10. A Fun Way

10

A FUN WAY

T he following week, Regan was leaving her office at six. Pretty pathetic she was closing alone and working late on a Friday night.

She noticed the lights on in Zander’s office, but Betsy was gone.

She’d wanted to find a way to reach out to Zander again after their dinner last Thursday but hadn’t been able to find the time or a reason.

Her time could be now and her reason was she was hungry and maybe he wouldn’t mind sharing a meal with her. Her treat this time.

She squared her shoulders and walked next door. The door was locked as she’d imagined, but she knocked on the glass.

She was going to knock a second time and then realized maybe he just left the lights on.

He came out a second later on his phone, held his hand up and had a huge smile on his face.

His hair was a bit messy as if he was running his hands through it or trying to pull it out. She’d known what that was like enough in her profession.

He moved out and unlocked the door and she heard, “I’ll check it out tonight, Justin, and get back to you.”

Guess her thought on dinner wasn’t going to work.

“Hi,” she said. “Sorry to bother you. Just noticed you were working late like me.”

“It wasn’t my plan,” he said. “But I always get caught up on things. How are you doing?”

“Good,” she said. “I thought maybe if you didn’t have plans I could repay you for dinner tonight, but it looks as if you do.”

“Actually,” he said, “this is perfect if you want to go on a case with me.”

“A case?” she asked. What the hell had she gotten herself into?

“Come in and I’ll fill you in. I’ve got time yet before I need to go.”

“Sounds interesting. Does it involve food though because I’m hungry?”

“It does. I’ve got this client who has me monitor his wife all the time.”

“He thinks she’s cheating?”

“I’m not sure what he thinks. Last week I had to get up in the middle of the night and get some pictures of her at the bar with a dude that wasn’t the same guy from another time I had to do it. Not once have I noticed anything inappropriate other than it’s late at night and she’s not with her husband. His wife says it’s work related.”

“People always jump to the wrong conclusion rather than the right one,” she said.

“See, that is what I like about you. It’s human nature to do that, but I can’t get a read on what is going on with this woman.”

“Can I help?” she asked. “I guess if you look at it, our jobs could be somewhat the same.”

“Justin…” he said. “You heard me say his name and I can trust you, right?”

“You can,” she said. “But don’t expect me to tell you the names of my clients. Though I do have one that I mentioned your name to and they did ask me to talk to you.”

“Good,” he said. “We can do that too. Anyway, Justin is always worried his wife is doing something he doesn’t know about, but I’m not sure how he feels about it or why he has to know all the details. This isn’t the first time I’ve had to do this and he’s got the money to pay so why not? It’s easy work, just boring. Tonight, I can have dinner with you while I get a few pictures and try to figure it out.”

“How does he know where his wife is going to dinner?” she asked.

“She shares her work calendar with him and tells him.”

“Seems normal enough,” she said. “But there are trust issues.”

“Do you think?” he asked drily. “Anyway, dinner at eight. Care to join me?”

She looked down at her clothes for the day. She had black trousers and heels with a hunter green silk button-down shirt tucked in. It was the opposite of his jeans and T-shirt with sneakers.

“Should I change?”

“Yeah,” he said. “It’s a casual pub and I need to change too. Don’t suppose I can pick you up or we can meet? Your choice.”

It wasn’t like he was being pushy. “I might be out of the way.”

“We can meet then,” he said.

He gave her the name of the pub; she left and ran home quickly. She only lived fifteen minutes away and the pub was ten minutes in another direction from her house but only about ten minutes from her office.

Regan got in her door and decided to take a quick shower. Grabbing dark jeans, a T-shirt with a retro cartoon pattern on it that she fell in love with, she put a light green blazer over it, then found a pair of flats.

Her hair looked fine. No reason to do anything fancy with it and she didn’t want to come off as someone who was trying too hard.

She realized she hadn’t gotten Zander’s number and maybe should have if she was held up.

But she left with twenty minutes to spare and noticed his SUV was already there. She wasn’t late but walked in anyway.

He saw her and came over.

“Let’s go wait in my SUV so I’ve got an idea of when they come in. I just slipped the hostess cash and showed her the woman’s picture and asked if we could be seated by them.”

Regan laughed. “I wouldn’t have thought of that.”

“Part of the job.”

“This is fun.”

He laughed and it transformed his face even more. Though he always seemed laid back, this laugh just reached his eyes more than before.

If there were tingles in her chest and maybe some between her legs, she was putting it on hold until she could get a better idea of where this all might go.

The fact she made this move with him was something she hadn’t done with another man before.

Another sad fact about her life.

“Speaking of fun,” he said. “You look different.”

“Different in a bad way?” she asked.

“No,” he said. “In a fun way.”

“Thanks,” she said. “I don’t always get to dress for a night out like this.”

“Don’t you go out with friends?”

“Not often,” she said. No reason to say she didn’t have a ton of friends that were single. Or that she had much in common with them.

She wasn’t someone to go to a club and pick a guy up.

