"Nora's Valentine curse?" he asked with a chuckle.
"It is no laughing matter. Every year if a man is near me on Valentines' day, something bad happens. See this scar?" I asked as I raised up my forearm to show him a jagged looking scar running from elbow to my wrist along the outside of my right arm. "Rodney Fisher, 10th grade."
I pulled up my shirt to show a burn scar on the right side of my lower ribs, "Dallas McCoy, Freshman year of college." I tipped my head back to show him the back of my neck on the right side where there were three puncture wounds,"Dennis Elman, Sophomore year of college." I switched driving hands to show him the scar on the inside of my left hand that looked like a nail had been driven through it then turned it over so he could see the matching one on the other side. "Alex Martin, 8th grade." What you do not see is any Valentine's day scars for the last three years because I refuse to be near a man on Valentine's day. So yea, the Nora Valentine Curse is nothing to scoff at. I just got lucky with Jerry back there, I guess I was not around him long enough for it to kick in. I wonder if it extends to all males? Couldn't help but notice Pee Wee is male after our scuffle with me sliding right under him and all. I hope not, looks like I will have that dog for a while, unless Jerry somehow gets out on bail again."
I stopped my monologue rant and looked at Suit, his shoulders were shaking. "Are you laughing?" I said incredulously. "Actually laughing at my pain?" I huffed. Turned my eyes back to the road and steadfastly ignored the muffled laughing. It was in no way sexy or alluring. It was annoying just like its producer. Stupid Suit.
"Did it ever occur to you that you are just clumsy?" He asked through the chuckling.
"I am NOT clumsy! No, that is a lie. I am clumsy but all the things I mentioned before happened on Valentine's day and besides when I get hurt from my own clumsiness I do not end up in the ER. the clumsiness that you have witnessed since you have known me have actually saved my life. I mean I went down right before the shooting started. The Only injuries that land me in the ER happen on Valentine's day and always when a Man or boy in a few cases has been near me. It is not a coincidence, I have learned my lesson very thoroughly and would really," I put some extra whine in my voice for the next part, "really like it if you just left. Whatever danger you think I am in is negligible compared to the danger you are placing me in by being around today. Seriously, go do your spy or security or whatever badass thing you normally do and leave me be for today. Come back tomorrow and we can talk. But today, just go. Away."
"I am not going away. So you are just going to have to deal. You should have some faith in my badassness to protect you." I looked toward the heavens, well the vehicle ceiling anyway, muttering, "FINE."
I pulled into a car wash. Suit looked around puzzled, "What are we doing here?"
"It is a car wash." I stated plainly, "So we are washing the dog of course."
"You are washing the dog at a car wash?"
""Yes. I don't have a good outside space for dog washing at my place and I don't want Pee Wee stink up my car anymore so he needs a bath and the car wash also has an air dryer. It is perfect."
I don't think Suit agreed with me but he did not argue. He IS a fast learner. Arguing just triggers a very long ramble and I would do what I want anyway. Getting Pee Wee to cooperate was going to be a challenge. He was still secured to my S hooks so I opened the back to assess the situation. Pee Wee growled at me. I was looking over him to see how secure the harness was face, he snapped at me barking inches from my face. I pulled out my glock and pointed it at his nose. "Listen here pup! I am done with you being grumpy for the sake of being grumpy, I fed you nice scraps, I have rescued you from that drunk blob that imprisons you at his house. I am asking for a little respect in return. You stink, I think you really want a bath deep down in your doggy bones. You want to be clean and shiny and all fancy for the ladies. You want to get all that nasty slobber off your face. And you want to be nice to me because I am the one who will make all that happen for you." Pee Wee tilted his head in that way dogs do when they seem like they are listening to you and don't quite understand what you are saying. "So this is how this is gonna go, you are gonna stop snarling and let me get you out of the Rover, Then you are going to calmly stand over the drain while I give you a good scrub with some really strong soap and then you are gonna sit perfectly still while I rinse and then we are going to walk through the dryer. Got it?" I shoved my gun closer to his nose and raised my eyebrows at him. He sat back on his haunches and gave a slobbery lick towards my gun and actually looked like he smiled. I slowly lowered my gun still giving him the stink-eye and wiped it on my jeans then tucked it back in the holster at the small of my back. I reached across him to undo the leash and he let me.
"Well, aren't you a good doggy? Such a sweet puppy." I cooed at him and rubbed behind his ears. He leaned into the rubs and licked my face. Gross. EEEWWW.
Pee Wee jumped down out of the Rover and started toward the drain area in the car wash. I smirked at Suit, "See, he is fine. Just needed to have a come-to-Jesus talk."
"I thought you didn't shoot animals." He remarked.
"I don't, but he doesn't know that." I took off my jacket awkwardly holding the leash in one hand then switching after I pulled that arm out to pull the other arm out. I tossed my Jacket over the back seat to land on the floor behind the driver's seat. That was the end of the easy part. Turns out Pee Wee loves water. I had delegated the job of wetting him down to Suit as I held the leash. Unfortunately, Pee Wee thought it was a game and tried to eat the water as it came out of the hose. Suit thought it was funny to move it around so Pee Wee had to chase it dragging me along with him. By the time, we finally got Pee Wee washed enough that he did not stink. I did. I was soaked from either water, soap or sweat trying to keep up. Both Pee Wee and I stood in the air dryer until he was all the way dry and I was nearly dry. I might not have mentioned earlier but I have naturally curly hair that is about 3 inches past my shoulders. It was twenty times the size of my head after the air dryer.
