throat loudly. “And Cash,” she began to say, but paused not long after. The words seemed to hitch in her throat, hating to bring up repressed memories all over again. “I don’t hate you, nor did you ruin my life. It was my mother who ruined it, when she found out how I felt about you. I have to no right to blame you.”

Cash had been dozing on and off all afternoon. Her head wasn’t quite as bad as it had been the past few days. Of course, she had mostly been keeping Nika out back to give herself a break from the barking. She had made the mistake of letting the dog back in earlier that morning, and as she was just about to drift off into La La Land, she heard the loud, crazy barks of an overly excited pit bull, “Jesus, Nika. Not again.” Rolling out of her bed, she padded her way to the front room. And that’s when she peeped out her side window and saw Amelia standing on her porch, “Well fuck me.”

Reaching out for the lock and unbolting the door, she opened it up slightly allowing Nika to get a good sniff of the woman as she was now holding onto her collar, “Come on dog. Wouldn’t want her to piss herself.”

As Amelia stood outside apologizing, Cash led Nika to the back door and let the dog out into the fenced yard, so it could play and wouldn’t take off a hand, if she had decided to let her thieving ex-bestie into the house. As she walked back to the front, she heard Amelia still talking. Pulling the door open the rest of the way, she glared at the Italian woman, “Are you done yet?” Her arms were crossed. As she stood silently waiting for the woman to shut up.

While the swelling over her eye had gone down, it was still black and several stitches seemed to poke out of the skin. It was going to leave a small scar, but it was nothing she couldn’t handle. And besides, if...and that was big IF, she ever forgave Amelia, she could at least hold it over her if things got rough, “If you’re coming in, then come in. I’m not going to stand at my door all day listening to you spill word vomit with the hopes of me forgiving you. And if you want your shit, you bought off of Amazon, it’s in the garage. Well, part of it, Nika ripped the head off of the lion.” She motioned just behind the door where the devoured corpse of the stuffed animal lay.

When Amelia watched the vase meet the brunette’s temple, her displaced rage dissipated instantly, only to be left with a mixture of feelings: dread and panic with a side of denial. Had she really just thrown a vase and taken out half of a display case in the middle of the department store? There was no evading the consequences of her erratic, careless behavior now; the young woman was positive that the cameras in the department store had her location pinned down for security – if not, police— to come grab her. Amelia even turned to her left to see that there were two teenagers recording her entire altercation with Cash on Snapchat. Holy fuck, this was real; she really had lost her motherfucking mind. Think, Amelia, think. Out of frustration at her own thoughtless behavior, the woman let out a small yelp of desperation as she tangled her hands into her bright blonde locks and pulled on them forcefully. Yep – she had lost her motherfucking mind.

Run. Run. RUN. MOTHERFUCKING RUN.

Amelia immediately started to charge where Cash was attempting to stand up, half delirious from the blow to the head. Sliding down to her knees, the blonde immediately reached out to try to help the brunette up to her feet – but far enough away to brace herself in case the brunette tried to return a nice punch to the face or to subdue the blonde’s actions, although Amelia was slightly calmed down at this point. Luckily for the young Italian girl, it seemed that Cash wasn’t cognizant enough to realize it was Amelia helping her up or she, for some reason, didn’t want to take vengeance on the blonde for her blindly violent behavior.

“Jesus, I’m so, so sorry,” Amelia muttered embarrassingly to Cash, using her sleeve to clear off the blood that fell from the brunette’s face the best that she could in a caring manner. “I’m so sorry, Cash. I’m so sorry, I—I didn’t mean for this to happen.” She just kept repeating over and over, as she kept pressure on Cash’s wound. Shifting her weight to inch closer to the brunette, Amelia’s eyes glanced to the side and immediately fixated on the bag that belonged to Cash. She froze like a deer in the headlights; her breathing hitched again as she examined each of the items in the brunette’s bag with her eyes alone, in the moment of Cash’s weakness. She couldn’t. She wouldn’t. Not after what she just did. But as soon as Amelia’s eyes glanced back up to meet Cash’s a moment later, she knew that by the brunette’s gaze, that she was coming back to. Amelia needed to get the fuck out before something devastating were to happen to her.