“Here they come,” he said and turned his head to look at her quickly so he wasn’t seen.

It didn’t appear as if the couple even noticed her, but they weren’t holding hands or doing anything romantic. More like two people walking in at the same time.

“They didn’t come in the same car,” she said. “They came from different directions.”

“Yes,” he said. “And it’s a different guy than from last week.” He pulled his phone out and snapped two pictures before she could realize he’d done it. Talk about sneaky. It didn’t even look as if he was doing anything more than looking at his phone.

“Hmmm,” she said.

“What are you thinking?” he asked.

“I’ll let you know when we can hear more,” she said.

They got out and went into the pub behind the couple. The hostess showed them a table so that Zander’s back was to the woman’s and Regan could see the man’s face.

He pulled his phone out and leaned forward, “What’s your number?”

She grabbed his phone and put her number in it and sent herself a text. Hers went off so she had the text chain started and pulled it out of her purse.

He got his phone back and texted: Sorry about this, but just send me any ideas you have. We’ll talk more after we leave.

She typed back: No worries. You don’t want them to hear us.

“How is your father doing working with you?” she asked. She figured she couldn’t say what he did but had to come up with something to talk about too.

Zander grinned. “He’s loving it. Some of it is grunt work, but it’s keeping him busy.”

The server came over and took the drink order of the couple behind Zander. A beer and a glass of wine. Then moved over and got theirs. They did the same thing.

Regan couldn’t hear much going on, but she could see the guy’s face and he wasn’t looking at the woman as if there was a sexual relationship at all. Not even as if he was attracted to her.

“That’s good,” she said. “I’m not sure I could have either of my parents working for me.”

“Why is that?” he asked.

She picked her phone up and texted what she observed. No romance in the guy’s eyes.

He replied: They are talking about sports.

She pursed her lips. She’s much more attractive than he is.

He laughed: Kind of like her marriage.

She frowned. She’d have to think on that a bit more.

“My parents are divorced and remarried. They get along great. Almost like friends. It’s annoying.”

“Annoying?” he asked.

Maybe she shouldn’t have started this. It’s not like she wanted to talk about her parents' failed marriage that made no sense to her.

But she brought it up. “Long story,” she said. “One that might be hard right now with other things going on.”

“Got it,” he said.

They sat through their dinner and talked about funny things in the building but never once brought up what they did or where they worked.

Zander mentioned some fictional man’s name and she played along that they were talking about a couple that should be their friends to come across as someone who wasn’t on a date but rather they’d been together for a while in case someone was listening in on their conversation.

There were a few more texts sent back and forth between them too. Just thoughts and observations.

When the couple left before them, she started to stand. “Do we have to leave?”

“No,” he said. “No reason to draw attention to us. I’d rather talk it over now than in the parking lot.”

“A debriefing?” she asked.

“That’s a word for it. What do you think?”

“I think that they were almost like strangers and not romantically involved. Not even wanting to be romantically involved. I saw her face when I came back from the bathroom and she was paying attention to him and smiling and engaged.”

“But?” he asked.

“But it was for show. At least to me.”

“There was nothing about that conversation that led me to believe they were getting a hotel room,” he said. “We could see from the window that they each walked back to their own cars.”

“Yep,” she said. “Not even a handshake or embrace. No money exchanging, which I’d think would be the case if they were strangers and hooking up or something. Or not. I just don’t see her as someone on a dating app.”

“I’ve checked for facial recognition and I’ve found nothing.”

“You can do that?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he said. “Things I pay for.”

“Guess that is why you are so busy. You’ve got all sorts of tools.”

He smirked at her. “You haven’t seen even half of them.”

That was a flirting comment and she felt the heat in her body.

She cleared her throat and the server came over to see if they wanted coffee or dessert. “How about coffee?” she asked.

“That and dessert,” he said. “We can extend the night and not necessarily talk about work.”

“I’d like that,” she said.

They placed their orders and he said, “Give me your opinion of what you saw tonight from a clinical standpoint.”

“I’m not sure if you know or not, but I’ve heard some of my clients mention friends for hire.”

“I’ve heard of it,” he said.

“Men and women are willing to pay someone to go on a platonic date with them. Either because they don’t want to sit home alone or they are trying to work up the courage to get out there and need practice.”

“Like practicing interviewing?” he asked.

“Exactly. Is it possible that she is doing that?”

His head went back and forth. “It could make sense. Without talking to her I’d have no way of knowing, but I’ll run it by Justin and see his take on it once I play it in my head more. My guess is she is the one for hire.”

“The other thing is maybe she is going on a lot of first dates because she knows what her husband is doing and she is baiting him.”

“Baiting him to leave her? He can’t claim she is cheating because there is no evidence of it.”

“Do they have a prenup?” she asked. “She could be very smart and get him to leave her and she’d still get her cut because she isn’t doing anything wrong other than going to dinner with friends.”

He pulled his phone out and started to type. “I’ll find that out too. Thanks,” he said. “Now...let’s talk about us.”