Slender Bridge

by Katrina Clemons

  The second thing that told Tatiana that her day was going to be one for the books was when she realized that an 8 foot section of the 4 foot tall hedges in front of the house had been cut down to 2 feet. She was not ready to take in a second disappointment, this was all wrong and she had to fix it. She didn’t think twice, she knew no one else would do that but only one stubborn person.

  “Holy crap! Aw man, Mr. Rosenblatt!” she screamed as she put her palm on her face. She didn’t have to be an investigator to know who was behind it.

  As soon as Tatiana saw the hatchet job on the hedge she knew it was her neighbor, Saul Rosenblatt.

  It had to be.

  Tatiana sighed. She recalled a time when the Rosenblatt’s and her parents had been best friends. They used to have dinner at each other’s homes every other week. Tatiana’s mother and Mrs. Rosenblatt would go shopping or out to lunch, and her father and Mr. Rosenblatt would go fishing, watch television and go to sporting events together.

  They were like family. Everything they did, they did together. There was no single day that you would find both families apart, they were so close and wouldn’t do anything without the other family. They became inseparable.

  Mr. Rosenblatt would help her father with repairs to the car, and her Dad would make sure the plants in the Rosenblatt’s yard were always well groomed. When Tatiana’s father cut their lawn he’d always cut the Rosenblatt’s as well. Tatiana even remembered a time when her mother’s car had broken down, and Mr. Rosenblatt had lent her mother his car for a week, saying that Mrs. Rosenblatt could drop him off and pick him on the way to and from work. They were as close as family. Many people thought her dad and Mr. Rosenblatt were brothers who married sisters. They looked happy together.

  One day all of that changed. One heart wrenching summer when 9 year old Tatiana lost her parents, her mother to cancer, and her father to the heartache of losing his wife, as well as her neighbors whom she was closer to than her biological aunts and uncles, Mrs. Rosenblatt to divorce, and Mr. Rosenblatt to a bitter feud. This was traumatizing to Tatiana, she was used to a bigger family and now she was left all alone with no one, only Mr Rosenblatt who was bitter and had become unfriendly.

  Tatiana remembered asking her brother, Ken, what happened between the two men, and Ken had told her that their father and Mr. Rosenblatt had a huge argument. He didn’t know what it was about; all he knew was that they hadn’t spoken a word to each other since.

  Ken saw them argue outside, he could tell that it was not a small feud; Mr. Rosenblatt was throwing his hands in the air while screaming. He could tell that something happened between those two friends; he didn’t know why and didn’t bother asking because his father never wanted to talk about it.

  The previous year, Tatiana’s father decided to move to New Jersey to help his younger sister. Her husband had fallen ill, and Tatiana’s father was going to stay there with his sister for as long as she needed him.

  Her father wanted to keep himself busy to not think about her mother. The death of her mother had taken a toll on him and he was depressed, even though he tried to pretend to be strong. When he heard the news that his sister’s husband was sick, he decided to help her take care of him without thinking twice. He knew what his sister was going through and wanted to be there.

  Two months before her father’s move to Jersey, Mr. Rosenblatt had two 5 foot potted lilac plants delivered to their house as a gift. He instructed the delivery men to place one plant on each side of the front door. They were beautiful plants, lush and green with lovely purple fragrant flowers. Tatiana’s father was surprised, but very pleased. He had to grudgingly admit that the plants were very nice. Three days after the plants arrived, they noticed that whenever her father walked by the plants, he’d immediately go into a fit of sneezing. It took a few more days before her father recalled that when he and Tatiana’s mother, first purchased their home, there were several bushes like the one Mr. Rosenblatt had given them. He also remembered that he had to cut them down because he was allergic.

  Tatiana and her father couldn’t move the plants themselves because they seemed to weigh a ton, so they had to wait until her brother came home for a visit or hire someone to move it for them, and until then her father had to use the back door. It was tiring to use the back door, but there was nothing they could do about it.

