Jo walked into the morgue on Monday morning to get a toxicology report for a case.
'Lucas, has the tox report come in yet for Jane Doe 486 yet? Only we really need it to- oh, Henry. I- I didn't know you were back.' She stumbled over her words, blushing slightly. Henry didn't look up from the body he was examining.
'Well I am, Detective. Lucas has just gone for a coffee break but I do not think the tox report is back yet. I will send it up when it arrives.' He continued cutting open the body in front of him, but sensed Jo still standing there. He looked up. 'Can I help you with anything else, Detective?' Jo blushed again.
'Oh, umm no I'm good thanks. I was just leaving.' She quickly spun on her heel heading back to her desk. As she worked through the stack of paper work she found her mind returning to Henry, and how he had looked when he looked up from the autopsy. How tired his eyes looked, bloodshot and filled with sadness. His hunched shoulders, when he usually looked so confident. She sighed. Usually Henry made the first move, apologising first; it was just how he was, but it looked as though this time she might have to. However, just as she thought this her eye caught sight of a thick, creamy envelope in between case files. Her name was written in swirly cursive writing in dark ink. Henry. She thought. He was the only one who would use stationary like that. She eagerly grabbed the envelope and ripped it open with shaking hands, quickly scanning the message within. Dinner with him and Abe. She leant back in her chair happily. Why did I think Henry wasn't going to make the first move? He always does.
-That evening-
Jo parked her car under a streetlight outside the antique shop. She opened the door to the shop, the tinkling of the bell lost amid the sounds of an argument coming from the kitchen.
'What do you mean Jo is coming for dinner tonight?' She heard Henry yell, and she stopped walking through the shop.
'I invited her.' Jo heard Abe reply calmly. 'I gave Lucas an invite to put on her desk from you.'
'You… you what? You invited Jo for dinner and she thinks it is from me?' Henry's voice rose in volume.
'Henry, I know how stubborn you can be, especially with stuff involving Mom, but none of this is Jo's fault and you owe her some explanation.'
'I'm not ready, Abraham! It's too soon. I spent all day trying to avoid her as much as possible and now I have to make polite conversation with her for a couple of hours! And she is going to expect an explanation and I don't know what I'm going to tell her.' Abe chuckled.
'Err, the truth, maybe?' Jo was just able to see Henry through the kitchen door now, and he seemed to swell up, turning red.
'The truth?! This was your plan, wasn't it? Invite Jo and force Henry to tell her his secret? Well I've got news for you, Abraham. I'm not going to tell her my secret!'
'Well you're gonna have to come up with something to tell her pretty soon, then. She'll be here soon.' Jo turned and fled through the shop, back towards the door, the street and her car. As she ran she knocked into a small table, not hard enough to knock anything off, but hard enough to make the table's legs scrape against the floor. Jo froze, steadying a vase that was wobbling on the table. There was silence in the kitchen, then she head Abe;
'Jo?' His voice spurred her into motion, and she began moving towards the door again.
'Christ!' She heard Abe swear. 'I bet she heard us, you saying you didn't want to see her.'
'Well I'm sorry about it!' She heard Henry yell back, 'But this was all your idea so you can deal with it, it's not my proble-' The rest of his sentence was cut off as the door slammed shut behind her, and within seconds she was in her car, pulling away from the curb as Abe ran out into the street behind her.
'Oh damn.' He said as her lights faded into the distance. He headed back into the shop. 'Now what?'
'Like I said; your problem.' Henry replied, helping himself to a large glass of whiskey. Abe shook his head.
'I thought we agreed, for the second time, no more drinking? At least you're not just drinking out of the bottle now.'
'Yeah, well, if I'm going to get drink, I'm going to drink properly.' Henry poured another glass, and Abe scowled before moving the bottle out of Henry's reach.
'I'm serious, Pops. You need to show Jo that you value her, and that you trust her. Otherwise you're going to lose her. Just look at tonight. She was willing to try again, and you weren't. And I think that hurt her, knowing you didn't want to see her.' Henry finished his glass and reached for the bottle, but Abe moved it further away.
'Let me have the alcohol, Abraham.'
'No. Not until you sort out what you are going to do about your friendship with Jo.'
'I said; let me have the alcohol, Abraham.'
'And I said not until you sort ou-'
'I said give me the alcohol!' Henry stood up, slamming his hands on the table in front of Abraham. Abe jumped back in shock, almost falling off his chair. Henry had never yelled at him like that before, not even when he was a teenager.
'Fine. But don't come to me when you want help again.' He stood up. 'Mom would be ashamed of you.' He walked out the room, leaving Henry alone. He went to take a drink from the bottle on the table but heard Abe's voice in his head.
You have to stop drinking, Pops.
I thought we agreed no more drinking.
Drinking won't help; you need to talk to Jo.
Mom would be ashamed of you.
Henry closed his eyes against the pounding beginning in his head. What am I doing? What am I doing to Abe? He groaned, letting his head rest on the table. I need to go and talk to Jo, but not like this, not drunk. Tomorrow. I will talk to her tomorrow.