Without second thought, Amelia’s hand dropped down into Cash’s bag to fish out the biggest thing her hand could grab, and she snatched a huge iPhone to put in her own pocket with one swift moment. ‘There she is!’ A distant shout could be heard throughout the department store, and Amelia darted off quicker than a bat out of hell – dodging security, or whoever the hell it was, by ducking in between displays and aisles. By some miracle, the blonde took off out of the east door of the store – practically running into a woman with a stroller and a small infant, yet again, on her way to her ‘08 Honda.

As soon as the blonde reached the car she drove, Amelia knew she was completely, utterly fucked. Sure, she might’ve been able to get away, but the cameras of the store now had footage of her not only leaving the store, but also what car she drove and the license plate number. Also, it didn’t even register that Cash’s phone was an iPhone, too, which had a tracking device built right in. That was easy to leave on a ditch in the side of the road, though. The other things? Not so much. It was only a matter of time until someone would show up to Amelia’s door.

“June, say something. Please. You’re making me nervous.” She watched her sister carefully. Had she just said the wrong thing? Was her sister going to disown her or tell their dad? She couldn’t tell and tears were beginning to well up in her eyes, but just as she was about to speak, June answered.

“I knew it.”

Cash was confused, and it was apparent in her face.

“I knew you liked her. I’ve seen the way you look at her. I don’t know if she’s noticed, but she would be lucky to have you, because you’re the kindest person I know. And don’t worry, Kid. I still love you. I’ll always love you. And dad will, too.”

She hadn’t expected any of the words that had come out of her sister’s mouth, but there they were, and for that, she was grateful.

Leaning in, she wrapped her arms tightly around her sister never wanting to let her go.

‘Jesus, I’m so, so sorry. I’m so sorry, Cash. I’m so sorry, I—I didn’t mean for this to happen.’

Cash could hear the words, but she couldn’t quite process them. Everything around her still seemed blurry, and she heard a loud ringing in her ears. She was struggling, but also somewhere deep inside, hoping a trip to the hospital wasn’t in order. She hated going to the hospital. She had hated it from the time she was a child and watched her mother die to the time she fell off of a friend’s dirt bike and broke her arm.

However, through the haze, she had managed to pick up on the fact that Amelia was trying to help keep pressure on the wound as blood continued to trickle down causing her eye to burn, “Amelia...you have to...” She tried to focus as some of the throbbing began to cease and the blurriness started to fade, “You need to turn yourself in...okay?” She had hoped the woman would make it easy on her, but as she heard shouting from several feet away, she knew Amelia was probably going to run.

And run, she did.

As Cash still sat on the floor unable to get up, she watched her childhood friend haul ass out of the mall. She hadn’t even processed that her phone was missing. She just knew that her head was killing her, and she was probably going to get chewed out at work. Of course, as the department store’s on-call security guard came to check on Cash, she knew that dreaded trip to the hospital was coming to her before any yelling could be done.

-----------------

Fast forward a few days later, and one long ass chewing from the Chief of Police for not calling for back-up, and Cash was on medical leave, until she was cleared from the doctor. Concussions sucked, and while this wasn’t the first one she had encountered (that coming from a homeless man drugged out of his mind and swinging a 2x4, when Cash was still a beat cop), it certainly wouldn’t be the last. But it sure hurt like hell, especially when the doorbell rang and her yappy pit bull started barking, “Nika, quiet.” No luck. “NIKA! SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Throwing a stale Popeye’s biscuit at the dog, she watched as it ran over and began nibbling on the day old pastry.

“Who the hell’s ringing my doorbell...” Padding over still dressed in shorts and an over-sized t-shirt, the brunette opened the door to find a couple of Amazon packages sitting on her porch. With narrowed eyes, the brunette looked around seeing an Amazon van drive-off and cautiously scooped up the packages, “I don’t remember ordering anything from Amazon...”

Shutting the door behind her, Cash walked to her kitchen table and laid the boxes down grabbing a nearby pair of scissors. With little effort, she stabbed through the tape and drug the length of the box, until she was able to open the package and as she looked inside, she noticed a stuffed tiger with a small slip of paper laying in the box, A Gift For You: I’m so sorry about the vase. Hey, remember that time we tried out for the cheerleading? Go Tigers!

Cash tossed the paper back into the box and pulled out the stuffed animal. Looking it over with narrowed eyes, she let her lip curl up in disgust, “Hey, Nika. Want to rip the head off of a cat?” Tossing the small fuzz-filled animal to her pet, she watched as the slick, brown and white dog, began chewing on its head.

