by Coco Pulliam
“Yeah, it’s the place.” Tammy got her cell phone out of her purse quickly as she watched the window. “Oh…oh…there he is!” He was coming out of the building with his bag on his shoulder. She made to roll down the window and signal him excitedly but put her hands down when a young woman with short dirty-blonde hair ran up and kissed him on the cheek.
“What the hell?!” Monica put the car in park and got out of it. A driver behind her was honking, but she was rushing toward the scene. Tammy got out of the car beside her. Even after they had pulled apart, Eric still held the woman around the shoulders and messed up her hair. Tammy could feel there was something intimate about their relationship, but the woman didn’t make her want to cringe. She looked like someone who was close to him.
But not in the same way that Tammy was.
“Don’t go overboard, Monica. Look at her closely. She practically has his face.”
“Then he might be one of those guys who like their women to look just like themselves.”
Tammy straightened up her dress and went forward toward the two. Instead of acting like he’d been caught, Eric waved her over, and the woman smiled shyly at her. Tammy could see the truth in both of their matched eyes. But she couldn’t shake the sudden fear that had come over her.
“Your twin is beautiful,” she said quietly.
“You’re the one who stole my older brother. Lucky you’re beautiful.” The young woman stuck out her hand. “Sera Coyer, but you can call me your cute sister-in-law.” The woman winked at her with a smile, along with a lingering look. If his twin was a man, she would have mistaken the look for flirty. Sera gave her another wink as she saw her stare. She couldn’t mistake it—Sera was flirting with her.
“She’s my wife, Sera. Stealing one of my girlfriends is one thing, but my wife is another thing entirely.” Eric pulled Tammy over to his side, letting both hands wrap around her waist and draw her close.
“I didn’t steal her, Eric. I made her realize her lesbian potential…but who’s the other beautiful woman coming?”
Monica was giving Sera a dirty look while the other woman licked her lips.
“I swear she was supposed to be born my brother instead. She has way bigger balls than me when it comes to the ladies,” Eric whispered into Tammy’s ear.
“Well, Monica was supposed to be born a pit bull instead,” she whispered back.
“Monica, this is Sera, Eric’s twin sister. Sera, this is my half in blood but handful of a sister, Monica,” Tammy introduced quickly. She moved from Eric’s side to hustle both women toward the car, holding them at arm’s length from each other. “We’re halfway late to meet up with the mothers.”
Once they made it into the fancy restaurant, Tammy’s resolve left her body. If there was a good way to explain to a parent that you had gone and eloped, then Tammy needed it to appear in her mind. She had two angry mothers to deal with in front of her. She held on to Monica’s hand tightly while walking behind Eric. Both mothers were looking at her with narrowed eyes. There was a pan in Ma’s hand, and Omma’s slippers were at the ready.
“You’re going to block me, right?” Tammy whispered to Eric.
“Don’t worry, baby—they’re not going to disown you for marrying me.”
“Boy, don’t talk too soon,” Monica hissed.
Neither of the mothers spoke when Eric and Sera settled in front of them. They coughed until Monica and Tammy got enough courage to step out from behind Eric.
“Our Tammy found herself here all right, but she never found a way to tell us that she was getting married,” Omma—i.e., “mother” in Korean—said. The Korean woman was a petite, well-dressed woman with the same long black hair as her daughter. She sat calmly in a white tweed suit; the only thing that exposed her small village background was the worn-out slippers in her hand.
“You should stop saying ‘our’ now, Suk Hee. When we plan for her funeral it will be easier for us to mourn her quickly.” Ma, Shanice Williamson, looked every bit the Kingston import. She was in a multicolored dress, fanning herself with the paper menu, pan in the other hand, and waiting for the waiters to say something to her. Her naturally curly hair was brought back into a bun, earrings off so she would be able to run after the women just in case their fight turned into flight.
“Tammy?”
“Yes, Omma?”
