Tej heard the knock on the door first, since she was still taking off her coat after arriving with the kids, so she went to open it even though it was Joe and Lauren's house.
To her surprise, Agnes stood there. "Oh! Hello!" Agnes said. "Tej, right?"
"Yes! Hi, Agnes. Come in! Everyone's inside."
It was a madhouse inside. Children everywhere, running and playing. Adults preparing food or moving things around to make life more comfortable for the returning man of the hour. The only one not here was Sunny, and that was because he had an early committee meeting for the City, but he said he would be by later to welcome Al home.
Agnes looked a little overwhelmed, so Tej stuck by her side and leaned in. "I have a confession to make."
Agnes blinked in surprise and looked at her. "What's that?"
"I think I might have represented your ex in buying a house."
Agnes nodded. "Huge guy, maritime accent?"
"Yes."
"That's him. He said he purchased a house in Queensborough."
"I have to admit, Agnes, we've all been having too good a time sneaking around the edges of your situation, hoping your ex didn't catch on."
Agnes shrugged. "So far, he hasn't made any comment about it. Maybe he didn't notice the name of the lawyer representing me shared a surname with his real estate agent. It might be a little bit racist, seeing an ethnic name and overlooking it, but it probably worked in your favour."
"Let's hope."
It took them walking into the living room before anyone noticed the new arrival. "Hey!" Lauren shouted, shuffling over to them in her boot and walking stick. "You found the place okay?"
"I did, thanks," Agnes said. "And I need to thank you and Joe for providing the creature comforts at Rachel's place. I brought none of that with me when I fled the Okanagan, so it makes the place feel not so empty."
Lauren smiled, her dimples popping. "It's our pleasure," she said. "That stuff was just sitting around in storage anyway, it lets us get rid of it. Al and Rachel can just keep it for when they move in."
"So, where are Al and Rachel right now?"
"Oh, downstairs, in the renovated basement. Rachel's showing Al the new bedrooms their son helped Joe build."
"Oh, wow. What's the boy's name again?"
"Logan. I think he's down there too."
As if on cue, Logan's sister Emma strode up with Naomi. "Hey, you're Al's ex-girlfriend!" Emma said, brightening.
Agnes chuckled awkwardly. "Yup, that's me."
"I can't believe Al was with someone before Auntie Rachel," Naomi said.
"I know it seems like they've been together forever," Lauren said, rolling her eyes, "but they only reunited four years ago. He had a life before her."
"What's your name again?" Emma asked Agnes.
"It's Agnes," she said. "And you're Emma, right?"
Emma nodded eagerly.
"You could have brought your kids today," Lauren said. "We would have loved to meet them."
Agnes' face fell. "Oh, I'm sorry, that would have been lovely, but they're with their dad today, and staying overnight at his apartment."
"So, he's back in the picture?" Lauren asked, casting Tej a sidelong glance.
"We're still divorcing, but he has a right to see his kids, and they were missing him terribly. How could I stand in the way? As it happens, he said he went out with a coworker last night, so he's already moving on."
Lauren looked over her shoulder at Joe, who was pulling meat out of the fridge for the barbecue. "Well, bully for him," she said. "Emma, will you take Agnes downstairs to see Al and Rachel?"
"Sure! Come on!" Emma grabbed Agnes' hand and began walking. Agnes stumbled after her in surprise, unused to the girl's directness and lack of self-consciousness. Naomi accompanied them, asking Agnes prying questions.
Tej and Lauren watched them walk away. "Naomi's going to grow up to be an investigator like you, Lauren," Tej said.
Lauren had heard that before and made no comment on it. Instead, she leaned in and said, low and throaty, "Joe's in."
"In?"
"You know... the thing you wanted to do..."
"Oh!" she said. "Right. Really? He's okay with it?"
Lauren nodded, biting her lower lip. "He has one condition, though."
"Oh, yeah?" Tej asked, feeling her heart race. "What's that?"
"He wants to be with you."
