Rachel closed the door behind Lauren and turned to face him. She didn't say anything for a moment, just stared at him.
He felt naked under her gaze, even though he was dressed. He squirmed and said, "I love you?" even though he wasn't sure that was what she wanted to hear at the moment. What the three of them had done might have been all well and good while it was happening, but the aftermath allowed for a lot of thinking, and those thoughts might not lead anywhere good for his wife.
She put a finger to her lips. "She might still be waiting at the elevator," she whispered. She took his hand and led him into the kitchen. At first he thought she wanted to eat dinner, but she ignored the pan on the stove and leaned against the counter.
"What is it?" he asked.
"I don't believe what she said about Joe."
He blinked in surprise. That wasn't what he'd expected her to say. "I'm sorry?"
She shook her head. "I can't believe he would just let Lauren and me continue seeing each other just because he once had a slip-up with me in a desperate moment. That seems to me like an unbalanced equation."
"You mean, because you've been at this about two years while that was one moment?"
She blushed and looked down at her feet. "Yeah. I guess Lauren told you how long it's been going on?"
"I believe she said two days after we first slept together."
She looked so wretched that Al felt he had to console her when he should rightfully have been angry. "I admit I was hurt," he said, "but I understand how much she loves you. Anyway, after tonight all notions of propriety have pretty much flown out the window, since she made love to both of us."
She snorted. "Made love. She pounded you in that Amazon position. Maybe we should try it sometime."
He chuckled and blushed. "You'd destroy me if we did. Little Lauren only made me her bitch."
"Ha!" She shrieked. "So, was she as good as you imagined?"
Now came the dangerous conversation. "Is there a safe way for me to answer that?"
"Yes. Complete honesty."
"Okay. Better than I imagined, but not better than you."
"Good answer."
"She was just as good, but in a different way."
She rolled her eyes. "Quit while you're ahead, Al."
"Sorry. What I was going to say was, after tonight, we could almost be a throuple, if she wasn't already married to Joe."
She shook her head and chuckled. "That's mighty ambitious talk, Al. Just because tonight happened doesn't mean we're inviting you in every time."
She didn't say it would never happen again, though. That was hopeful, at least. He cleared his throat and said, "Oh, right, no, of course not. I'm the third, I accept that."
"You're right about one thing, though. We are one big incestuous group, now that Joe's at least partly in on this. That brings me back to what I said before. Why is Joe allowing this? There has to be another reason."
Al cleared his throat and said, "I don't know if I should be telling you this..."
Her head snapped up. "What is it?"
"When Lauren and I came home from looking for you Monday night, after we dug up Charlie--"
"You guys came really close to finding where we got into trouble," Rachel interrupted. "That was some detective work on your part."
"Lauren was just following up on a hunch after she learned from Johnny about the development out there; she didn't know about it before, and she just wanted to have a look."
"Wait, if Lauren talked to Johnny, why didn't he tell her he saw us that night and gave us the money to pay off those guys?"
Al blinked in surprise. "That is a good point, but like you said, maybe he didn't want to anger her with news of Charlie's death. By letting her know about the site, though, he probably knew she would go looking there. I'm sure if he had anything else that would help her find them, he'd tell her. I think we were all shocked by what happened."
"True. I'm sure Johnny never thought we'd get robbed and carjacked; he probably thought we'd just be paying off some annoying NIMBYist or something."
"Why didn't Johnny go with you, by the way?"
"He was at home with his family; it would have been suspicious if he went out in the middle of the night; remember, his family didn't know what he did."
"Jesus," he breathed. "All this because no one wanted to offend Lauren's or Johnny's family's sensibilities."
"I know. Pretty fucked up."
"Anyway, on our way home, we picked up the kids, and Naomi asked us why we didn't ask Joe's cop friend where he was."
Her eyes narrowed. "What cop friend?"
"Lauren sussed out that it was the same woman we met on Sunday morning, while we were looking for Joe's phone on the highway."
"How did you do that, by the way?"
"Lauren has an app on her phone that locates phones of other people she knows, I think it only works with iPhones. It was lucky Joe's phone was turned on. We were able to track it."
Rachel nodded thoughtfully. "So, this woman is a cop, and she found you on the highway?"
"Yeah, she's an RCMP sergeant. She thought we'd broken down on the shoulder. Nice person. Her name's Joanie Mara, and apparently Lauren knew her."
Rachel gasped. "That's right! She was Lauren's maid of honour at her wedding! My replacement. So, wait, Joe was already friends with her?"
"Yeah," Al said slowly, thinking about what next to say. "That night when I slept over her place, Lauren and I discussed that. She seemed really thrown by it, and you know..." He snapped his fingers. "When Lauren found Joe's phone, she wouldn't let me look at it. She was going through all these things but she wouldn't show me what they were. I wonder if maybe those two things are connected."
