Parting Moments
It was a steady rain, and a freezing-cold one, and Nick’s smile was inviting beneath the umbrella large enough for two mammals in their size range.
“Thanks.”
“My pleasure. So, my place or yours?”
She elbowed his side, just hard enough to elicit a small wince, not enough to make the fox drop his smile. The pair strolled across the plaza, chatting at everything and nothing, enjoying the simple pleasure of the rain drumming off the umbrella.
“Clawhauser’s betting we’ll be detectives by year’s end.”
“Well, he’s also betting we’ll be married by year’s end, so…”
“You don’t say?”
Judy saw Nick off at the station, watching the fox watch her until his train turned off for his District, then sat on a bench for her train. Idly, listening to the rain drum against the station’s glass ceiling, she noticed he’d left the umbrella for her.
“Oh, my dumb fox.”