What They Don't Know - 5. Growing Tensions.

I drove over to Ethan’s house in the morning and we rode into work together. Along the way, we talked about Chad and debated whether he’d followed us to the movie the previous day or if it had merely been one of those freak coincidences. We decided to act as if it was the latter, but we’d also try to see if we could spot him doing anything else that seemed suspicious during the week.

Even though we didn’t see Chad anywhere around that morning, something unusual did happen. About an hour before our lunch hour started, Maria came over to ask us a question.

“Do you two know where you’re going to lunch today?” she asked, while flashing us a sweet, angelic expression.

“We haven’t decided yet,” Ethan replied. “Why do you want to know?”

“I was hoping you’d pick something up for me,” she stated. “I forgot to bring anything from home and I don’t have a car, so I was going to give you some money and ask you to bring something back for me. My lunch hour doesn’t start until you two get back from yours, so it will work out perfectly.”

Her request sounded reasonable, so we elected to cut her some slack.

“What would you like?” I asked next.

“It depends on where you’re going,” she answered.

“Since we haven’t decided on any place in particular, what are you up for?” I countered.

“Well, the Santa Fe Baking Company has a really nice chicken Caesar Salad,” she hinted. “I wouldn’t mind one of those.”

“That will work for us, since we like to go there every now and then. They have a fairly decent lunch menu and the food there is always delicious, so we’d be happy to bring you back a salad, if that’s what you want,” Ethan agreed.

Maria seemed very happy and quickly handed Ethan a $20.00 bill. Seeing she already had the money with her, I felt she was being sincere about her inquiry, so we decided to write this off as just another weird coincidence.

Since she had caught us early and our lunch hour didn’t actually start for another thirty minutes, we both finished up what we had been working on before we left. When we got to the Baking Company, we discovered another little surprise waiting for us inside. Almost as soon as we entered, we noticed that Chad was already there ahead of us. This immediately sent up all kinds of flares, so Ethan and I quickly discussed whether we should go somewhere else today.

We thought it might be best if we did, but we had promised to get Maria a salad from here, so we were hesitant to leave. Then I had an idea. I quickly walked up to the register, placed a take-out order for her salad and informed the person I’d be back to pick it up in about fifty minutes. Then Ethan and I went down the street to eat at another cafe.

“That was weird,” I stated, once we were seated at the other location.

“Although I wasn’t sure before, I now tend to believe that Maria set us up,” Ethan observed.

“You really think she did that?” I asked.

“Don’t you find it a little strange that she asked where we were going to have lunch, so we could pick something up for her,” he began, “and then we find Chad there when we walk in? I’m sorry, but that’s just too much to be a coincidence for me.”

Unfortunately, I had to agree with him. It did appear as if Chad might have asked Maria to find out where we were going for lunch, so he could be there when we arrived. That way it wouldn’t appear as if he was following us, since he was there first. What better way was there to convince people you aren’t following them than by being where they’re going to be before they arrived?

After putting that behind us, we ate our lunch and enjoyed the rest of our noon hour together, but we were still concerned about the implications of what had happened. It was bad enough to know Chad might be trying to catch us doing something wrong, but it was even worse to believe that one of your co-workers was helping him do it.

After lunch, we headed back to the office. Luckily, I remembered the salad before we drove all the way to work, so Ethan did a quick U-turn, drove back and pulled up in front of the Baking Company. Ethan didn’t even park the car, because we were only going to stay long enough for me to run inside to get her salad.

When we returned to the office, we didn’t find Maria at her cubicle, so we thought she might have gone to the break room already. Unfortunately, our lapse in memory had made us a few minutes late, so her lunchtime had actually started before we got back. Since it wouldn’t take both of us to do this, I offered to take her salad and see if that’s where she was. When I walked in, I found Maria sitting at a table, along with Chad.

Feeling that we’d definitely been had, I walked up to where they were sitting and handed Maria her salad and change. She thanked me, but Chad looked a little guilty that I had caught them together. He didn’t speak to me, but he did seem uncomfortable that I had found him there with Maria, especially since I knew that he’d had his lunch already. In fact seeing him here seemed even stranger now than I’d first thought, because it suddenly dawned on me that Chad always ate during the second lunch hour. This meant that not only had he already eaten, but he must have also switched his lunch hour for today and, therefore, didn’t belong in the break room now. When I got back to the department, I immediately went over to inform Ethan about what I’d just seen.

