Chapter 13: If I Had a Nickel for Every Time...

I don’t know how much perfect gentleman I can stand. He wasn’t asking for nearly as much as I was willing to give!

Dream date

It was so tempting to try to pump Tom for information about Georgia’s death, but he would want to know how I knew he worked on that case and what interest it was to me. For example, what was Georgia wearing when they found her? I’m afraid to ask.

I know ... About my date.

I got to the hotel and checked in about four-thirty. It was barely enough time. I had to peel off all the latex and makeup, steam in the shower for half an hour to clear my pores of all the pollutants, and reapply my Deb look. Tom said he liked it at the game last week. I hope he still thinks so. I brushed my teeth and gargled about 20 times to get the butterscotch phlegm out of my throat. I put my new brown wig on, puffed up my curls, and dressed for a night on the town. Then I went downstairs, caught a cab, and was home by six-thirty. Tom was there to pick me up at seven on the nose.

He looked great. His detective clothes are nice and not sloppy like some detectives I know—you know, sports coat, chinos, and open collared shirt—but when he puts his casual clothes on, it’s like he walked out of a Nordstrom’s ad. The guy can wear clothes. The first thing he said after “Hi, you look great!” was “I love those red peep-toed pumps.” I almost swooned. What guy notices a girl’s shoes? We drove to SoDo and he took me to a funky little restaurant near the stadium. Dinner was great, but a live band played at nine and we danced until midnight. He dances! And not just polishing his belt buckle. He’s got some major moves and even when we were dancing apart from each other, he connected. Everybody could tell we were dancing together.

We talked all through dinner about favorite movies, music, sports, and even politicians. It was great to get to know him better. I mean, face it; our first two outings were with big groups of friends. This was really the first time we’d been out together where it was just the two of us. He opened my car door for me then scooted around to drive me home with some nice jazz playing on the radio. When we got to my place, he opened my door for me again and escorted me to the house. My heart was going about a mile a minute and I knew I was about to make a huge blunder and say, ‘come on up and stay the night with me.’ But just as we got to the door he said, “I’m sorry the night has to end so early, Deb. I have to work. We’re on a case and I can’t be late.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Cops start their days in the morning, don’t they?” I almost screamed. I shouldn’t have said that! He said that to Peg Chester. Do not cross characters! Ack! How could I be so stupid?

“On weekends, even earlier,” he said. “We’re watching a club in Belltown we suspect is a front for a prostitution ring. It closes at two and I need to be there.”

“Wow! You’re not going to get any sleep at all. You poor thing. I shouldn’t have kept you out this late.” He didn’t notice. Thank God he didn’t notice.

“I had a great time tonight, Deb. I wouldn’t have missed it for a dozen stakeouts.” And then...

He leaned forward and kissed me softly on the lips. And said, “Goodnight.” And left.

I ran upstairs and Maizie came bouncing up after me and I hugged that little pooch for all she was worth. Well, I didn’t have anyone else to hold and I took Maizie to bed with me and cuddled with her all night long. I missed her. I’d been gone a week since she last saw me. She wasn’t upset to be invited into the bed for the night—though I suspected she might have been sleeping here regularly while I’d been gone.