by P J Mann
“I see you also were impressed by him,” Sabina replied cunningly.
Laura blushed, “it is not like that, I admit that he is quite a handsome man, but…”
“No need to explain and no need to bother either; he is gay,” Sabina replied.
“How do you know?”
“I am an expert in the field, I have learned to understand people’s sexual preferences and orientation from their behavior, and very rarely I am mistaken.”
Laura looked at her puzzled, “that is impressive, and scary too. I am wondering what you know about me… No, don’t tell me!”
Sabina smiled amused, “I am afraid that you have still to find out your way, but I am not telling you anything. This is something you’ll find out with time; maybe even with that guy… what was his name again? Oh yes, Jonathan.”
“Are you insinuating that I have a crush on him?” Laura exclaimed, “That is ridiculous!”
“Don’t be shy, we will be happy together,” said Gabriel coming from the garden.
“We were not talking about you,” said Laura.
“There isn’t anyone else here!” Gabriel replied chuckling.
“What about mind-your-own-business? Sometimes you have the propensity to be extremely annoying,” snapped Sabina.
“Not to mention impolite, our discussion was between the two of us. You just snuck up on us from out of nowhere and intruded in our business,” Laura added.
“Come on girls, don’t be like that, I just feel lonely being the only guy left in the group. How would you feel if you were in my same situation?”
“Fine, but try to at least to be more polite, when you see that we are talking to each other. We do not mean to leave you out of the loop, but there are things that we prefer not to share with everyone.” Sabina explained.
“I’m sorry,” he apologized, “yeah, I understand that sometimes I might be too intrusive, but the reality is that I hate being alone.”
“Well, I guess we can also say that we didn’t help you in this way,” admitted Laura as she thought about the way they avoided his company.
“In less than two weeks we will reach the end of therapy, and I am wondering whether this also means that we will disappear from each other’s lives,” Gabriel said cunningly.
“I don’t know, but at least for the first period, I will be overwhelmed with my job. I am afraid that I have underestimated what can happen in a firm during an entire month,” replied Sabina.
“For me, I don’t’ think there would be any problem. I think my life, together with my work will continue from the moment I have left it. I am not sure I have been missing so many things, life in a library doesn’t offer much excitement. Although, it offers the unique chance to get to know new authors and offer something new to the readers who are frequenting the library.”
Gabriel smiled, “I guess this means that I will have to get my library card and come to see you.”
“Why not? This might be a good chance for us to stay in touch. Perhaps, then we might go and take a look at one of the happenings Sabina is involved in,” Laura giggled. “What is the next fair?”
“No, darling, those are not for your innocent eyes. You might like them too much,” she replied.
“Then I volunteer to help her in the discovery of a new world,” Gabriel replied.
“No, I don’t think those are for you either. However, let’s exchange our email addresses I will keep you updated on our events, and if you decide to come and say ‘Hi’ I will be more than happy to show you around. Of course, you can always come to my shop any time you want.”
That evening, despite her tiredness, Laura could not find a way to fall asleep. She found it, somewhat strange that her therapy session was canceled. This is not even the first time that something like this has happened, she thought. I am wondering whether it can be considered something normal to be too busy to comply with a scheduled event during a therapy…
She grumbled, completely out of patience. She wasn’t even sure whether she felt disappointed for the missed session, or because she had to reschedule her day accordingly.
There was something that made her feel impatient about ending that therapy. “I think that most of all, I am curious to understand what happened to all the other patients, and particularly Carolina,” she said standing up from the bed.
Her eyes met her image in the mirror, “Ok, I admit it, I want to understand also whether I can reconnect with Jonathan, are you happy?” she said as she was talking to herself.
“No, I do not have a crush on him,” she continued as she was replying to a question. “Although, he is the one who really impressed me. There is something more about him that I would like to get to know; I am not even saying that I might be interested in a relationship with him, but… Oh, how can I just explain that he simply intrigued me, without risking being judged?”
She went out on the balcony. The air was chillier than usual, but she felt like that cold breeze on her skin was able to soothe her, helping her feel calmer and able to think clearer.
She took a deep breath and held it for a moment, like to keep that freshness inside her lungs, to reach her core. “I will miss the quiet of this place. If I open the window of my apartment back home, the only thing I can hear are the noises coming from the street.”
“I wish I could live in a place like this…” she whispered inhaling the scents coming from the garden.
She sighed, understanding that her desire wasn’t something easy to achieve. “Unless I move away to the countryside… Perhaps in a small town, where there is a small library,” she said as she started to fantasize about that idea.
She leaned on the baluster of the balcony and started to visualize that place in her mind. It was a place where the climate is mostly fair.
“…And there are farms around where I can purchase fresh products. I have a small garden where I can grow my vegetables and relax with a good book after a day at the library.”
She felt already homesick of a place she’d never visited, and she had no idea whether it really existed, but that started to feel like a good idea if it weren’t for the fact that she had to leave behind all her friends and the life, as she knew it so far.