“I think that proves this was NOT a random coincidence,” I told him. “It looks like she wanted to know where we were going to lunch so she could tell Chad and only asked us to pick up the salad as a cover story. Not only had Chad switched his lunch hour so he could spy on us, but I’ll bet it was also the reason he was in the break room when I went down there. I’m convinced he was there to tell Maria that we spotted him and then went somewhere else to eat. This convinces me that his showing up at the theater was not just a chance occurrence either.”

“I’ll agree it does look very suspicious, but I can’t imagine what he expects to catch us doing,” Ethan stated. “There is still a small chance that Maria isn’t working with him and merely wanted a salad today, and it’s also possible that Chad just has a thing for Maria, so that’s why we’ve seen him with her so much lately. Besides that, there’s still a possibility that his being at the theater and restaurant were just a coincidence, because who knows how many other people might have been at multiple locations with us too. It could be that we’ve only noticed Chad there because we know him, but I’ll agree it’s looking more and more suspicious every time something like this happens.”

“You seem to be willing to write this off more easily than I think you should, but I’m still going to watch them both very closely from now on,” I stated. “I’m sorry if you don’t agree, but I just don’t trust Chad.”

“I’m just attempting to look at this from all angles, not trying to write it off,” Ethan challenged. “You know I don’t trust Chad any more than you do, but I just want to keep us from jumping to conclusions before we have all the facts.”

“I’m telling you there have been enough coincidences to convince me that this has all been intentional,” I argued. “He’s a sneak and I don’t trust him.”

After a few seconds, Ethan finally agreed that there have been too many things happening to reasonably write them all off as pure chance, but he still didn’t want me to get too worked up about this. He was afraid I’d get upset and then do something foolish, which would play right into Chad’s hand.

For example, Ethan suggested that if I were to get mad enough and punch him at work, then I’d get fired and Chad would have created the opening he was looking for. Ethan then went on to say it was bad enough that Chad might be trying to dig up dirt on us, but it would be even worse if we were the ones who foolishly supplied him with exactly what he was looking for, just because one of us lost his temper.

Even though I understood Ethan’s point and would try to control my emotions concerning Chad, I still couldn’t totally forget about what had happened for the rest of the afternoon. In fact, it was still on my mind when I said goodbye to Ethan at his place later. I was just about to get into my car and drive off when I had another thought.

“Ethan wait up a second,” I yelled out to him, as he was unlocking his front door.

I quickly started walking toward Ethan and he made his way back to meet me halfway.

“What’s up?” he wanted to know.

“I was just thinking that maybe we should both keep on the lookout for Chad in our neighborhoods this week as well,” I suggested. “I believe it would be wise to see if he is actually following us around or hanging out near our houses, so it might be smart for us to go out for a walk around the block at some point during the evening. It will appear as if we’re only going out for some exercise, but if we spot him at either place, then it will prove I’m right.”

“I’ve already agreed with you that he might be up to something, but I don’t want us to become overly paranoid about what he’s doing,” Ethan responded. “If we do that, then we’re bound to make a mistake and do something foolish that will clue him into the fact that we have something to hide. I’ll do what you want though and go out for a walk tonight, if it will make you feel better. I do think he’s probably watching us at work, but I’m not as convinced that he’s stalking us at home.”

“He has stopped by your place before and besides, how else would he have known what theater we were going to be in?” I reasoned. “I just think we have to do this to protect ourselves, that’s all.”

“Look, I said I’ll do it, if it will make you feel better,” Ethan agreed. “Just don’t start acting as if you’ve definitely got something to hide. I think Chad would pick up on that.”

Since we had this ironed out, Ethan went into his house and I drove back to mine. I kept peeking out my windows all night long and I also took a walk around the neighborhood, which I seldom do. I didn’t think it would look suspicious if the neighbors saw me doing this, but I never spotted Chad or anything out of the ordinary anyway. It wasn’t for lack of trying though, because I continued glancing out my windows until it got dark. After it began to get late, I got my things ready for work and then went to bed. I fell asleep still wondering if Chad was actually out there somewhere.

“Did you catch your spy last night?” Ethan teased, when I showed up at his house the next morning.

“No, I didn’t see anything at all,” I admitted, in a hushed tone.

“I didn’t either, so maybe he’s not as intent on catching us as you fear,” Ethan offered.

“I’m not sure if I’d go that far,” I challenged. “Let’s just keep an eye out for him and do this for the rest of the week. Ok?”

“Hey, I’ll do it. I’m just not convinced he’s stalking us at home,” Ethan agreed. “If he is, I think he’d only do it on the weekend and not during the week.”

“Maybe,” was all I said in response.

