Rude Awakenings: A Novel of the Terribly Acronymed Detective Club (Book 2)

Chapter Four: Al, Sunday

4:03 a.m.

Rachel: We're taking a bit longer than we thought. Hold tight.

4:20 a.m.

Rachel: Sorry, honey, we've hit a police checkpoint. There's a line of cars waiting to get through.

4:21 a.m.

Rachel: Al? 

4:22 a.m.

Rachel: Al, are you awake?

4:23 a.m.

Rachel: Al, if you don't respond to my texts I'm going to have to call you. I know you must be tired but I need you to wake up!

Al scrolled these messages starting from the top for Lauren to see. He'd dressed, in his own discarded garments from the living room, as soon as he saw she was dressed, and he saw the look on her face when she saw he was still naked; it wasn't quite disgust, but near enough for government work, and he felt that the earlier odd version of intimacy they shared was over.

"Okay..." Lauren said slowly. "So, they went out? The police checkpoint would only matter if they were in a car. Joe must be driving the van. That has to be why he hasn't texted or called; he never uses his phone when he's driving."

"That's my guess, too, but I still have no idea why they went out."

"I also have no idea why Joe and I weren't home with the kids a long time ago," Lauren said. "We might have been drinking Saturday night..." She gestured to all the bottles. "... but we're still parents. We should have woken in our own bed this morning."

"Another mystery. Are your kids with the grandparents?"

"Yeah, my mom and dad. I don't like to leave them with Joe's parents in the evening. His dad's... you know... he gets tired easily."

"Yeah, I get it." Joe's dad had suffered a bout of viral encephalitis years ago and was no longer the big, strapping, capable man he'd been when they were younger. "Do you... need to call them?"

"Not yet," she said, "It's too early. Anything this early is just going to worry them, and I don't want to worry them until I know what's going on."

"Don't you think they're already worried? If you haven't already picked up the kids?"

Lauren thought about it, then unlocked her phone as if to call them, but then she noticed something and peered at her screen another moment. "It looks like I called them, or got a call from them, around eleven last night. The call lasted ten minutes, so we must have already discussed the kids sleeping there, because at that time we would have otherwise already been home."

"Did your conversation about letting your kids sleep at your parents' have something to do with the fact that Joe and Rachel aren't here? That's what I'd like to know."

"It must have. But we keep circling back to why, the reason for both of those things." She looked up from her phone. "Before, you said you were sorry. Why? Nothing in those texts is overly troubling."

His heart sank as he scrolled to the next message. "I was sorry, because I'm afraid I did something terrible, even though I don't remember doing it."

She looked bewildered, and he thought she looked beautiful then, with her lips slightly parted, and he kept that image in his head, of a Lauren who was still his friend, regardless of what they might have done, because as soon as he showed her this she was going to hate him.

"I answered back, finally," he said. "And this is what I said."

She looked down at the screen, and her face fell.

4:25 a.m.

Al: We're up! Having a great time!

A photo followed the text. 

It was a selfie. It was very clear.

Two faces. Al's looking right at the screen. Lauren's, upside down and looking right at the screen. Their faces looked like faces usually looked in the midst of sex. All else that was visible were Al's shoulders, Lauren's hands gripping them tightly, the suggestion of her breasts underneath his chest, and her legs wrapped around his waist.

"There's more," he said, tapping a couple more times and showing her, wishing all the while he didn't have to. "Apparently I... sent the same picture to... Joe."

Lauren's hand flew to her mouth, and now it was her turn to run to the bathroom. Al heard her being sick, and felt very, very ashamed.   

If you read the first novel in the series, you'd know Al would never do a thing like that if he was in his right mind. Something very weird is going on here. If you like what you just read, hit the "Vote" button and leave a comment. Before we get back to what Lauren and Al do about the picture, let's look at a flashback scene I didn't include in the first novel. Click "Continue reading" to see it.