CHATROOM LOVE
Chapter Thirteen

"Are you sure you want to go to the country club this afternoon?" Rose asked Jack, waving to Dawn as they dropped her off at home.

"Yeah, I’m sure." Jack turned the car around, heading back into the city.

Rose looked at him, her brow furrowed. He still looked tense and upset.

Jack noticed her look and tried to smile. "It’s better than sitting around and thinking about it. You were right about that."

"Sure." Rose leaned forward in her seat to watch where they were going. Jack didn’t know where the country club was, and was likely to get lost anyway.

"Any news about Trudy?" she asked after a few minutes.

Jack shook his head. "No. I called home—Aunt Margaret stays at home with the kids during the day—but she hadn’t heard anything. All we can do is hope."

"Yeah, I guess so." They’d heard more about it on television that day, but a lot of the news was bad. To be sure, many people had escaped, but by this time the towers had crumbled to the ground, leaving little hope for survival for the people still inside.

They sat in silence the rest of the way, listening to the radio, Rose occasionally giving Jack directions.

When they arrived at the country club about fifteen minutes later, the man at the gate let them through with some reluctance. He knew Rose, but Jack definitely wasn’t a member of the country club, and even the appearance of his car spoke of someone who could never be a part of the elite society he saw each day.

They had no trouble finding a place to park, even without valet parking at this time of day. It would be crowded in the evening, though not as crowded as on a Friday or Saturday night, but in the mid-afternoon few people were around.

"Most people are at work, or at home, at this time of day," Rose explained. "And it’s a Tuesday. There’s a lot more people here on the weekend, but this just makes it easier to show you around."

"Are you sure this is okay? That guard looked real suspicious."

"Lucas? He always looks suspicious. He doesn’t like kids much, even the ones who come here all the time, and you’re a stranger. Actually, I think he’s probably kind of jealous that you got an invitation to the country club, while all he gets to do here is work. It must be boring, watching the gate there."

"Probably. I saw a copy of Sports Illustrated on his counter when we went through."

Rose laughed. "Poor Lucas. He doesn’t have much of a life."

"Hey, us poor folks know how to have fun, too."

"I know, but Lucas…is in his own realm."

They stepped inside, Rose nodding to the doorman, who, although he raised an eyebrow at Jack, was far more friendly than Lucas.

"What would you like to see first?" she asked Jack, looking around the main lobby. There were a lot of different things they could do.

"I don’t know. What do you do here?"

"All sorts of things. There are no special events right now, but there are tennis courts, an indoor swimming pool, even golf." She looked at Jack, hoping he wouldn’t say that he wanted to see the golf course. She knew that many people enjoyed the game, but she had always found it stupefyingly dull, and she couldn’t help but remember that Cal had been particularly fond of it.

"Why don’t you just show me around? I’m not really prepared to play any sports right now, and I’m not really good at things like tennis anyway."

"What about golf?" Rose held her breath.

Jack hesitated, trying to think of a way to avoid golf without offending her. "Um…well, I played miniature golf a few times back in California, but I can’t say I enjoyed it much. I’d rather do things like swimming, or basketball."

Rose laughed, a little relieved. "Well, there’s no basketball court here, but there is a swimming pool. If I’d thought of it, I would have asked you to bring your swim trunks."

He shrugged. "I don’t mind. It’s getting a little too cold to swim, anyway."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Not indoors. It’s heated year round."

"Oh…right." He shook his head, feeling stupid.

Rose smiled. "Don’t worry about it. One time, the heater broke in April, and people still insisted on swimming in it. I swear, some of them looked like they were going to freeze to death. They finally had to close it down until the heater was fixed." She paused, looking at a clock on the wall. "Anyway…would you like the grand tour?"

"Sure. Why not?"

Rose showed him all around the country club, even the despised golf course, which was still green in the September sunlight. It wasn’t so bad, Rose admitted, without a lot of people around, but the place still brought back unpleasant memories, and she preferred to avoid it. Besides, Cal sometimes left work early to play golf, and she didn’t want to chance running across him.

Jack enjoyed the tour as much as could with so much weighing on his mind, but by the time they sat down in the country club restaurant for sinner, he was getting tired. Still, he was never one to turn down food, even if he did feel uncomfortable letting Rose pay for such an expensive meal for him. Rose insisted that it wasn’t a problem, but he still didn’t quite like the idea of accepting something so expensive.

They talked quietly as they ate, trying to avoid the subject of Trudy and her possible fate. Jack was still worried, but was trying not to think about it. There was nothing he could do for her, whatever had happened—but the thought kept nagging at him. What if she was badly hurt, or dead? They had just lost their parents that summer; he didn’t know how he could handle losing his sister, too. If only Trudy had come to Canada with him—but she was an adult, twenty-one years old, and she had received a good job offer in New York. No one had anticipated the horrible events of this day.

