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After the paperwork for Kim’s transfer to Precinct 41 was finalized, you knew this had to be a celebration with its officers. There was potential here for great merriment: some glutinous dinner, some light drinking afterward. It would be perfect. Just gather everyone the day before Kim came along, and magic could happen.
Except… you had forgotten that no one quite cared about Kim the way you do. While recommending to everyone in your vicinity of the busy station, there were polite turn-downs of your offer. What a shame. And you were offering to pay, too!
COMPOSURE – It was obvious some officers didn’t care for this at all. In fact, you could tell from those half-baked smiles and blinks that no one wanted to come along. Did it hurt? A little, but you weren’t going to show that.
PERCEPTION (SIGHT) – Even more embarrassing was that when they thought you couldn’t see them, some officers would roll their eyes or shake their head.
But you weren’t going to be deterred by this.
Instead of staging something grand the day before, you decide to invite Kim out to do something simple: get lunch together. Sandwiches. You would be paying. When you approach him by the coffee corner, he seems pleasantly surprised at the offer, flashing you a smile.
“I wouldn’t mind that at all,” Kim says before raising his paper cup, the steam of hot coffee rising into the air. “But only after I finish my coffee.”
Not long after, you head out to the streets of Jamrock, and uphill to a sandwich shop not too far from the station. The Sandwich Station—generically named, but well-priced and never crowded, even during lunchtime. It was clearly an older spot, with its peeling paint and cracks in its tiles, and even the employees leaning on the older side. It was small, most of its space made up by the counter and the kitchen, the wooden chairs inside only seating six people at most. Thankfully, Kim and you happened to be one-third of those seated after you ordered.
SHIVERS [Medium: Success] – But even with this great luck, something bad was going to happen. You couldn’t quite put your finger on it, but you knew to be vigilant around this quaint store. Very vigilant.
You haven’t been here often, but you decide to order what worked before: a roast beef sandwich, full of rich meat balanced out by the crisp lettuce and juicy tomato, with mustard to add extra oomph, all in between well-toasted rye bread.
Kim’s choice? A healthier choice of a wrap, with its layer of hummus surrounding the bell peppers, carrots, cucumbers that sat in a bed of baby spinach—healthy and refreshing, but you doubted it could fill you up.
“I don’t think that could fill me up,” you tell Kim as you take change from the woman across the counter. Still your treat, even if it was just the two of you.
“You would be surprised about how filling these components can be.” He chuckles, taking both of your sandwiches as he shakes his head. You take up the seats nearer the entrance, across from each other. He slides your parchment-wrapped sandwich towards you as he unwraps his own. “I haven’t had a one-on-one lunch with anyone in ages. Thank you, detective.”
EMPATHY – Kim appreciated this more than he let on, with how his eyes glimmered behind those glasses. Your heart swells with happiness, not just because it was your first lunch with someone else in a while as well, but also because Kim was just as happy as you are.
As soon as you heard your stomach rumbling, you knew there was no time to waste. Without another second going by, you tear the parchment paper off your sandwich, leaving the top half of it exposed and ready to eat.
ROAST BEEF SANDWICH – Your sandwich is full to the brim with meat, and you may as well start drooling all over it. But before you take a bite of this savory masterpiece, your eyes momentarily rise to meet Kim’s, and you notice he’s already bitten his wrap. He nods and gives you a thumbs up. Thank god he thinks it’s good. Now, it’s time to get to yours.
You take a bite of your sandwich, a large one.
PERCEPTION (TASTE) – The first hit is the crunch of the bread. Its nuttiness is sure to enhance the flavors of the sandwich’s other components, and the fact solidifies itself as soon as you get to the ingredients it holds in between. The meaty flavor of the beef hits you like a truck, even having a light nuttiness that complements that of the bread.
PERCEPTION (TASTE) – Alone, the meat would be overwhelming. But as you bite through the soft meat, the tomato oozes sweetness as if an additional sauce, and the crunch of the lettuce afterward adds a bitter freshness that was sure to please. In between it all was the mustard, not put simply on the bread but spread throughout the ingredients, and the tang and light spice it provides brings the sandwich all together.
This sandwich brought you to heaven, and you let it be known with a pleased sigh. Kim lets out one as well, to indicate he feels the same way. The both of you laugh as you take another large bite. But before you know it, the first half of the sandwich is gone, and you proceed to tear off the rest of the parchment paper.
As you unwrap this heavenly meal from its confines, your grip loosens as you tear off the last pieces of paper. You’re unsure why you’ve done so, but in those moments, you watch as the sandwich flies from your hands. Kim gasps, and so do you.
REACTION SPEED [Trivial: Failure] – —but what is the use, as you watch the sandwich fall flat on the ground with no layer to protect it from the ground. Your face scrunches up in pain as you stare at the spread on the ground, and you clench your fists as your fingers have failed you.
