Well it seems like the subject of Bulgari turns everybody on fire ;) thank you som much for a the answers to my question. Too bad I live in Sweden and probably wont be able to get my hands on it though. (At least not in my town)

"You can't avoid me forever Babe." Then he hung up. Oh shit.

I drove around for a while before I headed back to the office, I knew Ranger probably had called from his car but I still didn't feel like taking any chances. When I walked through the door I saw Lula sitting on the couch, doing her nails, looking cranky as hell.

"Where the hell have you been?" she screamed at me. "I told you to turn your bony ass around and get back here if the friggin skip tried to run dammit!"

"I'm sorry! But I really really needed to catch this guy, I knew who he was and I just couldn't let his sorry ass go when I knew he was running around beating the shit out of his wife"

"Whatever! We are going to lunch right now! I'm so damn hungry I could eat a bear!" She got up and grabbed her purse. "You comin'?" she asked Connie.

"No, I brought my own lunch today, you guys go" she returned to her computer.

We drove and got our selves a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken.

"So what was the deal with the skip? You said you knew him?" Lula wanted to know.

"Yeah well sort of… I danced with him last night and let me tell you, there was no ring on his finger!"

"You made out with him?"

"Almost"

"What a fucking peckernose" She said before taking another huge bite of chicken.

"Yep, so now you see why I had to catch the piece of shit" Before she got time to answer, my cell rang.

"Hello"

"Hey, it's Joe" Joe? I couldn't deny that I was a little surprised.

"What's up?"

"Not much... I'm just wondering, are you doing anything special tonight?"

"No I don't think so…"

"I was just thinking if you wanted to come by and eat some pizza and watch the Rangers game?"

"That sounds good" I liked hanging out with Joe and I really wanted us to stay friends this time. "Should I bring the pizza?"

"Yeah, what did you expect?" then he disconnected. What was it with men and lack of phone manners?

"Hot date?" Lula asked with her mouth full of chicken.

"No, just pizza and TV with Morelli" she looked surprised.

"I thought you guys broke up for good?"

"Yeah but we're still friends, and this time the hanging out part is not just a cover for saying You wanna come over and have some hot sex? This time it really means just hanging out"

"Aha… We'll see about that" she said raising one of her eyebrows.

"No! I'm serious! We're really just friends now. Besides he's found somebody else remember"

"Yeah but that doesn't mean that he doesn't wanna make some sweat lovin' to ya, men are always out for that whether it's their wife, there best friend or cousin… it doesn't matter"

"Sometimes I think you're last profession gave you a some what screwed up picture of men"

"Or a much clearer picture, just wait and see hun." I shook my head and chuckled.

Much later I pulled up on Morelli's driveway with a pizza in my hand. I had a feeling that my mother soon would hear about it through the Burg grapevine in a minute and think we were back together. But I didn't care, the news about Morelli's new woman would be spread soon enough. I knocked in the door and opened it.

"The pizza's here!" I could hear a rumbling noise and the next second Bob came tumbling at me in full speed. Luckily I didn't fall over, that had happened so many times I had actually learned from it. I bent down and gave him a hug, pretending that he was exited to see me and not just the pizza. Joe emerged from the living room.

"Oh great! Good thing the pizza brought you as well" he smiled at me.

"Well it's a very well-mannered pizza" I winked at him.

Joe grabbed a couple of beers out of the refrigerator before we went back to the living room. We slouched on the couch and watched the Rangers game. I'd worried that things would feel awkward, I mean it's one thing to meet on the street and talk for a second, but to hang out like we did when we were a couple is something else. But things felt okay and I started to relax. We chatted about this and that for a while until Morelli suddenly brought up a surprising subject.

"So… what's Ranger up to tonight?"

"I don't know, probably working as usual. Why? What has he done?" Most of the time the police looked the other way on the things that involved Ranger, they figured that he did more good things for them on the outside than on the inside. Even if everything wasn't approved by the law.

"Nothing more than usual. Just thought you would know." He didn't look me in the eyes but kept staring at the TV.

"Why would I know what he was up to?" What was he getting at?

"Well I just thought since you were free tonight that he might be doing something special"

"Why would me being available have anything to do with Ranger?" God was I getting curious.

