Synchronicity for Six

Synchronicity for Six, Part 9

Author's Note: This is a story of the romantic love of three couples. There is very little explicit sex in it, so if that is what you're seeking, look elsewhere on Literotica.

= = =

Monday, February 8, 2021

One eye popped open and looked at the alarm clock on the nightstand. 5:40 showed on the clock. A smile crossed Alan's lips as he took stock of his surroundings. His boxers were somewhere between his knees and his ankles, somehow lowered from where he had left them when he fell asleep. The back of his legs, his butt, and most of his back were warm. Her arm was between his arm and his torso. Her breath was warming his upper back, and her breasts pressed so wonderfully into his middle-to-lower back. Then the hand with the manicured and polished nails began to migrate southward, over his stomach.

Rose gently caressed Alan's abdominals, almost petting the light hair that led her hand to its objective: his stiff cock. Her hand gently wrapped around his erection and she reveled in the soft firmness of his muscle. He made it twitch, which elicited a small giggle, and she gripped it a bit tighter.

"Mine!" she growled. He twitched it again for her.

"Yours," he agreed. "Only yours." He reached over and turned off the alarm on his phone for 5:45, but left the radio's alarm enabled.

She slid back from him and rolled him to his back. Rose then proceeded to get their Monday off to the very best of starts.

"Daydream Believer" by the Monkees emanated from the radio speaker as the digits flipped to 6:00 AM. "The six o'clock alarm would never ring, but it rings, and I rise. Wipe the sleep out of my eyes, my shavin' razor's cold and it stings." Rose was moving in sync with the beat and Alan was absolutely certain life could not get any better than this moment.

= = =

Katie woke when her alarm roused her at 6:30. She had no momentary confusion as she recalled exactly where she was and why she was there. She was loved by everyone in the house. Even Poppa. Especially Poppa, given his goodnight conversation with her. Alan had explained that she and Maggie were new territory for him, having raised only Tom and David. But he was committed to being the very best father he could be for the two girls. His hug was warm and therapeutic, not creepy in any fashion. His kiss on the end of her nose caused her to wrinkle it, and when he looked into her eyes and said, "I love you, Kathleen Margaret, my daughter," she believed him without question. Then he stood up from the edge of her bed and closed the door behind him.

It had been an excellent nine hours of rest for her, once she and Maggie had gotten David's things boxed up and ready for storage. She did not have many things, but she unpacked what she had and made herself as comfortable as she could. Now she sat up in bed and realized that she did not have a bathrobe to wear outside the bedroom. 'Crap! What to do?' she thought. Then her phone buzzed with a message.

"My bathrobe is hanging on the outside of your door. - M"

Katie opened the door, and sure enough, a purple terrycloth bathrobe hung from the doorknob. She quickly put it on, then stepped briskly to the shared bathroom. Everything was right where Maggie said it would be. She would have to use Maggie's shampoo and soap today, but that was not much of a hardship. She emerged twenty minutes later ready to take on the day's challenges. She dressed quickly, skipped down the stairs, and strode confidently to the kitchen.

Maggie was seated at the table wearing a robe, dark green with red plaid stripes, eating a toasted bagel and drinking a cup of coffee. Her hair was mussed, bed-head definitely, but she had a smile on her face as her new sister entered the room.

"Glasses are up and to the right of the sink; OJ is in the fridge; bagels are next to the toaster," she informed Katie. "I hope you did not expect a repeat of breakfast in bed, sis. Around here the rule is: if you walk away hungry, it's your own damn fault. But you have to be willing to fix it for yourself."

Katie snorted at that, then covered her face, embarrassed. Seeing the glee on Maggie's face, she got a glass and poured it full of juice, then sat at the table.

"Nice robe there, Mags," Katie commented. "Thank you for the use of yours."

"You are welcome. This is Davey's as I'm sure you guessed. I believe we need to do a little shopping tonight, right?"

"Unless you're okay with my using your soap and shampoo. And using your bathrobe."

"I am, but let's get Mom in on this and we'll have a Ladies' Evening out," Maggie suggested. "Are you having anything besides the juice?"

"This or a glass of milk was all I ever really had for breakfast before..."

"Oh, no, no, no! Do you prefer butter or cream cheese on your toasted bagel?" Maggie was insistent.

