Officer in Pursuit by Ranae Rose Page B

flopped
down onto the couch in her and Henry’s living room, a universal
remote in hand.
    Kerry shook her head in reply, and
also in an attempt to clear away the stress that lingered from her
talk with Jeremy. After work, Sasha had taken Kerry by her house to
pick up an overnight bag and file a police report about her slashed
tires. Jeremy had been the responding officer, and had taken the
incident seriously. While Kerry was grateful for that, the memory
of his concerned expression fueled the sense of uneasiness that’d
followed her from her house.
    “Good,” Sasha said, “me neither. I’ve
been meaning to watch it for an eternity now.”
    It was hard to care much what they
watched. Kerry was so glad for this escape, this single night away
from her lonely house, that she would’ve settled for
anything.
    As it turned out, The Heat was pretty
funny. And Kerry couldn’t help but feel a secret kinship with the
main character, who was kind of uptight and decidedly
awkward.
    The other star was more like Sasha:
bold, fearless and likely to say anything. If she’d had blonde hair
and a push-up bra, she could’ve passed for a relative of
Sasha’s.
    A half hour into the movie, Sasha
brought a tray of lemon tarts out of the fridge. “Henry said he’d
grab that wine for us,” she said. “He’s at Grey’s right now,
lifting weights. He’ll probably be home in about an
hour.”
    “Great.” The lemon tarts were
surprisingly good. Kerry had only meant to have one, just to be
polite, but she ended up having two, and by the time Henry arrived,
she was contemplating a third.
    Despite Sasha’s assurances that Henry
didn’t mind Kerry spending the night, she still felt awkward when
he walked in. Maybe it was just her imagination, but he and Sasha
seemed to exchange some pretty heated glances.
    After a quick – but passionate – kiss,
the only thing Sasha grabbed was the bottle of pale dessert wine
Henry had brought them.
    After saying hello to Henry, Kerry
accepted a glass from Sasha, who announced to the room at large
that there was leftover lasagna in the fridge for
dinner.
    Relieved at how un-awkward Henry’s
arrival had been, Kerry quickly became absorbed in the movie. It
was good while it lasted – everything was – until it came time to
actually go to bed.
     
    * * * * *
     
    Oh, God. Why had Kerry let Sasha open
the wine?
    True, they hadn’t had much – they’d
split a bottle – but a little bit was all it took to utterly
destroy what few inhibitions Sasha had in the first place.
Apparently.
    The sound of her giggling drifted loud
and painfully clear from the bedroom down the hall, the closed door
just a few yards from the couch where Kerry had settled in for the
night. She rolled over, pulling a blanket over her ears, trying to
block out the noise.
    She was about as successful as an
ostrich trying to bury its head in the sand.
    Henry’s voice came next, low and
rumbling, mercifully indistinct.
    And then – oh God – a smacking sound
followed, quickly chased by more of Sasha’s laughter.
    Kerry had had about five minutes of
peace after Sasha had made the couch up as a bed, plying her with
spare blankets and a thick pillow. It’d gone downhill quickly after
that, with things getting weird as soon as Sasha had finished up
her nightly beauty routine and retired to the bedroom.
    For once, Kerry longed to be alone in
the dark. Instead, she felt bizarrely exposed and embarrassed – on
Sasha and Henry’s behalf – as noises continued to come from beyond
the bedroom door.
    She wasn’t alone in her forced
eavesdropping – Wolf, Henry’s German Shepherd, had been shut out of
the room. He lay on a dog bed in the hall and gave Kerry knowing
looks every now and then. For some reason, that made the whole
situation even more embarrassing.
    Wolf probably had to deal with this
every night. Would it have killed Sasha to be a little more
discreet just this once?
    Knowing Sasha, she probably thought it
was hilarious