Perfect Pairing (26 page)

“Hello, officers,” Quinn said.

Hal marveled at the way her voice dripped with honey despite the flash of anger she'd seen flash across her face.

“What can I do for you on this beautiful holiday?” Quinn asked.

One of the cops peeked her head inside. She was classically tall, dark, and handsome, not to mention butch as hell. Hal rolled her eyes. Must be a sweet gig for a dyke in uniform around these parts.

“Do you have a permit to be serving food on public property?” the other cop asked. Hal couldn't see her, and she didn't dare go get a closer look. Quinn had accepted money for several more sandwiches, and she intended to fill those orders for as long as she could.

“You know, we tried to look into those this morning, officer, but the city employees seem to be enjoying the same holiday festivities as everyone else, and rightly so I might add.”

“Ma'am, this is a national park.”

“Well that's comforting to know. Spaces like this are so rare. It's good that we as a society are preserving them, don't you think?”

Hal snorted, causing the less-talkative officer to look in again.

“So you don't have a permit?”

“Some places don't require them. Did you know we're down here all the way from Buffalo? It's a much different system up there.” Quinn made an admirable attempt to redirect. She was quick and convincing as she laid on the bullshit. A wash of pride bubbled up in Hal's chest. She almost sounded like she knew what she was talking about. “We don't really get weather like this up there, either.”

“Ma'am, you can't sell food here without a permit and an inspection from the health department.” Officer Strong and Steady wouldn't bite.

“Oh, well, thank you for letting us know. Do you have a phone number for those offices? We'll try to get ahold of them.”

“They aren't open today.”

Hal slid four more trays up to people waiting at the window and set to work assembling four more. If she worked fast enough and Quinn kept working her magical stall tactics, she might actually get them out in time.

“Well the thing is, we're in town only for one more day. We're not intending to set up shop. We're actually conducting some culinary research.”

“Does that research involve selling food on a public beach? Because that would require a permit.”

“You are a tenacious one, aren't you?” Quinn said with a light laugh. “I like that in a woman.”

Hal clenched her jaw. Stalling was one thing, flirting was another.

“We're going to have to shut you down, ma'am.”

“Really?” Quinn asked. “Let's think outside the box for a moment. Are you sure there's no way to work something out?”

“Not unless you can produce a permit and a health inspection certificate.”

“Would it surprise you if I did?”

“It would,” the officer said.

“And you know what? It surprised me a little bit that I couldn't give you that,” Quinn said, her tone lower, more serious, and genuine enough to make the hair on Hal's arm stand up. “I'm new to this business. My partner is the pro. She keeps telling me she's got everything under control, and I took her at her word. Imagine how I feel to find out from you that she might not have been upfront with me about what exactly constitutes ‘under control' in her world.”

Hal glanced out to see the officer shake her head. Her profile was commanding, tall, with broad shoulders and a sharply pressed khaki uniform. Probably had a real stick up her ass, too.

“Lack of communication on your end doesn't really change the facts of the situation from my end.”

Hal rolled her eyes at the cop's attempt to basically say she didn't want to touch that with a ten-foot pole.

“I understand. Let me ask you, though, just on a personal note. You have a partner here, and she's handsome as can be.” Quinn flashed a smile at the younger cop, and Hal felt her face contort in an uncomfortable scowl. “How do you navigate those little differences of opinion that might, say for instance, leave one of you cool and collected while the other one scrambles to cover someone else's ass?”

“Ma'am,” the officer said calmly, “we have a clear chain of command and strict protocol.”

Quinn practically moaned in pleasure. “Sounds divine. How do you go about instituting something like that?”

“We'll clear out now.” Hal tossed two more sandwiches onto the counter and cut the power to the griddle. She'd heard enough. She plated the other two sandwiches and walked to the back of the truck, where she finally got her first full-on view of the senior officer. She was tan, with hair not quite as dark as the younger one's and cut just off her collar. She turned to scan Hal, her eyes nearly as cool and blue as Quinn's. Good looking. Too damn good looking if you asked her.

“Sorry to bother you, officers. We'll pack up and head out right away. Can we leave these with you for your trouble?” She offered up the sandwiches.

“We really can't take gifts.”

“It's not a bribe or a penalty payment. You just told us we can't serve any more, and these are already made.”

The younger one looked at the other, who shook her head almost unperceptibly.

“Why don't you two keep them for yourself?” Officer Blue Eyes said, not unkindly, then turning her attention fully to Hal added, “Seems like you might have some making up to do.”

“Thanks for sharing that insight,” she said, trying to keep the edge out of her voice. She didn't need help with Quinn, especially not from another straight-laced rule slave.

“Yes, thank you, officers,” Quinn added in her sickly sweet professional appeasement voice.

“We'll just wait and make sure you get everything packed up all right.”

“How very considerate of you,” Hal said. “We'll return the favor
by working as quickly as possible. If you want to help us along, maybe you can go explain to all those people waiting out front why they don't get lunch today.”

She jumped back into the truck without a backward glance. She slammed the front window, cranked up some Fall Out Boy on the inside speaker, then set to work securing what little bits of food they had leftover.

