Alec Hardy: A Short Story

2

"I haven't got anything to be doing. We can go now?"

"Sure. Let's go then." He gets up and opens the office door for me. You smile and step out. He follows. He fumbles in his pockets and pulls out his car keys. "You can go find my car, I just need to talk to Miller."

You nod and take his keys. You go down to the car park and click the button. A car on the other side of the car park flashes so you go over and set into the passenger seat.

A few minutes later he gets into the seat beside you so you pass over the keys and he begins driving.

"So, (Y/L/N). Tell me a little about yourself." He says as he drives.

"Um... I'm (AGE) years old and I've been in the force for 8 years. I think I've said that before. Um... I used to live and work in (HOMETOWN) but I wanted a promotion so I moved here. I don't really know anything else to say. I'd say I live a simple life." You shrug.

He looks over at you and smiles.

"Okay. I'll say some stuff about me. I'm 46 years old, I've been in the force for nearly 20 years. I was born in Scotland if that wasn't obvious and I worked in a town called Sandbrooke before I moved here. I moved here to lay low but that didn't work out too well. I kind of wanted a simple life but again, I guess that doesn't go hand in hand with being a DI." You chuckle in response.

"Okay. I've got a question then." You look over at him as if asking for approval.

"Go ahead."

"Do you always take new colleagues out to lunch?" You chuckle.

"No. I can't say it's a regular occurrence. I mean, your the second person from work that I've had in my car. Other than that it's just Miller. But there's something about you, something in my head screaming that I need to talk to you, get to know you." He explains. You can see that he's blushing slightly.

"Oh. Okay." You smile to yourself.

You park outside a cafe on the cliff top so it's over looking the beach and the sea.

"How do you fancy eating here?"

"It looks good. Let's do it." You grin as you get out of the car. You follow him inside and he takes you to a free table in the corner. A waiter comes and takes both of your orders and he smiles over to you.

"So why did you ever want to become a DS?" He smiles softly

"I always loved mystery and when I was younger I loved solving things but I felt that being a DI was too much. My mum would probably say that I couldn't cope with the responsibilities of being a DI." You shrug. He chuckles at your answer. "It sounds like a cop out answer and it's quite cliché but I've wanted to do it since I was younger."

"Oh. Cool okay. Most people just do it because the pay's good."

"Well... that was one of the reasons that my dad encouraged me to take this up as a career." You chuckle.

"Ah right." He laughs and nods.

"So why did you love from Scotland?" You ask.

"Well... it was never originally part of the plan. Cases have made me work my way down the country." You laugh. "No seriously! I took a case about a half hours drive south and sorted it out so they wanted me to move down. Then eventually I ended up in England. That was when I got the Sandbrooke case and after that I moved here to lay low, like I mentioned earlier."

"Oh. Okay. If you don't mind me asking, what happened in Sandbrooke? Even though it was said in the news, I didn't believe it. I'm not too sure why."

"Oh. Well... the pendant was the key piece of evidence against the suspect. But the night before the court case, one of my DS' had the evidence in their car." He explains and gulps slightly. "They decided to go for a celebratory drink with a colleague and whilst the car was empty, it was broken into and the pendant was stolen." He sighs.

"It was your car?" You frown, completely confused at how it was his fault.

"No. No. It, um... it was my wife's." He sighs. He looks down at the table. You place your hand in his and sigh.

"You took the blame for your wife?" You ask and he nods.

"It turns out that it wasn't a celebratory drink either. She was having an affair." He mumbles. You get up and sit on his side of the table and hug him.

"Oh, Alec." He hugs you back and sighs again.

"It's not even the fact that she was having an affair. It's the part that she was irresponsible but I didn't want her reputation to be ruined so I took the blame and then I looked stupid because of the affair." He says as he hugs you.

"It's okay." You keep hugging him but eventually you sit back from each other.

"Sorry." He mumbles. "Um, I don't know if coming here was such a good idea. I've ruined the whole atmosphere."

"I wanna carry on. I like spending time with you. If you wanna ditch this place though we can." He nods.

"We can go back to mine and I'll make some lunch. Beans on toast is probably the fanciest I can make." You smile as you both stand up and walk to his car.

You get in and direct him to your house. He soon parks outside the house and you take him inside.

You live on the 3rd floor of the apartment block. Its a coastal apartment so you have a balcony too that overlooked the sea.

"Why don't you sit out on the balcony whilst I quickly make this?" You smile softly pointing to the door.

"I'm a bit cold. I might just stay in here." He shrugs. You start making the food. You are just waiting for the beans. All of a sudden he breaks the silence that had developed.

"(Y/N)?" You look straight over, slightly surprised that he's used your first name.

"Yeah?" You answer as he steps closer. You are now looking up at him due to his height.

"Um... do you feel the same way?" He asks nervously.

"What do you mean?"  You frown slightly. He shakily cups your face and kisses you softly. It takes you a second to realise but then you relax into the kiss.

He steps back and smiles down to you. You're speechless.

"Well? Do you feel it?" He asks after a while. You nod slightly and kiss him again.