“What entered your brain and told you to go and get married to someone without introducing us to him first?” Omma raised her slipper to throw. “What made you ignore all of our phone calls instead of coming over to beg for forgiveness?”
The woman’s already calm voice was still leveled, but Monica brought herself down to her knees along with Tammy, pulling them both down.
“It’s not her fault; I should have been with her. She went to Marcus’s wedding alone—”
“No, I chose to marry him—”
* * * *
“Madam, can I interject? Omma-in-law?” Eric said awkwardly. He hardly knew where to begin, but he came up and kneeled next to them.
He had watched the situation quickly turn from amusing to tense with his sister beside him. The usually snarky woman kept quiet throughout the whole exchange. He knew he’d married an independent young woman, but at the moment, she had regressed to a disobedient teenager in front of his eyes. If he wanted to diffuse the situation, he would have to play by their rules. Though he was kneeling beside Tammy in his slightly worn work pants, he shifted so that their hips would be touching just in case she wanted to lean against him.
“You can speak.” Ma exchanged a subtle glance with Omma.
“I married her on that day with a clear mind. I’m sorry that you both couldn’t meet me first, but I’m not sorry that it happened. I’m not the kind of person who will not take responsibility for what was done. I promised your daughter that I would—will take care of her. I’m not going to leave or abandon that promise.”
He reached for Tammy’s hands as he spoke.
“I’m not going to go anywhere,” he said.
Omma turned to Ma. Both of them looked at each other with resolution in their eyes before nodding.
“So he should get the punishment?” Ma looked at her counterpart with a small smile.
“It seems so,” Omma answered.
* * * *
Tammy looked back at her stepsister. Monica was chatting with Sera on the way back home, not minding the other woman’s attempts to flirt with her. Tammy figured she was too happy at the prospect of having missed her beatings to do anything to avoid the other woman’s advances. Eric was sitting at the wheel with a grimace on his worn-out face. The women hadn’t gone easy on him even when the waiters threatened to call the police. They’d just calmly moved the beating outside.
He looked at her from the wheel at a red light and gave her a little smile.
“I’m a big boy; I can take a little roughing up.” Eric rubbed her hand and gave her a wink.
“Err—a little? Boy, our mothers almost destroyed you.” Monica reached a hand over and patted his back. “You took one for the team.”
“Are they following behind us closely?” Tammy looked back to see Omma driving her silver Echo.
“Omma was an unofficial stalker in her younger years—she found herself three jobs that way,” Monica said.
“It’s going to be Christmas Eve dinner this year with lots of people instead of just me and Eric,” Sera said. “It’s been lonely the last three years without Mom and Dad.”
“How come your parents haven’t come over?” Monica asked.
Tammy looked over to Eric; his face had lost all of its humor. She rested her hand on his shoulder and massaged lightly. That was one way to get the tension out of his body. He looked over at her gratefully.
“It’s just been that way…” Sera trailed off. “They don’t want to travel all the way from Scotland without a good reason.”
Eric turned into their parking lot slowly.
There was a car already waiting in the parki
ng lot and what looked like people moving from within it.
“Stay in the car. I’m going to go check it out. When I give you the signal, call 911,” Eric spoke as he got out of the car quickly.
“No, I’m going to call the police first. What do you mean?!” Tammy’s heart was pounding. She could hardly figure out where her bag was to locate her cell phone, but she couldn’t imagine letting Eric go into any situation without immediate backup.
“I told you they were all outside, Hannah! Are you all going to stay chatting in the car or are you going to enter this bloody house?!” There was an older brown-haired man standing at the door, green-and-red Christmas sweater on and matching kilt resting beyond his knees.
“Oh, Conaire, there’s no need to swear at the children.” A middle-aged woman appeared behind him, walking quickly past him to Eric’s car.
Eric walked out of his car slowly, going over to the other side and holding Tammy close to him, presenting her to them. The woman slowed took Tammy in as Tammy also examined the other woman. Her light brown hair was wavy and past her shoulders, while her thin, lean frame revealed a woman who still worked into her old age. She wore a matching Christmas sweater dress and tights.
