Chapter 12

It seemed that Joe had had a date the previous weekend. Now this was nothing new for her charming and sweet boss. Catherine was fully aware that for the last few months Joe and Jenny had been dating. However, this weekend Jenny had spent Saturday shopping with her and had gone Below afterwards to see Devin. Jenny had spent the night and did not return Above until Sunday night. So Joe's date could not have been with Jenny.

Catherine had never been one to pry into the private lives of her friends, she respected their privacy too much. Then, after meeting Vincent it truly came home to her how careful some people needed to be. But she also knew Jenny cared a great deal for Joe and would be very hurt to find out he was seeing someone else.

It was a double standard Catherine knew because Jenny herself was involved with both Joe and Devin. She had bemoaned her fate that very weekend to her friend. Jenny explained that there were many things that she loved about each man and wished with all her heart she could mesh them into one man. That was why she wasn't able to choose between them!

Now Catherine was in a jam. Did she tell her friend what she had found out? Or should she keep quiet and let Jenny find out on her own? Either way Catherine was sure Jenny would be hurt when she found out. Then the answer hit her! She had been so worried about what to do in the situation that it must have been telegraphed to Vincent through their Bond. She felt him sending gentle reassurance to her and that reminded her how level headed and understanding Vincent was. He would surely be able to offer sound advice on what she should do.

Putting those thoughts out of her mind after trying to send a mental apology to Vincent, Catherine returned to work. She truly was enjoying the variety of cases as well as the, at times, insanely frantic pace of the work. In her father's firm it was always the same kind of cases and with the number of assistants the firm had she could stroll in at 10 or 11, go out of a leisurely lunch an hour or two later, and still be home by 5pm every evening. It had almost bored her to death! However, the DA's office was never boring and she was loving every minute of it.

That evening she snuck into the tunnels with several brown paper bags. This had become her and Vincent's guilty little Friday night secret. Three weeks ago she had been craving Chinese food and although she did love William's cooking, sweet and sour shrimp had yet to appear in the tunnels dining room. So Catherine had stopped and picked up a selection of entrées from her favorite Chinese restaurant and had smuggled them into their chambers for her and Vincent.

He had loved the food! The variety of spices, flavors, and textures were things he just couldn't stop talking about. So it had become a Friday night ritual for Catherine to bring home dinner for them. She learned that Vincent's had two favorite dishes. He couldn't seem to get enough of the lemon shrimp, but he was torn by his equal love for Mongolian beef. It was an easy fix, she brought home both, as well as an extra large order of the pork eggrolls he loved too.

It was very hard to keep a secret for long in the tunnels. The community respected privacy, but there was such a such a sense of closeness in a group of people that few and insular. Everyone knew everyone else's business and were truly interested in what was going on in the other's lives.

So when a newly married couple missed a dinner in the community dining hall nothing much was thought of it, the first time it happened. The second Friday in a row that Catherine and Vincent missed dinner raised a few eyebrows and William confirmed that they hadn't asked for a tray sent to their chambers either.

When they were missing for the third Friday in a row, more than eyebrows were raised. This time the community had questions that they wanted answered. Because the tapestry to their chambers were lowered the questions had to wait until Saturday morning at breakfast.

To be continued…..