“O—Of course I –” Amelia half heaved in, before attempting to gasp for another breath, “remember you,” her face contorted into almost a pained look once the words left her mouth. By that point, her hands were shaking so bad that she had clearly dropped Cash’s ID on the floor along with her handbag. Hell, the Italian girl couldn’t even seem to stand herself up on her own; that task alone seemed almost impossible.

‘I thought bringing you to this place was the best option for you – for your success and future, Amelia – but it has done nothing but brought you to do despicable, vile, unthinkable things. Do you understand how sick that is what I read in your diary? We are the goddamn Alessi’s; we are Godly, devout, moral people, Amelia. Did you ever once think about what your father would say about all of this – going against the word of God? What, for fucks sake, will your Nonno say? This – this will bring nothing but shame to this family. I rather have a dead daughter than a lesbian; we are not sick people, Amelia.”

You are going back to Verona tomorrow and you will never, ever call America home again. Do you understand me? Adriano Cattaneo, the nice boy who lives several blocks from Nonno’s café, will be at the airport waiting to pick you up. If you are to refuse his gestures, I can promise on your Nonna’s grave – that you will never, ever hear from anyone in the Alessi family ever again.’

Though the unpardonable words left Amelia’s mothers mouth more than over a decade ago, they resurfaced the painful memory Amelia as if the moment were replaying itself in front of the Italian blonde. For years, the blonde tried to bury down the agonizing pain deep within the confines of her mind; she had married Adriano as her family wished her to do, she stayed in Italy as her family wished her to do, she sought out psychologists to help “cure” her problem as her family wished her to do. But despite all her efforts, Amelia was never good enough for her family, either. The most invidious question she could never evade was: when would she have children with Adriano? Since their first year of marriage, Amelia heard that question almost every single fucking month for the next seven years of sad façade of a life. By the time he left her, just the thought of touching a man repulsed her so much so, that she would become physically ill.

“Don’t you fucking touch me, Cash,” Amelia snarled out between gritted teeth, clearly not in any right mind of her own while she watched the brunette inch towards her. “Or I swear to God.” She snapped back. If any normal passerby were to have observed her behavior, they probably would’ve thought that she probably deserved to be locked up at a mental ward rather than strolling through a department store on a Sunday afternoon. At this point, she was so far out of her head, it was only a matter of time before she ended up there.

“You,” the Italian woman growled so lowly and nastily, it could’ve seemed demonic. “You…ruined my whole entire motherfucking life.” Picking up the closest item near her in the blink of an eye – which happened to be a perfume bottle on one of the display tables, Amelia picked it up and chucked it immediately at Cash. Missing the brunette, she watched as the perfume bottle met with a glass jewelry display case behind the detective – causing it to shatter all over the department store floor. Unphased due to her seething rage, Amelia bounded forward as quickly as she could -  to grasp the next item she could throw at the brunette woman: a glass vase with roses inside.

Seeing the look of pain on Amelia’s face worried Cash, and in the chaos, she hadn’t even noticed that her ID was missing until it was now on the floor near the woman’s feet. She would have to get that back later, but right now her main focus was calming her ex-best friend down.

“June...can I tell you something, but you have to promise to keep it a secret.” Cash sat on her sister’s bed, door closed, despite the fact that there was no one else at the house. She was going to come clean about her sexuality. She hadn’t told a soul. Not even Amelia at that point, scared of what might happen, but she wanted someone to know and her sister was her best friend long before she had ever known the Italian girl that lived a few blocks over.

“Of course. You know you can tell me anything, and I’m not going to tell a soul...Unless, you’re pregnant, because you know after a few months -” Before she could finish Cash had cut her off, “I’m gay...well bi...I think...I mean I like guys, but I like girls...one girl, really...Amelia...” By the time she had finished spilling her feelings to her sister, her eyes were shut so tightly that when she finally opened them, she was seeing spots. Looking at her sister, she waited for some kind of response...

Hearing the words come out of Amelia’s mouth stopped her in her tracks. In fact, it was the thing that had surprised her. When they had separated so many years ago, she couldn’t recall the blonde ever being quite as harsh as she was. She knew things in her home life weren’t the best, but Cash had always believed that when Amelia left the country, they had at least been on good terms, “Fine! I’m not going to touch you...I’ll stay right here...But you need to calm -” Before she could finish her sentence, Cash took in the words that had more of an effect on her than she thought. The assumption that the thirty year old had ruined the other woman’s life cut to the bone, but before she could question how, she noticed a perfume bottle come sailing at her head, and with quick instinct, she managed to dodge the projectile only to turn just in time to see it shatter the display case behind her.

