Close, But No Cigar

4. pepper spray

Leela was almost full, after eating three pieces of naan, two servings of biryani, four servings of paneer, four gulab jamuns, two mango lassis, and a serving of rice. Yet even though she felt as though she might explode out of her pants, she couldn't stop eating.

Her mom was watching her with careful eyes, as if she wasn't sure that Leela was even supposed to be there. For Leela, she didn't have to do any of the work, with the reward of home-cooked food at every meal. It had only been two days, but Leela was soaking up every moment in her childhood home. However, Leela still had to tell her mom that she was going to be in Bristol for the next year. Her mother hadn't asked much questions, wisely thinking that Leela needed her time. Leela hadn't even told her mom about Andrew yet, who she had been in a three-year relationship with.

While thinking about Andrew, Leela decided that she needed to call him soon. She had only called him once, right after her brother and mother had gone to school and work, respectively, that Monday. He wasn't a secret, he couldn't be, especially considering how serious their relationship had gotten. They had already moved in together, and most of her close friends from uni had already been imagining their wedding. The only trouble with that was that Leela still hadn't gotten around to telling her mother that she was in a serious relationship with a person she had never met. Back in secondary school, everything Leela did, her mom knew about. But in London, she had had her freedom, even though she had lost most of the relationship she had had with her mother.

Leela decided that as soon as the restaurant closed tonight, around eleven, she would tell her mother about her relationship. She needed to be honest and clear, and it was the perfect time to slip-in that she would be moving back to Bristol, and hopefully back into her old room.

Leela only started her new job as a detective in less than a week, but she was excited. They already told her to come in for an orientation today, and as soon as she finished gobbling down the rest of her food, she was going to go.

It was exciting, she had always dreamed about one day working for Bristol's police department, fighting off the supers and TED, Bristol's resident supervillain group which stood for The Enigma of Destiny, a pretentious name for an overrated group. However, now knowing that she would actually be one of those detective's that she had long ago admired, that was what truly inspired her to take this job here. She had been made offers by several departments all across England, but none had spoken to her like Bristol had. When she made the decision, Andrew was loving and supporting, but she knew he was slightly heartbroken that they would no longer live in the same city while he was studying medicine in London.

So, as soon as she had finished stuffing her face with almost their entire fridge, she quickly changed into a t-shirt, jeans, and a belt, and headed down to the station. She had already worked as a police officer for three years, so this would be her first time working as a detective.

When she got to the department, it emitted almost a sense of enrapturement. You could almost feel all the legendary battles that had went down there, including the fight of the century, between Dominion and Tricksie, the main founders of TED who had split apart, leading to the two sects of TED that still exist today, the delinquents and the supers. In the end, the Bristol police department managed to capture both of them, but it was a rough time for many natives as the fight had wrecked almost half the city.

She first walked in to hear the hustle and bustle of everyday work, the general "I swear I didn't do it" while smelling like whiskey and swaying every five second, the cop who would just try and hit on the people they had arrested, and the hyper receptionist who seemed like they ran on ten cups of coffee.

"Hello ma'am! What can I get for you today? We have disorderly conduct, records, detectives, donuts, oh I do love me some good donuts!" the receptionist said, almost a hundred words a minute.