Jayne and Steelie - 01 - Freezing by Clea Koff Page A

on the sidewalk. ‘She still mad at me, then?’
    She gave him an embarrassed grin and started walking.
    â€˜Argh!’ He threw his hands up in the air and caught up with her. ‘How long can someone hold a grudge for God’s sake! It’s been almost ten years.’
    â€˜She’s like an elephant; she never forgets.’
    â€˜And now you two are running this charity. How’s that going?’
    â€˜It’s good. Early days yet.’
    â€˜How long since your doors opened?’
    They’d crossed into Little Tokyo’s center and were walking past bubble tea cafes and clothing shops. ‘It’s been about a year now.’
    â€˜I only had a second to glance at your website but you’re trying to work on the backlog of bodies?’
    â€˜Yeah.’
    â€˜Pretty ambitious.’
    She shot him a look. ‘What, just because it’s a big job, we shouldn’t bother?’
    â€˜You know it’s not just a big job, Jayne; it’s damn near insurmountable.’
    She didn’t like the way he made air quotes with his fingers around “big job”, like she hadn’t assessed the nature of the problem correctly. She wanted to say, Well, with attitudes like that . . . She voiced, ‘Depends on how you look at it.’
    â€˜You’re saying the glass is half full, not half empty.’
    â€˜Yeah.’
    â€˜Bullshit.’
    She stopped walking and turned to look up at his face, remembering how he had a way of making her feel the height differential was just symbolic of his actual superiority. She was suddenly glad Steelie wasn’t there. It would save her from having to post bail after Steelie was arrested for grievous bodily harm from punching Gene in the mouth.
    â€˜It’s not bullshit, Gene. Perspective makes a difference and if that means people like us keep trying to put names to bodies – particularly the difficult to identify – then that’s a good thing.’
    Jayne felt like his eyes were boring right through her but then he broke into a grin.
    â€˜That must be the face your sponsors see when you’re asking for grants.’
    She couldn’t tell if that was a compliment and didn’t get a chance to ask because the host of the restaurant they had unwittingly stopped in front of asked if they’d like to see the menu. He was holding out a large, vinyl-covered book that Jayne accepted.
    They stepped closer to the doorway to get light to read by and walked into the scent of food. She and Gene looked at each other in silent agreement.
    They let the host lead them to a table set in a front window. There were a few other diners at tables partially obscured by ficus trees and ferns in pots. The lights were low, and the atmosphere was muted as people focused on their food.
    She and Gene shared several dishes, telling old stories and arguing good-naturedly over details.
    As they finished up, he asked, ‘Remember when you fell down the ravine in Rulindo?’
    â€˜Oh, we can laugh about it now but you guys left me down there way too long.’
    â€˜We knew you were OK.’
    â€˜I could have broken my ankle!’
    â€˜But you didn’t.’
    â€˜I think I did sprain it or something. It’s never been the same.’
    â€˜Really? You should get it checked out.’
    Jayne smiled. ‘A bit late for that, don’t you think?’
    â€˜You, ah, ever get checked out by a psych?’
    â€˜Why? Did you?’
    â€˜When I got back to DC. But you didn’t answer my question.’
    â€˜No, I never saw anyone.’
    â€˜Still could.’
    â€˜I suppose.’ She paused. ‘Did it help you? I mean, not that you needed help per se.’
    Gene thought for a moment. ‘It helped me get some clarity about what I wanted to spend my life doing. Working in Rwanda kinda opened things up for me.’
    â€˜How do you mean?’
    â€˜I guess I felt some freedom