Page 2 of Dancing in the Dark

“I can feel you sneaking, Detective.” Aubree stops in the main room, bright blue eyes looking me up and down while, beside her, Minka merely checks out the space almost identical to her apartment upstairs.

The one she doesn’t even live in anymore.

“I’m not sneaking.” I’m absolutely sneaking, and more importantly, I need my daughter not to hear me, so I creep into the room and close the door at my back. “You ladies talked to Sera lately?”

Minka rolls her eyes.

“I guess she’s super busy these days, huh? I try to call sometimes, but she doesn’t really pick up. And I hang out near City Hall when I get the chance, hoping she might wander by, but…” I shrug.

Amused, Aubree sets her hands on her hips. “You don’t go inside?”

“Don’t wanna cross the line between generally-interested stalker and the fully fledged pending-court-date kind. I bet she takes your calls though, right?”

“It’s cute you think we’ll play middleman to your messy non-relationship.” Minka opens my empty closet, sliding the door to the left and peeking in at dozens of hangers waiting for their clothes. “If you wanna speak to her, you’re gonna have to figure it out for yourself.”

“But she doesn’t answer my calls!” I hiss. “Delicious! She’s cutting me off. I just thought that if you⁠—”

Aubree shakes her head. “You asked her out to dinner. Loudly. Convincingly. Some might even say coercively.”

I swallow the lump of nerves bundled dangerously in my throat. “Yes. I asked her out.”

“And she said yes.”

She said yes. Fuckkkkkk, she said yes.

I nod.

“You planned a date. Chose a restaurant. Picked a time. You made reservations. You even texted her the morning of to confirm it was still on.”

My stomach churns with dread. With nerves. With pain. “Yes.”

“And then you left her sitting there!” Minka closes my closet door with a rattle and hits me with a mean glower. “She dressed up for you. Did her hair. Put on makeup.”

“But—”

“Those things take time, Charlie! Hair takes a lot of work. Makeup isn’t cheap.” Aubree charges forward and smacks me with her open palm. “You begged her for a date, and then you stood her up!”

“It wasn’t my fault.” I rub my arm with fast strokes of my hand. “My job is unpredictable sometimes.” I swing desperate eyes across to Minka. “Right, Chief? You’re married to a cop. You work in the same field we do. When we’ve got a killer on the streets and a dead body in the morgue, sometimes our social lives have to wait. Sera understands that.”

“Uh-huh. Sounds like it. Ya know, since she sat at that restaurant for two whole hours waiting for you.”

“She completely understands,” Aubree adds. “Proven by all those calls and texts she entertains these days.”

“She takes my calls sometimes,” I pout. When I start with ‘Mia wants to talk to you about something.’ Exhaling a defeated sigh, I drop my hands and groan. “I messed up.”

“You messed up,” Minka confirms. “But you got her to agree that one time, so I bet if you wait another five years and act right for at least four of them, you might convince her to put on a pretty dress again.”

“She wants to like you.” Aubree rubs my arm, right where she hit me. “She wants to feel like liking you is a safe, sensible choice, but every time she tries, you go and do something dumb like stand her up without texting.”

“I was on my way,” I groan. “Mia was with Cato. Life was good. I even bought flowers and planned to be there early. But then Lieutenant Fabian pulled us back in.”

“Fletch!” Archer’s booming voice echoes through my apartment. “Fletcher! Where are you?”

I drop my head back and stare up at the ceiling. Because my phone buzzes in my pocket, and Arch’s feet stomp along the hallway. I don’t bother turning. I don’t even take out my phone. I merely wait for the whoosh of air from the swinging door, and then his barked, “We’ve gotta go. We caught a case.”

And there it is. My whole fucking existence, tied up in work and parenthood.

I have to work because that’s how I feed my daughter, and I can’t let her down in my pursuit of a beautiful woman, not even Sera, because of all the folks in the world, myself included, she’s the only innocent amongst us all. The only one who truly deserves everything her little heart desires.