Remote Miscommunications

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."