Page 97 of Hard Hitter
Fine. She dug her Katt Phone out of her handbag that had been fetched from her house by one of the cops working the case.
Georgia answered on the first ring. “Hey! How are you feeling?”
Ari really wasn’t sure. “I’m okay. I’ll try to go one day in a row without being the team drama llama.”
“Aim high, girl. I’ll be ready to go in about a half hour. Is that enough time for you?”
“Sure. I’m just going to use Patrick’s amazing shower, in case I’m never invited back.”
“Why wouldn’t you be?”
“If you have time to stop for coffee on the way to work, I’ll tell you.”
***
Even though it was the opposite direction from their workplace, Georgia and Ari went to One Girl Cookies for lattes and pastries. And then—because you don’t have armed psychos storming your house just every day—they sat down at a table to eat and talk, even though it made them both a half hour later to work than they’d planned.
“So I gave him a lot of grief right before everything happened,” Ari said, stirring the foam in her cup. “And I still don’t know what to think. It doesn’t square up in my mind that Patrick likes to buy drugs. He just doesn’t strike me as the type. But he didn’t deny that it was true.”
Georgia folded the square of wax paper where her chocolate croissant had just been. Then she folded it again. “I’ll admit that he doesn’t seem the type, either. He’s awfully serious. And nobody has ever whispered about substances in connection with Doulie. Not to me, anyway. And yesterday, before all the mayhem began at your house, he submitted a voluntary drug test.”
“Yeah?” Ari’s heart leapt at the idea.
“But I’m told that most street drugs clear your system pretty fast.”
“I don’t know what to think,” Ari admitted. “I’m completely weirded out by the fact that he and Vince had metbefore. And that he bought drugs. Jesus. I should have gotten involved with a nice tax accountant who enjoys golf.”
Georgia made a face. “Then you’d die of boredom instead of gunfire.”
“True.” Ari’s feelings about Patrick were a confusing swirl of contradiction. “It’s weird how much I stilltrusthim. That’s pretty much a summary of all my interactions with Patrick. My heart trusts him, but my brain is always screamingwait a second!”
Georgia smiled and shook her head. “You kill me.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re flawed, just like the rest of us. I used to be intimidated by you and all your yoga wisdom. Now I know you’re just as nuts as I am.”
“Oh, goody,” Ari said with a sigh. “Will you at least tell me how I’ve been nuts this morning?”
“Sure.” Georgia pushed her empty plate away. “In every yoga class you always ask us to observe how we feel, and to notice it from a place of curiosity...”
“...Not judgment,” Ari agreed.
“Exactly,” Georgia said with a little eye roll. “But every conversation we have about Doulie has you saying—I like him so much, but it’s wrong. Wrong time. Wrong guy. Wrong to meet someone at work. See, I don’t think you’re observing from a place of curiosity, yogi. I think you’re Miss Judgie McJudgerson when it comes to how you feel about him.”
“Oh, hell,” Ari breathed.
Georgia patted her hand. “I know.”
“But, God. It’s like I can’taffordto be curious just now. Because I had my eyes entirely closed for the last couple of years, and that’s still blowing up in my face.”
“I get it. Except I wonder what your favorite yogis would say to the idea that you’re too busy to be curious.”
“They’d say it was bullshit,” Ari admitted. “That I’m just using fear as an excuse to withdraw. That I’ve let feartriumph over the heart’s natural inclination to explore.” She groaned. “The truth hurts.”
“The truth requires a cookie for the road, don’t you think?” Georgia got up and took their empty dishes to the bussing station so they both could get to work.
On the way toward the Bruisers headquarters, Ari checked her phone. Then she checked it again.
