CHAPTER 5

Jon-Paulsen smiled contentedly, looking all shades of happy and satisfied as he lazed in bed waiting for Linda to come back to bed with the coffee she had gone out to make. He couldn't help but reminisce about the last five years of his life. Five damned years when he had known pain beyond his wildest imaginations, despair and hopelessness in leaps and bounds, and dark dreary depression that threatened to take him six feet under. Five years in which he was sure he had nothing more to live for. The woman he had been planning to divorce Linda for had been the very first person to abandon him. Then his friends followed one after the other and his siblings became too busy to even pay him a courtesy call. But Linda never left, even though she had seen the divorce papers and had agreed to sign them that evening. Even though their marriage of thirteen years was coming to an end without her knowing why. The moment she was told he had been gutted, she rushed into the hospital with genuine tears in her eyes and stayed by his side. Even when the going became unbearable and finances dwindled to nothing, she stayed.

Looking back, Jon-Paulsen couldn't help but thank his stars for Linda and curse whatever demon had possessed him to want to divorce her. She had been and was still his entire world ever since that fateful day when a mad man they were chasing suddenly sprang from his hiding place with a knife raised and stabbed him spilling his guts on the pavement of Central police station. Funny that the place that was supposed to be the safest in the entire city is the same place he had almost lost his life. Funny that the very people he was working to protect were the very first people to dismiss him when he outgrew his usefulness. Funny that the woman that claimed to love him to the moon and back had very quickly jumped ship when he became helpless and soon after got married to a banker. Funny that the woman he couldn't wait to divorce, one that he had claimed to have fallen out of love with was the only person to stand by him and put up with his tantrums for five years while patiently nurturing him back to health and breathing positivity into him when all he felt was negative.

After he had regained stability in his limbs, he threw himself into exercise so that he could heal faster. Doctors' orders. She joined him and soon they both had bodies to die for. At the age of forty-three, Jon-Paulsen had the body of a thirty-year-old athlete while thirty eight year old Linda had the body of a twenty eight year old dancer. She had shed all the baby fat she had acquired when she gave birth to their twins and now she looked as sexy as she ever could. And to think that he had almost divorced her because he felt she was too fat? And way he had treated her back then. . . Witchcraft must be very real.

And yet, she had forgiven him even without. . .

"Hey! What's wrong?" her voice was laced with concern. As usual.

Jon-Paulsen blinked at her looking confused. He had not heard her walk in and put the coffee tray on the bedside table. She was looking sexy in his shirt and Jon-Paulsen Junior reacted by rearing his head up and flexing his muscles. He wanted her again. They had just made sweet love a couple of times before she left for the kitchen and he thought he was satiated but the sight of her in his shirt made his blood boil.

"Nothing sweetheart. Just thinking how lucky I am to have you". He flashed her his most dazzling smile and she blushed. Trying to force the blush from her face, she mock glared at him.

"We are not doing it again if that's why you are pulling your sweet tongue on me".

"But sweetheart. . ."

"No buts. I am already too sore. Take your coffee". She handed him his cup of coffee which he took from her but didn't start sipping it because he was busy pouting.

"Your puppy eyes don't work on me anymore", she told him seriously.

"But we agreed to stay home today and have some fun!" he whined childishly and Linda chuckled.

"And who told you fun means sex?"

Jon-Paulsen was about to whine some more when his phone rang. Seeing as it was one of his contacts, he dropped all his playfulness and switched to 'Private Investigator' in a flash. A short moment later, he was hurriedly scrambling for the remote and putting the TV on while still talking to his contact. He looked super charged as he impatiently waited for the channels to finish loading. The blasted thing was taking forever. As he waited, he fidgeted with the remote constantly trying to make it search faster, and all this while he had his phone plastered to his ear.

Linda wondered if the break he had been waiting for was finally here. She had watched him throw tantrums and behave like a spoilt bitter brat for a while before she realized that he was actually bored out of his mind and desperate to be productive once again. He desperately needed the kind of distraction only work can give. She suggested to him on a whim that he can still be a private investigator and still earn from it even though the government had laid him off because of his injuries. What she hadn't anticipated was how seriously he would take the whole idea and within a year, his company had been established. Since they started their operation, they had worked just a few small cases. Jon-Paulsen had been waiting and hoping for a big case that will give him the kind of exposure he needed to kick start his firm and he would be good to go.

A short moment later, Jon-Paulsen was keenly concentrating on the news anchor as she narrated news on a murder that had puzzled the citizens and set tongues wagging. There had not been a murder in this side of Mara for a decade, and this scared the residents shitless. Linda had turned pale as the Anchor described the horrors that had been witnessed when the body was found. Although they were not showing the pictures just yet, she could only imagine the gory site that had assaulted the eyes of whoever got to him first.

In a flash, Jon was dressing up ready to leave. Linda insisted that he at least takes the coffee she had made but he declined. This might be his only chance to grow his business and he'd be damned if he wasted it on trivial matters like coffee. And as for his wife, she would understand, she always did. And even though he promised to be back in a short while, Linda was sure she won't be seeing him anytime soon today and she might as well get busy.

He was ready in seconds and was already rushing to the door when she stopped him "Not even a goodbye kiss?" she asked incredulously.

Slapping his left hand palm on his forehead, he turned and smiled sweetly at Linda before moving closer to her and engulfing her in a bone-cracking hug.

"Sorry sweetheart, am just too hyped". Then he started peppering kisses on her neck moving up towards her face.

"Wish", kiss, "Me," kiss "Luck" Kiss.

Giggling like a schoolgirl, Linda wished him lots of luck. Apologizing profusely for ruining their date and promising to make it up to her soon, he rushed towards the door and was gone