Luck Be a Lady

She’d made eye-contact with the woman a few times now. Instinctively, she felt the need to keep watch, not obviously trying to discern her features, but still trying to rack her brain for whatever memory she might have of the person. Eleanor thought back to her old FBI cases, to any enemies or contacts she’d made that would still have an interest in her. But the woman didn’t seem to fit in with any of those profiles, even when accounting for the possibility of a hair colour change or plastic surgery. Although, her gut feeling didn’t seem to indicate any sense of malice or ill intent coming from the woman either. Eleanor let out a quiet breath.

Feeling more at ease, Eleanor now re-assessed the woman’s appearance for a slightly different reason. She was pretty. The way the reddish tinges in her hair were emphasised by the soft lighting near the bar. The piercing blue, or was it green? Hue of her eyes. Freckles covering the skin on her face, trailing down to her toned shoulders and arms, as well as her décolletage. Eleanor wondered if the woman was looking at her with the same thoughts, the same connotations.

Julia Brasher hadn’t had the best day at work. She didn’t hate Pacific Division, most of the people there were nice, being able to see the beach on her daily commute was nice, but it was…lacklustre. Hollywood had been action-packed, a new, nail-bitingly tough case to experience every day. Maybe it was simply the relaxed attitude of the people there, but most cases were open and shut, simple motives, usually incidents of assault and theft between people who already knew each other. No gruesome, unresolved murders or attacks, no deep-seated scandals, nothing. But she and Harry Bosch had agreed it was for the best. They’d dated for a while, and he’d been kind and good, it just didn’t feel like the right time, and work was causing too much tension between them. It had been hard for both of them, especially after he’d introduced her to his daughter. They'd gotten along, it had felt so right, but the universe seemed to have had other plans.

So it was safe to say she’d ventured into other hobbies. Initially, she considered returning to legal consultation, but remembered that she’d left because she’d wanted something fresh, something new. Julia had spent time looking for potential hobbies and on one particular, sleepless night, she’d found herself fascinated by the world of poker. All of the strategies, the tells, the habits and predictions that players had to make were intriguing to her. It felt very much like solving a case, with all the same elements of mystery and hidden clues that eventually lead to a solid conclusion. As much as she wanted to try to play, she also didn’t exactly want to waste her money on something she knew very little about practically. And she doubted the amateur games she could afford would give her the same sense of satisfaction. 

Which is how Julia Brasher found herself sitting at the bar stool nearest to the poker table in the casino tonight. It was surrounded by several bouncers and a red velvet rope, as though warning the rest of the patrons that these particular players were not to be messed with. She wanted to observe the mechanisms, see how it was really done. One particular player was intriguing her. Her blue eyes were so shrewd, perceiving the reactions of everybody around her. Every aspect of her was still, poised almost, as though she’d trained herself to not allow any of her thoughts to be conveyed through her body language. It was incredibly skilled and elegant, something she never thought she’d be able to associate with a simple card game.

And at some point, Julia realised those blue eyes were looking back at her too. It was almost a game, a game of trying to read each other with some level of subtlety, trying to read each other without making it immediately obvious that both of them were interested. Because in the gap between leaving Hollywood and starting at Pacific, she’d also come to believe that she was attracted to women. 

And as she met the poker player’s blue eyes again, that belief certainly seemed well-founded. 

She smirked as she watched the seemingly endless piles of chips be pushed towards her. The woman smiled modestly, but deep down, Julia could tell she was more than just ‘content’ with her winnings. Julia watched her walk over to the clerk to exchange them for cash, taking a sip of her drink. The bartender asked if she wanted a refill of her wine, and in the process of doing that, she didn’t notice that the click of high heels behind her had become louder. Smoothly, the woman sat at the stool next to her.

“I almost lost that round, what with the way you were looking at me.” Eleanor murmured. “Let me buy you a drink with my winnings.”

