Chapter 26

Kaitlyn returned my call a few minutes later, and said she had been in a conference with her Faculty Advisor. It was nothing special, just something all of them had to do before graduation. She said she didn't have any more classes today, so she and Suzy were just hanging out in the student center, waiting for Laurel and Richelle to show up.

I said, "So, I hear Suzy is a pretty good note taker. You two getting along okay?" I didn't think I put any special inflection into the question, but Kay started giggling, and I heard a female voice saying something unintelligible in the background. "What?"

"Stop! You're gonna get me in trouble!" Kay was sputtering at whoever was with her. I could only assume it was Suzy, whom I hadn't met yet, but I already was beginning to think she was a questionable influence on my innocent young fiancé. "She's pickin' on me, Rob! Make her stop! Now she's saying that she and Richelle are gonna do a wedding shower for me." heard more mumbling, then, "No, I DON'T need any toys for our wedding night! Robbbbbb!" Then she dissolved into hysterical laughter again. I did get out of her that they were going to stop at the clinic for Laurel's appointment, but that their two bodyguards were going to accompany them. So I went back to "work". Toys? Hmmmm.

Got a panic call from a customer. Not sure how he got my cell number, as the calls are supposed to go through Ray at level one first. Anyway, he'd gotten a call from some agent at "Microsoft Support", who told him that their desk had gotten notification from his computer, and it was "automatically reporting some errors" that were about to shut his system down. He said he told the guy that I handle all his system work, and he gave him my cell number to follow up. But now he was getting nervous because the "agent" had told him his database was due to crash today, and he hadn't heard anything more. Grrrrr!

I assured him that his system was NOT about to crash, and that the call had been a scam. Almost told him there'd be an extra charge for the call, but I just warned him that there definitely would be a surcharge for the next time it happened, and disconnected.

Damn phone rang again, and I almost let it go into voice mail, but looked and saw it was the insurance company calling back. Grabbed it quick, and tried not to sound too anxious. "Rob Lister here, how can I help you?"

"Mister Lister? This is Morgan Elway again, calling back on the damage claim on your sailboat. Is this a bad time?"

"Not at all, Mr. Elway, and thanks for getting back to me so soon."

"Oh, you're quite welcome, sir. I just wanted to inform you that we'll be covering your claim in its entirety. All we need is an estimate of the damages so that we can authorize the necessary repairs."

"Repairs? You sent an appraiser down there to look at it and you're talking about repairs?"

"Err, ummm, well, sir, we didn-"

"Now listen to me. I am going to say it only once. You will send an appraiser to the site to verify the boat is a total loss. You will then authorize payment to cover that loss at replacement value, or I will, as I said before, contact my attorney, who is very skilled in inflicting maximum grief from deadbeats who are supposed to be assisting customers in recovering their insured losses. Now can I depend on you to handle this the way it should be handled?"

"Ohh, yes sir! I'll get right on it and handle it myself. I see you've sent us a list of personal items which were aboard the boat when it was destroyed. Do you have anything further to add?"

"No, Mr. Elway, that list should do it. Can I expect your return call tomorrow?"

"I assure you, you can, sir, and, please have a good afternoon."

I touched the home button, then out of habit, checked the weather app. Almost regretted it, because the app I had was set to the marine forecast, and it showed at a glance that the next few days would provide fine sailing conditions. Came near to deleting it, but I decided to keep it. Incentive towards another boat, perhaps.

Phone rang again – gonna shut it off so I can get some work done! Wait! It's Hector, better answer it. "Rob Lister here, hello, Hector!"

"Hello, Señor Rob! I hope I did not interrupt you!"

"Not at all, my friend!" (Can I get sent to hell for fibbing to a pastor?) "How can I help you?"

"Well, amigo," he said, "I was just wondering, we missed our appointment to speak about the wedding, so I thought I would call and see if we could reschedule it. Not much time left before the big day!"

"Ahhh! I knew there was something else I needed to do today, my friend. Thank you so much for calling to remind me."

"De nada, amigo, I know you have been very busy. It is a real tragedy about the boat, and we have been praying for you and your Kaitlyn, for your safety. I hope all is still well."

"So far, yes, my friend. When is a good time for you to meet with us? I think we can do so tonight, if you have time for us."

"Tonight would be excellent, Rob! I assure you it will not take long. I just need to ask you a few things, and get some details from you and Kaitlyn about music, and vows, and things like that. Would seven o'clock be okay?"

I assured him that it would be fine. He gave me the address, and this time I did shut off my phone, but then decided that I should turn it back on, just in case Kaitlyn called.

I puttered around for a while, tried, but just couldn't get into reloading that crashed server, but then I forced myself to do it. No sense inflicting more pain on a good customer. Ran the necessary diagnostics, and saw everything checked out, so I started the reloading process. That'll take a couple of hours at least. Time to start thinking about something for an early dinner, so we can make it to Hector's place in time. The girls both like seafood, so I figured on a batch of white clam sauce to serve over angel hair pasta. Uses canned clams, but it's pretty good, if I do say so myself. If I had more time I'd get a couple dozen fresh clams and use those, but this is good in a pinch. Turned out to be a good choice.

