Waist Deep

6

Adam arrived fifteen minutes later.He hustled in, gave Cassie a wave and a nod when she asked if he wanted the usual.I watched for her smile and she gave him a business-friendly one, but he didn’t notice.

“You been here long?”

I motioned toward the chess board with all the pieces set up and then to my half-empty cup of coffee.

“Damn,” Adam said.“My guess is twenty minutes.”

“You should’ve stayed a cop,” I told him.

He grinned and sat down.Adam came on the job about a year after I did and worked the street for about five years. When a civilian job in Special Services came open for a technician, he turned in his badge and took the position. Now he handles all the video evidence, surveillance gadgets, phone traces, and anything technical. He was one of the few people from my old life that I still had contact with.Or maybe I should say he was one of the few who had contact with me.

“Anything new?”

I shook my head and moved a pawn.I was terrible at chess and Adam was good without trying.“You?”

“Nada.”He moved his own pawn.

“How about the job?”

I formed an attack on his rook, hoping to whittle away his support pieces.He moved effortlessly to defend it.

“Just what you see in the news.”

“I try not to watch the news.Or read the fucking paper. Not anymore.”

“Ah, that’s right,” said Adam and took my bishop with his knight. “They did a bit of a number on you back then.”

“Yep.”

I focused on a little revenge and chased his knight around the board for a few moves before he protected it with his queen.

“So?”

“So what?”

“What did I miss by not reading the fair journal of our fine city?”

Adam shrugged, studying the board.“Nothing much.It’s been remarkably scandal free around the P.D.”

“That won’t last.”

“Spoken like a true optimist.”

I smiled slightly. “Hey, if something doesn’t happen naturally, the newspaper will just make something up.”

“Yeah, I suppose.” Adam looked up from the board.“You know, I always wondered about that.”

“About what?”

“You.”

“Me? What about me?” I moved my knight into position to take his queen.

Cassie set a steaming cup of coffee in front of Adam.He nodded his thanks to her. He took a sipped and studied the board.Then he moved a pawn.

“Never mind,” he said.

“No,”I said as I continued to stalk his queen. “What about me?”

Adam didn’t say anything. After a moment, he reached out and moved his queen free of danger.

I suppressed a sigh and stared at the board.My attack was all over the place and I realized that Adam was going to start picking me apart now that my play for his queen had failed.

I shifted a pawn forward.

A slow grin spread across Adam’s face.He slid his bishop nearly the length of the board and took my rook.Worse yet, he had my king in his sights.

“Check,” he said, and sipped his coffee.

I leaned back in my seat and stared at the board, then up at Adam.

He grinned back.“Two moves,” he said.

“Prove it,” I shot back.

Adam pointed to his queen.“Guarding the bishop,” he said.Then he pointed to his rooks.“Two moves and you’re in a crossfire.”He traced the lines of attack, but I studied them for a moment before admitting the truth.

I tipped over my king and offered him my hand.

“Asshole,” I muttered.

“Sore loser,” he said with a hard squeeze.

“You probably play Chessmaster all fucking day long at work.How can I compete with that?”

Adam sipped his drink and shrugged.“You can’t.”

My Americano was cold, but I sipped it anyway. Then I asked him again, “What about me?”

He looked a little uncomfortable. “I just wondered why you stayed, is all.”

“Huh?”

“After everything that happened. A lot of people would’ve left town, you know? Gone somewhere else. Started over.But you stayed in River City.”

I stared at him.In ten years, he’d never asked me this question. He’d asked how I was doing, but never this.

He stared back, then shrugged it off. “Sorry. You don’t have to answer.”

I shook my head.“No, it’s all right.” I thought about it for a moment. A thousand things ran through my head.Maybe I wanted to somehow fix what couldn’t be fixed. Maybe my grandmother didn’t raise a quitter. Finally, I said, “I guess I’m just too fucking stubborn, is all.”

Adam nodded slowly, looking at me. Then he checked his watch and rose from his seat.“I gotta head out.”He dropped a dollar tip on the table for Cassie.“You know, you still talk like a cop, Stef.”

“What does that mean?”

“You know. ‘Fuck this, fuck that, every fucking thing.’Cop talk.” Adam shrugged.“It doesn’t bother me.Just thought you should know.”

“Fuck, Adam.The last fucking thing I want to sound like is a fucking cop.”

Adam gave me a sly grin and left.