Robbery In Progress

*Emma*

I had just finished microwaving some popcorn when the intercom went off announcing someone at the main door. I walked over to hit the talk button and asked who it was.

"It's me," I heard in reply and instantly I knew who "me" was. I pushed the button unlocking the main door for her before opening the door to my apartment. When I saw her face down the hall I relaxed and tensed up at the same time. I honestly had no idea that was possible. She stopped in front of me and I pulled her into a hug.

"I've been texting, and I even called. Plus voice messages, you know how much I hate voice messages." She sighed and hugged me back.

"I do, sorry I just needed time to clear my head. I'm sorry I walked out too, that wasn't cool of me."

My sister finally surfaced and she was apologizing. To me. I should be the one apologizing to her. In fact, I had been, profusely. After pulling her into my apartment and shutting the door, I headed back to the kitchen.

"I should be the one apologizing to you. I know mom's death hit you harder. You remember her more than I do. It was insensitive of me." I pulled out two glasses as I word vomited at her feet. "I was just blinded by my grief that I thought I was over. But I'm obviously not." I poured water into both glasses and handed her one. "And that's on me. It isn't your responsibility to deal with me, you know that right? I'm an adult now, and you have your own kids to raise. You already raised me. God I am so sorry." I pulled her into a hug and spilled a little bit of water in the process. She stopped me before I could rush off to clean that up.

"I do. And I know you are. We both said a lot of things while we were angry, and we definitely need to work through those issues. But hiding from facing them was wrong of me. And I do need to apologize to you for that. That's why I wanted to stop by tonight, after Eric and I put the little ones to bed, I drove over." As she used a towel to absorb all the water I spilled on the ground she noticed the popcorn sitting on the counter. "You have a date or something? I can come back another time. I didn't mean to interrupt."

"No, not at all. I was just going to watch a movie, fall into a made up world for a bit since I screwed up my own life so badly," I was attempting to just laugh off my problems but good ole Meg caught onto it. She leaned against the counter and crossed her arms over her chest as she stared me down for a minute.

"Didn't you say in one of your messages that you had a funny story to tell me? I would love to hear about that."

I shook my head at her. "I know what you're doing, you can't trick me anymore." She shrugged and smiled as if to say, the question still stands. I sighed.

"Want some popcorn?" Her smile grew as she reached for the bowl and started chomping down on *my* popcorn.

"Tell all, I can't wait to hear everything." She moved to sit at one of the bar stools and gave me her full attention.

"So after our fight, I went to a bar a few blocks away. I met someone while I was there, not like a date or anything. Don't get any ideas. It was just one night. But then, the following day I got a call for work. It was a new case that I'm working on with some local detectives. And it turns out, the person I met the night before is one of those local detectives."

"First off, I want to say that your storytelling skills are severely lacking. That was actually kind of sad. I've heard worse but you were like, barely better than worse."

I pushed her shoulder playfully. I was annoyed with her because that's what sisters do, but I was also so thankful that I had my best friend back. "Okay, and what was the second point?"

"Right! The second point. So what happened when you found out your previous flame was a cop on your case? This is so exciting, what's she like? I can just see it now, she's probably super friendly right? To balance out that adorable social awkwardness vibe you've got going?"

"That's rude. I'm not that bad. I don't know if I would say 'super friendly' is a personality trait for her. Or maybe it's just one I haven't had much exposure to. It was pretty awkward that first day but we mostly ignored it since the situation was pretty high stress. But, when I tried to talk to her about it on Monday...let's just say it didn't go well. I upset her, that's very clear to me. I'm just a little fuzzy on how exactly I did that." I frowned as I thought over our conversation again. I don't recall saying anything that we didn't already know. But obviously we weren't on the same page about something.

I stood up from my chair and grabbed the popcorn that Meg was snacking on. "I don't really want to dwell on this right now. Want to watch a movie with me?"

Meg pulled out her phone and checked the time, then scrunched her nose a little, "I'm on the same sleep schedule as my kids. How about we make that an episode of a tv show and you've got a deal."

Instantly agreeing to that trade off, I headed to my living room with the popcorn and my water. Meg trailed after me and grabbed the remote so she could start flipping through the options. We were about halfway through an episode of a sitcom when my intercom went off again.

"Jeez, I am popular tonight," I muttered before getting up and walking over to it. Meg paused the show and followed me, her curiosity consistently got the better of her. Just as I did with Meg, I hit the talk button and asked who it was. "It's Kelsey." I pulled my hand back from the intercom like it had burned me. This was completely unexpected. Meg clearly found my response curious but thankfully she held her tongue as I unlocked the front door for Kelsey. However, I rethought Meg's saint status when there was a knock on my door and she chose that moment to speak up, "is this the previous flame?" She asked.

"No words from you," I warned her before opening the door. "Kelsey, I didn't expect to see you tonight. What's going on?" I watched her appraise the situation in front of her as she shifted her weight from her left foot to her right and then back again. She was in jeans and a black shirt that hugged her perfectly. A stark contrast to her work clothes that I had grown used to seeing her in this past week, but it was in line with what she wore the night we met.

"I didn't mean to interrupt. I can go," is all she said back. Before I could reply, my sister stepped in.

"You know what? I should actually get going. My husband,” she emphasized husband, I rolled my eyes at that but had to admit her dedication to avoiding any confusion here was appreciated, "is probably waiting up for me anyway." Then she turned to me, "can we do lunch soon? Maybe start working through everything?"

"That sounds great, thanks sis." She went and collected her things quickly and came back to give me a hug. "Love you."

"Love you too," she replied before turning back to the door. "I'm Meg by the way. Emma's sister."

"Kelsey," she announced in response. I held back my chuckle as they shook hands. Kelsey obviously felt awkward about something, whether it was the situation or whatever she had come here for, I had not yet concluded.

"It was nice to meet you." After we all said our goodbyes and Meg was gone, I invited Kelsey in.

"Did you want anything to drink?" I had no idea why she was here but I figured starting off with an easy question like beverage choices would help ease us in. It was a common technique I used at work that almost never failed so I thought I would try my luck on it tonight.

"No, that's okay. I actually don't mean to stay long. I just came by to apologize actually." I raised my eyebrows at that. *What was in the water tonight?*

"You did?" The confusion was clear in my voice. She just nodded in return and I sat down across from her. "Okay, I can't wait to hear this."