Page 9 (1/2)

SMITH SAW ME couilty, too?"

"So one last tiain that I didn&039;t wear irlfriend is going to dump my ass; she can&039;t deal with the job"

"At least she can dump you," I said

"What?" Smith asked

I waved it away and ent back to work - to our job, the job - and left the shambles of our personal lives for later The job came first, because if we failed at that, people died If we failed at our personal lives, only emotions died, but there are moments when it feels like a broken heart is a kind of death, and you&039;d trade a little less cri for a way to fix that part of your life

I should have probably beentoo sorry for myself to have any sympathy left over, and the hter and tried to pull ame

I turned and said to Sirlfriend, Save a s have you been dating Jean-Claude?"

"About seven years," I said

"When we&039;ve got soe to have a relationship and do this job"

I smiled, I couldn&039;t help it "We&039;ll never have the talk if you wait for downtime, and I&039;m not sure orks for ive it a try e get a break Ask Zerbrowski, too; he and Katie have been together for over a decade"

Sure that Zerbrowski&039;s wife is a saint I don&039;t date saints"

I grinned back "Katie is pretty perfect, but not a saint; they just work together as a couple really well"

"But ho do they do it?" Sation irlfriend was special, important Shit

I went to him and spoke low "Every person is unique, Smith, so every couple is unique What works for one couple won&039;t work for everybody Hell, what&039;sis totally different from what makes Micah and me work, or Nathaniel" Smith had met both of the latter at Zerbrowski&039;s house this summer at the RPIT barbecue It hadboth of them Jean-Claude and I were just linked in the tabloids He was the vaot my picture taken - a lot Either way, those were the three boyfriends that Smith knew about There were rumors of other lovers, but there are always rumors I neither confirmed nor denied rumors It was the best I could do

S serious "Only Lieutenant Storr and Zerbrowski aren&039;t divorced in the entire squad, did you know that?"

"No," I said, "I didn&039;t know that"

He sighed, and just the woebegone look on his face let irlfriend

"Zerbrowski needs me to question the va to try to sit doith you and tell you what little I know about relationships"

"You have to be good at it, Anita, or you couldn&039;t have so many of theht about it that way, and I started to say that it was thefor ht about it and realized that so the way I&039;d learned to co what you illing to co when to stand your ground, and when to give it up; as truly i pissy You learned each other&039;s hot buttons, the places that hurt, or angered, when you pressed them Love makes you learn where all the pitfalls are, and how to avoid them, or how to set theht noe&039;ve got work to do" I patted hi; it was the theme from Charlie Brohich meant it was Zerbrowski He didn&039;t know he had his own ring tone, and if asked I would never admit that it was because he was always -Pen from the comic strip "Hey, Zerbrowski, I&039;, Anita They&039;re trying to lawyer up"

"They can&039;t lawyer up," I said, "they admitted in front of other police besidesuilty in the eyes of the law as the vamps that did the bloody deed Vampires that have murdered humans are automatically executed"

"Bloody deed, fancy," he said, "but you&039;re right They don&039;t seehts under the law are different froirl, they could have lawyered up"

"But they can&039;t lawyer on murder," I said

"No," he said, "I haven&039;t exactly pressed on that, because once they realize they&039;re just going to be executed then" He let it trail off

I finished for hio apeshit I would in their place"

"I know you would," he said