"Nice hair." Suit commented. I glared at him.
"Shut it." I snapped back. Pee Wee was in a good mood, Suit was in a good mood. I was not. After we were all back in our respective places in the car, I tried to wrangle my hair into a messy bun on top of my head. I refused to look in the mirror. I don't wear make up generally, it always sweats off or things like this happen (well not exactly like this-it is the first time I have run a dog through the car wash) so I don't usually mess with it plus I have great skin. I told you, moisturize daily.
I drove towards my apartment but pulled in the Golden Dragon parking lot. I looked into the rearview window and caught Pee Wee's eyes. "Yo dog." He gave a low woof, "I am going to get some lunch, you are gonna stay in the car and not eat it. I will bring you something later. Mmkay?" I asked. He woofed in return, I grabbed my jacked pulling it on as I swung the door closed.
"You know he is going to tear that Rover up."
"Oh yea." I agreed as we walked into the Golden Dragon.
"Gurl!" Sally extended the word out looking at me with narrowed eyes. "Nice hair." then she flicked her gaze to Suit, narrowed her eyes more and looked back at me and stated, "It is Valentine's day. Is that why?" she asked, gesturing up and down my body and ending pointing to my hair.
"I know. He won't go away. I thought about pulling a gun on him but he is really fast with a knife." I told Sally. Without losing the glare effect she raised an eyebrow.
"Long story. Well it is actually a short story but it is in the vault." I stated.
"Oh." she said knowingly and let it go taking us back to my table. "You know MaMa is going to be ecstatic that you have him here." she tilted her head toward Suit. "Two days in a row and on Valentine's day." I grimaced. Rosa was a romantic. She thought everyone should be married by 18 and having babies by 20.
"I want my usual". I told her as we sat down. She nodded and turned to Suit. He sat down and said,"me too." she nodded and walked toward the kitchen.
Rosa came bustling over with two waters and clasped her hands together under her chin. "What have we here? My favorite bounty hunter and her man. How nice. So glad you came here to celebrate Valentine's day with us. But mija, you should have done something with your hair. Why do you look like you took a bath with a dog? Girl, That is not the way to keep a nice dressed, handsome man like him if you don't take more care with your appearance. You have a nice figure and your skin is nice. More effort will keep him craving more and coming back for seconds." She rambled on in a way that might have thrashed a woman with lesser self-esteem.
I licked my bottom lip trying to stifle the grin that was trying to surface. I glanced at Suit to see him fighting the same battle.
"I see you got everything cleaned up from last night." I looked around amazed that not only was it all back in order but the gaudy Valentine's day decorations had multiplied.
"Oh yes, My Ling and worked into the early morning getting it all back. We could not let a little thing like a shooting stop the best holiday of the year." I think I just threw up in my mouth.
"I will let you two lovebirds eat in peace." She looked at us wistfully and walked away.
"I think she is physic and doesn't know it."
Our food came out, I started to dig in while Suit inspected the fare then dug in himself. I guess he liked Pork lo mein with fried rice, egg rolls and of course, wontons.
We ate in silence for a moment before he said, "What else do you have on your agenda for the day?"
" I have two more skips to track down, Need to get some dog paraphernalia and see what it will take to get the slobber marks off my jacket..Avoid any major injuries, clean my gun since it got soaked." I paused, looked up with amusement in my eyes and continued, "Maybe spend some quality time with gym. Just your normal everyday stuff."
He finished chewing, wiped his lips with his napkin then said, "I need to check on some things. What are the chances I could get you to delay going after your skips and coming with me?"
"On a scale of fireball in a snowstorm to sipping sangria on a beach, I'd say way closer to the fireball." I said with a stepford wife smile. He grunted in response. We ate some more without saying anything. I finished my wontons and was eyeing his wondering if he would mind if I took one when he said, "Who is Jim? A boyfriend?"
I laughed, I mean threw my head back and laughed for a good while. Tears were in my eyes when I finally calmed down enough to reply, "not Jim, Gym. as in gymnasium. Where people go to workout. Watch it Suit, I may start to think you like me." I think I saw a tinge of pink in his cheeks but could not be sure. He threw some bills on the table and got up. He put his hand out to help me up and for some weird reason I took it and stood. He stepped toward me completely invading my space grabbing my collar between two fingers and tracing the edge down to the bottom. I was too caught in the blue blueness of blueville eyes to react. He leaned in close and whispered, "Your car is probably destroyed by now."
"Wha...what?' I said quietly, still swirling in the unreal blue that were more intense than before. He pulled away. "Pee Wee." he said. Crap! Crapity, crap, crap crap! I yanked myself out of his tractor beam and walked swiftly towards the door.
I bleeped the locks and rushed to open the door. Pee Wee was in fact chewing on the passenger side headrest that he had somehow pulled out. Not sure how he did that since it is nearly an act of heroism to get those things removed.
"Bright side." I started cheerfully. "Mine is still in tack."