Chapter Seven
Sam glanced at the time on her phone, even though it had been less than a minute since she last checked. One fifteen. Any minute now. She stretched her neck to see out the storefront window and jumped when she felt a hand settle between her shoulder blades.
“Looking for someone special?” Lucy asked. Her voice had a certain friskiness and her face was inches from Sam’s as she crouched down next to her seat. For a split second Sam was sure she looked at her mouth. “I came in through the back,” she offered, answering Sam’s puzzled look. “You were really craning your neck there.” She gave Sam’s back a nice rub as she stood upright.
“Hey, I’m starving. And you’re late.”
“I’m late, am I?” Lucy’s smile melted Sam on the spot. “Anyway, what’s on the menu today?” she asked, sizing up the clear plastic bowl of greens in the center of the table.
“Baby kale with almonds and quinoa. Some kind of lemon shallot dressing.”
“Mmm. Sounds delish.” Lucy doled out a serving each on the two small plates in front of them. Raven brought over two seltzers without being asked and placed the glasses down with a coy smile. On this, the fourth occasion of its kind, there seemed a routine developing and Sam idly wondered what Lucy’s employee made of these lunches. Honestly, she wasn’t sure she had them figured out herself quite yet.
“How was Pilates today?” Sam asked, knowing the routine.
Lucy shook her head. “No exercise today. I had an appointment.” It was a vague response but Lucy didn’t seem inclined to elaborate, so Sam let it go, inspecting the complementary flat wheat bread that came with their lunch, breaking it in half and giving Lucy her portion before biting off a crusty end. Lucy thanked her with a nod as she took a forkful of salad. “I’ve been meaning to ask, how’s your apartment search going?”
For a split second, Sam contemplated lying. Her focus for the last few weeks had been squarely on work and these lunch meetings. She’d hardly had time at all to deal with her less than ideal living situation. “It’s really not,” she answered truthfully. She put her fork down and took a sip of her drink. “I haven’t done anything at all in terms of looking. I’m basically crossing my fingers and waiting for something to open up at Bay West,” she said through a chuckle. “But that could take forever. I could be slightly more proactive,” she added, considering her own words.
“Why did you decide to go back to your parents?” Lucy picked up the bread, inspecting it. “Sorry if that came out like judgment. It’s not. I’m just curious.” Without biting it, she put the bread back on her plate.
Sam wiped her hands on a paper napkin, crumpling it up and discarding it in the empty bowl. “Well, when I first broke up with my girlfriend I needed to just be away from all of it. Her, the city, our friends in Portland. So I took a travel assignment.” She spun the seltzer can in one hand. “It was fun. Interesting. I did another and then another. It got to where I was gone for months at a time almost.”
“Sounds exciting.”
“It was. Definitely. But then it got old. It’s hard to live on the road.” She took a long sip of her drink. “Anyway, I never looked for a new place. There really wasn’t time.”
“Fair enough.” Lucy held a forkful of greens. “Tell me about your ex,” she said, turning the subject in an unexpected direction. Sam was quiet for a moment, thinking about the nature of the question and what it might mean. “Unless you don’t want to talk about it.” Lucy met her eyes, misreading her momentary silence.
Sam frowned and shook Lucy off. “It’s fine.” It wasn’t her favorite topic, but she didn’t mind talking about Julie. She’d never been heartbroken over their relationship’s demise. On the contrary, what she felt was closer to embarrassment than anything. She’d uprooted her entire life for a relationship that didn’t last, one that she should have known didn’t have any longevity. It made her feel foolish and slightly naive. She swallowed her pride. “Julie.”
“Julie.” Lucy narrowed her eyes, echoing Sam with an edge to her tone. “I hate her already.”
Sam smiled at Lucy’s playful support. “Nah. Don’t. She’s a good girl. We weren’t…” She stopped herself, deciding on the spot to simplify her response. “I should never have gone with her when she moved. It wasn’t that serious. Certainly not for her.” She twisted her glass between her fingers. “Not for me either, in the long run.” She punctuated her explanation with a small shrug, adding at the last minute a truth she didn’t often reveal. “She used to date Lexi. Before me. She was still into her when we were together. Then in Portland, she met someone else.”
“After you moved across the country with her?” Lucy twisted her face in disgust. “This girl sounds like a piece of work.”
“I’m making it sound worse than it was.” Sam picked up her silverware and started eating again. “It was over by then. We both knew it.” She took a hefty bite. “After that is when I started traveling. Got to see some of the world. It all worked out.”
“You’re too easy on her, this Julie character. I want to kick her butt.”
Sam brushed it off. “It’s fine. Seriously.” She looked around the coffee shop, circling her fork to indicate the space. “I want to know more about this place.” Their conversations to this point had been light and airy—newsy tidbits, current events—this was their first foray into the personal, and while she was hesitant to overstep, she didn’t want to miss a moment to learn something real about Lucy. “So you just quit being a cop to open up a coffee house? I feel confident a girl figures into this story someway or other.”
Lucy’s gray eyes were suddenly serious and Sam worried she had crossed a line. “Do you really not know the story behind this?” Steeped in Lucy’s voice was a mix of disbelief and caution and Sam racked her brain, wondering if she was supposed to know, if she had been told in the past and had somehow forgotten.
“I don’t,” she answered.
“Really?”
Sam turned up her palms in surrender. “I know that you were involved in some police case that Jesse handled when Lexi was her intern. I know it’s the reason they fell in love. Lexi told me that part.” She pushed her plate to the center of the table. “That’s the extent of it. Oh, wait”—she interrupted herself, holding up one finger—“I know that the case involved a shooting.” She looked down, a little mortified at her outburst. “Sorry, I probably shouldn’t have gotten so excited over that last bit.” She looked across the short distance between them and saw genuine surprise in Lucy’s face.
