Lukewarm

Five seconds into the fire alarm going off, nobody even peered over their computer monitors to see what was going on. Twenty seconds into the fire alarm, everybody in the small office swung around on their chairs to shoot each other curious looks. Forty five seconds into the fire alarm someone actually spoke up to voice their concerns about the fact the alarm was going, and finally, sixty seconds later, a person in the tiny office spoke up, mentioning something of substance.

“Is it just me or is this not the sound of the fire alarm coming from our building?” One of the boys who worked in the office mentioned, his voice wavering between fear, sarcasm and general curiousity.

Mack’s ears piped up at her co-worker’s statement. She had been so engrossed with the mountain of paperwork on her desk she was charging through, she didn’t even stop to pay attention to the fire alarm ringing off. The fire alarm in her building was like a stereotypical factory alarm sound with a pre-recorded voice ringing through saying something about the fire warden being notified and to stand by for further actions.

The one ringing through the area right now was a conservative “traditional” fire alarm, of a piercing sound of a bell. Definitely not her building’s alarm, and no one in her office seemed to know what building this strange alarm was from.

Mack then stood from her computer chair, and opened the Venetian blinds on the window next to her cubicle used to block the sunlight. Usually she was cursing the northern facing windows for blaring too much sun in her face, but right now she was happy to have a view of the outside surroundings.
She took a good look at the road outside and saw an unusual, but sobering sight.

Across the road from her building was the police headquarters for the entire state. It had a small police station attached, but it was a tall building where all the detectives from major crime squads resided. Mack always found it amusing to see how many shady looking people came in and out of that building for questioning or arrests.

However today an alarm was ringing out, and both uniformed police and detectives in suits were pouring out of the building in droves.

"What do you think is going on?" A girl in the office asked, as she turned to face the other occupants in the office.

"Do you think maybe we should be doing something? Whatever alarm is going off there, we're still pretty close by too." Mack suggested, speaking up for the first time since alarms started going off.

Everybody looked at the manager for advice, but before she could even reply an alarm started ringing through their building. It wasn't the fire alarm that Mack knew though. This one was loud, and sounded identical to an air siren.

"Yeah, I think we better evacuate." The manager replied, and everyone began to quickly pack their things before flinging themselves out the door.

Mack didn't even hesitate to take the stairs, and she chuckled to herself when she actually saw chumps waiting for the elevator. Whether this was a fire or not, it still wasn't a good idea to chance taking the elevator.

Lots of people were coming down the stairs, and the stairs became quite crowded the lower she reached. The exit was then bottle necked and it took Mack a few minutes to finally be able to get through the door.

By then, there were numerous cars around. Fire trucks, white vans, black vans, heaps of police cars and even a few news crews on the scene. There were a few firemen and police officers at the front of her building escorting people out.

Mack trudged along towards the exit, and finally was able to leave, a while after the initial siren from the other building began.

"What's going on?" Mack asked the fireman, once she got to the front of her building.

"Bomb threat," the fireman replied gruffly, as he was lightly pushing her away "now move along!"

Mack glared at the man as she walked away, but dropped it when she realised she was being unreasonable, and also realised it was in her best interests to clear the area as soon as possible. She noticed there was police tape quite far away, and she was still deep in the red zone.

As she walked towards the tape she tried to have a look around to see if any of her co-workers were around. They weren't, she had lost them in the rush and panic, and couldn't see them in the sea of people around.

She finally reached the tape, and ducked under it. She shoved her way through the nosey bystanders, hurling a few insults in her confusion and panic after they shot her dirty looks and muttered things under their breath.

"Don't you losers have anything better to do, or are my tax dollars funding your decision to be annoying at crime scenes? Get a job and a life!" Mack shouted at them, finding herself hurling insults she created from god knows where.

The random insults the young twenty-one year old girl was yelling bought the attention of a journalist hanging around. Rachel Rale, an up and coming ex-weathergirl turned “serious” journalist eagerly approached the pretty younger female, seizing the opportunity to finally be taken seriously in her career.

"Miss, Miss!" Rachel shouted after Mack, both herself and her camera crew running to catch up were knocking over bystanders to quickly reach Mack.

"...hi" Mack stated, nervously looking into the camera as she was wondering if they were turned on or not.

"I was just um, wondering your thoughts?" Rachel stammered out, finding the confidence she had ten seconds ago rapidly drain from her body.

