To pass the time, Vai decided it would be a good idea to snoop through a few boxes of files. She flicked through page after page, tossing anything she found uninteresting to the floor and making a mess. Maphira didn’t bother trying to clean up after her. They were about to cut a big hole in a window, after all. It wasn’t like they were trying to cover their tracks.
Maphira simply sat watching her ex-partner, remembering the good times of them looking through case files together. That was so far behind them now, but seeing Vai go through paper like this brought the memories back fresh.
“Why did you really do it?” she suddenly said, the question not even going through her mind before it left her lips.
“Do what?” Vai asked without looking up. They must have been some interesting reports. Maphira wondered if any of them were about office glass tinting. It seemed unlikely, but it’d be an interesting coincidence given that’s what they were there to complete, supposedly.
“You know, join the Conclave. Betray me and the force. I know it wasn’t about the money.”
Vai shrugged. “I don’t know, I just needed a fresh start, I guess. I wasn’t feeling it anymore, you know. So when I told Captain Hold I was thinking about leaving, he mentioned that he had an opportunity for me elsewhere, but I would have to stay in the force a while longer.”
“But you loved detective work. I find it hard to believe that got stale.”
Vai looked up now. She considered the window across from them. It was a nice one, which clearly some other business for decorative window glass close to Melbourne had gotten to first. “I didn’t leave because the work got stale.”
“Why then? Why did you need a fresh start?”
Now Vai gazed at Maphira, her eyes deep with emotion. “I left because I couldn’t be your partner anymore. I left because I was in love with you, Mai.”