Rude Awakenings: A Novel of the Terribly Acronymed Detective Club (Book 2)

Chapter Fifty-Five: Lauren, Saturday

Lauren made sure Joe was seated comfortably on the couch and provided with easy access to pain medication, food and drink before she left. Luckily there was a bathroom on the main floor so he wouldn't have to take stairs. His mom would be over later to help him get around if he needed it, too, but she would be superfluous; Naomi had taken on the role of nursemaid to her father with a zeal that surprised Lauren but maybe shouldn't have, since she was a Daddy's girl through and through. It warmed Lauren's heart, but it also gave her a lilt of unease; the whole day she was out, Naomi might feel the need to inform Joe about how chummy Mommy and Uncle Alistair were acting around each other, and of the invitation Mommy had extended to him to stay over Monday night. If she'd seen or heard Al upstairs after she'd gone to bed, Lauren might have some explaining to do. She didn't know how she could have warned Naomi off such a course, however, not without alerting her to the significance telling or not telling would have on the strength of the family bond.

On the drive into Vancouver, she thought again of Monday night, and of how fortunate it was for everybody that she'd been too tired to do anything but sleep, and that Rachel had called the next morning. As Al had said last night, after that wonderfully unexpected and pleasurable bit of phone sex, which had her masturbating in a dark corner of the store parking lot, if it hadn't been for those two things, they would have broken their marriage vows completely, and it would have been different from what had happened Thursday night, if only by degrees; in that case, one spouse had invited them in. 

Lauren might have been splitting hairs and justifying to herself an infidelity she'd never expected to enjoy so much, but so be it. She'd done a lot of justifying in the last two years since she and Rachel had begun breaking their marriage vows, thinking it was different because Rachel was another woman, and there would be no risk of accidental pregnancy or claims on her and Joe's shared assets. These kinds of mental acrobatics would get a little bit more complicated, though, now that she'd given Joe the freedom to pursue his own bit of pleasure with Joanie, and now that she'd been given a taste of it with Al; the risks would only increase as well, because it was all well and good to say you were wearing condoms or taking birth control; sometimes the puck went past the goalie, to use Al's terminology from last night. If that happened, well, maybe another analogy needed to be used, that of juggling balls, each new development in their respective relationships another ball to be managed, until all of them came tumbling down, and two marriages were ruined.

She parked in her spot and noticed Ralph's car wasn't parked in his. She was glad. One less thing to deal with today. She clocked in and entered her office, noting the skeleton crew they had working on the weekend.

She'd just barely sat down when her phone rang. It was the public line, normally handled by reception but transferred to anyone in the office on the weekend with reception away; the office was generally closed to walk-in traffic on the weekend.

She waited for someone to answer. It kept ringing. She sighed and picked up the phone. "Good morning, Justiciar Security and Investigative Services, how may I help you?"

"Is Ralph there?" asked an older woman's voice. She didn't recognize it as the voice of Ralph's wife, and if it had been her, wouldn't she know he wasn't there already?

"I'm afraid Mr. Rose isn't in today. May I take a message for him?"

"Uh... no. No thank you. I'll try him at home."

"If this is concerning work we're doing for you, I'd be happy to help you. This is Lauren Hasegawa, and I'm a partner at the firm, so I have access to all the files."

A pause on the other end of the line. Then, "No, definitely not you."

And then, to Lauren's surprise, she hung up.