Hal had everything stowed and half the griddle cleaned before Quinn finally joined her. Quinn had managed to project calm and collected on the outside, but now that the confrontation with the police had passed, her hands shook. She'd never been in trouble in her life, certainly not to the level of the police being called. She didn't even have a speeding ticket. Well, she'd been pulled over, but she'd always made easy work of talking herself down to a warning. She'd thought she'd be able to do the same here, especially given how clearly gay the cops were. Who would've thought, lesbians she couldn't bring around to her side of things. She must be slipping. They'd actually shut them down. All the embarrassment and frustration she'd held at bay in the moment burned her cheeks and tightened her jaw now. She'd been set up to fail.

“Well that was enlightening.”

“It happens,” Hal said, still scrubbing.

“Really?” Quinn asked. “Cause I've been in my job for about thirteen years and never once have the police come and shut me down.”

“You could've fooled me with the way you handled them.”

“What's that supposed to mean?”

“Maybe there's something about cops that taps into something about bankers,” Hal said harshly. “Some authority figure camaraderie thing? You guys got cozy real fast.”

“Excuse me?” She couldn't believe this. Hal had failed to secure the necessary permits, while she at least managed to buy them an extra ten minutes, she should've been welcomed like a returning hero, not a traitor. “I bought you time.”

“Yeah, but what did you pay for it? Maybe you didn't notice, but that chick was busting my ass. She took money out of my pocket, and yours too, not to mention she froze out all of those people you'd just been gushing about wanting to feed.”

“We didn't have a permit, Hal.”

“We couldn't get one.”

“And that's her fault?”

“It's not mine, either.”

Quinn bit her lip. It was Hal's fault. She didn't follow the rules. The cop was just doing her job, and yet something told her now wasn't the time to say so. Her silence didn't keep Hal from continuing though.

“I get it. You do think it's my fault, even though Captain Khaki out there all but said I couldn't have gotten one. I'm being penalized for not following a rule that couldn't possibly be followed.”

“You couldn't get one because you didn't plan ahead. That's not the same as not being able to get one.”

Hal tossed her sponge into the sink. “You came up with this idea this morning. How was I supposed to plan ahead?”

Quinn opened her mouth, then closed it again, giving Hal the chance to plow forward.

“What was I supposed to do? Did you want me to say, ‘great idea, but by the time the permits clear we'll have been back in Buffalo for three days?'”

“You could have.”

“And miss out on all of this? Miss out on you seeing how amazing we can be? Miss out on what's probably our last chance to be partners in something we can both feel good about?” Hal's voice cracked in frustration, but she didn't stop. “You asked me for this Quinn, and for just once I wanted to tell you yes. I wanted to hear one of your plans and believe we could make it work.”

“There's a system in place.”

“The system's broken. The system doesn't look out for people like me. It never has and it never will.” Hal was practically shouting now. “While a bunch of pencil pushers in an office somewhere string out their red tape, people go hungry. We do without. I wait and I wait
and I wait while the opportunities pass me by. I don't like being a part of those systems.”

A flash of realization shot through Quinn like a lance as the echo of Hal's voice bled in through her real-time rant.
It's like every other big system
, all the talk about going hungry, of waiting for relief that wouldn't come, or her opinion of authority figures.

“Who were we hurting, Quinn?” Hal pleaded. “By feeding people, just feeding them, who did we hurt?”

“No one.”

“And who benefits from shutting us down?”

“No one,” Quinn said quickly.

“God, why did I think you'd understand? Why did I think any of it would matter? A big butch rolls up with a uniform and a badge, and you practically swoon for all the protocol and procedure talk.” Hal pushed her hands through her hair and turned away, talking almost to herself now. “God, I was stupid to expect anything else, wasn't I? This whole weekend was stupid.”

Quinn caught her arm and pulled her close. “It's not stupid.”

“I was stupid, then, because it wasn't ever going to work. There wasn't a plan or a chain of command. We just saw an opportunity and we jumped. That's freedom, but it's not control. And it's not, it's not—”

Quinn kissed her lightly on the lips. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“It's okay,” Quinn said softly, putting her forehead to Hal's. “I understand.”

“What do you understand?”

“Why you did it. It makes sense now.”

Hal pouted a minute more before lifting her dark, wounded eyes. “Really?”

“Yes. Some systems need fixing,” she said sincerely, then smiled. “Like that thing outside your food truck you keep referring to as a line.”

Hal's shoulders shook with a silent laugh, and the vice grip on Quinn's chest began to loosen.

“And for what it's worth, Officer Tall, Dark, and Handsome wasn't my type.”

“Oh, come on, she's like something out of a lesbian romance novel.”

“Maybe, but I like to be the one with control issues in a relationship.”

The corners of Hal's mouth twitched up. “Well, there's something I have to offer you.”

“You have so much to offer, Hal. Giving me an outlet for my anal-retentive side is just the beginning of your talents.”

“You say the nicest things.”

“I really do, but only because you deserve them. And also because you have two leftover lobstah roll grilled cheeses.”

A real smile finally broke through, and Quinn drew her first full deep breath in ten minutes. She'd mentioned earlier that feeding people had felt a bit like a drug, but now seeing Hal relax back into her happy self and knowing she'd been the one to soothe her left Quinn wondering if maybe what she felt for her wasn't actually something stronger than addiction.