Chapter 2

When I got to the office the next day, Connie and Lula were both waiting on me. "Spill it, girl," Lula said as soon as I walked in the door. "Was that Lester you were dancing with all last night?"

I smiled and sank down onto the chair. "Yep."

"And," Connie prodded.

"And he's a nice guy and I enjoyed dancing with him. That's it," I said.

"He vanished when you did," Connie replied suspiciously.

"He walked me to my car and then I left. I guess he left then too."

"So what's going on then?" Lula asked.

"Nothing's going on. Just had a nice time with a good-looking guy. Probably not a good idea to tell Ranger about since they work together, though," I cautioned them. I knew that if I told them I had a date with him on Saturday that it would be all over the 'Burg by dinnertime. "So what about you two? You seemed to have a couple of interested guys yourselves," I said to move on to another subject.

We chatted for a while and then I asked Connie if she had any skips for me. She handed over three files and I started flipping though them. Mooner and Dougie both missed their court date the day before, they would be easy, even though I had weeks before they had to be back in the system. I'd gone to high school with both of them, and I might have to watch TV with them for a while before they'd let me take them in.

I'd just finished signing the paperwork for Connie when I heard the door open and both girls went completely still. That could only mean that Ranger was in the building.

I felt his hand settle on my neck as he spoke. "Babe."

I looked up at him and gave him a slight smile. "Ranger."

Then I looked back at Connie. "Thanks for these. I'm going to get started working on them." I stood up and put the files in my purse and headed for the door. "Hey Cal," I said as I walked out. Cal held the door open for me with a smile and I smiled my thanks.

I climbed into my POS and headed to Mooner and Dougie's house. If I stopped by McDonald's for breakfast, I felt pretty sure I could get both of them to come with me. I swung through the drive thru and then headed towards their house. They shared a house, so it was often very convenient to pick them up when they went FTA. Honestly, I was surprised that they got bonded out so easily. I'd probably picked them up a dozen times or more, yet they kept getting arrested, bailed out and then forgot their court dates.

I knocked on the door and Mooner opened it around three minutes later. "Dudette!" he exclaimed when he saw me. Then he saw the bags in my hands. "Whoa, dude, I was just thinking about a McMuffin. It's, like, cosmic or something."

"You forgot your court date, Mooner. I need to take you and Dougie in to get rebonded." He reached for the bag and smiled.

"Sure, dudette, I'll go with you after we finish this awesome breakfast. I gotta be back by one for the Gilligan's Island marathon though," Mooner replied as he stuffed his face with a hashbrown.

"Where's Dougie?" I asked.

"Gone, dude. He's not been home in, like, days, man."

"Do you know where he's staying?" I asked.

"All his stuff's here. He left some primo stash if you want any."

I have to get Mooner to focus. This is really not an easy task. Mooner has been smoking the hash since probably middle school, so I feel pretty sure that his brain looks like my shower loofah now. It's not easy to get him to focus on anything. That's why you need food to distract him. "You haven't heard from him or seen him in days?"

Mooner just nodded at me and kept eating.

"Is that usual for Dougie?" I asked.

Mooner's eyes got really wide for a moment while he apparently thought about my question. "No way. He's usually, like, here. You know?"

No, I didn't know, but it's hard to convince Mooner of pretty much anything these days.

We finished our breakfasts and then I searched Mooner for any illegal contraband. I put a bong, three joints and two lighters onto the kitchen table. "That's harsh, dudette," he said. I didn't want him getting more charges.

I called Connie and told her to meet us at the courthouse and then I walked with Mooner to my car. I asked more questions about Dougie while driving, but all Mooner could remember was seeing him on last on Monday. He remembers because he watched Monday night wrestling with Dougie. Who am I to judge? Sometimes I remember the days of the week by the TV schedule too.

I checked in Mooner, got my receipt and then waited the ten minutes while Connie rebonded him. Then I drove him back home and asked if I could look around the house for anything about Dougie. Mooner was ready for the Gilligan's Island marathon and he didn't care what I did as long as I didn't block his view of the TV. Worked for me.

