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At last dressed in our swimwear, Paula and I dipped out of the increasingly loud locker room. Once out of sight of the younger women, Paula made a notion–accompanied by a loud, fake gulp—like she was chugging a bottle.
“Yeah,” I said in agreement; we could still hear the women’s laughter from the locker room as we arrived back in the lobby. “We picked the wrong spa for peace and quiet.”
The woman at the counter smiled at us both as we entered. “Hot tub is open, ladies, go on in.”
Best thing I had heard all day!
We entered into the large room that hosted two separate hot tubs. The room was pretty drab as far as décor went, and that made Paula cringe slightly as an interior decorator. The walls were an overly bright orange color, and the only décor were a few fake plants in the corner. Either way, the hot tub looked relaxing enough for me.
Paula and I ditched out towels on a lounge chair and slid into the hot, steamy water.
“Oh yeah,” I said. “That’s the good stuff. Perfect for my sore muscles.”
“Oh, shut up,” Paula teased, splashed me slightly. “The yoga class wasn’t that bad. Besides it’s good for you.”
“I’ll have nightmares tonight about it,” I said.
Paula laughed, and I sunk deeper into the water letting the hot water relax my shoulders.
We were silent for a moment and within the short quiet time, guilt crept back into my shoulders, tensing them up again. “Ugh,” I sighed.
“What it is?” Paula asked, alarmed.
“I don’t know. I couldn’t wait for today. You know, to spend time with you and unwind, and now all I can think about is Laurie. I miss her.”
“I know how you feel,” Paula said. “I feel guilty every single time I leave my little ones with a sitter. But you know you need your time. Remember the oxygen mask stuff they say on the airplane? You need your oxygen mask on first before you can help anyone else.”
I nodded. “You’re right. I hope Kenny isn’t too overwhelmed with all three of them,” I said.
“He’s a smart, well put together kid,” Paula said. “I’m sure he’s fine. Although Danny can be a bit much.”
“I know. Your little man has more energy than anyone I have ever met,” I said.
“Are you kidding? Did I tell you we had to move our couch to keep him from sneaking into the kitchen and climbing up onto our table? He watched some superhero movie with David, and now he thinks he can fly. I’m scared I’m one ER visit away from having that little munchkin taken away from me! He’s only two, and he’s already had to have stitches!”
“Stitches? From what?”
“He jumped from the table onto the chandelier and fell. And to make matters worse, David bought him a superhero cape—now he thinks he’s Spiderman and that he can fly.”
“Spiderman doesn’t fly, does he?” I asked. “He sort of scales walls or something.”
“Well, Danny doesn’t know the difference,” Paula said. “He calls every superhero Spiderman. Though when he says it, it sounds more like Speederman.”
“That’s so cute,” I said.
“You say that now, but you better watch what Jim lets Laurie watch. David wants to redo Danny’s room for his next birthday, and do you know what he wants to do for him?”
“Superheroes?” I asked.
“Superheroes!” Paula cried out with anguish. “I can’t constantly be pulling my little Speederman off furniture because his daddy wants to bond over his unhealthy obsession with superheroes. I’m worried that if he redoes Danny’s room, the superhero thing will take off to an entirely unmanageable level. I mean ... last week... Danny got into his daddy’s tool kit that someone left out and found a hammer. My Speederman thought he was Thor for a day, and Thor put a hole in the wall in the garage.”
I laughed, but Paula rolled her eyes.
“Sorry, Paula,” I said.
“You just wait. Laurie is going to reach that toddler age before you know it, and she will be into everything at all times! I have baby gates everywhere, but now Danny is trying to climb them because Spiderman can climb walls, so he thinks he can too. Down one hall, we have actually stacked two baby gates on top of each other because the one was too easy for him to get over. I literally have to duck down and go through the door on the bottom baby gate to get down the hallway!”
“I hope Laurie is a little tamer than Mr. Speederman. And I’m calling your son that from now on, by the way. He’ll be eighteen, graduating from high school, and I’ll be shouting Speederman from the crowd,” I said.
Paula giggled at the thought.
“Laurie is just barely getting to where she sits up, but she pulls herself up now pretty easily,” I said. “She’s started babbling a lot too, so I’m hoping she’ll say her first word soon.”
“She’s only five months. That would be pretty early. I think Danny was almost nine months before he said his first words. I was hoping for Mama, but it was Happy Halloween!” Paula said.
