"Perfect." Andrea says opening her door right on six to find Neil in a collared knit shirt, light long pants and sports shoes.
"Thank you." He says dropping his forehead to rest on her shoulder, arms slack around her waist. He mock snores and Andrea erupts into laughter. "I hope you're taking me some place with a big, warm, comfortable bed. Sleep-world, slumber-land, planet siesta."
"Don't have to go anywhere for that." Andrea says softly, tilting his head in her hands and kissing him thoroughly awake. Neil smiles sleepily at her as she brushes her index and middle fingers down his temple noticing the dark circles under his eyes. "Ooh did you and Colin stay out until the wee hours?"
"I forgot I'm not sixteen anymore. It was a cruel way for me to realise." He drops his head against her shoulder again but only momentarily. "I wish you could meet him."
"One day maybe," Andrea replies holding his face willing away the sadness in his eyes. For a minute she allows herself the recognition that she's important to him if he wants her to meet his son. Before she turns to mush she gets her stuff and they're out the door.
"Where are we going?" Neil asks his eyes closed and head back against the top of the seat.
"It's a surprise." Andrea won't budge. The city is quiet and the streets fast, most people still curled up in bed where she suspects Neil would rather be.
"Did you drink last night?" Andrea glances over at Neil briefly to see him shake his head. "So you're just sleep deprived."
"Grossly," Andrea smiles knowing some of the lethargy in his voice is an act.
"So how come you're never this tired when you've been up all night with me?" Neil's eyes snap open, a strange smile spreading across his face.
"Is there anyway I can answer that question without offending you?"
"You'll just have to take your chances with my wrath." Andrea slows for a pointless red light at an empty intersection.
"With all due respect…"
"I like this already." Andrea laughs cutting him off.
"You're not sixteen anymore." He stops her arm as it goes to hit him, appeasing her although she's not angry, by taking her hand. "Thank goodness because I'd never have met you. Also you've never seen me at about three to four the next afternoon."
"Good answer." She squeezes his hand and accelerates with the green light.
"I don't think I've seen you in shorts and a polo shirt before."
"Don't change the topic." Andrea teases. "Getting any ideas?"
"No, I'm too busy fighting off sleep."
"No I meant about where we're going."
"So did I." Andrea lets him close his eyes again, loving the way his face looks when he's relaxed.
"Golf," he says as they pull up at their destination, eyes still closed.
"How did you..?" She hits him lightly on the thigh, annoyed he guessed.
"Ungodly hour, dress code," Neil opens his eyes to find Andrea shaking her head in amazement.
"Let's go." She opens her door still shaking her head.
"I've never understood this game, hit a little white ball and follow it around a huge backyard." Andrea says watching Neil tee off, she loses the ball against the overcast sky. Neil follows it until it hits the ground.
"You, you don't understand this game, you were born in Scotland, Dalkeith Scotland, St Andrews in Scotland is the home of golf." He reminds her.
"I wasn't popped out swinging a club." Andrea says eliciting a laugh from him as he pictures her words.
"Come here."
"What?" She steps over to him none the less.
"I'll teach you." He presses himself against her back, his hands over hers on the club demonstrating how to swing the club and turn her body. "Ready?"
Neil swings with her and Andrea bends over in a fit of laughter as the ball rolls along the ground, the only thing that flies into the air is the tee and a clump of grass. The club slips out of her hand as the tears roll from her eyes; she holds her stomach as it starts to hurt.
"Don't worry I just missed out on the golf gene." Andrea manages to calm herself as Neil replaces the grass with his foot.
"I thought it might have passed through the foetus." Neil picks up the club.
"Not in my case."
"I think you bent it." Neil slides the club back into the bag and sets off Andrea's laughter again.
At the tee off at the eighth hole Neil asks. "Why did you do this?"
"Are you mad?" Andrea puts down the golf bag; the purpose of today was for her to be his caddy. She hadn't forgotten what he'd said when they were away for the extended weekend.
"No, not at all." Neil pushes in the tee, balancing the ball on top.
"It gets you away from work, marriage, everything. Hopefully you're not thinking about anything either. It's a hobby, it's what you do to relax and you need to do it more often. I also thought it was something we could do together, something we can share, and something that's ours."
"It was a great idea." Neil leans on the club moving in to kiss her. His lips are tender and kiss soft and brief, leaning back after each one to watch her and convey how grateful he is. "We should make it a regular thing, I'll teach you to play." Neil grins cheekily running a finger quickly down the bridge of her nose.
"I'm unteachable." Andrea smiles happily and affectionately. As she watches him tee off, she wonders how she got so lucky.
"Are you still keen to get away?" Neil asks as they walk the sixteenth hole, chasing his ball that's landed on the green.
"In your words let's run away." Andrea's eyes scan the green spotting the ball a short distance from the hole.
"I can take some time off in a couple of months." Neil searches the bag for a putter.
"A couple of months." Andrea sighs putting the bag down.
"I haven't got any time owing." Neil looks across the green with her.
"How will you sneak away?" She drags her eyes back to the side of his face.
"I'll think of something." Neil smiles reassuringly at her before walking over to make his shot. "Where do you want to go?" He shows off not watching where he's putting, the ball misses its mark.
"I'm counting that stroke." She laughs watching as he finally sinks the putt. "I don't care where we go." Her laugh fades as her mobile fires up from inside her pocket. Bruce's number flashes across the screen when she reaches for the phone in her pocket; she ignores it and puts it back where it came from.
