It was near the end of Al's work day. He was the last one in his department to leave, usually. Because his department had no dealings with the public and thus no desk schedule, the staff could make their own hours as long as they did the required number per day, and most of them chose to come in before eight in the morning and finish their day between three-thirty and four in the afternoon. He just couldn't get in that early even though he woke up around five in the morning to feed Samson, because he worked out in the morning now that he couldn't run home anymore, so he was still at his desk just before five o'clock when the workroom phone rang. 

He sighed in frustration, because he didn't want to answer a complicated question from a staff member in another department just before he was about to leave. But, to be a diligent staff member and not reflect the stereotype of the lazy municipal employee, he picked up.

"Good afternoon, Catalogue workroom."

"Hi, I'm looking for Alistair Mackenzie."

Al smiled in spite of himself. "This is Al. Is this HR?"

Lauren chuckled on the other end of the line. "Is this becoming our shtick?"

"At least until Rachel gives me my phone back."

"I guess the cops haven't given her hers back, yet?"

"No. I think some perv in the department is uploading the photos of you and Rachel to his Facebook page."

He was joking, but Lauren was silent on the other end of the line. Then she said, "That... would be despicable. I really hope that doesn't happen. You and Joe might know, now, but my family and Joe's family don't know, and that would be a really shitty way for them to find out."

"I really don't think that will happen. Wouldn't Facebook pull them for obscene content?"

"Al, please don't joke about this."

"I'm sorry. You're right. It's no joking matter."

"Thanks."

Silence for a moment. Al cleared his throat. "How are you doing?" he asked.

She sighed. "I don't know. Do you want me to talk about it, or are you just being polite?"

"Uh..."

"Oh, wait, are you still on work time?"

"Actually, I was just about to clock out."

"You probably want to go home."

"I'd always make the time to talk to you, Lauren. I'm really glad you called, actually."

"Oh, yeah?"

He liked hearing the hopefulness in her voice. "Yeah. I wanted to touch base with you, see how you're feeling about... what happened last night. Wait, where are you?"

"Out for a drive to get milk, trying to stay away as long as I can because Joe's home, and his mom is doting on him even though I requested specifically that she leave us alone today, and his dad is chasing the kids around; hopefully he doesn't break his neck going down the stairs."

Al chuckled and then realized that was a terrible thing to find funny. Lauren just had a way of stringing together sentences that were like a whiplash, just like Rachel had. "So... you can discuss... delicate matters? I'm happy Joe's home, by the way, that means he's out of the woods, even if he has a way to go."

"Yeah. I... I made love to him this afternoon, after I brought him home."

"Oh." He looked around, but there were no other staff working in Technical Services. He was all alone to whisper about illicit things. "Is that... good?"

"He's my husband, Al, of course it is. I was just surprised he wanted to, that's all, because he's not a hundred percent, you know?"

"If he's anything like me, Lauren, I bet he'd get erect on his deathbed if you walked in the room."

"Al..." she cooed. "You're lucky I'm parked in a parking lot right now, or I might have lost control of the car when you said that."

"I'm sorry."

"No. Don't be." She sighed in what seemed like frustration. "Why am I telling you I made love to my husband?"

"Maybe you want me to know that, despite what happened last night, the goalie's back in the net?"

She chuckled, and he felt a tingle run down his spine. "No," she said. "God help me, Al, but after making love to my husband, I was back to thinking about what we did last night."

His legs suddenly felt like they might give out from under him. He took a seat at the desk on which the workroom phone rested. "You mean, you, Rachel, and me. What we did."

"Well, yes, of course Rachel and me. But more you and me, maybe because Rachel and I are already old hands at what we do."

"Oh, Lauren," he breathed. "You don't know how much I wanted to hear that, but what you're saying, it's dangerous."

She sighed. "I know. It's crazy. Why am I doing this? I quite distinctly remember telling you it would never happen, and then when it did happen last week, under sedation, I told you that it wouldn't happen again. But you know what? I knew exactly what I was doing last night. I engineered that evening. I confessed to Rachel that you and Joe knew about us precisely so that I could make love to her in front of you, because I knew she secretly fantasized about you watching us, and that she also fantasized about watching you and me fuck, so I hoped she'd want it to happen. I wanted you last night, Al, and now that I had you, I want you again."

"Oh, fuck," he gasped. "Oh, Lauren... I have to admit that I want you too."

