The Tea Series

by Sheila Horgan

  “Wonder what that means.”

  “Probably nothing, but I’ve decided to keep track. Maybe coincidences are my déjà vu.”

  “Okay, lost again.”

  “It’s not important. My mom always says that when you have a whole lot of déjà vu going on in your life it means you are on the right life path. Maybe for me it isn’t so much coincidence as it is déjà vu. Maybe I’m finally back on the right path.”

  “I’ll leave that to you and your mother. So when are you and Teagan leaving? Where are you going? How are you getting there? All that stuff.”

  It took me a few minutes to explain everything, and since the details are still a little fluid, there were lots of maybes and we probably wills in there.

  “You look happy.”

  “What?”

  “Cara, for a long time now, you haven’t looked happy. Today, you do.”

  “Teagan probably snuck some of that happy tea stuff in my drink.”

  “If that works, I’ll buy it in bulk. I love you so much. I want you to be happy. I just don’t know how to help you get there.”

  “I love you too. You can’t make me happy. You aren’t responsible for my emotions. They’re all mine.”

  “Just what a guy wants to hear, that he can’t make the woman he loves happy.”

  “The good news is that you can’t make me mad or unhappy. Those are all on me. It is how I choose to respond to what is happening around me.”

  “I’ll think about that another day. My brain has been fried for weeks.”

  “Maybe you should be the one going on a road trip.”

  He looked at me funny. My guess is because he is leaving on a road trip day after tomorrow.

  “I mean a fun road trip.”

  “This one is going to be stressful. Morgan and I are driving up north to give our presentation. I’m pretty sure we have everything under control. I think we have a good product and a good plan. I’m really confident that Morgan is the best and that if anyone can pull this off, she can. The fact that she’s smart, beautiful, has a wicked sense of humor, and people just genuinely like her from the moment they meet her isn’t going to hurt us at all.”

  I wanted to make some smart comment about him falling for my sister-in-law, but it was obviously not the right time to tease him. I’ll just save that for another time.

  “Don’t downplay your part in all of this, A.J.”

  “I’m not.”

  “I really think you are. More than just a little. Remember, we agreed. We’re going to work on this stuff. I’m supposed to point it out to you, and you are going to point it out to me. This is part of what we do. We take all the blame and none of the credit. You’ve worked hard on this. Your work is always extraordinary. Your talent is unbelievable. You’re creative and quick, and I’ve got some news for you. Don’t let it go to your head” — I lowered my voice — ”or give you any ideas about Kitty, but you’re really good-looking, you’re smart, you have a wicked sense of humor, and people just like you from the moment they meet you.”

  “So I’m not beautiful?”

  We laughed.

  Kitty, the waitress, came over to see if the poison she’d put in my food had taken effect yet. I’m not sure she poisoned me for real, but I bet she has a plan. Maybe that is why they call her Kitty; she seems to be stalking her prey.

  Her prey just happens to be the man I love.

  He doesn’t seem interested.

  And he isn’t shy about letting her know.

  Yay!

  She put our check on the table. A.J. immediately paid with cash.

  “I’ll be right back with your change.”

  “I think we’re good, thanks.”

  Kitty looked at me with pure disdain. “So, if you guys are married, how come you don’t wear a ring?”

  As I stood up I said, “I do.”

  She looked confused.

  “Just not on my finger.” I let my eyebrows wiggle around enough to really annoy her.

  She looked at my chest for evidence of a nipple ring.

  Finding none, she looked lower.

  When we were safely inside the studio with the door closed, we both burst laughing.

  “I can’t believe you said that.”

  “What was I supposed to say?”

  “I like the way your mind works.”

  “Uh-oh, don’t tell me you have fantasies of me having body parts pierced, because I don’t think I’m up for that.”

  “No, I have no desire to have a stranger anywhere near that.” He actually blushed. So cute.

  We started laughing all over again.

  After explaining the whole thing to Suzi, we gathered A.J.’s stuff and headed home, caravan style.

  A.J. had several errands to run but was going to go home and take a shower first. He’d been at the office since very early this morning and needed a break. He was convinced a shower would refresh him.

  I’m not so convinced. I think he needs to sleep for a couple of days.

  Suzi can forward any business calls to her cell and get other work done from home.

  The nice thing about a business like A.J.’s is that it is pretty casual as far as workplace and work hours. His workday is normally fluid. He and Jovana have both put effort into figuring out if having someone present in the studio during regular business hours makes a substantial difference in the bottom line, and it turns out, for them, it doesn’t.

  That’s a good thing, because Suzi is looking more and more tired these days. I wonder if they have figured out who is going to do Suzi’s job when Suzi has the baby. I’m sure they have a plan.

  When we got home, I called Teagan and told her everything from my side is a go.

  She squealed.

  “Oh my God, Cara, we need this. We need to just get away and have some fun.”

  “I agree. When are we leaving?”

  “Sunrise tomorrow too soon?”

  “Perfect.”

  “What did A.J. say?”

  “He’s going out of town too and was all worried about me being here alone…”

  “Or with me.”

