Officer Scott

Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Caleb left around noon, after asking if I was sure that I was ok like eighteen times. I sent him home with all of the cupcakes and told him to share them with all of the other cops, to which he just laughed and said he'd make no promises. I fell asleep shortly after he left and had nightmares until I woke up around 5.

The next morning, I woke up feeling fine. I went to work and everything was normal. At least, I was telling myself that. Sophia talked the whole morning about how great her party had been and how happy she was that I had gone.

I didn't tell her anything.

I had the next ten days completely off because it was Christmas and then New Year's. But we still had to work that Monday morning, December 23rd. Sophia prattled on about how she was going to spend Christmas Eve with her family and Christmas day with Marcus's. And then they would spend her week off decorating their new apartment.

"He still has to work," she told me, "you know justice never sleeps." I smiled at her but put in a lot of effort to avoid bursting out in laughter over the irony of the situation. Yeah justice may never sleep, but her cop boyfriend sure slept when he was on the job- especially when his partner was assaulting women on the side of the motorway.

I took my lunchbreak to pick up some small groceries that I needed to cook dinner that night. And when I came back, Sophia was sitting at the receptionist desk smiling broadly.

"What are you giddy about?" I asked her as we switched places.

"Marcus stopped by on his lunch break and he's just so amazing and thoughtful, you know." She sighed. "Oh by the way, Caleb came too, he was looking for you."

I was happy that I had missed him. I didn't feel like having any deep discussions about our weekend.

But of course, when I was driving home from work that evening, I heard a familiar whoop whoop of sirens behind me. I pulled over, got out of the car, and made my way to the 'safe' side of the car. He approached me quickly with his long legs.

"Hey," he greeted me with a kind smile, "how are you?"

"Good." I forced a smile in return.

"I stopped by today but I missed you." He told me.

"Yeah Sophia told me." I responded softly. I was really tired, so I leaned my body back against the frame of my car. It helped a little.

"Are you going back to the states for the holidays?" He asked me. He slung his arm over the roof of my car and leaned over me so we could be a little closer. I flinched at his movement, but I don't think he noticed.

"Umm, no." I shook my head.

"Oh?" His eyebrows furrowed, "do you have other plans?"

"Not really," I shrugged. I had spent Christmas alone the year before too, so it wasn't a huge deal. It was never a huge deal in my family, but I did always rent Christmas movies from the library and stayed in my room and watched them alone. In the years prior, I had watched them with Irene. It was about as wholesome as my Christmases got.

"What? You're not doing anything?" He shook his head, he didn't like that at all.

"Plane tickets are too expensive." I lied.

"Come celebrate with my family." He invited me.

"No that's ok. I like my time alone and I really wouldn't want to intrude." I shuffled my feet awkwardly.

"Oh come on, Red. You can't spend Christmas alone. Besides, my family won't bother you- my sister is bringing her new boyfriend around so they'll be too focused on him." He assured me. I still said no. I would feel incredibly uncomfortable with that, and I was still trying to avoid the volatile young police officer.