VISUAL CALCULUS – The half pieces of every part of the sandwich are still technically in one piece, but now askew, like playing cards spread out. The bite marks are obvious to the eyes. The lettuce and bottom piece of bread stay in place atop the cracked tile, collecting dirt and dust the longer it stays there. The tomato hangs off the edge of the lettuce and flops to the ground, kept there by a spread of meat that had the top piece of bread on one end of this small meat trail. There are light smears of mustard on the ground.
COMPOSURE [Formidable: Failure] – You can’t help but let out small noises of bewilderment at the mess below. You can see Kim from the corner of your eye stare with as much bewilderment as you, but he manages to keep quiet. You can’t. You push your chair back and fall to your knees, staring at the deconstructed sandwich, murmuring, “No, no, no”, over and over again. For a moment, your hands reach out to try and put the sandwich back together. It tasted too good to be stuck on the ground like this.
LOGIC – Are you sure you want to eat that?
ENDURANCE – You shouldn’t. You know what happened when you were drunk off your ass in a park. You ate that one cake off the ground before. It hurt so much. Do you remember shitting yourself?
LOGIC – The cake was also left in the rain. That green icing was getting everywhere. It made the texture all weird. It wasn’t a good thing to eat in the first place.
ENCYCLOPEDIA – The food coloring used to dye the icing was from a brand called Bright Bites. The chemicals used in the dye caused severe stomach pains, and the company faced several lawsuits from bakers worldwide. The one that baked your cake was one of many.
God, that floor cake… made you feel good.
ELECTROCHEMISTRY – That sugar high is something else. Sometimes that kick of energy from cake can be something else. Gets you moving faster. But you just had to start watching your sugar. Maybe if you kept eating cake, you would have the reflexes to catch your sandwich, huh?
That green cake was stuck in your mind now. It was perfectly moist, and its icing was the right amount of sweet, laid over the vanilla cake in neat layers. It stained your teeth green, but yes, it did taste good. It tasted damn good. Fuck the sandwich, maybe a cake would be better. Or maybe not.
VOLITION – Don’t forget that you had to pick dirt off of the icing, bit by bit. You ended up eating some dirt, anyway. Don’t you forget that.
ELECTROCHEMISTRY – Who gives a shit about some dirt? There are hidden bugs in your food everyday. Holy fuck. Just eat the cake—no, sandwich. We’re on about the sandwich.
So are you going to become a dirt eater again?
You aren’t sure. Maybe Kim could help?
EMPATHY [Formidable: Failure] – Your eyes shoot back to Kim for a second to ask him for help, and he’s worried as you’ve been kneeling there in silence. Worried worried. You give him an apologetic smile before looking around the store. So many people are looking at you. You decide to look at your sandwich instead.
DECONSTRUCTED ROAST BEEF SANDWICH – You poke and prod at the sandwich, trying to nudge it back into a full one. Your stomach rumbles some more, even if you have eaten half of the thing. Holy shit, you’re still so hungry.
ELECTROCHEMISTRY – Just eat the damn thing. You know you’ve put worse things in your body. One sandwich from the ground isn’t going to kill you.
HAND/EYE COORDINATION [Medium: Failure] – With clumsy hands, you try to put the sandwich back together. But the more you push it, the more the ingredients spill all over the ground. You don’t know why, but all of a sudden, it’s like all the parts of your meal have been covered in soap and keep slipping from your fingers. You can see the specks of dirt sticking to the tomato, and parts on the roast beef that definitely weren’t pepper.
You almost jump when you feel a hand on your shoulder. You turn your head, and it’s Kim.
EMPATHY – He doesn’t need to talk as his eyes keep bouncing from you to the food on the ground. He’s tight-lipped, with the color of his cheeks turning to a bright shade of red. He’s embarrassed. Insanely embarrassed right now.
“Officer,” Kim says, his voice a whisper as he motioned around the room. “Everyone is staring. Please, just buy another one. I am sure they will understand.”
PERCEPTION (SIGHT) – It’s in those moments that you truly notice how intensely everyone in the store is staring at you. The one exception is an employee that seems to have run from behind the counter, a young girl crying out apologies you could barely hear in your unfocused state. But it wasn’t her fault. It was yours.
DECONSTRUCTED ROAST BEEF SANDWICH OF SHAME AND EMBARRASSMENT – All you can do is helplessly watch as every delicious piece disappears into a plastic bag. Goodbye to the half of the meal you were not able to savor. You are in pain. You are in great, great pain.
Kim, hand still on your shoulder, forces you to stand up. You look back to your table, and his wrap is half-eaten. Because of you, no doubt. “I’m sorry I interrupted our lunch, Kim,” you say, as simple as an apology could be when you sat back in your chair. There was no use to display your shame. It would embarrass him further.
The girl who cleaned up your mess scurries off, and you watch from the corner of your eye as Kim settles back into his chair. He picks up his wrap, and you think for a second that he isn’t going to respond. But before he continues eating, he says a soft, “It’s okay.”
In the moment you feel relief, but you know this will be a long-lasting embarrassment that will embed itself in your mind.