  “But now we won’t be here, and it’s not like anyone is going to follow us to some little town in Texas.”

  “What did Adeline say?”

  “She’s so grateful to see me go out of town that she offered to pay for the whole trip.”

  “I’m starting to see a pattern here, dingleberry. People are so happy to see you go that they are willing to pay.”

  “Shut up. What did Mr. Fisher say?”

  “He asked me to check on a couple things while I’m there. Turns out Austin is quite the up-and-coming place. At least it is according to Honey, who reads all the junk news and says all the really beautiful people are moving there. I guess some Hollywood types have sold their homes and moved to Austin.”

  “That’s been going on for a while, hasn’t it?”

  “Who knows? Who cares?”

  “You might if Honey convinces Mr. Fisher to move the office to Texas.”

  “Yeah, I’d better put something about that in the agreement. I’ve got a couple of lawyers looking at everything for me. Jessie’s sister didn’t want anything to do with it, said it is the wrong kind of law, but she knew people, and Mr. Fisher is paying for it, so I came out on top.”

  “You always do.”

  “You been talking to Jessie?”

  “Oh, I did not need that visual.”

  “I’ve got the little blue ice chest. I’ve got a layover bag and a carry-on packed. What are you bringing? How much trunk space do you need?”

  “I haven’t even thought about it, but my guess is if I can’t stuff it all in a backpack, I’ll have a small roller bag.”

  “Really? What are you going to do, run around in the same pair of jeans and a wrinkled top?”

  “That’s pretty much my plan.”

  “Lovely.”

  “Oh, Teagan, you know that Tex-Mex place you are always talking about?
”

  “Yeah.”

  “We are going there if we can find one anywhere near the jewelry place.”

  “Oh, I’m sure we can find one off the freeway somewhere. Thanks.”

  “It’s Adeline’s treat.”

  “Yes, she pays me to spend time with you and to keep you out of her hair.”

  “Lucky you. Paid for doing what you love.”

  “I gotta go. I’m going to call the family and let them know we will be out of town. If A.J. is out of town, who is going to check in on Suzi? Oh, and the Saturday after we get back is her baby shower. I know it’s kind of last minute, for her and for you, but everybody else is already invited and has accepted.”

  “You’ve been busy.”

  “If we don’t have it that Saturday, she’s going to have the baby before we have the shower.”

  “Good point. I’ll call Carolyn and let her know that both A.J. and I are going to be out of town for a few days. I’m sure she will keep an eye out for Suzi. How’s Sinead?”

  “Perfect. She is taking this whole pregnancy thing in stride. She’s totally serene with it. More centered than I’ve ever known her to be.”

  “She’s so young that she hasn’t had time to be serene.”

  “You know what I mean.”

  “And Howard?”

  “The boy is amazing. He has their whole life planned. I’m not sure Sinead agrees with all of it, but she finds it endearing and amusing, and it is obvious they love each other. I think it’s all going to work out.”

  “Good. I talked to Troya yesterday, just for a minute. She and Maria — Robert’s wife — are such a good support system for each other. She said everything is going well with the kids, work is good, she and her roommate are going to fix up that little room in the back of Bernie’s house, and they are going to watch Maria’s baby when she has the new one. Two nurses watching her will make Maria feel much better.”

  “That’s nice. How about what’s her name?”

  “Gonna need more words.”

  “Jovana’s daughter-in-law.”

  “Oh, she should be having the baby any minute too. Did you know about the whole adoption thing?”

  “They adopted a baby and then immediately found out she was pregnant?”

  “The adoption agency has another baby for them.”

  “What?”

  “Related to the first. I’m not sure how. I’m not sure you could have a baby and have another one so soon. Anyway, they are thinking about it.”

  “Three kids under three? Are they nuts?”

  “Three kids under two. They have the resources. They’ve always wanted a big family.”

  “Yeah, the romance of it all sounds great, but that’s just too much work for me. There is no way. Hard enough when they are babies with the diapers and the bottles and the laundry — can you imagine the laundry? — but what about when they are teens? No thank you.”

  “I don’t think they have made a decision yet, but it is one of the reasons that Jovana is never around anymore.”

  “Hey, if they can handle it and they know what they are jumping into, none of my business.”

  “I have to run over to the bank and get some cash. I’m gonna stop at the store and get some junk to eat in the car. Anything in particular you want?”

  “Nope, regular road food.”

  “Are we taking your car or mine?”

  “Dingleberry, I’m pretty sure we decided to take mine.”

  “Okay, you think of anything else, let me know.”

  “We’ll bring my GPS; I’m going to program everything into it tonight.”

  “Do you have one of those charger thingies that have the multiple things so that we can charge everything at once?”

  “For the car? I have one that can charge two things at once.”

  “Okay. See you in the morning.”

  “I’m doing leggings and a flowy top. Be comfortable.”

  “Have you forgotten who you are talking to?”

  “Yeah, I guess I did for just a second there. Sorry.”

