Only Flame and Air by Geonn Cannon

Author:Geonn Cannon [Cannon, Geonn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781938108235
Publisher: Supposed Crimes LLC
Published: 2013-02-03T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

...Lance sat in the living room, in the center of the couch. The front wall of the apartment was gone and, instead of Chicago, the world was a bright and shining nothingness. Elaine was sitting next to her, her head on Lance's shoulder, looking into the light without flinching. Lance reached out, touched Elaine's face, and she remembered...

Chicago, Illinois

Five Years Ago

It was a longstanding tradition for Lance's partner, Colin Jake, to invite her out to a cop bar after shift, and it was also tradition for her to turn him down. If she had a choice, and she liked to make sure she did, the end of shift meant she was going home. It meant she would be able to get out of her uniform and relax. This time, however, she surprised herself by agreeing to join him for a beer. It couldn't hurt. He knew she was gay, so he wasn't expecting to get her drunk. Besides, her apartment had turned into kind of a scary place lately. Colin Jake seemed surprised when she agreed, but he covered it quickly and suggested she be the designated driver.

She changed into her civvies at work and drove to the bar. Colin Jake mocked her for being a Cop Night virgin, and she mocked him for having parents who couldn't decide on a single name for him. An hour or so later, she had resigned her position as designated driver and drunk her share of the pitcher and their voices were getting loud enough that the bartender was shooting them dirty looks. She excused herself to the ladies room, where she splashed water on her face and ran wet fingers through her hair.

When she left the bathroom, she saw a pair of pay phones at the other end of the narrow alcove. She blamed it on the beer, but the phones seemed to beckon to her. She stared at them for a long time and finally walked over to them. She fished in her pocket for change, fed the quarters into the slot, and dialed an already-familiar number.

She leaned against the wall as she waited for the call to go through, and belatedly realized she had a cell phone in her jacket pocket. She laughed at herself and was about to hang up when the phone on the other end clattered. She heard the rustle of cloth and then a sleepy voice said, "Hm, what is it? Who... Hi."

She felt the urge to hang up, let the person blame it on a wrong number. Instead, she pushed her free hand into her hair and looked down at the ground. "Hey. It's, uh, it's me."

"Who?"

"Lance. Claire Lance. Officer Claire—"

"Oh. Claire! Hi." There was another rustling of bedclothes and Elaine cleared her throat. "Sorry. I fell asleep."

Lance grimaced. "Oh. I'm sorry, I shouldn't—"

"No, stay. I'm up anyway. I waited for you to come home."

Lance winced. The past couple of days, coming home after shift, Elaine had snatched her off the stairs. She invited Lance in for coffee, snacks, television, anything to spend time with her.

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