Finally clean and exhausted, I crawled into bed, turned on the box fan for the noise, and pulled the blankets up to my eyes. As soon as they were closed, the vision of Helen popped into my mind, and I drifted off to sleep soon after. The thoughts of her exquisite body woke me up with the sun, and other parts of my body had beat me to the punch.
Getting into work was a bit different now with the pup. Lily was housetrained already, and I had built a doggy door for her in my week off, but I still wanted to make sure she got some playtime in the morning before I went. I took her out into the fenced backyard and tossed a ball around with her for a bit before going back inside and making breakfast.
Lily was especially partial to bacon, and since I was perfectly capable of making eggs, that was what we were having. A few “accidental” plops of eggs and bacon to the floor for Lily and I had breakfast for the day.
Once I was sure Lily was good, I headed into work, needing to speed a bit to get there on time. As soon as I walked in the door, Deacon came out of the office, pointed at me, and beckoned me to join him. He ducked back in the office, and I took off my jacket, hung it, and nodded toward the door while looking at Lauren.
“What’s that about?” I asked.
“No clue,” she said, apparently interested in what she was looking at on the computer.
“Since when do you not know everything all the time?” I joked.
“Apparently since now,” she said. “I don’t know what could be up his butt, but my guess is it’s you’re late on your first day back.” A slight grin curved up one side of her face.
“Uh huh,” I said. “By one minute. I’m pretty sure he’s not sitting around with a stopwatch.” I paused for a second. “He’s not sitting back there with a stopwatch, is he? Parenthood does weird things to people.”
“I never started timing people,” she said. “But hey, maybe.”
Shrugging, I walked over to the kitchen and poured out a cup of coffee. After taking a deep sip, I topped it off and headed toward the office. As soon as I got in, Deacon motioned for me to shut the door from where he sat at his desk.
“Alright,” I said, going to my chair. “What’s all this about?”
“So,” he said, clearing his throat, “I don’t like getting involved with shit like this.”
“Oh Christ, what is it?”
“Rebecca said she heard from someone else that they saw something, and long and short is, Rebecca will castrate you if you hurt Helen,” he said. He was fiddling with some papers on his desk and trying not to make eye contact.
“Excuse me?” I asked.
“I told you, I try to stay out of it. This was Rebecca’s thing. But she specifically mentioned castration and Helen Carmichael. So, there you go,” he said. “Now, these TPS reports. What the hell are they? We never did these before.”
“Hang on, go back,” I said. “Rebecca said she saw me and Helen together or she heard about Helen and me being together? And what exactly did they say they saw?”
Sudden visions of our daring press against the window were running through my mind, and I had a very real worry that we were going to get cited for indecent exposure. I’d hate to lose what potential I had for a relationship with Helen, no matter how doomed it might be, because we got a little bit kinky.
“Something about you two making out at her apartment near midnight,” he said. “She heard it from one of the other waitresses who helped her close the diner. Since Helen wasn’t there.”
“Ahh,” I said.
“So, it’s true then,” he said. “You and Helen from Dina’s. What is it with that place?”
I was tempted to lie, to pretend that it wasn’t true, but the grin spreading across my face gave it away.
“Yeah, I guess so,” I said. “But keep it between us. I’m not sure how this thing is going.”
“What does that mean?” he asked. “Didn’t you hear what I said? Rebecca will castrate you. Don’t hurt that girl.”
I laughed. “Yeah, I heard you. Just, it’s not out in the public yet. You can understand that, right?”
I was sure he could. He and Rebecca had kept things close to the vest for a bit too.
He nodded and I did too, patting him on the shoulder. He understood. I wanted to say that if anyone was going to get hurt, it would probably be me anyway, but I didn’t. There was no reason to put that out in the universe, much less maybe make her look bad.
If I stood a chance at making something work, even for a little while, I needed to keep that kind of negativity to myself. I could afford to be devastated by it later.