"Yeah," she sighed. It made him feel all jelly-like, the yearning in her voice.

"I can't get the smell of you out of my nostrils," he said.

She chuckled. "My smell?"

"That shower gel you use. God, when you invited me up to your room Monday night, and you'd just gotten out of the shower, it drove me crazy, because I could feel your warm skin, and that scent was just wafting off you like a pheromone."

"It's just the Softsoap brand, Juicy Pomegranate and Mango shower gel. We buy it in bulk from Costco."

"Juicy sounds just about right. I'll always connect it to you, now."

Her breathing had gotten heavy, and he was beginning to swell in his pants. "You know," she said, "when we woke up together on Tuesday morning, and we were looking at each other, and my hand was curled in yours... if Rachel hadn't called that very moment, I was going to kiss you, and then I was going to lock my bedroom door, tear Joe's robe off your body, whip off my kimono, and fuck your brains out."

"Fuck," he breathed. "Even with the kids down the hall?"

"I would have had my hand over your mouth the whole time, and screamed into a pillow. I scream into things a lot here, especially when I'm watching you and Rachel go at it."

"Lauren, do you want me to come in my pants? What are we doing?"

"I don't know," she moaned.

"I also can't get out of my head the feel of..." He looked around again and whispered, "your pussy clenching around my cock. How do you do that?"

"Oh! Fuck! I'm touching myself right now."

"Fuck." He felt himself through his pants. It was a good thing he was leaving work in a minute, because he might soon have a wet spot he wouldn't be able to explain away.

"You know what it is?" she breathed, panted, "I do kegels. After having my kids I did it for bladder control, but also because Joe's cock stretched me out."

"Jesus." He was stroking himself determinedly now. "Lauren, you're such a dirty girl..."

"Did you like it?" she breathed. "Did you like how I swallowed your cock with my pussy? My dripping wet pussy... oh, fuck! I'm coming!"

"Me too," he groaned, as he felt his underwear filling with warm clamminess. Shit. He hoped Rachel wouldn't notice this when he got home. A handwashing accident? Maybe he spilled something on himself?

Her breathing slowed, and she began to chuckle sheepishly. "I don't remember the last time I had phone sex," she said.

"I never have, and definitely never at work," he said. "It's a good thing my legs and hand were under a desk, or else some patron on a floor above me could have looked down into the atrium and seen me doing something inappropriate."

"Yikes. I didn't know you were that exposed."

"It's okay. I don't think anyone saw me. It was kind of thrilling, actually."

She sighed and said, "This might be all we're ever able to do from now on."

"I know," he said in resignation. "I can't ever see us having an opportunity like that again."

"It's not just that. Rachel... I think she kind of regrets it."

"Yeah. Well, I guess I can't blame her. I love her so much, and I'd never want to hurt her by making her think she's in competition with you."

"She's not, though. I don't want to change husbands, or anything. Like I said last night, it's not like that."

"Right. You consume me, not love me."

"Right."

"She'd have to consent to anything we did, and she'd have to be in the room, otherwise it would be cheating."

Lauren was silent for a moment. "Yeah... would it, though? We already opened the door."

He closed his eyes and fought the dizziness brought on by lust. She really had gone there, and she could never take it back, and didn't he consider it for just a bit too long? "Oh, Lauren, as much as I want you, if we sneaked away somewhere, could we really live with ourselves after? I don't think a threesome is the same thing as inviting a vampire in. You have to be invited every time."

"That's an interesting and yet clunky comparison. Are you saying I'm a vampire who wants to spirit you away from your marital bed?"

"Maybe that wasn't the best analogy. What I mean is, Rachel made it clear that I'm the third in this arrangement, and I have to be all right with that."

Silence on the other end of the line. Then Lauren said, "I think Joe is going to start seeing someone on the side."

It surprised Al that she would admit what he and Rachel had suspected, but he was glad too. "You know, Rachel and I were wondering why Joe would be okay with you and Rachel seeing each other. We thought you might have something over him."

"It's Joanie."

"I suspected as much when we discussed it Monday night, when I felt in real danger of breaking my marriage vows, because all I could think about was your wet hair, and your body under that kimono."

"Al," she breathed. "It's probably not a good idea to get started again. You don't want to ruin your pants."

He laughed out loud. "If only this phone cord could stretch all the way to the bathroom."

"Al... shit... what is it you do to me?"

