Amanda Fox glanced at the lockers in the women’s locker room. She liked to check out the pictures the officers put on the front of their lockers. Almost all the photos displayed showed kids.
A couple of the compartments had snapshots of the whole family—but not many.
Going to her locker, two images of her boys stared back at her from magnetic frames. The pics were a couple of years old, but she didn’t want to post more recent pictures. Anything more current would be an endless reminder her boys were getting older—and she was, too.
She opened the door to her storage space and smiled at the photo of her and Lolo at the divisional Christmas party. They’d easily been the hottest female officers at the gathering.
Rumor had it that more than one cop and his wife had an argument at the party because the husband wouldn’t stop looking at them.
Truth be told, Amanda liked being a sergeant and of higher rank than Lolo. They might not have been friends otherwise.
Amanda liked having more departmental authority than her friend. In her mind, it evened things out a bit. Lolo was ten years younger and had the unique features of being a mix of Asian and Native American.
Before Lolo had transferred to Devonshire, Amanda had been the hot female the guys wanted to talk to, joke with, and be around. Once Lolo arrived, Amanda became the first runner up.
When she was with Lolo, she felt her blonde Nordic looks were ordinary and plain next to her friend’s exotic beauty.
They both worked out like fiends, and both had gone under the knife to enhance their bra size. They had a lot in common.
The door to the locker room opened and Lolo breezed in. “Hey, girl,” she called to Amanda.
“Hi there. What’s goin’ on?”
“I saw you were out to the station, and it’s pretty slow out there, so I told Hoppy I wanted to hit the head.”
“I heard you and Romanelli were flirting in the parking lot this morning.”
Lolo laughed. “Who’d you hear that from? Lurch? He has to be the biggest gossip in the LAPD.”
Amanda smiled. “It wasn’t Bender. Actually, it was another supervisor.” She threw that in, letting her friend know, without saying it, people were seeing and noticing about the amount of time she was spending talking to male officers.
“Oh, probably Mancuso. He poked his head out the door.”
Amanda didn’t confirm the watch commander gave her the information.
Lolo pulled a tube of lip gloss from her breast pocket and smeared a little on her lips. “Greg flirts with everyone. He and Cruz were trying to invite themselves the next time we go to the bowling alley for cocktails.”
“I hope you told them no. Cruz is so bitter about his divorce, he doesn’t even try to hide the fact he just uses women for sex. He’s a real ass.”
“I bet them I’d get a moving violation before they did. If I lost, they’d get to come to our next girls’ night out.”
“Did you write the first ticket?”
“Of course,” Lolo said, leveling her gaze at her friend. “I told Hoppy why I wanted a cite, and I needed it fast. He found me one as soon as we left the station.”
Amanda grinned. “Good.”
“I may still invite them bowling. Romanelli is so darn cute with those dimples.”
“And what do you think your husband would say about that?”
“Who cares what Steve thinks? I deserve a night out. I’ve got three kids under the age of five.”
“Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying you haven’t earned the chance to get out. I’m just not sure it’s a good idea to invite other men along.”
“Ha! You’re worried you’ll get stuck fending off Dallas Cruz all night.”
That’s exactly what I was thinking. “Hey, what do you think about that new P-1, Price?”
Lolo sighed. “I was in the report writing room before roll call, and a couple of morning watch guys were talking about her. They were happy to learn she’s single.”
Amanda nodded and inwardly smiled. Her friend was worried she had competition from Price with the guys.
“Yeah, Mancuso and McKenzie were going on and on about how impressed they were that she didn’t hesitate to threaten a suspect with using the Taser on him.”
“I didn’t hear about it. What happened?”
Amanda related the circumstances of the men fighting in the parking lot and how Price had responded.
“I think she just got lucky…or was so scared she accidentally did the right thing,” Lolo said.
“Time will tell.” Then Amanda grinned. “Maybe we should try to set her up with Cruz.”
The two of them laughed as they left the locker room.