Synchronicity for Six Pt. 10

Author's Note: This is a story of the romantic love of three couples. There is very little explicit sex in it, so if that is what you're seeking, look elsewhere on Literotica.

= = =

Thursday, February 11, 2021, continued

An hour before Tom's shift in the Accounting Lab ended, Mrs. Thomas appeared in the doorway clutching some papers.

"I'm sorry it has taken me all week to get this to you, but here are the notes you gave me plus some comments from Mr. Price and Dr. Casper. Can you please consolidate all of these and put the marked‑up copy on my desk?"

Tom gave her a big smile and sincere thanks for her efforts on everyone's behalf. He accepted the papers and promised to have them on her desk when she arrived in the morning. Then he wished her a pleasant evening, and she left.

He carefully reviewed her transcription, changing only a couple of words to have more impact. The instructors' comments spurred him to hand‑write one more item, printing the words carefully and legibly. Looking up, he was only ten minutes over his allotted time, and he logged only his scheduled time in the time tracking system. He left the slightly revised version of his notes on Mrs. Thomas' desk and set off for his apartment feeling quite pleased with his efforts.

= = =

"Where are our girls?" Alan asked as he walked into the kitchen. He had noticed the absence of Katie's car on the street in front of the house and justifiably deduced that Maggie was with her.

"They're having pizza out with some of Katie's classmates. Maggie's being her 'wingman' tonight. They promised they'd be home by 9:00."

"So, it's just us for supper?" Alan asked with a lilt to his voice.

"Just the two of us. How could we best take advantage of this situation?" Rose replied, quite suggestively.

"I think a nice candlelit meal for two would be lovely."

They had a very simple soup‑and‑sandwich meal while sitting at the kitchen table with two tapers lit for ambiance. Alan spent more time just gazing into her eyes and taking in her matured beauty than he did eating. Rose would demurely drop her eyes to her food, then shyly look up to see his ardent gaze. She felt as though she had finally won the prize of a lifetime with Alan Harrison. As much as she loved all their children, she really enjoyed having an evening for just the two of them.

As they finished eating, Rose's phone chirped with a message from Maggie, which Rose read aloud for Alan's benefit. They were going to be stopping at Target for a bathrobe and some hygiene items for Katie after the pizza place. They would be 9:30 getting home, at the latest. Rose replied with a thank you, then set her phone aside. A troubled look crossed her face as Alan sat after cleaning up.

"What's the matter, Rose?"

"I just realized that I haven't heard anything out of Julie since her last visit here," Rose explained. "Have you heard anything out of Tom?" Now it was Alan's turn to look puzzled and a little pained.

"No, I haven't, and I forgot to set up a time for us to talk tonight. Perhaps a two‑parent / two‑offspring call might be appropriate?"

"Let's see if they'd rather talk or video conference," Rose suggested, and she texted her eldest.

​= = =

Julie was at the kitchen table with her notes and textbook spread out and at hand. Tom was in the living room, equally spread out on the coffee table. They had gulped down some leftovers from the refrigerator and had gone to separate spaces to work on their classwork. Julie's phone chirped, jarring her from the zone she was in.

"Uh-oh, it's Mom," she said, causing Tom's head to lift in surprise.

"Why is she texting you? We just spoke to them ... oh." The weekend, when John and Dawn were over, derailed Tom and Julie's regular plans which included speaking with their parents. "What did she say?"

"They would like to talk with us but wanted to know if we wanted to just call or to video conference."

"Ask them to video conference in half an hour. That should give me enough time to finish this part of my assignment. Will that work for you?" Tom suggested. Nodding, Julie replied to Rose, requesting a video call in 30 minutes.

"Hiya, you lovebirds," Rose chirped once they were connected. "It's really good to see both of you tonight."

"It's good to see you, too, Mom, Dad," Julie replied. Alan smiled at Julie calling him 'Dad'. He gave a bit of a chuckle and snort as he recalled that Maggie had started calling him 'Poppa' like Katie did. "What was that snort about, Dad?"

"Nothing much, Julie. Just you calling me 'Dad'. Maggie's started to call me 'Poppa' like Katie does."

"Okay. I'll have to consider that for the future." Julie had caught the 'like Katie does', but let it pass.

