Second Chances

Nonsense

"What ?" I ask dumbly, standing next to my car in the police station parking lot...

"I said I'm coming with you. You're going to talk to that Lopez guy, right ?" Nick replies, frameless sunglasses resting low on his nose one hand buried inside the pocket of his dress pants and the other holding his vest.

Arms, arms, ar—

"So ?" Nick quirks an eyebrow at my silence.

Fuck, I got distracted.

The reason why he knows is because I report directly to him, I sent him everything I learned about the case by email yesterday.

"Yeah but, don't you have work to do ?" I tilt my head, confused as to why he suddenly decided to join me.

"This case is interesting so I wanted to see for myself. Don't worry I have time to spare." He stops in front of me and puts his hand out. "Keys, Lieutenant."

Wow. Okay...

I don't have any reason to refuse, and he is my boss after all, even if I hate to admit it. I take out the car key from my pocket and drop it on his palm. He hums satisfyingly before turning to unlock the car and climb inside. Albeit disoriented by the situation, I follow anyway and climb into the front passenger seat.

He called me "Lieutenant" like we were mere colleagues, like we were strangers, like he never used to kiss me breathless.

What the fuck.

"You're surprisingly pliant, today." He dares to tell me as the car roars to a start. "I thought you would at least protest or did you miss working with me that much ?"

It's easy to morph all my confusion and frustration into anger because that's the only thing I can let myself feel towards him right now.

Why is he acting like this ? Just because I said that we shouldn't have sex ? Is that so important for him ?

"You do whatever you want, Captain, I don't care." I spit out, crossing my arms and looking out the window instead of sparing him a glance.

"Alright. Do you have any idea where our suspect might be ?" My tone doesn't seem to faze him much.

"I was going to check his apartment first... if I don't find him, well I will have to try my luck with the gang."

The last part would be the hardest though, these guys were so loyal that no officer ever got anything out of them, so finding Antonio among them would not be easy.

"Black Vipers, huh ?" Nick only says before silence fills the car for the rest of the drive.

Soon enough, the GPS announces we arrived and Nick stops in front of an apartment building. I can guess from how old it looks and its grey sad facade that the rent must be cheap. There is a group of teenagers smoking on the doorstep and they barely spare a glance at the police car in front of them.

That's not what we're here for so we just move past them and enter the building. I sigh heavily as I see the staircase stretching upwards dauntingly, knowing that Lopez's place is on the fifth floor. Of course, an old building like this didn't have elevators. It's an interesting ride from there, sometimes we can hear commotion echoing from the tenants like a heated argument, loud hip-hop music, things that would've gotten the police called for noise complaints in other parts of town. Nick is a silent presence behind me, I can hear the clear heavy steps of his leather shoes as he climbs behind me. As I should've expected, he doesn't look much affected by the physical effort. I still wonder where he finds the time to work out.