Lovers and Lawbreakers

Confrontation

Mari was hit with a flood of nostalgia as they pulled into Summerset Drive. She saw her childhood home as they drove past it, slumping back against her seat with a sigh.

David looked over. "You alright?"

Mari nodded. "Yeah. I'm just missing all the innocence I used to have. I think every bit of it I still had has been crushed while investigating a murder."

David chuckled.

"How do you do this as your job?" She asked, turning to face him.

David gripped the wheel and a smile played at the corner of his lips.

"I've been doing this for eleven years now. My first couple of cases are my most memorable. They took a lot out of me. I was a lot more empathetic back then, like you told me to be when we first went to the crime scene. But as time went on I adjusted to talking to grieving family members and looking at dead bodies and I coped by shoving all thoughts of life out of my mind. No, this dead body was never a breathing person. No, those family members don't have lives outside of this building. And then one day I was able to kind of... just go on with my day without thinking twice about them. You told me to be empathetic but Mari, refusing to be empathetic is what helps me cope with the job I have."

Mari turned to look back out of the window.

"Oh."

David chuckled. "It's an emotionally draining job. I have to deal with it somehow."

*

When they pulled up to the house, Anthony walked up to them quickly and stopped them.

"No need to investigate the house. We have a suspect."

Mari and David looked at each other before David asked, "who?"

"A man named Wesley Johnson."

*

"Mari, so good to see you!"

Those were the first words Sabrina said when she walked into the office, smiling at Mari and waving before entering David's office.

Mari smiled back, although a little warily. It's not exactly easy to look the fiancé of the man you're secretly making out with in the eye.

David looked up when the door opened to see her silhouette before shutting the door.

"How goes the case?"

David perked up.

"We have a suspect finally. Wesley Johnson."

"How exciting!"

"I know, we might finally be able to put this damn case to rest."

"It'll be weird not having that Mari girl around all the time for you though, won't it?"

David paused and his smile faded. That wasn't a prospect he'd thought about before. "Yeah. It will."

His sudden change of attitude didn't go unnoticed by his fiancé.

"Why so gloomy?"

"Just- I don't know. She's been nice."

"Nice?"

David cleared his throat. "Yeah."

Sabrina bit her lip.

"You know, David-"

He looked up at her, curious.

"You and her seem really close."

He gulped. "Well, that happens when you work on a murder case with the girlfriend of the victim who likes to vent to you about her feelings."

Sabrina shook her head. "Not as close as you two are."

David furrowed his eyebrows.

"Are you-"

She looked up and wiped a tear away he hadn't noticed fall.

"Are you seeing each other?"

David hesitated. "Why would you think that?"

She shook her head.

"She just seems like she's more important to you than I am. She's always at our apartment to 'work on the case,' but you're in the office for hours, David, and just now you found a suspect."

David pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head.

"Brina, you're being paranoid. I'm not cheating on you."

She shook her head. "I don't believe you."

David asked, "why? We're about to get married- you're about to be my wife- you should be able to trust me."

"Exactly, David. I should be able to trust you. But I don't. And last I checked, you're postponing the wedding, and for a reason you wouldn't even tell me, so no, I'm not about to be your wife. You've been acting so- strange around me ever since Mari came into your life. It's like you're more comfortable around her."

David twisted the ring around his finger.

"Brina-"

"Don't. We're not doing this. David, if you spend more time with her than you have to, I'm sorry but I'll just have to call the wedding off completely."

David sat there, gaping.

"She's my friend!"

"She's more than your friend, David, and you and I both know that."