“I wouldn’t have believed it for myself…but here you are. What kind of wedding did you make this poor woman suffer through?” The woman turned to Eric with lightly accusing eyes. “What kind of wedding did you make my new daughter go through? Don’t ask for introductions—just call me Mum and call that insane man over there Dad, darling.”
Instead of waiting for an answer, she linked her arm through Tammy’s, leading her away from Eric and toward the house.
“We have to get you all changed for Christmas.”
Tammy listed off all her family in her head. Her sister Monica and new sister Sera, Omma, Ma, and now Mum. But as she walked by the man in the kilt, instead of letting her pass by, he raised her to him in a big bear hug. Dad was also added to the list, finally. As her feet touched the ground, she looked back to Eric.
She wanted to mouth back “thank you,” but even mouthing the words would let water drop down her face. All the tears she’d held in as a child on Father’s Days would fall onto her face in that instant. Instead of being caught in that moment, she was pushed into the house by Monica, following Mum so the other woman would be able to have her own hug.
Chapter Three
The holidays were the happiest they had been for Tammy, so much so that she hadn’t questioned her extraordinary situation once that entire time. But that kind of comfort isn’t safe. The past shows up in the midst of good news, clutching on to you so you can’t move. It shows up in the moments where you aren’t waiting for something bad to happen. When you’re living life like nothing is ever going to be wrong again—that is when the hurricane comes.
Tammy held onto her mum’s arm as they walked through the grocery store. Both her parents and Erics’ had stayed throughout Christmas to New Year’s, with a countdown and cake for each day. Throughout the whole vacation, Eric’s mom and dad acted as if Tammy had saved them from some kind of mortal embarrassment. It was the first instance that the parents of any of her boyfriends had been so welcoming. Even before Marcus had given her excuses for breaking up, she’d had to endure the way his mother looked at her—as if she had just come out from rolling from the mud. Marcus’s mother couldn’t understand why he wanted to date someone so dark. She had told him over and over again that she didn’t think that the union would move past dating, but in the end Tammy couldn’t blame his mother for their breaking up. Breaking up with her was ultimately his choice.
But the past didn’t change how happy she was about Mr. and Mrs. Coyer’s joy over having her in their family. She couldn’t understand why they were happy to see her even though they had said it was a shame they couldn’t have a proper wedding. The holidays were a time for acceptance, so after Ma and Omma had seen Eric’s bruises, they had worried and fussed over him to make sure he was okay. The family had integrated itself in a way that Tammy hadn’t counted on.
She had nothing left to want in her life. She was living in completeness.
“Hannah?”
Both Tammy and her mother-in-law turned around as the voice rang out.
From between the food aisles, a young woman walked up to where they were choosing milk. She was model tall, perhaps a size two, with lightly tanned skin and short brown hair. She looked around Tammy’s age, aside from the fact that she had deep worry lines. Her clothing, a short red dress and black heels, both looked like high class although up close they appeared worn, more than a few years past season. Behind her a blond little boy followed closely, watching everything with wide green eyes. He smiled at Tammy as they came closer. She felt her mother-in-law shiver.
“Hannah? You look amazing. How have you been?”
Tammy watched as the woman she’d grown to know as cheerful day-to-night turned cold all of a sudden.
“I’ve been well, Ms. Aziza,” she replied shortly. Her hands were folded over her body, slowly moving to block Tammy. “You surely have been more than busy.”
“Well…yes… But there is no need to be formal. I’m still Maria. I might have left town for a bit, but I haven’t changed.”
“Well, I’m Mrs. Coyer. Not Hannah anymore. Nice to see you are doing well. If you’ll excuse me…” Hannah grabbed hold of Tammy to pull her away.
“Say hello to Eric for me… I think he’ll be surprised to know I’m still around…” Maria looked down at the fussing child beside her as she spoke.
