The Pleasure of Your Company (Chapter 1)
It had been an uncharacteristically uneventful day on the job for her and her partner and New York Police Department officer Eddie Janko was thankful for that.
"You want me to grab some coffee for you from the kitchen?" Jamie Reagan, her partner offered. Eddie was about to answer 'yes' before an officer passing by told her that Sergeant Renzulli wanted to see her in his office ASAP.
"See you, Reagan."
Jamie shrugged and nodded, gesturing a brief goodbye of some sort.
Sergeant Renzulli was deeply buried under a tall stack of paperwork and had his reading glasses perched on the tip of his nose.
"You wanna see me, Sarge?" Eddie said. She made her way in after knocking and saw the nod from Renzulli from behind the glass.
"Yeah. Have a seat."
Eddie Janko had been called into her superior's office a few times and the nervousness that those meetings had caused her never got old with the times. She had been reprimanded once because Renzulli feared that she might be lying to the District Attorney's Office based on the differing recount she gave compared to an evidence that she never saw. Not a word came from Jamie even though he knew that she knew his sister is the DA handling the case. But it ended well, and they never spoke of it again after Jamie apologized to her for calling her a liar. Eddie had been called in on several occasions mostly because Renzulli wanted to ask her what happened and then warned her to be anticipative on repercussions. She got it that Renzulli didn't want his officers to get into unnecessary trouble. All those call-ins that she never liked had caused her to worry when she was driving or alone. The feeling was really bad at first but then she got used to it because she understood that Renzulli was doing his job and he didn't look like he enjoyed admonishing and reprimanding his officers at all, judging by the mountain of paper piled in from of him. Renzulli obviously got more important things to do. But still, the pit of her stomach felt bitter every time Sergeant Renzulli summoned her into his office.
"It's been awhile after your probationary was over. How are you doing?"
"I'm fine, Sarge. Thank you for asking. It has been really interesting."
"Of course," Renzulli gave her a look. Eddie couldn't tell whether it was pity or amusement. Eddie took it as both and decided to make the best of it.
"I think that come with being partnered with the PC's son."
Renzulli stared at her. Eddie felt really stupid right now but of course, her mouth as usual launched her away into the stratosphere where the fools and the awkwardly positioned ran their kingdom.
"Officer Jamie attracts a lot of attention," Eddie laughed nervously. Renzulli huffed, in an expression that signalled exasperation. The sergeant finally broke into a slow-building laughter, more like a train chuffing actually, guarded but earnest. He had tears in his eyes. Not sad tears but tears that came out when one gets tickled in the stomach. Eddie let the laughter died down, savouring it until it was back to silence and made her nervous again.
"Did I do something wrong?"
"No. Not this time."
"Oh," Eddie let out a choked breath and slumped into the chair, body bent in relief.
"I called you in to ask you if you want to request a reassignment."
"A re-assignment to what, Sarge?"
"A new partner."
The question made her paralyzed for a split second. It Jamie Reagan had asked a question on the same level of ridiculousness, she would balk at him, rolled her eyes or make funny faces, making grotesque mirror images to Jamie's subdued and stoic expressions.
But to Sergeant Renzulli's, all she did was stare at him and like a robot, said "No, Sir," after expecting explanations or some sort of introductory remark that never came. So her answer was short and sweet too.
"OK," Renzulli said.
"Can I be dismissed, sir?"
"Yeah," Renzulli said absent-mindedly, entertaining errant thoughts in his mind. Eddie got up, ready to leave.
"Oh for God's sake, sit down, Officer Janko," Renzulli huffed. He put down the paper in his hand and took off his reading glasses.
"Sir, yes sir."
Eddie sat back down, wide-eyed and almost terrified.
"Officer Janko, I'm going to lay it down to you and I want you to listen carefully."
"I'm listening, sir."
"Janko, there's nothing in the world that Officer Jamie Reagan won't do for you. And I'm not saying things like letting you drive or getting you coffee."
"Because he won't unless he feels like it. I understand, sir. But I don't quite follow, sir, the rest of it."
"Do you recall at the start of the year when you and Officer Reagan handled the domestic?"
"Yes." She remembered too well. She was pretty pissed off at Jamie Reagan for that. As if she needed defending, she had fumed.
"As a consequence of the unnecessary force he used in the domestic, I had Officer Reagan in my office to remind him that if he had romantic feelings for you I would assign him to a new partner."
Blood rushed to Eddie's head but she saw the ramifications.
"Nothing's changed, Sarge. We're still partners."
"Which could mean…"
"He has no romantic feelings towards me, nor I him."
"Or, he just enjoys the pleasure of your company too much to let you go and he is willing to mask his real feelings just to have you around."