"So, Julia Ann, what's new with you two? You didn't call last weekend. If I hadn't texted you tonight, I have the feeling we would not have heard from you this weekend, either," Rose declared.

"We had Dawn and John over again. Actually, they sort of invited themselves and we didn't have the heart to turn them down. I think they like that old bed of yours, Mom."

"Are you both keeping up with your studies? I know you're on the downhill run now, Tom, and you've got that job offer in hand, but isn't it also contingent on your passing your classes this semester?" Alan inquired.

"Yeah, about that job offer," Tom began. "I received a personal letter, definitely non-standard, from Mr. Timmons this week, confirming my acceptance of their employment offer. He recommended that I set up a Proton Mail account and after I did that, they'd send the rest of the correspondence through that email."

"I've heard of Proton Mail but never used it. Aren't they based somewhere in Europe?" Alan asked.

"Yeah, Switzerland, I believe, Dad. And they're really big on security and privacy, which is awesome for a free, web-based email account."

"So, have you set up that account yet?" Rose interjected.

"Not yet, Momma. I was going to address that this weekend," Tom answered. "So, what's new with you?"

"Well, son, several different things have been keeping us occupied. We didn't get to speak with you two last weekend and Rose and I had the first quiet time together in a long time. We just realized that we had not had the time to share before now," Alan began, then Rose took over.

"You see, her situation at home was becoming untenable, so we had to do something."

"Whose situation, Mom? Do something? What?" Julie demanded.

"Katie. Katie O'Shea," Rose answered.

"Larry's little sister?" Tom exclaimed.

"Technically, she's Larry's cousin," Alan supplied, trying to be helpful.

"Say WHAT?" Tom and Julie said together.

"Okay, what," Alan responded, trying to diffuse the tension he thought might have been building with his brand of humor.

"Huh?" Julie blurted, and Tom bumped her with his elbow.

"He's teasing us, Jules. Now, back to the subject at hand: Katie O'Shea," Tom stated. "Momma, please start at the beginning. We'll try not to interrupt until you're done."

"Very well. Maggie has developed a close friendship with Katie O'Shea," Rose informed them. Julie nodded as she was already aware of this.

"She had been complaining to Maggie and me about how she felt she was being ignored at home, especially since Christmas, and she couldn't understand why. David asked her brother, Larry, about it. Larry told us he overheard his parents arguing about money and the fact that Katie was not their biological daughter," Rose continued.

Tom's jaw was starting to drop now as Julie's face took on a pained expression.

"Anyway, Katie worked with Maggie in the jewelry store this past Saturday, and that evening we shared what Larry had told us. She was quite upset, mostly at the secret being kept from her. She spent the night in David's room, went with us to church, then after church she had it out with her uncle and aunt, who she had believed were her father and mother.

"I won't go into details here now, but suffice it to say that she now resides in what used to be David's room. She needed a safe place where she could feel the love and happiness of a real family," Rose concluded. "We had to help her, just like you would have."

"But what about the costs?" Julie asked.

"About the only difference between having one girl and having two girls in the house is that there are slightly fewer leftovers. Katie has her own transportation and has a little stream of income for her expenses, at least for now. Maggie loves having her around. Did you know that Katie's birthday is the day after Maggie's? Now Maggie gets to be the 'big sister'." Rose chuckled.

"Katie's still going to high school, and she's been giving Maggie rides home from work. On Mondays after school, they go out and get Maggie some driving practice in the church's parking lot. Maggie's helping with her Trigonometry and preparing to take the ACT. It's really working out incredibly well." Rose continued.

"So, what happens when we come home for a weekend?" Tom insisted.

"We'll get Maggie to sleep with Katie and give you whatever bed you'd prefer to have, I suppose," Rose answered.

"What about when David's home at the same time?" Tom was coming up with all sorts of scenarios, playing the devil's advocate.

"I'm sure we'll figure something out, Tom, just like we did over the holidays. I don't think that will be an issue once the school year ends, though," Alan responded calmly.

"And why not?" Tom insisted.

"Because by the time everyone is home from school, we'll probably be moved into a larger place." Alan deployed that small explosive.

Julie's eyes bulged slightly as she took in this information. Tom shook his head vigorously, almost cartoonishly because he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"You're getting another place?" Tom asked, getting surlier.

