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CHAPTER 03: JOKE'S ON YOU
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Thursday, August 15th
The ride back to their apartment was silent. Uncle and niece drained from the raucous events of the evening, both ready to call it a day and hit the sack. Once they entered through the threshold, Taina immediately went to ready herself for a shower, while her uncle said hello to a bottle of booze and reminisced through old black and white pictures of their family. Possibly the ones spent in Catalina. Her mother and father smiling away, while she made her sandcastles in one photo. Uncle Eddie and Aunt Dolores hopelessly in love in another photo.
Taina sighs as she takes off the last of her makeup, pinning her hair back and placing a shower cap over her head. The hot shower felt nice. Taina had to momentarily balance herself on the tile wall, still tipsy from her margarita. Those bartenders sure knew what they were doing.
After dressing in her pajamas-her mother's old set from Jamaica-Taina was out like a light by one in the morning and didn't wake up until half past eight. It took Taina twenty minutes to finally will herself out of bed, sift through her closet for what to wear, and freshen herself up in the bathroom. That took all of thirty minutes. She settled for a long white sleeve dress shirt, black dress pants, her favorite leopard print belt with faux fur and the matching heels that came with it. She did her hair in the fashion that the women did nowadays-but hers was no doubt much curler-and kept her makeup simple with dark red lipstick with a nice gloss to go on top.
When she entered the living/office space, Taina was met with the sight of her uncle knocked out on the sofa next to the double desk, a bottle of bourbon centimeters away from his fingertips. Taina shook her head, disappointed, and went to the kitchen for breakfast. In the fridge, there was a half-eaten bag of powdered and chocolate donut holes. Taina had no interest in actually cooking breakfast, besides, they needed to go grocery shopping for a proper breakfast anyways. Once she shoved a handful of donut holes down her throat, and washing them down with orange juice, a loud knock rapped at the door.
Taina eyes the door for a moment and then pans over to her uncle to see if he'll awaken from his drunken stupor. Eddie doesn't move until, after a few moments, he does. First, he rouses, then sits up and walks a crooked line to the door, as Taina pops another donut in her mouth.
Eddie opens the door and reveals Lieutenant Danny Santino on the other side.
"Lieutenant Santino," said Eddie, still waking up. "How ya doin'?"
"Morning!" said Taina through a mouthful, knowing it'd make her uncle cringe.
Santino ignores the question and regards Eddie with a mixture of disgust and pity but half smiles at Taina, giving her a brief wave. "Mornin', Tina." He turns back to her uncle. "Tell me you didn't do a snoop job for a toon named Roger Rabbit?"
