Agent Scully, Provocateur

Brienne, Part 1

Some movies have a type of special effect where someone is sitting quietly at a desk, then gets blown across the room, incinerated to dust as the building explodes into a raging fireball.

——
“Hi everybody.” A new voice from a woman who tried to look like Agent Dana Scully dressed for a Saturday Night of bar hopping.

Duke abruptly stood, “Brienne, what…”

I looked at C. She gave a tiny shrug. She was happy.

“What are you doing?” Brienne demanded with an abrupt stare. “What are you doing?”

“Doing?” Duke replied. He looked away, picked up his beer, drank.

Dee put her hand on my knee and squeezed a message, “This is fun!”

I drank.

Scott shook his head a little as if thinking “kids…” The glow in his eyes said that he was really glad to be in town.

“You can’t text a message saying, ‘can’t go out with you.’ What the fuck!?”

Duke took another big drink as if he needed to wash something down before he could speak.

“You’re a dick,” she said, louder still.

Buddy, who had a reddish tint to his blond hair, studied this woman. He wanted to know if she was a true redhead. He probably would also wonder if she might garters under an FBI costume. He put comic twists like that in most of his portraits.

In a low voice, C said, “Duke…” She then smiled and picked up her drink.

“Brienne…” Duke tried with a calmer, quieter voice.

“We had plans to meet my friends tonight,” she said, resuming her staring match with Duke. “My friends. Not your friends.”

“Brienne, can we talk about this later?” He started to walk towards her. She circled away, keeping the table between her and Duke.

“Fuck later. What’s going on?”

“Brienne…” Duke said with a firmer tone.

“Don’t Brienne me. What’s going on?” She stopped walking, faced Duke as he walked around toward her.

“Let’s talk later. OK?” Duke said as he stopped.

He reached out to hold her elbow. She immediately tugged her arm away. She stared and waited. Most of Yak’s stared and waited.

Duke started to take another drink of beer. Brienne quickly slapped at his hand. Duke splashed his beer all over his shirt and face.

“What the hell?” Duke stammered.

“You tell me.”

“Tell you what?”

“You tell me.”

“Brienne…”

“So this is a fuck me and leave me thing!? That text. You dumped me.” She backed away from Duke, and suddenly grabbed a full pint of beer from the table. It was Buddy’s stout.

Duke said, “I’m out with my friends.”

“Your friends!?” She threatened Duke with the beer.

Duke backed away, and said, “Yes. Come on. Let’s talk later.”

“So you can dump me again!?”

“Later. Please.”

“Do your friends even know what you say about them when your not around? Your a dick. You suck in bed. They should know that.”

… continued