When the meaning of 'Oz" is revealed...

I left work early today. When I got home, my apartment was more spotless than usual. The bedding had been washed, ironed and put back on my bed, the floors were cleaned, my laundry was washed, dried, folded and put away and more importantly, the kitchen. I tend to leave coffee mugs out (thank you, ADHD!) but Vince washed those and some silverware left in the sink from last night.

As I drop my stuff on the couch, Vince came to greet me.

“Hey, baby,” he said after he kissed me. “I’m sorry I missed you this morning.”

“Hey, old man,” I said kissing him back, using my tongue to open his mouth to deepen the kiss. “Mmmm, baby. We’d still be in bed if you’d woken up this morning.”

“Yeah, we’d be sleeping,” he said as he smiled. “We’d be worn out, baby.”

“More like you’d be worn out,” I said as I slid my hands between his shirt and chest, gently tugging on his chest hair. “You’re 20 years older, baby. You’d be sleeping.”

I took my clothes off and headed to the bathroom to take a shower. I heard him follow me seconds later after throwing our clothes in the washer and he then joined me in the shower. We were quiet as we showered; there was quite the large elephant that we both felt like we wanted to talk about but we knew that we really didn't need to. After rinsing off, Vince turned the water off. I got out first, grabbed my towel and headed to my room; Vince dried off in bathroom, hanging the towel up on the towel rack before heading to my bedroom. 

"Deppgrl?" V asked. "You ok there, love? You're still wrapped in your towel....and your hair is dripping wet."

"What?" I asked. "Oh. ADHD brain."

"Excuse me?" V said. 

"It’s an executive function failure," I explained. "I have ADHD if you hadn't noticed. Or known. I knew what I came in here to do but sometimes my lack of completing tasks are worse when I am tired. Time blindness is also an issue."

"It all makes sense now," he said as he got dressed. "Want any help with anything?"

"I'm good," I said as I chuckled. "I'll be down momentarily."

V nodded his head and headed downstairs to order dinner. I put on an oversized shirt, panties and short shorts. I threw on my slippers and then headed downstairs. 

"Vince?" I hollered. "Where did you go, old man?"

"I'm in the kitchen, love," he said. "I'm getting plates and stuff ready for dinner. I feel like that we should talk about the SRO, his soon to be ex-wife and how you knew what was going on."

"Oh, this is going to be awkward," I laughed. "Let's have something to drink while I tell you."

"Okie dokie," V said. "I have the feeling that this is going to be funny!"

"Weird, strange, funny and interesting," I said. "So we had R as the original SRO at my school, ok? There was a change within the local police department and the school contract with them. R went to another school in the district and we ended up getting A - the SRO that's in the hospital right now. I saw R the other week at the school but he's now on the road as he had to change his schedule to work around his kids' schedule. Back to A. So we were a bit flirty, had coffee a few times followed by drinks and then became intimate. One night, he was super tired and after having a drinks with dinner - we had dinner here - A said something to the extent of that he feared that was his wife was poisoning him or something. I thought that was odd and the next morning, I said something in passing about his wife harming him; he turned white and said that he didn't remember saying anything. I knew that he’d remembered but he was just trying to cover his tracks."

"Odd but not weird," V said.

"Not yet anyways," I said. "I told A to get new toys for the kids and I'd put in a camera so that way, he could tape his wife doing shady shit to his food and drinks. He balked at the idea but finally agreed. He ended up getting multiples of the same thing so that way he could switch them out for when the batteries for the cameras died. When he was here, he felt fine and when we were at his apartment, he felt fine but when he was at home, his wife was adding stuff to his food and beverages. At school, he'd complain about not feeling well. I brought the cameras to my locals here - the state police - and they did what they did. One night that A was here, he was clearly drugged. He told me that if he's shot, it was his wife. I asked him what's going on. With whatever his wife used, he said that he heard his wife tell someone over the phone that she'd kill him by shooting him."

"Now it's getting weird," V said.

"It is," I said. "That's when I decided to leave marks on his body when we were intimate so his wife would get pissed enough to file for divorce. I have been cheated on - as you know - so I know what the feeling is like. So when she asked about a divorce attorney, I got her in touch with a divorce attorney who also works in domestic violence, etc. cases. I immediately contacted the state police by giving them access to ALL of the cameras I have outside of my apartment as I had the feeling that the ex-wife with either go after me or A here at my place. Since they lived close by, she harmed him there, ran by here and tried to get us to be her alibi."

"Oh wow," Vince said. 

"Yeah," I said. "Apparently, she's said to the attorney that I set her up with said stuff to him about trying to kill A. Thankfully, I 'offered' recordings anonymously to the police, I don't need to go to court. Normally, I wouldn't mind BUT A doesn't want the school to know that he and I were romantically involved as it is frowned upon for staff of opposite genders and sexes to fraternize if they are NOT engaged/married to each other. The school did find out that I visited him last night so I told them that I heard from his ex wife that he was hurt but I didn't give more information than that."

"I'm sure that there's more to this that you're going to tell me," he said.

"Yep!" I said. "I said that since he was asleep, I didn't truly 'visit' him and also, I couldn't since I wasn't family but I was informed that he would recover. The school was weird so I texted my friend - the divorce and  domestic violence attorney - and he came right away. He was allowed to come in and told them that they were harassing me as they were asking me the same questions but in different ways and they didn't have the right to do so as I was a concerned colleague. The administration let me leave with my attorney friend. When we were outside, he told me that he has a friend that works with security camera companies....that person was able to permanently delete footage that had A in view at my place as well as at his apartment and they were made seamlessly so it wouldn't be questioned. I saw the ‘updated’ tapes….they look fine and looked as if they were normal. Sounds illegal but isn't. Or I don’t think it’s illegal."

"Is that why A calls you 'Oz'?" V asked. 

"Yes," I said. "He doesn't know how much I know at this point in time. I won't share anything more than what he's aware of us until this whole court case thing with his ex-wife is over. Even then, it all depends on how much my attorney friend says on how much I can share with A."

The doorbell rang. V stood up to get the food...I was emotionally drained and a bit buzzed; I drank more wine than I should have on an empty stomach. Thankfully, V ordered Chinese food. He knows that it's comfort food for me. After plating our food, we ate in silence. I switched to drinking milk when we were eating. V cleaned up after we ate, I moved over to the couch in the living room, converting the couch into a bed.

I turned on the TV to have some background noise. V joined me - with a few blankets and water for both of us. I laid down, Vince laid down behind me and held me as we fell asleep.