Animal Instincts

Chapter 12

Judy's POV

The shower was refreshing. It felt good to be all squeaky clean instead of sweaty and sticky.

Making my way out the shower room, I saw Nick sitting on the bleachers exactly where I left him. It wasn't like I wasn't expecting him to be there. I mean, it shouldn't have taken long to just return a perfume bottle to Tessa.

He was just sitting there, texting away on his phone. Probably talking to Finnick. since they rarely get enough time to hang out anymore, all they can do is text or call each other. Nick doesn't have time to hustle the public with two dollar pawsicles anymore giving the fact he's a cop now.

"How was the shower?" Nick asked me once I joined him on the bleachers. His eyes were still glued to his phone.

"Yeah it was nice," I replied, looking over at him then down at his phone. "Who you texting?"

His thumb froze as it hovered over the phone screen. He then just pressed the top button and the whole screen went blank.

"Nobody," he muttered, shrugging his shoulders. "Just chatting with one of my friends."

"What friend? Is it somebody I know?" I inquired.

It took him a while to answer. He was currently stuffing his phone in his pants pocket and started scrambling through his duffel bag supposedly searching for something. Nick never acted like this before.

"Well, yeah. I was texting Ralph. He wanted to hang out tomorrow after work." He finally responded.

"Oh really?" I asked in a doubtful tone, ears low. " I didn't know you and Ralph got along. You're always complaining he's annoying."

I have a feeling he's lying. Ralph and Nick don't even talk to each other and they have totally different personalities. Ralph is more of a broad-shouldered, slick talking lady killer and a party guy. Nick is more laid back and would rather be at home playing his video games while stuffing his mouth with junk food.

"What?" he laughed, but I could hear the nervousness in his voice. "Ralph and I are basically best friends."

"You sure about that?"

"Positive," his phone beeped. He pulled it out, looked at the screen, and said, "And he just texted me back. We're meeting up at the local park tomorrow."

"For what?" I crinkled my eyebrows. "Why the park?"

"So we can do manly stuff," he replied confidently.

"Like chase butterflies?"

"No," he snorted. "We decided to go to the park because he's bringing his niece along. He didn't want to be stuck with her by himself so he asked me to come along to keep him leveled."

I didn't even know Ralph's brother, Gary, had a kid. He doesn't seem to talk about himself as much as Ralph does.

"What do you mean leveled?" I heard myself say.

"He told me that she's very annoying and Gary spoils her, so you can already imagine what she's like," Nick replied, tapping away on his phone again until he stuffed his phone back in his pocket.

"Oh, she's one of those kids,"

"Yeah,"

"Well, do you mind if I tag along? I'm great with kids. I mean, she can't be that bad. How old is she?"

"I think five," his statement sounded more like a question.

"Five-year-olds can't be that hard to handle."