Robert Swartwood - Legion

“I did,” Ashley said, double-checking that her phone was on vibrate and setting it aside, “and it’s okay. Who’s the muscle?”

Melissa sighed, shaking her head. “Don’t even get me started.”

“I have to say, I’m impressed. Not everyone gets their own bodyguard.”

“For starters, he’s not a bodyguard. At least, not a real bodyguard. He’s just a uni they plucked from the street and threw a suit on him and told him to never let me out of his sight.”

“That must be real awkward when you have to use the bathroom.”

“He doesn’t talk much either. He’s not wearing a ring, and as far as I know, he doesn’t have a girlfriend. You want me to hook you up?”

“You and my mother,” Ashley said, “always trying to fix me up with anyone with a penis.”

“Would you prefer someone with a vagina?”

“I guess it would depend on how much I had to drink.”

They smiled at each other, their voices low, the last thing Melissa needing right now some overeager busybody eavesdropping and running to the press. Not that the press would care much about some harmless joking, but it was the principle of the matter. Melissa Baxter, Assistant District Attorney, always had to watch what she said and did in public. It was just part of the job description.

Their waitress came to the table, introducing herself and listing off specials. They sent her away with their drink order-diet ginger ale for Melissa, gin and tonic for Ashley-and then Ashley leaned in and said, “Seriously, though, what’s going on?”

“Death threat,” Melissa said, waving it away as dismissively as if she were telling the waitress she didn’t want croutons on her salad.

Ashley decided to state the obvious. “You don’t seem too concerned.”

“It’s not my first death threat, and it certainly won’t be my last.”

“But I’m guessing this one struck a chord.”

“You could say that.”

A brief moment of silence passed, Ashley glancing toward the bar where the cop sat in the corner, busy scanning the room.

“Are you going to make me guess?”

Melissa laughed. “You are such a gossip.”

“That is what I do, you know. But you don’t have to tell me. I think I already know.”

“Do you?”

“The biggest case of your career, a New York mob boss, the trial starts this week-yeah, I can connect the dots. How serious is it?”

“Not serious at all. Carrozza would be out of his mind to try to have something happen to me during trial. But Jeffery”-that was the District Attorney, Melissa’s boss-“doesn’t want to take any chances. I told him I wasn’t afraid, that putting protection on me would come across as weak, but he doesn’t care. So he has a cop following me all day, has a cop waiting outside our place all night, even has a cop keeping an eye on the kids at school.”

“I bet the taxpayers would love to hear that.”

The waitress came back with their drinks, and they ordered their usual salads-Melissa the Insalata Caprese, Ashley the Arugula and Roasted Pear-and then the girl was gone just as quickly as she had appeared.

Melissa took a sip of her drink, stirred the straw around. “The bright side, at least, is we managed to get away for the weekend without them. Thank God, too, because the last thing I would have wanted was for a few cops to tag along.”

Ashley took a sip of her own drink. “Did you go anywhere nice?”

“Connecticut,” Melissa said absently. “For my father’s funeral.”

The news gave Ashley pause. This wasn’t at all what she had been expecting. As long as she had known Melissa, she very rarely heard her friend talk about her parents. Of course Ashley knew they existed, had even met Melissa’s mother at their college graduation, but that was it. As far as Ashley knew, Melissa wasn’t very close to her parents. And now, apparently, her father had died.

“I’m so sorry,” she said.

Melissa waved another dismissive hand. “It’s not like we were exactly close. I can’t even remember the last time I talked to him. But when I heard the news last week about what happened, I knew our mom needed us, so I contacted everyone and told them we needed to go.” She shook her head. “I’ll tell you, it wasn’t easy. Our father wasn’t exactly what you would call loving. We barely even knew him. To be honest, I can’t remember the last time I thought of him as Dad. To me he was just Frank. We were all just kids when he and my mom divorced. But still, I knew we had to be there, you know?”

Ashley nodded.

“But it was nice,” Melissa said, still stirring her straw, “being there with our mom and everyone else. Like a last-minute family reunion. We hadn’t gotten everyone together like that since … God, I can’t remember when. Even my stupid little brother showed up, if only for a minute.”

“Which one is this?” Ashley asked, remembering that Melissa had a lot of brothers and sisters.

“John,” Melissa said, her tone hinting disdain. “He’s really not worth even talking about. He’s just … he’s the baby of the family and he’s always acted like it. Did you know when we all turned eighteen, our parents left us a trust? We were to use it for college. It wasn’t a lot-well, okay, it was forty thousand dollars each, which is a lot, but not when you consider how much four years of college costs-but it was meant to help us make something of ourselves after boarding school. We all did it, my sister and two brothers. David’s a surgeon up near Boston and Paul’s a doctor at the Mayo Clinic and, God, Valerie works for NASA. But John? He took that money and went to Europe and wasted it all there on alcohol and drugs and who knows what else. When he came back, he had no money, and even went so far as to ask our dad for more. I don’t exactly know what my dad told him, but there was a big blow out, and since then, John … well, I don’t really know what happened to him. I know he’s living in the city somewhere. Last I heard, he was a bike courier. I have no idea how he manages to pay rent, but either way, I contacted him about our dad passing and told him about the viewing. I even offered to let him ride with Max and me and the kids. But he never got back to me. Then, right after the funeral, he shows up in a taxi. Keeps the taxi waiting for him. He talks briefly with David, and then when my mom and I approach him, he turns and leaves. To be honest, I didn’t care much to see him, but I figured our mother would. And he … he didn’t even have the decency to say hello, or that he was sorry, or anything.”

Melissa stopped stirring the straw, took another sip, set the glass down on the tabletop. She looked away, out across the dining room, over the tables and booths, at something on the far wall. Her eyes, Ashley saw, were glistening, as if her friend was on the verge of crying. That was the last thing Ashley wanted to happen, especially here in front of everyone, especially with her friend’s own cop keeping an eye out for trouble. If Melissa burst into tears, Ashley could just imagine the hyperactive cop rushing over, his weapon drawn, demanding to know what Ashley had done.

“Okay,” Ashley said slowly, testing the thin ice of nervous silence one foot at a time, “so what you’re saying is it would be best I not end up dating your brother? Because, you know, my date this past weekend? He turned out to be a real loser.”

Melissa didn’t laugh like Ashley had hoped she would, but she smiled, a full, sincere smile that warmed Ashley’s heart. Wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand-the move so surreptitious Ashley wasn’t sure she had even seen it-Melissa shook her head.

“No, I definitely would not recommend you date my brother. In fact, I would recommend you not even share a taxi with him. He probably wouldn’t have enough to split the fare.”