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With a groan,I let Jane in.

"Megan told me that you two were fighting" she commented.

"He's accusing me of stealing a cat!" Natalie whined. "And upset his father!"

"Does your father know about the accusations?" Jane asked me.

"Yeah he does, and is not a very happy camper" Natalie said drolly.

"I'm sure..." Jane commented.

"I mean,Don didn't bother to do a through investigation!" Nat continued. "He just assumed the worst! Then, he and Charlie hurt his father!"

"What are you saying?" I snapped at her. She's the one hurting Dad.

"Why don't you two calm down?." Jane requested. "Fighting isn't going to solve anything."

"I've got work to do anyway" I started to leave.

"We're not done!" Natalie argued.

"Maybe the two of you need some distance before talking to each other again" Jane backed me up, and put herself between us.

Natalie protested some more, but left at the end, with a warning

"This isn't over!"

As soon as Natalie left, Jane andI had a talk.

""How did your father find out about your suspicions?" she asked

"Charlie let it slip"

"Did the three of you fight?" she asked.

"Yeah. All because of her!" I grumbled, as sheput a hand on my shoulder.

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Damn! He made me mad! Where did he get off insulting his Dad, then accusing me of being the hurtful one!

I came home to an empty house as Alan had his bookclub that night. I feed my pets, and took each of them for a little walk. A part of me felt guilty for being a reason that the three men were fighting. Another part argued that the boys are the ones making the accusations.

Alan came home around nine.

"How was the book club meeting?" I asked when we kissed.

"Fine..." he mumbled and sat down. I joined him. 'Fine' was his lame attempt to hid how upset he was.

"Did someone insist aliens wrote the book?" I teased, trying to get him to open up.. "You don't seem enthustiastic. Or maybe they claimed to be talking to the author's ghost?"

"The discussion was fine!" he insisted.

"Did someone bring healthy snacks?" I sat closer to him on the couch.

"No..."

"Any difficult clients wanting to build an edifice made of chocolate?"

"Is this your subtle way of trying to get me to tell you about what the boys and I talked about?" he asked with annoyance.

I joked "There goes my hopes of being a world famous therapist!"

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I know that Natalie meant well, but I didn't want to talk about my conversation with the boys in the car.

So, I told her"I'm going to go shower" Then, I got up. She sighed and turned on the television.

Later on, in bed, I thought about things. Was were they acting like this? How could they say such terrible things?Sure Nat had her odd little quirks but who didn't? Was she perfect? No. As she later slept at my side, I realize that I can't imagine life without her.I kissedNatalie's head and went to sleep

TBC