How Sweet It Is

Hey There Partner

"Holy shit." Debbie says as I open the door to my Brooklyn brownstone. Newly renovated and refurbished might I add. "You live here?"

"Yeah, just moved in a few months ago."

She walks past me, through the door, spinning around in a small circle she looks around the foyer in awe. I close the front door and watch as she circles back to me.

"How the hell do you afford this place?"

"I got a pretty big score a while back. I took a guys watch on the subway, pretty standard stuff. Thought it would be worth 200,000 thousand, maybe." Walking futher into the house, her following closely behind, I throw my keys down onto the large marble countertop.

"Yeah? And what, he was a fucking millionaire?"

"Billionaire actually, and the watch turned out to be a family heirloom. Cashed it in for 1.5 million dollars and bought this place." I motion around to the house surrounding us.

"Jesus christ." She runs her fingers along the marble, looking up at me with a smile. "I'm so proud of you, baby."

"Thank you, let me just go put this upstairs." I take the watch on my wrist off. "Walking around with stolen jewelry on, is a no go."

"I'll be here, walking around your mansion."

Emerging back downstairs a few minutes later, I see her standing in front of the fireplace holding something in her hand. Something I knew she wasn't expecting and something I had forgotten I kept.

"Thought you said you didn't keep pictures?" She asks, looking up from the frame.

"I uh don't. That's the only one."

A small brown framed picture of Debbie, Lou, Tammy and I from a few years back. Back when we spent almost every night in the same corner booth in the same sweaty bar.

A simpler time.

She places it down, turning to me with a small smile.

"You know if I didn't know any better, I would think you missed us, Clarke Smithfield."

"Don't even start with me." Her smile doesn't fade, and for a moment she looks at me with those same eyes she did all those years ago. I clear my throat, "You ready?"

"If you are."

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"Honey, we're home." Debbie calls out into the empty building. Holding the door open for me I walk past her, looking around.

"Who's the we in that sen-" A familiar voice calls out, suddenly stopping her sentence. I turn around and see Lou standing a few feet in front of me, a blank look on her face.

"Hey there partner."

Silence fills the room as she tries to quickly gather her thoughts.

"You said you'd never come back." She says, pointing her finger at me.

"I've said a lot of things." As we look at eachother, small smiles gradually making their way to our faces. "Are you gonna squeeze me or what?"

She laughs, quickly stepping forward and wrapping her arms around my frame, frantically pressing kisses to the top of my head and swaying us back and forth.

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Sitting around boxes of takeout later that night, we spent most of the day trying to come up with a team and the other half reminiscing about the old days.

"Well, how are you two gonna be? Aren't you not supposed to work with your exes?" Lou says, sticking her fork into my box and taking out a piece of broccoli.

Debbie and I look at eachother for a moment, I shrug my shoulders with a small smile.

"I think we'll be fine." She answers, her eyes never leaving mine.

"I do too. I mean it was only three years, barely even left a imprint." I joke, digging in my box and seeing that Lou had in fact, eaten all my broccoli.

"Barely left an imprint? You fled to Montana for six months when you two broke up." Lou says bumping her shoulder with mine.

"Okay, shut up." The two of them just laugh.

It really was like old times.

"So, we're gonna need dresses right?" Lou speaks up after a few moments of silence.

"Yes, but not just dresses. We need gowns, ball gowns, gowns grand enough to get us into the Met Gala without being noticed."

And that's when the lightbulb went off.

"I think I know someone."