Disclaimer: I don't own Body of Proof and intend no copyright infringement.
"Where are you going?" Lacey, leaning in the doorframe, watching her mother applying fresh make-up, asked with deceptive casualness.
"Aren't you a bit old to ask that question? Shouldn't you, at your age, be glad I'm gone for the evening – you can watch TV as long as you want, spent some unsupervised time on the internet, talk ages on the phone, order pizza in?" Megan fell silent again to paint over her lips with a dark red color.
"Do I know him?"
"What tells you it's not a business dinner?" Megan wasn't sure what to make of her daughter's inquisitiveness. Usually they respected each other's privacy.
Okay, Lacey usually respected her mother's privacy.
Megan tried very hard.
"Your high heels…", Lacey said.
"I wear high heels at work…"
"They are higher than those you wear at work."
The kid was an acute observer.
"And your blouse shows more cleavage."
Damn acute observer. "Lacey…" Megan's voice was tinged with a slight tone of warning.
"Please tell me it's not Dr. Scarecrow."
Megan almost poked herself with the eye liner.
"Aren't you a bit old for name calling either? And why in the world…"
"He's skinny, his face looks like a mummified shar-pei's, he's walking around like he swallowed a stick…"
"Lacey!"
"He told me to get a cleaner skin I needed to eat more fruit!"
Megan chuckled. "So you're calling him names because you felt he offended you when all he was doing was giving you scientifically founded advice."
"Don't bring up my age again, mom, it's getting old."
They shared a laugh over the pun. Megan couldn't help but think how grateful she was that she and her daughter were so much closer now than they had been only a few years ago.
"You've got seriously bad taste, Mom."
Megan figured Lacey commenting on her personal life came with the territory of a closer mother-daughter relationship. "I gather you've got someone else in mind?"
"Actually I do. Someone who is good-looking, really cares about you – about us - and never said anything about my unclean skin."
Stifling a sigh, Megan returned to finishing her make-up. "Tommy and I had a great time. But then things turned difficult."
"Don't you think he deserves a second chance?"
"Lacey… sometimes it's best to put the past behind you."
"And start out anew again. Like we two did! I completely agree with you!" Smiling like the cat that just swallowed the canary, Lacey turned around and disappeared in the direction of her room.
… … …
Megan tried to shrug Lacey's words off as teenage wiseassery… Tommy had managed to snow her in with his boyish charm… but Lacey's words kept coming back to her through starters… entrée… by dessert, Charlie had enough.
"You've been absent-minded all evening. What are you thinking about? It's work, isn't it? I'm like that, too, when I'm trying solve a tricky problem. Is it a case?"
"One could say so", Megan sighed. "A case of second chances."
"A dormant disease becoming active again?" Of course his professional interest was immediately raised.
"One could say so", Megan smiled sadly. "I fear I've got to go now, Charlie."
"If you need an additional professional opinion…" Truth to be told, Charlie Stafford was grateful for every opportunity that momentarily freed him from the mountain of paperwork that had come with his new job.
"Not now, I've only just started sounding it out…"
"But you'll let me know how it turns out, will you?"
"Yes", Megan nodded. "I'll let you know."