Note to readers: This is a story about a married couple grappling with suspicions and truths, appearances and evidence, the inclination to believe the worst versus hoping for the best. There is absolutely NO sex in this story, so save yourself the disappointment right now if that is what you are seeking.
Remote Miscommunications
DATE: May 27, 2021
FROM: Summit Investigations
TO: Blake Chevalier
RE: Surveillance Report -- Chronological with Summary
[Report compiled by T. O'Reilly. Reviewed by L. Benjoli, Chief Investigative Analyst]
Monday, May 14, 07:23
The subject was positively identified upon leaving her place of residence, located at 3785 Ashford-Dunwoody Road, Dunwoody, Georgia. The principal subject was the driver and sole occupant in a white 2020 Honda Civic which matched the description of the subject's personal vehicle as provided by the client.
The subject was followed by Operatives O'Reilly and Herrera without incident until she arrived at 4567 Hammond Drive. The subject used a card key to enter the secured underground parking structure where direct observation of her was temporarily lost. Visual contact was reestablished by Operative Herrera as the subject exited the elevator from the parking structure and entered the lobby of the building. The subject was accompanied on the building elevator by Operative Herrera and subsequently observed entering the sixteenth-floor offices of Purdue Systems at 07:58.
The subject remained within the offices of her employer, Purdue Systems until 17:05 when she took the building elevator to the ground floor and crossed the lobby to the parking elevator. Surveillance was reestablished as the subject drove the same Honda vehicle out of the parking garage. The subject drove directly to her residence without any observed contacts. Upon entering the residence at 17:42, the subject remained inside for the remainder of the evening and had no visitors.
Tuesday, May 15, 07:20
The subject departed the residence in her personal vehicle and proceeded directly to her place of employment, arriving at Purdue Systems at 07:55. At 11:39, the subject exited the lobby elevator accompanied by an unknown male subject (Unknown subject subsequently identified and detailed in the profile included with the summary of this report). Subject and her companion crossed the lobby and entered the parking elevator together.
The subject's personal vehicle exited the parking structure at 11:45, followed immediately by the male subject driving a grey 2019 Ford Explorer, Georgia license plate number PJG 275. The principal subject headed east on Hammond Drive and took the onramp to northbound Highway 400. The male subject vehicle followed. The two vehicles exited the freeway together at Haynes Bridge Road. Turning right, they proceeded east to Northpointe Parkway, where they subsequently entered the parking lot for the Embassy Suites Hotel at 12:28. After both vehicles parked, the male subject joined the principal subject at her vehicle and they proceeded to enter the lobby of the hotel together. Each subject carried an over-the-shoulder computer bag.
Per the specific instructions of the client, operatives made no effort to obtain any information on the transaction from the hotel staff. After obtaining a room key from the front desk, the subjects walked together to the elevators. Operative O'Reilly was able to observe the elevator, with just the two subjects on board, stop at the fifth floor. He was not able to accompany them to ascertain their destination from that point.
Operatives took up positions on the fifth floor which would provide clear lines of sight for the entire fifth-floor hallways. At 17:07, the male subject was observed leaving room 519 and proceeding to the elevators. Operative O'Reilly, positioned in the stairwell was able to beat the male subject to the lobby and observed him entering his personal vehicle and driving out of the parking lot. At 17:13, the principal subject was observed leaving room 519. Operative Herrera was in a position to ride the elevator down to the lobby with the subject.
The principal subject returned the room key to the front desk and obtained a receipt for the room. She then returned to her personal vehicle and proceeded to drive directly to her residence, arriving at 18:07. The subject remained inside the residence for the rest of the evening and had no visitors.
Wednesday, May 16, 07:21
The subject departed the residence and took Highway 400 south towards downtown Atlanta. After transitioning onto Interstate 85, she continued towards the Atlanta International Airport, exiting the freeway at Virginia Avenue. She arrived at the Holiday Inn and Suites at 09:14, where she met the same male subject in the parking lot. Entering the hotel together, he waited as she registered and obtained a room key. Each subject carried an over-the-shoulder computer bag, but the principal subject also carried a small overnight or gym bag and the male subject carried a small cooler. Subjects were assigned a room on the first floor so operatives were able to observe them entering room 139 together.
Operatives could not loiter in the hotel without drawing the attention of hotel security, so surveillance positions were restricted to outside areas with a limited view of the corridors. Operatives are confident that neither subject exited room 139 between the time that they arrived and when the male subject departed alone at 17:05. The principal subject exited the room at 19:19 and subsequently checked out of the hotel. She wore different clothes from the morning and appeared to have recently showered. The subject drove directly to the residence, arriving at 20:56. The subject remained inside for the rest of the evening and had no visitors.
Thursday, May 17, 07:15
The subject departed the residence and proceeded to take the onramp for Interstate 285 east. She transitioned onto Interstate 85 north and continued until taking the Pleasant Hill exit. Turning left, she proceeded back over the freeway to Venture Parkway, where she turned right and drove to the Quality Suites, arriving at 07:45. Once more, the same male subject was waiting for her in the parking lot, however, this time he remained in his vehicle while she entered the lobby alone to register.
