Page 92 of The System

“No,” she replied. “And I can’t tell you why. I just have this inexplicable feeling like she’s telling the truth.”

“Does that feeling have anything to do with the fact that you’re dating her sister, who also happens to believe her and may or may not be naïve for doing so?”

“You’re part of it, but not how you think,” Carina said.

“No? Then, how?”

“It’s not in a feelings way; it’s because you’re a logical person. You’re generally cool, calm, and collected, and you’ve understood this entire time that there’s a ton of evidence against her, but when you say you believe her, it makes sense. It’s like she is believable.”

“She is to me.”

“And when you told me her story tonight, it’s believable to me, too.” Carina moved back into Kieran and placed her hands on her thighs again. “But that doesn’t mean anything.”

“I know. They have the evidence.”

“And she’s probably going to be convicted, babe.”

“Here and in Florida.”

“Florida might be different; I don’t know. Maybe it really is just a coincidence that he was killed the same way, and they’ll find her alibi somewhere. Here, though, with what they’ve got on her, I can’t see a jury letting her off.”

“What about the number twelve bus?”

“You’ve put in your request. Frank did, too. He’s just a little behind, but he’ll probably still get it before you do since he’s representing her. We’ll watch the footage, and, hopefully, she’s there. If not, he can argue self-defense, or maybe he can find another viable suspect.”

“Right,” Kieran said. “Let’s talk about something else. I don’t want to bring the night down.”

“You’re not,” Carina replied. “This is part of it, Kieran; this is part of being with someone. I don’t know how it was with Diego, but I’m not looking for someone to run away from when I get home. I don’t want to disappear into an office every night instead of spending time with someone. I want to have this when I come home from work: someone I care about sitting on our counter, talking about her day, while we cook dinner together.”

“You know Diego’s type, don’t you?”

“I’ve met enough men like him, yes. But you’ve also told me a little about how he was, and I didn’t get the impression that that was making you happy.”

“It wasn’t. I left, remember?”

“Yes. And you’re here now,” Carina replied. “We’re here now. I know it’s only our second date, but I want you to know what I want. And I hope you want the same things, but it’s important to me to get it all out in the open now. I didn’t do that with Tinley, and we ended up in completely different places, despite us living in the same house.”

“Okay. Well, I want what you’re talking about, too. And I might like getting married again one day, but that’s not a requirement, like we’ve talked about.” Kieran wrapped her arms around Carina’s neck again. “I don’t want kids. I want my own office in any future house.”

Carina laughed and said, “For your whole setup?”

“Yes. I’m not working from the kitchen again.”

“Okay. Anything else?”

“Well, if Marin is convicted, I guess I’d want to live somewhere reasonably close to wherever she ends up so that I can visit. The prison they say she’s going to is over two hours away from here, so I can do that once a week, but if they send her to the one five hours away, that will get hard.”

Carina placed a hand on Kieran’s chest and said, “I understand.”

“You’re going to be the DA here. You can’t just up and move if–”

“Hey, why don’t we at least get to the third date before we start worrying about, like, two years in the future.”

“I thought lesbians were all about moving in together. Isn’t that what all the stereotypes are about?”

Carina laughed as her phone rang. She kissed Kieran quickly and moved to pick it up, seeing Dylan’s name appear on the screen.

“You better not have bad news. I’m on a date.”

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