Chapter 20
Rated "M"
XX - Whiskey
Three hours in a hotel room typing up emails wasn't bad, but it still wasn't easy. Every five minutes I seemed to daze off and think about Roxanne. How in the hell could she act so... so... normal? Especially with seeing her brother dead on the floor of his apartment, surrounded by cocaine and heroin and supposedly purple drank, whatever the hell that stuff was and however the hell he got it and died from it. I clicked send on my last email and swallowed, closing my eyes and imagining Roxanne's cold eyes again.It made sense. Why she didn't want me going to Jackson. But how could I have been so stupid as to not realizing it? The conversation I "overheard" between the Captain and her. The unusual behavior of the agent I had spent less than two weeks with at the time when I got to the scene. Her knowing exactly how to open the safe. The resemblance between her and her family. It was uncanny that I hadn't gotten it until I had saw her brother's name on the record. Dallas Winston.
I closed my laptop and sighed, leaning back in my chair again and thinking of Roxanne. What was wrong with me? What was wrong with that woman? Was she the only thing I could think about? It made little sense, yet it made a lot of sense. I knew how she felt. Loosing a brother. Loosing my brother. It was a hell in itself. And yet Roxanne was feeling the exact emotions I remembered as if it had been yesterday I had heard the news. How in the hell did she not loose it? Did she talk to anyone about it? Probably not, especially after that talk with the Captain...
I shook my head, attempting to get the blonde out of my head before I did something stupid. Or thought of something stupid. The last thing I wanted was to was get emotionally connected with the female FBI agent who was not only cold as hell whenever she left the comfort of her own home, but who also was hell-ridden with most likely more than just her brother's destructive death. I couldn't let that happen. I wouldn't let that happen.
I rubbed my face - an attempt to wake me up fully before I collapsed - and stood up, stretching momentarily before grabbing my jacket. I made sure that I had my hotel room key before closing the door.
I stared at the closed door on the opposite side of me, imagining what Roxanne could be doing in there. She was probably doing work, writing emails, making reports, filing cases, everything that she had to do to probably get her mind off of her now deceased sibling. I would've thought it to be pathetic before. Before the fire, before my brother's own death, before my parents' depression and Rachelle's anxiety during her pregnancy. But no. It wasn't pathetic. It was just... hard.
I had barely known Roxanne for a few weeks and yet I knew everything there was to know about her. She was a workaholic, closed-minded, physically emotionless. She hid her feelings for a reason. To keep them out of her job. She didn't open up to the people she worked with. If she did, well, it would make her more self-conscious. She protected her people. The citizens of her country. That's what she did. And despite telling myself over and over that she'd never change no matter what happened, a small part of me still denied the fact that even if I was her partner for years on end, she'd merely see me as a partner, not one to talk to in a crisis or someone to share emotions with.
I forced myself to walk away from the opposing door, my legs aching to run the opposite way and my brain throbbing to see how Roxanne was doing. Or in other terms, what she was doing. My mind went almost numb as I walked to the lobby, my thoughts drowned by an image that was in no way reality. Or so I hoped.
I didn't take the car. I couldn't. My feet and legs wouldn't allow that. No. I walked. I wasn't sure how long or how far, but I walked quite a ways, enough to run into Krystal Winston, Roxanne's only sister - that I knew of - as she was evidentially going home after a long night at the club.
"Well, aren't you a sight for sore eyes. Alexander Sempers, right?" She said, blue eyes blazing. Her eyes were darker than Roxanne's, an ocean blue instead of an icy blue, and her hair was longer, thinner, and straighter. She looked so much like her sister, or vice versa, Roxanne looked so much like her sister, but so different at the same time. They're body structure was almost identical. Height, same. Eye shape, same, Face, almost the same, though Krystal seemed to wear so much more makeup than Roxanne who wore the minimum amount I had ever seen a woman wear.
"Yeah. Krystal, right?" I asked. I knew the answer, but it seemed impolite to not ask, and somehow being in a Southern state didn't make matters any better.
"Uh, yeah. Where are you headed?" She asked, biting her lower lip for a moment while she looked up at me. I swallowed.
"Just going for a walk. You?"
"Home. Well, unless you... want to go anywhere..."
"I'm fine, but thank you for the offer."
"Are you sure you're fine...? You don't... seem like it..." She said, getting closer, I took a step back, but I was stopped by the brick wall of the building next to me. Krystal was inches away from me when she suddenly laughed and shook her head, taking a few steps back. I could smell the whiskey on her breath as she back up.
"Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit. Bless your heart..."
"What?" I said, confused as to what the sayings were supposed to mean.
"Darlin', you should know better than to trust a Southern woman who isn't a Southern Belle." I crunched by brows together in confusion. "My sister ain't worth any of your time. She's the runt of the litter, so to speak."
"I don't know what you're talking about." I said, my eyebrows furrowing. I swallowed as she took a step towards me again.
"You never realize until you loose 'em. Everyone either falls for me or falls for my sister. A little hint, sweetheart... I ain't the one with my middle finger up."
I stared at the paper in my hand and looked up at the building. Same place, same address. This was where Roxanne was?
I was more confused than ever, especially with Krystal's words. The southern sayings, the piece of paper she handed me after her last sentence, Roxanne's difference between her and her sister to say the least. It was purely and simply confusing.
I opened the door and walked in to see the place empty, aside from a band in the corner who was putting away everything and one woman at the counter. Roxanne.
