Message: XXII

"You plan on saying something or did we meet here just to eat?"

"You plan on eating something or did we meet here just to talk?" Aria raised her eyebrow, stuffing her mouth with the fries and then getting into the burger. Her stomach was churning from hunger and she was feeling like she had been starving for a week.

"You know that if you don't want to talk about it you could have just said so?" Mia gave her a side glance, but Callaghan swallowed a piece of the burger, looking at her friend.

"And you'd totally just leave the topic and not touch it ever again, right?" she asked mockingly, and her friend cleared her throat.

"Erm... no."

"There you go." The officer shrugged, getting back to her food. Mia didn't yet even touch her order, even though she was hungry herself. She was concerned for her cop friend. "Spit it out, I can see you're trying not to suffocate."

"You sure everything's all right? You know, your ex..."

"Mendez had been arrested, charged and is waiting for what may come at her. And I will make sure she'd not have it easy. Something else, or you'd want to start making bets on when people in the precinct would start talking that I'm a lesbian who has a very poor detector, so how could I even land in investigations?" she snorted, rolling her eyes and chewing. Mia took some fries, vigilantly observing her friend. "Not to mention I didn't even want to end up there at the first place."

"You think they can start talking?"

"I don't know, if Brioche was nosy enough to just come around and bluntly ask about me and my ex, I have some, not much, but some reasons to suspect that she could ask Rogers. And that would be the better scenario." She sighed, shrugging and playing with a piece of lettuce. "She doesn't even know me, we work together for two days and she already thinks it's okay to just ask about those things. Jesus, annoying as hell."

"Aren't you a bit too harsh? Maybe she just cares? I mean, seriously, she can't be that bad..."

"Yeah, sure." Aria almost barked, but she held it in time. "She thinks she's my superior."

"Isn't she?"

"No." Aria snorted, biting the burger again. "Of course fucking not. We're partners. And my boss is... well, to be honest I don't even fucking know who is my boss." She shrugged, swallowing. "Can we not talk about that? One thought about that nosy bitch and I am already feeling nauseous."

"I still think you're too harsh for her."

"If you want to be nicer to her, you're free to do so, but count me outta it." She huffed, putting the rest of the burger on her plate. "Because seriously, I couldn't care less. By the way, to ditch the unimportant topic, what the fuck were you doing in my house at that barbaric hour yesterday, huh? I don't have any problem with it, I am just curious."

"Well, I... kind of was in a club." She said quietly, as if she wanted to just omit the topic, but Aria wasn't in the mood for playing.

"So what? You were in the club for the first time in your life? Because I really doubt that."

"No, but... you know."

"And because I know I am asking?" she raised her eyebrow, looking at her friend with disbelief. "You should have known better."

Mia sighed and nodded, knowing that the discussion with Aria was not to be ditched easily. Especially when she just wanted to know something she actually quite deserved to know anyway.

"There was this guy, you know..." she interrupted, and Callaghan knew that she wanted to just leave it there. Her gaze, however, didn't allow her friend to do so. "And I was drunk, so we went to the stall and..."

"And you just had sex, amirite?" she raised her eyebrow and Mia nodded, averting her gaze. "So what? Is that something bad? Not that you're not single or anything."

"I know, but.."

"Did he rape you?"

"God, no!" Mia looked at her friend with pure dread. "What the hell?"

"Did you want it?"

"I guess so?"

"Did he ask?"

"Yes."

"You gave him your consent?"

"Yes..."

"Do you remember that?"

"What the fuck, Aria, of course I do!" She frowned, but her friend just shrugged.

"Then you are fine. You're an adult, chose to bang and banged. At least I hope you used a condom. But I don't need to know the details." Aria swallowed the rest of her burger and looked at her watch. "And now I am sorry, I need to go back to work."

She stood up and left the restaurant, leaving her friend with a mindfuck sprawled all over her face.