[b][h2][center]Paige Kennedy[/center][/h2][/b]

Paige stared blankly at the phone screen for a moment after Milo hung-up. She [i]hated[/i] being called Princess and he knew it. [i]Asshole[/i]. She grumbled to herself. Tossing the phone aside, she contemplated going back to sleep, but decided against it. Her father had preached that morning back in Delta and after using the Bible to tune up poor Bob, she thought maybe listening to his sermon as she got ready to meet Milo might help balance out that bit of irreverence. Normally, she preferred to use the phone book, especially if it had the yellow pages included where she could roll it and bend it in her hands and really get a good swing in, however those were getting more and more rare in the digital age. She downloaded his sermon and let it play as she showered and dried her hair out. It was nice to hear his voice again. She could picture the congregation, the PowerPoint slides behind him and where she and Ana would sit, sometimes with Milo as well.

She had only began making a name for herself in Delta when he pulled her aside one day to talk. It was mostly congratulatory and encouraging as he was many times. She was no doubt her mother’s child. However, it was what he said last that day that never really faded from her conscious and she was sure that was how he meant it. Daddy had a certain, cutting way with words: [i]Paige, I know you’re often faced with situations where you don’t have a lot of time to think, I just want you to remember whose voice it is in your head that you’re listening to.[/i] He had left it at that and walked away with his usual smile.  

The thought of it gave her a slight chill as she put on her clothes and the sermon finished with a hymn. He was the only true moral anchor in her life and perhaps Ana and her mother as well to some extent. Now they were out of the picture and she was stuck in Sol with [i]Milo[/i] of all people. She shook her head at the thought and tied her hair back in her standard pony tail as she started out the door with the keys to the BMW. With that silly street racing going on, she would need the lights on Xi’s remaining Ford to cut through the traffic and get down to Milo’s shop or at least to the general area where she could walk the rest of the way and not tip-off their dinner date. After exchanging keys with him, she set off.

Finding a parking garage a few blocks up, she left the car to walk. She packed her badge and holster away in a small book-bag so as not to draw unneeded attention and kept her pistol hidden in its usual, secondary spot. She looked at her reflection in the side of the glass. With a royal-blue, button-down long sleeve t-shirt, jeans and her bag she thought she looked rather studious for the first time in several years. The shirt had subtle orange stitching and a very discreet UF logo near the hem that she intended to annoy Milo with and simultaneously draw an underestimation from whatever manner of street thug with which Milo had managed to get involved. A two-for-one. She smiled slyly at the thought and sent him a text letting him know she’d be there shortly. Since she was coming in from the back alley to stay hidden, she was sure he’d have some smartass remark for that as well.

[@RoccanIronclad]