Dempsey gives himself a talking to as he waits in his car at the road works where the red light stays on forever. He wonders if he'll manage to ask Makepeace out for a date and have her accept, before the hole in the road is repaired.
Just ask her on a date. Be nice, invite her to grab a drink.
It's Harry, except it's not just Harry anymore.
Dempsey remembers the magazine he was reading in the bedsit. Not Razzle with the Makepeace lookalike centrefold. Cosmo. He'd found it .. honest. On page 22 of the September issue, he'd read that number one on the list of ideal qualities in a man was listening.
He can do that. In a non-work situation, apparently, as he's not doing so well in the office at least where Spikings is concerned. The thought surfaces again when they're leaving the office.
"Buy you drink, Sergeant Makepeace?" He hands over her coat.
"What are you up to?" She queries, eyeing him with trepidation. "You've been quiet for once."
"Friday the thirteenth, might be lucky for me," Dempsey quips.
"You're pleased that Spikings signed off your expenses claim to get rid of you."
He eyes the closed door with trepidation. "There's always time for him to call me back."
"Best we get moving. Where are we going?" She asks and he congratulates himself on an easy move.
They take a seat in a booth of a fancy-pants wine bar and he thinks it's going okay. He insists on paying for the drinks like a gentleman, ignoring her curious stare. There's no need for small talk and he kinda likes the more charming version of himself.
She has no idea it's a date, of course.
They bitch about the boss and she's does a remarkably good impression of Chas's fiancée after the third drink. He's pretty sure she could drink him under the table.
"Whatya doing tomorrow?" He tries, taking a swallow of scotch.
"I'll probably see Freddy, maybe meet my aunt and uncle for dinner," She replies and adds, he thinks, to be polite, "You?"
"Hot date," The words just roll out. Dempsey swears that she stiffens. "With Chas and Fry; they're taking me to a football match."
Her face breaks into a smile which he shares, "I thought you'd got a new girlfriend, again."
"Not for a while." Dempsey coughs, hoping she'll get the message.
"Why on earth not? Dishy man like you," she takes a long sip of her drink and her cheeks flush.
She could have warned him.
"You think I'm sexy?" He teases, trying to keep up.
"I said dishy…is this drink spiked?" Harry frowns at the glass as if it is responsible for her words. "The ladies bathroom is full of gossip."
"I'm not the only hot piece of ass in the department." Dempsey chances, eyeing her.
"Fry is very shy you can't talk about him like that!" Harry retorts, regaining her composure.
Dempsey grins, "I get asked about you too. "
She squirms a little; it's very rare to see her this way.
"I tell them to ask you yourself," He adds, "your personal life is your own."
"I'm hardly fending anyone off, maybe you put them off?" Harry sips her drink with a hint of a challenge about her that would make him quake if he didn't know her better. "You like that, interrogating any possible boyfriends."
"I'd be on best behaviour. I'd only throw then out of the door if you asked me to."
"I'm capable of throwing men out myself."
"That's why I got them to ask you out themselves. You can chose your own guy."
The declaration hangs and he wants to ask her if she'd pick him.
"I tried it once and I don't fit into that picture anymore. I've seen too much in this job and have too much to do," Harry finally says with a firmness that surprises him.
Dempsey can't help but recall Simone's complaints that his job came before her. He rolls the glass in his palm and meets her gaze, "It's lonely."
"Endless fraud, dodgy coppers and Mad Gordon. One day I might freeze to death on the side of an East End dock." Harry raises her glass and he clinks his own. "To the criminals of London."
"What do you want, Harry?" He doesn't think he's ever asked her and he wants to hear it.
"Are you a genie in lamp, Dempsey?"
"Depends what you want..." He winks, but feels the unspoken words in the air, the drink adds a sense of weightless longing. He wants to hold her hand, tether himself to her.
"I'm not in need of much," Harry shrugs. "At this moment, I'm oddly content."
"Oddly?"
"I'd expect us to be debating something foolish but the company is very nice." She smiles at him and it warms him more than the liquor.
They find the taxi rank and he lingers, uncertain what to say as he opens the door for her car.
"Thank you for the drink, I haven't done that in a while," Harry smiles, "Have a good time at the football."
"I'll pass on Fry's love!" Dempsey teases and longs to invite her to his. It feels like they've almost crossed the bridge but the last planks aren't very stable. "Goodnight."