"You want to know my thoughts?" Mack said into the microphone, facing the camera.

Rachel nodded eagerly, and moved the microphone closer to Mack.

"My thoughts are, that it is seriously messed up. As in, really, really not good. What's wrong with the world?" Mack ranted loudly.

"Yes, this bomb threat really is something else." Rachel sighed in faux worry, playing the part of a concerned journalist, making sure she didn’t miss the opportunity to shoot a worried look into the camera.

Mack looked at the journalist and the camera. She could see exactly what the journalist was doing, and wasn’t impressed that this leech was using a serious event that had plenty of people worried as a stepping stone in her career, for a good story.

"The fuck you on about? You asked my thoughts. My current thoughts are that it is so messed up there's actually no penguins in the artic. Like, my entire life is a damn lie, dammit!" Mack responded, trying her best to look confused at Rachel's confusion but was trying her hardest not to snigger, and was losing her battle.

"I um...there you have it, teenagers are so scared they're acting hysterical on camera," Rachel tried, in an attempt to save the interview but instead let out a loud sigh "No, this isn't going to work, silly little girl."

Before Mack could say something insulting back to Rachel, a man appeared in front of Mack. His attention had been drawn from the entire commotion, and he couldn't help but get involved. He should know better considering what he was about to do, especially someone in his position. But he couldn't help himself. As a red blooded male he couldn't help but to come to the aid of a pretty young thing, and he hated journalists with a passion.

Before he knew it, he was in front of the young attractive girl, doing a silly dance on camera. He was waving his arms around and moving his legs around, and he knew he looked completely ridiculous.

‘This better not actually go to air. My family and friends won’t let me live this down, and my boss will kill me’ the man thought to himself, however his negative thoughts melted away when he saw he had the attention of the pretty girl who sent him a beaming smile, and joined him by doing jazz hands.

The two were both having so much fun that they didn’t notice that Rachel the journalist had stormed off, and the camera crew quickly followed as she went to find someone who would be more appreciative of getting their face on television and would play along to give a compelling story.
The male had noticed Mack, but it was only when they both stopped to look at each other she really took in his appearance.

He was a little older than her, but not by much? She was guessing maybe five years, tops. She noticed he had cute brown eyes, and neat brown hair that was both cut and styled neatly. She looked him down, and couldn’t make his body type out as he had on a pair of suit pants, and a blue business shirt, with a business suit thrown over his shoulder. He wasn’t fat, at least.

She then noticed something, a lanyard around his neck! Only one type of professional wore lanyards around here.

“Are you a detective?” Mack asked him, not even bothering to start with small talk, as she crossed her arms over her chest and cocked up an eyebrow at the man.

“You do realise that cops don’t have to actually admit they’re a cop when asked, right? That’s just a myth.” The male replied, going with playful in order to flirt with the girl he was speaking to.

"I'm going to take that as a yes, considering only a cop would say that." Mack mumbled, unsure of how to reply as she was almost completely oblivious to the man's attempts of flirting with her.

The man looked at her, and nervously licked his lips. He wasn't sure whether she was reflecting that she wasn't really interested in him, or whether she was just naive and didn't understand he was trying with her. He tossed up in his head whether to give up and walk away or to press harder. He made up his mind.

"So um, what are you up to now? I'm guessing your work day is kind of ruined now." The man asked her, giving her a cheeky smile.

It was then that Mack started to clue in on what was currently happening. The man may or may not be interested. She smiled a bit to herself. As she didn't really go out much, she didn't really get cute guys hitting on her. She decided to try and play it cool, everyone had been a victim of making themselves available for someone when they thought the person was going to invite them to do something, but it turned out they were just making conversation.

She also took a look around her surroundings to see if she could see her co-workers or manager, just in case they had other plans. Seeing no familiar faces, she turned back to the detective.

"Yeah well, my plans are ruined. My paperwork is either not going to get done, or blown up, so there goes my exciting day." She joked, trying to hide the jittery nerves building up inside her as she looked towards the man who may or may not be interested.

The young detective smiled at her. Whilst Mack's nerves were rising, his were easing as he was trained to read body language, and could see she clearly wasn't rebuffing his advances.

