Part 13 (1/2)
Makedde swivelled around to face him directly, raising her chin and giving him a steady glare down the end of her nose.
”Okay, okay,” he finally said, throwing his hands up. ”But if you change your mind...”
”Bye now,” she said, turning back around to face the bar.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw him wander back to his table to receive some high fives from a few of his buddies. She overheard one of them say, ”Ooooh, strike out for Richo!”
Irritating.
Makedde placed her coat on the stool beside her to avoid further mishaps and looked at her watch. It was well past eight o'clock and there was still no sign of her date. Now she was definitely feeling weird drinking alone, fending off strangers and waiting for...well, waiting for a stranger.
She looked around the room but he was still nowhere to be found. She pulled her mobile phone out of her bag and checked the messages. None.
Maybe I should just leave?
She decided she'd wait just a couple more minutes before leaving and never speaking to that Roy Blake character again. She looked at her watch, and counted down the minutes on the second hand. If he isn't here in sixty seconds...fifty-nine...fifty-eight...
At twenty past eight, she felt a cool breeze on her neck and looked up from her watch. There he was.
Twenty minutes isn't so late, Mak.
Makedde took a good look at her date as he came towards her. Perhaps the drink gave her a little added confidence. He was impressively tall and masculine, and not overly slick. He was a bit of a cowboy, perhaps, and a handsome one at that. He had dark-brown eyes and a full, sensuous mouth. His hair was light-brown and curly, and he had it cropped short. She decided that he was good-looking in a raw kind of way. She liked that. Although he came across as charming and polite, Makedde suspected that there might be a bit of an edge to him beneath it. She imagined he could be intense and pa.s.sionate.
Roy was dressed casually, and she realised that she probably liked him a little better in uniform. Or perhaps she liked him better when she knew Andy was around? Had she really wanted to make Andy jealous? No, she simply wanted him to know she had moved on, that was all. She wanted him to know that there was no possibility of a romance forming between them again. No chance at all.
Who are you trying to convince, Makedde?
She removed her coat from the stool beside her, and Roy took a seat. His lips were curved into a pleasant smile, and he smelled of Azzaro cologne. She could pick it now. It hadn't had the chance to settle into his skin, and it had a certain sharpness to it. Pleasant, but sharp.
”h.e.l.lo.” His voice was deep.
”Hi.”
She found him very attractive, but she still felt the urge to bolt.
Oh, G.o.d, I'm not into this. d.a.m.n you, Andy! It's your fault!
”How was the conference this afternoon?” Roy asked. ”I'm sorry I missed out.”
”Oh, it was good,” she said, managing to sound pretty much normal. She needed to slow down. She wasn't going to bolt. She was going to sit right there and enjoy herself.
”It was nice seeing you at lunch. I'm sorry my break doesn't give me much time.”
”That's okay. I wasn't expecting any company.” And suddenly there was company all over the place. ”How are you? How was work?” she asked, trying to deflect attention from herself. She wished the drink would just take effect and calm her down.
”I'm so sorry I'm late,” Roy said. Mak had been wondering if he would apologise. ”It was work,” he went on. ”I was supposed to finish more than an hour ago but something came up right at the very last minute. Quite sad, really.” He lowered his head and looked forlornly at the bar top.
Sad? ”What happened?”
”Oh, I'm being so rude. Would you like another drink?”
Mak noticed that Roddy had removed the empty shot gla.s.s when she wasn't looking. She was grateful for it. Roy was pointing to her half-finished mineral water.
”Do you want a fresh one?”
She felt the Slippery Nipple starting to take effect. Even with her Amazonian height, drinks tended to take effect quickly. She supposed it was because she only began having the odd drink fairly recently.
”No, I'm fine for now. Thanks anyway.”
”Do you mind if I get a beer?”
”No, of course not. Are you kidding?”
He just smiled and called the bartender over. Roddy reacted to his presence with a slight pause. He was used to Makedde being there with her girlfriends. She wondered if Roy picked up on his reaction.
”Hmm, what do you have?” He glanced around the bar. ”Could I have a Moosehead, please?”
Mak felt herself relax a little more. This is just a normal date, Mak. You do remember what a normal date is, don't you?
Roy turned to Makedde and smiled. ”You look fantastic,” he said.
Oh, don't blush, Mak. Please don't blush.
Makedde's Dutch complexion had the habit of displaying her emotions a little too clearly. Her cheeks were like red beacons when she felt awkward or embarra.s.sed, and her face was easily robbed of all colour when she became tired and stressed.
”Thank you.” She desperately wanted to change the subject. ”So what's it like working in security? Do your powers differ much from the local police?”
”Oh yeah, you said your father was a detective inspector,” he commented.
Sometimes he thinks he still is, she thought to herself and grinned. He still had the respect of the police on both sides of the water, and he certainly still had that unerring desire to know exactly what was going on at all times, particularly in his daughter's life.
”Well, I'm afraid our powers of arrest are pretty much that of every Canadian citizen. We can't arrest someone unless we actually witness them committing an indictable offence. We have a lot less power than the police, who simply need probable cause.”
”Right. So if you catch someone breaking a window you can arrest them and hand them over to the police?”
”Exactly. And if I find someone chasing a suspect and saying that they saw such a thing, we could arrest the person and hand them over.”
Mak had on occasion heard tales of the frustration of security guards, and now she was starting to understand why.
”Do you have a partner that you always work with?”
”We all pretty much know each other, but we work alone generally, as staffing requirements don't permit doubling up. We have to patrol an area with five hundred and one buildings and over thirty thousand people.”
More frustration.
”What happened tonight?” she asked, continuing what was turning out to be an interrogation of sorts. ”You said something was sad.”