The Philocalist 〰 ♡ 〰 Volume Two

Clean Cut

"hey" Elle smiles, meeting Lucy at the little cafe.

"hi" Lucy responds. "that's such a cute dress"

Elle is wearing a dress that has a built in baby carrier. Dashia is currently in it with Sasha at home with Uncle Nolan.

"thank you, it was one of the the first things I brought in Hawaii" Elle smiles, sitting across from her.

"okay, so Nolan said you wanted to set up an account on Tinder" Lucy starts.

"Nolan wants me to set up an account on Tinder" Elle corrects.

"well, he's right" Lucy answers.

"i-it just feels so soon" Elle murmurs.

"hey, this is good, from what I hear you're in the bargaining stage and going on dates, even if it ends up being nothing, is good to help you heal" Lucy assures.

"so... I shouldn't look at is as replacing Zoe?" Elle asks, softly.

"you will never be able to replace Zoe, going on these dates is simply to help you" Lucy responds.

"o-okay" Elle agrees, softly.

"great, so give me your phone and we can set up the account" Lucy requests.

"yeah, sure" Elle unlocks her phone and hands it to Lucy. 

The waiter comes over to them and sets down Lucy's drink. "here you go, cutie"

Elle's eyes widen as do Lucy's.

[Four Hours Later]

"so why aren't you getting the award, again?" Nolan asks, watching Elle cook dinner.

" 'cause I only really did the tail end of it" Elle responds. "I gunned down a few of the guys, nothing special"

"mmhmm" Nolan says.

"what?" Elle turns to look at him.

"nothin', just don't agree with you" Nolan shrugs.

"I really don't need some award, and this is good for Jackson, with the low score on the exam, getting a commendation will be amazing for him" Elle reasons.

"but you know what would've been better?" Nolan asks.

"what?" Elle turns around to look at him.

"if you got the award with the 100 on the exam" Nolan grins, making Elle roll her eyes playfully.

[Ten Hours Later]

"Hey, hey! My dad's coming down for the ceremony." Jackson says, excitedly.

"It's not a ceremony. It's a photo op with the Deputy Chief." Angela answers as they get out of the car they pulled over.

"All right, still, it's a big deal to me. I'm proud of this." Jackson grins.

"you should be" Elle smiles.

They reach the driver in the other car "You know you were texting while driving, sir?"

"Oh, I just looked down at my map for a second while I was stopped at a red light." Reed lies.

""Yo, running late. Smiley face, smiley face, boat."" Elle reads off of his cell phone.

"Yeah, okay, the boat was a typo." Reed admits.

"Yeah, it's so hard to focus on texting while you're driving." Jackson says, sarcastically.

"License and registration, please." Angela requests.

Elle and Jackson notice a part of the car's dashboard looks like it's been taken off and then put back on oddly.

"sir, what's wrong with your dashboard?" Elle asks, softly.