***Author's note. Just an FYI to protect my butt; I've intentionally misspelled more popular brand names. Not sure if it would matter if I used the brand name, but I leaned towards the side of caution. I hope you enjoy.***
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Airports. Tyler Bond hated them. They were a necessary evil for his work, but he loathed them. They were hurting his marriage. They contained masses of people waiting around to be shipped and treated like cattle, by air, to their destination. Realistically, the experience was ten times better than it used to be for him. Maybe he should realign his thoughts on that and just accept that it is what it is, and he was well paid to endure it.
Ten years ago, he had to stand in line to check in, then stand in line at security and then stand in line to board the plane, where you would have to stand in line again while waiting for those in front of you put their luggage away in the overhead compartments, while he slowly moseyed his way to the back of the plane.
Now, he didn't have to speak to anyone if he didn't want to. With the experience of his own and other savvy travelers, he never checked luggage anymore because he packed conservatively. TSA-Pre reduced his wait times at security drastically in most airports. His years of traveling cross-country once a month, plus another shorter trip each month had built his status with his favored airlines to where he usually didn't have to sit in the back of the plane anymore and could board after the first-class passengers. His credit card even gave him lounge access now, which there at the Miami airport was quite nice.
While, the experience was much better now, it still wasn't something he enjoyed; usually. Today, however, in the lounge, Veronica, an attractive, middle-aged woman, appearing several years younger than him, wearing a frilly, low-cut dress, covered partially by a cardigan when she wanted, was chatting with him about her recent travel experiences. Towards the end of the conversation, she had allowed the cardigan to not cover quite as much. Mouth-watering. He happily and candidly shared his own travel-war stories too, and at the end of their chat, she handed him a business card.
He looked briefly at the card, not wanting to take his eyes off Veronica, and discovered that she was from Denver, also, which led to several more minutes of conversation. Instead of catching his flight, she had one more stop to make before going home. Probably for the best. They parted for their respective gates having had a pleasant chat.
Was she flirting with him? Maybe. Probably. He wished he had recognized that while they were speaking. Decades of marriage had dulled his senses regarding flirting. Damn. Not that anything would or would have come from that. He had been one-hundred-percent faithful during his twenty-six years of marriage and didn't have plans for that to change.
This had been one of his cross-country trips, and despite his dislike of airports, he was in a decent mood due to the earlier lounge conversation and some success on his trip, which would pave the way to an extra bonus next quarter. He had just sat down on his plane, in the larger economy plus seat, to return home, when his phone rang. He was about to put it into airplane mode when it happened. It was his wife, Rebecca. Sigh.
It was very early in Denver for her to be awake, much less calling. Given the hour of the morning, he wondered if it was important. Probably. His finger hovered over the phone to answer; then he turned the phone off.
If it had been one of his kids, he certainly would have answered it, but whatever that bat of a wife of his wanted could wait. He admitted that the travel, which started ten years ago, though limited, had been hard on them, but it shouldn't have caused so many arguments. He was rarely gone more than six nights a month, but he guessed that had become too much. Women!
He wished his wife were more understanding. When he told her about the new position all those years ago and the increase in salary and bonus, his wife practically pushed him out the door, and then she would welcome him, and his money, home with open arms, and legs. Now, even with his efforts to wine and dine her more and spend more time with her, she had become distant. Recently, his boss told him that if he would accept a new position, which required more travel, he could make even more money. He hadn't mentioned that offer to his wife. To do so would serve no good purpose.
The whole situation saddened him, but he still had his kids, who were fantastic. He loved his children. His daughter, Jamie, had just entered pharmacy school in the fall, and his son, Mike, was grinding through summer school to get a head start on his junior year in engineering, like his dad. Both parents were expectedly proud. He missed attending their events and missed having them underfoot. He guessed Rebecca did too, as she has seemed sad lately. Whatever their current troubles, they had raised two exceptional kids; smart, fun, hardworking, selfless, humorous. They had received many complements on them over the years. He wished he could see more of them.
