May I: Catching Up

As they had walked into the restaurant, Anna had been greeted with a friendly smile; by a girl who was probably no older than eighteen. Her brown hair was in two braids that had been intertwined together. She was wearing a red shirt and black slacks that matched the inside of the building.

“Hello Anna. Brought a friend today?”  The girl asked, having gathered up some of the menus.

“Yes, Katy—this is my friend Gillian.”

“Oh, it’s nice to finally meet you. Anna talks about you all the time when she comes in here.” Katy gave her an enthused smile; her blue eyes shining brightly.

“Nice to meet you.” Nodding towards her, Gillian offered her greeting softly; things growing into a comfortable silence.

“Just the two of you?”  

“Yes.” Anna stepped forward, lowering her voice a little. “Do you have a table upstairs available? Gillian and I want to catch up.”

Anna understood immediately what she was implying. Her eyes flickered towards Gillian and then the stairs.”We do. We’ve only filled the tables down here so far today. Right this way.” She led them to an open space of tables and chairs.

As they had settled in their seats, she knew that Anna had purposely taken the seat across from her; to give her both space, and so that she could look over at her. She remembered that Anna always used to do that when they had met up for lunch at college.

Gillian opened her menu with a sigh and held it up. Her eyes searched the black print. Everything looked good, but nothing sounded that good to her stomach. However, she remembered that she was running on fumes and tea.

“My name is Bridgette. I’ll be your server.”  She was digging in her pocket as she came to a stop at their table. She had black hair, olive skin and hazel eyes. “Oh, hey Anna. Here again?”

“Yeah. What’s your special today?”

“We have our bacon cheeseburgers with avocado, topped with a ranch dressing. It sounds odd, but it’s actually really good.”  Bridgette rattled off the top of her head. “It comes with your choice of French fries, coleslaw, or a baked potato.”

“Mmm…You make it sound really good.”  Anna chimed in, searching through her menu again.

“While you’re trying to decide—can I get you ladies something to drink today? Water? Soda? Tea?”

“Water.”

“Do you have sprite?” Gillian asked, sensing that Anna was watching her.

“Mhmm.”

“I’ll have one of those.”

Scribbling something down on the paper, Bridgette looked up at them with a big smile. “Okay, I’ll be right back with your drinks.”

“Thanks.”

Gillian turned back to look at her menu, slightly hesitating her searching at the grumbling of her stomach. “When’s the last time you ate something real?” Anna offered from behind the menu. She could sense the joking in her tone, followed by a big smile. When she didn’t answer, Anna continued. “Still drinking orange slurpies and eating chocolate pudding?”

Putting her menu down, Anna was watching her with a smirk on her face. “Yes, it’s my guilty pleasure. But you already knew that.”

“Yeah, I do.” Taking in a deep breath, her expression grew concerned. “You know, when that girl fell off the roof on campus just after we had graduated, it rattled everyone pretty good. And the two of us were working our magic, helping people to recover while we were struggling ourselves.” Gillian nodded at the memory. “The fact is—that day—we were more than just psychiatrists, Gillian. We became friends with all those people. I’m not going to lie, it was hard. I felt like breaking—every single day—especially after the police ruled that the girl’s death was suicide.”

“I almost forgot about that.”

“What matters is that we didn’t shrink each other while doing it. And I’m not about to start—but what you’re holding onto right now, I can see it’s hurting you more than the event itself.”Before she could continue, Katy returned with their drinks, took their order and then disappeared again.

Gillian took a sip of her sprite and her stomach started to settle. “I was helping a patient who had been blinded. She was scared and didn’t want anyone to see her as she was. She had been blinded and raped by a copycat of the original killer, Andrew Jenkins. So I brought in the other victim to talk to her and as I was going home that night—“She felt a shudder go through her body. 

“Take your time—” Anna prompted gently, placing her hands on the table at a comfortable distance.