"Me?" She looked around quickly, making sure Joe wasn't in the room. He probably went outside to barbecue the meat. She leaned into Lauren's ear and whispered, "What about you? Are you okay with it?"
Lauren shrugged and said, "I might be. I noticed you're not saying no."
"Um..." She felt heat come to her cheeks. She fanned herself and said, "Whew, this is starting to get real. I wasn't really sure it would get this far."
"We can still call it off, if you're uncomfortable now."
She let out a breath and said, "You know, when it was just the idea of Sunny being with you, it seemed easier to think about. Me being with someone else... I don't know..."
"You're more comfortable with the idea of your husband cheating on you than with you cheating on your husband?"
"With another man, yeah. When I was with the two of you, it seemed easier to swallow."
Lauren leaned in and said into her ear, "You won't have to swallow Joe if you don't want to."
Tej gasped and smacked Lauren playfully on the arm. "You're terrible!" she said, but she was blushing again, she knew it. "Have you talked to Rachel? What about Al?"
"She said he won't stand in our way, and that if you'd like to be with him too he won't turn you away."
"Oh, my God, suddenly I'm the star of this show?" This was starting to go too far. What was she thinking even bringing this up? It would collapse into hurt feelings and broken relationships if it went ahead. "Look, Sunny doesn't know anything about this, yet. I think before we go any further I'm going to have to talk to him about it. He might not be keen on sharing me, even if it would get his own fantasies fulfilled."
"Of course. Everybody has to agree, and even if it happens, it will be once we're all a hundred percent." She tapped her boot with her walking stick to illustrate the point.
Before they could say anything further, Emma and Naomi emerged from the basement stairs, leading Agnes, Rachel and Al to the main floor, Al out of his hospital gown and in street clothes again. The only signs he'd been hospitalized were the scar on his head, surrounded by shorter hair than the rest, and his use of the handrail to help him climb the stairs.
Al immediately grabbed for the walker they sent him home with, which was sitting beside the basement door, and he wheeled himself more confidently over to them. Tej smiled, in spite of her discomfort at the news that Al desired her, and said, "There he is! Up and about!"
"Hi, Tej," Al said, and Tej noticed his eyes appraising her, something she might not have noticed before because all men's eyes appraised her; knowing of his interest now made things awkward when they were fine just a few minutes ago. Rachel either didn't notice his roaming eyes or had become inured to them after Lauren. It only reinforced that maybe this whole arrangement was a bad idea; if they opened their marriages once, why not again, and again?
"How are you feeling?" she asked.
"Pretty good actually." He tapped his walker. "This is just to keep me upright when I get tired, but I'm getting more stamina every day."
"Fantastic!"
He looked around and asked, "Where's Sunny?"
"Coming later. He's wearing his Councillor hat at a City committee meeting this morning."
"That's right, he won his election. Do you know Rachel had to tell me? The guy's too humble."
"I agree. It's a wonder he got enough votes, his campaign was so low-key aside from his opener. Maybe it took being a hero to put him past the finish line."
Al chuckled and said, "He didn't tell me about that either. I was looking right at his sling when he visited me and I never thought to ask him what happened."
"Don't beat yourself up, Al. You'd just woken from your coma."
"Maybe that's it. I'd also had the reappearance of this woman in my life." He gestured to Agnes, who smiled sheepishly. "It made my head spin."
"Come out on to the balcony, Al," Lauren said, hobbling over to the sliding door. "There's a table set up there, where us mobility-challenged folks can eat."
"I could use the air, actually," Al said. "I've been indoors for far too long."
As Lauren, Al and Rachel went out on to the balcony, the doorbell rang, and Tej decided to play hostess again because everyone else seemed occupied.
She opened the door and was surprised again to see Al's mom standing beside Joanie. The two made an incongruous pair and, as if she'd sensed Tej's confusion, Mrs. Mackenzie said, "Joanie and I both live in Coquitlam, so I asked her for a ride."
"Oh, the two of you have met before?" Tej asked.
"We met at the hospital," Joanie said. She was looking uncomfortable for some reason. "Now, Mrs. Mackenzie..."
