Phoenix

A Slow Friendship

Yumiko, Taina and I had finally found a place to eat and were now waiting for our food to arrive. We were at a small restaurant in downtown Copenhagen. Yumiko and I had been chatting about our lives outside of Rainbow, while Taina stayed quiet and listened. The small talk was nice, but I wanted to talk more about our current investigation. I tried to stay away from the topic sense we were out in public and we all needed some time to relax.

I forced my attention over to the two women that sat in front of me. Yumiko was wearing a light sweater and a puffy dark blue navy jacket lying on her lap. On the other hand Taina was only wearing her short sleeved black jacket. I could tell that the woman was freezing from the way she was sitting and her constantly shivering. I couldn't blame her for being cold. It was around twenty degrees in Denmark since it was early February. I would have offered to let her use my bomber jacket, but deep down I knew that she would just say no.

Silence fell over our table. I didn't mind at first, but I wanted to try and start a conversation again. I glanced over at Taina and spoke, "Hey Taina you want to borrow my jacket? You look like you're freezing."

The woman looked over at me. I could tell that she was thinking about the offer. "I'm fine. You can keep it."

I wanted to try and convince Taina to take my jacket, but I didn't want to make her mad. "Oh come on, I can tell that you're freezing over there." Taina looked out the window that she was sitting next to and stayed quiet. I understood that she didn't want to take me jacket, but I didn't want the woman to freeze. "Please Taina. The last thing you need is Hypothermia."

She looked over at me and hesitated for a few seconds. "Alright fine." Quickly, I took off my jacket and handed it to Taina. Part of me couldn't help but feel a little overjoyed to know that Taina actually said yes, but I tried not to show it.

"See it wasn't that hard to say yes." Yumiko said as she looked over at Taina.

"Shut up." Taina replied as she put on my jacket.

A smile formed on my face as I listened to the girls. It was nice being around people I knew and trusted, even though we did know each other that well. "Oh come on Taina lighten up a little bit." I said as I looked over at the woman.

Taina opened her mouth to speak but stayed quiet. A few seconds went by before she spoke. "You're really getting on my nerves."

"You're the first person that has ever said that to me. Well other than my brother." I replied.

Taina glanced out the window and spoke, "I can see why."

Yumiko, Taina, and I chatted for a few more minutes. As we talked I couldn't help but think about getting to know the women more. I tried to ignore the thoughts and focused on the current conversation.