With the children now having places of their own nearby, he had thought of downsizing from that big-assed house. Rebecca wouldn't hear of it. In addition to her work at a hospital as one of their finance execs, she was on multiple charity boards, and the house, neighborhood and neighbors fit her image. A little extra house and yard maintenance compared to a smaller house was one of the sacrifices Tyler was expected to make for his wife's social standing. Sigh.
The flight languished as it often does, or more accurately, he was languishing on the long flight. He wasn't in the mood for a movie, and he didn't get much sleep during the trip, so he decided to close his eyes for a few minutes while he could.
It was the bump of the plane touching the ground that had awakened him. He was surprised that he had slept almost the whole trip.
He turned his phone back on, and it looked like something had blown up. Voice mails and messages from everyone that was close to him. He rang his daughter, "My God, Dad. Thank goodness you called."
"Jamie, you knew I was on a plane. What's going on? Everyone has been trying to get a hold of me, but no one has told me anything."
"Well, I'm not going to either at the moment. Stop by my place, since it is on your way home. Mike will be here, too."
"Jamie, you can't leave me like this. Are you and your brother okay? Is your mother okay? Is anyone hurt?"
"I'm sorry, Daddy. It's just a big mess. No one is hurt. Well, no one we love. I'll explain what I know when I see you."
What the hell?
Tyler made record time from Denver International to his daughter's place near the university. He knocked hurriedly on the door, and she was almost in tears when he walked in. He saw his son sitting solemnly in one of her chairs.
"What's wrong, Baby?"
"Oh, Daddy. We're so sorry. It's a huge mess."
Mike spoke up, "More like a clusterfuck."
"Tell me; what happened?"
Jamie continued, "We didn't mean for any of this to happen. It just sort of snowballed."
"Didn't mean for what to happen?"
"Well, we meant for some of it to happen, but not like this."
"Honey, you haven't told me anything, yet. Tell me!"
"Okay. Okay. It started about a month ago when you were on your last trip to Boston. I was going to drive over and visit Mom at dinnertime, and as I approached, I saw a strange Teslass pulling into your garage spot, which was odd. I didn't recognize the car or know who it could be. From the street, I could see that the lights in the house were on, and by the way the shadows moved, I saw someone walking through the house towards the garage.
"I called mom on her cell, and she didn't answer. I waited a few more minutes and called her again. When she did answer, I asked her if she was home, and she said that she was still at work and would talk to me later. Obviously, I suspected this was a lie, so I hung up and watched the house a little longer wondering what to do. After a while, I pulled my car out of sight and snuck to look in the garage window. Mom's car was there along with the Teslass.
"I was furious. I returned to my car, called Mike and told him what I saw. I wanted to know who was with mom. With my anger stoked, I watched the first six hours for him to leave, and Mike came and watched until he left at 7:00am the next morning. Mike followed him to his work at a large office building in Cherry Creek, walked in a few minutes later and asked the security guard if he recognized the man that just entered. He gave Mike a name, and Mike called me.
"We didn't know what to do. I called mom the next morning, not happy that she didn't return my call, and have been cool towards her ever since. On your last trip, we were watching, and the same thing happened. So, Mike and I decided to do something about it.
Mike jumped in, "I was there when you checked all the smoke detectors a few weeks ago, and when I saw the one in the garage, I got an idea, which we thought was funny at the time. I guess it isn't funny now.
"We were afraid to tell you, because we knew you would want to catch them in the act and would probably kill the bastard and wind up killing mom, too; either accidentally or intentionally and land yourself in jail. We didn't want that. We wanted to think of a way to out them and embarrass them at the same time.
"I suggested to Jamie that I sneak into the garage around midnight and cause one of those unexpected sparks that's known to happen from time to time with electric cars to create enough smoke to set off the alarm. With the smoke detectors in good working order, I didn't think much would happen, except the fire department showing up.