"Are you going to get that?" Neil asks putting the club back in the bag with the ball.
"I don't recognise the number." Andrea takes the bag from him as they head back to the clubhouse to return their hired gear. In her pocket Andrea turns the phone off before Bruce tries again.
"I was thinking the beach." Neil tells her as they pull into her street.
"Shit!" Andrea curses spotting Bruce's car parked out the front of her block of flats.
"Andrea?" His voice is immediately woven with concern.
"That's Yvonne's car…the blue one." Andrea lies. "It must have been her who called before; she must have a new number." Andrea can feel the panic filling her veins.
"What do you want to do?" Neil slows the car as Andrea prays Bruce doesn't walk back to his car which is parked in front of the blue one.
"Keep driving." Andrea urges him and indicates to a free space around the corner. "I'll go in and get rid of her; can you fill in ten minutes?" She looks sympathetically at him, when he agrees he's rewarded with a sweet kiss. "I'll ring you if I need longer." Andrea feels bad as she watches him drive away.
"Get out of here." She hisses finding Bruce sitting on the top step near her door. The smirk on his face boils the anger inside of her.
"Don't answer my calls and this is what's going to happen." He sounds entirely too confidant.
"Go." Andrea makes no attempt to hide the desperation in her voice.
"Where is he? Circling the block?" There's not even the slightest chance she's going to confirm that. "When then?" He doesn't move.
"Tomorrow lunch time." Andrea spits out finally, aware it is during her shift.
"See you then." He smiles, turning her stomach. She stops him from leaving the building till she's sure Neil is not in the street anywhere.
"He must be a keeper." She hates how the words echo Neil's. Back upstairs she leaves the front door open and collapses onto her bed.
"Andrea?" She doesn't return his call, waiting until he finds her.
"I hate lying." There's enough emotion in her voice to have him wrap himself around her and hold her. He knows she's talking about lying to her friends about her relationship with him but Andrea's talking about lying to him.
"Hey!" Neil calls after Andrea from the top of the ramp the next day; she has a tiny window for refs she's chosen to use to appease Bruce. "Come and see me later." Andrea nods in reply, grateful he hasn't seemed to have noticed she's rushing out of the station alone. Running out of the lot she finds her car that's parked a street away, she guns the engine towards the park they're meeting at.
Bruce is the only one occupying the park bench, Andrea want to blow the meeting off, put her car in gear and go but she knows the repercussions will be twice as bad. Quick and painless she tells herself pulling a plain jacket over her uniform; the grass is covered with leaves that signal her arrival.
"For a moment I didn't think you'd come." Neither clap eyes on one another.
"I considered it." Andrea takes pleasure in telling him.
"I couldn't turn anything up on Lance Powell." He places the folder Andrea photocopied next to her, it will be shredded.
"That's because there is nothing." Almost immediately Bruce cuts in.
"I've just found out Yvonne Hemmingway is Acting Sergeant." Andrea tenses and feels her stomach fall.
"Yvonne's my friend." Her voice falters.
"None of them are your friend." His words bite.
"I rely on these people everyday; my life is placed in their hands and theirs in mine and sometimes at the end of the day you need to unwind together, so yes she is my friend." Andrea adds conviction to her words.
"The top ranks of Sun Hill are looking a little thin with minority groups these days; surely there are officers with more experience who could be Acting Sergeant." A part of Andrea thinks maybe he's found his story after so many miss hits.
"I'll be in touch." Andrea walks slowly away knowing she has to pull it together before she gets back to the station. Her new assignment comes close to home and three blocks from her destination she cries some tears for the journalism job she can't see a way out of without losing the two precious things in her life – Neil and her Sun Hill job.
For the rest of the day Andrea can't rid the uneasiness and remains quiet as the group of uniformed officers see each other to their cars. She forgets Neil wanted to see her till she sees him parked behind her car across the street.
"Hey I left my phone in my locker." She says to no one in particular.
"You o.k.?" Yvonne stops with Andrea as the rest of the group walk on.
"Yeah." She puts a smile on her face. "Lets have a talk sometime soon." Andrea adds after a minute.
"You're not being hassled again are you?"
"No." Andrea laughs gratefully. "I've got to go back, see you tomorrow." She ducks back around the corner slinking into a dark spot at the front of the station. In the quiet of the night she counts six cars start and disappear down the street before she resumes the short walk to her car. She checks once more before crossing the street and sliding into his car.
Andrea finds his lips in the dull light, kissing him hungrily, he responds and soon hands and arms are everywhere, lips travelling across ears and necks. Andrea takes the tempo down, pulling them cheek to cheek while she catches her breath.
"If I keep going I was going to be pulling you into the back." She kisses him once more and then pulls herself back into her seat properly.
"What are you doing Saturday?"
"Whatever you are." Andrea turns sideways in the black leather seat.
"Ten o'clock, wear clothes that can be ruined. Thrown away at the end of the day if need be."
"I don't get to see you before then?" She's not proud but there's a pout in her voice.
"My car's pointed in the same direction as yours isn't it?"
"So you could have told me when we got home." It doesn't escape her notice that 'we' and 'home' fall into the same sentence.
"The point was I wanted to see you today." Her mood falls again as she reminds herself of the day. "Hey." His fingers rest on her cheek. "Did something happen today, you look like you're carrying a burden." Andrea knows the turmoil inside has seeped out.
"I'll see you at home." Her reassuring smile is unconvincing but she escapes before he can protest.
In bed that night she's needy for his touch, to ease the pain of the day.