“Okay, Amelia, you need to stop! I’ve tried giving you space but -” Upon turning back around, the glass vase, with roses now scattered all over the floor and water everywhere, smacked Cash over the corner of her right eye sending her to the floor.

‘You sure I’m the one that should be apologizing?’

The hot-headed blonde let out a ridiculously loud scoff when she heard that comment leave the brunette woman’s mouth, and she made a condescending, almost mocking expression directed at the woman. Right before she was about to unleash the wrath of her unbridled rage, Amelia’s expression quickly turned to panic. The Italian woman could hear her heart pounding so hard that it caused her ears to ring, and she immediately began to feel lightheaded – though she tried her best to remain emotionless in order to hide her inner panic. What was this woman going to do? Think. Think.

“Scusa se non sono molto bravo con l'inglese, cerco di fare del mio meglio e sto imparando,” the blonde said remorsefully in fluent Italian, confident that the woman before her wouldn’t understand a lick of Italian that left her mouth. The young blonde was proud of herself for thinking quickly on her feet, though she didn’t gloat quite yet at her intelligent idea. Little did she know, the brunette standing before her was the same woman she had personally taught some Italian to almost a decade ago. Whether or not Cash had retained any of the Italian would become crucial in the next few minutes to Amelia’s fate. And it didn’t even occur to Amelia in her fight-or-flight state of mind that she had just cussed the woman in fluent English just moments before.

“Perdonami se ti sembro un po’ frustrata,” the blonde began speaking again remorsefully, picking up some of the items again and shoving them into her oversized handbag at lightning speed. Amelia had already revealed too much of her little “habit” that was becoming much more of an addiction and frankly, was out of control at this point. “Ho fretta.” She flashed a big toothy smile to the brunette, shedding herself of any anger she harbored toward the woman, after all the items were in her bag. As she started to walk past the brunette, a large shiny object caught Amelia’s glance. Looking down, she quickly made out in seconds that it was some sort of law enforcement badge. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck. Internally cussing at herself, she picked up her pace as she walked by her.

She continued to walk faster until she felt her foot slip on one last object on the ground. Snatching it up quickly without looking down, her eyes fixated down to the ID that she picked up while she continued to practically jog forward. Her eyes fixated on the name, not once, but four separate times to make sure she was reading the name correctly and she felt her breathing hitch immediately each time she read her name over and over.

Cash.

Cash.

Cash Black.

Cash Black.

Amelia began gasping for air as the overwhelmingly powerful feeling of dread began to overtake all her bodily functions from that moment on. Almost ten years of repressed memories came soaring back into the young Italian woman’s conscious faster and with more power than a freight train. Her throat seemed to be closing in on itself while blonde practically fell into the nearest display table, and her gasping only grew louder. Her hands thrashed around for anything that could give her stability before she ended up sitting on the display table itself, almost rolling off of it. Uncontrollable tears began to stream down her face as her whole body seemed to grow the temperature of a thousand suns - hot enough for her vision blur and to cause her whole face to become flushed. Amelia was sure if she didn’t catch her breath in the midst of her panic attack, that she would pass out in a matter of minutes.

Cash still hadn’t put two and two together. At least not until she heard the Italian words coming out of the woman’s mouth. And as she listened and knew exactly what she was saying. She had seen that trick one too many times during her time as a cop, and ironically enough, it was the woman panicking in front of her, that gave her the idea to further pursue learning Italian, as well as more than just high school Spanish, in order to make her job easier. It had also encouraged promotion within the ranks at the department a little faster, which was her main goal.

Becoming a detective was going to be the fastest way to get on the case of who had murdered her family in cold blood; despite the fact that she had been warned multiple times not to touch anything that involved the mystery of what had happened to her family.

“M-mi piace...la pizza” Cash giggled as the words awkwardly came out of her mouth. It was one of the first phrases she had learned from Amelia, and she was so proud that she continued to practice it on the way home, after leaving her best friend’s house. Tonight was pizza night, and she was going to casually work it into conversation as the family sat around the dinner table.

The idea to learn Italian had been her own. With Spanish class being forced upon her in high school thanks to everyone taking the spots in the other foreign language classes, Cash was left with a longing to learn something other than what was required of her. It had taken her at least a week to beg Amelia to teach her, but when the girl finally agreed, the teenager squealed with joy.

