An Official Study of Tailcoats and Blue Scarves

Entry six

"Yeah, Molly, of course. If you really like this guy you should talk to him!" Evelyn said into her phone. "Oh, by the way, I'm at Speedy's do you want anything?"

The English girl mumbled something and Evelyn scanned over the menu, "No, seriously. I don't mind, what would you like? Are you sure? Alright. I'll see you when I come in."

Evelyn hung up and smiled at the cashier but before she could order a smooth voice cut her off, "The pastrami is very good if you don't mind me saying."

"Oh, thanks, but I already know what I want," Evelyn told the middle-aged man in a suit standing behind her who was checking his pocket watch. "Hey, the usual, Nick."

Nick nodded and started making her sandwich. She expected her encounter with the stranger to be over but he evidently had more to say, "Yes, of course, the number three with a sweetened ice tea."

Okay how could he have known that? "Excuse me?"

He gave her a thin lipped smile, "We are all creatures of habit, Ms. Blake."

"Can I help you...?"

"Mycroft. Holmes. You're an...associate of my brother's?" He asked rhetorically.

"Sherlock's your— hold on, what? There's two of you?" Evelyn asked incredulously. One Holmes was bad enough but now she had two bothering her? Now that she thought about it, Evelyn had never heard Sherlock mention a family. She always just kind of assumed he just sprang into existence without the need for parents.

"Quite right. I'd like to talk to you about him for a moment." Mycroft threw a couple of pounds onto the counter before Evelyn could pay and pointed to a booth in the corner of the shop. "If you don't mind."

Mycroft sat down and motioned for her to join him in the seat across. Without checking to see if his orders were followed, he pulled out a leather bound book and flipped through the worn pages, "I meant to pay you a visit earlier but there was... an inconvenience at my place of work which kept me away."

"Okay," There was an aura of superiority which the eldest Holmes brother wore like a cape. "Mycroft? I'm confused. Why do you want to talk to me?"

"Because you are important to my brother, and I do worry about him constantly," He snapped the book shut for emphases.

"I'm really not," Evelyn fidgeted in her seat. "We are just friends."

His brow rose when he heard the extension of the word, "Oh, I quite doubt that. How many friends do you imagine Sherlock has? No, you are very special."

Unsure of how to respond to that, Evelyn stayed silent.

"Now I would offer you money to...watch over him—" Evelyn noticed that Mycroft was very particular about precise wording and would constantly pause in the middle of a sentence in order to search for the right one.

"You want me to spy on him?" She asked.

"—But I know that you won't."

"If you knew that why are you talking to me?"

His smile was condescending, "Sherlock's trust is fragile, Ms. Blake. I only want to make sure it's not placed in vain."

"Are you asking what my intentions are with your brother?" The question felt ridiculous as it came out and Mycroft's face pinched up in disgust at the phrasing.

He opened his mouth to respond but a long coated individual stopped in front of their table and drew their attention.

"Brother, mine," Mycroft acknowledged.