After completing the transaction, she walked to his vehicle and they spoke briefly before she returned to her personal vehicle and drove around to the eastern side of the motel with the male subject following. They parked their personal vehicles next to each other in front of room 103. Operatives observed them both entering the room together, carrying the same bags and cooler as the previous day.
At 12;49, a pizza delivery arrived. The male subject stepped outside of the room to pay for the delivery and appeared to be speaking in a hushed voice as he completed the transaction. After he re-entered the room, there was no further activity noticed until 17:07, when the male subject departed the room alone. At 18:38, the principal subject departed the room. The subject drove directly to the residence, arriving at 20:56. The subject remained inside for the rest of the evening and had no visitors.
Friday, May 18, 07:45
The male subject arrived at the principal subject's residence and was granted entry. Neither subject left the residence until the male subject departed at 17:09. There were no visitors or deliveries during this time. The principal subject remained in the residence the rest of the day and had no visitors.
This concludes the contracted surveillance of the subject.
Blake Chevalier set his cell phone onto the bar and took a sip of his cocktail as he considered whether he wanted, or for that matter needed to read the summary from the investigators. Whatever his decision, it would have to wait until after his dinner meeting with the project team from Watson Solutions. He checked the time and saw that they were due to meet him there at the hotel restaurant within ten minutes.
As he nursed his drink, he recalled in his mind the recently completed nightly Skype session with his wife. He had seen the same beautiful, loving expression on Sarah's face that he saw every time that they connected for a video chat while he was traveling for business. He was able to act normal as they discussed his trip and minor events back at home, which was typical for their nightly conversations. Sarah had thrown out a few sexual innuendos, hinting of the carnal adventures that awaited him upon his return, and he had responded to her accordingly, though he currently felt anything but amorous towards his wife at this time.
There had been a few changes to Sarah's routine, if not her behavior, that had prompted Blake to finally contact his old friend, Leo Benjoli at Summit Investigations to discuss his concerns. They had agreed that due to her position as a project manager with Purdue Systems, most of the changes that Blake had observed could be attributed to her work.
Changes like every call to her office phone going immediately to voicemail, as if she was always on the phone whenever he called, or her cell phone frequently being turned off during working hours, which she had never done before. Sure, she had silenced the ringer on a regular basis, but turning the cell phone off was a change that he couldn't wrap his head around. Gone almost entirely were the occasional text messages throughout their workdays that had been the catalyst for them at the beginning of their relationship, and sustained their growing love over the four years that they had been together, three of these as husband and wife.
Working a few minutes late was not a foreign concept with her job, but until recently, whenever Blake was working from his home office, Sarah had always notified him when she knew that she would be even just a few minutes late. This had changed so that she had only been notifying him once she was on her way home, sometimes two to three hours after her normal quitting time.
At home, there had been no changes in Sarah that Blake could identify. Her love, passion, and commitment to their relationship seemed as steadfast and solid as ever. She was just as affectionate and attentive to him as she had always been, and their sex life had remained robust and satisfying for both of them. Were it not for the showers, Blake could have entirely dismissed his other concerns.
It was the showers. He just couldn't explain the showers. Twice, during his last week at home, Sarah had arrived home late from work with obvious signs that she had recently taken a shower. Signs like the hair at the nape of her neck still being damp, what little make-up that she wore to work being washed off, and the scent of strange soap and shampoo still lingering on her. Blake knew that Purdue Systems had an onsite exercise facility for its employees with a shower, but Sarah had never made use of it. She had always preferred to use the exercise facilities at their condo complex. So, what was suddenly motivating her to shower before coming home a couple of times a week? Leo had agreed to discreetly check things out and keep an eye on Sarah during Blake's next business trip.
Blake saw the restaurant hostess leading his dinner companions towards the bar. He slid his cell phone into the inside breast pocket of his jacket before standing to greet them. The sooner that he completed this meeting, the sooner he could get back to the report summary. Hopefully, answers were waiting for him there.
~~~
SUBJECT PROFILE
Name: Norman Lee Washington
Address: 1034 Granger Drive Apt. 54, Jonesboro, GA 30546
DOB: 06/03/1991
Height: 5'10"
Weight: ~185lbs.
Race: Black
Marital Status: Single
Employer: Purdue Systems
Criminal Record: None
FICO Score: 698
Subject, Norm Washington. is a 30-year-old African American male employed by Purdue Systems as a telecommunications analyst. He graduated from Georgia Southern University with a degree in computer science. Mr. Washington has resided at his current location for the past seven years. He currently has a male roommate, one Devon Livingston. There are no records of Mr. Washington ever being married or paternity claims made against him.
NOTE: Per the client's directions, information on the subject was obtained solely from public records. No interviews or inquiries were conducted which could potentially disclose this investigation to the subject.
