Who: Leon and Miranda What: Miranda meets a fan When: Recently Where: A coffee shop Ratings/Warnings: Low/none, aside from mentions of playboy and exotic dancing Status: Complete
Leon had never really minded being the guy who went to pick up doughnuts and the occasional coffee for the guys at work. His dad had impressed upon him at a young age that bringing doughnuts was an easy in. There were a lot of police officers who didn’t have a chance to eat before or while at work. And so his first day at work he’d brought them, and six years later he was still doing it. He’d done it for so long that deciding which dozen doughnuts wasn’t very hard, and so he’d ordered them, and a black cup of Earl Grey tea.
After paying, he leaned against the pick-up counter, arms crossed over his t-shirt and the shoulder holster that held his sidearm.
His eyes roved around the cafe as he waited for the staff to prepare his order, and then stopped on the brunette woman. He recognized her from somewhere, and, eyebrows furrowed together, he tried to recall from where. He had a fairly good memory for names and faces, something that helped a lot on his profession, and it didn’t take long for the where to make itself known to him, and only a little longer for the name. His face reddened a little, and he patted his back pocket to make sure his notepad and pen were still located there. He swallowed, steeled himself, and approached the woman. “Hey, you’re Miranda, aren’t you?” he asked.
Miranda had been out running some errands. She was also formulating some contingency plan in the event her father located her or her sister. There was also the fact she was trying very hard to ignore the whole business with Isabela that had occurred around Valentine’s Day, mostly because she had to ask herself questions that she didn’t have the answers to. And it bothered her to not have answers.
She’d gotten some tea and was sitting at a table with a newspaper. She wore a white, button up blouse and nice jeans with high heels. Not that she needed the heels because she was just shy of six feet tall without heels. When she heard a man ask if she was Miranda, she froze initially, wondering if it was someone her father sent after her. However, the gun holster told her that he was a cop. She relaxed, but only a little bit.
“I am, yes. Why do you ask?” If he knew her name, had he been to Afterlife to see her dance and gotten her name that way? Or had he seen her in Playboy? Or was this strictly a business conversation?
“I thought so!” Leon said triumphantly. “I knew I recognized you from-” and, suddenly, it dawned on Leon about just how inappropriate it was for him to go up to some random woman in a cafe to tell her that he was a fan of the work she’d done in titty magazines. But he was committed now. He couldn’t just stop mid sentence. “Your modelling work,” he finished, only stumbling a little bit to finish his sentence, and he cheeks turned a little red.
Miranda eyed him, then when he finally mentioned the modeling work, everything clicked. Well, at least he wasn’t here to arrest her or to give her bad news about her sister or something. She saw the way his cheeks turned a little red and she couldn’t help but to smile a bit. “Ah, you saw me in Playboy, did you? It’s alright, you can say it. I’m not ashamed of it.” Course, she’d needed the money, but she’d also liked posing for the magazine. She’d probably do it again just for fun as well.
Leon grinned, relieved he hadn’t really stuck his foot in it this time. She seemed friendly enough, so without bothering to ask, he slid into the booth across from her. “You know, I was always a little bummed out you didn’t make centerfold. Maybe if you’d gone blond,” he said. He himself had a penchant for blondes and redheads over brunettes, the exception being Alex. But Alex was also distinctly male and probably shouldn’t be counted among the types of girls Leon usually liked. “You still do that kinda thing?”
Miranda didn’t mind when he sat down across from her. She would’ve invited him to anyways. At least he was friendly and not perverted like some guys could be if they recognized her from Playboy. “Yeah, I definitely wasn’t going to go blonde for that. Thank you, though. Centerfold would’ve been great, but I’m happy they wanted me at all.” It was work and work meant money that she had somewhat desperately needed at the time. “Sometimes, yes. I tend to focus more on exotic dancing. But if I figure out what I want to actually do with my life, I might do more modeling jobs. Maybe I’ll make the swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated one day.” She was only half-joking about that.
“Sports Illustrated would be lucky to have you,” Leon grinned. “Though where are you dancing at? I’ll bring my boyfriend by sometime.” It was still weird to say ‘boyfriend’ instead of girlfriend, but given that Leon didn’t talk about his love life at work much and almost all of his social life took place at work or at the bar, maybe it wasn’t so weird. It definitely wasn’t the kind of date night he’d have ever suggested to a girlfriend, but he had the feeling Alex wouldn’t mind.
“Thank you. You’re quite the charmer,” she said with a grin. “Afterlife. It’s both a club that’s eighteen plus, and a stripclub that’s twenty-one plus. It’s actually one of the nicer places I’ve worked at.” Miranda had worked at some hole-in-the-walls before. But Aria definitely had gotten it right with Afterlife. As much as it made her chaffe given the piss hole that Omega and Afterlife were in her dream life, Aria knew how to run a club here and to keep it nice and safe for her dancers. She did treat them well. “It would be good to see you and your boyfriend there.”
“Aw shucks,” Leon said, blushing a little and lightly scratching at his cheek with his index finger. He didn’t get ‘charming’ thrown at him very often. Usually it was more along the lines of ‘asshole.’ He made a mental note of the club name and to ask Alex if he’d want to check it out sometime.
“Hey Detective, your order’s ready,” the guy behind the counter called.
Leon turned in his seat. “Yeah, gimme a minute,” he said, waving dismissively and ignoring the guy’s slightly annoyed look. “Sorry ‘bout that,” he said, turning back to Miranda. “Looks like I’ve gotta stop slacking off. But uh…” he pulled his notepad and pen from his pocket, and giving Miranda a bit of a sheepish look, “could I get your autograph?”
Miranda wasn’t always the friendliest person, she tended to be extremely guarded and careful about her interactions with people. But when someone was talking to her about liking her work? She easily slipped into the charming woman she certainly could be.
Glancing at the guy behind the counter, she had to chuckle softly at the annoyed look. She turned her gaze back to Leon and smiled. “Of course, it would be my pleasure. And at least I’m not signing an image of my breasts this time.” She gave him a wink. “I would sign one, though, if asked.” But sometimes variety was the spice of life, as the saying went.
Leon blushed a little at the wink, but slid the notepad and pen across the table. “Well, it’s not like I carry my magazines around with me.” He frowned, eyebrows knitting together. “Wait, do you mean that some people actually do do that?”
Taking the notepad and pen, Miranda autographed it, addressing it to him and adding a little heart in place of the dot above the “i” in her name. “I’ve had a few, yes. They tend to be creepy, but autographing the photo tends to make them go away faster.” Most of the time, but Miranda wasn’t defenseless. She slid the notepad and pen back to him. “There you go.”
Leon grinned at the autograph. He couldn’t wait to tell Alex about all of this. Then, he turned his attention back to Miranda. “If any of them every give you any trouble, you can call me any time,” he said, fishing one of his business cards out from his pocket. “But I really oughta be getting back to work. Hungry cops to feed and crimes to solve and all that,” he said, getting up from his seat.
Taking his card, she glanced over it for a moment before looking back at Leon with a smile. “Thank you, I will certainly do that if I have any trouble.” At least, any trouble that Aria’s security couldn’t handle. Which was anything that happened away from the club. “Of course, I wouldn’t want to hold you back from such an important job as feeding cops and solving crimes.” She chuckled. “It was very nice to meet you, Leon.” And she meant it. It certainly was a good start to her day, at any rate.