14 Anime Crime Shows

Bryce turned bright red and ran a hand through his hair. "You really think so?"

"What?" Jenna asked. She had included several compliments in that little speech and wasn't sure which one he was referring to.

He coughed a bit awkwardly. "That I'm handsome."

"Duh. I've always been a fan of green eyes but the rest of you is good too. That came out weird, sorry! I meant that you're handsome in general but I especially like your eyes."

What nonsense was she saying? She was so bad at this! That was what she got for being one of the guys rather than dating them. She was going to say the wrong thing a lot as she tried to figure this whole girlfriend thing, wasn't she? Great.

Bryce didn't seem to mind her slipup at all. In fact, he didn't even seem to notice it. The moment she complimented him again, he turned even redder (if that was possible) and it was oddly adorable.

Jenna grinned at him. "Aww, you're so cute! Look at you blushing because of me."

He pulled his hood over his face and cinched the drawstrings so tight you could hardly see his nose. "Don't look at me."

"Why not? I want to see my handsome boyfriend."

She was having too much fun teasing him. It had been a while since she had encountered someone so easy to tease. The only other person she knew that blushed this easily was Peter and it had been a few years since she got a solid red face out of him.

"Tessa, you're killing me," Bryce groaned.

Her fake name brought her back to earth and she stopped smiling. What had she done? She agreed to be someone's girlfriend when she wasn't even herself!

"Sorry. You're too easy to tease."

"I guess I'm going to have to get used to that," he said but he didn't sound too upset about it. In fact, he sounded like he looked forward to it. He loosened the hoodie strings a bit to smile at her and she felt her heart drop.

Jenna hadn't been in this relationship for five minutes and she was already regretting it. How was she supposed to maintain a lie with someone that genuinely liked her? How?! There was no way she could pull this off, no matter what Killian said!

Bryce squinted at her with a frown, finally noticing her face. "…were you crying again?"

She sighed. There was no getting past him when it came to puffy eyes, was there? "Yes. But I promise it has nothing to do with you. I talked to my mom today and got some bad news from home, that's all."

The concerned divot between his brows grew deeper. "What kind of news was bad enough to make you cry?!"

Oh geez, now what was she supposed to say? She really wasn't that good of a liar! She couldn't say she cried because she got birthday wishes from home and heard her nieces on the phone for the first time in months.

"My aunt is sick!" Jenna blurted. "Really sick. She's in the ICU and we don't know if she's going to make it."

Bryce immediately surged forward to wrap her in his arms. She stiffened at the unexpected contact before melting into it. She had been extremely hug deprived out here. Hugging him on her birthday was the first hug she got since January.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to bring up something painful…but I do hope you feel like you can rely on me when you're upset. You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to though," he added quickly.

Rely on him, huh? That would be nice except she couldn't rely on anybody except Killian out here and he wasn't exactly one for emotional support. Though there had been his odd version of a pep talk earlier today. That had been bizarre and she really hoped he didn't do anything like that again.

"I don't," Jenna confessed. That would involve more lying. "But thanks for offering."

Bryce rubbed her back comfortingly for a minute before letting her go. "So…do you need a ride home?"

"It's only a ten-minute walk."

"It's cold out though and you aren't wearing a jacket. Here, take mine!"

He took off his sweatshirt and handed it to her. She was hesitant because she felt gross from work after cleaning up some nasty messes before closing and she might make it smell. But it should be okay if she washed it before returning it to him.

"Thanks," Jenna said quietly as she pulled it on over her head. It was warm and it smelled like him. A sort of warm, pleasant scent she couldn't quite put her name on.

The sleeves were much too big for her and it went halfway down her thighs, which was exactly how she preferred it. Her hoodies back home were all like this too because she had gotten into the habit of borrowing her brothers' hoodies years ago since male hoodies are far superior in design to female ones. To keep her from stealing them, they started buying her similar ones.

"This is a solid hoodie," she found herself saying once they were in the car.

Bryce smiled. "You can hold onto it for a while if you want to. I have plenty of hoodies since they were pretty much all I wore in college."

"I think I'll take you up on that. Thanks."

"No problem. So what's your schedule like? I wouldn't want to text you while you're in class or work by accident."

Jenna cracked a smile. So attentive already. She knew he would be a good boyfriend. "Monday/Wednesday/Friday I have classes at eight, nine, and ten and Tuesday/Thursday I have them at eleven and one. I work from 3-7:30 PM every day and usually volunteer 8 AM to noon on Saturdays and Sundays, rotating between three different places."

Bryce's expression grew thoughtful. "That doesn't really leave me any time to see you. Do you have to work weekends and volunteer quite that much? The whole point of this was so you wouldn't overwork yourself."

"Well, I volunteer for my resume but technically I only have to do one shift a month at each place. I can cut back there. As for my job, I'll have to talk to my supervisor to see if I can cut back on my hours. If I use school as an excuse, it should work. Even Josh doesn't work on the weekends."

"Awesome! I work nine to five on weekdays and don't have any homework or anything so I have nothing but free time after work. I'm available pretty much whenever."

Jenna groaned. "I'm so jealous. I'm never going to be free from homework."

"Ah, because of vet school. Hang in there," Bryce said sympathetically as he briefly let go of the wheel with one hand to pat her shoulder. "You'll be free someday…even if it isn't as soon as you want."

"Not helping, Bryce."

"Sorry."

"When do you even have time to do your homework?" he asked curiously.

Jenna let out a heavy sigh. "Between or before classes and work. Once I get home I'm usually too tired unless it's an emergency and I forgot about it before then. Normally I'm pretty good at staying on top of things though."

"Then what do you do for fun?"

Ha! She didn't have fun. Not unless she was with other people. When she was by herself she drowned in distractions and nothing else. She watched a fair amount of TV but that made her homesick too because they were shows she had watched with various siblings.

Doctor Who with Evan. Anime with Peter. Survivor and the Amazing Race with Jonas. Cooking competition shows with Colton. Criminal Minds with Adam. Alison even got her into Say Yes to the Dress for some bizarre reason.

There wasn't really anything that could prevent her from mourning the life that had been ripped away from her, which was why she had been curious about Bryce's offer to keep her entertained in the first place. Maybe he could accomplish what she hadn't been able to on her own.

"Watch TV, mostly. Super boring," Jenna said with a shrug.

"What do you like to watch?" Bryce asked. "I'm into crime shows and anime. Totally weird combination, I know."

"Have you watched any anime crime shows though? Because I know a few good ones. One of my brothers is really into manga and anime. He's kind of a nerd in general."

"What, like Death Note?"

"Yeah! Or Erased. Or Millionaire Detective: Balance Unlimited."

"I haven't seen those other two. You'll have to show them to me," Bryce said with a smile. "I take it you're also into anime and crime shows?"

"My taste is pretty eclectic…I'm more show specific than genre specific most of the time. I've watched some good anime and good crime shows but also bad anime and bad crime shows," Jenna laughed. "There are some pretty weird ones out there."

"Fair. So what ones do you like?"

She began listing them off and they had a fair number in common. She didn't even get to finish before they arrived at her apartment and they kept talking in the parked car comparing shows for more than forty minutes before she realized how much time had passed.