A Simple History In Town

Chapter 4

I was in the reunion room, waiting for my colleagues to join me. 15 minutes later, Charlotte finally showed up. I was so happy that I was going to collaborate with her. I never worked on a case with her. I was so excited to work with her that I let slip the words "I love you". Charlotte looked at me and asked : "What did you say?"

"Me? Nothing. I didn't say anything" I answered. I really didn't want her to know I said "I love you".

"Yes you did"

"I just told you I didn't"

"You did say a sentence, Johnny Abatti"

I hate when she calls me "Johnny Abatti" from Angela Anaconda. I hate that kid's tv show. It's the creepiest ever. It's like its purpose is to show is to traumatise children and brainwash them. So creepy. Anyways, I really wanted to prove Charlotte wrong, so I said with a dominant voice:

"You know what? If you think I said something, which I didn't, why don't you repeat the sentence I supposedly said? Huh?" I felt so powerful in that moment.

Charlotte gazed at me and exclaimed : "You said "I love you"". When I was just about to respond to that accusation, which was pretty solid, James entered the reunion room, that by the way smelled as if someone had taken a nap and took their smelly shoes off, and yelled while taking a Spice girls' position:

"I'm back bitches!" Sometimes I wondered if he was gay. Then Charlotte turned the death stare, she was giving me, to James. She then calmly sighed :

"You were never gone"

"Oh hello Charlotte! You are hotttttt this morning!"

"Humh... it's almost eight thirty James." replied Charlotte.

"You can be so boring sometimes"

"Hello James" You could notice by my tone that I deeply hated James.

"Oh hello Putrick, he always pronounced my name wrong, is it just me or are you wearing the same shoes you wore yesterday" He was definitely gay.

"Well, it's not like I have then thousand pairs of shoes."

"Yes well, that's lame."

"Okay, so can we get back to work? So, uhm, first of all, Patrick why did you summon us to the conference room?"

"So I hav-"

"Sweetheart, it's not called a conference room, but a reunion room" James interrupted me.

"Shut up James!" Charlotte ordered. Finally, I could finish my sentence.

"So, as I was saying before, I have summoned you all, because while I was dealing with a useless case, I noticed that there were flies."

"Wow! Oh my god! you saw flies!" James said with his annoying sarcastic voice.

"Shut up James! I never asked for your opinion."

"I bet that even Charlotte isn't impressed by your discovery of flies inthe city"

"Yeah, James's right. What is so surprising about flies?"

"Oh my God, I was so shocked that nobody had read the Livestone's police history book, has nobody here read the police history book?"

"Wait, did you really think we were going to waste our time on a book who is going to teach us nothing?" questioned James.

"Well I'm not surprised that you didn't read the book, James. In fact, I don't believe you have read any book in your life. What about you Charlotte?"

She answered my question by slightly shaking her head. I was indeed so shocked that I suddenly had a desire for coffee, but unfortunately, the station's coffee is disgusting. It's not even coffee, it's like mashed potatoes mixed with jasmine tea. You really do not want to taste that coffee. The first time I drank it, I was sick for two days! Two days! Do you know what that means to be sick for two days? I am just going to tell my experience in an enumeration: Puke, bad, fever, soup, puke, toilet, no sleep, pain relievers, puke, vomit, (upchucking) the worst period of my life. Anyways, I was so shocked that I looked to James and Charlotte as if they had wasted their life. I mean, how can you be a detective and not read the police history book? That book is the most relevant piece of paper in the police station.

Suddenly, my thoughts were interrupted by an annoying voice:

"Well I would love to stay here and talk about dead bodies and flies. But I've to go to the club" said James

"What?! But we haven't finished our conversation!" I answered

"Yes, well, it's also nine o'clock. And I'm not staying here one more second."

"Yeah, James's right, said Charlotte, it's late. I better go home."

Both of them exited the room. And I stayed in the room quietly, a bit mad because my colleagues hadn't read my favourite book. Ten minutes after staying in the smelly room, I decided to retire for the night. I took my stuff and my keys out. I went outside, and then remembered that my car had been taken earlier. By chance, Charlotte was getting in her car. As I approached her, I said " Hey Charlotte, can you give me a ride?"

"For what?"

"Well, my car has been taken"

"So typical of you"she murmured,

"So can you ?"

"It depends"

"It depends on what ?"

"It depends if you buy me a croissant tomorrow morning"

I thought about this deal for a moment and then agreed. A croissant against a free ride with my crush, that's a good deal. We got in the car. I had never been in her car. It was so different from mine. It was a Honda Civic, it was clean and had a good smell. A mix of Charlotte's strawberry perfume and hand sanitizer. It was a very good smell indeed. For at least three or four minutes, an awkward silence reigned in the car. Finally, Charlotte broke that awkward silence by saying "Do you mind if a put some music on?" I nodded to confirm that some music would do some good. But I regret that decision. Charlotte connected her phone to the radio, and put her playlist on. But I didn't consider that her music tastes were awful. She played one of Ariana Grande's songs. I don't have anything against Ariana, I even had a poster of one of her concerts when I was a young. But the song that was playing on the radio was just AW-FUL. It was "Why try". That song made me really uncomfortable. But Charlotte was having a great time, she was singing, and even if her voice wasn't beautiful her lips were, and the way her hair was moving was just gorgeous. I wanted to kiss her so much, but then I realized that my breath didn't smell like heaven, but more close to McDonald's garbage bin. Ariana's song was still on. I asked Charlotte if I could change the music, she agreed. So I put my favourite song, "Happy" from Pharrell Williams. But Charlotte paused the song directly when she heard the first three seconds.

"Why did you stop it ?" I asked her,

"I don't like that song", she said said with a dry voice

"Why?"

"It's none of your business"

I just assumed that she went through a traumatic event with that song, like a date gone wrong or a big dance humiliation. After that, there was an awkward silence again. But this time, this one was awkwarder. After being in that good smelling car for exactly thirteen minutes, I finally got home. I tried to thank Charlotte for the ride, but she immediately left after I got out of her car.