Jasmine gave the hostess a stank look. She scanned the restaurant until she spotted Gosling sitting at the bar. She sauntered up to him carrying two bags from Macy’s.
“What did you have?” Jasmine asked after seeing the plate of eaten food in front of him. She could see the fury in Agent Gosling’s eyes. His look reminded her of the way her father used to scold her without words by simply giving her a stern look of death.
Agent Gosling got up from the bar and made his way over to a booth table he had been sitting at, about five feet away from the bar area.
Jasmine followed behind him, and the two of them sat down. Agent Gosling still had that stern look in his eyes and hadn’t said anything to her at that point, not even hello.
After picking up the menu to look at what she was going to order, Jasmine finally heard words come out of Agent Gosling’s mouth.
“Put the menu down.”
Jasmine immediately complied.
“Did I not tell you noon?”
Jasmine knew what time the meeting was scheduled for, but she said, “Twelve? I thought we were supposed to meet at one.”
Agent Gosling stared at her. “Jasmine, our meeting was for twelve, and you have the audacity to walk in here almost an hour and a half late? Let me be clear on something—I’m not one of your friends in the street that you can just blow off with your disrespectful attitude. You pull some shit like this again, and I’ll lock you up on the spot. Are we clear?”
“But—”
“Jasmine, are we clear? There is going to be no do-overs.”
“Yes, we’re clear.”
“And when I call you, I expect for you to call me back within a reasonable amount of time.”
Jasmine was about to lie and play it off like she hadn’t realized he had called her, but she could sense that Agent Gosling meant business and wasn’t going to tolerate any of her bullshit.
“Okay, I will,” she replied.
Agent Gosling nodded as he looked at her.
“I apologize,” she said humbly.
Jasmine hated to be punked, but she knew she had to toe the line if she wanted to get all of the benefits of being a confidential informant. Even though Bebo was now dead and she could return to Nico’s estate and feel reasonably safe, she still wanted to get her free living situation, courtesy of the FBI, squ
ared away.
At that point a waitress came to the booth and asked if they were ready to order. Jasmine looked at Agent Gosling, and he slightly nodded, giving his approval. Jasmine just ordered French fries and a coco-loco. Agent Gosling didn’t order anything because he had eaten while he waited for Jasmine to arrive.
“You could have ordered more to eat,” he said.
Jasmine shook her head and explained that she didn’t like eating food that was messy, like barbecue ribs and things like that.
“What’s a coco-loco?”
“I’ll let you drink some when it gets here,” she replied. “Is Agent Battle coming?”
“No, she isn’t coming. Remember, Agent Battle is the case agent, and I’m your handler.”
Jasmine nodded as she reached into the basket of warm complimentary cornbread. She took out a piece and began munching on it.
“So how have things gone the past couple of days with Nico since you’ve been home from the hospital?”
At that point Jasmine’s French fries and drink arrived. She immediately sipped on her drink, no longer caring that she had told Gosling that she would let him try some.
“Things went well. Don’t worry, I’ll get you the info you need. There’s a way I have to operate and talk around Nico so he won’t get suspicious.”