Title: Liquid Courage
Author: Inspector Boxer
Pairing: Lindsay/Cindy
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Cindy wants to tell Lindsay how she feels…
Word Count: 1,977
Disclaimer: WMC is the property of James Patterson.
No copyright infringement intended.
Archiving: Only with permission from the author.
Liquid Courage
by Inspector Boxer
The bar was crowded to capacity. There was barely enough elbowroom let alone enough room to easily raise a glass to your own lips. Apparently it was meat market night, Claire decided as she cast an unsavory look over the rest of the bar. It reminded her how good it was to be married.
She sighed. “Is this really necessary?” Claire yelled over the din of singles and business people trying to close deals or open up possibilities for the evening.
“Yes,” Cindy shouted back. “I need a drink.”
“You don’t need a drink,” Jill groused. She turned from her position on Cindy’s right. Did someone just grab her ass? She caught the eye of a cute attorney from the copyright firm down the street and smiled. “Ow!” She yelped when Claire reached across Cindy’s back and cuffed her on the shoulder.
“Moral support. Remember?” Claire huffed.
Jill rubbed her shoulder and shot Claire a cross look, but she squeezed in next to Cindy and put her elbows on the bar. She watched as Cindy swallowed her fifth shot and winced. “You said one drink.”
“I lied.” Cindy motioned to the bartender, not seeing the look Claire gave him that had him hustling as far from the trio as he could get.
“Cindy.” Claire leaned over to talk in the redhead’s ear. “What do you think is gonna happen?”
“Misery. Rejection. Mortification. Embarrassment….”
Jill and Claire exchanged looks and did their damnedest not to smile.
“Honey.” Claire put her hand on Cindy’s shoulder and squeezed. “If you think that’s what’s gonna happen, why are you telling her?”
“You both said I should.”
Jill groaned. “Cindy, your feelings for Lindsay are eating you up. You have to say something.”
“She’s with Pete.”
“He goes back to the jungle two days from now.”
“He’s a guy.”
“What’s your point?” Jill asked.
“I’m not.”
Cindy tossed some bills on the bar then grabbed her purse and stood. “You know what? Never mind. Just forget it. I’m not telling her. There isn’t enough liquid courage in this place to make me.”
“Tell who what?”
All three women froze as they came face to face with Lindsay Boxer. Cindy made a tiny sound of pain that drew Lindsay’s attention to her instantly. The inspector took a step toward her, her forehead creased with sudden worry.
Jill intercepted, stepping in front of the reporter. She had an idea and she hoped like hell it would work. “Cindy’s getting drunk. She’s trying to find the guts to tell someone how she feels about them.”
Cindy’s eyes went wide. So did Claire’s.
Lindsay’s smile faltered before returning with little enthusiasm. “Oh.” Her brown eyes went to Cindy’s. Unsettled, she shoved her hands deep into the back pockets of her jeans. “I didn’t know… you know… that you’d met someone.”
Cindy opened her mouth only to abruptly shut it when Jill grabbed her arm and squeezed in warning.
“You’ve been wrapped up in Pete while he’s visiting. Claire and I have the best friend thing covered.”
Lindsay looked at Cindy again, hoping that she was masking her hurt passibly well. “Oh,” she said again. “Anyone I know?” She tried to keep her tone light even though she was sudden feelingly oddly depressed.
“No,” Jill answered instantly. She hoped what she said next would set her plan in full motion… if Cindy, or Claire, didn’t kill her for it. “You don’t know her.”
Claire coughed as Cindy’s eyes got even wider.
“Her?” Lindsay’s gaze snapped to Jill then back to the reporter. Suddenly she felt like she couldn’t breathe. Cindy was interested in a woman? “Who in the hell is she?” Lindsay blinked when she heard the words that came out of her mouth.
“Don’t worry about it,” Cindy finally found her voice before Jill could answer for her. “You’re busy with Pete. I’ll tell you all about it some other time.”
Lindsay wanted to know all about it now. “But…”
Claire threaded her arm through one of Cindy’s as Jill suddenly did the same on the reporter’s other side. “Have a nice night, Linz.”
Cindy gave the inspector a bashful glance as they passed. Lindsay felt her guts react to that look even as her heart went into a freefall. She watched, frowning, as her three friends walked off into the night.
“Hey.”
She turned, coming face to face with Pete. “Hey.”
“They can actually seat us now.” He took her hand.
Lindsay went with him, but her thoughts had walked out the door with a petite redheaded reporter from the Register. She wished she could follow them.
****
“Girl, that was twisted.”
Jill had started howling with laughter as soon as they cleared the front door. Cindy stuffed her hands into her coat pockets and merely watched her, wondering if she should be amused or depressed by the turn of events.
“Did you see the look on her face?” Jill wiped her eyes.
“Twisted,” Claire said again but she was chuckling. “That was some fast thinking in there.”
Jill buffed her nails on the lapel of her blazer. “I am so good at maneuvering people where I want them. That’s why I’m such a kick-ass lawyer.” She put her arm around Cindy’s shoulders. “And I just got Lindsay exactly where you want her.”
“And where is that, exactly?” Cindy asked hesitantly.
“Thinking about you… with another woman.”
The reporter blushed, but she felt a spark of hope ignite in her guts. “You think she is?”
“Who the hell is she?” Claire demanded. “Wasn’t that the question?” She started laughing again.
Cindy slowly smiled. “She did get kinda…”
“The word is ‘possessive,’” Jill giggled, her nose crinkling adorably.
“You’re a genius, Counselor,” Claire admitted.
