by Annette Mori
Joy always told her that opposites attract. Wait, where did that come from? She needed to stop having random thoughts about her co-conspirator
“Ma’am? Your weight?”
Sophia shook her head. “Um, sorry. I’m one hundred and twenty five pounds and you do not need to add ten pounds to that number.”
The woman gazed across Sophia’s body. “You may be the only woman to give her true weight, but I would say that looks about right.”
“One thirty-five and don’t even think about adding ten pounds to that number,” Lara growled.
Sophia was grateful that in an effort to balance the plane, she did not have to sit next to Lara. She could enjoy the view from the window and mentally prepare for her role as the dutiful and loving wife. Her stomach churned thinking about what she might have to endure during the next couple of days. Oddly, she felt like a prostitute—or at least she would if she had to have sex with Lara. Sex for the sake of the plan was extremely distasteful to her, but she would do whatever she needed to do.
Rachel had promised that her forensic accountant would be able to uncover everything they needed within forty-eight hours. She’d doubled his fee in an attempt to get the report as quick as possible and he’d assured her that she would have most of the information she needed within twenty-four hours. Seattle Children’s Hospital was about to receive a very generous donation to their foundation. At least something positive would come from this mess.
Four other passengers joined Sophia and Lara on their flight. The excited chatter filled the small cabin as the plane began its ascent into the air.
Sophia remained quiet in her seat. When the plane reached cruising altitude of eight thousand feet, she focused on the aerial view of Lake Union. What she saw from the tiny window took her breath away. Her fear of flying in the small plane floated away like tiny seeds from a dandelion flower. Could she make a wish like when she’d blown on the weed as a child? If only it were that simple, she would wish for this mess to all be finished.
In the distance, Sophia could see the snowcapped mountain peeking through the clouds. Mount Baker was every bit as awe-inspiring as Mount Rainer. Everywhere she looked, Sophia saw the lush landscape of Seattle and eventually, the San Juan Islands. It looked like a thousand diamonds sparkling on the dark blue water of the sound. Flourishing green forests peppered the water in an uneven pattern.
Sophia felt a calm come over her as she looked out at the famous archipelago of the northwest. Suddenly, she wished she could share this view with Rachel. It was an odd thought that she wasn’t prepared to analyze at this particular moment.
As the plane began its descent into the harbor where the seaplane dock was located, Sophia took a deep breath. Landing on water was a brand new experience for her. She could hear her mother’s voice in her ears, if you can’t drive there, count me out.
Too much of Sophia’s ordered life was influenced by her cautious mother. Even during her college days, with Joy encouraging her wilder side, she remained more reserved. Her mother’s death hadn’t changed a thing. She’d broken away some when she met Lara, but deep down she was still that play by the rules, prudent young girl that her mother raised. If only her mother could see her now—scheming with her wife’s mistress— or whatever you’d call Rachel— and landing on a speck of water.
Sophia chuckled to herself.
Lara turned around to look at Sophia and her quizzical expression screamed, what are you laughing about?
Sophia shook her head. She wasn’t about to reveal her internal dialogue. She felt the buzz from her phone in her pocket and glanced quickly at the text message before deleting it.
Right on track. Hang in there, the cavalry will be there in a day or two.
Sophia smiled. The encouragement was just what the doctor ordered.
†
Rachel marched confidently into the reception area of Lara’s office.
“Hey, Chandra. Lara asked me to come get something she left in her office. I know she won’t be back in the office for at least another week, so when she returns she can look at those papers in her office at home. If I can’t find them, I’ll grab you to help, but I don’t want to disturb you, so just give me some time to find everything,” Rachel stated.
“Lara didn’t tell me you were stopping by,” Chandra wavered.
“I know. She’s been so pre-occupied lately. I’m surprised she remembered to ask me to do this favor for her. I’m sure you’ve noticed how stressed she’s been lately. It’s the least I can do to help her out.”
“Oh, okay. I suppose that’s true. Let me know if you need my assistance,” Chandra called out.
Rachel was already on her way to Lara’s office as she heard Chandra capitulate.
The desk was completely devoid of any papers, folders, stray pens, or other items typically adorning most executive desks. Rachel knew that it was Lara’s insane need for order that drove her to clear off her desk every evening prior to leaving the office. Lara constantly preached how everything had a place and after use, it ought to go right back where it belongs—it was one of the many obsessions that drove Rachel crazy sometimes, but today she was grateful for the quirk.
All Rachel had to do was find the keys to her file cabinets and she knew all of Lara’s financial records were stored neatly in a file with her name on it. Lara didn’t trust her money with anyone else, so she was both owner and client of Fortified Financials.
Rachel began rifling through the drawers looking for the set of small file cabinet keys. In the middle drawer in the desk, she found a cherry wood box with a combination keypad.
“Bingo, if I were a betting woman, and I am, I’d bet the keys were in this little box. Hmmm, I wonder what the combo is. Let’s try my birthday.”
Rachel punched in 0886.
“Nope, I guess I don’t rate. Let’s try her birthday.”
Rachel selected 0575.
“Well, I guess you’re not as narcissistic as I thought. How about our anniversary?”
