3.08 The Cortez Connection

Partner

"So Harry's your partner, right?" Simone asked after dinner.

"Yeah, she is," Dempsey replied.

"Partner in any other way?" she probed, though she suspected she would not like the answer. It was like picking at a scab; she knew it would hurt but she had to go through with it anyway.

"No," Dempsey replied firmly.

"You like her though, right?"

Dempsey took a drag of his cigarette, to keep his hands busy and give himself a moment to think. "Yeah, I do," he found himself admitting, and before he could stop himself he added, "A lot."

Simone felt cold on the inside. She got up and poured herself a vodka. She wasn't sure what she had expected when she came to England, but it wasn't this. She leant against the kitchen cupboard, glass in hand. "You're in love with her, aren't you?"

Dempsey said nothing, but he did not meet her eyes as he breathed in the cigarette smoke and that was answer enough for Simone. If nothing else in the way he had behaved towards her had told her, this confirmed that any chance of a relationship between them was gone. He had moved on, where she had stayed hung-up on him. Maybe now, though, she could let him go.

-:-

It was supposed to be a fun night out. Dempsey had been apprehensive about going out with Simone and Harry, but he convinced himself that it could work, that they could have fun. As he listened to Simone talk, though, he realised that she was painting a picture of another version of himself. An older version, a version skewed by Simone's perception of him. In her words, he sounded crass and immature, and although Dempsey knew he could be both of those things at times he also knew that he had matured a lot in the last couple of years. He did not like Harry to hear Simone's version of him.

As Simone grew drunker, her stories grew ever-wilder. Harry seemed to be enjoying the stories from his past, but he did not want her laughing at him and tried to explain or excuse his behaviour in them. Later, he tried to stop Simone from telling them.

"Dempsey, you should settle down. I could see you two, ya know?"

Dempsey's eyes immediately slid to Harry, to check her reaction.

Harry's eyes were also drawn immediately to Dempsey. Her heart started pounding. If Simone had picked up on something between them, then maybe... Maybe nothing. Simone was drunk, she could not believe Dempsey felt anything other than friendship towards her and they were not allowed to form relationships within their department anyway.

Despite that, both Harry and Dempsey rather liked the sound of the scene Simone described.

As Harry picked up Simone's knocked-over glass, Dempsey found that he was profoundly embarrassed, both for and of Simone. He was almost ashamed for Harry to see the person he had once been, and the person he had once been with.

As always, he tried to take care of Simone, but as always she did not want his help. Their relationship may not have worked out, but he could not help but want the best for her, no matter how fruitless and draining that was. Dempsey kept smoking and tried not to let it bother him.

-:-

Though Simone had said, "It looks better on you!" as she gave Harry her present, what she really meant was, "He looks better with you." She had never seen two people who fitted together better than these two. She deplored it, and she resented it, but she could not deny it and would never have tried to get in their way.

As Simone was driven away, Dempsey walked up behind Harry and put an arm around her waist.

'You're in love with her, aren't you?'

"What did she give you?" Dempsey asked.

Harry showed him the top that Simone had given her. "It's what she leant me to wear last night," she reminded him.

"How could I forget? You looked amazing."

Harry felt herself blushing, and berated herself for letting his words affect her.

"Do you wanna come in?" Dempsey said, finally asking the question he had started before Simone arrived.

"I thought you wanted to get some sleep," Harry reminded him.

"Sleep's overrated. I'd rather spend the evening with you."

They went inside together; Dempsey left his arm around Harry's waist until the practicalities of getting through doorways interfered.

"How 'bout a movie?" Dempsey suggested.

"Okay," Harry agreed. It hurt that Simone's words seemed to have taken away some of the ease of their relationship. She felt awkward and self-conscious, praying she was not giving herself away. Simone had said that he was fond of Harry. Fond of her how?

Dempsey rooted through his videos and found an action film; he held it up and Harry nodded her approval. As the tape wound through the adverts, he switched on a lamp, turned off the main light and brought a bag of popcorn through from the kitchen.

"Here's to stayin' in," he said, holding up the popcorn bag in a mock toast.

He sat down on the other side of the sofa, and neither of them was sure how they managed to end up pressed up against each other with Dempsey's arm around Harry's shoulders by the end of the film.