"Butter for me, today, please," Katie said, meekly, as Maggie stood and sliced a bagel for toasting. Three minutes later, Katie had two buttered, toasted bagel halves before her with the admonition to try to enjoy it. And her glass was refilled with juice.

"You're trying to fatten me up, aren't you?" Katie teased.

"Not really. You need the complex carbs to keep you going until lunch and the sugars in the juice will give you immediate energy. What are you doing for lunch?" Maggie asked.

"Buying it in the caf, I suppose, except..." Katie's voice trailed off.

"What is it?"

"I'm out of cash."

"Didn't Jack pay you in cash on Saturday?"

Katie had completely forgotten that and pulled out the envelope from her purse. Opening the envelope, she quickly counted six $20 bills, far more than the agreed‑upon amount. Katie was rather puzzled by this. She placed the bills in her purse and folded the envelope in half before placing it back in her purse. She finished eating the bagel and polished off the glass of juice as well.

"Just put the plate and glass in the sink for now. We'll load and run the dishwasher after supper," Maggie directed. "Are we still going to practice driving this afternoon?"

"Oh! That's right. You don't work on Mondays. Yeah, sure, I'll come straight home from school and we can go out then."

"Have a good day, sister!" Maggie wrapped Katie up in a huge bear hug and shocked her with a light kiss on the lips. "I'll be here when you finish your classes for the day, then you can teach me some more."

= = =

Rose received confirmation from the AgCU's legal team that she could contact the owner of the property. The loan was not yet defaulted, so no legal actions were pending, yet. She had gone into the office a little early that Monday just so she could have some time for her business. She pulled out her file about the house and decided to call. Fortunately, the daughter of the previous owners, living three states away to the east, was in the earlier time zone.

"Hello, this is Helen Waters. How may I help you?" came the pleasant voice over the telephone.

"Ms. Waters, my name is Rosalie Lawson and I am calling from the Agricultural Credit Union in Middleburg. Do you have a few minutes to talk about the house on Millersville Road in Middleburg?"

"Oh, God. Um, Ms. Lawson, this is not the best time for me," Helen replied, warily.

"I understand. When would be a better time to talk, Ms. Waters? Just so you know, I'm not calling in any official capacity. This is a personal matter."

Helen audibly let out the breath that she had been holding. "Okaaay, how does 4:30 your time work for you?"

"That will be fine, Ms. Waters. May I call you at this number? Very good. Thank you for taking my call. I hope we can help each other."

"That would be a welcome outcome, Ms. Lawson. I look forward to speaking with you this afternoon. Goodbye."

Even though nothing was discussed or resolved, Rose felt a sense of accomplishment. She had made contact and would speak with the person later in the day. Now all she needed was to have the facts at her fingertips.

= = =

Alan made sure to contact the HR person once he got settled in at work. He wanted to ask, on the off chance that he could pull it off, if he could add Katie to his family insurance coverage. He was told that if he was able to secure legal guardianship, then yes. Unfortunately, once Katie reached the age of 18, she was a legal adult everywhere in the United States and could not have Alan as her legal guardian. Disappointed, Alan thanked the HR person for the confirmation.

They would have to talk that evening, as a family. He was not about to let her proceed without insurance coverage. Perhaps he could get Brendan and Michelle to keep her on their coverage if he were to subsidize her cost to them. Hopefully, she had not burned any bridges behind her.

= = =

Tom found a letter in his mailbox that Monday. Actually, he received two letters, but only one was of consequence. They were in his student mailbox which was something he only remembered to check weekly. One was from the big bank, and it offered to extend his decision‑making time until the first of March. It went on to state that they were quite impressed with his academic performance but even more impressed with the way he carried himself during the in‑person interviews in October.

The other letter was of much greater interest to Tom. It was from Timmons, Walton, and Associates - the regional consultancy he had accepted the employment offer from. It started with:

"Greetings, Mr. Harrison! I wanted to thank you, personally, for accepting our employment offer. I suspect there were many factors in your decision, and we are pleased that you would like to become part of our company. There will be additional communications in the future regarding your onboarding and, to that end, we recommend that you set up an account with Proton Mail for a more professional appearance, perhaps with your first name, middle initial, and surname.

