Lunch with Lisa had been slow torture. Sure, she was nice on the eyes, but she was nonstop chatter. She pretty much told him her entire life story in one club-sandwich sitting and was about to go on when she was interrupted --to Aiden's luck—by some old precinct buddies.
"Get the fuck outta, he-ah. Aiden you S.O.B. you was just gonna come up in Pete's and not say "hello"?" Gerry was a completely Brooklynite. He was older than Aiden but only by a few years. He was a big guy in every sense of the word. He wasn't fat per say, he was just solid and tall. A few years back, he and his partner responded to a call about a robbery in progress at a local convenience store and well to make a long story short, Gerry's partner and the store owner were killed and Gerry was shot 4 times. It took months of rehab and years of therapy so now he worked the desk. Aiden couldn't just call to him from across the diner so he told Lisa he's be a minute and walked over to the commotion. There were several uniforms there, some old some new, but all NYPD brothers. Aiden had been out of commission for a while and was uncertain about even coming back to the field, but when he was told about the new case he figured it was just the type to ease him back into the game. They said their "hellos" and the new kid, Jones was his name, noticed that I was eating lunch with "the hot chick from the basement".
"Shit" Aiden thought to himself, he had been all caught up with the guys that he actually forgot about Lisa at the table.
"Well I gotta head back to lunch, you know duty calls." Aiden smirked as he retreated back to his booth with Lisa. The guys gave him a knowing look and burst out laughing. Gerry just smiled and shook his head at the kid. Man, Aiden was never out of commission when it came to the ladies. He used to have a different one for everyday of the week. He was a legend in the precinct and on his first day back, it looked like he was coming out of retirement. "That lucky bastard" Gerry thought.
As Aiden returned to the table he was glad to see the bill sitting there waiting to be paid. He put down a twenty and noticed that Lisa didn't even look like she intended on leaving. He felt like an ass when he began, but it had to be done.
"Hey, Lisa, lunch was great....but I really gotta head out. I –"
"Oh, oh-my-gosh, that's cool I didn't mean to hold you up or anything. Lunch was great thought, maybe we should make it a habit." Lisa smiled seductively and grabbed her purse as Aiden put on his jacket. He knew exactly what she was getting at, but for some reason wasn't as interested as her. But he had to remain professional; she was after all his secretary.
"Yeah, for sure. I'll see you Monday. Have a good weekend." They headed in separate directions, Lisa was going back to the precinct and Aiden was headed to the number one place he figured his new partner would be...
~~<~@
"Hey Shelley, how's your afternoon been?" Khalilah smiled as she walked up to the sign in desk of the morgue, tossing Shelley the other half of her turkey sandwich.
She had become very close with Shelley since her arrival several month prior. In fact, Khalilah considered Shelley, or Shell as she often called her to be her only friend in the Big Apple. For some reason, Shelley reminded Khalilah of her best friend Allie back home in Jamaica. The women looked nothing alike, her best friend being of Venezuelan descent and Shelley being Chinese-American, they just had the same mannerisms and style. Shelley was a nurse, who was usually in emergency, but she was moonlighting in the morgue due to lack of staff. That's where the two women met. It had been Khalilah's second week in New York and she was working on a minor hit and run case and it was Shelley's third day at the desk and she was bored out of her mind. They struck up a conversation and ever since then they were cool. Shelley even took it upon herself to be Khalilah's official New York City tour guide. They went out for food at least two-times a week and if their weekends weren't filled with career chaos, then they'd go to a disco or bar on Shelley's request. Khalilah wasn't the type to party she didn't really get the opportunity like most during university because of her age. And when she was of age she was so busy with schoolwork and interning that she just didn't get involved. She was almost 23 before she had actually been to a disco with some people from the hospital. She had had fun, but she felt uncomfortable at times with the people she once thought of as friends. But with Shelley their friendship was genuine and not an attempt to get farther in life or make connections.
"Hey girl, It's been dead – get it?! Dead. Haha, okay so apparently comedy isn't my calling." She smiled and the two women laughed.
"Nothing new to tell you, hun, it's been quiet." Shelley usually calls to give Khalilah a heads up from Emergency if there's anything remotely suspicious and it has been to her benefit, but since the body of the young female washed up a couple weeks back, the attackers have been keeping low. Khalilah wasn't sure if that was a good thing.
"Sooo how was your day?" Shelley inquired as though she knew something was up. It was uncanny sometimes how she did that.
"Actually, it sucked. I had to rerun some labs, which is going to slow me down at least a couple days. My office looks like a tornado blew through it, not once, but twice." She paused as they both laughed at the imagery "...and I was introduced to my new partner." Khalilah wasn't able to hide her displeasure from her friend who just teased her by playing the world's smallest violin in tribute to her. Khalilah went on to explain everything that happened and Shelley stared in amazement as her friend explained expressed emotions she didn't even think Khalilah had.
"And then they were like... "Well I grew up in Manhattan!"" Khalilah was mimicking Lisa's voice and doing a really good job too.
"And he was like "I grew up in Queens, blah blah blah"". It was then that Khalilah noticed the big grin plastered across Shelley's face and had to stop to her performance hoping to God that no one else had heard her silliness. Khalilah looked around and was glad to see that no one else had come in on her performance, but her friend sat there with that stupid smile that Khalilah just had to yell.
"What?!" She was a bit annoyed since Shell just sat there smiling like a goofball.
