forgotten he was still in the car with us. It wasn't like us. "Why are we getting all warm and fuzzy in front of you, Brice?"
"I don't know," he said, "but thank you."
"For what?"
"For letting me in, I guess."
"What do you want?" Zerbrowski asked, putting his glasses back in place. Push a cop, and you get cynical back, eventually.
Brice smiled. "I'm gay, and I'm not out."
Zerbrowski made a snorting sound, and then finally laughed. We both looked at him, and they weren't friendly looks.
"Oh, come on, it's funny. Arnet has done everything but slip her panties in Brice's hand, and Millie down in tech services has found a dozen reasons to be anywhere he is; every woman in the place is after him, and he's gay. Come on, that's funny."
"Not every woman," he said, and he looked at me.
"Nothing personal, Brice, but my dance card is way beyond full."
He smiled. "If half the news reports are true, you've got your own harem, hisem, whatever. But it's more than that, you aren't attracted to me."
I shrugged. "Sorry."
"No, it's not bad, it's good."
"Wait," Zerbrowski said, "you wanted to go to dinner with the one woman in the entire department who isn't attracted to you?"
Brice nodded.
Zerbrowski frowned, and then grinned. "Sorry, Brice, you're a doll and all, but I don't think you're attractive either."
Brice grinned, then chuckled. "Good to know."
"Your sexual orientation doesn't have a damn thing to do with the job," I said.
"No, it doesn't, but if it comes out I'm gay, it will."
"Maybe," I said.
"I'd just like to come out in my own way, not be outed, that's all."
Would I have been less sympathetic if I didn't have Jade in my life? Maybe, but I did, and I hadn't been out in public with her yet; part of that was that I didn't enjoy shopping, or most of the girl stuff she wanted to do. "That's your choice," I said.
"Since you're not attracted to either of us, doesn't really matter," Zerbrowski said.
"Thank you," he said quietly.
"But now what?" I asked. "You didn't just want to come to dinner to tell us your big secret."
"I'm looking for some advice on how to handle the women at work without getting them pissed at me. Detective Arnet is being particularly persistent."
I sighed. "I'll need food if we're going to talk about girls."
Brice smiled. "What does that mean?"
"It means I had some problems with Arnet wanting to date one of my boyfriends, and I need food before we get into it."
"Fine with me," Brice said.
Zerbrowski just reached for the door handle.
We all got out and just headed for the lighted windows of the restaurant. Straight, or gay, or being a girl, it didn't matter; we were all just cops eating food and passing time while we waited. I'd tell Brice a short version of Arnet's crush on Nathaniel, and then we'd pass time talking about Brice's personal life. Fine by me, it beat the hell out of talking about mine.
Chapter Fifteen
ZERBROWSKI SURPRISED ME by getting a salad with grilled chicken on it. "You're not getting a burger?" I asked.
"Had my cholesterol checked. No burgers for a while." He looked glum as he said it.
"So, no more fast-food burgers?" I asked.
He shook his head.
I patted his back. "Dude, I'm sorry."
Brice said, "Am I missing something? You're acting like he's lost a relative."
"When you ride in Zerbrowski's car, you'll understand. He lives on fast-food burgers, and throws the wrappers into the backseat."
"Will there be room in the backseat for me to sit with all the fast-food wrappers?" Brice asked, laughing.
I looked at Zerbrowski. He shrugged. "I can clean out the back."
"I was joking," Brice said, looking from one to the other of us. "Are you serious that the backseat is so full of fast-food debris that no one can sit in it?"
"We're serious," I said.
"I'll clean it out. The smell of the wrappers will just make me hungry." Zerbrowski picked up his tray with its healthy salad on it; he looked sad.
There were plenty of tables to choose from, because we were late for dinner and hours too early for breakfast. We needed plenty of seating choices, because we were all cops and that meant that none of us wanted our backs to a door, or to the restaurant in general, and especially not a busy area where people would be walking back and forth behind us. We didn't really like windows where people on the outside could just walk up to where we were sitting, especially