Park Street Station Chapter 21
James got back to Headquarters just in time for his shift the next morning. As much as he could have used a bit of a buffer between Foundation days, he felt good as he walked in the door. And Amelia looked happy to see him when he made his way up the stairs.
“I brought donuts,” James said as he walked in, carrying a box of a dozen assorted and dry donuts he’d picked up from the bad Dunkin Donuts on his way in. To be fair, the good Dunkin Donuts was way too out of the way that morning.
Amelia looked up from the computer where she was clearly working on a report for one of the apparently thousand cases they’d worked on while he was gone, a cup of her apple ginger tea dangerously close to the keyboard. “Missed you too,” she said with a tired smile.
“Bradley playing hooky?” James asked. “I dropped him off at the Haymarket garage to get his car before I left Boston.”
She looked like she might ask questions for a moment, then shook her head, apparently too exhausted to give a shit. “He took an observation with Madelyn about twenty seconds after he got here,” she said. “But he did fill me in on yesterday. Just when I think they can’t get any worse.”
“They always can,” James said as he brought the donuts over to the coffee table. “It’s unreal.”
Amelia came over and opened the donut box, claiming a strawberry frosted one. “Tell me everything, I’m sure there’s stupid details that I’m missing.”
After catching up on everything, Amelia was getting ready to leave for a beyond well-deserved two days off. And James knew he had to say something now, before she walked out. Otherwise he’d talk himself out of it by saying her personal life was none of his business, or that no one wanted to hear these things from their captain. But Amelia was his best friend, she deserved to know.
“Hey, Amelia,” he said. “Before you go…”
She looked at him expectantly as she pulled on her coat. “What’s up?” she prompted after a few seconds.
“I um… Listen, I was working with Rosa the past couple days. And you know she has a girlfriend, right?”
The hurt that crossed her face made him wish he hadn’t said anything. But then she forced a smile. “I didn’t,” she said. “Um, that’s good. It’s nice.”
“I-she mentioned it a few times while we were there and I knew that you…I mean, I didn’t want you to get-”
“No, I appreciate it,” Amelia said. “I didn’t know. But you know, she’s my friend.”
The forced smile dropped, as though she didn’t have the energy to fake it anymore. “But why didn’t she tell me?” she asked, seeming to direct the question more at herself than James. “Maybe I was wrong, and she doesn’t…”
She swallowed hard and James saw that confidence and professionalism fall for a moment. He always forgot how young Amelia was, but he could see it so clearly right now. Fuck, this was about as bad as it could have gone. “I’m sorry,” he said, taking her hand. “I didn’t want to-”
“No, I’d rather you told me,” she said. “You’re a good friend. I didn’t say anything to her, so even if she was interested, she wouldn’t have…thank you.”
“Are you alright?”
“Fine,” she said. “I’m going to go straight home, eat three takeout meals in a row, and go to sleep. It’s fine.”
“Thank you for taking care of things here,” James said. “Um, get some rest. See you in a few days.”
“Yeah.”
She left, and he knew he shouldn’t feel guilty about telling her about Rosa, but did anyway. Shit, this was why he didn’t date.
The others would be back soon and he knew he was going to be diving straight into whatever ridiculous cases arrived today when they did so. But for now, he was alone in Headquarters and he was going to take a moment to drink his coffee, eat a stale donut, and read whatever messages he missed since he’d been gone.
He sat down at the computer Amelia had been using and opened his email. The first thing he saw was over eight hundred new messages. How? How? He’d even occasionally checked them while he was in Boston.
He was about to start sorting through them when he noticed a message from Sharon Delgado with the subject line “Let’s Talk”. Saving that one in the same folder as Jolene’s to look at later, James highlighted the remaining eight hundred and sixteen messages, then deleted them all.
END
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CONTINUE TO WILDWOOD HOTEL (NORTH COUNTY PARANORMAL UNIT #7)
