Case #56: Video

[19centconstable]

[George looks sheepish. And slightly damp.]

I'm afraid I must report that Captain Angua and I have been banned from the water park.

[In the background, a woman who is presumably Angua does not sound best pleased.]

Comments

[Spam]

[19centconstable]

[He lets her do so happily.]

No. Well. I had been...interested in a young lady, whom I thought was interested in me, but in fact she wasn't. Or she was more interested in her career. Or perhaps I waited too long to express my feelings to her, and in waiting too long put off another young lady whom I also believe may have been interested in me, but I may have been wrong there as well.

...Unless you mean my dog Violet, or my cousin Penny, who is my ward?

[Spam]

[scentbombed]

It's entirely possible that I was thinking of [Violet]-- er, one of your young ladies.

All right, so you may not, but-- you know I have, don't you? Had. Have. [Tenses and emotions: both very annoying right now.] ...Had.

[Spam]

[19centconstable]

I do. And I do admit that I have said in the past that this isn't any place for that sort of thing, because it's difficult to imagine what sort of future there could be in it.

But at the same time: I do wonder what might have been with Miss Ogden, and Miss Moffatt, and even Miss Garrison, and I do perhaps regret that my actions, or lack there of, are the reason that I might only wonder. And so, when given the chance, I decided that this time I wouldn't worry about the future; that I would follow my heart in the moment.

Even if that was the wrong choice, I don't regret it.

[Spam]

[scentbombed]

[Talking of the future doesn't seem to strike her as any better; she glances away, expression unreadable, but certainly not pleased. He's right, of course, but... She thinks of Stildyne's advice, which was more or less the same. The future is the future, and the now is the now.

And Ankh-Morpork is very, very far away, and not just in mileage, and George... isn't.

She smiles wanly, putting her other hand atop his.]

And what moment was that, exactly, Mr. Crabtree?

[Spam]

[19centconstable]

Well, when we...

[George makes an elaborate hand motion which signifies coitus.]

[Spam]

[scentbombed]

[And because they're in public, and also because no, she again puts a hand over his, only rather more hastily this time.]

All right, George, all right. I was bloody well teasing.