Daily Ramblings

Make up for Feb 23 LL 503 words

At ten minutes to seven, Justyn sauntered into Rickles. In her mind, she was right on time, if not a tad later than she had planned. Justyn’s mind translated ‘on time’ to mean fifteen minutes early by everyone else’s clock. Life was so much easier that way, to her way of thinking. You weren’t rushed, you didn’t have to get embarrassed by coming in late or flustered or whatever. Best of all, you could observe others. A person could really learn a lot about someone by just watching the way they walked into a room, and by the way they interacted with other people.

Coincedentally, Jake ascribed to that philosophy as well. Being a cop, he was always noticing things, minute details that most people wouldn’t see. He noticed things that usually never mattered in the grand scheme of things. Every so often, though, Jake’s sharp eyes would turn up something important.

Jake certainly noticed Justyn as she walked into Rickles. Justyn Franklin wasn’t a person you just casually looked at. She didn’t walk into a room, as much as she strode into it as if she owned the place. Confident and purposeful, it seemed as if Justyn never wasted a movement or a step. Everything move she made had a purpose. And as she walked up to the bar, many people noticed her movements. Jake included.

He wasn’t made of stone, after all. Eye candy was eye candy, even if it was one of his friends. Her fiery hair was pinned up in a way that made her neck seem even more slender and graceful. Her fitted white t-shirt and blue jeans were deceptively simple, but Jake would bet his next paycheck that Justyn knew exactly what effect they had. She was no fool, after all.

Justyn had chosen her outfit for comfort, to be sure. After all, blue jeans were the best in the world, right? It was a casual meeting, even though it was technically business-related. But she was meeting her friend Jake, in a casual bar, like they had many times before. And if it made Jake look a little closer, and think a little harder about her, well, there was no harm in that.

Besides, she was still a little rankled that Jake didn’t think she was “date” material. Why it bothered her, Justyn couldn’t understand. She figured that her irritation stemmed more from a blow to her pride than anything else. And the idea of THAT was just stupid. Tossing her head to her own silly irritations, she walked up to the bar.

Justyn leaned in to speak to Jackson, presumably to get a table. Jake noticed her smile falter the tiniest bit when Jackson waved his arm toward the table where Jake sat. Quicker than he could blink, her eyes and face lit up when she saw him. Jake wondered if he had simply imagined the whole thing. He shook his head and chalked it up to the lighting above the bar.

“Hey, Red, how’s things?”