Working Romance

by Susan Kohler

  “Well, face it John, we may have met our fate,” Cheryl teased.

  “It’s too soon to be sure,” John remarked. “But maybe.”

  “Do you know how many married couples I know that met through Laura?” Cheryl asked with a touch of desperation in her voice.

  “How many?” John looked into her pretty eyes and smiled.

  “Tons,” Cheryl said, “and I’ve never seen her miss yet.”

  “Then to quote the old song, let’s face the music and dance.” John laughed.

  He took her drink and set it on a table, then he led her to the dance floor. Just as he took her into his arms, he whispered in her ear, “It may be fate, but it’s such a good fate.”

  Neither John nor Cheryl noticed as Laura and Kate exchanged high fives on the other side of the room. Bob and Jack came over to join them.

  “Who are you two going to plot against next?” Jack asked them.

  “Frank,” Kate answered instantly.

  “I should have seen that one coming,” Jack muttered.

  “Who do we know that’s special enough?” Laura asked.

  “And spirited enough,” Kate added. “I promised Frank a shrew that would give him a hard time and put him in his place.”

  “That leaves out my choice, Emily. She’s too sweet and gentle. I wish I could find someone special for her, I don’t know anyone who needs or deserves to be loved more,” Laura sighed.

  “I’ve met Emily,” Kate reminded her. “She is very sweet and she does deserve someone special, but not Frank, she’s too gentle for him.”

  “And you’re right, Frank needs a spirited woman who can stand toe to toe with him,” Laura admitted.

  “Who do you think he would go for then?” Kate thought aloud.

  Both women looked up as they heard a shriek coming from the side of the yard where the bar was set up. They looked up to see Frank get slapped and then yelled at by a short, slender, redheaded wildcat.

  “You great lumbering oaf! Why the heck don’t you use those big brown eyes if you plan to walk around with a full drink in your hand? It would have to be a bloody Mary!” the woman fumed.

  “You ran into me you little danger zone, I was standing still.” Frank was so much taller than the unknown woman that he had to lean over to yell in her face. He bent down until he was almost nose to nose with his combative new acquaintance.

  “Who’s that?” Kate narrowed her eyes, speculating.

  “Lanie McPherson. She’s a friend of Jack’s from work,” Laura said. “She’s single and has a daughter. Jack told me that she got a hard time from some of the other landscape architects at the office when she was first hired. She’s tough enough that she fought back in her own way.”

  “What did she do?” Kate asked.

  “She worked hard enough and long enough to buy in as a partner. Then she made sure better sexual harassment policies were put in place.” Laura smiled. “Still, she left room for innocent banter and fun between co-workers.”

  “She looks perfect to me,” Kate said, listening to her haranguing Frank. “Man! She’s got a fiery temper.”

  “And they met without our interference,” Laura said. “He can’t even blame us.”

  “She’ll give him a hard time,” Kate said softly. “A real hard time.”

  They looked at each other and said in unison, “Perfect!”

  Bob and Jack exchanged long-suffering sighs. “Another one bites the dust,” Bob said.

  “Poor fool’s going to go down fighting,” Jack replied. “He won’t give in without a fight like you did.”

  “I know Laura too well, I decided to go to my fate bravely, like a man,” Bob said, then he caught Kate giving him a look, her eyebrows raised. “Of course, I couldn’t fight because I fell in love at first glance. What a sight that was.”

  “My first glance was pretty impressive too.” Kate kissed him.

  “Let’s go break up the fight and see if we can rescue her dress. It would have to be white linen.” Laura sighed. “Such a beautiful dress, too. It really is a shame.”

  She and Kate went over and interrupted the fight, separating the combatants. Laura took Lanie upstairs and loaned her a dress, a very sexy sundress, and gently blotted up as much of the stain as she could off the linen dress.

  Downstairs Kate had Frank cornered, literally, next to the tiny dance floor. “So? Do you think you could tame that shrew?”

