Chapter 38: Kyle - The Catch

“Well now that we’ve brought joy and happiness to our favorite trio of Ohioans, what next?” Lexi asked.

“I thought they were Kentuckians?” Lauren asked.

“They live in Cincinnati now. You know, move to the big city after graduation,” I explained.

“I guess for your line of work maybe that’s a little different, you probably had to start in a smaller type city, right?” Lexi asked.

“Ah ok. And yep, you’re exactly right, Lexi. Kind of have to take a job where you can when you’re brand new to the game. KMID Midland represent!”

“Hell of a jump from that to Nashville,” I observed.

“I spent a few years at a station in Little Rock after Midland. Probably a little lucky to get the Nashville opportunity relatively young, but I took it,” Lauren said.

I thought that sounded like an impressive career progression. I assumed looks were an important part of getting on air jobs, and Lauren was a very attractive woman, but to move up the ladder that quickly I figured she must also have some serious professional chops.

“Was Tanner with you the whole time?” Lexi asked.

“Yep, we knew each other in college, but only in passing. He’s originally from Midland and wasn’t quite sure what he wanted to do after college so he was living with his parents, working odd jobs. We hung out and he eventually asked me out,” Lauren said.

“Big deal for him to leave his hometown for you then,” I said.

“A little, I guess that’s part of the reason I’ve given him so much leash with the Alpha bullshit the last few years,” Lauren said.

“That makes sense,” Lexi said.

“So you guys have any plans for the day?” Lauren asked.

“How do you feel about checking out an abandoned suburban health club?” I suggested. Lauren and Lexi readily agreed to my proposal; like me, they were both eager to see what kind of shape 69 Tuna Run was in.

Lauren offered to drive her SUV back out to the suburbs since there was a good chance she would head home after we checked out the club. She’d explained to us over first breakfast that she and Allie had a loose plan for a group dinner of neighborhood wives that evening and she had some preparations to make. Reed needed to give Allie a ride home at some point so we figured we could catch him for the ride back downtown.

“This drive does kind of suck,” I observed. We had just pulled back on to I-65. Saturday midday traffic was light.

“Suburbs kind of suck,” Lauren said.

“You know you live in the suburbs right?” I asked.

“Yeah, agreeing to get a place out here really wasn’t the best call I’ve ever made. Thought it would be cool to live in a nice, quiet neighborhood with like minded people. I feel like I was kind of duped by our realtor on that,” Lauren said.

“Who was your realtor? I’ll make sure to steer clear if I end up needing one,” I said.

“Guy named Chester Kidd. Don’t touch him with a ten foot pole. Found out after the fact, he’s one of the leaders of the Alphas, along with Norman. Chester is basically their head of recruitment from what I can tell. He sold us hard on what a great community they were building out here when we were looking for a house. Then they got their hooks into Tanner after we moved in.”

“How so?” Lexi asked.

“They offered him a job at this consulting company a lot of them work at about three months after we moved. He went from being a mediocre salesman at his prior job to a rock star seller nearly overnight. Suddenly I went from being the primary breadwinner to making half as much as him. It was ... odd, I guess.”

“That is a hell of a jump,” I noted.

“Right! At first I was really happy, we were way better off financially than we’d ever been. That was right around when I turned 30. It felt right if that makes sense. We’d been married for about four years, we were both hitting 30. We’d worked hard. We were financially stable. We owned a home in a nice neighborhood. It felt like we were ready for the next stage in life.”

I immediately thought about children, but didn’t want to bring up what could be a delicate topic. “That stability seems like a far cry from the way things are now,” I said.

“Yeah, big time. It’s not like anything changed overnight, but it’s just gotten worse and worse over the years. They’ve always had sort of this corporate grind culture at his work, but in the early days it seemed manageable. Like we still spent time together when we could, had date nights, that kind of stuff. I also figured as Tanner gained more seniority the time demands ramp down, but the opposite happened,” Lauren explained.

“Sorry, I don’t mean to pry, but we heard a lot of the same things about Garrison from Allie,” Lexi said.

“Yeah, they all seem to be this way to varying degrees,” Lauren confirmed. “I’ve tried pressing Tanner on balancing priorities, and he always says the right things but the actions never match the words.”

“Jeez, that’s frustrating. Was he always that way?” I asked. I was utterly committed to Lexi, particularly after what had gone on that morning, but to me Lauren was a hell of a catch by any standard. Successful, funny, poised, and hot. The idea of her partner being anything less than attentive was appalling to me.