#2 – Beloved
Roses are red
Violets are blue
You're my beloved
And I know I'm yours too.
That small poem greets Chili when she arrived at a shift later that year, written on a small card from one of the local flower shops in their part of Chicago, buried among a fairly large bouquet of flowers. It raised her spirits some, because of the bad week they had both been through. She'd found out that her sister Margaret was moving to Europe – permanently – and it had devastated Chili.
But then the news about Will & Jay's father had come crashing down around him, and he had withdrawn himself from her. Chili hadn't given up on him, though; sending him brief text messages filled with sweet words. And now the bouquet of flowers showing up…it was a sign that things were going to be okay for them.
"Are those from Will?" a voice asked, cutting into Chili's thoughts and she turns to see her partner, Sylvie Brett.
"Yeah." Chili shows the blonde what the card said before bringing the vase closer to her to lean forward and breathe in the sweet, sweet scent of the flowers. I love him so much. And I want him to know that I'm there for him. Her cell phone starts to ring and she reaches down to grab it from inside of the front pocket for her uniform. "This is Jessica."
"There's the woman I love. How are you?" Oh, no. He's completely drunk. "Are you at work right now? What are you wearing?"
"Will, give me the phone, please," Chili heard his brother Jay saying; a shuffle for the phone exchanged between the two brothers – one a cop, the other a doctor – taking place before Jay finally won the exchange. "I'm so sorry about that, Jessica. He insisted on calling you."
"I'm fine, Jay. Please give me back my phone," Will said in the background, making a grab for his phone. Jay scooted out of reach. "Jacob, give me back my phone!"
"One: don't call me by that name. Two: you're drunk and you're slurring your words. Three: you can't have your phone because you weren't supposed to have in the first place unless it was for emergencies," Jay reminded him.
Will scowls. "But that was an important phone call. I wanted to ask her if she got my flowers," he said.
"Tell him that I did get the flowers," Chili said from her end of the line. "And that he's got his beloved for the rest of their lives." Then she hung up.