Kay's turn again:

Oh. My. God! What was George thinking when he stuck us with these two? My ribs hurt from laughing at Suzy, and I just hope Laurel is okay with Richelle – her ribs were already hurting, and she's probably in agony by now! It was bad enough when they bandaged our hands. I thought I was gonna bust when Richelle asked about "Scratch yer cootchie", and then when I asked Suzy if she wanted to kiss my booboo and make it better, oh my. I never came so close to peeing my pants, and Laurel said she thought she did, a little.

But things got serious when Suzy told me about Toad being the dead guy in the boat. I saw that news shook Laurel up too. I dunno which was worse, hearing about the guy getting killed, or seeing our bodyguards just tossing it off like it was just another cockroach getting stomped on. I guess they get used to it, in their line of work. Maybe that's how they've learned to deal with it.

Didn't expect to see Todd, and we didn't, but we did get some vibes from a couple of his posse when we passed them in the student lounge. Suzy just said not to acknowledge them at all, so we didn't. Found out later that someone actually said something to Laurel, but Richelle steered her away before much was said. I'm glad we only have a couple more days of this. But I am learning some stuff to try on Rob; Suzy is incorrigible! She and Richelle are an item, I guess, both bi, but I gather that Suzy has had more experience with men than Richelle has. And she's educating me. Gawd!

We ran into Renee too, between classes. She's gonna graduate next year, and now her parents have decided they'll stay close so she can live at home. She's such a sweet girl. I'm so thankful that we were there for her, and that Rob stood up to that scum for her. She is, too, and I got an extra nice hug from her when she saw me. Suzy was right on top of it, though, and grabbed Renee's arm before I could stop her. Scared her, and me too, but everything was cool when I introduced them. Renee looked at me and almost cried again. "It's that bad, that you have to have someone with you? Just because you helped me?"

"We were sent a 'message', apparently from Todd's friends," I told her, "and George thought it would be a good idea. I think you need to be very careful too. Wanna hang with us for the rest of the day?" I looked at Suzy and she nodded in agreement, "We're just waiting now for Laurel, and then we're heading for the clinic for her appointment. I know, why not come home with us for dinner, then over to see the pastor who's marrying me and Rob? I could use a little help with plans."

"I'd love to! Let me call my folks and tell them where I'll be."

"Home cookin'?" said Suzy, "any chance..."

"Hang on," I said, and I reached for my phone. Speed-dialed for Rob, heard it ring twice, then heard "I love you".

"I love you too, sweetie!" Saw Renee smile, and Suzy rolled her eyes back in her head. "What's for supper, sweetie? And is there gonna be enough for a few extra?"

"Sure! How many's a few?"

I told him, and it was okay, and I got another "I love you," and Suzy rolled her eyes again, and we hung up. "It's all good," I said, "as long as you like pasta with white clam sauce." Got a couple of nods, and said, "It's Rob's recipe, and he says it's good. Haven't had it yet myself, but he told me how he makes it, and it does sound good, and easy."

"Wait," said Suzy, "you got a man who cooks supper for you?"

"And beats the crap out of bad guys for her, too," said Renee.

I just grinned, and looked up to see Laurel and Richelle coming into the lounge. They made their way over to us, and Laurel was holding onto her sides and looked like she was out of breath from laughing. "Get me away from this woman before she kills me!"

Richelle just stood there looking as innocent as a newborn lamb. "Who, me? I didn't say a word! Honest!" I noticed her making eye contact with Suzy, and getting a nod in return. Under all the light hearted banter there was some dead serious stuff going on. Got the impression that all is well. Suzy told Richelle our plans for dinner, and there were a few bad moments when Richelle riffed on me and Rob, and I confess I took it all wrong, but Renee and Laurel came to my rescue, and Richelle decided she owed me an apology, so she'd ride with me to the clinic.

So we all headed out to the parking lot and got into our cars. Renee and Laurel got in with Suzy, and Richelle got into my car, and we followed them. I saw Suzy talking on her phone, probably checking in with Mitch or George, and imagined that they were already tired of hanging out with us. Richelle was quiet for a few minutes, then said she was sorry she picked on me so hard, but sometimes she just got carried away. Then she said she hoped they could keep in touch with us after all this was over with. Guess they're not so tired of us after all.

Everything went well at the clinic, and the counselor there was pleased that Laurel was getting along okay, and had a support group (us) to lean on. They released her with strict instructions to call their emergency number if she had any further "issues (I hate that word!) stemming from the incident". So we headed for home. Home! Where Rob is! Used to be I only had one home, but somewhere along the line I found out that wherever there's someone who loves me, well, that's home too.

We were nearing the apartment when Renee got another call from her folks, and got all excited. "He is? That's great! Where's he going to stay?" She chatted a little more, assured them that she'd be okay, and hung up. "My big brother is coming home!" We just looked at her, and she realized we had only met her folks and younger brother Josh. "Jacob got discharged from the Marines, and he's on his way home. Should be here by the end of this week, and he's gonna stay with us until he gets his own place. Might even take a few classes starting in the fall." She sighed, and I looked in the mirror and saw she was smiling, "My big brother Jake!"