"You can't pin that down on him, Sarge. We are good. Neither Officer Reagan nor I have been acting beyond our capacity as police officers ever since then."
"Do you understand what will that kind of thinking will do to the job?"
Eddie didn't know what else Renzulli was expecting as an answer but she gave the only answer she could give.
"With all due respect sir, we'll be the best officers ever partnered, who always got each other's back. And if I did anything wrong due to my inexperience, Officer Reagan would tell me to do the right thing in the eyes of men and in the eyes of the law, because he would want only the best for me." Eddie spoke without a beat and Renzulli stared at her and blinked like what she said actually made sense.
" I understand, Officer Janko."
"Thank you, sir."
"You're dismissed."
When Eddie poked her head into the kitchen, Jamie was no longer there. She walked to her locker room and Jamie caught up to her. Jamie was already in his casual clothes, a pair of faded blue jeans, a grey t-shirt and a weathered brown leather jacket.
"Hey. What's that about?"
He had concern written all over his face. Eddie couldn't blame him because a walk into Renzulli's office for her would always means trouble of some sort, any sort.
"Oh come on, Reagan. What made you think I was in trouble?" Eddie rolled her eyes. Jamie blinked as he stared her down.
"Come on. Seriously now, Eddie."
Eddie paused a beat and smiled, masking the dazed look on her face so Jamie won't press her anymore.
"In his strange, non-direct way, Sarge belatedly congratuled me on the end of my probationary."
"Wasn't that a little too late?"
"In his strange, non-direct way, I said."
"OK," Jamie said, making that strange but interesting thing with his lower jaw.
"And you still owe me a belated dinner celebration, so Renzulli's not the only one. You took a rain check the first time I asked."
Jamie Reagan stopped on his track. The look in his eyes was signalling that he was thinking very hard, as if he was weighing all the pros and cons and finally his body relaxed, signalling resignation based on clear logical reasoning.
"I do owe you that."
"I pick the place."
"What else is new?"
"Let's go Thai."
"What?"
"I watched this movie. The guy woke up after seventy years of deep sleep and when he woke up a bunch of things happened to him but he's got this list of things he was going to do to make up for the time he lost and Thai food was on that list."
"Things people recommended him to do. He didn't actually on his own volition wanted to do them," Jamie corrected her.
"You watched it?" Eddie asked excitedly. She'd never thought he would do it.
"After you kept talking about it non-stop till the DVD came out."
"I gotta change," Eddie said.
"I'll wait outside."
After they arrived at Eddie's apartment block, Jamie didn't come upstairs. They didn't kiss. In fact, they fist-pumped on the street in front of her home before he got back in his car. She waved him goodbye. But he promised to pick her up tomorrow morning because she still got her car at the station.
She hadn't had a proper dinner with Jamie for quite a while. They've had ice cream on the street, and meals from street vendors. But that was a proper meal, with a menu and just the two of them this time. The food almost killed Jamie but he put up a brave face. Eddie knew he only took a little bit of rice and he had to bury the only protein he ate, a shrimp in the rice so he'd get the chilli not on his tongue. She, on the other hand was savouring the interesting dishes one by one, commenting as she went along.
When Eddie entered her apartment, she was light-headedly happy. She locked the door behind her. Her heart jumped out of her ribcage when she saw the shadow of a man sitting on her sofa. She launched herself back to the door but she was grabbed by not one, but two large men. Eddie kicked and screamed but one of the men got her in a bear hug and another punched her in the face. Her vision went black. When she came to, she became subdued because she saw and understood what she was up against.
"Hey babe," said the shadow on the couch.
She knew the instance she heard the voice. Jake Singer. He assaulted her. It was a year ago but she remembered it still. It was only the urgency of her policing job that made her quell her nervous memory and the fact that she, with Jamie's help collared the son-of-a-bitch. It was very difficult for her to let the unpleasant memory go but she did. And the last thing she expected was to find herself where it all began, in her very own house.
"I bet you thought you've gotten rid of me when you had me arrested," Singer said.
"You are going to let me go, you son-of-a-bitch. I'm a police officer. You're not getting away this time. Not after THIS."
Singer was about to say something when they all heard knocks on the door.
"Eddie."
Eddie knew the voice. It was Jamie Reagan's. She closed her eyes in frustration. She almost cursed. Why on earth is he here? He should be driving home already! She screamed internally.
"Hey Eddie. You left your phone in the car."
Damn. Damn it. Damn it all to hell.
Eddie blinked. Tears fell from her eyes. Not sad tears, but fear and shit-scared tears.
"Well. What do you know? Things are going to get interesting," Singer commented.
"No. Don't do this," Eddie said. She hated to beg to a criminal but she had to do it this time.
"How can I not do anything when I came prepared?"
Singer said and signalled his goons.
To be continued.
