“Yeah? Which part?”
“The part of you that’s always twenty-three, when you first fell in love. The part of you that’s always twenty-six, when you walked down the aisle towards him. Those parts of you will likely love him forever.”
Daisy thought about that for a moment, then she too slid down on the couch, her head level with Rebecca’s, and asked, “Is there a part of you still in love with Devon?”
Rebecca slowly shook her head. “I was never in love with Devon. I never had the chance, really. And, of course, with adult hindsight, he had a lot of issues. Then again, so did I.”
“Good point.”
“Hey, now,” Rebecca mock-protested.
Daisy glanced slyly at her and they both laughed.
“Feel better?” Rebecca asked.
“Not really.”
They stared at the ceiling in silence.
“Could be worse,” Rebecca finally said.
Daisy raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”
“Could have been a total stranger. Or your best friend’s husband. Or your sister’s husband.”
“You and Manny aren’t married.”
“I do have Jackson.”
Daisy brightened. “Ooh, Jackson! Never thought of him! He would definitely be tempting, especially with those puzzled puppy eyes.”
Rebecca shook her head in mock disgust as she said, “Mental note: Keep Jackson far, far away from Daisy for a while.”
They laughed.
“Okay,” Daisy agreed, “a stranger or Jackson would have been worse.”
“Or a good male friend.”
“That would be worse?”
“If you’re not both on the same page. And you know, once you cross that line, you can never go back.”
“Speaking from experience?”
“Oh, yeah.”
“So, an unsuspecting male friend would have been worse. Got it.”
“Keep that in mind,” Rebecca said, patting Daisy’s knee and heaving herself to her feet. “Especially when you’re working late with Max.”
Daisy frowned. “I never work late with...oh.”
Rebecca winked. “Come on – I think we need something stronger than tea.”
“God, yes.”
Rebecca pulled open the liquor cabinet and showed Daisy the tequila bottle, her brows raised in question.
Daisy nodded fervently and joined her at the bar.
Rebecca poured them each a shot, and they raised their glasses.
“Here’s to forgiving ourselves for our mistakes,” Rebecca said, “because we’re going to make more of them in the future.”
“Hear, hear,” Daisy muttered and tossed back the drink.
* * * * *
Day 75
Zeke sat relaxed behind the wheel as they headed out of Ringo. He almost didn’t even care they were heading to California – again. He glanced at Manny, who was slumped against the door, her eyes closed, her mouth slightly open.
Zeke shook his head, amused.
“Don’t tell me you’re still hungover from Saturday?” he said, grinning.
“No,” Manny groaned. “While you were – um – entertaining Babe last night, Rosa and the rest of Friday’s Slammers took me out for a few – well, tequila slammers.” She groaned. “Please try not to hit every damn pothole between here and L.A.”
Zeke’s grin abruptly disappeared.
“Was there dancing involved?” he asked with a frown.
“A little, yeah. Mikey was there, too. You know, he’s actually not a bad dancer when he’s doing the two-step.”
Zeke’s hands tightened on the wheel before he forced himself to relax and said, “You seem to be leaving a trail of friends behind you.”
“That’s a bit of an exaggeration,” she mumbled, once more slumped against the door, her eyes closed.
“No? How many of them are going to friend you on Facebook?”
“All of them – but people friend on Facebook like I change my socks.”
Zeke laughed. “Don’t sell yourself short,” he urged.
“Right now I just want my head to stop pounding.”
“There’s Tylenol in the glove compartment,” Zeke reminded her.
“That’s right,” Manny groaned happily. “You’re a good, good man, Zeke,” she added as she scrabbled in the glove compartment, then downed two of the pills with her coffee.
“Go to sleep,” Zeke smirked and chuckled quietly when she did just that.
~~~~~
TJ and Leah sat in Dr. Valesquez’ office in tense silence, holding hands as they waited for the doctor to arrive. TJ stared off into the distance, his jaw set, his face carefully expressionless except for the muscles flexing in his jaw. Leah watched him worriedly as the silence quivered between them. Her grip on TJ’s hand tightened and tightened again.