“Hey, why don’t you have dinner with me tonight?” Ethan wondered. “I have something I want to run by you.”

“What?” I asked.

“I’ll tell you tonight,” he repeated. “I’ll fix us a nice dinner and then explain everything while we’re eating.”

I agreed to his proposal and we took off for the office. I wasn’t sure why he wouldn’t just fill me in during the ride to work or even while we ate lunch, but for some reason he wanted to do this over dinner. This wasn’t a problem for me, seeing it would give us some extra time together, but it just made me wonder why he was being so secretive about whatever he wanted to tell me.

The day seemed to drag on forever, because I kept wondering what Ethan had up his sleeve, but I didn’t see him do anything that made me suspicious or had me worried. Ethan and I also went to lunch together, as usual, but this time no one asked us to do any favors and we didn’t see anyone following us or at the restaurant where we ate. I still believe I’m right about Chad, but maybe I am being a little overly paranoid.

I did, however, ask Ethan what he wanted to talk to me about, but he insisted that he’d do it over dinner later. I’m not sure what was up, but he seemed set on how he wanted to do this. Anyway, we returned to work and finished the day, with me even more curious about what Ethan wanted to tell me.

We didn’t stop at the grocery store on the way home, so Ethan must have picked things up for dinner some other time. When we got to his place, we took a quick dip in the pool, because it gave us an opportunity to relax and unwind a bit first. Well I’m not really sure if Ethan needed to unwind as much as I did, because I had a lot on my mind. Not only was I curious about what Ethan was up too, but I also started looking for signs of Chad tailing us as soon as we left the office. In the end, our time in the pool helped me to calm down a bit.

After we dried off and got dressed, Ethan began dinner and I set the table. We had just sat down and hadn’t taken more than a few bites when the doorbell rang. Ethan hadn’t even started to tell me about his important news yet, when he got up to see who was there.

“Oh hi, Chad” I heard him say, once he saw who was at his door. “What can I do for you?”

“I need to ask you a question in private,” Chad announced. “May I come in?”

“Uh, yeah. Sure,” I heard Ethan offer.

I don’t think he wanted to ask Chad inside, but I could tell Ethan was curious about why he had shown up here.

“Oh, sorry,” he apologized. “I didn’t know you two were having dinner. What no candles,” he added, with a nervous little laugh.

“Chad, what is it you came here for?” Ethan demanded.

“Oh, right,” Chad replied. “I wanted to ask you about Maria. I really like her, but so far she hasn’t accepted any of my offers to take her out. Since you work with her and seem fairly close, I was wondering if either of you guys know if she’s seeing someone?”

“I don’t know of anyone, do you Bryan?” Ethan asked.

“I haven’t heard her talk about seeing anyone either,” I confirmed.

“Maybe you just aren’t her type,” Ethan offered next.

“She doesn’t seem to mind having lunch with me or chatting at work,” Chad explained, “but she turns me down every time I ask her to go out after work or on the weekend.”

“It might be a cultural thing,” Ethan suggested. “She spends a lot of time at home with her family.”

“You mean she doesn’t live alone?” Chad followed.

“No, she lives with her parents and seems very close to them,” Ethan answered. “Come to think of it, it might be a multi-generational household as well. If I remember correctly, I’ve heard Maria say something about her grandmother, as well as an aunt, uncle and couple of smaller cousins living there too. Maybe it’s just that she would prefer someone with a similar ethnic background.”

“Yeah, maybe you’re right,” Chad agreed, while looking quite dejected.

“Chad, I don’t want to be rude, but my dinner’s getting cold,” Ethan stated.

“Right. I’ll be going then. Thanks for your help,” Chad told us, as he left.

“That was really strange,” Ethan observed, as he took his seat at the table again.

“Did you catch his comment about the candles?” I asked, concerned.

“I did, but didn’t think much about it,” Ethan replied.

“Are you kidding me?” I nearly shouted. “He was implying that he was surprised we weren’t having a romantic candlelit dinner. Don’t you think that means he knows about us?”

“I just thought he meant that since we were having a nice dinner, we should have added the ambiance too,” Ethan replied. “You can have an elegant dinner without it being romantic.”

“Oh, come on,” I whined.

“He didn’t say why don’t you turn off the lights and use candles instead, because it sets a better mood,” Ethan challenged. “If he’d done something like that, then I would agree that he was suggesting we were having a romantic dinner.”

“He did do that! You just won’t admit it,” I challenged.

“Maybe he just has a thing for Maria and that’s why we see him around so much,” Ethan offered. “Maybe he’s there to watch her, not us.”

