One Stupid Thing

Face Your Fears

By the time we reach the location that the file led us to, I'm starting to think that it was a phony address because it brought us right to the pier. Pope rolls the truck onto the beach and brings it into park right behind the lifeguard stand.

"Are you sure this is the right place?" Cleo asks skeptically.

"It was the address that was in the file." JJ points to the open file sprawled across his lap. "He probably just gave a fake address."

I lift my chin and look around for any sign of a house or potential residence, but I come up with nothing. "Ya think?"

"That's what I would've done," JJ replies with a shrug.

Cleo peers past me to look at JJ. "You really think he's here?"

"I don't know," he replies honestly. "But I need some fresh air." Frantically, he reaches for the handle and hops out of the truck as soon as the door was wide enough for him to fit through. After being stuck in a decompression chamber for 12 hours, I can't blame him. "Anyone, fresh air? Might as well take a look around."

"I'll come with you," I announce. JJ pushes the door open further and holds it while I slide off the seat.

"Have fun," Pope says, leaning an elbow out his open window.

"Oh, we will." JJ wiggles a brow suggestively and closes the door behind me.

"Not too much fun."

I raise two fingers to my temple and salute him. "Strictly business." Pope just rolls his eyes and shakes his head at me, but I believe I can see a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

"We'll hold down the fort," Cleo adds.

"Ah-huh. Sure you will." I shoot her an overdramatic wink, turn towards JJ, and take his outreached hand in mine.

JJ leads the way towards the pier, hanging back to walk up the stairs behind me. The sturdy wooden structure is covered in shops, vendors, and even houses a small motel on the shore. Today, with the beautiful weather we're having, it's alive with people.

"So, what's our plan?" I ask JJ, walking beside him as we make our way down the pier. "That is, if we end up finding this guy."

"Run." I turn my head to glare at him. "That's—I'm kidding, all right?"

"You better have been," I mutter.

"We detain, extract, investigate." He counts the steps on his hand as he speaks.

"Um, okay, sure, and how, do you reckon, we detain this guy?"

"Uh, I mean, we, like, sneak up on him, like, spy-like."

I laugh softly and a snort escapes me. "Sure, I like it. So, spies, eh? Does that mean we're, like, undercover?"

"Exactly."

I look over at him and watch as the breeze blowing in from the coast whips his hair all over the place. Then, looking back ahead of us, I notice that there are a lot of couples here today. We would blend in perfectly. "So, let's just act like we're on a date."

JJ smiles down at me and entwines his fingers with mine. "Yeah. We're on a date. Doing date things."

"Just like every other couple here taking a stroll on the pier." I swing our arms back and forth in time with our steps.

"Exactly."

As we keep walking, we approach a small cart with a red and white striped umbrella shading the worker from the sun. The chalkboard menu lists flavors of snow cones. I gasp excitedly. "Can we get snow cones? I mean, only if you think it would help us blend in of course."