Restaurants and Robberies

“Excuse me, are you Darcy?” The man asked.

She smiled.

“Yes, that’s me. Are you Ean?”

He nodded, and sat in the seat across from her. The two had matched on an online dating app and were finally meeting each other for the first time.

“Nice place.” Ean commented as he looked around the elegant restaurant.

“Well, when you can afford to eat at places like this, you should never waste the opportunity.” Darla winked.

He laughed heartily.

“I suppose that’s true. Tell me, what do you do for a living? I mean, you must be making a lot of cash if you’re willing to blow it all on me.”

She smiled, and he didn’t seem to notice the glint of hesitation in her bright, blue eyes.

“I’m a lawyer.” The lie was a believable one, due to how many times she rehearsed it. 

“Really? I didn’t peg you as someone who’d be interested in the law.” 

“I suppose it’s more like the law has its eyes on me.” 

If only he knew how true that statement was. 

She was not a lawyer. In fact, she had no job at all. The only reason she had as much money as she did was because she had robbed the local bank earlier this very morning. But he didn’t need to know that.

“What about you?” She asked, all too eager to change the subject. 

Ean coughed uncomfortably.

He didn’t like telling people that he was a cop right away. It tended to make them stiff and uneasy, like he was going to arrest them for the one time they jaywalked five years ago. 

“I’m a carpenter.” He lied.

Probably wasn’t the best he could’ve come up with, but the way this girl was looking at him made it hard to think. He wanted it to work with her. Maybe once they’d warmed up with each other, they could go out again. And, if she was relaxed enough around him, he could tell her he was really a cop. But for now, she didn’t need to know that. 

“Not always big bucks, but I always finish the job.” 

She nodded politely, and fidgeted with her long, dark hair. 

Honestly, that was a lie too. He prided himself on never letting criminals escape, but just this morning, someone had. They’d robbed the bank so flawlessly, he’d be tempted to compliment them if they weren’t breaking the law. Either way, he’d find them, he was sure.

He suddenly realized she’d been talking to him.

“Um, sorry what was that?”

She grinned to herself. 

It’s a good thing this guy was so nervous about the date. She was feeling pretty antsy herself, but it had nothing to do with him. She kept looking over her shoulder, feeling like everyone was watching her and at any moment, the cops would have the place surrounded. At least, to anyone else, it would seem like two strangers, just nervous about their date. 

“I said, are you ready to order?”

“Oh, yes!” he smiled awkwardly and picked up his menu.

She almost felt bad for the guy. He seemed sweet enough, and it wasn’t her fault that she needed a temporary alias. So she’d sit here and laugh at his jokes until her team was in position. 

In the meantime, she was hungry.

They both ordered a cooked lobster and handed the menus off to the waitress.

Then they sat in awkward silence.

“So.” The man leaned forward. “You have two dogs?”

She had to bite her tongue before she asked what dogs he was talking about. Honestly, she had almost completely forgotten about the fake profile she’d created. She’d already almost blown it by saying no when Ean asked if she was Darcy. At least for the next hour, she was Darcy.

“Um, yes. I have a husky and a pomeranian.” Not wanting to keep the subject on her, she quickly asked “What about you? Do you have any pets?” 

He thought for a second.

“Yes. A German Shepard.”

Technically, he wasn’t lying. Even if the dogs belonged to the academy, he still worked and played with them a lot.

He wanted to kick himself. He already lied about his job and his name. If this was ever going to continue between them, he was going to have to start telling the truth. But he couldn’t tell her his real name unless he was going to tell her he was a cop. After all, she’d probably recognize the name of her town’s police captain. 

They both sat in silence until their food was finally brought to the table. As they ate, they seemed to relax a bit more and dodged the others’ questions easily. 

By the time an hour had passed, each person had created a very unique persona for themselves, with very little truth to them. 

At precisely 11:00, Darcy’s burner phone buzzed.

Game time.

She sighed. 

“You know, I had a really great time tonight.” And surprisingly she meant it. 

Ean smiled, seemingly satisfied.

“So much so, that I almost feel bad doing this.” 

He opened his mouth in question, but before he could form the words she yanked a gun out of her faux-fur jacket and cocked it. She kept the barrel aimed at his head.

“Cooperate, and no one gets hurt!” She yelled loudly. “If anyone even thinks about calling the cops, I’ll shoot!” She then spoke into her burner phone. “Nightowl, we are a go.”

Ean heard a loud clattering come from the kitchen area and two more people in dark suits kicked through the door.

“All security measures have been disengaged.” One said to Darcy.

“Good. Now get the cash.”

They held their guns at the cashiers head as he quickly stuffed the money into the bags they were holding.

“Make sure he transfers everything.” She snapped at her team.

Ean took this opportunity to remove his own gun and aim it at her head.

“I’m afraid I can’t let you do this.” He spoke calmly.

She cocked her eyebrow.

“Well, this is an interesting development. But I’m afraid you’re gonna have to.”

“Oh yeah, and why is that?”

Just then, her team staggered over to the couple; one holding the bag of money and the other holding the cashier: her gun still aimed at his head.

“Because if you don’t, this man dies. And I don’t think you want that, so put the gun down.”

After a moment of hesitation, he lowered the gun.

“Attaboy.” She smirked. “Do we have everything?” She asked her closest teammate.

“Affirmative Hawkeyes.” 

“Good. Then we best be on our way.” The trio slowly backed up until they were underneath the open skylight.

“This was fun. We should do it again sometime.” She winked before pushing the cashier at him. Ean stumbled to catch him, and Darcy took that moment to attach her harness and be lifted with her teammates up onto the roof.

Not a second later, he heard the sound of a helicopter fading as it flew away. 

Captain Ryan cursed, furious at himself for letting his guard down. 

But even he had to admit, she was one hell of a thief.

Nightowl pulled Hawkeyes into the helicopter. 

“That was a close one. Did you have any idea you were on a date with a cop?”

She just shook her head.

“Actually, no. He did a pretty decent job of hiding it from me.” 

She stared out the window as the restaurant was beginning to fade from view. The sound of sirens was getting louder as the rest of the police squad made their way to the scene of the crime. It came as no surprise to her that he’d called for backup already. She watched as he escorted people out of the restaurant and barked orders to his crew: no doubt demanding that they give chase.

Hawkeye had to smile as she thought of how close he’d come to catching her.

Even she had to admit, he was one hell of a cop.