  “Piece of cake, but why would I want to?” Frank asked.

  “She’s very smart and good-looking. And she knows how to stand up for herself,” Kate listed her qualities. “But you couldn’t handle her, I’d bet on it.”

  “What do you mean you’d bet on it?” Frank seemed insulted.

  “Well, it would be a bet I couldn’t lose.” Kate eyed him speculatively. “You’d never get the girl.”

  “I could if I wanted too,” Frank defied her.

  “When that happens I’ll have you right where I want you, married to her. Unsettled, upset and never bored, but very, very happy.” Kate held out her hand. “Bet?”

  “Bet,” Frank said, clasping her hand and feeling trapped. He tried one last ploy. “Unless I could bet against myself?”

  “No way. You already shook hands on it.” She laughed and looked around for Bob. “You’re done for and my work here is done. I’m gonna grab my old man and blow this pop stand.”

  She walked over to where Bob and Jack were talking in the corner. “Hi sailor, new in town?”

  “I’m just looking for the right woman to take me home and put me to bed,” Bob told her. “Is Frank all taken care of?”

  “He’s finished. I backed him into a bet.” She paused before she explained, “I bet him that he couldn’t get her to marry him within a year, and he bet he could.”

  “He took that bet?” Bob said incredulously. “I don’t even want to know how you managed that.”

  “I double dared him.” She grinned.

  “Bob, we have got to keep our two women apart. The fate of the free world could be at stake.” Jack shook his head laughing, “And I thought Laura was scary all by herself.”

  “Well I have to tell Laura the terms of the bet so she can help me lose,” Kate said, “then we can leave. By the way, how is John doing with Cheryl?”

  “Sparks are flying, it looks like we have a winner,” Bob told her. “John kissed her on the dance floor.”

  “I’d like it better if he kissed her on the mouth,” she joked. “I’ll be right back.” She went over and had a short conference with Laura. When she returned, she took Bob by the hand and tried to lead him out the door.

  “Hey wait!” Bob protested, then his voice dropped. “I’m glad you want to go home and be alone with me. I want to be with you, too. But this is a party and there’s a whole side of beef that I helped cook, and some of it has my name on it. Plus, there are salads and side dishes and about four different cakes I’d like to sample. Can’t we eat here? Unless you’d like to cook at home.”

  “Okay, we’ll stay for dinner. Since you cooked,” she laughed, “with your trusty shovel. But you only get to sample three cakes, not all four. I don’t want you to get fat.” She kissed him, rubbing his flat, washboard stomach. “On the other hand, sample all the cakes if you want. We’ll work it off at home.”

  They relaxed and enjoyed themselves, eating and dancing and visiting with their friends, but not for very long. There was a bed waiting for them.

  Chapter Twelve

  It was nearly midnight when Kate and Bob finally left the party and headed for her house. They were feeling slightly tired but still amorous and wickedly happy. However those feelings ceased as soon as Kate opened her front door. She knew immediately something was wrong.

  Very, very wrong.

  Teddy and Charger didn’t come charging to the door to greet her. She got a glimpse of the living room. It was in a total shambles. Kate froze, one hand on the doorknob. Bob also realized something was terribly wrong inside the house. He
r next reaction was to check on her beloved animals but Bob’s good sense prevailed. He grabbed her by the shoulders.

  “We can’t do anything here. I know you want to go in and so do I, but we would only mess up any clues for the police.” He restrained her gently, “Let’s go call them from my car.”

  They went back to Bob’s car and got in. Bob used his cell phone to call the police and report that Kate’s house had been broken into.

  Kate was shaking. “God! I hope they didn’t hurt Teddy or Charger. I’m so scared. They always run to the door to greet me.” Then another thought hit her, adding to her fear. “Bob, no one would hurt the puppies, would they? No one could be that cruel, that sick.”

