i was busy thinkin' bout The Boys

“You believe in ghosts, O’Leary?” Minogue asked, placing another hot chip in his mouth.

This was their decompress routine, chips and chatting. The two had grown close and become good mates after being partnered in the force for so long. Minogue looked up to O’Leary and valued her opinions.

O’Leary chewed and contemplated. “I dunno. We’ve seen vampires, demons, and alien vegetation, I reckon there are ghosts too”

Minogue cheered, “that skeptic don’t know what she’s missin” he shook his head and smiled.

“Minogue, I reckon you’re quite keen on that skeptic?” O’Leary said, matter of fact.

“Me? Keen on her?” Minogue blushed and scoffed. "She was quite fit, eh?"

O'Leary nodded and they continued eating their chips in silence.

"You should ask her out" O'Leary encouraged. She pulled up the GPS history to see how far your house was. "It only a 10 minute drive" she added.

Minogue felt butterflies in his stomach. "I dunno O'Leary, won't I seem creepy?" He doubted.

"Only one way to find out" she pulled out and began driving back to your house.

—

Your flatmate had left for a weekend trip with her partner, so you were all alone this evening.

You curled up on your couch with a book and your nighttime glasses. You were lost in your fantasy book world when suddenly a knock on your door startled you.

"Just a second" you shouted.

You peeped through the tiny window next to your door to see Officer Minogue on your doorstep. “Unusual” you thought.

You opened the door, “Gidday Officer Minogue, everything going okay?” You ask politely, even thought you were confused by this evening house call.

“Uh ye, ye just wanted to check up on your flatmate, she going alright?” He scratched the back of his head.

“She’ll be right.” I reassured, “she’s gone for the weekend”.

“Is that so?” Minogue tried to keep the conversation flowing. “And you, how are you going?” He smiled, swaying back and forth.

“I reckon I should ask you the same, officer.” You put your hand on your hip. “Those roaches gave you quite a fright” you teased.

“Yeah” he chuckled, “I’ve got a thing about creepy crawlies”.

You smiled, you found his skiddishness cute and comforting.

“I’ve also got a thing about you” he tried to sound smooth. “That came out wrong, what I mean is..,” he stammered.

You blushed. “Should we go for a handle sometime?”.

Minogue relaxed and smiled. “Yeah, we should” um here’s my number. He handed you a piece of paper with the numbers 111 on it. You looked back puzzled. He grabbed the paper and crumbled it, “just a bit of police humor, eh?” and then he gave you his real number.

“Take it easy” he said walking back to the police car, officer O’Leary was watching the whole interaction go down, chuckling at the her straight male partner being scared of a woman.

Minogue sat down and once the car door closed, O’Leary started driving away.

“I think I’ve got a date, O’Leary.”

“Good on ya, mate!” She patted his arm.

“Im not sure if I’d call myself a skeptic? I guess I would say I don’t think about these things, period.”

The camera then panned to your flatmate who called in the situation. Two officers with the Wellington police force showed up with a camera crew, which did not appear weird to her.

“There is a real life ghost in our basement”

The camera panned back to you. You shook your head and gestured that she was crazy.

Your flatmate nodded, and led them down the hallway. The taller male police officer stopped to talk to you.

“A skeptic, eh?” He asked you, with furrowed brows.

“Yes, officer….” You scanned for his name patch.

“Officer Minogue” he smiled.

“Officer Minogue, yes, I do not believe in all of this paranormal stuff”

“I reckon you’ve never seen one” he raised an eyebrow. And looked down the hallway at O’Leary and the documentary crew.

He held his arm out, beckoning you to take it. You grabbed on and were surprised by the biceps on this tall lanky man.

He led you down the hallway to the basement with everyone else. Your roommate screamed and officer O’Leary called Minogue for backup.

Minogue enjoyed having a woman touch his arm, but he knew he had a responsibility to serve the public. “You have a very gentle touch” he complimented awkwardly before running down the basement stairs haphazardly with his uneven gait.

You couldn’t help but smile. The camera panned to you watching Minogue running and you immediately felt embarrassed and blushed.

“Uh let’s go see this ‘ghost’ ” you teased the camera.

In the basement O’Leary and Minogue were examining a white sheet that was covering a chair. There was unnatural movement underneath it. Minogue shined his torch on it.

“You grab the sheet O’Leary” Minogue squeaked, you could hear the fear in his voice.

“Me? Why don’t you grab the sheet Minogue?”

“Cuz I’m holding this here torch” he waved the ray of light around the basement.

“Here give me the torch and then your free to grab the sheet”

“What if while I’m handing you the torch, the ghost escapes and then neither of us will need to grab the sheet”

You sighed and bravely walked up to the chair, pulling off the sheet in one swift motion.

Minogue jumped and hugged you.

He shone the torch onto the chair revealing a large disgusting pile of cockroaches. 🪳

The room sighed relief. Minogue and my flatmate squealed at the site of the bugs. O’Leary called in for a pest control specialist to come and clean up this mess. She looked at Minogue and gestured to stop clinging onto the civilian. He looked down and realized he was hugging you. He blushed and let go, patting down his uniform.

The pest control showed up and cleaned up as my flatmate and you went back to finish cooking tea.

Officers O’Leary and Minogue went outside to film the conclusion.

“Ye so as you saw there were not ghosts, but we did see some roachs” O’Leary said tucking her thumbs into her trouser pockets.

“Ye, I reckon the skeptic won in this case” Minogue said, trying to turn the torch off. O’Leary offered to help and both of the officers stood in the front of your house slapping around a torch trying to turn it off. It was quite comical.

😩