Cash had bypassed everything else the woman had said as she continued to watch her flail around like a fish out of water, “Yeah, yeah. Aren’t we all. I was in a hurry to get back to my job, until you came along...” With a sigh, she slowly began moving towards the woman as she noticed a panic attack coming on. It appeared almost cartoonish and over the top, but as someone who was trained to protect and serve, she knew she at least had to take things somewhat seriously.

Sitting her bag back down on the floor and putting her keys in her jacket pocket, the detective slowly moved closer to the woman, “Look, I don’t know if you remember me or not, but...we knew each other in another lifetime.” It was the Italian, and the memories of staring into the woman’s eyes a countless number of times when they were younger, that had tipped her off, and while she hadn’t exactly freaked out about seeing Amelia again for the first time in many years, it didn’t mean her heart wasn’t pounding fiercely in her chest.

‘Ma’am, can I help you?’

A voice called out from the other side of the clothing rack while the young blonde woman stared incessantly at the winter jackets all hung up, divided by their colors. Clearly distracted, Amelia looked back to the woman and quickly shook her head no, but flashed her a nervous, off-putting smile. She was aware at this point that she was attracting attention, which was no good, since she could begin to feel the intense cravings start to hijack her mind. While the worker continued to follow Amelia a bit longer, the young blonde picked up her pace – heading towards the shoe department next, recollecting pose with each step. Eventually, the department salesman strayed behind in the men’s section, although she still seemed intrigued by Amelia’s behavior.

To the young blonde’s dismay, she found herself surrounded by a family of four in the shoe department and a teenage couple – both which made Amelia want to internally throw up. Flashing a quick smile at the family, she continued down the aisle with her back turned them. That was, until she heard the woman call out her name. “Amelia! Amelia Alessi! Is that you? Oh my gosh, I hardly recognized you!”

Fuuuuck. Mustering the best fake grin she could, Amelia turned around to visit her old high school classmate. None other than Rebecca Wilson. “Rebecca! Wow, you look great! How’ve you been?” Perhaps she sounded genuine to anyone who didn’t know the woman well, but if you paid close enough attention, you could practically see the resentment seep through her pores. ‘You remember Brad Matthews from eleventh grade chemistry, right? We just found out we are expecting our third blessing! We’re doing amazing!’

Brad Matthews? The same Brad Matthews who I had matched on Tinder no less than a week ago? The blonde mechanically nodded her face, maintaining the same grin, although she tried her best not to skew her face while the gears were grinding in her mind – trying to rationalize what she just heard. But there he came, Brad Matthews, looking as if he were to have seen a dear in the headlights when he saw Amelia. Smiling, she flashed him a quick wave without saying anything. Before another word could be said, a blood curdling scream from a child could be heard from about three aisles down. “Oh God, please excuse me.” Amelia watched as Rebecca scurried off to go see what happened to her children.

Taking advantage of the moment, Amelia quickly jogged over to where Brad was, and the young blonde woman shot him a flirtatious look with a cocky smirk. “Didn’t know family life was such a dream, Bradley. No wonder you’re looking for an escape through dating sites,” she continued laughing, miraculously lining her back up to the selves where the endless boxes of shoes were. Leaning forward, she reached out to grab the gentleman’s shirt, pulling him closer to her – but not too much to call attention from anyone around. He made a wonderful cover, even though his face was turning about the color of a tomato.

“Baby,” she continued seductively, locking her eyes on his lips to get his attention, “you can call me absolutely anytime, anywhere you want…” With her free hand, Amelia reached behind her to grab one of the heels sitting in the box directly behind her. With one swift move undetected, she dropped the heel in her handbag. “And I’ll give the best fucking escape of your whole life.” And just like that, plop went the other heel. Taking out her hand from behind her, she reached out to brush her hand across the man’s pants and she let out a malicious laugh when she realized that he had gotten excited by just that bit.

“Down boy - wouldn’t want you to go to the doghouse tonight.” She snickered evilly, walking down the aisle unphased by what she had just down to a married man to get what she craved. “It was good seeing you, Brad.” She didn’t even look the way of where Rebecca was tending to her children; she just carried off quickly towards the exit from which she came in. The dopamine obtained from achieving her desired goal of swiping the heels caused her to feel as if she was floating, and her confidence flew to unremarkable levels. After all, she was fucking invincible. At least, it felt that way to her – and it was better than any drug she could ever try. Amelia’s dark hues scanned around quickly to make sure she didn’t attract any attention, but before she could even register her next thought, she felt her body slam into another person – sending her things flying.

