Chapter Text
Tapping his fingers against the green metal railing at the top of the stairs leading up from the 6 train at the 77th Street stop, Sonny Carisi took a deep breath before walking down Lexington Avenue toward East 74th street. He didn’t know why he was nervous, really. Bella told him a friend of hers needed a lawyer and suggested that he go and talk to her. His first legal consultation after passing the Bar a week ago. She’d punched his arm and hinted that her friend was pretty cute, too. Motherhood had clearly upped her drive to get him started on a family of his own.
He turned when he got to East 74th street and crossed over to the building at the corner with Lexington. Entering the glass door between the entrances to the closed candy store and the dry cleaners as instructed, he quickly climbed the stairs and stopped outside of the glass door of The Stitch Witch. So this is where Bella’s been spendin’ so much time .
Just as he raised his hand to knock on the door (since the store was closed), he stopped. The soothing strains of The Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun” faded into the fast-paced notes of something else entirely that Sonny couldn’t place. The singer sounded a bit like Freddie Mercury… As he stood there trying to place the music, a figure zoomed across the tiled floor a la Tom Cruise in Risky Business holding a colorful thing of yarn like a microphone.
“Heal me with your holy touch, oh baby. Heal with me your holy, kick down the door and hold me. Heal me with your holy touch…” the woman inside sang, clearly off key.
The woman was blonde and appeared to be in her late twenties, just as Bella described Miranda Worthington.
When she resumed cranking on the possible torture device attached to the table, he finally knocked on the glass. Sonny grinned when she gasped in surprise.
“Come in!” she called, motioning for him to open the glass door after smoothing her tee shirt. Turning to face him, she smiled. “Ah! You must be Bella’s brother. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“Good things, I hope.” He shook her hand firmly, unable to avoid the vintage, flowery smell of her perfume.
“Mostly. I’ve got a brother, too. We commiserate.” She motioned for him to sit on the wicker sofa in the center of the room. “Miranda. Miranda Worthington.”
“Dominick Carisi, Junior. Call me Sonny. Everyone does.” He looked around the store, taking in all the brightly colored yarns hanging from the wall or in various cubby-hole shelves.
“Can I get you anything to drink, Sonny?” She headed toward the back of the store. “I’ve got some old coffee, some water, a few cans of various sodas, some wine…”
His head snapped in the direction of the voice when a loud bark echoed from across the room. “I-I forgot to eat lunch, so some water’d be nice.” Sonny’s smile widened until it pretty much touched both of his ears at the distinct sound of dog toenails clicking along the tile floor. “Hey big guy!” he exclaimed when a stocky, white Bull Terrier rounded the corner and jumped up onto the sofa beside him. He laughed at the sight of the dog’s tail wagging faster than a ceiling fan on high and began petting the excited pup.
“William!” Miranda called, snapping her fingers. “You know better.” She handed a bottle of water to her guest and sat in the matching chair across from the sofa. “Good boy,” she praised when the dog curled up next to Sonny.
“William?” he asked with a hand absentmindedly patting his new friend’s chest.
“He’s registered with the A.K.C. as ‘William the Conqueror’ after General Patton’s dog.” Catching Sonny’s raised eyebrow out of the corner of her eye, she shrugged. “History minor. Only hope I don’t go out because a Willy’s Jeep turned over.”
“Or slap a soldier.”
“I slapped a sailor once. In my defense, I was walking down a public sidewalk to the bodega during Fleet Week. Trust me, Detective, he deserved it. Or is it Counselor now?”
“It’s Detective for now still. But I’m off the clock.” Setting the bottle of water down on the coffee table full of knitting magazines, he leaned forward in his seat. “So Bella said you need a lawyer?”
“A civil one, yes,” she reassured. “The attorney my aunt’s been using for fifteen years retired and moved to South Carolina to be closer to his grandkids. If Bella indicated this was something serious to get you up here, I’m sorry. She’s been trying to convince me to meet you ever since she was about six months along.”
“It’s not just you. She’s been trying to set both our only single sister and I up with people.” He shrugged. “Motherhood has made her want everyone else around her to become parents.”
“I picked up on that.” She stood up and grabbed her keyring. “Why don’t we get dinner down the street and figure out why your sister wants us to meet?” When he looked between her and the dog, she grabbed the remote for the stereo and pushed the power button. “I’m buying.”
“You must sell a lot of yarn to afford the rent for this place,” he observed as she locked the door behind her.
Dropping her keys into her purse, she made a show of scratching the side of her neck. “I own the store with my aunt. We know the people that own the building. Got me a good deal on my apartment two floors above the store. So…”
“Nice,” he nodded, clearly impressed.
She shrugged. “While ‘friends in low places’ can get you drunk, the opposite is true for business sense. If you’re looking for an office space, I can get you a discount.”
“Thanks, but no.” He held a hand up, cringing when she she beat him to the restaurant door and holding it open for him to walk in front of her.