I snooped around the house but I didn't find any notes or such from Dougie. Both guys were complete slobs so it was hard to tell if anything was missing. It didn't look like it, but then again, I had no idea what it would look like if any of his stuff was gone. Dougie was the slightly more responsible member of the duo so I thought it was somewhat out of character for him to just vanish like that.

I waited for a commercial before asking Mooner. "Has Dougie ever gone away like this before?"

"Don't think so, dudette. But we're only been roomies for, like, a year or two. So I don't know about before that," Mooner replied.

I mentally rolled my eyes. "But since you've been roommates, he's never just left for a couple of days without telling you?"

Mooner thought for a moment. "Don't think so."

"Would you remember if he told you he was going out of town or something?"

Mooner got up and ambled to the refrigerator. I so did not want to look in it. Ugh. I'm sure it was a high school biology experiment gone bad. Very bad. "There's no note," he said as he looked at the blank front of the fridge.

"Do you always leave notes when one of you will be gone?"

He nodded vigorously. I'm almost positive I heard rattling in his brain. "Do you think he's in trouble, dudette?" he asked.

"Probably not. Can I leave him a note to call me when he gets back?" Mooner nodded so I pulled out a business card and wrote "CALL ME!" in all caps on it. Then I stuck it under the lone magnet on the fridge door.

"Alright, just tell him to call me when you see him, okay?"

Mooner nodded and followed me to the front door. "You wanna stay and watch the Skipper?" I politely declined.

"Live long and prosper," he called out as I climbed in my car. I looked up to see him flashing me the Vulcan hand V thing. I gave him a thumb's up and drove away.

I called Dougie's mom, but she hadn't seen or spoken to him in days either. She said that wasn't unusual and that he was probably at home. I thanked her for her help and hung up. My Spidey senses were tingling slightly but not enough to make me worry yet. Hopefully he'd be back in a day or two and I could get him rebonded then.

I went by the bond's office to drop off my receipt for Mooner. Connie wrote me my check and handed it over. It would put me closer to make my rent for the month, thank God. I just needed to bring in Dougie to pay the rent. I really needed more people to miss their court dates.

I deposited the check at the bank and then went home. I sprawled out on the couch watching a Ranger's game and trying to avoid thinking about Ranger's jealous reaction when I told him I had a date. He might be jealous, I reasoned, but that didn't mean anything would change. He'd been very firm about this whole no strings, no relationships deal. And it just wasn't something I could do. We'd spent one magnificent night together as the result of an idiotic deal, and it had nearly broken my heart when he told me to fix things with Joe the next morning. And my heart hadn't nearly been as involved then as it was now. I didn't think I'd survive being rejected twice.

I watched the game and then puttered around my apartment until it was bedtime. I did my usual routine and then tucked myself into bed.

The next morning, I drove to the office like normal. Lula was there but Connie was gone. Lula said she'd been called to bond someone out since Vinnie had taken his lunch early to have a nooner with a goat. We both laughed at the goat joke, but it wasn't too far from the truth. There were rumors that he had an inappropriate relationship with a duck. That was actually the threat I used when I had to blackmail him into giving me the job a couple of years ago. It just made me worry about whether we needed to bleach my gene pool since he was my cousin.

I was stretched out on the couch, only resting my eyes of course, waiting for Connie to get back when I heard the door open. I opened my eyes after a few seconds of silence to peer into a pair of green eyes right in front of my face. I shrieked and shoved at the face hovering in front of me. I was rewarded with laughter so I sat up and glared at Lester.

"Not cute!" I said as I sat up with a huff.

Lester just gave me a big grin. "Sleeping on the job, Beautiful?"

I stuck my tongue out at him. "Just waiting on Connie to get back."

Lester stood up with a smile. "Make sure you get some rest," he said with a wink that only I could see. I rolled my eyes at him and he laughed.

Bobby was behind him and he handed a couple of body receipts to Lula. "Can you make sure Connie sends the checks to RangeMan?" he asked Lula.

"Sure thing, sweet thang," she replied to Bobby. He smiled and then both Bobby and Lester walked out the door and got into their SUV.

"Mm mmm but those boys are fine," Lula exclaimed. I looked over at her. She had been dating Tank for a while, but they broke up when he got several cats and Lula found out she was allergic.