"Seems like a pretty vanilla type of guy," Blake thought. He then silently chuckled, wondering if referring to a black man as a 'vanilla type of guy' would be considered racist. His humor abated as he returned to the thought of Sarah spending hours, multiple times a week, in hotel rooms with this Washington guy, not to mention in his and Sarah's own home at least once that Blake knew of.
Reviewing the profile information on Washington once more, Blake was glad that Leo had followed his instructions and kept the investigation discreet. Leo had argued that his team would be able to conduct a far more comprehensive investigation if they were allowed to use all the assets and resources at their disposal, but Blake had been insistent. He didn't want to see any video evidence of Sarah's potential infidelity. He didn't want to hear any conversations between her and a possible lover. No texts, e-mails, or other information easily obtained by Summit Investigations were of interest to Blake. If he became convinced that Sarah was having an affair, that would be bad enough. He didn't want his memory of their time together further tainted by seeing, hearing, or reading about her betrayal.
Blake closed the e-mail from Summit Investigations on his cell phone and set his laptop up on the small desk area in his hotel room. While waiting for it to boot, he fixed himself a drink from the minibar. It was only a little after 8 pm in Irvine, California, but three-thousand miles away, at his home in Georgia, it was nearing 11 pm. Sarah should be in bed, and Blake had every confidence that she was. What he was no longer confident of was who was on her mind as she lay in their marital bed.
Sarah was the most beautiful woman that Blake had ever seen. She had an innocent, unassuming beauty that tended to sneak up on people rather than smack them in the face the first time they saw her. She was not intimidating or manipulative, but she had an innate way of persuading people to accept her point of view on most things. People, men, and women alike, always seemed inclined to find favor with her, though she only rewarded them with her warm, sincere smile.
Sarah worked as a senior project manager at Purdue Systems, coordinating the integration of multiple ERP systems when two or more organizations found a need to share specific information, such as customer data, during a contracted partnership or other business alliance. She and Blake had been married four years after meeting while working on a joint system integration project. He had been working on-site near Spanish Fort, Alabama, while she was managing the project for Alabama Power from her office outside of Atlanta.
Their conference calls and video meetings concerning the project morphed into evening Skype sessions from her apartment and his hotel room. When he returned to his condo in a suburb of Atlanta close to her, they began dating. Married after eleven months, they lived together in his condo while planning and working for their future. They both wanted children but knew that their careers would need to see some changes for that to become a reality that they could both accept. Sarah wanted them to be in a position where she would have the option to return to work after a while, and he wanted the travel requirements of his job to decrease significantly so that he would be able to play a larger role in the raising of their children.
When they were together, it was like an extension of their honeymoon. Unbridled love and passion dominated their every waking moment together. The love that they shared while together had always sustained them during the frequent and often prolonged periods when they were separated due to his business travels. The love that they saw in each other's faces when they held their nightly Skype sessions and the consistencies in their daily routines had been all the reassurance that either had needed to feel confident in the fidelity of the other.
Although Blake still saw the same love on her face when they video chatted, these new inconsistencies in her routine were raising concerns for him. Their love life was as hot and heavy as ever, and there was no change in her demeanor towards him, yet he couldn't dispel his concern that something wasn't quite right. While she used to speak animatedly about her work and specific projects, lately she seldom mentioned anything about her work at all.
Settling into the desk chair, Blake took a long pull on his drink and started reading the report summary.
REPORT SUMMARY:
At the request of Blake Chevalier, covert surveillance of the principal subject, Sarah Elizabeth Chevalier was conducted between 0700 on Monday, May 14, 2010, and 23:30 on Friday, May 18, 2021. The primary operatives assigned to the investigation were Trevor O'Reilly and Lana Herrera.
The operatives were provided a photo of the principal subject, along with details on the make, model, and license number of her personal vehicle, the address for her residence, the name and location of her employer, and other pertinent details related to her established daily routine.
Operatives encountered no issues with maintaining confidence in the location of the principal subject at all times, though direct visual observation of her activities was not possible due to the client's explicit restrictions on available technology to provide more comprehensive surveillance. Operatives felt duty-bound to capture video and photographic details of select activities of the principal subject which were observed in public locations. These images are not included with this report but will be available to the client should he wish to review them at some future time.
No activities or actions of the principal subject provided the operatives with irrefutable evidence of marital infidelity. That being said, it is the opinion of Summit Investigations, through years of experience, that a non-professional relationship exists between Sarah Chevalier and Norm Washington. This opinion is based upon the following factors:
1. While Sarah Chevalier and Norm Washington both work for the same employer, Purdue Systems, a review of the company website revealed that these two employees work in different organizations within Purdue Systems and that their assigned duties and responsibilities are disassociated significantly enough within the organization to make the opportunity for them to be assigned any tasks or projects requiring them to work together highly unlikely.
2. According to our client, there have been no unusual charges on any of the joint credit cards shared between them. This would indicate that all of the hotel charges that Sarah Chevalier was observed to pay with a credit card are on one not visible to her husband. This implies that there is a deliberate attempt by the principal subject to hide these transactions.