“I am not sure I would like to lose touch with Grant and Scott, not to mention all my girlfriends. If I could pack my whole life and bring it with me to that town, I would start packing today. I am afraid that in all that peace I would miss my social life. Despite how limited it is, it is indeed better than nothing. I think I will get bored if I have to live in a place where I have no friends at all…”
She huffed, considering that those thoughts wouldn’t have helped her to find some sleep. “Oh well… not that I need to go somewhere tomorrow. Somehow, I feel like I can’t see the time to get back to my work and daily life. Despite how good I feel staying in this little paradise when it is something you must do, it becomes like a prison.”
She shook her head, feeling like she was indeed getting crazy, “a crazy person who can sleep… well, at least that’s an improvement.”
She returned to her bed, switched off the light and tried as she might fall asleep.
Chapter 11.
Justin was already in his office, taking care of some paperwork that needed to be taken care of to archive all the old investigations, included the disappearance of Carolina Lynn.
“Well, that is no longer a mystery,” he whispered satisfied.
The phone rang, and he recognized it coming from Jonas’ office “Officer Sheen, would you mind stepping into my office?”
“Yes, Sir. Right away,” he replied. His stomach started to churn, that was not a friendly invitation. Something was wrong, and Justin was sure that it had something to do with the closed case of Carolina Lynn.
He stood up and headed immediately to Jonas’ office.
“You wanted to see me, Sir?” he asked shyly closing the door behind him.
“No, I just wanted to waste my motherfucking time,” he replied
sarcastically.
He was furious, Justin wasn’t sure whether it had something to do with him or with other issues that put him in a bad mood. One thing was for sure, he didn’t want to be the scapegoat.
“I just came into my office, and I found this,” he said trying to be calm, shaking the report for the case of Carolina Lynn. “Could you, please explain to me what the fuck does this mean?”
“Sir, that is the statement undersigned by Mrs. Lynn’s sister, as you can read…”
“I CAN READ!” he yelled, interrupting what Justin was saying “and I went through it already, what I am asking is where is the rest of the documentation that goes with this statement!”
Justin’s stomach churned furiously, he felt there was a knot forming inside his guts. Every time Jonas yelled that way, he was able to instill a genuine fear in his soul, and at that point, he didn’t know what he was supposed to say. He felt like the Holy Inquisition was deciding about his death sentence.
No, you can’t let him do this to you, said a voice inside his head.
“So, I ask you with a calm demeanor, do you have the rest of the documentation? Because with what you gave to me I can only wipe my ass.” He tried to be calm, but evidently, his tone was still menacing.
“Yes, Sir, I have it in my office. I was going to complete the whole dossier, but I wanted to give you the part where your signature is required. I meant to collect everything together once the paper I gave to you was signed,” he tried to justify himself.
Shit, I’ve always done it this way, and today just because he woke up on the wrong side of the bed, he is going to be an ass for the rest of the day… Fuck you! He thought, regaining his self-control.
“Then go and get it,” he replied sourly, “now feel free to disappear from my sight.”
Justin didn’t even bother to reply, he just went out slamming the door, just to let Jonas understand that it didn’t matter whether he was his supervisor, he had no right to behave the way he just did.
“Is it storming in there?” Sandy said as she saw Justin running out of Jonas’ office.
“More than storming I would call it a hurricane, don’t come close if you don’t need to,” he replied smiling.
“Well, in this case, how about a coffee? It seems like you might need one.”
“Thanks, I might need it, but then I have to go and immediately finish collecting the documentation to archive a missing person’s case,” Justin replied while he walked with Sandy toward the kitchen.
Justin returned to his office and started to work on the documentation that needed to be attached to the statement given by Mrs. Lynn; he wanted it to be finished as soon as possible.
“The worst of all is that I will need to go back to his office and give him the dossier,” he said aloud. “Damn I hate when he behaves like that, and worst of all is that I find him a real turn on when he plays the jerk.”
It took him about an hour to finish collecting all the material and taking a deep breath, hoping that Jonas’ mood would have improved during that hour, he stood up to go and give him what he promised.
“Sir, here is the dossier where the report can be inserted,” he said gingerly coming inside the room.
Jonas raised his gaze from the computer and looked at him with a cold expression, then he looked at the clock.
“I understood you were supposed to bring me that material as soon as you could,” he said sternly.
“And this is the fastest that I could,” Justin replied defensively.
“Fine,” he replied grabbing the documents in his hands. “So, in the end, the warrant was useless, as this woman decided to come back from where ever she was hiding.”
“So, it seems, but this should be good news, so why are you in such a bad mood today?” Justin tried to understand from the boyfriend’s point of view about what was going on and what was bothering Jonas’ mind. He knew that was not his normal behavior, and he knew even better that every time Jonas behaved like a perfect jerk, it meant he was worried about something.
“That is none of your business, Officer Sheen; at least not now.”