"What about Tank?" I asked her.

She waved a hand at me. "Ain't gonna be nothing long as he got those cats."

"I thought you were going to get allergy shots," I said.

"Huh. Them things are expensive. Don't know if I should spend that kind of money on any man."

I couldn't argue with her there. I'm not sure I'd spend a ton of money for a guy either. Guess it would depend on the guy and the reason.

I waited for a while but Connie still wasn't back. I got tired of waiting and told Lula to have Connie call me when she was back in the office. So I headed out to my POS. I headed back to my apartment and decided it was as good a time as any to clean it up.

I had my apartment pretty well clean by the time exhaustion set in around eleven. Cleaning really takes it out of you! I was sooo tired, almost to the point of not being able to make it to the bedroom when it hit me. I dragged myself into the bedroom and simply dropped the sweat pants I had been wearing. The shirt I was wearing as I cleaned would have to do.

When I woke up the next day, it was already almost noon. Holy crap, I'd slept for thirteen hours! Now don't get me wrong, I like sleep more than the average person but thirteen hours just seemed excessive. I felt okay though so I figured I was just tired from cleaning. Probably I shouldn't let it get so bad next time.

I got up and did the bathroom thing before heading into the kitchen to scope out something for lunch. I found a Tasty Pastry bag sitting on my countertop. The bag had only one word written on it: Babe.

So Ranger had come by at some point and I hadn't even woken up. I tried to ignore the tingle I got when I thought of the various ways he could have woken me up. Perhaps it was time for a very cold shower, considering I had a date with his cousin in only five hours.

I ate both of the Boston crème donuts. I went to put on some jeans, but unfortunately, I had a harder time than usual buttoning my jeans so I just groaned in frustration instead. I stood there indecisive for a moment before resolutely marching over to the dresser. I pulled out my running clothes instead and got myself dressed as fast as possible before I could change my mind.

Unlike Ranger, running is not a daily activity for me. Running is something you only do when being chased, when you're chasing someone or when your pants don't fit. Unfortunately, all three of those happen more regularly than I'd like.

I pulled my hair into a ponytail before grabbing a bottle of water, my iPod and my keys. I set my iPod to play from the workout playlist that I'd made one day a while back. I'm pretty sure I spend more time making the workout playlist than I had actually working out with it so far. I had a little AC/DC going as I started my jog. Thirty minutes later, I felt like I was about to die. I felt sure that my lungs would just fall out of my chest at any moment. I was sweaty and shaky and confident that I'd lost at least five pounds of sweat.

I hauled myself into the elevator, no way I was taking the stairs. I let myself into my apartment and then collapsed onto the couch. Ten minutes later, I could finally breathe normally so I finished off my bottle of water before heading into the bathroom. I ran myself a nice warm bath and tossed a handful of bath salts into the water to soothe my poor muscles. I promised I wouldn't put them through that again anytime soon as I slid into the waiting water.

I had gotten myself all prettified at a few minutes until seven. At seven exactly, I heard the shave and a haircut knock on my door. I opened the door and smiled at a smoking hot Lester Santos.

"Hey, Beautiful, you look beautiful," he said as he took in my red silk wrap shirt, black swirly skirt and red FMPs.

"You look very nice, too," I replied. And he did. Unlike certainly people who shall not be named, he actually wore colors other than black. He did have on black slacks, but he also had a green-stripped dress shirt with no tie.

"We look like Christmas!" I exclaimed as I took in his outfit. He just grinned at me and leaned in to kiss me on the cheek. Then he handed me the single long-stem red rose that he held in his hand. I smiled at him and lifted it so I could sniff it. "It's beautiful, thank you," I told him and he gave me a wink.

"Are you ready to go, lady in red?" he asked. I nodded and walked back to the kitchen to give Rex a tap goodbye on his glass aquarium cage. I grabbed my little black purse and returned to the door. Lester gestured for me to walk ahead of him and then he pulled my door shut behind me. I locked the deadbolt and then he escorted me gallantly to the elevator. Smart man, he knew I wouldn't take the stairs in these killer heels. Who am I kidding, I try not to take the stairs at all.

