Different Circles

The hatred now turning to determination, Daryl saved the jpeg to his hard drive. He then opened up his Photoshop program and went to work. It did not take him long to remove the name Ron, the logo for FBO Services, and the patches of hair on the back of Ron’s hand from the shot. It took only a little longer to change the color of Ron’s sweater to a feminine pink. He then saved the doctored photo separately from the original and opened up his web browser. He brought up his Hotmail account, where he kept an email address separate from his main email account. He generally only used the Hotmail account for subscriptions to porn services and to prevent spam on his main account. Now, however, it would serve a new purpose. He painstakingly copied all of the contacts from his primary account onto the Hotmail account and then composed a new email that was addressed to all but that came from noneofyour_bizness@hotmail.com instead of DungeonMasterSupreme@BDI.net. He attached his doctored photo to the email and then began to compose his own description of the photo into the body of the email. But then he decided he needed a few more details to make what he was alleging seem more realistic.

He returned to the web browser and began to research Jake Kingsley and his whereabouts of late. He was able to pull up quite a bit of information in this regard as the Kingsleys had just been on a public relations jaunt for a ski resort in Idaho.

A story formed in his mind and he began to put it down in the email he was composing. Being a dungeon master, he was actually pretty good at writing prose and developing plots. He was smiling as he worked.

Celia arrived at Pauline’s house just past noon on Tuesday morning, December 10. The rain had finally gone away and it was bright and sunny outside, with the temperature just edging into the sixties. The sky was bright and blue (for LA anyway) thanks to the pollution-clearing bath it had just received from the winter storm that had blown through. Jake’s pickup truck was already there, parked at the curb next to the driveway. The Honda belonging to the Nerdlys was there as well. She parked her Mercedes behind Jake’s truck and walked up to the door.

She was pleasantly surprised when Laura opened the door to her knock. Teach did not usually attend the monthly KVA business meetings, declaring that they were boring (which they often were, Celia had to admit). She hugged her friend and one-time lesbian dallier warmly. They had not seen each other in several weeks now.

“What are you doing here?” Celia asked. “Did you decide our business meetings are interesting after all?”

“Not in the least,” Laura said. “I have a doctor’s appointment at two today. Jake said he would drive me there after the meeting.”

“A doctor’s appointment?” Celia asked. “Is everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine,” Laura assured her, a strange little smile on her face. “Just a routine checkup.”

“Oh ... well that’s good to hear,” Celia said, sensing that Laura was not being entirely truthful with her—Teach was a terrible liar—but not that she was trying to conceal bad news. Interesting.

“How are things going with you?” Laura asked, changing the subject. “All ready for the big move?”

“Pretty much,” Celia said. “Everything that I don’t need on a day-to-day basis is packed up and waiting for the movers. I can’t wait to spend my first night there. To listen to the ocean like I do when I stay at your place or in the Oregon house.”

“That is one of my favorite parts about living where we do,” Laura agreed. “And I’m looking forward to seeing how you decorate the place.”

“Me too,” Celia said with a laugh. She would not be doing the interior design herself as she really had no knack for that sort of thing. She would just be approving the plans the design firm she hired for the job came up with.

“And how’s the love life?” Laura asked her next. “The last you told me, you were thinking about giving that limo driver a ride of his own.”

Celia actually blushed a little. “Madres de Dios, Teach,” she said. “I wasn’t serious about that. I was just fantasizing out loud after a few too many glasses of wine.”

“You seemed serious to me,” she said with a giggle. “And I’ve seen him. He’s driven Jake and I around a few times. He’s attractive. And he’s single too.”

“Yeah,” Celia said, “which means he’s probably gay. In any case, the problem remains the same. I don’t have a connection with him that way. It’s a nice fantasy, but I’d never actually do it.”

“That’s too bad,” Laura said consolingly. “I bet he has an impressive gearshift.”

“Laura Kingsley!” Celia said. “I cannot believe you just said that!”

“Sorry,” Laura said with another giggle. “I’ve been spending a lot of time with Jake lately.”