  She started to open the car door, planning on going in the house to check on the dogs but Bob stopped her. He cuddled her close to his chest, soothing and calming her even though he was very scared and angry himself. He kept telling himself it was only a burglar or kids on drugs, but he knew who had broken into Kate’s house. He was filled with nervous tension and blind fury. In his mind he kept hearing the warning from the police that Jerry could be dangerous, even unbalanced.

  When the police arrived, Bob got out of the car to talk to them, leaving a shaky Kate in the car. He told them that no one had left the house while they were there, at least not from the front. Then he told them about the dogs and the puppies, explaining that Kate was frantic to go in and see if they were all right. One of the police officers entered the house; soon he came out again carrying the squealing litter in its box. The puppies were fine.

  “If the barking coming out of the downstairs bathroom is anything to go by, I’d say the parents of these little critters are all right, too. They sounded really ferocious. I decided I wasn’t going to be the one to open that door,” the officer stated, grinning ruefully. “Even if they are small dogs.”

  Kate got out of the car and went in the house, consciously shutting out the wreckage in her living room. She let the two dogs out of the bathroom. Then she quickly put them on their leashes and took them outside.

  “Can you tell if anything is missing Ma’am?” one of the officers asked after she put the dogs in Bob’s car.

  She went back into the house and walked through it carefully. This time she had to let all the damage sink in and it was devastating. Bob was beside her all the way, holding her arm as she checked over the house and looked at her possessions.

  Everything was either smashed, torn or overturned, but everything seemed to be there. Her TV and VCR were smashed and her computer monitor was broken. The computer’s tower was gone and her back-up discs were also missing. She pointed that out to the police.

  She went upstairs and found out that the destruction was just as bad up there. Her comforter and pillows were slashed, along with her mattress. Most of her clothes were ripped, even her new lingerie. Sadly, even the kids’ rooms hadn’t escaped the destruction. There were torn clothes and broken toys spread all over the floor.

  There was only one loss that really devastated her, one blow that seemed to defeat her totally. She found her wedding photo album and all of her family photo albums, ruined. Those albums had all of her pictures of Joe and the baby pictures of her kids. The precious pictures were all torn to shreds or covered with something black and sticky. The sight of it stopped her in her tracks. She sank to her knees in tears.

  Bob was shocked at the wanton destruction and also angry, angrier than he had ever been in his life at the useless and cruel destruction of all of her irreplaceable pictures. He was shocked at himself to realize that there was also a strangely disturbing undercurrent to his sympathy.

  This was the first time he had really faced exactly what the loss of her husband had meant to Kate, and how much she had loved him. It disturbed him a bit. It wasn’t exactly jealousy. It was the realization that he could share his life with her and the kids, but he could never be the one she planned to have those kids with. The one she had planned to grow old with. He could love them and maybe be a father to them but it was important to Kate that the kids always remember Joe, who had loved them and fathered them first.

  Once he realized that, he knew that was the way it should be. Joe deserved his place in Kate’s and the kids’ lives. He would have to carve his own place alongside Joe’s, without replacing him. He gently helped Kate over to the sofa and sat with her, holding her and trying in vain to comfort her. Gradually she came back to some semblance of control and she began to be aware of her surroundings once more.

  She realized that along with her computer’s tower and the discs, the files she had brought from work were gone. They were not on the floor around where her overturned, smashed coffee table used to be.

  For Kate and Bob that was all the proof they needed; Jerry had done this. Without words, they both thought about how dangerous and unbalanced Jerry must have become. Why would he do these things? For that matter, why had he stolen so much money in the first place?

  The senior patrol officer gestured for Bob to come over and talk to him. He left Kate on the sofa and walked over to the policeman.

  “What threw her into such a tailspin?” he asked Bob curiously. “She was holding up fairly well until she found the mess in the den.”

  “Kate was widowed when her children were very young, hell, the oldest is not yet five now,” Bob explained. “The bastard who did this tore up all the pictures she had of her husband, including her wedding pictures and the pictures of him with the kids. She almost feels like she lost him again.”

