Flack Meets His Dream

Chapter 9

It was Friday night at the mostly cop bar that the team went to. Danny racked the balls in the center of the table setting the cue ball as well. He and Flack were a team, facing off against Hawkes and Mac.

Mac had the break, while Danny suddenly brought up the subject of Isabella. Flack had been seriously dating Bella for months and yet he never asked her to any team get-togethers or Friday night beer and pool night.

"So Flack, how serious is this thing between you and Isabella?" Danny opened the subject, a slight tease in his mostly serious voice.

"I don't know. Pretty serious I guess." Flack said as he took his shot. His voice was full of false ambivalence.

Hawkes laughed, "I think more than 'pretty serious.' You see each other almost every day, you talk on the phone to her constantly, and just the mention of her name brings out the over protective Neanderthal in you. When are you going to invite her to a Friday night get together? Are you ashamed of us? Is the bar too low rent for Isabella? What? Why not?"

Flack looked at all the men at the table and a few at the next who heard the conversation and were looking to him for his response. "She's so sophisticated. I'm afraid she'll be disappointed that this is how I spend my free time when I'm not with her. The bar isn't the typical place she hangs out, peanut shells on the floor, 100 different kinds of beer and not a martini to be found. Plus, I might kill someone for hitting on her."

Mac looked at him, his eyes serious and understanding, "You're an idiot, Flack. A love like the two of you have doesn't come around very often. She needs to see all of your life, not just the parts you want her to see. You have nothing to be embarrassed about. We are your friends. We don't have Ivy League Phd's and we may not be rich, but she doesn't seem like the type to care about that sort of thing. Invite her next week. I'm sure we will make her feel comfortable, but more likely from what I've seen of her, she is more likely to make the rest of us feel comfortable."

Flack looked around him, surrounded by the people who had his back every day, people who he trusted, people he believed in and who believed in him. What was he so afraid of? "Ok, you're right. I'll see if she can come next week." And he took his next shot, getting three balls in the pocket for his team. He stood up smiling to himself. Yeah, he needed to bring Isabella into his life even more.

He told Danny to count him out for the next game and walked out the front door, already flipping his phone open.

"Hey baby, what are you doing? Did I wake you?" Flack could hear the sleepiness in her voice that just made it that much deeper and softer.

Isabella laughed softly, "I guess grading Master's mid-term papers isn't very exciting. I must have fallen asleep." She yawned into the phone. "Sorry about that. Are you having fun? Early night?"

Flack's voice was soft and sensual. He was hard just listening to her barely awake voice. "Yeah, it was fine. Would'a been better if you'd been here. Would you wanna' come next week, maybe?" That ugly anxiety could be heard in his voice again. She could hear it and never said anything. He knew it was there and was constantly reminded how different their worlds were. It was a constant source of stress for him, even if it was not for her.

She put the full force of her love and lust and respect for him behind her response. "Don, I would love to hang out with you next Friday. You have avoided including me before. I figured it was just a guys' thing. What changed your mind, baby?"

If she could have seen him, she would have seen an unsure shrug of his shoulders. Flack was never unsure about anything, but where Isabella was concerned, he was unsure about almost everything. Except how she felt about him, that he was sure of, everything she did reminded him of it. "Let's just call it an epiphany. We said we were going to let each other inside our lives, this is a part I kept you shut out of because of embarrassment, or fear, or neglect. I don't know. But if you are going to know all of me, then you have to know this too."

"So you think I would be embarrassed to be seen with you, the man I adore and respect more than any other, in the cop dive bar you hang out in after a week of hell you live in every day?"

"Basically yeah. Bella, the floor is covered in peanut shells and saw dust, they serve just beer, no cosmos, no martinis, they got a dance floor but it usually ends up with very dirty dancing going on, decent pool tables and a welcoming atmosphere is about all it has going for it. This is almost as downtown as it gets."

"The idea of dirty dancing with you kinda turns me on, and the rest of it doesn't scare me in the least. Come home baby."

"I'm already there, Bella." Flack flipped his phone off, went back inside paid his tab, waved goodbye to the gang, and 30 minutes later was walking into Isabella's Penthouse. If home is where the heart is, this was it. He walked through the softly lit main area, and up the stairs, knowing she would be waiting for him.