Several cups of coffee had passed, both men had kept themselves occupied by discussing various topics of interest, telling good jokes they had heard, and interesting anecdotes from their own lives. They were talking about the recent weather when Eric broke the mood.
"Brian, we're running out of small talk."
"I know, you can always tell that when you get to talking about the weather."
"Agreed," Eric leaned forward on the table, "So, why're you here?"
"To be honest, I'm not sure if I'm at liberty to say."
"Really?", Eric's expression changed and became more serious, "Off the record, I think we're in the same boat."
"Oh?"
"You got a letter too, didn't you?"
Brian looked around the room, and slowly nodded, "Yeah."
"Me too."
"Very brief? Just a time, and an address?"
"And white, blank clearance pass."
"We shouldn't talk about this."
"You're right. So, what do you do?"
"As in occupation?"
Eric nodded, "Yeah."
"Nothing really, right now."
"In between jobs?"
"Sort of, I used to be a Private Investigator, but I got my licence revoked."
"Really? What happened?"
"Basically, some dizzy bitch sued me for B&E, invasion of privacy and mental anguish. I guess she really didn't want to let her husband, my client, find out she was having an affair with her chiropractor. I lost a lot on the court case. I got left with the lawyer fee, and the legal fines. The court and my client's wife saw I had my P.I. licence revoked. I had to sell my office and everything. Now, I'm back to making furniture with the family."
"That's really rough. I'm sorry."
"It's alright, that was a few months ago now and I guess it comes with the job."
"True enough."
"And yourself?"
"Oh, I'm a. . . well, I was a cop." Eric looked down at the floor.
"What happened, if you don't mind me asking."
"First off, I wasn't just a cop, I was a K-9 officer, something I've wanted to be for as long as I can remember. After I graduated high-school, I went straight to police college. After two years of that, I went into the special courses for K-9 training. I graduated top of my class too. I don't know what it is with me and animals, but I've always been able to understand them, and they always seem to understand me. My mother always told me I had some sort of gift. Both me and my sister seem to have it. She says it's because we're twins.
"I know it sounds really strange, but I'm not kidding. Everyone's heard of people training animals to do as they say, but it's not like that with me. I just have a natural thing with animals, I think. It's part of what got me discharged from the police department I think. That and Del here."
Brian raised an eyebrow, "How did he get you kicked out?"
"It's a long story."
"We're probably going to be waiting for a long time."
"Still, I doubt you'll enjoy any of it."
"Try me."
Page Seven
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