  Tatiana listened to her father grumble about, “That no good bastard, and his sorry-assed plants.” He kept on complaining while he still used the back door as he waited for his son to arrive.

  Tatiana’s father, being the sweet man that he was, waited a few weeks, and then he ordered a twelve foot statue of the Virgin Mary, COD, to be delivered to Mr. Rosenblatt. Making sure that it was being delivered the morning he was to leave for Jersey, so he could enjoy the look of horror on Mr. Rosenblatt’s face when the delivery people told him that he was there with a three thousand dollar COD delivery.

  During the exchange, a stunned Tatiana stood next to her father’s truck, observing an equally stunned Saul Rosenblatt. They could see that he refused to sign for the present.

  Ken Sr., grinned, wagging his brows at his daughter, saying, “Now, that’s a going away present. Yes, that’s the present he deserves for making me sneeze this entire time.” Her father said with a smile.

  “Do you think he’ll know you are the one who sent him the gift?” Ken asked.

  “I don’t give a damn what he thinks, all I wanted was for him to see the present and now that he has seen it, it makes me happy and content.” He continued smiling

  “It’s surely a nice revenge present.” Tatiana finally said as they drove away.

  Chapter 2

  Tatiana Herbart dropped the window curtain, and headed to the bathroom to shower and change for work. On her trek to the bathroom, she wondered if the raft that Amanda had stored in the garage would withstand the wind and rain of a monsoon, and if the torrential rains did flood the house, would she be able to claim her ruined hairstyle on their homeowner’s insurance policy?

  She wanted to look good; she’d heard the rumors that her ex-boyfriend was back. She didn’t want to show him that she was really hurt when he ran off with another woman. She smiled at the thought of him. Such a jerk, she thought, as she entered the bathroom.

  An hour later, Tatiana pushed her limp, damp hair off her forehead, cursing the idiot weather people and their stupid Doppler radar while she took a moment to recall her rotten morning. Her day was already ruined and she didn’t give a damn about anything.

  After getting ready for work, Tatiana had donned her coat and a brimmed hat, grabbed her umbrella, lunch bag, and purse, and made her way to the car. During her march from the inside garage door to her car, she tried not to envision the rain and wind, trying to convince herself that it was a bright sunny day, least rainy thoughts prove the theory of her limp hair.

  When she backed out of the garage to the end of the drive, a heavy wind blew one of the garbage cans in the path of her car. Jumping out of the car, she grabbed the can, wrestling with the wind for it like petulant children fighting over a much wanted toy. She finally gained control of the garbage can, putting it in its place next to the garage, when a gust of wind blew her hat off, drenching her barely there curls.

  “Just what I needed!” she cursed with rage.

  Shoulders drooping almost as badly as her hair, and cursing under her breath, Tatiana stomped back to her car muttering about ludicrous rain, absurd wind, and dimwitted weather people. She also thought that maybe Mondays weren’t such great days after all. She started having second thoughts about Mondays. She was looking forward to the weekend.

  Tatiana parked at her spot; she always got a lot of attention from work because she was the only African American working at the Travel Agency. She walked briskly to her desk. Amanda was already waiting for her.

  “I’m not in the mood for the office gossip right now,” she said as she sat down.

  “You won’t believe who just walked in,” Aman
da insisted.

  “I don’t care if it’s the president,” she said as she switched on her computer.

  “A closer guess,” Amanda said. She looked up and was shocked who was standing next to her desk.

  “You’re such a spoiler Trent, FYI I wasn’t talking about you,” Amanda gave Tatiana a suspicious look as she left.

  Tatiana turned to see Trent, loser, and jerk extraordinaire. He was her stinking-rat-bastard ex-boyfriend. She wasn’t expecting him; she hadn’t heard from him for a long time and wanted it to be that way, total silence between them.

  No, no, no. Lord, what did I do to deserve this? Tatiana mentally whined. Okay, so she may have parked in her boss’s spot the previous Friday when she stopped to pick up her morning hit of java but it didn’t mean that she was to be punished like this.