  “You haven’t been together very long then?” he quizzed. “You seem like an established couple.”

  “No. Sometimes love hits you like that, I guess. I was lost the first time we met,” Bob told the officer.

  “This has to be a grudge. Do you realize, really realize, how sick and dangerous this man is?” the officer queried.

  Bob looked at the patrolman. “I have more to tell you about this but let me get Kate out of here for now. I can put her in my car.”

  Bob went back to Kate and led her outside. He put her into his car before he went over and talked to the officers, telling them about the thefts at work and her investigation. One of the patrolmen took the name of the officer handling that case to add to his report, and promised to contact that officer about this break-in. Bob also gave him the name and address of their suspect, Jerry Weisner.

  At the patrol officer’s request, Kate reluctantly knocked on her neighbor Tim’s door. He came out in a bathrobe and for once in his grubby life, was surprisingly cooperative, answering the patrolman’s questions. He even described a car he had seen at the house earlier that night. It matched the description of Jerry’s car, a blue Honda Civic. He said it was there when they left for the party.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t call the cops then, doll, but I thought maybe lover boy just had a new car until I saw you leave for the party with him. Then I just forgot about it,” he told Kate. “Hey, is it serious with him?”

  “Yes, it is, Tim.” She gave him a faint, trembling smile. “I hope you’re happy for me.”

  “Well he’s more suited for a classy dame like you than I am, but you make him treat you right,” he told her before asking, “Want a beer?”

  “Do you have any whiskey?” Kate told him, “I think I’m way past beer right now.”

  He went in his house and brought out a shot of bourbon for her. Kate downed it in a single gulp.

  She looked up at Tim and said, “Thanks, I needed that.”

  Tim grinned, “See? I knew you had class.”

  Kate went back to join Bob, vaguely wondering what downing a shot of good bourbon had to do with class, but glad she seemed to have made peace with her neighbor at last.

  It seemed like forever but finally, they were finished dealing with the police. It was after two AM. Wearily, they got into Bob’s car and made the short drive over to his place, dogs and all.

  During the drive, Kate came out of her initial shock enough to realize fully just how danger
ous a person Jerry really was. She glanced over at Bob as he drove and noticed the tightness of his face, and how white his knuckles were as they gripped the steering wheel; she knew he had come to the same conclusion.

  As they pulled into Bob’s driveway, they saw a car driving very fast down the street towards the freeway. Since it was so dark, they couldn’t determine the make or color but for some reason both of them found the car disturbing. It seemed familiar somehow.

  They got out of Bob’s car and headed for the house. Bob was carrying the box full of puppies and Kate was holding Teddy and Charger on their leashes. She used her new key to open his door and then gasped as she saw the mess in his living room.

  Stunned and shaken beyond belief, they went back to Bob’s car and called the police again. This time, they followed that call with calls to Laura and to John.

  The car was simply too confining for their emotions, so they got out. Both of them were feeling so blazingly furious and agitated that it almost sickened them. While waiting for the police, they sat on the lawn feeling like victims of a very bad joke. Every once in a while one of them would get up and pace around the small lawn.

  Bob had told the operator answering the police phone about the break-in at Kate’s and gave them the name of the patrol officer he had spoken to earlier. The same officer was between calls so he was first to arrive on the scene.

  “This is like a bad movie,” Bob said, shaking the man’s hand.

  “We’ve got to stop meeting like this,” Kate greeted him, quipping bravely but with a trembling voice.

  “No critters inside the house this time, we brought them with us.” Bob told the officer about the car that they had seen driving away. “And I called the head of security for our business; he’s been working with the detectives on the embezzlement case. Plus I called my assistant at work, just in case she’s a target, too,” Bob told the patrolman. “She was involved in the investigation at work.”

  “Good thinking. I’ll need those names,” the officer said. “I called the detectives who were working the embezzlement case and told them of the first break-in. In fact, they’re at your house, Ma’am, conducting a follow-up investigation. I’ll call them again right now.”