Chapter 28 – Amelia
“Oh, my God. Tell me you licked more than just frosting!” Rosa’s voice is shamelessly loud, as usual. The barista handing us our coffees barely bats an eye - this is New York, after all, that’s probably only the fifth filthiest thing someone’s yelled in here today. Still, though.
I take my coffee and glare Rosa out of the shop with a look that I like to imagine is akin to the face-melting energy of the Ark of the Covenant in Indiana Jones. It doesn’t deter her one bit. “What else would I lick, Rosa?”
“Oh, I dunno… abs come to mind. Or cheeks. Or between cheeks—”
“Rosa!”
“What?! Anal play is perfectly safe as long as you’re sanitary,” she says without breaking stride on our way down the sidewalk.
“Sanitary and anal are two words that don’t go together in any lexicon.”
“Well then clearly you haven’t watched enough adult ‘educational’ videos, lady.”
“Pornhub is not educational!”
“Says you! It’s not my fault you’re behind on things. Or not behind, from the sounds of it.”
“Well, I can tell you one thing. You’re going to have a lot more experience with being behind when this is over.” I laugh as we walk onto one of the empty neighborhood basketball courts.
“Amelia. Was that…trash talk?” Rosa looks at me, glee plastered across her face. “This new boy toy really does have you riled up, huh?” Rosa drops the basketball from under her arm and dribbles it easily. “Good thing you can score with him, because that’s one thing you won’t be doing here.”
These weekend basketball games have been a tradition for the two of us ever since we worked our first case at the firm together a few years ago. I mean, we say “worked,” but really we spent most of our time throwing crumpled up paper balls through the little hoop Rosa had on the back of her office door. Once that case was done, we started playing for real - partially to avoid the horny jackasses at the firm’s basement gym, but also because…well, it was really fun.
I snag the ball from midair with a grin. “We’ll see.” My machismo is immediately deflated when I toss up a warmup 2-pointer and miss by a solid foot.
Rosa laughs, collecting the ball before it bounces off the court. “Hey, so you remember how Sam and I have been talking about getting a dog?”
I catch her pass and nod. “Yeah! Settled on a breed yet?”
“Funny you ask. We were thinking less breed and more…person.”
Setting up my next shot, the words almost don’t register. “Oh, that’s a - what?”
CLANG. The ball ricochets off the backboard and into Rosa’s waiting hands. “Yeah. We’re thinking about fostering a kid. A dog was sorta always meant to be a step towards figuring out if we wanted a family anyway, so really we’re just accelerating things a little.”
“Accelerating? Rosa, that’s not the word I would use at all.”
She pauses, resting the ball on her stomach. “Yeah? What would you call it then?”
“I mean…a course change, at least. Or a massive shift. Or…I dunno, I can’t think of one word that sums it all up.”
Rosa shoots, but her shot is even worse than mine. The ball slams off the backboard, velocity matching the aggression on her face. “I thought you’d be excited.”
“Rosa, of course I am! It’s just…it’s big deal. And I thought you hated kids.”
“Babies, girl. I hate babies. They’re tiny and gross and something about them is always sticky. But I don’t hate kids.”
I chase down the ball, mostly to give myself a moment to think. “And Sam wants this too?”
“It was Sam’s idea in the first place, Amelia. I’m not sure how I feel about it yet, but maybe you’re the wrong person to ask, what with your new whirlwind romance and all.”
“Hey! Don’t turn this around on me. I was just doing what you wanted me to, and that’s what started all this in the first place! Two minutes ago you were all for it!”
“Well, maybe I’ve changed my mind.”
“Changed your mind? What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I toss the ball up, and incredibly, it swooshes through the hoop. Rosa doesn’t move to rebound it.
“Just that I have other things on my mind right now…maybe there’s not as much room for your escapades as I thought. I gotta run. You win, 2 - zip.”
“Escapades? Rosa, wait - ”
She’s out the gate and on her way down the street before I can catch her. Let her go. You know how she is. So I do.
“Hey, lady! You dropped the ball.” I turn, and some kid fires our basketball at me from across the court. I snag it out of the air, unthinkingly.
“Thanks,” is what I say. What I think is, Don’t I know it.