Julia blushed a little, as she passed the money over to the bartender, who’d finished pouring Julia a glass.

“Can I ask the name of my admirer?” Their eyes met again now. Up close, Eleanor could see the beautiful teal colour of her eyes now.

“Julia.” She smiled. “Julia Brasher.”

“Eleanor. Eleanor Wish. I haven’t seen you around here before. Do you play?”

A laugh escaped her. “Not at all. It interests me, which is why I thought I’d come here to observe for a night, reward myself for my shitty job. Although…” Her voice deepened. “At some point I definitely ended up focussing on a particular player.”

Eleanor bit her lip. “What do you do?”

“I’m a cop.”

“Oh! What division? I used to be in the FBI, I know a lot of the cops around here.”

“Pacific. Just started.” She didn’t want to air her dirty laundry about Hollywood just yet, somehow that didn’t feel like the appropriate thing to talk about right now. “You were in the FBI?”

She nodded. “How do you think I got so good at reading people?”

Julia chuckled.

“I mainly left because of my daughter. I didn’t want to be in a position where she could grow up without me.”

“So how’d you end up playing poker?”

Her face grew a little hesitant. “Ended up finding my passion for it after a divorce. I was in Hong Kong for a long time, I needed to escape, needed a change. But when my daughter started high school, I figured it was important for her to finish her education back here.”

“I get that. I used to be in law, decided only a couple of years ago that I needed the change. Figured it was never too late to try something new, you know?”

They continued to talk for a while about their various life experiences, finding so many common elements between them, even the fact that they’d both discovered their attraction for women much older than most people did. Time seemed to fly by, and both of them found themselves laughing and smiling more and more, even as the rest of the casino grew quiet. It was a weeknight after all. Neither wanted to stop, with both of them so riveted by the conversation. Julia had never even finished her second drink, too caught up in talking with her, in looking at her, in taking in her presence. Their bodies seemed to be thinking the same thing, with Eleanor’s fingers slowly trailing up Julia’s thigh, and Julia doing similarly on Eleanor’s hand. At some point, the bartender had finished wiping glasses and started to lock up.

Eleanor offered to drive her home. She never drank when she was at the casino for work. Julia had taken an Uber in, not sure how much she’d end up drinking, so she kindly accepted, and together they walked back to her car. Julia’s hand was creeping down Eleanor’s lower back, and Eleanor covered it with her own as they stood in front of her car in the empty underground carpark. In one swift motion, she pivoted Julia so she was leaning against the car, placing one hand on the nape of her neck and the other around her waist to kiss her. Julia was returning the kiss hungrily, to her relief, letting her tongue slip in, wrapping her arms around Julia’s back. Fumbling and unlocking the door, they collapsed along the back seat, with Julia pulling Eleanor on top of her, feeling the warmth of her body against her own. 

The glass of the window fogged with their breathy sighs, as both of them continued to touch each other. Julia’s hands were cupping Eleanor’s breasts under her shirt, kneading softly. She pushed into her touch, arching her body against Julia’s grip. Eleanor’s own hands were holding Julia’s hips, her body was slowing grinding against her.

“What you do want me to do to you?” She asked, lowly.

“You already know.” Julia replied breathlessly, her eyes conveying that she trusted her, that she wanted this.

She smirked as more of Julia’s freckled skin as revealed as she pulled the hem of her skirt up. Julia’s hands were frantically trying to unzip Eleanor’s jeans and pull them down along with her underwear. Her fingers started to glide between her legs and Eleanor moaned, leaning down to kiss her messily, before reciprocating with her own fingers, swiftly delving down. Their teasing touches were causing them to tighten their grip on each other, both of them giddily losing their balance, quietly asking each other for more. Julia sat up on her elbows to press her lips against Eleanor’s firmly, grazing her teeth against her mouth, before dropping to suckle her jaw.