“I remember.” I giggled. “We’d say Happy Thanksgiving, Danny, and he’d reply Happy Halloween!”
Paula chuckled. “He said Happy Halloween straight through Christmas and New Year’s!”
The door to the room swung open, and our laughter cut short as if we’d be chided for having a good time.
A woman in a black one-piece swimsuit entered. Her bathing suit had a little pink bow on one hip, and she smiled as she approached us. “Mind if I join you ladies?” she asked.
Paula and I smiled at her and scooted closer together to give her room.
The woman dipped into the hot tub and grinned, satisfied. She had black hair accented by a streak of silver along the right side of her face that gave her a look of maturity, but her youthful face made her appear simply lovely.
“Have you tried out the sauna yet?” Paula asked, glancing towards the side doors to the sauna room. “We’re probably going to give it a go in a minute.”
The woman smiled widely. “Oh, I’ve tried the sauna plenty of times. This is my spa.”
I sat up straight, my manners kicking in. “Well, it’s a lovely place.”
“She says that, but she’s been moaning and groaning about the yoga class we took all morning,” Paula teased.
The woman laughed and leaned over, elbowing me gently. “I don’t blame you. Sonya the instructor is a tough lady. You two took the advanced class?”
“Yup,” Paula said, flashing me a devious grin.
“What?” I exclaimed. “You had me take an advanced yoga class! No wonder I’m so sore.”
“It was the one that best fit our schedule,” Paula said, “Anyway, you’re fine. You’re tougher than you think.”
The woman laughed. “I’m Jane North, by the way,” she said.
“I’m Kate, and this used to be my best friend, Paula,” I said.
Paula laughed and waved a hand in my direction. “Ignore her.”
“Other than the evidently advanced yoga class we took, I really have enjoyed the spa. I’ll have to come back sometime and try out your facial and massage treatments.”
“Thank you. That means a lot to me,” Jane said. “This spa has been a labor of love, but it seems to be paying off. We’re working on expanding.”
“We saw that when we first got here,” Paula said, referring to the construction we’d noticed toward the back of the lobby. “Are you expanding into the building next door?”
“Yeah,” Jane said. “Currently it’s a nail salon. When we book manicures and pedicures, we leverage their staff and space. So we did the most logical thing we could think of–merge.”
“Awesome! A one-stop shop for pampering,” Paula said.
“That’s the goal,” Jane said. “So what is it that you ladies do? I heard you talking about... Speederman, was it?”
“That would be my oldest,” Paula said with a laugh. “He’s going through a superhero phase right now. But I’m an interior designer by trade.”
Paula flashed me a look, both of us thinking the same thing—if she could land the spa as a client, we’d have a lot of complimentary hot tubbing in our future.
“Impressive,” Jane said.
“And Kate is a private investigator,” Paula said, throwing an arm around my neck and pointing at me with her free hand. “And she’s great! She’s fairly new to the business, but she’s already solved some high profile cases. Cases, you know, that San Francisco’s finest had trouble with.”
“That’s really interesting,” Jane said. She turned to me and gave me an appraising look. “How did you get into that?”
Before I could launch into the story of my brother-in-law’s bags being recovered on the pier along with an unidentified body, shouts from outside the spa’s doors silenced me.
We all turned toward the doors, as loud giggles followed by more noise greeted us.
“Brace yourselves,” Jane said with a wink. “The bridal party has arrived, and I’m pretty sure they ordered the deluxe package... which comes with three bottles of champagne... plus I’m certain they had a bit to drink before coming here too.”
“Should they be in the hot tub if they’ve been drinking?” Paula asked.
“Not really,” Jane said. “But we have security cameras in here, and someone is always monitoring them for safety. I’d hate to ruin a bachelorette party by being a stickler. Though if they don’t settle down soon, they’ll be leaving.”
The doors flung open, and a drunken parade of giddy young girls came wobbling in. One older and sober woman escorted the girls through. The younger girls all dove into the hot tub beside us while the older woman looked at us with desperate eyes.
“Would you like to squeeze in with us?” I asked.
The woman didn’t hesitate. “I’m the mother of the groom,” she said, nodding toward the drunken bride in the other hot tub who was wearing a plastic tiara.
Paula laughed. “How did you get stuck as the designated driver today?”
The woman pinned her bright red hair back with a black rubber and laughed. “I was kindly invited. I thought it was going to be a fun, relaxing spa day. Now I’m pretty sure Kelly just wanted me to drive everyone home.”
