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Today's inspirational Message:
Easy is to occupy a place in a telephone book. Difficult is to occupy someone's heart; know that you're really loved. - Carlos Drummond de Andrade
She almost calls him so many times over the years.
She'd been in New York less than a year when she was mugged. Every bit of training and advice, and experience, told her to give in and give them everything, so she did, until they asked for the necklace.
"Never." Because this was not Hearst College, and she was no longer a private eye, and once gone, it would be gone forever.
"Girl, that necklace worth dying for?" One of them sneers and waves his gun at her.
"Yes," she said simply. "Please, you can have everything but that."
The other guy hesitated. "What's so special about it?"
"It's all I have left of a friend. She died, a long time ago."
Sneer, as she was calling him in her head now, stepped forward threateningly, as if to tear it off her neck. To her surprise his partner stops him with a hand on his arm. "Naw, man, leave it. We got the cash."
"You kidding me?"
"I look like I'm kidding? Times are tough, but they ain't that tough yet." He looked at Veronica. "You go home, and stay off the streets this late." And they were gone.
When she reported it to the police the responding officer gently asked if she wanted him to call someone.
She naturally thought first of her father and dismissed the idea almost as quickly. He'd already been panicky about her being so far away.
Then she thought of Logan. And yes. His name made it halfway out, a sound in her breath. Then she shook her head and breathed deeply. "No. I'm all alone here."
The officer took her home and along the way they talked about her father being an ex-sheriff and a current private investigator. She learned his name was Marshall, and they hit it off.
He proposed a year later and she panicked and was halfway through dialing Logan before she sighed and called Mac instead.
Backup died.
She knew it was going to happen. Her dad had kept her up to date on their four legged family member.
It was no surprise, but she still wanted to cry, so she took a long shower and did.
Her roommate didn't understand. She'd never even had a goldfish. Allergies or something.
Somehow, she'd thought Backup was immortal. He had stood guard while she and Lilly sunbathed and waited on the boys to be done surfing. He had been Logan's shadow, somehow knowing how much the boy had wanted a dog instead of an alpaca, knowing he was good when Veronica had doubted. HE had protected her from Weevil's gang and bodybuilding drug dealers.
He had been her one companion when everyone else had turned their backs on her.
She went through her contacts, eliminating those she knew were busy or simply unable of understanding.
Mac was on a business trip, and she didn't want to bother her.
Wallace had a date.
Somehow, the Chinese delivery guy didn't seem to be an option.
So her fingers danced along as she thought and finally, a line was ringing a million miles away.
"You've reached me, and here's today's inspirational message: People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do. Isaac Asimov."
Veronica snorted and then froze at the sound of the ominous beep. Then she disconnected quickly.
She called again the next day just to hear his voice.
"You've reached me, and here's today's inspirational message: I looked up my family tree and found three dogs using it. Rodney Dangerfield."
And she smiled as she disconnected, and then laughed and laughed, because somehow, that was exactly what she needed.
She called Mac. "Hey, hon, you still know how to log into someone's phone remotely and delete call logs?" She nodded at the response. "I need a favor."
Logan Echolls was getting married.
The news caught her off-guard. Completely. In a can't breathe, going to vomit and pass out kind of way.
She'd spotted it on the cover of a tabloid.
An art dealer of all things had convinced him to settle down.
She hadn't seen him in the news in a while, rumor was he was growing up. What that meant was she out of touch with his life.
This, though, was front page news, well, a sidebar, but still. And the subheading?
"Out of Dad's Shadow."
That part upset her more than anything, because would he never escape his father?!
Everything that had happened, everything they had all been through. He was nothing like his father! Never had been, even in his most violent moments, his most idiotic days.
She tried to call him, but apparently he had a new number now. So she called Mac and made small talk before she finally gave in and asked for his new number. Mac gave it without hesitation and then asked for an explanation.
"It isn't true," Mac said with a snort.
"You guys are that close?"
"No," Mac said slowly, and almost sounded hurt, which made Veronica wince. "I see him around every now and then, but come on, Veronica. It's a tabloid. He's probably suing them as we speak."
"I just wanted to congratulate him," Veronica said innocently.
Mac snorted but said nothing so Veronica sighed and promised to give it a couple of days.
She still programmed his number in and found an old picture to use as his ID.
A week later more than one tabloid was reporting the Echolls breakup. There were more ridiculous subheadings, and she hated all of them.
She never called.
But she didn't delete his number either.