RENAISSANCE 2.0 Book 1 - Sample Chapters

Chapter 5

Robin surveyed the top of the stairs as if finally ready to summit K-9, before reining in the mental histrionics. He steeled himself with a deep breath and a firm grip on the banister, and started the ascent of this upside down world where his personal hell was always one floor above him. 

After arriving at their bedroom, Robin watched Drew dress before the mirror. It was part of their daily ritual for helping him get past his wife going transgender. As morning wakeups went, he couldn't argue its jolting value.  

Drew ran her eyes over him. He knew she was looking for the uniform, missing one of her turn-ons. She still couldn't help herself after all this time. Since he'd gotten promoted to detective, Drew had had to make some painful adjustments of her own. 

"You stand in that doorway less and less. I really hate thinking you're avoiding me." Emotional blackmail. Her specialty.  

Robin guessed if she was planning to sport a dick where her husband least expected to find one, added leverage probably wasn't a bad idea.  

Robin coughed as he inhaled. He already missed the scent of his favorite perfumes on her, but they had been replaced now by men's cologne. His reaction wasn't lost on Drew.  

Continuing his descent into his personal hell, Robin watched her don a pair of cufflinks next equal to six months of his pay, and a tie clip that would give the Hope Diamond an inferiority complex. Her gestures at applying both were more rehearsed and refined than the jewels themselves. Even the mirrors basked in the glory of her return visits, doubtless finding life pointless without her. They were only now rebounding from the pained withdrawal caused by the commoners trailing in her wake, himself namely, like those minions who straighten the queen's cape on the ground behind her as she walks. That thing she did with her hair, folding it up in more swirls than Chinese origami, seemed like something passed down from generation to generation.  

The poor never had reasons to pass things on like that. 

"Why don't we take another stab at playing detective?" Drew said. 

"Sure," Robin replied, after some hesitation. He rankled at the condescending remark, considering his chosen profession. All the same, he was eager to capitalize on her aristocratic background for the sensitivity that gave her to subtle body-language cues and things left unsaid. He sometimes resented her Republican outlook on things, but couldn't deny she was better at the soft skills he needed to survive at his new job.  

He sensed she was being manipulative. Drew was no doubt afraid he was pulling away from her. Maybe he was. Leave it to her to find ways to sink her hooks into him. He supposed that was part and parcel of all those people skills. Like the rest of their relationship of late, if he wanted to enjoy the hotdog, best he learn to appreciate the sauerkraut that goes with it. He winced at the unintentional double entendre. 

"We still have time before you have to show up at the office." Finished tying her hair back, she said, "Let's find a crowded venue that's hard to filter for the telltale signs you need to identify in your mark." 

"I'm for that."

***

"What do you see?" Drew asked. "What do you hear?" Robin struggled to distinguish patterns in the chaos, like one of those illustrations hiding faces and figures he couldn't identify until jumping over to the pattern-recognizing right-side of his brain. 

They were standing in the Bay Area Rapid Transit station in the best possible position to watch the gate, and the facing wall which displayed giant edgy posters. Drew nodded at the college-aged couple as they came through the turnstile. The male teen, wearing a backpack and displaying a flair for Bohemian-chic, led them to the Josh Ellingson artwork.