"Please, call me Gladys, I think we're familiar enough, now."
"Gladys. I've brought you here, but I'm going on shift soon, so you'll need to find your own way home."
She turned to go, but Gladys caught her arm and said, "Aren't you going to come in and say hello? All your friends are here."
Tej wondered the same thing. Didn't she want to see Joe, at least?
Joanie looked pained, but she nodded and said, "A quick hello, and then I need to go."
"Come in, come in," Tej said, standing aside for them. "Al's on the balcony with Lauren and Rachel, and I think Joe's downstairs on the patio, grilling meat on the barbecue."
Gladys made for the balcony, and Joanie went with her. Tej found that interesting. Either she didn't want to give herself away by running straight to Joe, or she wanted to see Lauren; the two were oddly close in spite of the fact that Joanie slept with her husband. Or maybe she just wanted to congratulate Al on leaving the hospital.
Al, Rachel and Lauren were leaning over the balcony rail, looking down on the kids playing badminton in the yard. When Joanie slid the door open, they all turned. Al opened his arms to his mother for a hug, and Lauren brightened when she saw Joanie. "Hey, girl, where've you been?" she asked. "We heard you came to see Al at the hospital, but we always missed you."
Joanie shrunk back and said stiffly, "I've been busy. I've taken on a new role at the detachment."
"I heard! I saw you on TV!"
"Ah. Yes. I'm already a hashtag, too, and it's a little embarrassing."
"A what?" Gladys asked.
Before Joanie could answer, Tej heard a voice behind her say, "Joanie."
Joanie turned, and Tej saw her face fall. "Hi," she said, so quietly Tej barely heard her.
Tej turned. Joe stood there, holding a tray of cooked meat, looking gut-punched. "Hi," he said. "It's good to see you."
Joanie cleared her throat and said, "I brought Al's mom to see him. That's all."
"Oh." Joe was trying and failing to keep his composure, and Gladys was looking confused.
Joanie turned to look at Rachel. Her jaw stiffened, and she turned back to Joe and said, "It's a big day, today. You're surrounded by everyone you love."
"I am," Joe said. "That hasn't changed."
Yikes, this was getting awkward. Lauren was looking anywhere but at Joanie or Joe. Rachel was looking down at her feet. Al was the only one looking at them with any compassion.
To everyone's surprise, Agnes said, "You're Joanie?"
Joanie blinked in surprise and said, "Yes, that's me. I'm sorry, have we met?"
"No, I don't think we have." Agnes offered her hand. "Agnes Marinville."
"Marinville," Joanie said dully, a little slow to take her hand.
"You probably know my husband... well, soon to be ex-husband, Patrick."
Joanie suddenly blushed guiltily and said, "Uh, yes, that's right. New transfer, yes? From Kelowna?"
"That's right. I hear he's moving on already, dating a coworker. That's Patrick's M.O., unfortunately. When he dates coworkers, it doesn't end well."
Joanie swallowed hard, turned to Al and said, "I'm happy you're home." Then she turned to leave. "Excuse me," she said to Joe, who stepped aside to let her pass, but placed the tray of meat on the table and followed after her.
Tej could hear him calling to her, asking her to talk for a minute. She looked to the four of them, then to Gladys, who was looking confused and embarrassed herself, not looking at Agnes at all, perhaps because her generation never aired their dirty laundry like that.
Lauren saw the meat, looked at Tej and said, "Oh, shoot, we haven't brought out the salads yet."
Tej couldn't help it. What Lauren said was so absurd, following on the heels of that cringeworthy exchange, that she started laughing. That got everyone else laughing, too, even Gladys after a moment; maybe they were just all relieved to dispel the tension among them.
Thanks for reading this far! With all those revelations, the tension on that balcony could have been cut with a knife, couldn't it. If you liked what you read so far, hit "Vote" to send this title up the ranks. Leave a comment and let me know what you think!
To see what Sunny walks in on when he arrives at the house, click on "Continue reading."