After trying 0813, Rachel frowned and picked up her phone, sending a quick text to Sophia.
What’s your birthday and anniversary?
Why?
Breaking into her office now and need to crack a keycode.
Ok it’s 9/9/80 and 7/8/06
Libra. Nice. We’re compatible. I’m a Leo. Whatcha doing now?
Waiting for our luggage, now stop texting. She’s going to start asking questions.
Okay, good luck.
Rachel tried 0980 first, but that didn’t work. She growled in frustration. On her final attempt after entering 0706, the lock popped open, and the tiny set of keys was the only item lying neatly in the box.
“I guess I know where I stand now in the pecking order of wives.”
Rachel hurried to the large custom cherry file cabinet and started searching for the file she knew she would find. Finally, her thumb brushed across her wife’s name. The neatly typed label stared up at her like a neon sign. She plucked the file from its home and brought it to the desk, flipping through the pages inside where Lara’s neat print outlined every transaction, password, and current balance for each of her accounts. There were a surprising number of different accounts. Some were joint accounts with Lara and Sophia’s name attached and others had her own name linked to Lara’s. There were a fair number of individual accounts and those were the ones that Rachel focused on.
The forensic accountant was good, but even he didn’t uncover all the accounts. It was a good thing that Rachel knew where to find the information. Rachel grinned when she discovered there were some accounts the accountant hadn’t found that the file revealed. Rachel assumed there was a similar file set-up in Lara’s New York office.
Rachel shrugged. It didn’t matter. The attorney would address those accounts and they would just have to be satisfied with the fact that Lara might have some additional money squirreled away in individual accounts she’d set up in New York. This would have to do.
Rachel met
hodically snapped photos of each page and then carefully replaced the papers and returned the massive folder to the file cabinet.
She wanted to call Sophia and tell her the good news, but that was out of the question. If all went as planned, she would see Sophia in Victoria. She decided one more quick text wouldn’t hurt.
Got them.
Rachel smiled when she received a smiley face in return.
Rachel looked around the office. She needed to take something with her so she wouldn’t raise suspicion with Chandra. She found a stack of empty folders and some copy paper. Grabbing a folder and putting a half a dozen sheets of paper into the file, she walked out of the office.
Chandra looked up from her desk. “Did you find what you were looking for?”
“Yes. Thanks. It’s all right here,” Rachel replied.
“Oh, by the way, Lara asked me to try to get in touch with her friend, Joy. She mentioned that she felt bad about abandoning her after she came all this way to visit. She asked if I would entertain her while she’s visiting. I’m not sure where the other friend went off to. That seems strange to me. Anyway, Lara said you don’t need to keep her entertained anymore. She knows how busy you are. I assume she’s still at Hotel 1000. Right?” Chandra asked.
Think you’ve figured out a way to keep us apart, have you? Rachel thought.
“Aren’t you just the sweetest thing? Don’t worry about it. I got it covered. I’ve got the whole tourist plan mapped out for Joy. I have plenty of vacation time and since it seems like Lara can never get away, I took the next week off. I didn’t want to lose the time I have accrued. I’ll let Lara know when I call her tonight. Bye, Chandra. Have a great weekend.”
Rachel ran out the door before Chandra engaged her in more conversation. She heard Chandra say goodbye before the door closed and she was outside the suite on her way to meet Joy.
†
After retrieving their luggage, Lara looked for an opportunity to check on the situation with Joy and Rachel. She’d called Chandra earlier and asked her to entertain Joy while she was gone. She’d even suggested that Chandra could call in a temp to take her place at the office while she showed Joy around. Of course, she would pay Chandra for her time. She also needed to call Rachel.
“I’m sorry, babe, but will you be okay if I make a few business calls. I promise I won’t be long and once they’re out of the way, we can start our vacation.” She pecked Sophia on the lips and strolled outside far away from the commotion at the sea dock.
The squawking of the seagulls was irritating as she tried to block out the noise.
“Hello. Yes, it’s Lara. I’m sorry, Chandra, these damn gulls are making a lot of noise. You’ll have to speak up. So, I was just checking to make sure you connected with Joy. What? No, no, I’ll give her a call. Thanks, anyway. Yes, I’ll touch base in a few days, okay?”
Lara resisted the urge to throw her phone at the seagulls. Fuck, what on earth is going on? She needed to calm down before she called Rachel. She wouldn’t react well to a directive, as though she were one of her staff members just waiting for orders. When she’d first learned of Rachel’s plans to have drinks with Joy, she’d blurted out the first thing that came to mind and that hadn’t worked out too well for her.
When Lara tried to call Rachel, it went straight to voicemail.
“God dammit,” she muttered.
Lara knew she’d have to try to get away again to call Rachel. She couldn’t let that runaway train head down the tracks.
She plastered on a smile and started walking back to the dock where Sophia was patiently waiting with their luggage. She took a few seconds to admire her wife who was looking out across the clear blue waters of the sound. Sophia’s hair was blowing in the wind and Lara thought it was one of those Kodak moments. Despite her earlier concerns, Lara couldn’t help feeling blessed. She needed to make the most of this trip before the chaos of running her business, and keeping two women on opposite ends of the world satisfied, occupied all of her free time.