3. Physical contact between Sarah Chevalier and Norm Washington observed by the operatives, while not overtly intimate or sexual, appeared to be that of a shared affection at the very least. All observed physical contact was in public locations and the operatives have no means of ascertaining if any physical contact out of the public view was more intimate. Having no prior knowledge of the habits of either subject, the operatives cannot offer any opinion on whether the degree of affection displayed is normal behavior for either individual.
In conclusion, while there are no concrete signs of infidelity on the part of Sarah Chevalier, the surveillance by the operatives from Summit Investigations cannot rule it out as a possible explanation for the observed activities. It is the opinion of the operatives, and this investigator, that further surveillance under the limited conditions imposed by the client would not yield any substantive new information or yield results beneficial enough to warrant the expense.
Blake closed the e-mail and shut down his laptop. Since he had an early flight back to Atlanta in the morning, he decided to go ahead and get the laptop and its accessories packed up tonight. He had a habit of living out of his suitcase, so it typically remained almost packed all the time. He would only need to swap out the clothes that he was currently wearing for those that he would wear tomorrow, and then toss in his toiletry bag after his morning shower to complete his packing.
While in college at Vanderbilt University, Blake had disciplined himself to compartmentalize his thoughts. He felt that it was a waste of time for him to dwell on a psychology exam coming up in three days when his time would be better spent studying for the applied engineering exam the very next day. The same thought discipline had always served him well during his professional career, and now he would attempt to apply it to his personal life. He needed to clear his mind of thoughts about Sarah and whether or not she was having an affair so that he could get a decent night's sleep. He would have time to ponder that situation tomorrow on his flight home.
~~~
"I'm on the train," Blake texted to his wife after settling onto a seat in the next-departing northbound train at the airport Marta station.
Based upon her lack of communication over the past few weeks while at work, he didn't know what to expect in the way of a reply. Since it was approaching the time of day when Sarah's normal workday would be ending, he would either see her at the Dunwoody station in approximately half an hour, see her after walking from the station to their condo, or see her at the condo whenever she decided to come home.
A text reply arrived just as the train was departing the airport station, "I can't wait to see you! Would you like to have dinner at Maggiano's? If so, I will get us a table and you can walk over from the station. If not, I will be at the station waiting for you."
Before Blake could reply, the train entered a tunnel and his data signal was lost. He had to wait until the train reached the next station to send it, "Maggiano's sounds good. I'll meet you there."
Their text messages had never included a lot of endearments to one another. Habits developed while originally communicating with each other professionally just seemed to always remain. Blake sometimes considered telling Sarah that he loved her in a text message, but somehow always felt that doing so would be crossing a line that she would not appreciate. Not that she didn't appreciate his love and every expression of love that he shared with her when they were together, but even though they had never discussed it, he believed that they both viewed text communications as too impersonal a mode of communication for a love as true as theirs.
The Marta train was as noisy as ever, and Blake had enough experience riding on these trains to know that he had to remain constantly aware of his fellow passengers and his surroundings while riding on one. He couldn't dedicate his focus to what his approach to the pending conversation was going to be with Sarah, but fortunately, he had spent over four hours on his flight considering that subject.
He didn't want Sarah to know that he had been having her activities monitored, but he wanted to provide her with the opportunity to tell him the truth about what was going on between her and Norm Washington. It was going to be a 'cat and mouse game' for him to draw answers out of her that he could verify as lies or truth without her knowing what he knew about things, and how he had learned of them. As long as Sarah was truthful with him, Blake felt that they could weather any storm. The first time he caught her in a lie, however, their marriage would be over.
Sarah was sitting on one of the concrete benches outside of Maggiano's when Blake approached, rolling his carry-on bag behind him. She jumped up when she saw him and ran to embrace her husband immediately upon recognizing his arrival.
Kissing him warmly on the lips, she handed him her car keys and said, "They're not too crowded so I decided to wait for you out here so we could get a table together. Let's take your bags to my car first."
She led him two rows into the adjacent parking lot and used her remote to pop the hatch on the rear of her Honda. Blake made quick work of stowing his bags into the trunk before closing it and leading his wife back towards the restaurant.
"I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long," Blake said as they were being escorted to a table. "Marta was running a single track today so it seemed like there was a delay in every station along the way."
Sarah squeezed his hand as he held her chair out for her to sit and said, "You will always be worth waiting for, Sweetheart. I spent the time online looking for a birthday present for a friend."
After holding her chair out to allow her to sit, Blake took the seat across from Sarah and asked, "Anyone I know?"
Sarah waited until after they had placed their drink orders before saying, "Not yet, but I hope you get a chance to meet him soon. His name is Norm, and while working together over the last month or so, we have become closer friends than I ever would have imagined. He's a fun guy, and I think you'll like him."
"How come I've never heard you mention him before?"
"You know, I don't know," Sarah said. "I mean, I haven't talked with you much about work lately, and I realize now that I probably didn't do so because I didn't want to get your hopes up. I guess the reality is, it was more that I didn't want to get my hopes up. Since Norm and I have only been working together during that same time, that's probably why I never mentioned him."