“He hit me from behind.” Raising her arms, she was only half aware that her eyes were filling up with tears and her fists were balled up tightly against her chest. “And I fell to the ground.” The images started coming back as she watched herself relive the events over again. “I was just about to make a phone call, and I remember my phone flying out of my hand as I fell—“She swallowed. “—on my chest.” Her voice raised a pitch, a tear streaming down her cheek. “He turned me over, and grabbed my arms and started dragging me across the asphalt.”

As her screams echoed in her thoughts, Gillian’s breathing began to increase, and Anna had to gently slow her back down. “Deep breathes. Remember, you’re not there anymore, Gillian.”

It took a few seconds to respond, but Gillian’s eyes closed as her chest heaved in a breath. “I screamed and tried to fight him off—my shoes most have come off, and then I heard screeching tires. He let go and the front of my back, fell hard on the asphalt. I heard screaming—which was Cal’s—and I screamed in agony when he touched me.”

“He saved you.”  Anna whispered, understanding. Her words were encouraging her to go on.

Gillian nodded, feeling beyond exhausted now. “I found out later that Jenkins had told him that I was next. I could only imagine what was going through his mind, because he was just screaming at the guy and crouched next to me. I must have fallen in his lap, because we were both on the ground and I was just pulling in sobs to get away from him.” 

“Just like now?” Anna’s voice was still gentle, as she placed her hands over Gillian’s. She looked up into caring eyes as she wiped at her tears. Not being able to talk any further, she took another sip of her sprite. “That’s understandable. Usually it’s the people closest to us that we pull away from, especially the first people we go to after something happens. You taught me that one.”

Their conversation faded, just in time to see their food being set down. Anna had ordered a burger, surrounded by crunchy, plump fries. Gillian had ordered some soup and a salad. It just sounded good to her.

“Can I get you anything else?”

“No, I think that will do it. Thanks Bridgette.” The waitress nodded and walked across the room to another couple who had just sat down. Silently, Anna thanked Katy, who must have thought of their need of privacy. “This looks good.” She watched as Gillian took another sip of her drink. “So this man that you talked about. He seems to mean a lot to you—by the way you talk of him.” Anna offered, crunching on a fry.

“He’s a friend, and the co-owner of the Lightman Group.”

Anna rolled her eyes with a sigh. “Friend. So what does that make you?” She polished off the fry in her hand and picked up another one. “

“Co-owner.”

“Ah, now that changes things.” Looking at her curiously, Anna picked up her burger and took a bite, while Gillian finally took a bite of her soup; feeling good as it hit her stomach. She ate slowly, the nauseous feeling had settled slightly. They had both stopped talking and watched as the room filled up all around them. Anna was watching her again. “Have you been sleeping at all since?”

Gillian answered softly, her words almost missed. “Not much.”She sighed, putting her spoon down. “I keep having flashbacks—of everything.” Her eyes flickered up to hers, then fell so she was staring down at a spot on the table. “What did you mean when you said that changes things?”

“What I meant is that it sounds like Cal cares about you—a lot. I mean obviously you work with him, right?”

“Yeah. I detect voice analysis, while he detects why you’re lying.”

“Does he ever try to use it on you?” 

“Cal, uses it to his advantage whenever he deems it necessary, He works hard with any case that comes into the office—“ Just then, her phone rang. Wiping off her hands quickly, she reached into her purse and pulled out her phone. Looking at the caller ID, she saw that it was Ria who was calling and quickly pushed the ignore button.

“Let me guess . . .Cal?”

Gillian looked up from thought. “I would have thought that from all the times that he’s called me.”

“I’ll take that as a no.”

“Let’s see … your phone has rang twice in the last couple minutes. Does anyone actually know that you’re here?” When she didn’t answer, Anna spoke again in more of a warning tone. “Gillian?”

Drowning out her friend’s voice, she read the text that came through on her phone. We caught Brent’s killer. Just thought you’d want to know-Ria.