  She may have laughed a little when some old lady saw her parking in said spot, and honked giving her an evil glare. Sometimes she always felt nice being evil and crafty.

  And… um… she may have laughed a little… or maybe a lot, which might have made Grandma Dynamo somewhat manic, causing her to shake her tiny fist at Tatiana, and then proceeded to shoot her the one-finger salute. Well… then Tatiana might have blown Grandma a kiss, which probably pissed the white-haired stick of dynamite off more, if the bulging eyes, red face and flailing of arms were any indication.

  But geez, Tatiana reflected, there were like, 30 parking spots and only six regular ones. What was she supposed to do? Circle the parking lot aimlessly until someone decided to leave and then hope she could snag the spot before the next caffeine deprived loser snapped it up and have her take a chance on being late for work again?

  “How have you been?” Trent’s question snapped Tatiana out of her musings on which evil sin landed her in this mess. He leaned on the counter looking, if possible, better than he did when he ran off and left her for another woman. The jackass.

  She was devastated when he ran off with her and now she was over him, but she was not ready to meet him again. She kept thinking of him and wanted to know about everything he did and how his new relationship was going. It took her a lot of time to forget him and now he was back with an agenda.

  She knew that he was ambitious and would never stop until he got what he wanted. She was not going to let him use her again. She learned her lesson the first time and would never repeat the same mistake twice. She had to admit that he was irresistible and it would take a lot of energy and focus to reject him again.

  With his smooth dark brown skin and thick dark hair, broad, muscular shoulders that, damn it, looked even more toned, and how fair is that?

  To top it off, he was wearing what could only be a tailored shirt, which probably cost more than her last five hair appointments. I mean, come on. She thought, He should have gained fifty pounds, developed a pot belly, or started to show premature balding. Something, Anything. He looked hot. He loved class and it seemed that was exactly what he got. She couldn’t deny that he had such great taste in clothing.

  She didn’t bother answering him, not that she could if she wanted to, so she folded her arms and glared. Really, what was she going to say? “Hi Trent, how are you? Me? I’m just fine. And how are you and the woman that you dumped me for, things going well for the two of you?”

  He kept talking as if she wasn’t standing there shooting invisible death rays at him and imagining him exploding in a cloud of ash.

  “You look really good Baby.” He smiled.

  Hearing him call her “Baby,” snapped Tatiana out of her trance and sent her into immediate defense mode.

  “I am not your baby.” She said in an amazingly calm voice.

  “Aw, Baby.” Trent crooned.

  “Do not call me that.” She snapped. “You don’t get to call me that ever again.” Her voice rose a bit and she glanced around hoping that no one was close by. She did not want to lay her problems out for the town to see. It was bad enough that everyone knew Trent had dumped her. They didn’t need to hear that she was at work making a fool of herself in front of him and anyone else who wanted to witness such asinine behavior.

  “I will call you baby,” he insisted.

  “I won't allow you to call me that.” She said defensively.

  Tatiana looked to her right and saw Mrs. Morrison, the head of the marketing department eyeing them. Oh great. This little altercation was going to be the talk of every dentist appointment, hair dressing session and grocery line discussion by noon, and it was only 10 am. Lowering her voice, Tatiana asked, “Trent, what do you want?”

  He held up a book, the grin never leaving his face. “Checking up on you.”

  “What do you mean?” she asked furiously while still whispering.

  “I said I’m checking up on you,” he replied.

  She arched a brow and harrumphed. “I know you want something just say it.”

  He chuckled. “Na Baby, I came home to visit my Mom,” raising a brow, he added, “and decided to come by and pick up something from you. Let’s just say that I’ve changed.” He said with a smile.

  Tatiana wanted to laugh at that.

  “Now that you’ve said hi, you go back to your girlfriend.” She suggested.