"What have you been working on that made you so hopeful?"
Sarah smiled and said, "Let's order first and then I'll explain."
As the server was taking their orders, Blake noticed a man at another table placing a credit card into the folder with the food receipt, which reminded him of one of the questions that he wanted to test Sarah's honesty with. As soon as the server departed, he asked, "When was the last time that you checked your FICO score?"
"It's been a couple of months. Why?"
"Because I noticed a drop in my credit score this week, and since most of our credit accounts are joint, I was curious to see if you noticed the same thing. The details on the drop I noticed said that the ratio of used credit to credit limit had increased, but all of our joint cards have a zero balance on them. My business card is paid off monthly as well, so I don't know what the higher ratio could be attributed to."
Sarah considered Blake's statement for only a few seconds before responding, "Do you think it could be the new company credit card that I was assigned? I've only used it for less than a month, but it does have a balance on it right now. I was going to pay it off when my expense report gets processed later this week."
"I didn't know that you had a company credit card," Blake said. "You don't travel that much for business. Why would they assign a corporate credit card to you?"
"I guess they felt that me using my personal credit card to pay for business meals for customers or my team wasn't in line with corporate policies, so they wanted me to start using the company credit card. It turned out to be fortuitous since I have been able to use it to pay for the hotel rooms that Norm and I have needed over the past few weeks."
Blake was speechless. Sarah's blatant admission of paying for hotel rooms for her and her lover was like a punch to the gut. He had wanted her to tell him the truth, but now that she was, he didn't know how much more he wanted to hear.
Sarah witnessed the sudden transformation in her husband's demeanor. It only took her an instant to recognize the cause. She grabbed both of his hands on the table and failed in her attempts not to laugh. She said, "Blake, sweetheart, it's not what it sounds like..."
Blake was dealing with equal parts of impending heartbreak, and the rising anger over Sarah's cavalier attitude about it. Sarah made further attempts to quell the disaster that she saw brewing in the man across from her.
"Sweetheart, Norm and I are finalizing the disaster recovery plan for Purdue Systems by verifying suitable connectivity and working conditions in the hotels that are part of our company's approved list. We had to simulate scenarios where an employee's only system access was through the corporate VPN, utilizing an unsecured Wi-Fi network. I would get us a hotel room and log into the system as a typical employee. Norm would monitor the security and reliability of the connections for the duration. The best part of this project, and that which I really didn't want to get my hopes up about, is that validating the disaster recovery protocols also proved that employees working remotely from their homes would also be a viable alternative to having them come into the office on a daily basis. If I am allowed to work remotely from home, we can start planning on having children sooner than we anticipated and I'll be able to return to work much sooner."
Blake sat silently contemplating what his wife had just explained. So far, based upon the report from Summit Investigations, he hadn't caught her in a single lie. Was that enough? What about bringing Norm Washington to their home? How could he ask about that without revealing what he knew already? He had an idea.
"How does proving that employees being able to work from a hotel room translates into them being able to work remotely from their homes?"
Sarah smiled and said, "In my opinion, that was Norm's biggest contribution. He thought that if we developed a list of minimum connectivity parameters for employee homes that could be easily verified by the company, that they would be able to see the benefit without the risks. Norm spent a day at our condo reviewing our own bandwidth under various conditions, such as me accessing the global knowledgebase while he streamed a video onto the television in the living room and onto his cell phone at the same time. Proving that our cable service maintained adequate bandwidth was part of our presentation to upper management. Norm compiled a table for all the local Internet Service Providers' basic speeds and documented that all except the satellite providers met our company's requirements."
Recognizing the lingering doubt on Blake's face, Sarah had one more card to play. She pulled out her cell phone and quickly found what she was looking for. She handed the phone to Blake, and said, "This is Norm Washington's Facebook page."
Blake found himself staring at the profile picture for Norm Washington. He was a reasonably good-looking man with a warm and friendly smile. In the picture, he was having his left cheek kissed by another man, who wore more makeup than RuPaul on his best day as a drag queen.
Sarah gave her husband a moment to process the image on her phone before saying, "Blake, Norm isn't flaming or obvious about it, but trust me, he's a queer as a three-dollar bill, and proud of it. The guy in the picture with him is his life partner Devon. I haven't met him, but Norm thinks that he hung the moon."
Blake ignored the comment about Norm and his lover and asked, "So, the reason that you have been unreachable at work for the past few weeks is that you were hanging out in hotel rooms with a man that was not your husband."
"God, Blake, you make it sound so sordid and disgusting. Does it really bother you that much, because I'm starting to become concerned about the level of trust and confidence that you have in me."
Blake met her stare and said, "Let me ask you this. How many people at Purdue Systems know that you and I are married?"
Maintaining eye contact, Sarah said, "Probably hundreds. Why?"
Blake nodded and said, "There are probably about the same number where I work who know that we are married. Now, how many of the hundreds of people at Purdue Systems know that Norm Washington is gay?"