Jill preened. “Now we just have to keep up the pressure. We’ll have Lindsay on your doorstep declaring eternal love any day now.”
“I’m a little drunk so let me see if I have this straight. “ Cindy stopped walking and the other two women did the same. “You two think you can make Lindsay fall in love with me?”
Claire stepped closer and put her hands on the reporter’s shoulders. She smiled. “Honey, she already is. She just doesn’t know it, yet.”
****
“All right! I’m coming!” Jill yelled. She tightened the sash on her robe as she hustled toward the pounding at the front door. A quick glance at the DVR told her it was well past two in the morning.
She put her eye to the peephole and looked out. Leaning back, she then put her forehead against the door and took a moment to get the shit-eating grin out of her system. “I am so good,” she muttered.
Lindsay looked up as Jill opened the door. “Hey.”
“Hi.”
The detective didn’t wait for an invitation. She brushed past Jill, clearly agitated, and stopped in the middle of the living room. “So who is she?”
“Who is who?” Jill asked all innocence.
Lindsay rolled her eyes. “Cut the crap, Jill. Who is this… woman… that Cindy’s…” She waved a hand as if to encompass everything she didn’t want to say out loud.
“In love with?”
“Love?” Lindsay felt that freefalling sensation again. She sunk down onto the arm of Jill’s couch.
Jill wondered if Lindsay had any idea how pathetic she’d just sounded. She bit her lip pushing past a momentary wave of guilt. “She’s… pretty crazy about her.”
“Oh.” Lindsay looked at her hands, noticing that they were shaking. “She… why…”
“Pete,” was all Jill said.
“Oh,” Lindsay said again, not sure she understood… anything. “Do you… know her?”
Jill nodded.
“Is she… would she… I mean, she’ll treat Cindy right… right?”
Jill finally shut the door and padded over to her best friend. “I think she could.”
“Could?” Lindsay’s voice sharpened.
“It’s just… she’s had feelings for Cindy for a while now, but she’s stuffed them down so deep… she’s so afraid of what they mean… that she doesn’t even know her own heart at this point.”
“If she isn’t crazy about Cindy then she’s just…”
“Crazy?”
“Yes.”
Jill grinned. “Maybe she just doesn’t have the courage to be happy.”
“That’s stupid. Who doesn’t have the courage to be happy?”
“Are you?”
Lindsay paused. “What?”
“Are you happy?”
“That’s not the point.”
“That’s an interesting answer.” Jill moved away and sat down on the couch.
Lindsay shifted so she could see her better. “Don’t cross-examine me.”
“Don’t interrogate me,” Jill answered breezily. “Why do you care who Cindy has feelings for?”
It was a question that had been gnawing at Lindsay all night. It had ruined dinner and sent Pete home alone and her pacing the confines of her apartment. On some level she knew the answer, but she didn’t dare voice it. Saying what she knew to be true just gave the emotion power over her.
And obviously it was too late to matter.
Lindsay sighed and looked down at the floor.
“Lindsay, it’s two thirty in the morning on a Thursday. You nearly knocked my door down just so you could find out who Cindy has a crush on.”
Lindsay felt the heat begin at her collar and crawl up her neck. “I thought you said she was…” Lindsay couldn’t say it.
“In love. She is. And she’s absolutely terrified that…” Jill paused when she almost let the truth slip. “She’s terrified that this woman won’t feel the same way, can’t feel the same way.”
“Who couldn’t feel that way about Cindy?” Lindsay asked her voice distant. “There would have to be something wrong with them.”
Jill stared at her. She prayed that what she said next wouldn’t destroy everything. “Then what’s wrong with you?”
It took a moment for the meaning to sink in. Slowly Lindsay lifted her head and looked at Jill with wide eyes. “What?” she whispered.
“We’ve known each other a long time, Linz. Look me in the eye and tell me you don’t have feelings for that reporter.”
Lindsay felt like all the air had gone out of the room. “This…” She shook her head. “No…”
“Lindsay.” Jill got to her feet only to sink to her knees next to her friend. She clutched one of Lindsay’s cold hands. “We both suck at relationships.”
“Pete…”
“Pete is too damn perfect. He’s like a Ken doll or something. He doesn’t challenge you. He doesn’t evoke passion in you. Cindy does. I’ve seen it. Claire has seen it. And you’ve felt it. Don’t lie to me and tell me you don’t have feelings for that girl.” Jill’s voice was tight with emotion and edged with anger.
“She wants someone else,” Lindsay finally answered in a stricken voice. “It doesn’t matter.”
Jill squeezed her friend’s hand. “It matters, Lindsay.” She willed with everything she was that Lindsay would see the truth in her eyes.
Lindsay looked at her, her eyes searching. Her whole face suddenly transformed when she understood, her features softening with an expression of barely contained hope. “Me?” she gasped.
Jill felt tears threatening. “Why don’t you go find her and find out?”
Lindsay licked her lips as she considered it. She wanted to. She wanted to leap up from the couch and run all the way to Cindy’s apartment. If only she could get her suddenly screaming nerves to settle down. She offered Jill a wry smile. “Don’t suppose you’d give me a drink first?”
The blonde shook her head as she stood and hefted Lindsay to her feet by their linked hands. “Two of a kind. I’m telling you.”
She led her friend into the kitchen for a glass of wine and a pep talk. Then she was going to drive Lindsay to Cindy’s apartment herself and leave her ass there. It would be up to Lindsay and Cindy then. She needed to get back to bed.
A girl needed her beauty sleep after all.