  “That’s not how you treat people,” he said. He pretended not to know that what he did really hurt Tatiana.

  He calculated his wardrobe, knowing the best things to wear when he was at a meeting to get the optimal outcome and show off his body when he moved a certain way.

  He calculated his meals in public; to be sure that he wasn’t eating anything that could get stuck in his teeth, in the event that he met a potential client and chose foods that he believed would make people think that he was suave and sophisticated.

  “I’ll walk out if you won’t tell me what you want.” She said with a stern face.

  “Okay, I want that ring I gave you back.”

  Tatiana gave him a smile then stood up. “I threw it away the moment you left me. You thought I would keep that piece of trash?”

  Chapter 3

  Clyde Fox II watched Tatiana argue with her ex boyfriend. He had been the CEO of his family’s company, Fox Industries after his father retired five years ago. His father, Clyde Fox, started the Hotel Fox brand thirty years ago with one location on the Greek island of Chios. Now there were over fifty locations worldwide. That was what he wanted the media to say about him.

  Apart from being a drug dealer, he was well connected to the police. He had influence everywhere. Very few people knew what he did; he always hid under his father’s shadow.

  He walked slowly to Tatiana’s desk and stopped. Everyone was looking at him, they wondered what he wanted. He was well known in the Bronx area. He was a drug dealer worth billions of dollars.

  “Excuse me, what do you want from my girlfriend?” he asked Trent as he kissed Tatiana on the cheek. Tatiana looked confused but she loved the look on Trent’s face. This was the best revenge she could ever get.

  “I’m sorry, I was just catching up,” Trent said.

  “It doesn’t look to me like you were doing that,” Clyde said defensively. He looked serious and Trent bought the lie.

  “I’m sorry and see you around.” Trent left without looking behind him.

  Tatiana looked confused. Why would a stranger save her from Trent?

  “I’m sorry miss; you may now get back to work.” Clyde said.

  “I want to say thank you,” Tatiana said in a polite voice.

  “Before I forget, your company made a mistake not to make arrangements for one person I was traveling with, so you’ll be my date tomorrow and you will be my tour guide to show me around the city while I’m still around here.”

  “I don’t understand sir,” Tatiana said.

  “You are a tour and travel agency; I don’t understand how you forgot to make a booking for the extra person I mentioned, so I’ll see you tomorrow at La Paz Hotel, dinner at 8.00. That is the reason I canceled my appointment, to come to make a complaint personally, bu
t your boss suggested that you could show me around town to cover for the mistake.”

  “But—” He left before she could finish what she was saying. She didn’t even have a dress for the occasion. She had to leave early to go and prepare herself.

  “That is who I wanted to tell you about before Trent walked in but I can see that you two have already met.” Amanda said.

  Chapter 4

  Trent had to force himself not to drag his hard headed woman down the slick library steps and across the street.

  “Slow down.” Maya demanded breathlessly in an attempt to dodge and jump over the remaining rain puddles. “Trent, slow down!”

  Rounding the corner of the bank, Trent let go of her arm, practically spinning her around at the same time. Hands on hips, he glared at the woman standing in front of him.

  “Babe, I asked you to let me handle this.”

  Maya crossed her arms defiantly. “Well, did you talk to her?”

  “I told you, I can’t just come right out and ask her for the ring. I have to handle it delicately.”

  “How hard can it be? Just say, ‘Tatiana, remember that engagement ring that I gave you? Well, the guy that I purchased it from, he stole it from some really bad men. And these bad men are going to cut off an essential body part if I don’t return it, so I’d like to have it back please,’ and if she refuses, offer her money. If you offer her enough money I assure you, she will return that bloody ring.”

  Trent cringed at her mention of having anything hacked from his body, and he felt nauseous thinking about the body part that he was sure she was referring to being chopped off. “It’s not that easy.” He went on to say.

  “And why not? You act as if she has a sentimental bond with that ring, or that she’s above a little monetary persuasion. I promise you, she’s not.”