  A.J. insisted on going to the bank and store with me. I thought it was dumb, but I also didn’t want to add any stress to his day.

  When we got home, he had stuff to do, so I went over to Suzi’s apartment and had a cup of tea.

  “I like your sofa.”

  “Joey brought it over.”

  “Joey?”

  “Anna’s nephew. A really nice guy.”

  “Really?” I couldn’t hold the hope out of my voice.

  “No, not that kind of nice. He’s just a nice guy. Smart. I like him, but he isn’t interested in me as anything other than his great-aunt’s friend’s granddaughter. Anna would kill him dead if he ever even breathed the wrong way in my direction. She’s become very protective of me for some reason. She saw her neighbor was having a new sofa delivered and went down there and offered to buy this one from them. They gave it to her for free, or at least that is her story, and she had Joey bring it over here to me.”

  “That’s nice.”

  “It really is. It weighs a ton. It’s good quality even if the material sucks.”

  “I wonder how much it costs to reupholster a sofa.”

  “Too much. I already checked.”

  “We might be able to figure out how to do it ourselves. If we take off the fabric that is already there, we have a perfect pattern. We just cut out the new fabric with the old fabric as a pattern and slap it on there. How hard could it be?”

  “Hard. There’s an art to it. You know that place by work, down by the costume shop, the place that has the green door and then the thing that almost looks like an old garage door?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, there is a guy who works in there. He refurbishes everything you can think of. I talked to him about it. Just the fabric is more than I can afford right now. Besides, nobody is ever going to see it but me and the baby, and the baby won’t care. It was really nice of Anna to think of me, and I’m going to focus on that instead of the fabric. ‘Cause the fabric sucks.”

  We walked into the little kitchen. Suzi put the kettle on. I’d say she has really good taste in kettles, since she has the same one I do, but I gave her the kettle for a wedding present. That and some other stuff. I don’t know why, but it made me smile that she’d walked away from so much of her stuff, but she kept the kettle.

  She set out some cups and started to make the tea.

  “I like your dishes.”

  “Thanks, but they aren’t really mine. I half-stole them.”

  “How do you half-steal dishes?”

  “You tell your brother A.J. that you are moving into an apartment and you really don’t have much, and he goes to his storage unit, and he brings you all kinds of stuff. Remember, when he moved in with you he pretty much stuffed all his stuff but clothing in a storage thing.”

  “I’m an idiot. I knew that, but I really didn’t give it any thought at all. He probably has stuff that he’d like to have around, and me stuck in my own little Cara world just left my apartment exactly how it was when he moved in. He was supposed to be a part-time roommate, so it didn’t matter, and then everything went crazy. I should talk to him.”

  “A.J. has never really cared about stuff. Other than his cameras. And the blue thing.”

  “Yeah, that blue thing is strange.”

  “He never told you?”

  “Told me what?”

  “Never mind.”

  “No, you can’t do that Suzi. What is that blue thing?”

  “It’s just a thing. I don’t know what it is.”

  “So why is it a big deal?”

  “Cara, if you want to know about the blue thing, you need to talk to A.J.”

  “You aren’t even going to give me a hint?”

  “No, but I will tell you it is a really big deal to him and you need to be careful how you ask him about it.”

  “Is he going to get mad?”

  “No, but it is a sensitive s
ubject.”

  “Then why the hell hasn’t he told me what it is? It’s sitting in our bedroom. Right there. If it is a big deal, why didn’t he tell me?”

  “Why didn’t you ask?”

  “What?”

  “Think about it, Cara. He only brings a handful of things into your apartment when he moves in. When he moves to your room, what did he bring to the décor?”

  “The blue thing.”

  “And it never dawned on you that it might have some significance?”

  “I’m really beginning not to like myself very much. How do I miss all this stuff? I never gave it a thought. I never asked. I never mentioned. I never anything-ed. I completely and totally ignored it. Like it didn’t even exist. What else have I completely and totally ignored?”

  “You haven’t exactly had time to think about the nuances of life since you met A.J. You have been in survival mode, pretty much all the time. When you are in survival mode, you only pay attention to what is going to hurt you.”

  “Okay, that sounds reasonable. Even smart.”

  “It should. A very smart woman told me.”

  I rolled my eyes and shook my head. “I remember. That’s what I told you right after that whole Barry thing.”

  “Exactly.”

  The kettle was boiled, Suzi added water to our cups, and we carried them to the tiny little dinette.

  “A.J. and I are both going out of town, separately, but for the next few days, are you going to be okay?”

  “I’m pregnant. I’m not sick.”

  “I know, but with all the craziness that has been going on over at my apartment, I just wanted to make sure that you feel safe. If you don’t, we can make arrangements for you to stay at a hotel. Or maybe you could just come with us.”

  “Who is us?”

  “Teagan and me.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “We’re driving to Texas.”

  “No disrespect to Texas, but I’m not driving to Texas. It will take forever, and it’s hot, and I’m round and uncomfortable, and you’d have to stop every twelve miles for me to use a bathroom. I appreciate the offer, but no thanks.”