Title: The Dating Game
Author: Robin
Spoilers: This takes place after EOT, so anything through that is fair game.
Disclaimer: I worship at the altar of Janet Evanovich. I own nothing and am making nothing from this. Please don't sue.
Chapter 3
Monday dawned grey and bleak with a soft drizzle that threatened to last all day long. Beautiful. A crappy way to start another crappy week. I smacked the snooze alarm on my alarm clock and shut my eyes again. I immediately pictured Ranger as I was driving away from him on Saturday morning. Hope I didn't cause any trouble with his new girlfriend. I snorted to myself, I'm such a liar.
My weekend had been the worst of any in recent memory. After I made it home from Hayward Street, I crawled back into bed. I'd called Valerie and cried off claiming that I was suddenly deathly ill and being a dutiful aunt I couldn't go over if there was a chance that I might give my germs to all the kids at the party. After that, I didn't move from bed except to pee and occasionally to eat. Ben & Jerry's and Corona, what a winning combination.
I'd slept most of Saturday, after crying for three hours, and I would have slept most of Sunday, too, except my ringing phone kept waking me up. First it was my mother.
"Stephanie? Are you there? Is everything okay? I heard you didn't feel well. I'm making chicken noodle soup. I'll see if your father can bring it over later. Call me."
Then it was Tank.
"Stephanie? Hi, this is Tank. I just wanted to see if you were alright. I heard about yesterday. Um, well you can call my cell phone if you need to talk to someone."
Great, guess the cameras caught more than I wanted.
There were also several calls where the caller didn't bother to leave a message. There was just silence on the other end of the line. I almost gave in to my curiosity and got out of bed to pick up the phone the third time that happened. But as I was swinging my feet over the side of the bed, I heard Ranger's soft voice.
"Babe?
I'd like to talk to you. Please call my cell, or you can page me."
I squashed the instant and reflexive urge to run to the phone and answer it. What would happen if I did? I didn't want to hear that Ranger was dating someone else, that he wanted a relationship with someone else when he had never wanted one with me. That he was in love. Or maybe he would give me some excuse. It wasn't what it looked like. It was a mistake. I know what I saw. That woman had been in his apartment overnight. I didn't know much about Ranger, but I knew enough to know that he didn't bring just anyone to his apartment. So if he had that woman there, it must be serious. He must trust her. Damn, I was going to start crying again.
Ranger wanted me to call him back? Fat chance. Two could play the avoidance game.
I had then forced myself out of bed and into the shower. After I had washed two days of a blue funk away, I started to feel a little better. I mean, I was considering moving on. I'd just been asked out by six guys. So what if Ranger had moved on, what's the big deal? Only that you love him, a small voice in the back of my head whispered. I shoved that thought ruthlessly out of my head and continued to come up with why I was going to be okay with this situation. Maybe if I think it hard enough it will come true.
It wasn't as if we were seeing each other. Hell we couldn't even call ourselves friends anymore. Really, it was none of my business and I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later. Like the first time I'd seen Morelli out with a girl after our final break up. It had hurt that she was five years younger and 15 pounds lighter than me, but in all honestly I knew that Morelli couldn't stay single or abstinent forever.
I guess the thing with Ranger is that I did sort of have unusual expectations of him. Like being Batman. For me he was always a little larger than life and I could stand the thought of not being his Batgirl as long as I didn't have to worry about anybody else holding the title. I gave my head a shake trying to clear out these thoughts.
It just wasn't worth thinking about. I could stand in this shower until all the hot water in Trenton was exhausted, I still only had one real option: go back to work on Monday like nothing had happened. I liked my job and I was finally making decent money without having to constantly risk my neck for it. I was actually making more than I had when I was at E.E. Martin. If I had to be alone and miserable, at least I could be alone and miserable with food in my fridge, gas in my car and furniture in my apartment.
So, when my alarm went off for the second time this morning, I only contemplated calling in sick for about three seconds. But then I pulled myself out of bed, because I could assume that if I didn't show everyone would know that my heart was breaking all over again. When I went into RangeMan this morning, I would act like I was on top of the world and I knew just how to make the illusion complete.
