Laura got back to her usual schedule of working with a trainer two days a week to strengthen her muscles in order to keep up with a job that was both mentally and physically demanding. She stayed active in spite of having a busy work schedule. In addition to gardening and riding her bike whenever possible, there was a lane reserved for her at the leisure centre lap swimming pool one hour every week. She had been hoping to get Robbie interested in going with her so that he would have something to do on rainy days if he retired and she was at work. And of course she was keen on keeping him physically fit.
Robbie, clad in his swimming shorts, and sitting in a chair at the end of Laura's pool lane, enjoyed watching her as she swam laps. He was impressed that she could do the same flip turn he had seen the Olympic swimmers do on television. Whenever he tried to do that, he just got a nose full of water.
As he continued to watch Laura swim, Robbie was filled with admiration for her. Last night as they sat outside on her swing in the garden she handled something that had been worrying him. Things had changed since the days when he and Val were dating. Even though they both trusted each other and he wasn't sure they needed to exchange certain information (and of course she already knew everything there was to know about him) he expected that Laura did. Somehow she sensed his concern and started the conversation that he feared would be awkward.
Laura very calmly told him that there were things responsible adults needed to discuss before entering into a physical relationship. As it was possible that's where they were headed on their opera weekend she took the lead and gently led him through the necessary discussion. Her matter of fact way of addressing topics that he would normally stammer about made it much less painful than he had imagined. After that he felt closer to her than ever before.
Laura stopped at the end of pool near Robbie's chair.
"You really should come in and swim a bit. After, I plan to sit in the hot tub. It's an unwritten rule here that you can't do that unless you have exercised first."
Robbie decided he did want to get in the hot tub with her as long as there was no one else in it so he got up and after sitting on the side of the pool for a minute, slid in. They shared the lane and swam together for about twenty minutes, Laura doing the Australian Crawl, and Robbie the Backstroke. When Robbie stopped and looked over at the hot tub he saw that the current occupants were just getting out and it was now vacant.
"Okay, I've exercised and the hot tub is empty." He looked at Laura with one of those eyebrow raising expressions of his that are difficult to resist.
"Just remember this is a public hot tub, Robbie."
She smiled at him and he grinned back.
They were sitting side by side not quite touching, trying to be casual by having general conversation. Then Laura decided to satisfy her curiosity about something.
"Robbie, there's something I've long wanted to ask you."
"Ask away."
"Why do you wear your watch face on the inside of your wrist?"
"Ah. Two reasons, really. First off, when I was still Morse's sergeant, we picked up a disoriented suspect. He had no idea of the current time and there was no clock in the interview room. He asked for the time and Morse wouldn't tell him, figured he needed to know to concoct his story. As he was making up his alibi I noticed he stared at my watch and then we could tell he changed some of his facts. If I had my watch face down on my wrist he wouldn't have been able to see it."
"I can hear Morse saying, 'Lewis, can you please stop sharing information with suspects', or something like that."
"Oh yeah, it was something like that."
Laura was about to ask him to go on with the second reason when she got an idea, something she should have thought of long before.
"I bet I can guess the second reason."
Robbie eyed her appreciatively.
"I know better than to bet against you. Go on then…"
"Lyn came home from nursing school wearing hers that way. She said it was easier to take someone's pulse. You can grasp the wrist and see the time simultaneously. You were so proud of your daughter for becoming a nurse and it solved your problem of suspects learning the time that you started wearing yours like that."
"Genius. You got that exactly right."
"Mrs. Rawbone wears hers that way. It's a leftover habit from her army days. They were taught not to have anything shiny that could give away your position to the enemy and so that you could aim a gun and not have to move your wrist to see the time. And she is a nurse too."
"That makes sense." Robbie stretched his legs out. "This feels good. I should exercise more often."
"This does feel good. My feet enjoy it the most. I can build up strength in my muscles but there really isn't much you can do to prepare your feet for standing on various surfaces for several hours a day."
Robbie moved so that he sat across from her in the hot tub and picked up her left foot and began to massage it. He looked a question at her with his eyes and she nodded, then smiled.
"Laura, there's something I've been meaning to ask you."
"What's that?"
"Why do you carry handcuffs in your bag?"
"Where did you come up with that?"
"One day several weeks ago, you were at my flat looking after me when I hurt my back. I tripped over your bag and the contents spilled out all over the floor. I picked everything up to put back and that's when I saw them. They looked like standard police issue to me."
Laura scrunched up her face as she tried to recall the circumstances at that time.
"Ah, now I remember. I had a victim, not one of your cases, who was killed while handcuffed to a chair. The ones on the body were sent to the lab to collect blood and tissue samples. I wanted to do some measurements so I had someone get me an identical set. There were multiple injuries on the wrists and I was trying to determine if all of them were caused by the handcuffs. Turns out some were caused by someone's hand gripping the wrist."
"I see."
Laura thought Robbie looked and sounded a bit disappointed.
"What did you suppose I had them for?"
Robbie blushed.
"I couldn't imagine."
"I wouldn't use police issue handcuffs for that, Robbie."
"I see. Thanks for telling me."
Robbie put down her left foot and picked up the right one and began massaging it. He was glad that no one else had joined them in the hot tub.
"Laura, we should get a hot tub for your back garden."
"If we do that Robbie, we wouldn't have room for your carrots and all the other vegetables."
"Maybe one of those inside ones then."
"I could remodel my upstairs bathroom. Maybe when we get back from our trip to Glyndebourne."
"That's coming up soon. After all these years we are finally going to the opera."
Just then two women joined them in the hot tub. Robbie and Laura decided it was time to get out.
After they changed back into their street clothes there was enough time for them to visit their favorite fish and chips shop before Laura had to leave for her orchestra rehearsal.
When she got home from two hours of music she called Robbie to say goodnight.
"Laura, don't forget I have Wednesday off this week and I'm going to spend the day tidying up my flat and cooking dinner for you."
"I remembered. Am I allowed to know the menu in advance or is it a surprise?"
"Let's leave it a surprise, in case I have to run out and get a replacement at the last minute, if things don't go well."
"I'll bring both a bottle of red and a bottle of white to go with whatever is on the menu."
"I will tell you that I am not going to attempt making a cake again. You liked those cupcakes so much, I'm going to order more and this time make sure I get my message right."
"Goodnight Robbie". Laura resisted the urge to call him 'Happy Cakes'.
"Goodnight Laura." Robbie was thankful that she didn't feel the urge to call him 'Happy Cakes'.
A couple of people have asked me where to find the cupcake picture from the Lewis filming. For anyone else who would like to see it, do a search on "cupcakes for the stars Lewis" or "Happy Cakes Lewis" and you should be able to find it. Happy Cakes is the name of the bakery in Oxford. I was hoping the writing said something like "Congratulations Robbie and Laura On Your Wedding". They were very nice about my inquiry. I got a response back in less than 5 minutes and an apology that their answer wasn't more exciting. Maybe on the next tray of cupcakes...