Paint the town red

Chapter XXIII

The working week came to an end quite quickly, and, fortunately, we didn't receive any information about the newly discovered bodies. Everyone at the station was on their ears because of the upcoming inspection and waited with some horror for Mr. Horner's arrival, but it was already funny for me to watch this, because Fred told me and only me that this wasn't a check, but only an imitation of it. What can you do to make your employees work, right?

What I liked most was watching Javi panic, and watching him go to the archives to see if his closed cases were in order and if there was anything to cling to in the open ones. We didn't have a good relationship initially, because he was jealous that Sebastian Vettel was my mentor – the one who once refused to introduce him to the basics of detective work, and even more so he didn't like the fact that after Sebastian left, I took his place at the station. So he started flooding me with useless and easy cases, referring to the fact that I was still "too young" and didn't understand anything about the real work of a detective. One time I was looking into one of his cases where a hydraulic malfunction killed a young guy, and I found a mistake in his reports, and then I proved him wrong, and he hated me even more after that. But I didn't care, because everything I knew I was taught by the best of the best.

Although Max and I tried to restrain ourselves at work and not to get involved with kisses or hugs, sometimes we still let ourselves go and kissed behind closed doors. I was already used to the feeling that we could be caught at any moment, but I even liked it. For some reason, I'm sure Max does too.

We left work together, but we didn't hold hands at the station, just to be safe and avoid uncomfortable questions. Anyway, I don't really want any rumors going around the precinct about me and my partner - there's definitely gonna be people there who would love to talk about it.

I started my Saturday morning by going to the gym – I can't let myself get out of shape. And after that Yuki and I had a long shopping trip. He made a long list of purchases that we need to get home. So I spent most of the day in the company of a Japanese man, who constantly cursed with himself in his native language when he couldn't find the product he needed in the store. So we'd leave one store and go to another. I'm pretty sure if I didn't remind him of my meeting with George, we'd be going to supermarkets almost till they close.

By 6:00 p.m., we were back home, and the thing I wanted most was to get into bed and not wake up for at least a week, but I promised to meet a friend, so I took a quick shower, changed my clothes and went to see a "British skyscraper". Yuki was even glad when I told him I was leaving, because then I wouldn't get in his way while he put the purchased groceries and other goods in their places.

At 7 p.m. I was already waiting for my friend in our favorite cafe – we always sat here when he flew to Monaco or before he was going to fly to Britain. And I immediately took our table, making an order for two. From time to time, I glanced at my phone, waiting for a message from either a friend or my boyfriend.

I decided to text with Max before George showed up, and I gave him a short description of my day. Max sent laughing emojis and told that "Yuki decided to use you as a personal porter." In fact, yes, he's right. I replied with the same emojis.

While I was texting him my plans for the evening, George came into the cafe. I sent a message to Max and added that I'd write to him after the meeting. He sent me a heart, I happy smiled and sent him the same one in return.

George sat down opposite me and, seeing my expression, laughed softly.

"The Dutch fisher caught you on his hook?"

"Why does it sound so vulgar from you?"

"Depend on what you're thinking about, buddy."

We both laughed, and the waiter just brought our order. When George finally settled into his chair, we started the usual conversation about our everyday lives. I gave him an overview of how the case was progressing, and he gave an overview of the new cases that had come to his attention. Judging by his story, he's got a lot of hard work ahead of him in Britain, but I'm sure he'll do a brilliant job.