“You’re popular now, Mr. Paulsen.” Anita held out a steaming cup of coffee ready for me as I rounded the corner.

I took the coffee from her hand and said, “Thank you. You didn’t have to do this for me. I’m perfectly capable of making my own cup of coffee.”

She said, “You walk in at the same time like clockwork most mornings, so I was feeling generous. I’ve gotten inquiries about your suggestions about the meetings.”

I sipped at the coffee. “Inquiries?”

She took a sip of her own coffee and said, “Yep, they keep asking if it was really my idea and not yours.” She chuckled softly. “They are surprised that you thought outside the box.”

I smiled and said, “Well, you can take credit if you want to. I’m just happy to make an improvement for myself and everybody else.” I began to snake my way through the cubicles, and she followed at my side.

Anita said, “I know I’m being nosy again, but how are things with Lowell?”

After I entered my office, I said, “Close the door behind you.”

She looked slightly worried after she followed my instruction. She asked, “Has something gone wrong, Mr. Paulsen.”

I grinned and said, “Oh, nothing at all. I just don’t like talking about my personal life within earshot of everybody else. Anita, I’m actually kind of blown away. I can’t believe it’s all happening. I never had anything like this with Stuart.”

She took a long sip of her coffee and smiled back at me saying, “I’m so very happy for you. You’re a good man, Mr. Paulsen. Anyone should feel lucky to have you, but I hope you don’t mind if I say that I thought Stuart wasn’t quite good enough for you. I only met him twice, but I’m a pretty good judge of character. When do I get to meet Lowell?”

I sat in my chair behind my desk. “I need to figure out sometime to bring him up here. Lowell has asked about seeing my office. I just need to figure out a good day.”

She pushed her long dark hair back over her shoulder and said, “I’m sure he’s very handsome. I can’t wait.” Then she paused before she added, “If it’s okay to make the suggestion, the two of you should have some photos made so you can put one on your desk and think about him all day long.”

I said, “I really don’t need the help of a photo to think about Lowell.”

As if on cue, my cell phone vibrated in my pocket. A call was coming through. I pulled it out expecting it might be a call from Lowell.

While I was staring at the screen, Anita excused herself and closed my office door behind her. I was surprised to see that it was a call from Ian. I answered and said, “Good morning.”

His voice sounded harried and breathless. Ian asked, “Can I come down and join you for lunch, Sven?”

I was surprised by the request and silent for a moment. I said, “Let me check the schedule, but I think it should be fine.”

Ian said, “Okay. Yes, of course.”

I pulled up my daily schedule on the computer, and saw that it was free of any lunch appointments. I said, “It looks completely open. Where would you like to go?”

Ian said, “I can just come to your building. There’s a basic restaurant on the first floor if my memory is accurate.”

“Yep, it’s not a whole lot more than a cafeteria. It’s not very elegant.”

Ian said, “I just need to talk to you about something, Sven, but I don’t want to do it over the phone.”

I felt my body start to tense. It sounded like something was wrong. I asked, “Is Blake okay? You sound a little worried.”

He said, “Blake is just fine, and I’m fine. Don’t worry about that, but we do need to talk. Does noon work?”

“Noon is great, Ian. I’ll see you then.”

I was distracted for the rest of the morning. Even when I received a cheerful text from Lowell saying:

I found it hard to concentrate. Ian’s voice made it sound like something was very urgent, and he didn’t want to wait until my work day was over. My mind raced about what it could be. If it wasn’t about him or Blake, it must be Reggie, or me. I couldn’t get the wildly careening thoughts out of my head.

---

Ian was dressed sharp in a button-up blue plaid shirt and khaki pants. He was just as handsome as Blake in his own way. While he had blond hair and blue eyes like me, he didn’t have the Scandinavian heritage.

I reached out for a hug when we met in the lobby of the building teeming with people coming and going for lunch. He gripped my body tight as I said, “You’ve had me worried all morning.”

He said, “Well, it is a little concerning, but let’s get our lunch first and then we can talk.”

We ordered sandwiches and drinks at the counter and within five minutes we were seated at a corner table where we could see Lake Michigan if we leaned in just the right direction. I spread a napkin in my lap and said, “Okay, now tell me what this is all about. You said Blake is fine. Is it something about your work? Or about Reggie?”

Ian shook his head and said, “No, it’s about Lowell.”

I was instantly confused. I opened my eyes wide and asked, “Lowell?”

He nodded. “Yeah, Blake came home with the news last night, and neither of us slept well. We tossed and turned all night. We talked about it this morning, and I knew that I had to contact you before you heard things the wrong way from the wrong people.”

