Message: VI

"You know, I kind of still don't get it. You're a cop, going around on a daily basis, and you couldn't just go and buy yourself new locks?" Mia raised her eyebrow in the moment when Aria, with the lit cigarette in her mouth, was changing them in the front door.

"Jesus, dude, you really need to drill? Maybe I just wanted to see you. Whatever, do I really need any reason? I asked you, paid for it, and now I owe you. Simple as that, don't make it harder. Beer?"

"Yeah, why not." Mia nodded and Callaghan pointed the kitchen.

"You know where is the fridge." She mumbled, inhaling the smoke. Her friend rolled her eyes and went where she was supposed to. What else did she expect, for Aria to be her waitress or, at least, a proper host? Yeah sure, the moon would turn into a meteor and hit Alaska faster than she would see her friend making a good impression.

"So, you done with her for good?" she put one of the bottles next to Aria when she came back, and then sat on the edge of the cupboard.

"How else do you imagine that?" the cop raised her eyebrow, giving her a fast side glance, but then she just sighed. "That I would just forgive her and decide to conquer her heart once more?" she scoffed. "I can be an idiot, but I still have dignity."

"I don't know, at some point it seemed like you were ready to give her a second chance." Mia shrugged, looking at her friend and sipping from the bottle. Aria groaned, finishing screwing the lock.

"Because I just couldn't believe she would do what you saw her doing." She admitted. "I don't know, maybe I just have a bad luck with girls. Whatever. Mendez is a past and... well, that's it."

"What now?"

"Bailarena in clubs?" Aria grinned, but when she saw Mia's face, she shook her head immediately. "I was joking. I don't like clubs, too many drunk people asking for a fist in a nostril."

"You're fucked up."

"As if you weren't." Callaghan shrugged, extinguishing the cigarette outside the threshold, in the last moment possible managing to avoid pressing the ember to her own skin. Not with Mia around.

"Touché." She sighed. "So, what's the plan? We follow her and make sure her life is a nightmare?"

"Oh, no need to, I'm sure it's nightmarish enough when she needs to see her face in the mirror every day." Aria snorted, standing up and picking the tools. Then she threw them to the box and shoved it into the nook under the stairs. "She's a nightmare herself, but now... well, now she's someone else's. At least my money is intact. Thanks to you, sis."

"You know you can always count on me." Mia winked, looking at her friend who sat on the couch and sprawled there, catching her phone and started to browse for some takeout.

"Yeah." Aria took her bottle and wanted to sip, but she frowned feeling it wasn't flowing. She sighed. "For fuck's sake, are you stupid? You opened yours, but not mine?"

"I didn't know when you'd want to drink it. You were occupied." Mia shrugged. "It would lack the bubbles."

"Remind me how long we know each other?" Callaghan sniffed, putting the cap by the edge of the table and smashing the upper part with her palm, opening the bottle with one move.

"Twenty years, more or less?"

"And for all those years you didn't learn that I prefer my beverages less bubbly?" she raised her eyebrow with disbelief. "Huh, that's always something new to know."

"Chill out, you're tense as shit. What happened?" she sipped from her bottle, observing her friend. "Because you definitely seem off."

"Rogers decided to move me to investigations." She shrugged. "And so I got a new partner."

"Seems nice."

"Yeah, if by nice you think 'ah, long legs, ironed everything, panties included, probably, and a stick up her ass', then yeah." She scoffed, confirming the order. "Because that's what this Frenchie is about."

"Frenchie?" Mia scratched her nose and clenched her fingers on the bottle. "What do you mean?"

"Her name is Toussaint. Can you imagine? I will make her life a fucking All Hallows, I swear." She rolled her eyes and her friend snorted, getting the game Aria made. "And she seriously probably just missed her call. Chanel probably would take her with a kiss on her stiffened ass."

"You seem to like her."

"The only thing I like when it comes to her is the image of her being burned alive on a pyre, and we don't even work together yet. I mean, seriously, I am supposed to start tomorrow." Aria grunted, chugging from the bottle and then letting out a loud belch. "Sorry. Anyway, I was packing my stuff and she came around, all prissy and shit, trying to make friends. Honey, not with that condescending attitude." She snapped her fingers in a very suggestive manner. Mia snorted, shaking her head.

"I have no idea who she is, but I already kinda ship you." She admitted.

"And I wanted to offer you a pizza." Callaghan facepalmed. "That's it. You ain't getting shit."

"Aria!"