"I just thought you would spend the night... with him…" Oh now we're getting somewhere.

"And why would I do that Joe?" finally he snapped out of his trance like state and turned towards me.

"Isn't that what you do? Aren't you with him now?"

"Why do you care Joe?" I snapped.

"I just thought now that I'm finally out of the picture you would jump straight into his bed"

"What makes you thing I already haven't been there?" Wow did I just say that? I could see that really got his attention, I could see the anger building in his eyes.

"Well have you?" Oh boy.

"No…" Liar liar, pants on fire! Okay I know it's a sin to lie but there are things that he is better off not knowing. I tried not to feel too guilty, I'm sure his relationship with Terry Gilman isn't entirely pure either.

"What about now?"

"That's none of your business Joe! And for your information I have every right of sleeping with him if I feel like it, you're the one who found somebody else and broke us off, remember!" Okay forget the things I said about this not being awkward, 'cause things certainly was awkward now.

"Oh don't act all innocent with me! Something was going on between you and Ranger long before I met Bonnie. I saw they way you looked at each other."

"He never touched me when I was with you!" I was getting angry.

"But did you want him to touch you?" Oh shit.

"Well did you wanna touch Terry Gilman?" I fired back at him. He went very still.

"No…" I could see he was lying. I had a feeling that their relationship was somewhat similar to Rangers and mine. Probably a lot of play full teasing but I had a feeling in the pit of my stomach that he didn't touch her when he was with me. Even if he wanted to.

The next minute my cell rang. I flipped it open.

"What?"

"Bad moment Babe?" Ranger voice was slightly amused.

"No. What's up?" I wasn't gonna let him know what was going on. I could see Joe watching me closely.

"I kind of need your help… right now." What?

"You need my help? What distraction?"

"No, I need help with picking up a skip. Where are you?"

"At Morelli's house…" Ranger only paused for a second but it was long enough for me to notice that he was bothered by it.

"Okay, I'll pick you up outside in ten" then he disconnected.

"I gotta go." I turned to Joe.

"Ranger?" I nodded my head. "Well speak of the devil." He let out sarcastic. I stood up.

"Uhm… we're alright huh?" I hoped we hadn't messed it up once more. He stood up and smiled at me.

"Yeah, we're okay." He kissed me friendly on the cheek. I walked towards the door but stopped as I opened it.

"Say hi to Bonnie from me!" He chuckled and gave me a goodbye wave. I closed the door and sat down on his porch waiting for Ranger, who showed up two minutes later. I jumped in his car. He was in his usual black cargo pants and black t-shirt that was molded to his muscular chest. He looked like he hadn't shaved in a day and had a stubble that was sexy as hell. All in all, he looked good enough to eat. I guess I wasn't too discreet with my looks since his lips curved into a grin.

"Nice to see you too Babe" I blushed a little and turned my attention to buckle up my seatbelt.

"So what exactly could the almighty Batman possible need my help with?" He chuckled slightly and picked up a file.

"I got a pretty interesting FTA today… I think you should take a look at it." He handed me the file. I was more curious than ever, something like this had never happened before. I opened the file and froze. Oh. My. God. This wasn't happening!

"GRANDMA MAZUR?" I screamed. I turned towards Ranger with my jaw completely dropped. I could see that he was trying to fight off a smile so bad his entire face was twitching.

"Oh you just go a head and laugh asshole!" He couldn't fight it anymore and let out a full on laughter. I checked the file again and apparently she had threatened someone with that damn gun of hers and also tried to shoot the person's dog. Oh god please kill me! Or better yet, I'll kill her!

"You realize my mother will go ballistic don't you"

"Yep. I don't think there's enough clothes in the entire Burg to iron for her to get over this."

"She will blame me for this." I said dejected.

"How could she possible blame you for this?" He looked puzzled.

"Oh believe me, she'll find a way! She'll say all this is a result of my horrible work, she'll say I'm bad influense on her, she'll say it's my fault she has that got that damn gun"

"Babe…" he tried to cut in but I wouldn't listen.