Helping her up, Eleanor let Julia straddle her, shuddering as Julia started to suck at her collarbone and neck. She grabbed her lower back and began to push Julia even closer. Taking this as an encouragement, Julia started to pump her hips against Eleanor’s. Her hand shoved itself into Julia’s tangled hair, forcing her to look back her, wanting to have that eye-contact, wanting to watch what their motions did to her, how it made her feel. 

Julia let out a loud whine as Eleanor’s hips pushed up, creating friction between them. They fell into a rhythm of pushing against each other, sending shivers throughout their bodies, faces inches away. It didn’t take long for her to come, her legs quivering against Eleanor’s. She kissed her deeply, so desperate for Eleanor to join her, brushing her thumb against her clit, moving in small circles until she came, moaning into her mouth.

Neither of them moved for a while, just waiting for their breaths to even out. Sitting back, they found themselves smiling at each other, lipstick slightly smeared on both of their faces.

“So did I read you correctly?”

She nodded, quirking a brow. “I think the bruises I left on your neck say so.”

Eleanor snickered, letting her fingers trail along the slightly tender skin in question.

“It’s getting late…do you want to spend the night with me? I’m not too far from here, and I can take you to work in the morning, if you want?”

Julia sighed. “Don’t remind me about work. But yes, I’d like that.”

It was a little cold when they finally arrived at her house, so Eleanor offered her some sweats to sleep in, although the heat of their bodies resting against each other certainly helped. As Julia woke, she pressed a kiss to Eleanor’s forehead, noticing that she was still asleep. The sun had risen, but neither of them were going to be late by the looks of it. Moving into the kitchen, she managed to find the coffee pot, starting it up so both of them would have the energy they needed for the day. She looked up as she heard keys turn in the front door, wondering who could be arriving.

Maddie Bosch’s eyes met hers with great confusion. Her brow furrowed. “Julia? What are you doing here?”

Suddenly, smaller details from the previous night that she’d been too caught up to process made sense.

Eleanor had an ex-husband in Hollywood Division. She hadn’t mentioned him much, understandably not wanting to bring up her marriage on the first time meeting her. 

And she had done similarly, by refraining from mentioning just who exactly she’d had a relationship with when she’d been there herself.

Eleanor also had a teenage daughter.

Her eyes fell to a small family photo on the kitchen bench.

Of Eleanor, Maddie, and Harry.

“Hey, Mads, what are you doing here? I thought you weren’t coming until the weekend?” Eleanor yawned, walking into the kitchen. She looked between the two of them, surprised that they seemed to recognise each other.

“I-I just came to get a book I left for school.” Maddie turned to face her mother. “How do you know Julia, mom?”

“How do you know Julia?”

“I…” Julia blurted. “I think I dated your ex-husband, Eleanor.”

Eleanor’s eyes widened. “You dated Harry?”

Julia blushed, completely and utterly embarrassed, too afraid to look at either of them. “I swear, Maddie, I had no idea Eleanor was your mother."

Eleanor was embarrassed too, albeit a little better at hiding it. Worried too, feeling like she should have probed a bit more when she'd found out that Julia had worked at Hollywood division. But Julia didn't seem to be angry at her, to her relief, moreso concerned about Maddie, something Eleanor appreciated.

After an awkward silence, Maddie cleared her throat, speaking clearly. “It’s okay, really. Mom had no idea I was coming this morning, it’s not like she’s not allowed to have people over when I’m not there.”

“So you’re not upset?” Eleanor asked.

Maddie looked between them and couldn’t help but stifle laughter.

"What?"

"So...you're a cop," she pointed at Julia "and you're an ex-FBI agent turned poker player, but neither one of you clicked that you would have both known Harry?"

"Suppose neither of us wanted to head into ex-boyfriend territory, or ex-husband, in your case." Julia looked over at Eleanor.

Eleanor shrugged. "Yeah, I think that was probably it, to be honest."

But it was clear by the way that Maddie couldn't stop laughing that maybe it wasn't such a bad thing after all.