My brow knitted together in confusion. I said, “What kind of news? I just got a really sweet text message from Lowell about an hour ago. He spent the night after the game at my place, and I made breakfast in bed the next morning. I’m confused, Ian.”

Ian sighed heavily and said, “I don’t have any other way to put it. I think I just have to be direct. Lowell was at the Toolbox last night.”

I tilted my head to the right saying, “Yeah, that’s no surprise. I know he goes there regularly when he has a late evening at work. It’s sort of his routine if we aren’t hanging out together. He’s got some other casual friends that do the same. Sometimes he talks to Blake or Reggie if he shows up there.”

Ian continued and said, “It was a busy night at the Toolbox last night, and Blake called Claw to ask if he could pick up a few extra hours helping work the bar and ease the pressure.”

I said, “C’mon, Ian. Spit it out. I don’t care about Blake and Claw right now. You have me worried about Lowell.”

He said, “When Blake and Claw cashed out at the end of the night they were $500 short. This is the second time recently. Early last week they came up $400 short. It’s really unusual for them, and it’s even stranger that it’s such a round number.”

I spoke out immediately. “What does this have to do with Lowell? It doesn’t have anything to do with Lowell.”

Ian said, “Well, they are still trying to piece together exactly what happened last week, but last night they saw Lowell walking out into the main part of the bar from the back area where Sally’s office is. There’s a sort of short cut out to the street that goes past her office, and a few regular customers know that they can use it, so at first they didn’t think it was unusual to see Lowell there at all.”

I asked, “They think Lowell stole the money? Is that what you’re trying to say? I would think there are a lot of other explanations. Did Sally have money in her office?”

Ian sighed and said, “They found the money box in her office unlocked.”

I hung my head and mumbled, “He has been short of cash lately, but I can’t believe he would steal it.” I raised my head again and stared into Ian’s eyes, “You’ve known Lowell for years now. He wouldn’t do something like that. You don’t think he would do something like that, do you?”

Ian said, “I don’t want to think he would do something like that. Don’t jump to conclusions just yet. Blake and Claw are going to talk to Sally today, and they will do some more of their own investigations. I wanted to give you a heads up, but I would appreciate it if you didn’t say anything to Lowell.”

“Of course not. I won’t say anything to him, but I can’t believe he would do something like that. He doesn’t have a criminal record. At least I don’t think he does. He told me about one…” I held my tongue and didn’t say any more.

“Blake said that if they suspect he is behind it, they’ll talk to him and do a background search before going any further and bringing in authorities. He explained that it can be very difficult to prove something like this, but if they suspect Lowell after checking everything out, he will be watched closely any time he goes to the Toolbox.” Then Ian stared into my eyes. “Sven, if you know anything or find out anything, will you share it? Nothing good can come about for anyone if it’s all just kept a secret.”

I shivered and felt the hair on my forearms stand on end. I could feel a tear start to form in the corner of my eye when I said, “Yes, if I find out anything I’ll let you know.” I reached out to Ian’s right arm and said, “Is it okay if we end lunch now. I’m not very hungry any more. I think I need to go sit in my office for a little while.”

Ian nodded and said, “Oh, of course. I really hated that I needed to tell you about this, but I wanted you to hear it first from a friend.” He stood up and offered a hug.

I accepted it, but I broke away quickly. I said, “I’m sorry. I really need some time to myself.”

Fortunately, the main office area on my floor was nearly empty. Most everyone was still gone for lunch. I stumbled my way among the cubicles. I was reeling from Ian’s news.

Back in my office I nearly fell into my chair. Lowell telling me about his experience being caught shoplifting when he was ten years old pounded in my brain. I tried to pull up the memory and see Lowell as he said it. It was dark and we were scrambling down the bluff to the lake. I couldn’t really see the expression on his face when he told me.

I lowered my head into my hands and felt tears roll down my cheeks. The tears turned into sobs, and I sat alone in my office crying. If the suspicion really was true, I didn’t know what I would do. The news seemed to just come out of nowhere. Everything with Lowell was perfect. It was better than perfect. It was almost like living in a dream.

Now, it was all coming crashing down. At least, there was a threat that it would come crashing down. I realized that I needed to stop myself from jumping ahead too far into the future. Even if Sally proceeded with suspicion of Lowell, he needed to be given the opportunity to clear himself.

The tears rolled down my cheeks again. I couldn’t believe how one event could cast such a dark cloud over everything. The world was a perfect place and one random event later it was all going to hell.