Her eyes widened. "Do you think Joe's been seeing this Joanie on the side?"
Al shrugged.
"And maybe that's why he's been basically forced to allow us to happen? Because that's what I really think happened. He couldn't have allowed this out of the goodness of his heart."
"Well, whatever it might be, Lauren didn't say anything about it, maybe because she didn't want to, and I think we shouldn't ask her."
Rachel nodded. "It's between the two of them. If they're both going to have lovers, they have to make it work for themselves. I'd like to meet this Joanie, though."
"She's tall, strong. Authoritative. You know, I shouldn't be telling you this, but when I had my bachelor party, we went to the Paramount for lap dances."
"Ugh," Rachel said. "And here I thought you were an enlightened man."
"Lauren told me you had firefighter strippers at yours."
"Jesus, Lauren's a blabbermouth. It wasn't my idea. Anyway, you were saying?"
"Joe picked this incredibly tall woman in a police get-up to dance for him. Knowing what I know now, it kind of makes sense. He has a type."
"And you? What was yours? Who did you choose?"
He grimaced. "I don't want to tell you."
"Oh, fuck," she breathed. "Not a small Asian woman?"
He looked anywhere but her.
"And now you've just had the real thing," she said sardonically. "Happy?"
That made what they'd done feel cheap, and he didn't think that was fair to any of them. He looked back at her. "Lauren's my friend, Rachel. I don't think of her as just a sexual fantasy. The two of us really bonded while we were looking for you. We discussed some really profound things. I respect her intellect, her strength and, most of all, her courage. She was braver than I was, that's for sure." He shrugged. "I don't know, we helped each other through this, just as I'm sure you and Joe did, and even though I can't say I love her like I love you, I do love the shining human being she is."
Her face softened. "I guess I should be glad you didn't choose a tall blonde with green eyes, that would have been a slap in the face."
"Exactly. See? I am an enlightened man," he said jokingly, and she punched him in the arm.
They did eventually eat dinner. Al's hunger had returned with a vengeance; he'd burned a lot of calories during that wonderful romp in the bedroom and the shower.
"I think I'm going to have to go to work tomorrow," Rachel said.
"You don't want to take one more day off, then finish recovering over the weekend?"
Rachel shrugged. "I don't get as many sick days as you do. I'm pretty much fine. I'm just going to be sitting at a desk looking at numbers, anyway."
"What about Ralph?"
She looked up at him while stuffing a forkful of pasta in her mouth. "What about him?" she asked with a full mouth.
"Won't it be awkward?"
She shrugged. "I just won't talk to him if I don't have to. If he welcomes me back with a hug, though, I won't be able to take it."
"Do you really think he thinks of you that way?"
She snorted. "Oh, Al, you have no idea what women experience in an office environment. I probably get checked out at least twenty times a day, flirted with five times, and touched creepily at least once. I can tell when a male colleague is into me."
"Jesus. I'm sorry. Is there anything I can do?"
She shook her head sadly. "It's my workplace. I can't have you come over and be my security, you have your own job. I have my own tools to deflect male attention; all women develop and sharpen them throughout their career."
Al took another bite as he thought of what to say next. "What about what Ralph did? Doesn't it make you angry?"
"Sure. Can I confront him about it? Not without proof. I like my job, and I need my job, and I don't want to endanger it by throwing accusations at one of the partners."
"Lauren's a partner. Maybe she can back you up."
"I don't know. It's risky. I think I'd rather let the cops act on it if they want to. That way we stay at arm's length."
"That does sound sensible." He chewed thoughtfully a moment before asking, "Do you think men get attention from women at the office?"
"Not as often. They'd have to be stunning and powerful to get the same leers as most women with a pulse get from men."
"So... I guess I've never been checked out."
She gave him a pitying look. "Aw. Feel left out? Is there a pretty coworker you wish would notice you?"
He chuckled sheepishly. "No. Not really."
"Sure you don't. It's no treat, most of the time, and look at where it got me at my last place of work."
"Ah yes, your CEO. You could also say, look where it got him."
She chuckled. "True. Karma's a bitch."
She chewed thoughtfully for a while. "I think I'm going to have to talk to Joe," she said.
"Joe? You mean, about..."
"Lauren and me."
"Is that wise?"
She sighed. "Like you said, Joe and I bonded those terrible two days. You heard what he called me."
"His angel," Al said. "Was that because you two spent seven minutes in heaven?"
"Be nice. What I mean to say is, we owe each other a lot, and I think I owe him an explanation for why Lauren and I kept this from him all this time. I don't want to lose his friendship after all we've been through."
He nodded. "If I don't come with you, will that be all right?"
"Chicken."
Thanks for reading this far! If you liked what you just read, hit "Vote" and leave a comment. We're going to go back a couple of months to another of those day to day events, but this time one of the friends is going to reveal something shocking to the others. Click "Continue reading" to find out what it is.