At ten til 9, I sailed into my parking spot, Godsmack blaring from the speakers of my Miada. I hopped out of the car and walked to the elevator with a spring in my step. I was wearing my typical RangeMan uniform, black pants and black cropped shirt, but instead of my typical pony tail I had gone for big, sexy, I just got laid hair and extra coats of waterproof mascara. I looked good even though I felt like shit, but I knew that was the best armor a Jersey girl's got. I knew that by the end of the day I would be exhausted from this charade, but I'd rather die than become an object of pity for these guys. I punched the button for the elevator and bounced on the balls of my feet full of nervous energy. While I waited I gave the camera a little wave and blew the boys upstairs a kiss.
Finally I was on my way up and when I stepped on the control room floor, I flashed a grin at Woody who was sitting at the monitors. I greeted all the guys cheerfully as I made my way to my cubicle and didn't let the façade slip for even an instant until I was alone in my cubicle. God, now I remember why I had sucked at being a cheerleader (for the two weeks I'd tried it). It's hard work pretending to be perky.
I tackled the work in my in-basket finding solace in productivity. When I checked my email, I was not too surprised to see that Ranger had sent a message. He requested that I stop by his office around 10:30AM. Wonderful, now I have to look him in the eye and lie. It was a lot easier to lie to the video cameras and the guys on the floor. They didn't know me so well. But I couldn't exactly get out of it; he was the boss after all.
I knocked on his door promptly at 10:30AM and entered when he called out that it was open. Walking into the room I got a good look at him close up for the first time in weeks. There were dark circles under his eyes and his color didn't look too good. He looked like hell and my heart melted a little.
We stared at each other for a moment while I concentrated on keeping a neutral expression on my face. What was I thinking; trying to fool the master of the blank face. He probably had it patented. I'd have to start paying him royalties if I was going to keep up this farce.
Finally, I asked. "Is everything alright?"
"Babe," he said taking a deep breath, "I just wanted to explain about the other morning. It wasn't what…"
"Ranger," I interrupted, holding up my hand. A smile that I could only hope looked genuine affixed to my face. "You don't owe me any explanation. This is your place. You can have whoever you want here. It is really not my business. Just like my personal life is not any of your business. I just want you to be happy."
For just a moment it seemed that his mask dropped and a flash of something… anger?... guilt?... pain?... marred his features, but he quickly managed to suppress it. He remained silent. The only acknowledgement of my statement was a brief nod.
I broke the silence again, "If you don't need anything else, I have a lane in the gun range reserved now and I don't want to be late."
"Sure. Go ahead," Ranger said on a sigh.
I turned to go, but stopped at the door and looked at him over my shoulder. His eyes were closed. I asked, "You sure everything's alright?"
He nodded without opening his eyes then looked over, "I'm fine, Babe."
I nodded and left the office, quickly making my way to the bathroom where I could be assured a private place without cameras. Once there I finally let out the tears I'd been suppressing all morning. I only gave into my grief for a few minutes before I splashed cold water on my face, touched up my makeup and pasted my fake smile on my lips. I practiced in the mirror before hitting the control room floor, hoping that I was the only one who noticed that I looked a little plastic today.
After swinging by my desk to get my gun, I made my way down to the gun range. I was actually looking forward to practice today because I had found over the past few months that shooting was a great stress reliever. No wonder disgruntled postal workers go postal, they would probably feel a lot better when they were done except they usually shoot themselves or go to jail. If the government invested in range time for their employees maybe there'd be fewer work shootings. Or maybe the workers would just have better aim. Hm.
Anyway, I got down to the range a few minutes after my allotted time and saw that Lester was already practicing in the other lane. I smiled at him and took up position beside him.
After 25 minutes of blowing bullets in little men, I felt much better, especially when I pulled in my final target. One between the eyes, one in the heart and seven in the groin. Lester, who was already finished, raised his eyebrows at the target. We both pulled off our ear protection.
"Yikes, Beautiful. Remind me not to make you mad again," he said with a twinkle in his eye and a wide grin. "Looks like you've been practicing. Have anyone in mind when you did this?"
"Maybe," I said elusively with a grin of my own. Yup, he was a 6' foot Cuban Sex God.
We cleaned up after ourselves, sweeping up the spent casings, trashing the used targets in companionable silence. I decided it was time for step two of my plan.
"So, Lester, I thought about your proposal."
"Oh?" Lester replied with a shade of nervousness.
"Tell the boys I'm in."