SWEET SATURDAY SAMPLES: AFTER THE FALL -- JUNE 30

Welcome to another day of Sweet Saturday Samples!

Last week, Martha found out about Zach’s arrest for murder.  Now she ponders what to do in the aftermath.

Afterwards, I sat quietly on the sofa, pondering this latest series of events, and wondering what, if anything, I should do about it all.  He was a former client and we had been friends.  Lovers.  But he hadn’t been very caring in the way he’d treated me or Caroline.  Did I owe him any kind of support?

I almost called Maeve, but then remembered that she wanted some downtime.  But she probably would want to hear about this latest horror tale.  She seemed to thrive on the downside of life, I reminded myself, as I punched the speed dial button.

When she answered, she sounded like her usual self.  All re-energized and renewed, as if our vacation had been just the thing she needed, despite how it had ended.  “Oh, my,” she burst out.  “You couldn’t wait for my plans, eh?”

“Well, that’s true, of course,” I began.  “But I’m calling about something else.  I’ll bet you haven’t looked at the newspaper since you got back….”

“No, but why?  Did someone find out about our romantic adventures and plaster it all over the society pages?”

I laughed.  I needed to remind myself of the humor in life.  “No, actually, it’s something kind of horrible.”  And I proceeded to fill her in.  As I heard her gasp on the other end of the line, I continued:  “Caroline, my assistant, called with the news.  I could tell that she was really blindsided and torn up about it.  She really cared about that snake.”

“Ah, so he’s a snake, now, is he?  Maybe our little romantic adventures served a purpose after all—cleansing your soul of the ‘Zach obsession.’  So…do you think he did it?”

“How should I know?”  And then I realized that a part of me believed in his guilt, if only because I’d learned from very bitter experiences how deceitful people could be.  Especially men.  Of course, I hadn’t been such a saint lately, either.  “I guess I should withhold judgment on this one,” I sighed. “Do you think I should talk to him?  He’s out on bail by now, probably.  Don’t you think?”

“Well, unless someone is a threat to society or a flight risk, they usually do get bail,” she responded.

“I guess this ratcheted our dull and boring lives up a notch.  I didn’t really want this kind of excitement, though.  Probably I should call him, if only because he was a client.”  My efforts to seem professional seemed disingenuous at best.  But I jutted my chin out, even though nobody could see me doing it, and waited for Maeve to weigh in on the topic.

She just laughed and said:  “Whatever you need to tell yourself….”

Did I hear a tone of criticism in her voice?  But before I could go into my defiant mode, she changed the subject.

“Are you ready to hear my idea now, or do you want to wallow in the seedy underbelly via your ex-lover’s murder charges?”

“Oh, I’d like to wallow for just a bit, but go ahead…spill!”

I could almost visualize her leaning forward as she whispered in a conspiratorial voice about what she had in mind.

Could she seriously have just told me this plan that some might consider risky, at best?

As I hesitated before responding, I thought about the ins and outs of what she had proposed.  Could it be any riskier or more out-there than what we’d just done in Napa?

“I’ll think about it,” I finally said.

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