“Watch where the fuck you are going, Jesus!” Amelia immediately yelled out in frustration, almost as if it were a natural reaction. “You could at least fucking apologize.” Her heart instantly froze in her chest when she found herself staring down one of the black heels she had so cautiously snatched up, on the floor, along with the other objects from her oversized handbag. Amelia shifted her vision up to the stranger’s face, frozen from fear, as she waited for the other young woman to react.

It wasn’t like Cash wanted to be shopping. She had more important things to do, and, in fact, she had taken a long lunch in order to buy a new set of slacks and a blazer for a court date. While her closet had been full of clothes, the same tired suite she wore to court had started to wear thin, and she made the painful decision that it was time to buy something new. So lunch time seemed like the best time. Fewer people to deal with and an escape from hearing the immature jokes that some of the beat cops like to spew out while they shoved a quick meal in their mouth, before another call came in sending them right back out into the world.

Pursuing the aisles of the local big named clothing store that sat just down the road from the station, the brunette slowly ran her fingers over the nicely sewn items. She didn’t go clothes shopping often, because of the memories it held when she would go with her sister. It was their thing. Go to the local mall and spend hours trying on clothes they never had any intention of buying. Followed by at least an hour in the food court having lunch and gossiping about the cute boys that served samples of Bourbon chicken or smoothies.

Had you known Cash back then, when her family was still living, you would’ve found a girl full of hopes and dreams. She had a smile that could light up a room and a laugh that was contagious. Her family had been everything to her, and the day they died was the day that Cash Black’s entire world came crumbling down around her.

‘That’s one of our most popular pant suites.’

“Huh?”

‘I said that’s one of our most popular pant suites...that we sale? Would you like to try it on?’

Once Cash had realized where she was at, she glanced down to the solid black jacket she was holding, “Um, uh. No...Thank you. I’m just looking...” Catching a glance at the smart-watch on her wrist, the detective found her lunch break was almost up, “Shit. Sorry. You know what...” With a quick glimpse of the woman’s name tag, she spoke up, “Susan...I will take this suite. I just don’t have time to try it on, but you can ring it up for me.” With a dead smile, she passed it off to the lady and followed her to the register.

With her brand new court apparel in hand, Cash began hauling ass towards the entrance of the store. However, as she was fumbling to get her keys out of her pocket, she felt someone slam into her. Bag and keys flying, she stood dazed for a minute, before she heard the woman yelling at her. Before she could say anything, she let her eyes scan the floor to see all of the stolen merchandise laying in front of her.

When the woman started to glance around, Tristan did the same. He was wondering if there was something he was missing, maybe a reason for her eyes to be roaming, but he didn’t seem to see anything out of the ordinary so he trained his gaze back on her. The comedian also said nothing as she told the waitress to disregard his request and raised his hands in the air as if in surrender. “Just trying to do something nice.” It was the suspicion that made him realize this woman either didn’t have a lot of nice people in her life or she didn’t allow a lot of nice people in her life, something that saddened him a little. 

Tristan waited a moment to let the complete paranoia set in. The woman had to know how ridiculous she sounded at the moment, right? Tilting his head slightly, he gave her a sad smile before answering. “I’ve never met you before today…that’s the honest truth. I guess I’m a little off compared to others but I see you in here every day and…just wanted to change things up a bit, I guess. Why be total strangers when the convenience of knowing each other just presents itself every night?” 

It was then that the pie was set in front of the two and Tristan started to fix up his coffee the way he liked it. More sugar than a five year old would stir in and about five creamers later and he was set to go. After taking a cautious first sip he found himself smirking softly. “Besides, different is always nice, right? The same old monotonous day gets old and fast. You seemed pretty interesting so I thought I’d give it a shot….was not disappointed, by the way.”

Something nice? Who did anything nice for anyone now? She had become jaded by all the death and sadness she had seen on a regular basis. She built walls around her heart, especially after walking in to find her family had been slaughtered while she was sitting in class learning pointless things that, to this very day, she still hadn’t used. But was she overthinking this guy’s presence? Probably. He hadn’t done a damn thing to her, but try and be nice, and the look of defeat that fell over his features made her realize just how much of a bitch she had been.