Once you get that set up, please send me an email to the address listed below, and I will be sure your HR record is updated to reflect this. Much of the future communication will be sent to that email address.

You are the only new associate we are bringing on this year, in part because no other candidates we interviewed could even come close to matching how well we feel you will fit with our culture.

Congratulations to you, and my personal thanks for accepting our offer. My brother-in-law, Mark Price, assures me that I will never regret this decision.

Sincerely,

Bradley Timmons

Principal and Managing Partner

Timmons, Walton, and Associates"

The signature was in blue ink and Mr. Timmons had written both his work and personal email addresses. Tom's heart was pumping and the adrenaline was flowing as he read and re-read Mr. Timmons' personal greeting message. He gently returned the letter to its envelope, placed the envelope in his backpack, and headed for the Business department offices.

As he was approaching the offices of the instructors, Mr. Price came out the door, nearly knocking Tom off his feet.

"Whoops, there, Mr. Harrison! Are you alright?" Mr. Price inquired.

"F-fine, sir. Actually, you are who I was just coming to see. Do you have a couple of minutes?"

"Sure, walk with me to my next class, would you? You can walk and talk at the same time, I'm certain."

Tom grinned. "Yes, and I can even chew gum while doing so. I'm a man of many talents, I'll have you know."

Mr. Price chortled at both Tom's words and obvious confidence. He had an immediate plan for this young man with a future.

"So, Tom, what were you coming to see me about?"

"Well, sir, I received a letter from your brother-in-law today. He said that mine was the only employment offer his company extended this year. He actually thanked me for accepting their offer." Tom extracted the letter and offered it to Mr. Price.

Mark stopped their march just outside the lecture hall door and perused the letter. His eyebrows went up at his brother-in-law's words. "This is not a standard offer acceptance acknowledgment letter, Mr. Harrison," he commented. With a very large smile, he folded the letter and handed it back to Tom. "Now, do you have ten minutes you could spare me?"

"For you, sir? Of course. My next class isn't until after lunch."

"Excellent! Come with me, please."

Mark Price led him into the lecture hall which was already four-fifth's full of first‑year students. He had Tom stand up at the front with himself. A few others made their last‑minute arrival, sitting in the front row where the empty seats were. Mr. Price cleared his throat, getting everyone's attention.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is Tom Harrison. He's the lead tutor in the Accounting Lab, which I know I have mentioned to you previously. We will see how well he thinks on his feet, as I ask him to briefly discuss tips and traps for the Accounting 100 term project. Mr. Harrison, if you would, please?"

Tom gave a big smile and a small chuckle. This was exactly how he met Julie back in September, having to go over tips and traps for the term project. He took a minute to review what he had told Julie way back then while he wrote his name and John's name on the board along with their usual tutoring hours.

"If I were you, I'd be sure to write down what you hear. Then plan a visit to the Lab to verify that you got everything. John Wilson is an excellent tutor as well and he has the evening hours this semester," Tom advised. Then he launched into the same list of tips and traps that Julie had shared with Dr. Casper's class in the fall. All the while, Mr. Price was scribbling quickly on a notepad of his own.

"Thank you very much, Mr. Harrison! Thank you for your time today," Mr. Price added, and Tom waved to the class as he quietly departed the classroom.

'Okay,' he thought as he walked down the hall, 'We need to codify those tips and known traps.' He returned to the Business department's offices where he found Dr. Casper speaking with the main admin assistant.

"May I help you, Tom," she asked, looking around Dr. Casper, who straightened up and turned around with a big smile of his own.

"I think it is I who can help you, Mrs. Thomas. Mr. Price just shanghaied me into giving my tips and tricks for the Accounting 100 term project to his class, just like Julie did for your class last semester, Dr. Casper. I think we need to write that down and keep it on file for the future." He pulled out his acceptance acknowledgment letter and showed it to them. "I won't be here after this semester, and while John is good, this work is already done. Why keep reinventing the wheel?"

"Work smarter, not harder?" Dr. Casper intoned.

"Precisely, sir."

"We will get this assembled and passed by you for ratification this week, Tom," the admin said. "You're in the Lab Monday through Thursday, late afternoon shift, right?"

"Yes, I swapped times with John after last semester."