"We're closed." A woman yelled from behind the bar. She looked at least fifty as she stared at me loosely before continuing her work wiping the counters. Her eyes switched from the rag and counter to me multiple times as I approached the bar counter and sat close to Roxanne, one barstool between us.
"I'm quite surprised that you didn't engage in sexual intercourse with my sister." Roxanne said as she took a shot of whiskey. She didn't even cringe as she swallowed the liquid, which made me even more surprised than when I had found out that Dallas was her brother earlier that day.
"Why do you say that?" I asked, making eye contact with the woman at the counter before she continued to wipe the counters.
"I don't say this word often, but when I do I'm referring to my dearest sister. She's a slut."
"Roxanne!" The woman at the counter hissed. "You should appreciate that you have a sibling." Roxanne laughed and I looked over at her, noting that she was not in fact in her work clothes anymore, instead she was wearing tight jeans, a white collared shirt with a black sweater over it and the sleeves rolled up and what looked like oxford shoes.
"Don't get all pissed off, Magnolia. You know its true. Hell, the whole God damn city knows that its true."
"Maybe we all do, but that doesn't mean you have to say it out loud in front everyone."
"Everyone? Shit, the only person who would probably gives a damn is him." Roxanne said, nodding her head towards me. "But I highly doubt that he'll want to get shot by the Rednecks anytime soon."
"What?" I said, looking at Roxanne, again, confused as ever.
"This seems to be a good time to introduce myself. Magnolia Abet. Co-owner of this joint." She said, offering a hand. I took it politely and was shocked by her strong grip.
"Alexander Sempers. NYPD." I said, as if on que and memorized. She let go, and I followed and she began to clean a few glasses.
"Don't worry about those Rednecks. They ain't gonna shoot ya. Not with you being an officer and all." She said before turning to Roxanne. "New York City, huh? I've never heard of anyone from the south goin' to the big city."
"Well now you have. Congratulations. You can put that in your scrapbook." Roxanne said almost mockingly. I just then noticed that the whole time we'd been in Jackson - even though it had been merely a day - she hadn't used her Southern accent, almost as if she was hiding it. She sounded so sophisticated, despite the city we were in being her hometown and all.
"Don't patronize me, Roxy. How do you two know each other, anyway?"
"Work."
"So the NYPD and the-"
"FBI." Roxanne interrupted, as if she knew exactly what Magnolia was about to say. Magnolia stopped short and stared at Roxanne.
"Government... Never imagined you'd be the one working for 'em. But again, I never imagined you to abandon that accent, either." Roxanne was quiet as she finished her last shot of whiskey. This time, she cringed as she drank it, and didn't even bother to open her eyes back up. "What work do you do together?" Magnolia said and I realized she was talking to me.
"Uh, we've been assessed to work together as partners." I said simply. She nodded as a sign that she understood.
"How long?"
"Until otherwise noted." Magnolia nodded slower this time, her eyes trailing to Roxanne. I followed her eyes and looked at the blonde who now had her elbows on the counter as she pressed her forehead against her clasped hands. I could only feel bad for Roxanne. I hadn't seen her shed one tear, no sign of emotion, not even then as she drank away her feelings.
"You're not driving, right?" Magnolia said as she looked at Roxanne. The blonde opened her eyes and looked at the woman behind the counter, sighing.
"I'm not fucking stupid, so no." She said before running a hand through her loose, wavy hair.
"Try not to let her kill herself." Magnolia said, and I almost immediately became concerned.
"I'm not going to kill myself, Magnolia." Roxanne said roughly through her teeth.
"You could step off the sidewalk and get hit." Magnolia counterfeited.
"I'm not drunk, either."
"Being drunk and suffering from depression may not be the same thing, but they can have the same side effects."
"I'm not drunk and I'm not suffering from depression." Roxanne spit, her eyes cold. Magnolia only stared at the blonde who was at least thirty years younger than her.
"Whatever you say. The FBI is always right." Magnolia taunted.
"Shut up." Magnolia just laughed lightly as Roxanne got up and slid on her jacket, placing a fifty dollar bill on the table. "Keep the change." She said before walking out. I got up quickly to catch up to Roxanne when Magnolia spoke.
"I'm serious, though. Don't let her get herself killed."
"You are seriously real fucking annoying." Roxanne said as I caught up to her. She had almost walked a whole block before I caught up to her, slightly panting. I was in shape, but my heart seemed to be beating faster than average and at an usually awkward pace.
"And you're not?" I said. Roxanne merely shook her head at my question.
"Once in a while, I'd like to not see you, but I doubt you give a shit, anyway."
"Can you stop with the swearing, already?" Roxanne stopped and turned around, looking at me for the first time in what seemed like forever.
"Wow. I didn't know that you'd be so offended by a few words. A few words that weren't even meant to emotionally hurt you..." Roxanne practically taunted.
"Look, I know how much it hurts to have a sibling die, but-"
"Didn't I tell you earlier that we're not friends? Just because I have to work with you does not mean that I have to share my feelings with you. We might have things in common, Sempers, but you need to get a grip. We're partners. Not friends. Remember that. So don't ever come up to me and try to get me to speak my mind. The only thing I have to say to you is stay the hell out of this. What I do, what I feel, and how I act is none of your responsibility. The sooner you realize that the sooner this partnership can end and the easier both of our lives will be. So stay the hell out of my personal life. And fix yours while your at it."
Again... R&R!
Thanks!
✌lustfuleyes100
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