Sitting on the floor with her legs crossed at the ankle, Amanda leaned against the sofa and took the first sip from her freshly poured glass of scotch. Exactly what she needed. Setting the glass down beside her, Amanda narrowed her eyes as she watched Berlin cross her office with a smile on her face and a messy stack of paper in her hands. She looked happier than Amanda had seen her since, well... she had never seen Berlin this happy.
Defiance had been on the brink of collapse the entire time they had known each other, leaving Berlin more than a little on edge. She usually looked like the girl who gets in a fight in the bleachers, not like the girl who invites the whole cheer squad out for pizza after the game. What could possibly be making her smile like that? It couldn't be the task at hand. There had to be something going on in Berlin's life that Amanda didn't know about, and she was determined to figure out what it was.
"Do you ever clean your desk?" Berlin asked as she dropped the papers onto the coffee table between them with a thud.
"Of course I do." Amanda reached for her scotch, avoiding eye contact with Berlin. Truthfully, she couldn't remember the last time she had even opened most of her desk drawers, and if not for a professional cleaning crew, the dust bunnies behind her bookcase would have come to life by now.
Berlin sighed and plopped onto her chair. "I don't believe you." She picked up the first document on the pile. "Janitorial Staff Schedule: May 2042." Berlin tilted her head to the side and looked at Amanda. "Were you even mayor in 2042?"
"No, I was not."
"So, you're honestly going to sit there, with no shame, and tell me that not a single person has cleaned out the bottom drawer of that desk in several years, through multiple regime changes?"
"How do you know that you're not holding a document so important that every mayor since 2042 has been saving it for a reason?"
"Most of these people don't even work here anymore. What could anyone possibly need with this?"
"It could be written in a secret code meant to keep prying eyes like yours from understanding it."
"Is it?"
Amanda smirked. "I don't know for sure that it isn't."
Berlin rolled her eyes. "Do not keep this," she commanded as she tossed it in a bin with the other rejected paperwork. "You would never cut it in the E-Rep."
"I'll take that as a compliment."
"I didn't mean it to be."
"I know," Amanda said. "You're having too much fun with this. You're... smiling a lot."
"Better to be smiling than miserable and complaining. And besides, I enjoy torturing you." Berlin flashed Amanda a smug grin. "You have no idea how much fun that can be."
"Torturing me - that's it? That's all that's making you so happy? There's nothing new in your life you want to share with me, your best friend?" Berlin could play coy all she wanted, but Amanda knew her well enough to know she wasn't telling the whole truth. Something, or more likely, someone was putting that smile on Berlin's face. "I know I've been busy lately recovering and trying to put the town back together. We haven't had much time to catch up."
"You haven't missed out on much." Berlin grabbed the next paper from the pile. "Get well soon card from…" Berlin scrunched her face trying to read the chicken scratch handwriting in the card. "Mayor… Gal…"
"Mayor Gallagher," Amanda said. "Lovely man from a little town nearby that fell just as quickly as it sprung up, but I'm not that sentimental. Toss it."
"Spirit Rider Warning - 2046." Berlin tossed the memo in the bin. "Nothing in this drawer is even from this year is it?"
"I would be shocked if anything was. If I put something in there that I actually needed, I would never be able to find it again."
"I expect to find a classified warning about the impending Votan invasion by the time I reach the bottom of this pile."
Amanda chose to ignore the judgement dripping from Berlin's voice. "So, there's nothing new at all in your life?"
"No. We're still down a deputy and a lawkeeper, so I'm spending most of my time in the lawkeeper's office. Work keeps me busy." Berlin looked up from her rapidly shrinking stack of paper. "And when I'm not there, I'm here cleaning your office for you while you sit on the floor, drinking scotch, and trying to gossip so you don't have to do any actual work."
"I can work and gossip," Amanda said as she tossed a memo about something urgent that she couldn't remember ever happening into the bin. Couldn't have been that urgent.
"Do you work with deputy Poole a lot?" Amanda asked. She knew they had known each other since they were teenagers - grew up in the Earth Republic together.
"Sometimes, but he mostly works night shifts now," Berlin said, either missing or ignoring Amanda's suggestive tone. "He likes it because his boyfriend works nights too. That way they can spend more time together."
