A booty call

Hearing the person on the other end of the line talk, the change of emotions on Syd’s face was instantly visible. The annoyed look dissipated, her gorgeous, dark features relaxing and an almost sensual smile spread out on her lips. She glanced over to Nancy and, seeing her partner giving her a curious look, she winked.

“Yeah!” Syd replied to something that was said. “Yeah, that sounds great! Oh, that sounds… really great actually!”

It didn’t take one of the best detectives of the LAPD to figure out what was going on from that simple snippet of interaction. Grinning, Nancy took another sip of beer and turned back to the screen so she wouldn’t come off as too nosy as Syd talked to her booty call, who, judging from the giggle the black woman gave, had just said something naughty.

“Yeah, it’s my evening off, so that’s possible. Definitely possible,” Syd said, and from the corner of her eye Nancy saw her bite her lip. “I will drop by then. Give me, like twenty minutes. Yeah, see you then.”

The frown was back as Nancy turned to her friend, who slid her phone back into the pocket of her jacket. “You are leaving me hanging?”

Syd gave her a wide, apologetic smile. “Sorry?!”

Nancy chuckled. Her day had been so good that even this didn’t break her mood. “Same guy as last time?” Syd had been dating a mysterious guy for several weeks now and even though this was longer than some of her relationships already, Nancy knew barely anything about the men. However, every time she thought about him, Syd’s face turned into a wide, shit-eating grin that told Nancy enough. Her partner was seeing some great action.

“That same guy!” Syd explained. “He heard that it’s my day off so he switched shifts for us to hang out. He invited me to his place.”

“Oh, getting serious, huh?” Nancy teased her, taking another sip of beer.

“Shut up! I’m actually nervous!” Syd admitted. Looking down, she drew an invisible pattern on the table.

Nancy chortled. “Haven’t you been dating the guy for weeks? At this point he must have seen you with your knees by your ears a bunch of times!” She joked, then immediately blushed at the implication of her own words. “What would you have to be nervous about?!”

“Well…” the black detective stuttered, uncharacteristically shy. “So far we met at my place. Home game. It’s entirely different. I can throw him out whenever I want, I know where everything is and most importantly: I always have a baseball bat at the ready. I never hook up with someone at their place, at least I haven’t done so in years! It was just… he asked me and I couldn’t find an excuse!”

“Wow…” was all Nancy had to say, blowing air into her cheeks.

“Shut up, bitch, we all have our preferences!” Syd snapped and both of them laughed. Each took a sip of their beer before the black woman spoke up again. “I know this is a lot, but I have a favor to ask!”

The frown returned to Nancy’s face as she had a suspicion where this was going.

“Could you… would you mind tagging along with me? Just be my back-up for a while?”

“You want me to be your third wheel?” Nancy asked, giving her partner an amused look. Of all the ways she had imagined that she would spend her day off, this wasn’t one.

“Well, sorta…” Syd hummed and hawed, “I thought… Look, Dustin and I are going to watch a movie at his place. There’s going to be beer and snacks there and once the movie is done you can get out of there. Just give me some support to ease into it?”

Nancy chuckled at the pleading look of her usually badass partner. The idea that a man’s apartment would scare her was extremely amusing and definitely fodder for loads of future banter. She also couldn't help but be curious about the kind of man that managed to get Sydney Burnett to do stuff for him. On the other hand, there could be more exciting ways to spend her evening off than to play the chaperone for a fully grown woman...

Downing the last of her beer, she decided what she would do.