A little later, Hailey finds herself walking alongside Jay the couple blocks that separates them from Joe's burger joint. They haven't made much conversation so far, which Hailey is fine with considering she used to silence when her clients don't feel like talking. She hopes it's not because he's regretting his decision. Deciding to instigate the conversation she asks:
"So how long have you been working at the bar?"
"Only about two months, but I've seen enough weird shit to last me a lifetime." He answers, looking down at Hailey with a slight smile on his face. She decides to ask him about what he did before working at the bar later on.
"Oh really, like what?"
"Well, I've had a woman who was with a bachelorette party march up to the bar, ask for four shots and then down them all one after the other saying that it will ease the pain of never finding a husband."
"Wow that's brutal, she was probably feeling horrible at that bachelorette party. I can relate."
"Really? I'm surprised." Jay states, just as they're approaching the door to the burger place. As Hailey opens the door, she hears a soft chime.
"Well, looks like I'm saved by the bell."
They make their way over to the counter; Hailey orders a house special and Jay proceeds to do the same. They make idle conversation before grabbing their food and heading over to a booth in the corner of the small restaurant.
"I really needed this, nothing like a good burger to fix all your problems." Jay states, taking a bite of his burger. Hailey does the same and they both enjoy their greasy food in silence. They quickly finish their meals, but neither moves from their position.
"So, Hailey what made you interested in becoming a psychologist?" Jay questions, turning his full attention onto her to show that he is waiting for an answer. In the light of the burger joint, she can clearly see his light green eyes with hints of ocean blue and the dusting of freckles on his face. Hailey finds the combination reassuring in some way, how his features soften ever so slightly while looking at her.
"Let's just say that my childhood wasn't the best a young girl could ask for, so I decided to be proactive with my occupation and to help people make sense of what they're feeling."
"That's incredible, I know I can definitely relate about the childhood thing."
"Really, yours wasn't the best either?"
"Oh, it definitely had its moments, but it was far from perfect."
As Jay looked across the table at Hailey, he could tell, from the many interrogations he's done with suspects, that she was holding back about her childhood. He couldn't exactly blame her, his life has been far from perfect, but he thought he felt something when they first talked a few weeks ago, the thought of her had been wavering on the edge of his mind for a while now. Jay had secretly hoped that she would stop by the bar again, he had wanted to get to know her outside of the confines of the bar.
His undercover assignment was taking a lot longer than the team had anticipated. His goal was to get the job as a bartender and hopefully in a couple of weeks he would get the confirmation they needed on the bad dope that was being sold out of the bar that was already responsible for the deaths of three people. The job was going on two months now and Jay was getting a little restless.
Turning his attention back to Hailey, he caught her staring at him before she quickly looked away, hiding her beautiful smile from view. Smiling to himself, he cleared his throat and asked:
"So earlier you mentioned that you help the police department, what exactly do you do?"
Jay found that the topic Hailey was most comfortable talking about was her work, she didn't talk much about herself. He thought this made sense considering she seemed like the type of selfless person who always focused on others.
"Oh, yeah it's actually pretty interesting, I was helping this boy's parents, because he was dealing with a drug addiction, and it turns out he was affiliated with a local gang, the police came asking for him when I went to visit the parents to get him into rehab."
"Damn, Hailey. The kid was in a gang?"
"Yes, and apparently, the limited information I was able to give them, which didn't break the confidentiality with my client, helped them track him down. The parents were so relieved and the police department really appreciated my help and a little after that a detective came asking for my help to track down a suspect and it just went from there. And the boy is doing so much better now, he's been clean for almost a year and he comes to see me every second week."
As Hailey finished her story, Jay saw the pride she has for the young boy, the kindness shinning bright in her eyes. She was truly something to behold, kind and intelligent but fierce when she needed to be.
"Wow and now you help the police catch criminals?"
"I wouldn't say that, they present me a suspect and based on the information they've given me, I fill in the gaps and I provide places they might be hiding or I give them the psychology behind their actions and what they might do next."
"Well you must be incredibly accurate if they still ask for your help."
"I mean I haven't misled them yet, but there's always room for improvement, right?"
"But how do you basically know where the suspect is?" Jay questions, more intrigued by her skills. Maybe this will help them finally get the guys from the bar that are selling the bad dope.
"The way people act becomes a lot easier when you know what guides them, what their main objectives are and if you know enough about their past, you can deduce their actions, what they're likely to do, or the people they'll turn to for help."
"Okay, so let's take the kid with the gang for example, what if the gang was dealing drugs out of like a store or something but you can't figure out how they're getting the drugs in and out of there?"
"Are you sure you weren't in law enforcement or the DEA or something?"
"I'm not, I just watch a lot of crime shows. But seriously how would they move the drugs around like that without anyone knowing?"
"Well, if they've been doing it for a long time and they're able to evade the authorities, I would look for a third-party participant, that isn't the drug movers or pushers. Most likely a janitor or a maintenance guy, that has a mundane enough job that their life is lacking in excitement so they agree to help the gang with hiding their drugs. He would be right under the police's nose and they would be none the wiser."
Shit. Hailey really was good; they hadn't even thought that there was another person involved with the drugs, but it's looking like she hit the nail right on its head.
"You look like I've just cracked a cold case or something, why such an interest on drug dealers?"
"You know, I just love a good cop show."
"Well, this has been pretty fun doing a deep dive into criminal behavior, but I think I'm gonna head home, there's a nice warm bed calling my name." Hailey states, moving to get up from the booth.
Jay can't help but reach out and grab her hand, getting up himself. He pulls out his phone as he looks at her lovely face that holds intelligence beyond belief, he needs to see her again. Holding out his phone, he asks:
"Before you go... Could you put your number in? I just haven't had a great conversation like this in a long time and I'd like to do it again sometime."
Hailey looks at him for a minute, probably wondering if she should run, because he came on too strong.
"Or you don't have to give me your number, Hailey. Feel free to say no if I was being too forward."
"No, it's okay, I had a pretty good time as well." She smiles and grabs the phone from his outstretched hand and puts her number in.
"Thank you. You totally had a right to say no, but I appreciate it. You just seem like the kind of person I should get to know." He says and then texts her a quick 'Hi' so that she has his number as well.
"Thanks, you held your own pretty well too. I hope we can get together again."
"Yeah, me too. If you're not too busy being a badass psychologist and catching criminals."
"Unlikely, but I would like to see you again. Text me when they give you time off from the bar."
"The bar, right. I will definitely do that." Jay finishes, looking at her with a smile that hopefully shows he's a good guy worthy of calling.
"Great! Well, I'll see you later, Jay. Good night." Hailey says. She smiles brightly at him, gives him a small wave and then makes her way out of the burger place. Jay thinks that the lights just dimed a little when she walked out the door, but it's probably just the old fluorescence acting up.