Amanda frowned and took another sip from her glass. Nothing but dead ends in the quest to figure out what Berlin was hiding. This was harder than getting Datak's men to admit to smuggling illegal weapons into the town - and they would rather kill themselves than face Datak's wrath.
"These files aren't even in any order." Berlin held up a folder in each hand. "This one is from 2044, and it was on top of this one from 2046."
"That's because you're cleaning out the drawer where I shove everything that's in my way when I need the space in other cabinets and drawers."
Berlin's hands dropped to her sides. "Amanda, really?"
"Hey, I have more important things to do than organize old paperwork."
"I should get paid extra for this," Berlin said.
"You know what," Amanda said. "You're right. I'll buy you a drink to say thank you - a drink for you and any of your friends who you might be spending more time with. It's on me."
"I spend most of my time with Irisa these days. She's not a big drinker."
"Irisa?" Amanda leaned forward, intrigued by the potentially exciting and unexpected development. The idea that Irisa and Berlin were hooking up made absolutely no sense, but it also made more sense that Berlin was sleeping with Irisa than anyone else Amanda could think of. They had an explosive chemistry that needed an outlet, and if they weren't releasing it in a fist fight anymore...
"Yeah, I mean she's a lawkeeper. I'm a lawkeeper. Kind of forces us together a lot."
"Just at work… or do you guys hang out… after work?"
"Like I said, Poole's working nights a lot now, so yeah, we…" Berlin paused as she inspected some old E-Rep documents before tossing them in the bin. "Yeah, I guess we get together after work sometimes."
Amanda took a sip from her glass, studying Berlin's expression for any juicy details, but she found nothing. Berlin's concentration was entirely devoted to sorting through Amanda's paperwork, but Amanda couldn't care less about that. The desk hadn't been cleaned in more than a decade. It could wait a little longer.
"I'm glad you're not fighting as much anymore," Amanda said.
"Yeah, me too." Berlin tossed another paper in the bin, "I realized I couldn't move on with my life if I didn't forgive her, and she forgave me, so we… well, we got over it. And the truth is, she's not half bad once you get to know her."
"And you've gotten to know her well?" Amanda couldn't believe Berlin hadn't taken the bait yet. She was running out of ways to subtly coax Berlin into spilling her guts and was almost ready to bluntly ask if she was fucking Irisa in her spare time. It might be the only path to the truth.
"Meet me in the NeedWant." Berlin read from a small scrap of paper, not answering Amanda's question. "I want to forget today ever happened." She turned the paper over. "This doesn't even say who it is from, so I'm just going to assume that they haven't been sitting in a bar waiting for you for a few years."
Berlin smiled playfully as she tossed the note in the bin without even bothering to ask if she should keep it. To Berlin, it was the most insignificant note she had seen all day - nothing compared to peace treaties and property negotiations, but Amanda's entire body froze. She forgot all thoughts of prying into her friend's love life as the pain of her own hit her like a bullet. That little note was one of the most valuable things in her entire office, and Berlin had thrown it in the trash.
She held her breath as she watched the note flutter into the bin, holding back the urge to catch it before it hit the pile. She wanted to protect it, but she couldn't, not in front of Berlin, not without explaining what it meant to her, not without admitting to a level of sentimentality she didn't even care to admit to herself.
"Hey," Irisa said as she rushed through the door. "Fight in the hollows. We need to get down there right now."
"Coming." Berlin stood and turned to Amanda. "I want at least half of these papers gone by the time I get back, ok?"
"Yes, mom," Amanda joked, indescribably relieved by Irisa's perfect timing. "Be careful," she called after them as she gently retrieved the note from the bin, smoothing it against her hand. A shaky smile crossed her face as she traced her finger over the familiar handwriting. Tears stung at her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. There was no room for sentimentality in her life, not when she had a speech to give in two days.
She blinked her eyes dry and opened her favorite book to slip the note between the pages where it would be safe, where she could come back to it another time, a time when she could let herself feel.
Some people had love letters. Some people had photographs. Amanda had a note Nolan had pinned to her door one unremarkable afternoon last year.