"Well then, with no plans now, how do you feel about grabbing a coffee?" The man briskly stated, feeling confident enough to go for the kill rather than beating around the bush. That way if she said no, he could take the small hit to his ego, and move on.

"You're not even going to ask the less-than-subtle questions where you assume I have a boyfriend, where you try and gage my response to see if I correct you to say I'm single or not?" Mack teased, in the only way she knew how to flirt, silly teasing and sarcasm. In all honesty, she knew she was a terrible flirter.

However, the young detective knew exactly how to reply.

“That’s very presumptuous of you. Maybe I want advice on how to propose to a long term girlfriend, or I’m gay.” The detective smirked at her.

He witnessed the pretty girl’s smile fall from her face, and quickly spoke up again.

“But um, no. I’m interested in getting to know you, and I’m going out on a limb here by hoping that you’re single, and after this brief encounter you’re willing to get to know me a little, too.” The man smiled lightly.

Mack mimicked his smile. Some girls wouldn’t like this sarcastic sense of humour, but Mack did. He was showing intelligence too. She liked that in a man, and he seemed alright.

“Yeah, kay.” Mack smiled, letting all sarcastic retorts swimming around in her mind disappear, as she smiled and began to walk away from the growing number of bystanders around.

***

Mack smiled as she crossed her legs on the bench they were sitting on, a skinny latte in one of her hands. She had made small talk with the detective and had learned a little about him. He was twenty-six, five years older than herself. He was a uniformed cop from the second he graduated high school and had been a detective for a year and a half now.

‘I’m only doing small things right now, minor credit card frauds and the alike, but I have a HUGE success rate of getting people in jail, one day soon I’ll be onto the big stuff, usually people aren’t made detective until they’re mid-thirties anyway!’

It wasn’t just the man (Who had revealed his name as David shortly after they left the bomb scene) who had been talking, Mack got to reveal things about herself to him.

She was twenty-one and was studying business at the local university. She still had a bit to go due to poor circumstances, she kept withdrawing from subjects as she was having trouble with things. She had been working since she was fourteen, and aside from one receptionist gig when she was nineteen, she had been working in food and retail. After getting stuck in a sales rut, she finally got a break and got hired for an office job, and she was really happy there.

“I usually like going to the park and just chilling.” Mack explained to David, taking a sip of her now half-empty cup. Or half-full?

“Why is that? It’s not a usual hobby people would describe.” David asked her.

“Yeah well, people watching can be fun sometimes. I like seeing people and making up stories for them. Watching people on obvious first dates is the most hilarious thing ever.” Mack grinned, but then dropped it when she knew what was coming next.

“But that’s what we’re on. Do you think there are other people watching on, judging us?” David asked her.

Mack took a quick look around in the square they were currently residing in. There weren’t many people around. A few people in suits walking around, a few joggers periodically running past, and one crazy guy sitting at a stall trying to get signatures for people to legalise drugs. However, something did catch Mack’s eye on her second scoop of the scene.

“They can, but I’m judging them.” Mack said, nudging her head towards a couple sitting across the square.

“Why? That’s definitely not a first date.” David asked, turning back towards Mack to grin a little at how this date was turning. He could definitely say this was a unique first date, but also the most comfortable first date he had ever been on. He didn’t want to jinx anything, but it seemed like this would be the best first date he had ever had been on. He also was doing his best not to appear too keen, but he was looking forward to getting to know Mackenzie better, and predicted great things for the both of them.

“He’s a bit older than her. Nothing too creepy, but he’s out of her age bracket. He has a ring, she doesn’t. They’re not giving each other gentle kisses, small caresses or little cuddles. They’re making out like there’s no tomorrow. They escaped the radar because that isn’t a date ladies and gentlemen, that’s figure one of an affair.” Mack grinned.

David looked on. So she was right. Upon closer inspection he noticed the age difference, the rings and the less-than-affection between the ‘couple.’ Either they were a weird one, or more likely as Mack pointed out, they were two people having an affair.

“You’re right, this is pretty fun.” David admitted, sending Mack a sheepish looking grin.

“We’re too good, anyway. Our comfort levels are already at a fourth date level, we’re throwing off any would-be people watchers anyway.” Mack winked, and then poked her tongue out at David.
“Does that mean we’ll one day get to a fourth date?” David asked hopefully, not even bothering to play it cool.

“You’ve got yourself to a second, at least.” Mack smiled.