"And of course she will say that none of this would have happened if I had gotten a job the button factory, she'll say "Stephanie why can't you be more like Mary Lou?" it used to be like Valerie but she's not so perfect any more and of course she blames me for that as well. She'll say that no man will ever want to marry someone with my life and she will definitely say that…" before I could finish my endless rambling Ranger grabbed me buy the shirt, pulled me over and kissed me. I completely forgot what I was talking about and instead my knees went weak and my fingers curled into his t-shirt. When he pulled away I was breathless. I hadn't even realized that he has stopped the car. We were parked in my parking lot.

"What was that for?" I managed to get out after while.

"You were rambling." He smiled at me.

"Good thinking. But what the hell do I do about this? We can't go now, it's too late she's probably asleep."

"How bout we go over first thing tomorrow and talk to her about it?"

"We?" I couldn't help but teas.

"Okay you'll do the talking I'll do the driving" I chuckled.

"Okay, we'll go over tomorrow morning. And until then I will try to push this as far out of my head as possible and live after Scarlett O'Hara's theory – I'll think about it tomorrow. Otherwise I won't be able to sleep at all tonight."

"I think I know a way to tire you out." He said in a husky voice.

"If this in any way involves me and running shoes, forget about it!"

"Well you got me there." He smiled.

"Okay so pick me up tomorrow at eleven and we'll go over there?" I unbuckled the belt and opened the door.

"Sure thing."

"Oh god… I am so dead." I softly banged my head against the car door.

"Nah, I'll protect you Babe." I smiled at him and closed the door. With heavy steps I made my way up to my apartment. Please let a meteor or a comet or something strike down on my building tonight so I don't have to wake up tomorrow!

I had been lying in my bed for what seemed like ages, tossing and turning, not even close to sleep. Damn you grandma Mazur! I'm gonna kill you for this! Well that is if a can get to her before my mom gets to me. Suddenly my phone rang.

"What the f…" I said to myself as I looked at the clock. 2.00 AM. Who the hell was calling now? I dragged myself out of bed and to the phone.

"Yeah?" I answered with a sleepy voice.

"Schtephanie!" a voice cried out. Oh my god. It was Joe… and he was drunk as hell.

"Joe?"

"I'm schorry, did I wake you?" Why was he drunk and why was he calling me?

"No… I wasn't a sleep. Why are you drunk Joe?"

"I bet that schit hole kept you awake!" He blurted out.

"If you're once again are talking about Ranger, then no he's not here, and if you ever talk about him like that again I'll never speak to you again." I was losing my patience fast.

"Nooo! Please Schteph don't hang up! Look, I mad a mischtake okay! I don't wanna lose you! I want you back!" Oh my god, was this really happening?

"No Joe you don't, you like Bonnie now" I tried to talk some reason into him. Then again talking reason into a drunk is like forcing Ranger to eat fries.

"No! You're the one I want! I missch you so much… I missch kissing you and talking to you"

"You can still talk to me Joe" the kissing part was another thing.

"I missch that thing you do with your tongue" I could hear him smile when he said that.

"Joe, stop it, you don't really mean any of this…you're just drunk" If he had been sober maybe I would have been force to think about this.

"No that's not why, I promisch! We can be together for real this time, you know go for it. I promisch I wont complain about your job, your mother would be so happy, we could move in together, finally that big armygoon would stop trying to steal you away and... " Oh now I get it.

"What did you say? Okay now I know exactly what this is about…you're jealous of Ranger! You don't care about me you just don't want me to sleep with Ranger 'cause that would mean that you lost. I'm sorry Joe, we had some good times, but our days are over… and if I want to run to Ranger that's completely up to me." The words just poured out of me without even thinking it and it felt good… for once I was speaking my true mind. Or let's put it this way, for once I knew what I wanted.

"… noooooo…" he finally whined stubbornly like a little child. I couldn't help but smile.

"Yes it is. Besides, think about Bonnie… you really like her don't you." There were a few moments of silence before I could hear a sigh from the other end.

"Yeah… I do. I like her a lot." It was like his mind cleared up for a second and he realized what was going on.

"Then go for it Joe! Listen, why don't you get some sleep and we'll forget this ever happened. Okay?"

"Sleep is good. Let's do that… and thanks." Then he hung up.

What the hell was happening to this world? Ranger showed emotions from time to time, Joe was begging drunk in the middle of the night and grandma was my next FTA. You can say a lot of things about my life, but you can never say it's boring.