Jack was drawn from his thoughts when Rose gasped suddenly, looking across the restaurant. She ducked her head, trying to remain inconspicuous, but the person who had startled her had already noticed her.

"Rose? Is something wrong?" Jack asked. He saw a man with dark hair watching them, brow furrowed in annoyance and confusion, but couldn’t imagine what had frightened Rose so much.

"He…that man over there…his name is Caledon Hockley."

"And?" Jack had never heard of Caledon Hockley.

"And he’s my ex-boyfriend. He has a restraining order, because…well, never mind why. Suffice it to say that I don’t want anything to do with him, and now we’re in the same restaurant."

"Is that illegal?"

"I don’t think so—as long as he stays away from me, but I don’t want to be anywhere near him. I wonder if he knew I was here."

"Probably not," Jack reassured her. "It’s not like you had reservations."

"Still—let’s finish eating and get out of here. I don’t trust him." She signalled the waiter for the check.

As they finished their dinners, Rose watched with dismay as Cal and a business acquaintance were escorted to the table next to theirs. She tried to catch the waiter’s eye, to let him know that Cal needed to be kept away from her, but he walked away before she could say anything.

Cal had been watching Rose, trying not to be too obvious about it, from the moment he had stepped into the restaurant. He knew that he had to stay away from her, but there was no law that said he couldn’t look at her. She and the young man she was with had obviously come straight from school—and just as obviously, the young man was not a member of the country club. He noticed that Rose had taken the bill, meaning that he was her guest.

A surge of jealousy shot through him. Rose was supposed to be his. They had dated the year before, after meeting at the country club in the summer of 2000. But Rose hadn’t quite understood what he required in a relationship with her, and had persisted in talking to other guys even after he had told her to stop. She had insisted that those guys were just her friends, and nothing else, but he hadn’t seen any reason to believe her. How could she be just friends with them? He knew there had been something else going on, no matter how she had denied it.

Still, he had wanted to be with her badly enough that he had put up with her. Rose had been infuriated when he had slapped her for lying to him, and he had been forced to bring her flowers and candy to get back on her good side. He had promised that it wouldn’t happen again, of course, but Rose had never kept her end of the bargain. And if there was one thing he could not abide, it was an unfaithful girlfriend.

The situation had come to a head the night he had gone to her house for the evening, when her mother was out at a meeting. Ruth had come home early to find them on the couch, Rose’s clothes half-removed. She had immediately struggled out of his arms, running to her mother and accusing him trying to rape her. Nothing could have been further from the truth. To be sure, she had told him no, but if she had really meant it, he would never have gotten as far with her as he did. A girl didn’t invite a man to her home when she was alone unless she wanted to go all the way, and all of her protests and struggling didn’t change that.

Rose ducked her head when she saw him looking at her, trying to avoid his gaze. Finally, he gave up, turning to his menu and his business discussion. The waiter brought the businessmen their martinis, and the discussion briefly went from business to world events.

Jack tried to ignore them, seeing how nervous Rose was, but the words New York and World Trade Centre caught his attention. He glanced over at them, vaguely recognizing the second man as his cousin John’s boss, Victor Richards.

Cal laughed at something Victor had said, then remarked, "The Americans, of course, are crying of being attacked, looking for someone to blame and expecting the whole world to jump in and help them, including Canada. But why should we care? It’s not us, and we don’t need to be involved in their little disputes. They brought it on themselves, bullying the rest of the world the way they do, and if we get involved, we might be next on the receiving end of one of these attacks. Maybe now America will learn that it doesn’t run the world."

Jack bristled, listening to Cal go on. No one deserved to die the way that so many people had that day. He wasn’t sure why his home country had been targeted, although he knew that there were some legitimate complaints against America, but this was not the way to solve them. Legislation, fund-raising, activism, yes. Killing innocent people, no. Not only was it wrong, but it didn’t solve anything. All that it had accomplished was to raise the ire of people throughout the world, Caledon Hockley notwithstanding.

"So you support terrorism, do you?" He directed the question at Cal, his voice loud enough to heard around the room. Conversations stopped as people turned to stare.

"What?" Cal stared at him, unable to believe someone had interrupted him this way.

"I asked if you supported terrorism."

Cal sputtered angrily. "I most certainly do not. I was merely remarking upon the events that took place in America today."