"I'll bring a copy by tomorrow during your shift, Tom," she said, and he responded with a smile and a nod of his head.

"If you will please excuse me, I have somewhere to be in about 30 minutes," Tom declared. Dr. Casper replied, "I'll see you in class, Mr. Harrison. Keep up the excellent work!"

= = =

Katie's key scraped in the lock, unnecessarily, at 3:05, but some habits were nearly impossible to break. She was almost immediately enveloped by Maggie's embrace and had to catch her breath before she could say anything.

"Mags, I'm glad to see you, too. I need to pee before we can go, so just have a seat on the stairs, please." Katie's backpack swung off her shoulder to land at Maggie's feet with a solid thump, and she was off to the powder room to make her bladder gladder.

Returning with a look of relief on her face, she jingled the keys in front of Maggie, then pulled them back out of her reach. "Not yet, sister. Let's get to the parking lot first."

Katie was still decompressing from school and Maggie just chattered away, oblivious to Katie's state of mind. Maggie was almost like a puppy left alone for too long. Finally, they pulled into the church parking lot and Maggie had the seat belt undone before Katie had even stopped the car.

"A tad eager, are we?" Katie asked, archly.

"Yeah, sorry. It's just that I had so little to do today, once I got the laundry washed, dried, and folded and the kitchen cleaned up."

"Ever try reading a book?" Katie asked, innocently.

"Oh, a Binary Optically-Oriented Knowledge device. Yeah, I've used one once or twice," Maggie tweaked back at her new sister.

They swapped places, and Katie patiently tolerated Maggie's heavy foot and reminded her that the brake pedal was her very best friend in the world when it came to driving. Katie had Maggie driving around, parking, backing out and pulling forward until the Civic's clock read 4:30. Realizing the time, Maggie reluctantly relinquished control back to Katie, and they swapped places once more and headed for home and supper.

= = =

At 4:10, Rose left work a little earlier than usual. She rationalized that she had gone in earlier, so she could leave earlier. She wanted to be home and comfortable when having her call with Helen Waters. She walked in the door from the garage at 4:25 and lay her folder and notepad at her customary place at the dining table. Quickly addressing her biological needs, she then got a glass of ice water and sat at the table. She flipped open the folder and looked at the Zillow page she had printed out. She tried to set aside her blatant desire for the house and land. It would not do her any good to get emotional about this, yet. She put in the numbers on her cell phone and pressed the connect button.

"Hello, this is Helen Waters," came the pleasant voice once again.

"Good evening, Ms. Waters. This is Rosalie Lawson from Middleburg."

"Good evening, Ms. Lawson. We have been expecting your call. My husband is here with me now. May I place you on speaker so we can both participate?"

"Certainly! Please do call me Rose, though."

"If you will, call me Helen, then. My husband is Steve Waters."

"Hello then, Helen, Steve."

"Hello, Rose," Helen said, taking the lead. Her voice trembled a little, and Steve reached over to hold hands with his wife.

"Well, as I said this morning, I would like to speak with you about the house on Millersville Road in Middleburg. You already know I'm associated with the Agricultural Credit Union which holds the mortgage on the property. Please understand once again that I am not calling in an official capacity."

Helen looked at Steve, who nodded reassuringly.

"Ho-how did this property come to your attention, Rose?" Helen asked, her voice still trembling.

"I am the General Manager of the credit union, and the loan appeared in a routine report of potentially troubled loans I review. It appears as though no payment has been made on the loan or into the escrow account since November, and that there has been no contact about it either."

"Oh, God!" A small moan escaped Helen's mouth, and she clapped her hand over the betraying orifice.

"Helen, please try to remain calm," Rose entreated. "As I said this morning, this is a personal call, not an official one. I don't know what the problem is, but I may be in a position to help. And I want to help, both personally and professionally. That's what makes our credit union so much friendlier than a large bank. Our members and our customers are our friends."

"Go ahead, honey. You can tell her everything," Steve's voice resonated in Rose's ear.

"My mother passed away in August after my father had passed last April. The attorney handling the estate had been making the mortgage payments until he suddenly closed up shop. I have not been able to get a hold of him since early November." Rose was scribbling notes on the notepad as Helen was relating all this.