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'If you say so.' Trev made his way past the end of the counter, smiled a greeting to Lucy, and was almost to his desk when Patterson turned around, frowning. |
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'I meant that the other way around.' |
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'Oh? OK.' He pulled out his swivel chair and sat down. |
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'I mean it, though. This is Saturday night, man. Date night, you know? You oughta be out somewhere getting lowdown and hairy.' |
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'I'd rather be here with you,' he said, and winked at the burly sergeant. |
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Lucy, at the dispatcher station off in the corner, looked over her shoulder grinning. 'You'd better watch what you say, Trev, or you'll have Patty sitting on your lap.' |
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'Sit on mine, honey,' Patterson told her. 'Better still, on my face.' |
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'Don't you wish,' she said, then turned away as a call came in. |
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Trev slid open his top drawer. He took out a coupon for a dollar off a family size pizza at O'Casey's, dug his wallet out of a seat pocket of his jeans, and folded the coupon. As he tucked it into his wallet, he shook his head at the absurdity of dropping by here for a dollar-off coupon. |
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Nothing absurd about it, he told himself. He had to drive right past the station, anyway, on his way to O'Casey's. And a buck is a buck. |
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But his stomach fluttered a bit as he stuffed the wallet back into his pocket and he knew that his real |
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