Thursday night came, and I found myself about a breath away from kissing Bobby Goren. My heart felt like it had stopped in my chest, my breath was definitely caught in my lungs, my eyes were closed, and I was moving up onto my toes to touch my lips to his when my phone rang. I jumped as if I had been electrocuted.
I opened my eyes, and looked into his, as the song blasting away as my ring tone penetrated my brain.
"That's my nephew Jake." My voice was soft, barely audible. I said the words kind of to myself, kind of to Bobby. I was frozen for a moment, my brain playing over the evening all the way up until this moment.
Bobby had called me earlier in the day, inviting me to dinner. I had evening hours, so I told him I couldn't make dinner.
"How about dessert?" He asked. "You do eat dessert." He added. I could almost hear the smile in his voice.
"Do you?" I responded.
"Do I what?" He asked.
"Eat dessert." I asked.
"If it involves seeing you." He said, kind of stating it as a fact. I smiled.
"Yes, I eat dessert. I love dessert." I admitted, thinking that something deliciously rich and creamy would be the perfect end to a rather long day.
"Good. 9:30 then." He said, and named a place about 2 blocks from my office.
"OK." I was about to hang-up.
"I'll pick you up at your building." He added, making me realize he didn't want me walking the short distance alone.
"9:15 then." I replied.
"Good. See you then." He replied, and hung up first.
9:15 rolled around quickly. When I walked out of my building, Bobby was just walking up. He looked like anything but a NYPD detective. In fact, he looked a bit shady. His tall, broad frame was encased in a large black wool coat. He wore a dark knit watch cap pulled down low over his head, and black gloves. It was cold, so I couldn't blame him for dressing warmly. But, he did look like he belonged a bit on the wrong side of law.
As I hit the wintery wind, I wrapped my scarf more securely around my neck and pushed my hands into my gloves. I smiled up at him, thinking we were quite the contrast. My winter coat was a deep ivory, my scarf and gloves a festive bright red.
"You look cherry." He said to me, and I quirked my head at him.
"Cherry?" I asked, thinking he was making fun of the red.
"Cheery." He corrected, and I realized that the scarf and the wind were ruining my hearing a bit.
"That's me, cheery." I smiled, as we started the short walk down the street. When we arrived inside we unbundled, hanging our winter wear on the hook on the edge of the booth.
"You are, you know." He said to me, causing me to look at him, not having a clue what he was talking about.
"Cheery, you're cheery." He added, in that way he had of simply stating. I rolled my eyes a bit as I sat down.
"What can I get you?" A server was at our table, after allowing us a few minutes to peruse the menu.
"I'll have the blackberry cobbler, with the vanilla ice cream." I said, in a such a way that I felt it was probably pretty clear to someone as astute as Bobby that I had been thinking about ordering that dish long before I even opened the menu.
"The apple crumble." He said, looking at the menu, "with the cinnamon ice cream." He added. The server nodded jotting down both of our orders.
"Its freezing." I said, still shivering a bit from the cold. "You know, my sister and her husband took off for vacation today. They are staying a few days in California, then heading to Hawaii for the week." I was jealous that they would be warm, while I was in New York shivering.
"Have you been to Hawaii?" He asked, and the conversation kind of zoomed off from there. Bobby had traveled practically all over the world. Someone who did not know him well would probably think he was just a quirky kid from Canarsie, and that he had never left New York, but his experience with the military gave him the opportunity to travel quite a bit. It was fascinating to listen to him talk about the places he had traveled.
We ended up sharing each others desserts. He insisted that the cinnamon ice cream was the way to go, that the complexity made both the apple crumble and the blackberry cobbler sing. I, of course, preferred the pureness of the vanilla. So, we laughingly debated that for a while.
Then, we realized, a bit sadly I think, that it was almost 11:00, and the server was glaring at us to finish up so she could close her station. Bobby paid the bill before I could protest, and before I knew it we were standing out front bundled up in our coats, me fighting with my scarf. And, that was how I came to be standing in his arms.
Bobby had turned me, wrapping the scarf around me, kind of pulling me closer toward him. As his hands were on my scarf, I noticed the knuckles of his right hand still broken open and bruised. I thought of what he had said the other night, about feeling as steady as he ever could be. I thought about how it felt when he touched my face so tenderly, about how when we stood this close my insides practically stopped. Then I was leaning into him, wrapping my arms around his neck, moving up on my toes to bring my lips to his, and my phone started blasting some loud pop song.
To be funny, Jake had programmed in his own personal ring tone, so if he was calling me, I would know right away. And it worked, anyone else ringing in on my boring "ding-dong-ding-dong" quiet tone would have been ignored. But, my sister was jetting across the country, on her way to California, and Jake was staying with his best friend's family for the week, so I figured it must be important if he was calling me.
"Jake?" I picked up the phone, the wind biting through my coat, Bobby moved his arms from my scarf, and I couldn't help but smile as he continued to hold me loosely in his arms. Jakes voice was a whisper I could barely hear him.
"…a gun, he has a gun… …shoot himself… …Dee is hurt…" I was only catching fragments of what he was saying. I could feel all of the color drain from my face and I pressed the phone closer to my ear.
"A what? A gun. Someone has a gun?" I asked. "Where are you?"
Bobby immediately pulled me back into the restaurant lobby. I was listening to Jake and looking up into Bobby's eyes.
"Speaker phone." Bobby mouthed the words to me, and I took the phone from my ear and jacked up the volume. I could hear much better, out of the wind, with the phone on speaker.
"Rob, he has a gun, he's on something, I don't know. Dee, she was cheating on him, he threw her against the wall, I think he knocked her out, he has a gun, he said he is going to shoot himself." Jake was still whispering into the phone, and it was clear he was in the room where all this was happening. Jake paused for a moment, and then he whispered where he was, the address.
"Jake, listen to me, leave the phone on, we're on our way, leave the phone on, set it down, and leave the phone on so we can hear." I said, not wanting him to be spotted talking on the phone if some guy was in the room with a gun, not wanting to take the chance he would see Jake and shoot him for being on the phone.
"Keep still, don't say anything, just set the phone down and leave it on so we can hear." I said again. I thought about the address, I was looking at Bobby desperately. He was on his phone, calling it in.
"Put your phone on mute." Bobby said to me softly, this was so that the other side could not hear our background noise. I nodded, putting the phone on mute.
I was holding my phone in my hands, which were now shaking violently. He gingerly took my phone away from me.
"You did fine. You said the exact right thing." Bobby's voice was quiet, even. He looked at the phone, listening.
"Where are you going?" We could hear a male voice shouting. "Everyone just sit down." The person yelled, and we could hear some shuffling, someone was crying.
"Who knew this? Which one of you knew about this and didn't tell me?" He was yelling, and it was clear to me he wanted to know who knew about his girlfriend Dee cheating on him. I prayed no one would say anything, I prayed no one would do anything to set him off.
A black and white pulled out in front of the restaurant, and Bobby held the phone carefully in one hand, I could tell he was making sure we kept reception. With the other hand he held onto me and brought me with him into the police car.
"Keep the sirens off." Bobby asked as we pulled away from the curb. My eyes were fixed on the phone Bobby held in his hand, watching the bars that indicated reception, listening to Rob yelling, wanting to know "who knew, who knew about my cheating bitch of a girlfriend."
A/N: rindy713 suggested I bring on the drama and see where it takes us. So, here goes… As always, please review me and let me know what you think.