“Wouldn’t dating Maria end his chances of transferring to our department?” I challenged. “If they were dating, then it would be no different than our situation.”

“True, but he still may be chasing her, not us,” Ethan insisted.

“She wasn’t at the theater with us when he showed up,” I scoffed.

“Maybe not, but it’s possible some of these things are just a coincidence and the rest is because he’s interested in Maria,” Ethan reasoned, although I still didn’t agree.

“Maybe he knows that we’ve caught on to the fact that he’s recruited Maria,” I offered, “so now he’s faking having an interest in her to cover up what he’s actually doing.”

Ethan shrugged his shoulders and we resumed eating. After a few minutes of silence, Ethan finally broached the topic he’d hinted at earlier.

“Bry, what I wanted to talk to you about…” he began, and then he hesitated momentarily. “I want us to go away for a weekend, where we can be alone and do whatever we want, without worrying or caring about who else sees us.”

“Do you mean where we can have sex?” I countered.

“Not just to have sex, but somewhere we can kiss, cuddle, hold hands and just enjoy each other for a couple of days, without having to do it behind closed doors all of the time,” Ethan replied.

“That sounds good to me,” I confessed. “Did you want to do it this weekend?”

“I’m not sure if I can make the arrangements quickly enough for this weekend,” Ethan answered, “but I’ll try. If I can’t, how about next weekend?”

“Either would be fine with me, as long as I can be alone with you,” I confirmed. “Do you have any idea about where you want to go?”

“I was thinking we could go to Vegas,” he announced, “because there are lots of things to do there. We could catch a show or two, gamble, sightsee or just spend most of the time alone in our suite. What do you say?”

“I’d say it sounds really nice,” I concurred.

“Great! I’ll start making the arrangements then,” Ethan agreed.

We finished our meal and both of us were more upbeat than we were right after Chad’s unexpected visit. We didn’t say anything more about him, and personally he never crossed my mind again for the rest of the evening, because now I was thinking about Ethan’s suggestion. I was totally focused on spending one of the next two weekends alone with Ethan and considering all the possibilities it might lead to.

I really wanted to spend tonight with Ethan as well, but he said maybe we shouldn’t do anything like that until we went away. Since Chad had shown up earlier, he reasoned that if he was truly watching us, as I suspected, then we wouldn’t want him to see that I was spending the night after a private dinner. Ethan figured doing that might just be too blatant of a clue for him to dismiss. Reluctantly, I agreed and went home. This time I was kind of kicking myself for having managed to heighten Ethan’s concerns enough that he didn’t want us to spend the night together. I guess I only have myself to blame though, since I’m the one who has been pushing my suspicions about Chad.

The following morning, Ethan and I had another chat on the way in to work.

“I got on my computer after you left to see if I could make arrangements for our little trip,” Ethan announced. “What I discovered is that we actually can go this weekend, if you still want to.”

“Yeah, that would be great,” I agreed. “I think we could really use a weekend where we can actually be ourselves and totally enjoy each other.”

“Great, then I’ll firm up the plans later,” Ethan announced. “All you’ll need to do is pack a bag to take with you.”

Ethan then told me what things he’d suggest I should bring with me. Since I saw no problems with his recommendations, I agreed with his proposal. I would pack my bag and then bring it with me Friday morning, when I met him to go to work.

“What would you think about taking Monday off too?” Ethan wondered. “That way we won’t have to rush and we’ll be able to enjoy ourselves a little longer.”

“Will we both be able to get it off?” I challenged. “Our department isn’t that large, so will they allow two of us to take off at the same time?”

“I don’t think we’ll have any problem with that,” Ethan answered, “because it’s just the typical workload right now. We’re not at the end of the month, so we don’t have that routine to worry about, and we don’t have any special projects going on, so it should be fine. I’ll ask today and find out if it’s possible, as long as you’re in agreement.”

“Sure. That sounds good to me,” I confirmed.

The day passed by fairly quickly and quietly. Ethan got the ok from our boss for both of us to put in to take Monday off, so we filled out the required paperwork for her to sign and forward to HR. I was really upbeat and looking forward to the weekend, as we drove home that night, but it also made me a little sadder than usual when I had to say goodbye to Ethan and got ready to go back to my place. As I was driving away, it suddenly dawned on me that I’d soon be spending the weekend with him, so that thought made me feel really good again.

Thursday flew by in blur. The workday went smoothly, except for when Maria came over to speak with us again.

“I hear you guys are taking Monday off,” she began. “Are you going away or something?”

