"Cover Me"

“Ok,” Elliot began after exhaling smoke through his nostrils, “what can I do for you?”

“I need your services.” Beatriz dragged on her cancer stick.

“I don’t do that anymore.” He shook his head as he spoke and straightened from his hunched slouch.

“Oh no, not those services,” she said slightly laughing, “This is different.”

“How different?”

“I need someone to…,” she stopped and thought, eyes rolled ceiling-ward, “hmmm…” she looked back at him when the right phrase came, “guard me. Yeah, that.”

“What happened?”

“Well,” she pauses, “I kinda…,” pauses again, “upset some people and I think they might have it out for me.” She continues after a few seconds, smiling. “No, no, I’m sure they do.”

“What’d you do?” He’s a little concerned.

“I wrote my boss a little letter, pretty nasty in content…”

“And he’s out to get you?”

“Actually, she might think it’s funny, now that she knows I wrote it, but when she asked who sent it, nobody said anything, so she punished all the guys by making them drag. All of them.”

“Hmmm, that must have been pretty nasty.”

“Not as nasty as the rough draft, but still efficient enough apparently.”

“Apparently.”, he agrees with a nod.

“Now, they’re all pissed.”

“I can’t really blame them there, sweetheart.”

“I didn’t even know she would resort to something like that, though some of them didn’t look all bad.”

Elliot looks at her like she’s speaking Martian.

“What?”

“Baby, I love you, but you’re fucked up!”

“Oh come on, it was a joke! You mean to tell me these guys just can’t laugh it off, since they’re so fuckin’ tough?”

“I’d want to beat your ass, too.”

“You would not.” She smiles cheekily.

“Maybe not, but I’d be fuckin’ pissed.”

“And be oh-so-beautiful.”

He laughs.

“So, do you have my back?”

“Baby, I’ll have your back, front, top, and bottom.”

She giggles. “I don’t think your wife will appreciate that.”

Smirking, “Don’t tell her, then.”