Her new friends were all her elders, but none of them seemed particularly old. Age really was a state of mind. Sure, sometimes the body intervened to remind you of the truth, but generally, you were as old as you acted.
Then, of course, there was someone besides the Queen Bees she might be spending time with. Ollie.
She didn’t know what was going to happen between the two of them, but dinner would be a good start toward figuring that out. They hadn’t set a date or talked about a restaurant, but it didn’t matter. She’d be happy with anything, really. Getting some quality time with him was the real point.
Also, the fact that they were going out was huge. She couldn’t ignore that. He was officially back on the market, and although the divorce had initially hit him hard, the seed Cece had plantedabout Emily’s potential infidelity had apparently helped him move past the heartbreak at record speed.
Maude could see how that would do it. Nothing like betrayal to change your thinking.
She typed out a message to the War Room group, choosing her words carefully.Hey gang! Hope you’re all doing well. I love and appreciate all the work you guys put into keeping this enclave safe, happy, and successful. My real life has gotten unexpectedly busier lately and I realize that the time has come for me to step down as Crown Regent. Nobody freak! I’m not leaving the game. I just need to be a little more fluid. You know how it is. Anyway, let’s start fielding possible nominations, okay?
As expected, the flood of responses came rushing in. Some thanked her for her service, some were just crying emojis, some were lengthy comments about how much her work for the enclave was appreciated. Then came one question Maude hadn’t been expecting.
It was from IndigoJayne, the player Maude had helped since she was a newbie, a woman who’d really come into her own lately, and the person Maude would be happy to see become Crown Regent next.
Her question simply read:Did you meet someone?
Maude laughed softly. IndigoJayne was over the target, but Maude wasn’t about to give an affirmative answer. For one, she didn’t really know if Ollie qualified as “someone” yet. And for two, things between them were very much up in the air.
Saying yes felt like it might jinx things. Maude wasn’t superstitious, but even that was a bridge too far even for her.
She answered,Just made some RL friends and gotten involved in some groups. Plus work is picking up. Can’t be two people so…She added the shrugging emoji and figured that should do it.
After a bit more discussion, they ran their next raid and she signed off with a promise to be back as soon as she could.
Then she turned her attention to the Google search. Lots of results but nothing that was earth-shattering.
She scrolled through them, bookmarking the pages she wanted to come back to or those she thought might lead to other things.
Emily was a Realtor for one of the big local firms. Maude decided to explore that for a bit. She looked up Emily’s company and quickly found her listed as a broker and top agent. Emily was probably making good money, then.
Real estate in Beechwood was hot. Great schools, easy access to the beach, and safe neighborhoods. It also wasn’t much of a tourist destination, which made locals love the town even more.
That was changing these days, thanks to people like Emily who were advertising the homes for sale here as great “vacation home opportunities.” Maude scowled. Beechwood did not need snowbirds. There were enough of them here already.
But she knew they brought in money and that money helped keep the roads paved and the schools in new computers.
Maude looked at the rest of the company’s employees listed on the website. Two more women and two men.
One of the men was married, one wasn’t, but he was the most junior Realtor and looked about twelve, which probably meant he was twenty-something. Maude did a search on Derek Nyland and found him on Instagram, where he liked to post pictures of himself at the gym or on the beach. And occasionally next to his car, which was an older model Corvette.
Derek was definitely a fan of himself shirtless. The whole vibe he gave off made Maude think he could be a possibility.
He might consider a woman like Emily an easy conquest. Or maybe he was into the whole cougar thing. He was worth looking into more thoroughly.
Maude opened a Word doc and put his name at the top, then copied and pasted in some info about him. His Instagram handle, his email, and a number he’d listed for himself on the company site.
She wondered what the real estate company’s policy was on interoffice romance. Something else to look into.
Next she went to Emily’s LinkedIn, using one of her fake accounts to sign in. It didn’t look like Emily did much with the site. Maude made a few notes and moved on to Facebook.
Emily liked Facebook. She was in numerous groups. One for moms of college students, one for female Florida Realtors, another for scrapbookers, one that was all about fast healthy meals for worknights—the list went on.
Emily apparently never met a group she didn’t join. That would take time to dig into, to see who Emily interacted with and then dig into those people.
Maude made another note about that, then moved back to some of the results Google had returned.
Emily had been interviewed several times in the last year, mostly by local publications, and she’d attended quite a few fundraising and charity events. Her company had sponsored two of them. The first was for an organization that helped homeless veterans, which seemed slightly odd for a high-sales Realtor to be involved in. But maybe Maude was reading too much into that.
