Pinewood Corner Kitchen Chapter 19
The Chapmans couldn’t meet until the day after tomorrow at the earliest. They were so apologetic, but they had a speaking engagement in upstate New York, so Gabriella would just have to wait. Was it bullshit? She had no idea. She didn’t bother to try to call back when she received Jan’s voicemail, it probably wasn’t safe to talk to them right now anyway. So for now, she’d just focus on the quiet overnight shift she was working with James. It was actually kind of nice just hanging out here together, not really doing anything.
“Amelia invited me out tonight,” he said at one point as they both read on the couch.
“Yeah, me too,” Gabriella said.
“Yeah?”
She shrugged. “Even if I wasn’t at risk, I probably wouldn’t. I’m not big on going out dancing.”
“I told her I’d go at some point,” James said. “Maybe it’d be a good thing.”
“I think it’d absolutely be a good thing,” Gabriella said.
He shrugged, but smiled before going back to his book.
It was just after midnight when James’s phone rang, Amelia’s name on the screen. Gabriella had been considering heading to bed for a little bit, but stopped in case something was up. He picked up, hitting speaker as he did so. “Hey, what’s up?”
“James!” Amelia sounded fairly drunk and not at all like she was in danger. Music blasted behind her voice and she shouted to be heard. “Oh my God, guess who we found here!”
“Who?” James asked curiously, glancing over at Gabriella.
“Hang on.”
There was the shuffling of a phone being passed around in a loud room. Then Bradley’s voice. “McManus!”
James’s face lit up. “Oh my God,” he laughed. “What the fuck?”
“Same dance night!” Amelia exclaimed. “Me, Riley, and Elizabeth are here and we just found him and, um, what’s your name?”
Someone said something far from the phone. “Roxanne!” Amelia finished.
James’s smile faded, just slightly, just enough that only someone like Gabriella might notice. “Yeah?”
“Yeah!” Amelia said through a laugh. “Man can’t dance for shit right now, but he’s giving it his all.”
“Piss off,” she heard Bradley say in the background. “They took away my fucking…my surgery. So screw it.”
“You know it’s his birthday? Or wait, what time is it? Is it midnight yet?”
“Just after,” James said with an indulgent smile.
“Then yeah, it’s his birthday.”
“No, don’t tell him!” Bradley yelled.
“I know your birthday, champ.”
“Don’t fucking tell people,” he groaned.
“Hey, Amelia, put Bradley on the line.”
Again, the shuffle, then Bradley said, “What?”
“Happy birthday, bud.”
“No, fuck off.”
“Happy birthday, Bradley.”
Bradley relented, laughing. “I’m thirty-eight.”
“I know.”
“When the fuck…”
His voice faded a little, though the sound of the music behind him might have just been drowning him out.
“Here’s what’s going to happen, alright?” James said. “I’m sending Amelia some money. She’s going to buy you a drink from me.”
“James, I’ve never seen a drunker man in my life!” Amelia called over.
Bradley burst out laughing, confirming her statement. “Amelia, I’m buying you one too,” James said.
“Woo!”
The music changed behind them. “Amelia, it’s my song!” Riley exclaimed nearby. “Come on!”
“Don’t lose my phone!” Amelia called.
“Who are you talking to?” came an unfamiliar voice.
“McManus,” Bradley said. “And, um…”
“Gabriella!” she called over.
“Wait,” the woman said. “Like, from work?”
“‘Like, from work?’” Bradley mocked. “You’re a fucking captain too.”
“Goddd, don’t remind me,” the woman moaned.
“I assume you’re Captain Fournier?” James said.
“Wait…” the woman said again. “Oh fuck, you’re his captain.”
“Sure am.”
“Dammit, I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m Roxanne, I think we, um, we talked. But I wasn’t drunk then, so…”
“Bullshit you weren’t,” Bradley said and they both started laughing.
“I’m back,” Amelia announced.
“But Riley’s song,” James teased.
“I know,” Amelia said. “But I wanted more vodka and she didn’t and whatever.”
She sounded like she’d had a lot of vodka already and Gabriella was starting to kind of wish she’d been able to take her up on her invitation.
“James, you have to come next time,” Amelia said.
“Maybe, I don’t know.”
“Oh, come on, we’re gonna go back to Marcy’s in Providence. I’m gonna get you trashed and make you dance with me just like Bradley’s going to in, like, thirty seconds when it isn’t this song anymore. I hate this song, don’t tell Riley.”
