I needed five more minutes. Just five minutes before I could break down. I had never been fired from anywhere, not even my first job at a fast-food joint. I pulled up in front of my apartment and put my car in park. Luke answered my call on the first ring, and the sound of his voice was my undoing.
“Hey, Letty Girl. What’s up?”
“I… fired… photo… us…” Only every second or third word was making it out between my stuttered sobs.
“Scarlett. What’s wrong? I can’t hear you, baby. Are you okay?”
“No… yes… I’m sorry. I’m just…” I sucked in a breath and tried to collect myself. It was just a job. I was going to be okay.
It didn’t feel like I was going to be okay though.
“Where are you? I’ve been listening to Brimley’s scratchy voice on the radio for the last thirty minutes. Are you still at the station?” Luke’s rapid-paced questions came out in one long breath.
“No. I just got home.” I was slowly regaining the ability to form sentences as my tight throat began to relax a bit and my lungs remembered how to expand.
“I’m on my way, baby. Breathe. You can tell me what’s going on when I get there. Just take a breath, okay?”
The static sound of the police radio played in the background. A call to action on Main Street.
“Do you need to get that?”
I really hoped he didn’t need to go to that call, but it was more important that he not give any reason for Chief Williams or Captain Langston to think he was screwing off.
“No. Neves and Shapiro are over there. They can handle it.”
Three minutes later, Luke was pulling up behind me. I got out of the car and met him at his door. He held my face in his hands, his thumbs wiping away the streaks of tears.
“What happened that’s got you crying? I couldn’t understand you earlier.”
Sniffling, I told him that I had been fired, but that wasn’t the hardest part because now I had to tell him why.
“You remember a few weeks ago when we went skinny-dipping in the ocean?” I asked.
“Of course I remember that day, Letty.”
“Someone saw us,” I confessed. “I’m so sorry, Luke. I know you only did that for me, and now someone saw us, and they sent a picture of us to the station.”
“What kind of picture?”
“You can’t see you almost at all. Captain Langston made it a point to say that they couldn’t make out who the guy was.”
“Letty, that doesn’t answer my question.” His entire frame was so still I wasn’t sure if he was still breathing. I felt terrible.That was so out of character for Luke. He never did things like that. I didn’t want him to resent me for the fallout of a silly moment of fun.
“It’s us in the ocean. You can see me pretty clearly, but your back is to the camera, so you should be fine.”
“Can they just see your face? Or does it show… anything else?”
“I have my arms around your neck, but I’m leaning back. They could see everything from the waist up.”
Luke cursed under his breath, wrapping his arms around me. “I’m sorry, Letty. I’ll talk to Chief Williams. I’ll call him right now and tell him that they can’t fire you for that. It’s just a picture. I doubt they had a full forensic analysis performed to ensure it was real. For all they know, it could have been fake. I’ll get you your job back, baby. This isn’t fair.”
“No,” I told him. “I don’t want my job back. Not knowing that I’m only there because of you. I’ll be okay.”
He breathed me in deeply, squeezing me tightly to his chest.
I didn’t know what I was going to do now, but I knew that as long as I had Luke, I would be fine. We would figure it out, together.
26
