“What he is, is real, and kind, and sweet, and gentle. He’s good to me. He treats me like I’m the most important person in the world.”
“And then he turns around and sells heroin to kids.”
“We don’t actually know that.”
“Actually, pretty much everyone knows that. Why do you think the police department sent you to investigate him? Because he ran a couple stoplights? Or because he’s a drug dealer?”
“He can’t be a drug dealer, Jess. There’s absolutely no way.”
“Yeah, keep telling yourself that.”
I sighed and reached for the bottle of Jack, and splashed some into my coffee. And then I said, “You can’t pick who you fall in love with, Jess.”
“How can you throw the word love around like that? You haven’t even known him forty eight hours!”
I stared at Jess incredulously and asked, “How soon did you know you loved Fernando, Jessica?” She broke eye contact with me, and I asked again, “How soon?”
She mumbled, “Pretty much…immediately.”
“Exactly. You told me you knew within two minutes of meeting him that he was the man you wanted to marry. So please, don’t be a hypocrite and try to tell me this isn’t real because it hasn’t been long enough.”
“But that was different. Fernando’s not some lowlife criminal.”
“And if he was? If you found out five minutes after meeting him that he was a criminal, would you have walked out of Liam’s party and not fallen in love with Fernando Garra?”
“I….”
“Would you have done that?” I pressed.
She sighed and admitted, “No.”
“Ok then.”
She stared at me for a long moment before saying, “You’re completely fucked, Jamie. You know that, right? Even if I’m wrong and he’s not actually dangerous, you’re still totally fucked. This is going to destroy your career. And your entire family is going to turn on you. You think your family of cops is gonna give this guy the benefit of the doubt? I don’t fucking think so.” Jess leaned forward and held my gaze. “So, you destroy your career and you destroy your relationship with your family, and then what happens? He turns around and marries some girl. And you’re left with absolutely nothing.”
“Yeah, I know. Refer to earlier ‘I’m in big trouble’ statement.” I drained my cup of spiked coffee.
Jess looked defeated as she slumped in her chair. And she murmured, “You couldn’t have just let me fix you up with Fernando’s cameraman’s ugly brother.”
Chapter Four
After brunch I really needed to clear my head, so I went home and changed into my wetsuit and crammed my board awkwardly into the loaner car with about a third of it sticking out the passenger window. The waves were crap at Ocean Beach but halfway decent at Fort Point, and I spent hours on the water until I was completely exhausted.
As I tucked my board under my arm and finally returned to shore, I glanced up to where my car was parked. And my heart leapt. A sleek, black Maserati was parked beside the Hyundai, giving it an inferiority complex. And sitting on the hood of the sports car was the most beautiful man in the known universe.
I jogged to Dmitri, who grabbed me in his arms and kissed me in front of God and everyone right there in the parking lot. And then he let go of me and said, “Wow, look at you. You’re so fucking beautiful.”
I laughed at that. “So you like me dripping wet and exhausted?”
“I do like you dripping wet, and also in that skin-tight wetsuit. Damn.”
I kissed him again, then said, “Sorry, I got your clothes all soggy.” His fitted black t-shirt and black jeans were fairly water-logged after hugging me.
“Totally worth it. And I guess that means you’ll have to get me out of them as soon as possible.” We both smiled at that suggestion.
“So, stalker-boy, how did you find me?” I asked as he followed me around to the side of my car. I set the board down and grabbed a towel from the passenger seat.
“You’d mentioned this spot Friday night. So I took a drive down here and immediately spotted the Green Machine.”
“How long have you been watching?”
“A couple hours.”
I raised an eyebrow as I scrubbed my wet hair with the towel. “That long? You must have gotten bored.”
“Are you kidding? It was amazing, watching you move like that, with such astonishing grace and power. The phrase poetry in motion doesn’t even begin to describe it. I could spend the rest of my life watching you surf.”
“Maybe you should try it some time. Then you could do more than just watch.”
“Uh, no. I don’t even know how to swim.”
I stopped toweling off and raised an eyebrow at him. “Seriously?”
“I never learned,” Dmitri said. “I’m actually terrified of water, especially the ocean.”
“I don’t believe you. I don’t believe you’re afraid of anything.”
He grinned ruefully and told me, “Which just goes to show that you don’t know me very well yet.” And then he changed the subject by asking, “So, are you hungry?”