He helped me get settled into his car and I think I moaned a little when I saw it. It was one of the new Ford Mustang convertibles and it was candy apple red. It was a seriously hot car and Lester had a seriously big smile at my reaction.

We chatted as we drove out of Trenton and into Philadelphia. Lester had told me that unless we were ready to tell people we were seeing each other, it might be better if we tried to avoid common hangouts in the burg and Trenton. I totally agreed. If anyone from the burg saw me out with Lester, it would be all over town in no time flat.

We got to the restaurant and had a lovely meal at a Latin restaurant. The menu was mostly in Spanish and Lester tried to help me learn enough to order.

"So you already know some of the basics, like taco, enchilada, that sort of stuff, right?" he'd asked.

"Yeah, if it's on the menu at Taco Bell, I probably know it. But I don't know how to order in Spanish or anything!" I replied.

"The most basic way to order would be to say yo quiero, which is I want, and then name what you want. You can end with por favor, which means please. So it would be yo quiero un enchilada de pollo por favor to order a chicken enchilada," he gently instructed.

"So it's yo quiero whatever I want por favor."

"Yes. Muy bien. Very good," he replied with approval.

Our waiter came up and he and Lester had a very fast conversation in Spanish. I could make out the word restaurante and vino but that was about it. After they finished, they looked at me and Lester asked if I was ready to order yet. I gave them a nervous smile and said, "yo quiero la enchilada suprema por favor."

Lester gave me a big smile and the waiter grinned. Then he turned to Lester and Les ordered his dinner as well. The waiter left with a smile and I turned to Lester. "Did I say it right or do I want to know what I just said I was going to eat?"

Lester laughed and then took my hands. "Steph, you did great! You seem to get the pronunciation pretty well especially since you've never taken a Spanish class before."

I shrugged. "I grew up hearing and speaking some Italian and the two languages are related. Guess it's my Italian genes coming out."

"Yeah, they are both romance languages. Once you know one of them, you can usually at least understand the basics of the other," he said.

"Now you're talking. Italian's the language of romance," I said with a smile. He just rolled his eyes at me and I grinned. "You're turning into a good burg girl with those eye rolls, Les!"

We had a lovely dinner and Lester taught me more Spanish. I had actually ordered the meal I'd wanted so I was happy. Les had picked a nice wine and I was feeling nice and warm after two glasses of it. We danced a while and Lester taught me how to salsa dance. Did I mention that he had moves? He does, in spades. I'd gotten it down pretty good before I started yawning.

Lester at first pretended to be mad at me. "Am I boring you, Beautiful?" he asked me with a pout.

I just laughed at him. "No, but I'm just a little tired. I went jogging this afternoon!" I exclaimed.

He looked at me in shock before grinning. "Jeans wouldn't snap?"

I stuck my tongue out at him. "Not as easily as I would like," I admitted. We finished the dance and then returned to our table for dessert. I order the tres leche cake and it was out of this world amazing. Lester was wiggling uncomfortably in his seat after listening to me moan and groan over it and I was giggling at his reaction.

We drove home and he walked me to my apartment door. He held out his hand for my key and I just rolled my eyes. I don't know why he bothered, it's not like he couldn't unlock the door within a few seconds even without the key. He walked in and cleared the room before allowing me to step out of the hall.

We cuddled on the couch watching a movie for a little while before I fell asleep on his shoulder. I woke up to him picking me up and carrying me into my bedroom. I sat up and looked at him in confusion. "What's going on?"

"You fell asleep. I thought I'd at least get you into the right room before I left," he told me as he sat down on the side of the bed.

"Oh. Sorry. Take it as a compliment that I trust you so much," I said with a sleepy smile. He just smiled and leaned forward to kiss me very softly on the lips. I smiled and kissed him back. He winked at me and then stood up and walked out.

"Flip on the light, please. I need to get undressed," I told him. No way I was sleeping in my clothes.

"Oh, geez, Beautiful! Now I'm going to have a hard on the whole way home," he sighed.

"As long as you remember to grab the right gearshift, you should be fine," I giggled.

"Christ!" he said through his laughter as he locked the door behind him.

Author's note: Wow, thanks for all the feedback so far. It's great! I love getting the email that I have a new review. So please leave more reviews!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!