“Staying with the N.Y.P.D. for now?” she inquired as the cozied up to the bar. When the bartender greeted her by name, she turned back to Carisi.
“I’ve got time. And options. Feelin’ ‘em out, y’know?”
“No, I get it. I really do.”
“Whatcha havin’ tonight, Miranda?” the bartender asked, propping his elbow up on the bar and resting his chin in his hand.
“If you still have that Dogfish Head 90 Minute I.P.A., I’ll take one of those.” She paused, gesturing toward Carisi. “And this guy’s on my tab tonight, Julian.”
“A-A Bud Light, I guess.”
“Belay that.” She raised an eyebrow. “You can do better than that. I’m buying. What’s your poison?”
“Rebel IPA, please?”
“Good choice. So...law school at night, huh?”
Sonny nodded, gratefully accepting the pint glass from the bartender. “Between work and school…”
“It was much more difficult than working through college the first time around?”
“Yeah. How do you know?”
Miranda swirled her beer in her glass. “Working on getting my M.B.A. online.” She laughed when he smiled so widely that the corners of his eyes crinkled and the lines around his mouth threatened to meld into his crow’s feet. “I’ve got a semester and a half left.”
“Dogs, night school, and beer. I’m starting to see why Bella arranged this.”
“She didn’t mention you had a dog.”
“I had a dog,” he lamented. “Her name was Ivy. She died two years ago, and between school and work, I haven’t really had a lot of time. I didn’t want to adopt another dog if I didn’t have time for it, ya know?”
“I do. I’m just happy I can bring mine with me. Customers love him.” She smiled sadly. “I’m sorry about your dog. I took two days off work when the dog I grew up with passed. Perks of working for family, I guess.”
“I’d just started at Manhattan S.V.U. when I had to put her down.” He ran a finger up and down the side of his pint glass. Quickly smacking the bar between them, Sonny put on a brave face. “So...did you go to college for business the first time around?”
“I did.”
“I went to the Staten Island campus of St. John’s for Legal Studies and English. I got an education, but it was still Staten Island. Tell me stories of going to a college bar that your parents didn’t go to from time to time to seem ‘cool’.”
“I went to school in Philly. My parents never came to visit.”
“Never?”
She shrugged. “I had fun. Joined a sorority and became the underage beer pong champion...and then sorority president.”
“That’s a helluva resume.”
Miranda held up a hand to pause him briefly. “Food. How do you feel about hot wings?”
“Bleu cheese and celery?”
“Your sister is definitely onto something here.”
“I’ll drink to that.”
“Thanks for dinner and drinks, Miranda. You really didn’t haveta…” Sonny began, standing in front of her home and business address some time (...and a dozen wings and three beers each between them) later.
“Of course I did. Bella made you think I was a damsel in legal distress so you’d come meet me. It was the least I could do.”
Sonny reached into his wallet and produced one of his N.Y.P.D. business cards. “My cell’s on there in case you need advising again,” he hinted with a poorly hidden grin.
Miranda sniggered. She reached into her purse, pulled out a card...and snatched the pen out of his shirt pocket. After scribbling something on the back of the yarn store business card, she stuffed it along with his pen back into the pocket. “In case you ever need some yarn. Or a dog to pet,” she added with a shrug as an afterthought. “Thank you for walking me home safely, Detective .”
He bit back a moan when she winked at him before letting the building door close behind her. Once she was out of sight, he grabbed the card she’d stuffed into his pocket. The front of the card was a symphony in pastels with the yarn store logo and information printed in bold type. He chuckled when he flipped the card over. In her handwriting that was as neat and preppy as a sorority banner, she’d written “My dog seems taken with you. And as luck would have it, so am I. Call me, and I might even let you pay. Miranda. 212-623-2213”.
“You are far too cheery this morning, Carisi,” Amanda Rollins groaned, pushing her sunglasses on top of her head and taking a cannoli from the box in his hands. “I lose the baby weight, and you’re trying to get me to put it back on.” When the smile didn’t fade from his face, she set the pastry on a napkin on her desk. “Something’s going on.”
Fin reached over Amanda and pulled a treat out of the box for himself. “Young Blood, she’s right. What’s goin’ on with you?”
“Carisi has a girlfriend,” Amanda teased, holding up the pastel business card resting on his keyboard. “‘My dog seems taken with you. And as luck would have it, so am I’. If I was still gambling, I’d place bets on the wedding day.” She laughed when he tried to grab the card back.
He snatched the card back from her and shoved it into his pants pocket. “What?”
“I’m not leavin’ until you text this girl.” Rollins crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m serious.”
“I just saw her last night!”
“This girl works in an Etsy haven. She likes you. Apparently her dog likes you. The only question is how many kids you’re going to have!”
Picking his phone up from his desk, Sonny typed in the cell number from the card and a quick message. “Happy?” He shoved the phone into Amanda’s hand.
“Overjoyed.” She patted his chest before settling in her desk chair.