Justin nodded, “I understand, Sir. Nevertheless, with all due respect, you could use some self-control to avoid coming off like a jerk in the eyes of all the people who have to work with you.”
Jonas sighed and grabbed his head between his hands, “I need to get focused on a case, please leave me alone. We will talk later, but right now I need to be left alone to focus.”
His voice lost the menacing tone, sitting at the desk there wasn’t the authoritarian jerk, ready to yell at the first fault. There was a man overwhelmed by a problem he wasn’t sure he could face on his own.
And worst of all is that I cannot ask anyone else for help; this is something I must solve alone, Jonas thought.
“As you wish, Sir,” said Justin leaving the room. “Let me know if you need my help.”
As soon as Justin left the office, Jonas’ telephone started to ring; he knew that would have been a difficult call, “Gamardschoba, deda, (hello, Mum) I was trying to call you this morning, but you didn’t reply. I received the message you left on the answering machine yesterday evening, and you sounded worried.”
“Gamardschoba, Iona,” she replied. “I talked to Giorgi, he has been quite upset for a long time, and he wanted to know when you are planning to come and visit us. He really could use some help.”
“Why does he think that I can be of any help? I am not familiar with Georgian laws, or police practices. Does he remember that I left Georgia as a teenager?”
“Yes, he does remember,” replied his mother, “the fact is that the case gave him a lot of problems in his working environment.”
Jonas shook his head, not ready to believe that the situation could have become so serious just for a case that remained unsolved. You gotta be kidding me! One doesn’t get in trouble just for one case unsolved, there must be something more than this; something they ‘forgot’ to tell.
“The problem is not as easy as it seems from the outside,” she tried to explain. “There are a lot of players in that case that you cannot even imagine. Last week, he finally decided to come to our place and explain all the details of the case, also the hidden ones. I am not a police officer, but as a lawyer, I can understand the implication of an international case, particularly here in Georgia.
“You might not remember Giorgi, as the last time you saw him, you were just little kids. If I don’t remember it wrong, you were something like six years old, and he was eight years old. A lot of time has passed since then, and you didn’t have the chance to know each other.”
Jonas sighed, nodding thoughtfully, “Right, I don’t even know what he looks like, but this doesn’t really matter, what is important is that he needs my help, and I have no idea about how I am supposed to help him with something I don’t know. It doesn’t help me that you explain it to me, I need to talk to him. I need him to answer my questions about the case.
Could you ask him to call me? I might understand the problem better if we have the chance to talk without any intermediary. Not to offend you Mum, but you understand that talking to you is not really making things easy.”
“I understand, Iona. I tried to convince him to call you, but he wants to talk to you in person. He said that this case is too complicated to be solved over the phone,” his mother insisted.
Jonas took out the calendar and looked carefully at the dates where it might have been possible for him and Justin to travel together to Georgia. Although he knew that this was something to be done alone, he believed that the opinion of the inspector of his department would have been beneficial to solve any problem.
Moreover, I really wish to have a trip to my home country with Justin. He’s never met my family, and I think it would be the right time to make things official also for them all.
“I am afraid that I cannot make it before the Christmas holidays,” he replied.
“That is a long time, but we all do understa
nd that you have your job and your appointments to leave whenever you might like,” she replied. “Is your boyfriend coming too?”
“Yes, I thought this could be a good chance to introduce him to the family, not to mention that he could also be very helpful in Giorgi’s case.”
“I think it is a good idea but be careful about not showing it outside this house, the situation is still a bit unstable. Regardless of the efforts of our latest government, there are still people ready to use violence against gays. I want you and your boyfriend to be safe during your stay here,” she replied.
“I will be careful,” he ensured, smiling. “I will let you know about the dates when I will have the tickets booked. You might tell Giorgi to call me before that, I would like to have some more information about the problems he is having with the case. I still have no idea how I can help him, but I am ready to do all I can.”
“Thank you, Iona. I will give him your number, perhaps he can explain the situation better than I can,” she replied.
“Great, now I have to go back to work, but I will keep you informed. See you soon, I love you.”
“I love you too, Iona. Bye.”
Jonas placed the telephone on his desk and started to think about the conversation he had with his mother, what was waiting for him in Tbilisi had a name; complication, and that was something he wasn’t missing in his life.
He called Justin on the phone.
“Yes, Sir,” he replied. Jonas smiled at the formality he had to keep at the work, but the way Justin talked to him had that slight allusive tone that only him could notice and could drive him totally crazy.
“Officer Sheen, please come to my office, I need to speak with you,” he said interrupting the communication without even waiting for any reply.
Here it goes again, he is playing the jerk, and I feel aroused, Justin thought standing from his chair, walking to Jonas’ office.
As he stepped in, Jonas stood up from his chair and smiled, “let’s go for lunch, we need to talk in private, and I cannot wait until we are at home,” Jonas said with a lower tone of voice, so as not to be heard by anyone else.