“Wow, you really don’t know.” She nodded once. “Impressive.”
“You don’t have to tell me the details,” Sam offered, sensing she should let Lucy off the hook. “I just thought it was interesting to go from being a police officer to running a coffee shop. It seems a big change. I’m intrigued, I suppose. That’s all.”
Lucy seemed to soften at Sam’s explanation. “It’s okay, I’ll tell you.” Her voice lowered with the music in the background. “My therapist says I should talk about it more anyway. The road to healing, she says,” she added off-handedly. She took a deep breath and began. “I was a cop for nine and a half years. A detective for most of that time. Anyway, one night there was a shooting in the precinct. With my gun.” Sam tried like hell to be stoic when Lucy looked up to gauge her reaction. She must have passed the test, because Lucy continued. “It was complicated.” She waved one hand somewhat dismissively. “No one was seriously injured and I wasn’t even involved, not really, but it became kind of a scandal, so I resigned rather than fight the system.”
“Hold up,” Sam said, raising one hand. “I’m not following.” She felt her face twist in confusion. “Why would you quit if you weren’t involved?”
“I meant I wasn’t responsible for the shooting. That’s what I should have said.” Lucy tipped her head to the side. “Although that’s not entirely true either. I suppose it’s my own irresponsibility that caused it to happen in the first place.”
“I am so confused right now.”
Lucy’s smile was ambivalent as she spoke again. “So here’s the deal. I left my gun in my desk drawer. Which is, as you can imagine, not wise. In my absence, my buddies decided to play a prank, like cops do. They used my gun, while I was away from the squad. It was stupid and things got out of hand. One of them ended up getting shot accidentally. He wasn’t hurt badly, but it was still a big deal. The guy behind the joke was very tightly connected in the police department. Things got political right away.”
“But if you weren’t even there, how could they blame you?”
“I wasn’t where I was supposed to be either.”
“So you get fired for that?”
“I didn’t get fired,” Lucy clarified quickly. “I resigned. It’s very different.”
“No, right, I get that. Still doesn’t seem fair.”
“Sam.” Lucy’s face was dead serious. “I made a lot of mistakes back then. Bad decisions that were based on, well, mostly other bad decisions,” she said, her tone rising slightly at the ridiculous admission. “I loved being a cop. Truly, I loved it.” She looked off to the side avoiding eye contact as she continued. “But there’s a lifestyle that can go with it, if you’re not careful.” She toyed with her fork, touching the tines to the edge of her knife as she spoke. “I drank a lot in those days. It affected everything.” She put the utensils down and lined them up. “Leaving that job was the best thing I ever did.” She licked her lips and took a deep breath. “I stay busy here with the shop. I eat better. I exercise. I don’t drink.” She rested her cheek in one hand. “So, hopefully”—she ticked her head to the side still avoiding eye contact—“better choices.”
She was clearly trying to sound light, so Sam gave her an encouraging look. Lucy seemed calmer now that her story was out, but Sam was still fuzzy on the details. She watched as Lucy touched her thumb to each fingertip, a nervous trait Sam had seen her employ a few times.
“The way things played out, Jesse got me some settlement money. One small business loan later and I set up shop here.” Lucy pulled her hair back behind her head and used the ponytail holder on her wrist to tie it up. “I was actually looking for business real estate and happened upon this place”—she waved around the store—“down the block from Bay West. Completely random. I almost passed out when Lexi came in for coffee the first week I was open.”
“She must have been shocked too, I bet.”
Lucy responded with a nod. “She’s a sweetheart. She had me over for dinner immediately. She always invites me to go out with everyone. To the socials, The Kitchen. It was nice to feel like I had friends right away in my new neighborhood.”
“You should come.” Sam knew she sounded too invested. She didn’t care. “Really. Come out with us. Please,” she added, furrowing her brow dramatically for good measure.
“You are very cute when you’re begging.”
“Only when I’m begging?”
Lucy smiled in earnest and Sam saw she was blushing. “Stop. You know you’re adorable.”
“I know nothing of the sort,” Sam flirted back. “However, I accept all compliments readily.” She leaned in and tried again. “Will you come out with us one of these nights?”
“Sam, it’s not that easy for me.” She looked around the half-full coffee shop. “I spend all of my time here. This is my focus right now. I don’t have time for a social life at the moment.” She drummed her fingers on the tabletop. “Maybe one of these days.”
“Is that a promise?” Sam asked.
“No.” Lucy smiled. “It’s a maybe.”
“I’ll take it.” Sam pounded the table lightly as though her fist was a gavel and a final decision had been ordered.
“Don’t hold your breath,” Lucy quipped.
“You’ll come around.” Sam’s voice was full of confidence. “I have to say I’m mildly disappointed that your story didn’t involve not one scorned ex or broken heart left behind.” She nodded. “I thought for sure there’d be a girl behind such a drastic life change.” She threw in a snicker to be playful.
“Oh there was a girl all right,” Lucy matched her sarcasm. “More than one, I’m afraid.” Her face wore an expression that Sam couldn’t read.
“Two girls? Now that’s a story I want to hear.” She was trying for light but Lucy looked suddenly anxious, a strained smile doing nothing to cover her stress.
“Don’t get your hopes up. It’s not that kind of a story. This is less ménage-y”—she backed to the counter, balancing their plates in her arms—“more…I-fucked-up-my-whole-life and everyone else’s in the process. It’s that kind of three-way.” Her tone was sharp and she forced a laugh but it was all nerves. Even Raven looked over.
Sam could tell she was upset. “Lucy, wait.”
“Sorry, Sam.” She blew her off with an eyebrow raise. “Duty calls.”