"Saying that we brought it on ourselves?" He looked at Cal. "Yes, I’m an American. I’ll admit that America isn’t perfect, and has done some things that should never have happened. But you can say that of pretty much any country in the world, including this one. And if you really want to look for a bully, try finding out who’s responsible for what happened today. That’s where you’ll find the real bully."

"You obviously have no idea what you’re talking about. I’ve been to America on business, and overseas, and I can tell you that the ugly American is alive and well. That is why America was attacked today."

"A few people fit that stereotype," Rose spoke up, unable to keep silent. "I’ve been overseas on vacation, too, and most of the Americans there were ordinary people, no better and no worse than anyone else. And a lot of Americans have tried to do good for the world, even if it didn’t always work as planned." She glowered at Cal. "I can see you haven’t changed any. You personify the ugly Canadian."

"There’s no such thing."

"Then how do you explain your existence?" Rose smiled sweetly at him, not caring that they were breaking the restraining order at the moment.

At that moment, a security guard walked up to Jack, after being alerted to the shouting match taking place in the restaurant. Immediately recognizing that Jack was not a member, he took him by the arm and escorted him away from Cal.

"Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to leave."

Rose had followed. "But Cal started it," she protested.

"Mr. Hockley was having a quiet discussion with a business acquaintance when—what is your name, sir?"

"Jack. Jack Dawson."

"Jack Dawson rudely interrupted him."

"He was being his usual obnoxious self."

"Mr. Dawson?"

"No, Mr. Hockley. You know him—and me. You know that there’s a conflict between us."

He sighed. "That doesn’t matter. I have been asked to remove Mr. Dawson from the premises, and he is not welcome to come back."

"Well, I’m going, too. Am I allowed to come back?"

"Of course. You’re a member."

"Fine." Rose tucked her membership card into her purse. "Let’s go, Jack."

They walked out to the parking lot in silence. When they reached the car, Jack turned to Rose.

"I’m sorry."

"Don’t be. Cal had it coming."

"I embarrassed you in front of everyone, though."

"A lot of those people have known me since I was very young. They’ll get over it. I’m sorry you had to meet Cal. He wasn’t supposed to be that close to me."

Jack sighed, putting his head on the steering wheel for a moment. He was so tired, and the day had just been one disaster after another.

They both jumped when Rose’s cell phone rang. She pulled it out of her purse quickly, hitting the talk button.

"Hello?"

"Hello. This is Margaret Dawson. Is Jack there?"

Rose could here small children yelling in the background. "Well…yes, he is."

"Could I speak with him, please?"

"Uh…sure." She handed the phone to Jack, wondering why his cousin was calling him at her cell phone number, and wondering how she had gotten the number in the first place. Rose certainly hadn’t given it to her. "It’s your Aunt Margaret."

Jack took the cell phone, puzzled. How had she gotten Rose’s cell phone number?

"Hello?"

"Hello, Jack. I wasn’t sure when you’d be home, so I called. We have news about Trudy."

Jack’s heart skipped a beat, then started pounding. What was it? What had happened?

"What…what is it?"

"She’s alive. Somehow she made it out of the building—we’re not sure how."

"She didn’t tell you?"

"It’s almost impossible to call New York right now."

"So how did you find out she’s alive?"

"We saw her on the news, being interviewed. We turned it on toward the end of the interview, so we don’t know quite what happened. But we do know that she’s alive, and she looks to be well enough."

"Oh, thank God. I so worried…"

"I know. That’s why I called."

"How did you get this number, anyway?"

"You wrote it down and left it on the bulletin board by the phone. Since none of your other friends had see you, and Dawn mentioned that you had gone to the country club with Rose, I decided to try her cell phone."

"Thank you. I feel a hell of a lot better now, knowing that Trudy is safe."

"You’re welcome. I’d best go. Sandy just threw rice at Johnny."

"Okay. I’ll be home soon, Aunt Margaret."

He turned the phone off and returned it, noticing that Rose had been listening avidly the whole time.

"So Trudy is okay?" she asked, hoping that she had heard right, for Jack’s sake.

"Yes, she’s fine. My cousins saw her on the news, being interviewed. They don’t know how she escaped, but she did. We can find out more when the phone system unclogs. Right now, I’m just glad she’s safe."

For the second time that day, Rose hugged him. "I’m so glad. Even though I’ve never met her, she sounds like she means a lot to you."

Jack hugged her back, overwhelmed with relief. "Thanks, Rose."

They stayed that way for a moment, and then pulled apart, Jack turning on the car and pulling out of the parking space. Rose gave him an encouraging smile.

"Sometimes, things work out in spite of everything."

Jack nodded, agreeing, as they headed for home.

Chapter Fourteen
Stories