I laughed quietly. “I’m Kate, by the way.”
The older lady smiled. “Julie Lozano.”
“Lozano?” the owner questioned. “Do I know you? The name sounds familiar.”
“It’s just a really common Italian last name,” the woman said. “There’s a healthy population of Italian’s around in San Francisco. I’m sure you’ve met a few Lozano’s with your business being located in the heart of downtown.”
“Kelly, stop splashing!” the woman wearing the maid of honor satchel shouted at the bride.
Jane laughed. “I hate to do this to you, Mrs. Lozano, but those ladies are owed one more bottle of champagne with their package. I should probably make sure one of my employees fetches it for them.”
Mrs. Lozano sighed. “Go ahead. I suppose my future daughter-in-law and her friends do deserve a little fun before the big day, right?”
Jane stood and fetched her towel. She said her farewells to Paula and me, and exited.
“Mrs. Lozano!” one of the girls shouted from the other hot tub. “Are you hiding from us over there?”
“Maybe a little,” she said with a laugh.
“Hey, I know you!” the same woman shouted and pointed right at me. “Your picture was in the paper a while ago, right?”
I blushed. “Yes, actually,” I said, almost forgetting I’d wound up in the paper for one of the cases I solved.
“I’m Brittany, the maid of honor of this posse. This is Kelly, the lovely bride.”
“Nice to meet you both,” Paula said, and we were introduced to four more women, the last of whom had similar red hair to Mrs. Lozano. Paula smiled at the last woman who was introduced as Merida. “Are you two related?” she asked.
Merida laughed. “What, you see red hair, and you assume we’re both Italian, right?”
Paula blushed. “Oh, I’m so sorry. I hope I didn’t offend you.”
“I’m just teasing,” Merida said. “Mine is from a bottle, but Mrs. Lozano’s authentic! We’re no relation,” she slurred slightly. “Though, I did date her son for a while.” She laughed a little too hard and looked for a moment as if she might lose her bearings and take a face plant into the hot tub.
“Don’t make it weird, Merida,” the maid of honor, Brittany, warned.
“It’s not weird, Brittany,” Kelly, the bride, assured. “No one cares that Merida used to date Ryan.”
Paula piped up, “And Ryan is....?”
“My son,” Mrs. Lozano said. “Kelly’s future husband. Merida and he dated briefly before he met Kelly.”
“So... the ex-girlfriend is one of the bridesmaids?” Paula asked, and I nudged her to let her know to stop prying.
“It’s not weird!” Kelly insisted.
Merida laughed and agreed. “Not at all. Ryan and I stayed friends after we broke up, so Kelly and I became friends too. Right, Mrs. Lozano?”
“Right,” Mrs. Lozano said with an unsettled look.
One of the girls lifted herself out of the Jacuzzi and fanned her face, and I suddenly smelled that awful cloying scent again.
My head spun and I felt like I was going to throw up.
Ugh, no!
I stood and grabbed the side of the hot tub. “Have any of you had facials?” I asked.
One of the girls raised her hand as though we were in a classroom.
“What kind of face mask did they use?” I asked. “That smell is so strong.”
“I know, right?” the girl said. “But my skin is so soft!”
Jane returned with a tray of Champagne glasses in hand. “We have two more facial appointments?” she asked, looking at the bride and maid of honor.
“Save us some Champagne you greedy hoodlums!” Brittany cried, hopping out of the tub and grabbing her towel.
The bride, Kelly, had trouble getting out of the tub, her pink tiara spilling onto the floor.
Mrs. Lozano frowned. “Maybe you should have some coffee, dear.”
Brittany picked up the tiara and placed it askew on top of Kelly’s head. “She’s fine.”
Jane glanced from Mrs. Lozano to the bride. “We have a great caramel apple coffee blend that you’ll love.”
Kelly wobbled toward the door. “Maybe that’s a good idea. Do you have Stevia?” she asked. “I have a tight white dress I need to fit in soon. I can’t do sugar.”
Jane smiled. “We have Stevia.”
Kelly and Brittany opened the door to the hallway as Jane popped the cork on the champagne.
“I think I’ll take a glass this time,” Mrs. Lozano said, and the younger women cheered.
Brittany exited the hot tub room and held the door for Kelly to follow her out.
As Kelly slipped out of the room, the tiara on her head took a tragic dive onto the tile floor; cracking and splintering as the door closed behind her.