Their meals arrived, so Sarah waited until they were served before answering, "Norm confided to me that I am the only person that he has told. Again, why?"
Blake continued to ignore her question, asking instead, "Then tell me, how many of the hundreds of your coworkers who knew that we are married, but don't know that Norm is gay were aware of your project?"
Sarah let her eye contact with her husband slip as she instead stared at her hands. "Probably a couple of dozen," she admitted. "But Blake, nothing ever happened between Norm and me."
"Define 'nothing'," he said.
Sarah's eyes returned to his as she asked, "What do you mean?"
"Just what I said. Define what 'nothing' means in the context of your relationship with this Norm Washington."
"Nothing means nothing," Sarah insisted.
Blake wouldn't let her off the hook. He said, "You're telling me that the two of you have had absolutely zero physical contact. Is that what you're telling me that 'nothing' means to you?"
Sarah sighed and said, "You know me better than that. I'm an affectionate person who sees nothing wrong with a friendly embrace, a kiss on the cheek, or similar as long as the actions are consensual."
"So, how affectionate have you been with Norm Washington, especially in the presence of other coworkers?"
"I don't know. I suppose that we have hugged each other in front of others a time or two. It doesn't mean that we're lovers or something."
Blake was shaking his head. "You can only claim that it doesn't mean those things to you. You can't assume to know what witnessing your affections for each other in the workplace, coupled with knowledge of you two going to hotel rooms together means to somebody else. Forget for a moment how your coworkers might now view me as your wimpy cuckold husband and consider the potential damage that you might have done to your reputation at Purdue Systems."
Rising from his chair, Blake said, "Please have my meal packaged to go and bring it home with you. I'm going to walk home."
Without waiting for a response, he walked determinately out of the restaurant and toward the mall exit. The three-quarter-mile walk home would not give him a lot of time to think things over, but hopefully, it would provide Sarah with the time she needed to consider what he had said.
Blake could not point to a single instance where he could say without a doubt that Sarah had lied. Other than the unverified comments that she had made regarding Norm Washington's sexual orientation, everything she had admitted corresponded to the information that he had obtained from Summit Investigations. If his profile image on Facebook could be believed, then even that claim by Sarah could be verified.
The easiest thing that Blake had ever done was to love Sarah.
He now found that doubting her was the hardest thing he had ever done. Sure, he was disappointed in her, but even that now manifested itself into how her actions might have impacted her reputation among her coworkers more than how it might influence their opinion about him as her husband.
~~~
As Sarah sat at their kitchen table worrying about where Blake was, her concerns were 180 degrees different from his. She wasn't aware of the information that Blake had obtained on her activities, but she was suddenly very aware of how she might have unwittingly hurt him, or at least his ego by the things that she had done.
She had every confidence that her relationship and activities with Norm Washington could be explained throughout Purdue System, especially when the report that they submitted, and the subsequent policy changes started to become known by more than just upper management. This would naturally convey the same level of understanding onto the status of her marriage, and eliminate any misconceptions concerning Blake being a cuckold.
The problem was, how could she make Blake realize that everyone's respect for him hadn't been impacted, at least not permanently. She was certain that, if asked, Norm would step out of the closet at work to quickly dispel any rumors concerning his and Sarah's relationship. She would prefer not to have to ask Norm, but if that's what it took to soothe Blake's concerns, she wouldn't hesitate to make it happen.
Just minutes before 10 pm, Sarah heard a tone on her cell phone indicating that motion had been detected by their video doorbell. Before she could pull up the app on her phone, she heard the front door open. Knowing that the door had been locked, and the only other person with a key was Blake, she rose and started towards the foyer to meet him.
His neutral expression told her nothing about his mood. The cup from McDonald's in his hand might explain where he had been for at least part of the three hours since he had walked out of Maggiano's.
"Did you eat?" Sarah asked.
"No, I don't have much of an appetite for some reason. I've just been nursing an ice tea for a while."
Sarah flinched at his words, but recovered and took his hand. When Blake didn't resist, she pulled him towards the sofa in their living room. She told him, "Your bags are on the bed. I wasn't sure if I should unpack them for you or not."
He didn't respond but allowed himself to be led into the living room by his wife. Taking a seat on the sofa, Sarah pulled on his hand, urging him to sit beside her. She asked, "Blake, are we going to be okay?"
"What about the showers?" Blake asked.
Sarah just stared at him with a look of confusion on her face. She didn't understand the meaning of his question.
Helping her out, he said, "There were a couple of times when you came home late from work and I could tell that you had recently taken a shower. Why would you need to take a shower before coming home?"
It took several seconds before Sarah was able to recall the events that Blake had referred to. She said, "Yoga."
Shaking his head, Blake said, "Then where was your yoga mat? I'll tell you where. It was, and is, still on the floor of the guest room upstairs. The same place that you always keep it when you do your yoga exercises."
"You're right," Sarah admitted. "I never brought it with me to the hotel rooms."