“It sucks so much,” Bradley said.
“Oh! Do shots with me!” Amelia exclaimed.
Both of them seemed to have forgotten they were on the phone with James as the club noise behind them got louder.
“I love you, James,” Amelia said suddenly. “I miss you.”
“I love you too. You’ll see me tomorrow,” James said. “At like three o’clock. Bradley’s in even earlier.”
“Yeah, but you’re not going to fucking be there,” Amelia said.
“I am, I’m scheduled.”
“You’re still going to be there?”
“I have to,” James said. “I’m…I have to.”
“Give me your phone,” Bradley said. “James? Hey, James?”
“What’s up?”
“Fucking…um, fucking forgive yourself. You’re so good and you don’t deserve that.”
“What?”
“Bradley!” Amelia yelled. “Come on! This one’s my song!”
“Bye,” he said, then the call disconnected.
James stayed there for a second. Then he picked up his phone and transferred money to Amelia.
“That was incredible,” Gabriella said, shaking her head.
“Yeah.”
“You alright?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” he said.
His phone buzzed a minute later and he opened it to show a picture of Amelia and Bradley. It was a selfie taken under blue and purple lights. She had a mock serious look on her flushed face while he was grinning behind oversized sunglasses. James looked at it for a moment, smiling, before saving it to his phone.
“You should head to bed,” he said to Gabriella.
She wasn’t going to argue.
***
Gabriella wouldn’t have been too surprised if neither of them showed up for work on time the next day. But Bradley walked in at noon, holding a large ice coffee and wearing a pair of much more sensible sunglasses. Gabriella was alone in the living room as he came up the stairs. “Good morning,” she said. “Happy birthday.”
He scowled, but she didn’t buy it for a second.
James came out of his office a few minutes later, smiling when he saw Bradley. “Happy birthday!” he called over before going to the printer to pick up the cases that had arrived.
Again, Bradley scowled, but James was seemingly unfazed. “Good night last night?” he asked as he sorted through the case files.
“Fine.”
“It seemed like it.”
“Will you please just go away?”
Never mind, maybe not so unfazed. James moved toward his office with the cases still in his hand. Which was unnecessary, Gabriella was pretty sure he got them all in the scheduling software anyway. But now she also wanted to be out of this room.
“Gabs, you aren’t even on,” James said with a laugh as she came in.
“I know,” she said. “But I can only run so many miles and I left my other book at home.”
“I’m sorry about this,” he started, but she shook her head.
“It’s safest,” she said. “Especially after what happened. I don’t want to be at home knowing they can get through the defenses I have there. And I know they can’t get me here. It’s fine.”
“Still.”
She shrugged. “I’m fine,” she said. “I’m on in a couple hours anyway.”
James set the papers on his desk and went around it to sit down. Then he noticed she was still standing there. “Is everything okay?” he asked.
Gabriella closed the door and now James looked concerned. “Are you okay?” she asked, her voice low.
“I’m fine,” he said. “Why?”
Maybe she’d misread? “You just seemed like you were hurt,” she said, her voice almost a whisper.
“What? Oh, no, I’m fine,” he said. “I don’t- I don’t take it personally.”
She didn’t believe him for a second. “Seriously, it’s fine,” he insisted, his voice as low as hers. “That’s just Bradley. You’ve been here two years, you know that. He’s grumpy and he likes his secrets. It’s no big deal.”
“So you’re totally fine with the fact that he goes out with his old team, but not ours?”
“What he does outside of work is his business.”
James shrugged in a way that was totally not convincing. But she couldn’t say she blamed him, either for being a little hurt or for not wanting to say that he was. “Is there anything you want me to do?” she asked instead of pursuing that further.
“Something that isn’t work?” he suggested with a teasing smile.
Fine, she’d go read a different book.
***
Gabriella was back on shortly before the staff meeting began. When she came out, Amelia was sitting on the couch, chatting happily with Madelyn and Graham, no sign of a hangover. Bradley, meanwhile, now had a massive water bottle beside him and still looked like hell, even as he tried to hide it.
“You look healthy,” Gabriella said to Amelia as she sat down on the chair, carefully moving Fang onto her lap from where she’d been sleeping on the cushion seconds earlier.