"I don't know, but you don't know how happy it makes me that I can please you. Just hearing your voice when you're aroused makes me feel good."

She hooted as if she were fanning herself, getting her temperature down. "I have to turn on the air conditioner, hold on." He actually heard her start her car to get the air conditioner going, and he felt proud of himself. "Anyway, where was I?"

"Joanie."

"Right. She did a really good job containing her emotions when we told her Joe was missing. She must have been worried sick about him, especially since she'd arranged to see him that night."

"Jesus. Who would have thought Joe would be an adulterer?"

"Not me. Then again, I never thought I'd be one. But then Rachel came back into my life, and I fell in love with her all over again... and now you... why do I do this, Al? Do I have some kind of mental problem? Isn't it abnormal to get these infatuations over anyone I'm friends with?"

He thought about it a moment. "I don't know. I'm kind of the same. Maybe it's just easy to fall in love with a friend, someone you know inside and out."

Silence on the other end of the line. Then, "Please don't say you're falling in love with me, Al. I won't be able to bear it."

Al was horrified to hear her sniffling on the other end of the line. "I won't," he said. "I can't. I won't. I consume you. I'm sorry, Lauren. I never meant to make you cry."

"I know," she blubbered. "Don't worry, it's not you."

"I wish I could drink your tears right now."

She laugh-cried. "Yeah. Me too. No, it's just... everything. Joe getting hurt, the three of us, what's going on at work..."

"Oh, yeah. What can we do to help you there?"

"Nothing, really. Rachel and I are just ignoring Ralph as much as we can."

"We need the police to get their asses in gear and build a case against him."

"Don't be surprised if it takes months, Al. The backlog on DNA testing alone..."

"Yeah. I guess."

She sighed. "Well, I guess I should actually go and buy some milk now."

"Wait."

"Yes?" Her voice sounded so hopeful that he seriously considered inviting her to just keep driving, just find a hotel and meet him there, just throw away the life she'd built over more than twenty years, her husband and family.

But then he'd have to do the same. He'd have to say goodbye to Rachel and a love he never thought he would know in his lifetime. Lauren wasn't offering him that, nor was she asking it of him.

"You never told me why you called. Or was it just to lure me into phone sex?"

"Oh." She sounded disappointed. "No. I just... I don't know. I wanted to hear your voice, and ask how you felt about last night too. I think our bit of phone sex just confirmed how we both felt about last night, and about each other in general."

"Yup. No questions there."

"Okay. Um, yeah. I guess that's it, then."

"I feel like it's not. I wish there was something more we could do, but..."

"We can't."

"Yeah. Unless I can somehow subtly persuade Rachel to let me in on a future encounter with the two of you."

She chuckled. "Well, since most of our encounters are at work, I doubt you'll be able to do that."

"Really? At work?"

"Yeah. My office, mostly. The door locks."

"Aren't you worried about your coworkers hearing you?"

"We try to be quiet."

"Do you think..."

"What?"

"Do you think someone drugged our drinks because they know what you get up to with Rachel, and want to get back at you, or send a message of some kind?"

She thought about that for a moment. "Maybe. But why not drug Rachel's drink, if that's true?"

"I keep thinking that maybe my drink was drugged by mistake, or I picked up one of your drinks by accident."

More silence. Then, "Huh. That is an interesting theory. Maybe I'll discuss it with Rachel. Maybe we should be more careful." She sighed. "Well, I think I've really put off going home long enough. They're going to start wondering where I am."

"We wouldn't want that. Go get your milk. Are you home tomorrow?"

"Nope. I was off last Saturday so have to work."

"Weren't all of you off last Saturday?"

"No. Not everyone attended the party."

"Okay. Well, I'm sorry about that."

"What can you do?" she said flatly. "Anyway, Joe's mom will be over again, I'm sure, so it gives me another excuse to stay away."

He chuckled. "You really don't like her, do you."

"It's more apt to say she doesn't like me."

"Duly noted. Well, if you ever need anything, just call, day or night. Rachel can't stop us from talking, at least."

"Al, she's not that extreme. We talked about it today, and she still wants us in each other's lives, because she loves us both and wants us to be happy. If I'm being honest, I'm surprised at how well she's handling last night."

"Yeah. I guess our situation is as good as it can be, considering."

"But thanks for the offer. I like talking to you. You and I... we really bonded looking for those two, didn't we."

"We did."

"Well. Good night, Al."