She now understood the motivation behind Blake's question, which told her that she needed to provide a complete and truthful explanation to him.
"We needed," she began, "actually, I needed to prove more than simply the ability for an employee to access the corporate systems from remote locations. I needed to demonstrate that corporate policies related to work hours, productivity, and employee timekeeping could be monitored and enforced. Norm helped with confirming that the existing workforce management application would work as effectively for employees accessing the system remotely as it does for when they are logged on from their desks. I knew that management would still be concerned about the potential for employees to do work-related activities while off the clock so I had to demonstrate to them that this could be managed and controlled. Even though I am a salaried employee, I took the opportunity a couple of times a week to stay later at the hotel room and leave my system access connected while I laid a couple of the hotel's towels onto the carpeted floor and did my yoga exercises. The system logs would show that even though I would receive multiple e-mails and messages during this time if I had tried to respond to them, a pop-up window would have been displayed on my screen warning of a policy violation and logging me out of the system automatically. I demonstrated the effectiveness of the control process, which really helped to tip the decision to allow remote work in the direction that we were hoping. Even though I had been using towels under me during the exercises, I still felt dirty from having been on the hotel floors, and always showered before leaving the room and checking out."
Blake sat silently next to her for more than a minute as he contemplated her explanation. Again, he hadn't caught her in a single lie yet, and the details of her explanation would be something that he could obtain proof of by asking her to see the report that she had presented on the project. That wouldn't be necessary, he decided.
"I want you to get tested for STDs," Blake calmly told her.
"Go to hell," Sarah replied. "I'll get one when you get one."
Blake's broad smile confused Sarah. He savored the expression on her face for a few seconds before continuing, "Sarah, it is your response to that single request that convinces me more than anything else that everything you have explained to me about your activities with Norm Washington were as innocent as you described them. Had you capitulated and acquiesced to my request, I would have known that you doubted your convictions about the nature of the time you spent with him. Agreeing to be tested, even if you had never cheated on me, would have told me that you had lost confidence in us, and me."
Crawling onto his lap so that her face was only inches from his, Sarah said, "Sweetheart, I have spent the last three hours trying to put myself in your shoes. I know that if you did something to give other people even the slightest suspicion that you were having an affair, I would be pissed. I would trust you and believe that there was an innocent explanation, but I would still be angry with you for putting both of us in a position of having to defend the sanctity of our marriage to others. I realize now that this is exactly what I have done, and I am so very sorry."
Leaning forward to place her face against Blake's chest, Sarah was ecstatic when she felt his arm folding around her, pulling their bodies closer together. Blake took her sigh of contentment as a sign that it was his turn to speak.
"Can I tell you how I have spent the last three hours?"
Sarah simply nodded her head against his chest.
Blake continued, "I spent the first hour or so recalling everything that you explained about the project that you and Norm Washington were assigned. I understand how your enthusiasm over not just the assigned project but also proving the viability for employees to work from home might have blinded you to the way that others could potentially view your actions. I also have to believe that your confidence in my trust and love for you would have contributed to your lack of concern."
Without moving her head from his chest, Sarah said, "Blake, I would never take your love for me for granted. God, I treasure and cherish your love as the most important thing in my life."
"Sarah, I didn't say that you took my love for granted. It's more like you felt so secure in my love that you believed everyone else would view it the same way. That's not a bad thing, it just may not be realistic. Look, since you haven't mentioned any comments by your coworkers about your activities with Norm, maybe none of them got the wrong idea. I just want you to know that I will support you and stand with you to prove anyone's misconceptions about our marriage wrong."
"Thank you. I hope it doesn't become necessary, but I love what you are offering. So, how did you spend the rest of your time between when you left Maggiano's and when you got home?"
"Talking to Ryan Donovan," Blake replied with a smile.
Ryan Donovan was one of the senior partners in the consulting firm that Blake worked for. He had been the one to not only hire Blake right after he graduated from Vanderbilt University, but he had also been his mentor and biggest advocate for all of Blake's professional career. Ryan had made no secret of his desire for Blake to become a partner in the firm by the time he was thirty. That was two years away.
"And?" Sarah asked.
"We discussed a lot of things," Blake explained. "The long and short of it is that he agrees with me that the time is right."
Sarah finally raised her head off of Blake's chest and looked him directly in the eyes. "Right for what?" she asked.
"For two things. First, the time is right for me to be offered a partnership in the firm. He was going to spring it on me Monday, but I sort of drug it out of him sooner than he had planned."
Sarah's elation was obvious as she kissed Blake's face all over and said, "That's wonderful! What's the other thing?"
"I convinced Ryan that we should eat what we cook."
The look of elation quickly morphed into one of confusion. Blake grinned at her and said, "We promote our services as being the best in the consulting industry at identifying and then helping organizations to improve their operations. I convinced Ryan that we should lead by example and work at improving the processes that we employ ourselves. He agreed that having me travel to client sites for the analysis of their operations and then to go back for the presentation of our recommendations was a waste of my skills and experience. We're going to be hiring some new blood out of a few MBA programs and train them to do the leg work. I will be able to remain here, reviewing their analysis and working with them to develop our strategies for presentation to the clients. My need to travel out of town will be reduced by more than seventy-five percent."