I thought she was being a little nosy and almost told her to go away and mind her own business. Then, I realized that she might become even more suspicious if I didn’t respond to her question, so I was determined to give her an answer, but with as little ‘accurate’ information as possible.

“We’re attending a mutual friend’s wedding over the weekend and we just wanted Monday to recuperate,” I told her. “We’ll probably be partying pretty hard, so besides being worn out by the long trip, we’ll most likely be a little hung over too. We just felt it might be best to have the extra day to rest up.”

“Ah, where’s the wedding?” she wondered.

“It’s in Florida,” I told her. “That where the bride and groom are from.”

“It sounds wonderful, so have a good time,” she offered, as she headed back to her desk.

As soon as she walked away, I went over to Ethan’s cubicle and mentioned what had just happened.

“Yeah, she must have come to me first then,” he confirmed, “but I just told her that we were taking off to attend to a personal matter.”

“Well, I told her we were going to a friend’s wedding in Florida,” I confessed. “I hope I didn’t do anything wrong by telling her that.”

“Nah, it’s no big deal,” he responded.

We left the conversation that way until lunchtime, when, we picked it back up and discussed it in more detail.

“Don’t you think it’s a little odd that she asked both of us?” I wanted to know.

“Yes, I do find it a little strange, but it’s probably because I didn’t tell her anything,” Ethan admitted. “I was afraid that if I gave her any specifics then our stories might clash, so I chose to make up a vague reason to explain what we were doing. I figured I wouldn’t give any details and leave the story up to you – not that I’m saying you’re a better liar than I am.”

“I’m glad you clarified that and I’m happy our stories didn’t clash,” I added. “I never considered that she’d ask both of us, but I thought it would only make her more curious if I tried to blow her off. That’s why I decided it would be better if I gave her some information, but I had to come up with something quickly, so I hope my explanation was alright.”

“Yes, you did well. What you told her is a very plausible reason why we would be going away together, so you handled that correctly,” Ethan offered. “I’m also beginning to think you might be right about her working with Chad. They’ve just done too many suspicious things that are beginning to add up to be more than just a series of random coincidences. In fact, I don’t think she asked us about this trip for herself and I think Chad might have asked her to get the information for him.”

“I’m glad you are finally ready to admit that,” I replied. “I think Chad is using her to spy on us and I think he is doing his best to dig up any dirt he can, so he’ll be able to get one or both of us fired. If he’s successful, it will provide him with another opportunity to try to transfer to our department.”

“Unfortunately, I agree,” Ethan confessed, “although I don’t think our manager wants Chad working for her either. I’m not sure what it is about him, but she doesn’t seem to have a better impression of him than we do.”

“Then he’ll be doing all of this for nothing,” I observed. “I wish we could just convince him that she’ll never hire him anyway and then maybe it would get him off our backs.”

“If only it were that easy,” Ethan observed.

After work, I headed home and finished packing. I planned on taking my suitcase with me in the morning, because we were going to drive to the airport to catch our flight directly after work. I was actually getting very excited about this trip and had just dragged my suitcase into the living room when the doorbell rang. I just prayed it wasn’t Chad checking up on me.

“Oh hi, Joe,” I said, when I saw my neighbor standing on the other side of the door instead. “Come on in.”

“Are you going somewhere?” he asked, when he noticed my suitcase.

“Yes, Ethan and I decided to get away for the weekend, so we can have a little privacy and enjoy ourselves,” I explained. “We think that guy from work you overheard us talking about the other day is trying to catch us doing something wrong so he can take one of our jobs. We even think he’s recruited a girl in our department to help him too.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. It must be very nerve-racking,” Joe said. “So where are you going?”

“We thought Las Vegas would be good,” I replied. “It’s far enough away to keep Chad and Maria from finding out what we’re doing, so we’ll be able to be ourselves. Maria was even nosy enough to try to find out what we had planned and asked where we were going, so I told her we were traveling to Florida to attend a wedding.”

Joe laughed.

“Good one. Hey, I’ll keep an eye on your place for you, if you want,” he offered.

“Sure, that would be great,” I answered. “So did you come over here because you wanted something?”

“Nah, I’m just being a good neighbor and thought I’d check in on you and see how you are doing,” Joe explained. “I know settling in at a new location can be tough, but you seem to be doing just fine.”

“I am, but thanks for caring,” I countered. “It’s nice to know you are just next door.”

After we talked a little while longer, Joe said goodbye and returned home, leaving me to finish up my preparations for the trip. I think I’d managed to do everything by then, but I thought it would be best if I double-checked, just to make sure that I hadn’t forgotten anything.