Page 1 of Trial By Fire
CHAPTER
ONE
Trish Malone hung up the phone on her desk and leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes. Blowing out a deep breath she counted to ten before she opened her eyes and looked at her computer screen. Another fucking fabulous day in paradise.
Looking down at her watch, she realized she had fifteen minutes until she was able to clock out, barring a call coming in that needed her immediate attention. All her paperwork was caught up. She had no court cases that needed her attention, for once. She was actually going to have a decent weekend for the first time in God knows how long.
Her personal cell started ringing just as she was getting up from her desk to head towards her vehicle, so she was ready to drive away right at five o’clock on the dot. Pulling out her phone, she looked to see who it was and saw that it was her best friend in the whole world, Lola Peterson.
“I thought you were going out of town this weekend?”
“I would have been if that fucker hadn’t been married!”
“Ah, I knew something was fishy about him. How did you find out?” Trish cringed as she got into her vehicle.
“His wife showed up at the fire station causing a scene. I got called into his captain’s office. When I showed both of them the texts where I specifically asked him if he had a wife or girlfriend and he told me that he wasn’t married, and that him and the wife had been divorced for several years, and the last girlfriend was two years ago because he was always busy with his job, she went apeshit. Especially when I told her that I had asked him about kids, and he said he had none and wanted none. Turns out not only is this pendejo married, but he’s also got three kids with one more on the way.”
“Wait, the wife is pregnant?” Trish barked out in laughter at the man’s audacity.
“Yep. She’s six months pregnant. I told the wife if she needed me to testify in court for her, she knew where to find me. When she asked if I fucked him, I told her nope. That had been the plan this weekend but not happening now.”
“I thought you did have sex with him?” Trish asked in confusion, looking at her phone to make sure she was really talking to her best friend.
“No. I hadn’t fucked the fool yet,” Lola growled into the phone. “We’d only been talking. We’ve met up for coffee a couple of times between calls. But no nooky. I haven’t even let the fool come over to my place. We’ve only met up or talked on the phone while he was on duty0.”
“Smart move, bestie. So, what’s the plan for this weekend then? Come over to my place and we can hang out at the pool house.”
“I want to go get drunk tonight. You on call?”
“Nope. For the first time in God knows how long I am duty free and not on call for a weekend. I’m down to going out tonight. What time and who’s driving?” Trish asked, laughing as she pulled away from the department.
“Fuck that noise. We’ll catch a Lyft. We’re both getting shit faced.”
“Works for me! Girls’ night it is! What time?” Trish asked, as she turned onto her street several minutes later, mentally calculating how much time she had to shower and get ready knowing how Lola was.
“Do you want to grab dinner before we head to the bar?”
“Food is always a yes, bitch!” Trish laughed as she got out of her vehicle. “There’s that new Chinese place that just opened up down the street from the bar you always want to go to.”
“Chinese it is. So, let’s say…seven? Gives you time to get out of your clothes, shower and figure out what I’m going to have to say no to and redress your funky ass.”
Trish couldn’t help but laugh. Lola was right. She wasn’t the best at staying with the fashion of nightlife. She was happy just wearing jeans, tennis shoes, and a T-shirt with her hair up in a ponytail and minimum make-up.
“Bitch!” Trish grumbled as she laughed.
“Heifer! See you soon. I’ll go home and shower then come get dressed at your place.”
“See you soon!”
Trish disconnected from the call and sat down on the couch, leaned back and closed her eyes. She honestly didn’t know what to do with herself. The last couple of years she’s always been busy. Either she was on call because someone else needed the weekend off, she was on an active case, got called in to work a new case or she was training a newly promoted asshat who thought he was better than her because he had a dick.
Yeah, she really needed this weekend with Lola. She knew that her bestie would be staying the weekend, so she forced herself to get up and go check the guest bathroom and bedroom to make sure it had the essentials needed and make sure thesheets on the bed were clean before she headed into her own bathroom to grab her shower.
Knowing how Lola was, she didn’t even bother with getting dressed. She put a robe on and laid out several outfits for the woman to look at and choose from to dress her in. The only thing she did do was her own make up because if she allowed the woman to do it, she’d look like Bozo the Clown with mile-long lashes and that just wasn’t going to be a happening thing for her.
CHAPTER
TWO