“I’m ten years younger than some people,” Amelia said, sipping her iced coffee.
Bradley glared at her, but didn’t say anything as James came into the room. “Everyone’s here, great,” he said. “I’m taking a few hours off after the meeting, but I want to make sure that we’re all on the same page about the Chapmans.”
Gabriella stole a glance over at Graham, who looked suddenly furious from where he sat beside Madelyn. James yawned. “Sorry,” he said. “So I’m going to set a meeting with them.”
“Not alone, you’re not,” Graham said.
“No, you should come too,” James said. “Gabs-”
“James, I’m going,” she said.
“I know,” he replied, to her surprise. She’d expected at least a little bit of a fight. But maybe this really was a change in him. One she would have preferred to have come in any other way than what had happened to him.
But also, it was her case and he’d never try to pull her off her own case. Even at Roses Manor, he hadn’t been thrilled about the situation, but he’d trusted her.
“I think it should just be the three of us,” James continued. “I’m going to ask to meet tomorrow. Maybe we can get through to them that this is them. It isn’t someone out to get them, it’s their own actions. If they’re smart, that might be enough.”
Bradley scoffed. “I’m not saying they’ll suddenly be good people,” James said. “But maybe the repercussions will be enough to scare them. It’s not like we can do anything else.”
Gabriella looked up, surprised. She wasn’t the only one. “Alright,” Bradley said. “You’re sure you don’t want me to come too?”
“Just the three of us,” James said. “I don’t want them to think it’s a confrontation. But I want you and Madelyn on comms the whole time.”
It was a confrontation. She wasn’t going to correct him, it was obvious he knew that. But maybe he was right and they’d be scared enough to stop.
***
There was a Pastel bag in the fridge that evening. Curious, Gabriella took it out. Pastel was the American/Brazilian bakery she and Madelyn had worked a case for a few months earlier that had now become a regular stop for both of them. So Madelyn had probably left a bag here last night after work, but Gabriella wanted to see what she’d gotten.
Or maybe not Madelyn, she realized as she opened the bag and saw a small cupcake sitting there. It was a golden cake with a swirl of chocolate frosting and a maraschino cherry on top. It was beautiful and clearly a birthday gift, despite what Bradley had said to James, and despite the fact that James had claimed the drinks he bought them last night were his gift. It looked exactly like the one he’d gotten Graham last month on his birthday and Gabriella last year for hers.
Hopefully Bradley wouldn’t be a dick about it. She knew James could hold his own, but this was clearly from him and it was such a kind gesture that she would be heartbroken if it backfired on him.
She set it back in the fridge and took out her own lunch, bringing it into the living room to eat while she looked over some forms she was due to submit. She still had the Bancroft case information over in the gray bedroom, but she needed a break from research.
Shortly after, Bradley got back from the interview he’d been doing. He looked a little more alive now and Gabriella wasn’t looking forward to the day that she was old enough that a hangover would linger like that. But she wasn’t about to say that out loud because she’d like to live long enough to see that day come.
“Oh, there you are.”
James’s voice made her jump and she looked over to see him coming out of his office, apparently not noticing her tucked in the corner of the room. “How did it go?”
Bradley shrugged. “It’s the husband,” he replied, hanging his jacket on a hook instead of draping it over the top of the chair like James always did. “I think a firm push should get him to stop haunting her, so hopefully we can get it done tomorrow.”
“Great,” he said. “Want some coffee?”
“Sure.”
They went into the kitchen and Gabriella heard the fridge door open. “Listen,” James said, and she braced herself. “I know you said no gifts, but fuck you, happy birthday.”
There was a beat of silence and she wondered if she was going to have to kill Bradley. “Split it with me,” she heard him say finally.
“No, it’s yours. You don’t have to-”
As she glanced into the kitchen, she saw Bradley go into the cabinet and come out with two small, chipped plates. Ignoring James’s protests, he cut the cupcake in half, set each side on a plate, and handed him one.
“No, you take the cherry,” James said. “It’s your birthday.”
“No, you have it.”
“I don’t like maraschino cherries.”
That wasn’t true. Gabriella had unfortunately witnessed him eat an entire jar of them on two separate occasions. But either Bradley didn’t know that or he wasn’t going to fight.
“Let’s go in my office and go over the case,” James said.
She watched them go into the office, James taking a small bite of frosting as they went.