"Good night, Lauren."

He hung up and looked at the phone for a minute, wondering if she might call back, in case she forgot to say something. She didn't call back.

He checked his pants. He couldn't see any stain, luckily. He'd still have to change when he got home, though.

He turned off his computer, signed himself out in the sign in book, and put on his jacket and backpack. It was still the single strap backpack he had when he used to run home from Patterson Station. He didn't have to do that anymore. He jogged on the treadmill in the building's gym, but he didn't enjoy it as much. He preferred being in the open air.

As he walked home, he wondered if maybe it was time for them to consider a new place they could choose together, maybe out of the downtown core; it would be unfortunate not being so close to work, but they might be able to get an extra bedroom for the same amount of money. Then they could seriously apply to be foster parents. They'd attended the information session and undergone the parent training. Maybe with this one last step, they could finally get started.

When he walked in the door, he found that Rachel was talking on his phone. He wondered who was on the other end of the line. Luckily, she was distracted, so he escaped into the bedroom, threw everything into his laundry and cleaned himself in the bathroom. In fresh underwear and sweats, he walked back into the living room. She was still on the phone, so he went into the kitchen to start dinner.

Of the two, he was the better cook, and Rachel was happy to let him rule the kitchen. She preferred going out, especially to fancy restaurants, where she made him wear the clothes she bought him last Christmas. He didn't mind, and she rewarded him by dressing to his level, and he spent the whole evening counting the minutes until he could take her home and strip her out of whatever she was wearing.

She hung up while he was in the middle of chopping vegetables. "I talked to your mom earlier," she said.

"Oh, yeah?" he asked, surprised.

"Yeah. We're having dinner with her on Sunday."

"Oh yeah, we missed last Sunday. You didn't tell her why, did you?"

"Are you kidding? I didn't want to give her a heart attack."

"So... wait, were you just talking to her now?"

"Oh! No, that was Sunny, actually."

"Oh, yeah? How's he doing?"

"Good, actually. He has good news. Tej found the names of people who didn't want the development to go through."

"Oh, okay. What should we do with them?"

"We could look up their addresses and maybe stake out their places."

Al stopped chopping and looked at her. "Are you serious?"

She shrugged. "I don't know if the police have or want this information. Maybe we could see if Joe's van happens to be parked in the driveway of one of these places."

"You really want to go back out there? After what you went through?"

"Yeah, actually. I'm angry, Al, for what they did to me, but more for what they did to Joe. They could have killed him and left Lauren a widow and his kids without a dad, and for what? To stop a stupid subdivision going in?" She sighed. "Anyway, what else are we doing tomorrow?"

"You want to go tomorrow."

"Yeah. Sunny wants to come too. He can take us in his car, we wouldn't have to book a Modo."

"Oh. Good. I'm still not sure Modo will let me book one after what happened." He thought about it some more. "Okay. It might be an adventure, actually. But we don't do anything dangerous. We just look. And, hey, if we see a white Kia Sedona, then we call Lauren and Joe to confirm the plate number, and then we call the police and report sighting a stolen vehicle."

"Okay, Dad."

He chuckled and put the pan on the stove. "So? How was your first day back?"

"Okay. Lauren and I caught up on some work together."

"Oh. Good."

"We also had a good talk about last night."

"Oh. Yes?"

"You sound worried. It was all good, Al. We didn't pull each other's hair or anything."

"Well, I'm glad. I never want to come between the two of you. I hope you know that."

"I do." She wrapped her arms around him from behind and laid her chin on his shoulder. "So... if Lauren and I wanted to be together, just the two of us, you wouldn't object?"

Well, there went the drawbridge up on any future encounters between Lauren and him. "Of course not," he said. "I told you you didn't have to hide it from me anymore. Last night was... a one time only thing."

She kissed his neck and said, "You know, we can always put off dinner."

He sighed, knowing she was offering him a consolation prize for being a good boy about all this. But what was he going to do, say no?

He turned off the heat and put the knife away. He never left a knife out of the rack when he wasn't using it. He turned around and kissed her, and as she led him to the bedroom, he couldn't stop replaying the unexpected and very pleasant phone call from Lauren, and worrying about the fact that Rachel's and Lauren's thoughts on the three of them were very different indeed.

Thanks for reading this far! If you liked what you read, hit the "Vote" button and leave a comment. To see what Lauren discovers in Ralph's office, click on "Continue reading."