Sighing, she felt defeated herself. Maybe she did need a friend in her life who wasn’t a cop. Her house was empty. Lonely. The fish she had bought had died a week after she had gotten it, and it had taken her nearly another week to notice it. Cash needed to make some changes, but she had often felt like the Grim Reaper, and as much as she had already come to despise this guy, she didn’t want to see him hurt or, worse, dead. But he was trying. That was the point. The Cop Mentality had long since taken over her brain, and she needed to at least let one person in.

Noticing the pie and coffee now sitting in front of her, she seemed somewhat at ease. “Misty, put his food on my tab.” It was all she had said, before picking up her fork and cutting off a piece of the pie. The bite was refreshing and the chocolate washed over her senses. However, it was the sip of hot, straight black coffee that sent a jolt of joy through her. Sitting the off-white mug back onto the counter, she directed her voice towards her ’friend’, eyes set on nothing in particular straight ahead, “I see different every day. I like a little monotony in my life. It’s why I come in here and order the same thing day-in and day-out, because it’s the only regular thing I have in my life.” She let her head shift and her eyes fall on him. Her blue eyes were sad and piercing, and with a few blinks, she had shifted them back to spot she had been looking at before; her fork back in her hand digging at the pie again.

“First of all, this is L.A. As you’ve stated people love using their imaginations out here and I’m sure they’ve heard worse things than an insinuation of a gag reflex while eating. Besides, they shouldn’t really be listening to our conversation anyway, that’s just rude, right Miles?” His attention turned to another regular sat at a booth behind them, the man’s eyes going wide before he looked down at his own food to pretend to mind his business while Tristan just chuckled. “I knew you were listening to us, you fucking asshole.”

It was when she leaned in and lowered her voice that Tristan’s attention was brought back to the woman next to him, the man leaning in himself if only to put them closer to each other. He felt his eyebrows start to raise as she spoke, a small amused smile starting to appear as he nodded his head at her gently. This chick was morbid. And not to mention way too fucking serious for her own good. “I like how you go from gag reflex, meant in a sexual way in case you didn’t catch that, to disfigured bodies and disposing of them. It’s a little kinky, and an area of the bedroom I’ve never explored, but I’m willing to give anything a shot once. Even if it does include the gore you so eloquently described in your little speech.” 

Tristan was a comedian, he could turn any situation into a comical one no matter the dark content, he just hoped he threw the woman for as much of a loop as she had thrown him. It would make for an interesting turn of events. He knew it had been a good idea to change things up today he just didn’t realize how freaking interesting it would turn out to be. “You know what? Misty, I’ll take what she’s having as well. Sounds pretty good. Oh, and make sure to put her meal on my tab today.”

Cash wanted to cry. She had just wanted to enjoy her pie in peace. She had wanted to enjoy her meal in peace. Her night even. Why was he so intent on fucking with her? Was there something bigger going on? Some bigger picture that she wasn’t seeing? She came in here every night after her shift to eat and so did he. Had he already known she was cop? And was he sent in as a distraction for some crime that was either happening or about to happen? She didn’t know. But he continued. Granted he did have a smart quip for everything she had said to him, and he did take the morbidity better than she had hoped he would. While she wouldn’t admit it to him, she was somewhat impressed.

Shifting in her seat, she glanced around the restaurant and even to the people passing by outside. Nothing seemed out of place or different. Cash let her eyes shift back to the man sitting next to her and eyeballed him when he requested her meal be put on his tab, “Misty, don’t worry about it. I can cover my own check.” Her eyes remained on him, “Thanks for the good deed, but I can cover my own meal. What do you want?” He hadn’t outright stated what he had wanted with her. He had just moved beside her and started talking to her as if they had known each other in the past, “Did we go to high school together or something? Did I give you a ticket in the past, and now, you’re trying to show me how karma can be a complete bitch?” She wanted to know why her? Out of everyone in the diner, why did he set his cross-hairs on her?

She was a cop, and while nothing was supposed to make her uncomfortable, he was making her uncomfortable. He was the one thing that was seemingly starting to cause a small hairline crack in the walls she put around herself on a daily basis. Cash was curious about him, and not the typical detective curious. It was more of a wanting to get to know this man on a personal level and what made him tick, since he was obviously so comfortable coming up on her like that and not backing off; a complete stranger whom he had no clue what she was capable of or what she had been through in her lifetime.