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Even with the lights on, an atmosphere of shadowy noir enveloped the Los Angeles SSR’s late evening. It was 9:45pm, and all of the agents had long gone, except for Chief Daniel Sousa, who stood against the filing cabinets of his office and carefully inserted folder after folder into the appropriate alphabetized place. Entranced the task at hand, he failed to notice the figure approach his door, then stop and watch him for several moments.
“Chief, what are you doing?” the figure sighed.
Daniel looked up from the drawer of files and saw Rose, holding her jacket and purse, regarding him curiously.
“Oh, hi, Rose. I thought you left. You know…,” he smiled tiredly and motioned towards the filing cabinet, “A chief’s work is never done.”
Rose exhaled slowly and shook her head, without breaking eye contact.
“That’s’ not what I meant. I heard that you bought a *ring*.”
Daniel blushed and looked down, then to the left, then to several other directions that were not the direction of her gaze, before he placed the stack of files on top of a filing cabinet and slammed the open drawer.
“Yeah, maybe. Why? It’s none of your business.”
Rose rolled her eyes and walked over to a nearby chair to deposit her coat and purse. “Oh, please, Daniel. We’ve been drunk together too many times for you to try to use that on me. So I’ll ask again… *what are you doing?*”
Daniel raised his hands in exasperation, still not meeting her gaze. “Rose, I-I don’t know what you want me to say here. Why does a man usually buy a diamond ring? I’m going to propose to my girlfriend, obviously. Why is that a problem?”
Without missing a beat, Rose shot back: “Because you’re trying way too hard to justify it to me, you’re clearly in love with another woman, and it’s not fair to Violet or to yourself.”
Daniel took in her words and then laughed bitterly. “Yeah? Well, just for fun, let’s say that’s true. It doesn’t matter, because the other woman has no interest in me. What am I supposed to do? Sit around pining for someone who doesn’t want me? That sounds like a great way to spend my life.”
He picked the pile of files up off the top of the filing cabinet, regarded them for a moment, and slammed them back down again.
Rose walked over to him and grabbed him by the shoulders, finally forcing him to look at her. “Daniel,” she began as his eyes finally met hers, “*Listen to me.* Who do you think I heard about the ring from? Peg. And she was upset. *Very* upset.”
Daniel looked away and shrugged. “It was a shock for her. She’s probably just upset at the loss of my attention.”
Rose recoiled in confused annoyance. “What? Is that really what you think?” After a pause, she added, still annoyed, “Daniel, let me make this very clear: I am telling you that Peg was very upset because you had a ring for a woman *that wasn’t her.* I’m a woman. I know these things.”
Daniel regarded her doubtfully until she finally exclaimed, “Daniel, I found her *crying in the bathroom*, ok?”
In the space of an instant, Daniel’s expression morphed from hardened doubt to stunned disbelief.
“I know,” Rose explained. “At first, I didn’t believe it, either… I thought it had to be someone else in the women’s bathroom, but who else here would it be? And then I saw her shoes in the stall.”
Daniel stepped backwards and ran his hands through his hair, while Rose continued, “We both know that Peg’s not a crying-at-work kind of girl – she’s probably not even a crying kind of girl -- so I got really worried that it had to be something really bad. So I stayed with her and started talking to her… and, eventually, she told me.”
Daniel remained silent for several moments, before he looked back towards Rose and quietly asked, “So what am I supposed to do?”
Rose stepped towards him. “First, you and Peg need to talk,” she answered firmly. Honestly and truthfully, so there are no further misunderstandings. You owe it to each other, and to Violent, too.”
Still running his hand through his hair, Daniel mindlessly walked to the other side of his desk. Standing in front of his desk chair, he nodded solemnly and sighed, “I guess you’re right.”
“I know I’m right, Daniel,” Rose replied, “I love you both, but you two are a mess.”
He shot her a nasty look.
“Oh, just you wait… I’m not done yet. Second,” she walked towards him with her hand held out. “Give me the ring.”
“What?” Daniel exclaimed.
“I mean it,” Rose affirmed, with her hand still outstretched. “Give me the ring. I’ll hold onto it so you don’t do something stupid before you and Peg sort this out.”
Daniel was incredulous. “You’re serious?”
“As a heart attack, Daniel,” Rose answered firmly. “I don’t want to have to do further damage control after you jump the gun because Peg didn’t say hello one morning and you think she’s ignoring you, or because Violet baked a batch of your favorite cookies and you couldn’t keep your mouth shut. Now… hand it over.”
He fixed her with a Death Glare for several moments before he grudgingly opened his desk drawer, pulled out the ring box, and handed it to her.
She immediately opened the box and looked at the ring. “This is really beautiful, Daniel. Of course, you do know that if things work out with Peg, you can’t give her this ring, right?”
With one hand on his hip and the other pointing towards his office door, Daniel growled, “Good NIGHT, Rose.”
She smiled, picked up her coat and purse, and headed out the door… only to hear him add, very softly, after she exited, “And thank you.”