Sliding Sarah off of his lap so that he could stand, Blake then took her hands and helped her to stand in front of him. Leaning down to place a chaste kiss on her lips, he said, "You see, I agree with you. I also think that we should move our plans to have children up."
Sarah squealed as she wrapped her arms around his neck and jumped up so that she could do the same with her legs around his waist. "Sweetheart, you truly are a 'keeper'. Now, I think that it's time for me to report for impregnation duty!"
~~~
Mr. and Mrs. Lee approached the viewing window at the hospital nursery and stood beside the middle-aged African American couple smiling down on the baby boy through the glass. They could tell it was a boy by the blue blanket, but if that wasn't enough, the sign at the foot of the bassinet read "Baby Boy Washington".
"He's a cutie," Mrs. Lee said to the couple. "Your grandson?"
"He is," replied the female member of the couple, apparently Mrs. Washington. "We feel so blessed. Do you have someone in here to visit with?"
Pointing to two bassinets so close together that they were practically touching on the sides, Mrs. Lee said, "Our daughter just had twins. One boy and one girl."
"Congratulations," both Mr. and Mrs. Washington said in unison. "They are beautiful babies."
Mrs. Lee said, "Thanks, and congratulations to you both as well. Was the mother white?"
Mrs. Washington turned and stared at the Lees, attempting to gauge the motivation behind the question. Based on the fact that this couple was claiming the two twins, who were also biracial as their grandchildren, she accepted the question as simple curiosity.
"Yes, our middle son is engaged to the baby's mother, a nice young girl that works at the same company as him. They plan to get married in June after the divorce from her first husband is final."
Mr. Washington checked his watch and said, "Well, they should be done in her room by now, so we ought to go visit with the mother before we leave. Again, congratulations."
"Our daughter is white," Mrs. Lee offered unsolicited before the other couple turned and walked up the hallway towards the patient rooms.
The Lees stood watching their twin grandchildren sleeping, trying to convince each other about which features on each child could be attributed to their daughter. The blue, almost silvery eye color was an easy determination, but there were also the tell-tale signs of the kinky, curly hair inherent in the race of the father.
The nurses working inside the nursery glanced up at the visitors occasionally but otherwise ignored them as they went about their task of caring for the eleven infants currently in the nursery.
As she checked the vital signs on Baby Boy Washington, the nurse commented to her partner, "Do you think that anyone even takes notice of biracial babies anymore?"
Her partner replied, "I'm sure that some people still take offense with people of different races having children together, but I think that it is becoming less common, especially around a city such as Atlanta where interracial relationships are so frequent."
"True," her partner agreed. "Then there is the public acceptance of people such as Vanessa Williams, Halle Berry, and Derek Jeter. All of them, plus other prominent biracial people have to have influenced society's acceptance significantly. I mean, look at our situation right here. Out of eleven babies born in the last two days, five of them are biracial."
Looking around the nursery, her partner nodded her head and said, "Well, if these twins grow up to be as cute as they are right now, they'll have the world on a string. Have you seen their mother?"
"I have, and she is beautiful, without question. Have you seen their father?"
"No, I haven't," she said, and then nodded toward the viewing window, "but maybe that's him?"
Her partner looked up and saw a tall, strikingly handsome black man standing beside the middle-aged couple at the window, smiling down at the twins with obvious adoration and love in his eyes.
Mrs. Lee sensed the presence of the newcomer and looked up at him in surprise. "I thought that you were going to wait until this evening to visit with Sarah so that her father and I could visit with her together."
The hospital only allowed two visitors at a time into the patient's room, and her parents had hoped to spend their time with their daughter together.
The man smiled down at Mrs. Lee and said, "You're good to go. I just wanted to check on the rug rats here before heading down to administration to complete the birth certificates."
"Did you and Sarah finally decide on names?" asked Mr. Lee.
"Something other than 'Kid1' and 'Kid 2", teased Mrs. Lee.
"Or 'Pete' and 'Repeat'," chuckled Mr. Lee.
The man chuckled along with Sarah's parents and said, "Sarah and I have decided on 'Samuel' and 'Samantha'."
Mrs. Lee gasped and said, "They'll both be 'Sams', or 'Sammys'. Won't that get confusing?"
The man winked and said, "We could spell their names differently if that would help you tell the two apart."
"Just don't nickname one of them 'Sambo'," teased Mr. Lee.
His wife punched him in the arm before asking, "What about their middle names? That could be a way to differentiate them?"
Blake shook his head and grinned even bigger. "I don't think that will work. They both will have the same middle name, 'Lee'. Samuel Lee and Samantha Lee Chevalier."
Mr. Lee embraced his son-in-law and said, "My boy, I told Sarah the first time that she brought you to meet us that you were a 'keeper'."