Hannah did not look back to see the exchange, but Tammy did, her heart slamming against her ribcage. Both of them left the grocery store in silence. Her mother-in-law got into the driver’s seat; Tammy turned her face to look out the window as the other woman drove. She didn’t know what to think. Her heart was spinning. She’d thought Monica had been overreacting when she’d said she should give Eric a daughter or son, gives him something that would keep him attached to her if his ex-girlfriend ever decided to show up. But Tammy had gotten too greedy, too complacent in her life; she couldn’t imagine someone coming in to destroy what she was building with Eric. From living together, to becoming a supportive wife, to lovemaking, there wasn’t anything she wouldn’t be able to do.
Except give him a blond, green-eyed child.
“Don’t mind her. There is nothing she won’t say to get attention. I’ve already seen her two times since the wedding, but she won’t be getting her paws back into my son,” Hannah said, hitting her fist on the steering wheel.
Tammy felt herself getting hot; her clothes were pulled tight around her.
“Were do you want to go for food now, honey? Do you want to pick up something before continuing our grocery shopping?”
Tammy could hear the other woman’s words, but she couldn’t answer her. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t breathe… She couldn’t—
There was a shrieking of a car before Tammy felt her head hit the glass window.
“Tammy!”
* * * *
Eric couldn’t get to the hospital fast enough. Or at least he felt his driving was too slow. Monica, Omma, and Ma were in the car but instead of urging him faster, pulling on him, or beating him all the way there, all of them looked lost in thought. They were completely quiet as he drove forward, and the thought that they had been made speechless worried him even more than his slow-moving car.
Once inside the hospital, Eric spotted his mother quickly. She collapsed into her son’s arms.
“What happened to Tammy?” he spoke quickly.
“We were driving back from the grocery store and she passed out and hit her head hard on the dashboard. I U-turned immediately and rushed her to the hospital when I saw the blood…”
“Are you Mrs. Coyer’s guardian?”
A doctor had rushed out from the emergency room.
Eric looked from his mother to the doctor.
“There was a stall in the emergency rooms, so I took Mrs.
Coyer there to bandage her up. No worries. She has a few superficial stitches on her forehead and seemed to have suffered some shock, but she is resting up now with an IV.”
“She has stitches on her face? What have I told that crazy girl about getting her face injured?” Monica whispered from the back. Ma shushed her.
“Um, well, yes. I would allow her a few hours of sleep before visiting, but she has been asking for her husband. He may visit for a short period of time.”
Eric stepped up to shake the doctor’s hand.
“Thank you. Can you please bring me to my wife now?”
The doctor nodded shortly before leading the way.
In the small hospital room, Tammy was resting in the back. Her curly hair had been pulled from her face with a pink rhinestone headband—most likely his mother’s doing. He heard the click of the closing door signaling the doctor’s leaving as he sat down. He let his hands cover hers as she slept.
“Hubby Coyer, you have really big green eyes.”
Eric looked down in shock from the sudden voice. He smiled down at her. He had left the house without taking off his glasses in his rush. He only used his glasses to read so he only needed them in his workplace, but with the extra work that had been coming in, he made sure to take a little of it home so that he would have more time to spend with his wife.
“Don’t tell me I look silly with them on. I wanted to ease you into seeing me like this. Ah, now I might hear you and Monica talking about how you married a little bit of a geek.”
Tammy smiled at him and shook her head as she reached up toward his face. She had grabbed onto his glasses, fixing them on the bridge of his nose slowly.
“Even if you’re a geek, you’re still mine. Remember that. You’re mine period.”
She moved to withdraw her hands from his glasses, but Eric held on to them. He put her hands on his shoulders as he pulled himself closer to her.
“And what’s this about you injuring your face? Why are you like this? You’re not supposed to do anything wrong to your body. Even if you get cuts on your body like this, you’re still mine. Remember that. You’re mine, period,” he said.
