Amanda's Blue Marine by Doreen Owens Malek

then stopped, sighing.
    “Searching for cigarettes?” Mandy asked.
    He looked at the ceiling. “I’m trying to quit.”
    They both glanced around as a loud voice behind them called out, “Hey, Kelly, long time no see. Where ya been, kid? Shacked up with that blonde I saw you with in Old City?”
    Kelly looked at Mandy and she saw his face tighten and a muscle begin to jump in his jaw.
    “Oh, Christ,” he muttered.
    Mandy’s alarm grew as he half rose from his seat to face the new arrival, who grinned obnoxiously at Amanda and added, “That blonde looked pretty hot.” He shot a parting glance at Kelly and moved on to the other side of the room.
    Kelly was standing as Amanda said to him urgently, “Don’t do anything. It doesn’t matter, Kelly. Let it go.”
    “It matters to me. He was saying that to make you uncomfortable.” Kelly’s gaze met hers. “He thinks you’re my date.”
    “I’m not uncomfortable and I’m not that delicate. I don’t want any trouble for you.”
    Kelly put his hand over Mandy’s fist, closed with tension on the table.
    “I’m not going to do anything, Amanda. You’ve had a bad day and I won’t make it worse. But I will get rid of him. Just let me take care of this, okay?”
    Amanda watched helplessly as he walked to where the new arrival was standing and engaged him in low conversation. The other man listened, gave a short reply, and moved away. Mandy watched as he crossed the room and left promptly through the front door.
    Kelly rejoined her and signaled the waitress to bring him another cup of coffee.
    “Who was that?” Mandy asked anxiously, watching the door as if Kelly’s antagonist might return.
    “Chris Bailey, another cop from my precinct,” Kelly replied tersely. “He’s not too stoked about me.”
    “Why?”
    “He thinks I stole his promotion, among other things.”
    “Did you?”
    Kelly shook his head. “Manning recommended me for the detective’s exam, not him. There are only so many slots that open up each year. He’s older. He’s married and has a family. He thinks I jumped ahead of him. The truth is Manning didn’t think he could score high enough on the test to even be considered for the interviews.”
    “But you did. Score high enough.”
    Kelly nodded. “And they didn’t even ask me about Vercingetorix.” He stared at her with feigned amazement.
    Mandy laughed, starting to relax again. “What were the other things?”
    “Beg pardon?”
    “You said there were other things that he was holding against you.”
    “We were in kind of a competition for the same woman for a while.”
    “And she preferred you?”
    He shook his head. “Nah. She preferred my situation. He’s married and seeing him would have meant sneaking around and lying and she wasn’t too keen on either one.”
    “That’s understandable.”
    “Nobody cares what I’m doing,” he said, half laughing, “so I guess I was the default choice.”
    Mandy had noticed before that he naturally downplayed his assets and victories, as if embarrassed by them. The only areas of achievement he seemed confident about and comfortable with were his ability to do police work, handle himself physically, and attract women.
    Not necessarily in that order.
    “What did you say to him?” Mandy asked. “To make him go away.”
    “I told him I would drag him outside and knock his ears off if he didn’t shut up and leave. And I would also tell his wife about his extracurricular adventures.” Kelly smiled. “I think he was more afraid of his wife than he was of me.”
    “Really?”
    He shrugged. “She’s pretty big. Bigger than I am.”
    Mandy giggled and his smile softened.
    The waitress returned and filled his cup. She didn’t even look at him.
    “What happened to the woman you both liked?” Mandy asked.
    “Oh. She married a butcher and moved to Reading.”
    For some reason this terse bulletin intensified Mandy’s giggle.
    “Where they’re both knee deep in steaks, I