Status Updates From Cop Tales: An Anthology for...

If I was being honest with myself, Ansel’s smile that first night was really all it took.

I didn’t want to get caught up in those eyes and crumble before him like a cookie.

Nom nom nom nom lol

His eyes met mine and, like the first time I’d ever looked into them, they slammed into me. God, that was unfair. Eyes like Ansel’s could be used as weapons. They were a kind of wonderful illness that I had no immunity against.

Ansel would become my favorite daydream.

If this was what the lonely were searching for, then I understood. I comprehended their search, because this felt . . . like nothing else.

The air smelled like autumn and it felt like he owned his own piece of heaven. “Wow,” I said. What I truly thought seemed inadequate.

He was right. “Why are you doing this?” Ansel grinned at me then looked back at the road. “I serve and protect. That’s in my job description.” Any other time that would be corny, but Ansel’s response, surprisingly, made me laugh. “There we go. Laughter. I like the sound of that. Laughter’s much better than that pale, lost look from earlier, when I thought you were going to faint.”

My chest ached. I was empty. Losing the store was harder than losing Ken. I loved that store; I hadn’t loved Ken. The difference was blatantly obvious. And now the store was gone.

There was nothing here that needed fixing. I liked being boring. I was good with that. I didn’t get hurt being alone. My heart remained safe.

Going back to my book, even Jane Eyre had lost its appeal. I sat there staring at the lines on the page while my brief time with Ansel replayed inside my head.

“My name,” he said, my eyes jerking back to his face. His eyes, those eyes, were so still there. “Yes,” I agreed. He’d told me his name. It was Ansel. I’d never met an Ansel before. His name was as unique as his eyes.

They startled me and made me wonder if eyes could be that color. Almost like a blue crystal. It was unnerving.