Lara wrapped her arms around her wife and nuzzled her neck. “I’m really glad you made a surprise visit to Seattle. I get to share a little of my world with you. There’s not much that compares to the beauty of these islands. It’s spectacular—isn’t it?”
When Sophia didn’t respond, Lara turned her around, pulled off her sunglasses and looked into her eyes. There was a depth of melancholy she’d not seen on Sophia since her grandfather had passed. “Oh, baby, what’s wrong? You look so sad,” Lara noted.
“Do you think we’ll see the whales? That’s definitely something on my bucket list,” Sophia responded.
Lara decided to accept Sophia’s change of subject. Obviously, whatever was bothering her was something she wasn’t ready to discuss. It wasn’t Lara’s style to pry. If Sophia wanted to confide in her, she’d listen, but prodding her to talk was not in her repertoire.
“Mmm, it’s possible. Sometimes the whales come in close to shore and you can see them dancing in the waves. We have a water view from our suite. We can have drinks on the deck. I reserved the Cliffhouse honeymoon suite because the deck overlooks the water,” Lara answered.
“We should go check in now. I’d like to settle a bit before dinner. Maybe even take a nap. I didn’t get much sleep last night and I’m a little tired,” Sophia announced.
Now Lara wanted to pry. She was curious about why Sophia hadn’t gotten much sleep. Something was obviously going on with her wife and she needed to know. “Sophia, you know I don’t ever force you to talk about anything until you’re ready, but obviously something is going on with you and now it’s impacting your health. Please tell me what it is and I’ll do my best to fix it.”
Sophia waved her hand in the air, extended the handle on her bag, and began rolling it toward the resort. “Nothing’s wrong, I’m just tired. Joy woke me up to tell me about her latest love interest. She has the hots for that client of yours, Rachel, but she’s married. Of course, that never stopped Joy. I told her to leave it be, but you know Joy. I think the fact that this woman is married just makes her more appealing in Joy’s eyes. That way she can have her little Seattle fling and go back home without any strings following her. I hate when Joy gets this way and I really hate when she pursues married women. There’s nothing worse than an adulteress in my eyes. Why in the world would you get married if you’re going to fuck around? No one is holding a gun to anyone’s head. If you can’t be monogamous, don’t make that kind of commitment. Don’t you agree?” Sophia asked.
Lara blanched at the question, but quickly controlled her expression and answered. “Yes, of course. I’m surprised you’ve remained friends with Joy since her moral compass is obviously one hundred and eighty degrees from yours.”
Lara grabbed her own rolling bag and followed Sophia up the path to the resort. She was thankful that Sophia needed a nap because that would give her plenty of time to make a call to Rachel. She had to find a way to keep this situation from blowing up in front of her. If Sophia or Rachel discovered anything about her double existence, the shock would be of epic proportions.
†
Rachel kicked off her shoes and put her feet on the coffee table in the Corner Studio Water Suite while Joy lounged on the bed.
She took a sip of her wine and smiled at Joy. “I think it’s time to kick up the heat now that all the legal stuff is well under way.”
“She is going to pee her pants when you tell her that you plan on taking me to the islands and you booked a flight tomorrow to arrive at Rosario at half past noon.” Joy laughed.
“Do you think Sophia will really get to rest while taking her nap?” Rachel asked.
Joy shrugged. “Doubtful. This whole thing is really taking an emotional toll on her. She’s going to need a real vacation once this is finished. I might have to call her boss and fill her in on what’s happening so that she arranges for someone to complete the semester for Sophia.”
“Are you ready to have some fun?” Rachel asked.
“I’m ignoring that comment. You have to be quiet. No snickering or anything because I’m going to put the call on speaker, okay?”
“Sure, sure. No problem,” Joy responded.
“Oh, lookee here, missed call from Lara.” Rachel laughed.
Rachel pushed the button on her favorites list to call Lara.
“Hi, babe, how’s New York?” Rachel asked.
Joy made a face and Rachel shook her finger in warning.
“Lonely without you,” Lara responded.
Joy stuck her finger in her mouth and pantomimed the universal gagging sign.
Rachel slapped her hand across her mouth to keep from laughing and managed to squeak out, “Hey, listen, I was talking to Joy and she mentioned she’d always wanted to visit the San Juan Islands, so I made us a reservation on the eleven o’clock float plane tomorrow. Remember, I wanted to visit there anyway. You didn’t seem very excited about the location, so I thought I would take advantage of Joy’s interest in going to the islands. That way, we can go wherever you want after you get back. It sounded like you might want to take a trip overseas.”
Rachel could hear the strain in Lara’s voice as she carefully responded.
“That’s kind of a long way to go for a short weekend. I didn’t mean to suggest that Rosario wouldn’t be a good place for us to visit together. I’d like us to make that trip since Rosario is a romantic getaway place that’s more suited to couples. Why don’t you cancel and I’ll make reservations for us to go there in a few weeks after I get this emergency taken care of?” Lara countered.