CHATROOM LOVE
Chapter Fourteen
Rose lay back on her bed, staring up at the
ceiling and contemplating everything that had happened over the past two weeks.
It was amazing.
Two weeks ago, she had never heard of Jack,
and was quite content avoiding any kind of serious relationship with a guy.
Now, she wasn’t so sure. She felt herself being drawn to Jack, growing closer
and closer to him in spite of her worries.
And she had met him in a chatroom, no less.
Rose had always disliked chatrooms, never trusting anyone who might be in one,
but Jack was different. Right from the start, she had found herself beginning
to trust him, and he had given her no indication that her trust was misplaced.
He was so much fun to be with, even when he
was brooding over something. She had enjoyed showing him around the country
club, in spite of the incident with Cal. She had even gotten him to smile when
she had mentioned the secretive meeting between her mother and Spicer Lovejoy.
Rose sat up, thinking about that. What could
possibly be going on between those two? She loved her mother, but she had
always found Lovejoy to be a dour, unsmiling man, who had little patience with
clumsy players. He and Rose had never really gotten along, in spite of her
skill in playing tennis, but he had always been friendly enough to Ruth.
Rose’s eyes widened as a though occurred to
her. What if her mother and Lovejoy had gone beyond just being friends? That
could explain the secretive meeting. People probably wouldn’t approve of a
wealthy country club member dating an employee, and Ruth knew that Rose wasn’t
fond of Lovejoy.
Rose slid off the bed, reaching for her cell
phone. She couldn’t wait to tell her new theory to Dawn. Punching in her
number, she waited.
"Hello?" Dawn’s mother answered the
phone.
"Hi. Can I talk to Dawn, please? It’s
Rose."
"Sure, Rose. Let me go get her."
A moment later, Dawn picked up the phone.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Dawn. It’s Rose."
"Hey, Rose. What’s up?"
"I just got this idea about why Mom and
Lovejoy might be meeting in secret."
"What is it?"
"Well, you know how they’ve always been
friendly with each other?"
"Uh-huh."
"Well, what if they’ve gotten beyond
friendship? What if they’re dating? You know our crowd would be
scandalized."
"Wow. I wonder if it’s true. Wouldn’t it
be weird to have your mom dating Lovejoy? And you don’t like him much,
either."
"No, but if he makes Mom happy…"
"Well, we don’t know what’s going on
yet. Have you thought about asking your mom what’s going on?"
"No, of course not. Then she’d know we
were spying on her."
"We just happened to glimpse her."
"And kept on looking. I say we keep our
eyes and ears open, to see what’s happening. Then, if it seems to be getting
into the open—if anything is happening at all—then we can ask questions. But we
have to be subtle about it. Otherwise, we might make them nervous."
"Yeah, that’s true." Dawn paused.
"Speaking of friends who are becoming more than friends, how was your tour
of the country club with Jack?"
Rose didn’t bother to refute Dawn’s words
this time. "It was fun, mostly. Jack was pretty quiet, thinking about his
sister, but I did show him around."
"Speaking of Jack’s sister, has there
been any news about her?"
"Yes, there has! Jack’s Aunt Margaret
called my cell phone number—Jack had left it where she could find it—and told
Jack that Trudy was okay. They couldn’t get through to her on the phone, since
everything in New York is such a mess right now, but they saw her on the news,
being interviewed. Somehow she escaped, though they’re not sure how, since they
only turned on the news at the end of the interview."
"I bet Jack was relieved."
"Oh, yeah. He looked five years younger
after he heard the news that she’s okay. He drove me home after that, and then
rushed on home himself, hoping that there was more news or that they’d show the
interview again on television." She paused. "You know, most of the
time I don’t pay that much attention to things going on in the United States,
even big things like this, but it’s different when someone you know is affected
by it. I felt so bad for Jack. He just couldn’t stop thinking about what
happened. When we went to dinner, Cal was in the restaurant, too, at the next
table—"
Dawn gasped. "Oh, no. Rose, he’s
supposed to stay away from you."
"I know. And I should avoid him if
possible, but he was being so obnoxious…"
"You spoke to him?"
"Yes, after Jack told him off. Cal was
going on about how it wasn’t Canada’s problem, and how the U.S.A. brought it on
itself."
"He is such a jerk!"
"Do tell. But Jack accused him of
supporting terrorism, and they got into a shouting match."
"That doesn’t sound good."
"It wasn’t. And then I put in my opinion—which
was pretty much in agreement with Jack’s—and a security guard came and told
Jack that he would have to leave, and not come back."
"And on his first visit, too."
"Yeah. I’m allowed to come back, though,
since I’m a member, and since my conflict with Cal is known to security. He
probably wouldn’t have even been seated near us, except that the waiter who
seated him and his business associate was new, and probably didn’t know about
the problem."
"So what happened?"
"Well, Jack left, and I went with him.
He looked so tired and upset when we got to the car. His cousin’s call came
just at the right time. I’ve never met Trudy, of course, but Jack seems so fond
of her, I was happy to hear she was okay. Had I not known Jack, I probably
wouldn’t have thought much about the terrorist attacks in America for long, but
we’re getting kind of close, so it bothered me to see it affect him so
much."
"But everything turned out okay. Trudy’s
fine, and Cal got put in his place."
"Yeah." Rose laughed. "You
should have seen the look on his face when Jack interrupted him. No one
interrupts the great Caledon Hockley. It was priceless."
Dawn laughed, too. "I’d imagine. He’s
such a jerk. Rose…Mom needs the phone, so I’d better go."
"Okay. See you in school tomorrow. Are
you driving?"
"Yeah. The car’s fixed. It just needed a
new starter."
"That’s good. Well, I’d better let you
go before your mom gets mad. Bye, Dawn."
"Bye, Rose."
Rose turned off the cell phone, flopping back
down on her bed. It had been a long day, and she was tired.
Setting the phone aside, she went to get
ready for bed, her mind still going over everything that had happened.