"Sure. With both of you home and David as well, that would be seven of us and only three bedrooms. While that might work for a week at the most if there were just six of us, that simply won't fly now," Alan advised. "Looking ahead, Rose and I had already decided we wanted the extra space for guests and, eventually, grandchildren."

"So, let me see if I understand all this," Tom began, coldly calm on the surface. "You took in Katie O'Shea because she didn't like how she was being ignored at her home and put her in David's room. And now you're looking to buy a new, larger home. Did I get the essentials correct?"

"Yes, but we had already decided we wanted a bigger house before any of this happened with Katie," Alan replied, still keeping his cool.

"I don't think you're taking into consideration other factors, Tom," Rose interjected.

"Oh? Like what?" Tom snarled.

"Like the fact that I want a place to be ours, your father's and mine. This house was your mother's and your father's. And it worked wonderfully while you boys were growing up. And it would work wonderfully for another family, just not the larger family we have now, even before Katie joined us," Rose explained, calmly, sensing Tom's hostility to the idea.

Tom was closing up and shutting his mind down; he stopped communicating. Julie just sat there, stunned by these revelations. Then Tom exploded.

"You just want to wipe away all traces of my mother! You want to obliterate my childhood memories! You want me to abandon Phideaux!" he screamed.

He stood quickly, jarring the coffee table, and stormed off to their bedroom. He slammed the door shut which echoed through the apartment and caused Rose and Alan to flinch. Julie just sat there with her mouth opening and closing like a goldfish out of its bowl.

"I'm sure he'll be fine after a while," Rose offered after a minute, and Alan guffawed. "At least, I hope he'll be fine."

"Fine means freaked out, insecure, neurotic, and emotional. That was a major hissy fit, Rose, and it came out of nowhere. I never would have expected that out of him. We were just getting started explaining. We never got to extol the positives of this new place we've found," Alan supplied.

Julie was more than happy to let someone else do the talking, so she asked, "What are the positives, Dad?"

"We've only looked at it from the outside so far, but it's described as having five bedrooms and three full baths. The porch wraps on two sides of the house, and there's a three‑car garage with stairs leading to space on the second level, possibly an apartment. The property has a little bit of land with a grove of trees and a pond."

Julie's eyes widened at the mention of a possible apartment over the garage. Then she heard a loud crash from their bedroom. "Mom, I've got to go. I'll call you tomorrow night, okay? Bye!"

Julie quickly closed the laptop lid and hurried to the bedroom door. Cracking the door open a finger's breadth, she called to her boyfriend.

"Tommy? Tom? What happened?"

Not hearing an answer, she opened the door further to find the remains of a shattered mirror all over the floor at the foot of their bed. A hiking boot lay there amid the mirror shards. Tom was standing as far from the door as he could get, red‑faced and hyperventilating. He had one hiking boot in his hand, and his face was a mask of tears and tear stains.

"I'll go get the broom, dustpan, and waste basket," Julie stated, pragmatically.

Inside, her emotions were all awhirl and she could only focus on the task at hand: to clean up the broken mirror. She put everything else out of her mind as she bent to start sweeping the bits into the dustpan. She tried to pick out the largest pieces, but in doing so, and before Tom could stop her, she cut her thumb on the edge of one.

"Owww!"

A large drop of blood fell onto the shard of glass and splattered slightly. Tom was quickly rolling across the bed to put slippers on his sock‑covered feet.

"Raise your hand above your heart, Jules. That will help slow the bleeding a bit." He pushed past her to retrieve the first aid kit from the bathroom. Returning seconds later, he wiped clean the area around the cut. Seeing no splinter, he applied some antibacterial ointment and applied an adhesive bandage. Mock shaking a finger in her face, he admonished her, "Now you be more careful, young lady!" She kissed him lightly in response. He then requested her to return to the living room while he cleaned up the physical mess he had made.

Having destructively expressed his outrage at the perceived insults to his mother and his dog, Tom was now ashamed of his childish tantrum and the resulting breakage (never mind the seven years of bad luck). It was the physical harm to Julie that snapped him out of his anger. Naturally, he knew exactly what to do in that little crisis, and he did so without his emotions getting in the way. Now he had to deal with the non‑physical aftermath.

