Strip Search (Tap That)
“Work on it. Ask around. Also, we need to discuss you being clearly more focused on your personal life than your job. I didn’t send you to Minnesota to have sex with a police officer.”
Oh, God. Leighton hung her head and rubbed her forehead. There was no point in protesting. “Got it.” She wanted to ask what glitch had set that clip out into the world but there was no way asking would make it better. Hey, I thought only my co-workers would see me kissing a cop didn’t sound all that professional.
“I said be more fun, not act like a college girl on spring break,” Sadie said.
That seemed like a hell of a leap, but Leighton wasn’t going to argue. She was on thin ice. Plus, she was flat-out mortified.
“Find a replacement bride,” Jill said. “Or I’m terminating your employment with Wedding Crashers.”
There it was. Boom. The other shoe dropping. She felt sick and a little lightheaded. “I understand. I’m on it.”
She ended the call and took a deep breath. She could feel anxiety crawling over her skin, threatening to squeeze and crush her. Just breathe. There was a solution to every problem.
“Do you have any girlfriends who are engaged and want to get married next weekend?” Leighton asked Winnie.
She shook her head. “No. And if one of my friends took my spot on Wedding Crashers, I would cut a bitch. Just saying.”
Leighton hadn’t even considered that, but she didn’t blame Winnie. She’d feel the same way. “Fair enough. I’ll just post on social media.”
Winnie raised her eyebrows but she didn’t question it. “Let me go buy you an ice cream cone. You look like you need it.”
Leighton needed the ice cream cone, a Minnesota bride, and a backbone.
Not necessarily in that order.
* * *
Axl sat across from the chief as still as possible. Another lesson he had learned in the military. Just sit silent and don’t fidget while you’re getting your ass handed to you on a platter. Anything you try to say can and will be used against you.
“You think traffic stops are your personal Tinder? What the fuck, Moore?” The chief was in his fifties, in decent shape, but getting thick around the middle. He had been shaving his head for the entirety of Axl’s tenure in the department. He had a wife he adored and three kids not much younger than Axl. He was a fair man, but no-bullshit.
This was the first time he could recall getting ripped a new one by Chief Darcy. It wasn’t pleasant, but the Marines had been worse. So he would just take it.
“This is not like you at all. I’ve never seen you act with anything other than professionalism. Is something going on I should know about?”
That didn’t sound good. “No. What do you mean?”
“Are you having some kind of personal crisis? Do we need to see about getting you to a counselor?”
Oh, fabulous. His boss thought he was losing his shit. Add him to the list of people who thought he was “struggling” just because he didn’t want to settle down. Though in this case, the chief had a good point. It wasn’t like him to do something so unprofessional.
“No, no, seriously. No counselor. It was a lapse in judgment, nothing more. I swear.”
“I’m going to have to write you up formally. That video is fucking everywhere.”
Axl sat up straighter. That was something he did not want. “What? Seriously?”
The chief stared him down. “If you could tell me she was your girlfriend or something that would be different. But everyone is telling me she’s with that TV show that’s in town.”
There was no time to think. Darcy had given him an out and he was taking it. “What if I told you she is my girlfriend?”
“I would say that is a very good thing. But tell me how you met. And make it believable.”
Axl had known his boss long enough to know what he was really saying. Get your fucking story straight. That’s what he was saying.
“We met online,” he lied, shocked at how smooth it rolled off of his lips. “She purposely chose a wedding here so we could spend time together.”
Darcy gave a snort. “You’re full of crap. But I’d better see some wining and dining going on with this girl so that I get to the point where I do believe it.”