Then his remorse set in. Julie had been hurt as a result of his anger. Sure, it wasn't anything more than a cut but he had caused most of her pain. She would heal. Sadly, his mother's free‑standing mirror had been destroyed by his actions. He sat on his side of the bed, away from the door. His face was in his hands and he was sobbing.

Julie had returned to the sofa as Tom had requested. She sat there for a few minutes, trying to calm herself and gather her thoughts, but they just kept whirling in circles. Then a knock at the door roused her from her ruminations. It was Bruce Parker, their landlord who lived in the house above them. Inviting him in, she offered to take his coat, but he demurred.

"I heard this horrible crash, and I wanted to check up on you two," he explained. "What happened and are you both okay?"

"Yes, Mr. Parker, we're okay. Aside from this cut I got on some broken glass, we are fine. Tom accidentally knocked over a mirror in the bedroom. I was careless when trying to help clean up the debris, and cut myself on a piece of glass," she offered, showing him her thumb with its bandage.

"Miss Julie, please call me Bruce. Mr. Parker is my father. Where's Tom?" he asked.

"Still in the bedroom, Bruce. He is being thorough about getting all the glass up off the floor," she said. Julie then led Bruce back to the bedroom and knocked on the door.

"Tom, Bruce is here. He heard the crash and came down to check on us," Julie called through the door.

Tom opened the door and there was evidence of his crying still on his face. He sucked back the last of his tears and tried to smile, wanly.

"Hello, Bruce. Thank you for your concern about our well‑being. Yeah, I broke this freestanding mirror that had been my mother's. Julie got hurt trying to help clean it up. I haven't forgotten my First Aid training, though."

"Okay, then. Please be careful in getting all the pieces picked up. Be sure to sweep and mop carefully, even under the bed," Bruce advised. "It's too bad that glass can't be picked up by magnets."

"Yes, sir. We'll be sure to be thorough about that. I'm sorry if we disturbed you," Tom apologized. Bruce accepted Tom's apology.

"This was the first unexpected noise I'd noticed from here, Eagle Tom, Miss Julie." Bruce smiled, nodded, and walked back to the front door. "Oh, and please thank your father, Tom, for the check which paid all your remaining rent for the lease. That came last week. It was unexpected but very much appreciated. You two take care, now." Bruce gave a little smirk as he exited and closed the door.

= = =

After Julie had abruptly shut down the video call, Rose turned to Alan with a dazed look.

"That sounded like a door slamming shut and then glass shattering, Alan," she observed. "Alan, what do you think all that was about?"

"Tom was venting about my selling this house. He shocked me, too, Rose," Alan began. "Maybe it was that David, by being so accepting, lulled me into a false sense of confidence that Tom would be also. I had expected more pushback from David. Tom's almost out of the nest and starting his own life with Julie."

"Who or what was Fido? That sounds like a dog's name," Rose inquired.

"Phideaux, spelled P-H-I-D-E-A-U-X to give him some class, was a mutt. But he was Tom and David's mutt. We got him from the animal shelter when he was a very small pup. Phideaux died just before Laura did. We had his body cremated and even paid for an expensive oak box. He's buried out behind the garage. I think Tom was the one who placed the box in the grave. That's probably a big piece of what we witnessed."

"Okay, I'll grant him some grace about the dog. But what was that about wiping away traces of Laura, or obliterating his childhood memories?"

"This is the only home either boy has ever really known, Rose. I imagine that you and the girls remember living in a few different places over the years since Ron left. So, their attachment to one place may not be as strong as the boys' feelings for this house."

"But I'm not wiping away anything of Laura, am I?" Rose asked with a note of guilt edging into her voice.

Alan took her hands in his and lifted them to his lips, kissing them. This caused Rose to raise her head and meet his gaze, which is what he was after.

"As David noted when I discussed it with him, ever since Laura passed, this house has just been a house, not the Harrison home. Memories of our lives with Laura will persist wherever the boys and I go.

"We haven't talked about it much. I believe I will keep a couple of pictures of her around, but I promise they will not be in your face all the time. There will, of course, be many things from this house that we will take with us because there is still a need for them in our lives. Rest assured, Rose, we will establish OUR home in the new house."

"What about the painting David did? It's currently at school with him, but he's bringing it back at the end of classes, right? What about your wedding photo with Laura? Where will we put them?" Rose sounded genuinely concerned now.