“Careful, or he’ll have to fix my hand, too,” TJ said suddenly, causing Leah to jump and squeak in surprise.
She looked down at where their hands were linked and laughed a little. “I’m sorry,” she said and loosened her grip slightly.
TJ lifted her hand to his lips and half-smiled at her as the doctor strode in.
Valesquez pulled a chair close beside them and sat down. He put the folder he carried on his lap and calmly met their gazes.
“I’m sorry, TJ. We found a tumor in your colon.”
Episode 7
Day 83
Manny frowned as her phone trilled that she had received a text.
Again.
Zeke raised a questioning eyebrow as Manny pulled her phone out of her purse and they slowed to a stop out of the path of the crowd on the sidewalk behind them. They were in Los Angeles, taking in the sights, and Manny’s phone had been buzzing with texts for most of the day.
Manny made a disgusted noise as she read the text.
“Trouble?” he asked.
Manny shook her head as she laboriously punched in a reply and hit send. She tucked the phone away again as they continued walking and said, “It’s Roxie.”
Zeke frowned, trying to remember which of the many people they’d met during the last few months was Roxie.
“She was my admin support,” Manny explained, laughing slightly at his confused expression. “You know. At my job. My previous job, I mean.”
“Ah,” Zeke said as light dawned. “She’s just saying hi?”
Manny shrugged. “Sort of. Apparently my old unit is having a hell of a time. Steph’s basically set unachievable quotas, given their current state of technology and equipment. The unit has also been reorganized three times since I left, and they’re living in complete chaos, which slows everyone down even more.”
She shook her head, biting her lip with an anxious frown.
“They won’t be able to meet their quarterly targets if this keeps up,” she muttered.
“Manny,” Zeke said firmly.
She glanced at him, still frowning.
“You don’t work there anymore,” he reminded her gently.
Manny’s expression didn’t change for a long moment, then she shook herself and nodded. “I know,” she said, “I know. It’s just...old habits are hard to break.”
“You haven’t mentioned them at all since we’ve been on the road.”
Manny walked silently beside him then said, “I dreamt about work every night for about six weeks or so after I quit. It was my entire life for so long – both the work itself and the people there. I have absolutely no regrets about walking away, but that doesn’t mean it was easy to turn my back on the people I left behind.”
Zeke shrugged. “I wouldn’t know,” he said lightly. “For me, it’s most often a case of ‘out of sight, out of mind’.”
Manny gave him such a long, thoughtful look he began to fidget slightly.
“What?” he finally demanded.
“I can’t decide if you’re telling the truth or if you’re so used to putting on an act you honestly don’t even realize you’re doing it.”
; “Then it’s not an act anymore, is it?” Zeke replied smoothly. “I think we’re here – wherever ‘here’ is.”
They stopped and looked at the sedate two-storey brick house. Manny pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket and checked it as she said, “A lady named Carina. She’s a friend of Simon-Simone’s, and she apparently has a vast collection of Cary Grant memorabilia. Simon-Simone said she’d talked to her and she was looking forward to showing it to us.”
Zeke groaned. “You just love not telling me anything until it’s too late, don’t you? Then I’m stuck!”
Manny laughed up at him. “You love it,” she assured him.
Zeke shook his head as he opened the gate and bowed her towards the front door.
~~~~~
“You enjoyed it in spite of yourself, huh?” Leah said absently.
“Carina was very charming,” Zeke admitted grudgingly, “and Manny’s love for all things Cary Grant seems never-ending.”
“We all have our little obsessions.”
Zeke paused, frowning. “Are you all right?” he asked.
“What? Yes! Why?”
“You seem distracted. Are you and TJ running into more problems? With having a baby, I mean.”
Leah paused. “We’ve...decided to put that on hold for a little while,” she said carefully.
Zeke’s frown deepened. “Okay,” he said slowly. “That...doesn’t sound good. Is there something going on I should know about?”
“I think you should talk to TJ about that,” Leah said.
Zeke hesitated, nonplussed. “You’re worrying me, Leah,” he said sharply.
“I’m sorry – I don’t mean to worry you. Listen, Zeke, I have to go. Send me the text for your next three blogs and I’ll review them tonight. Okay?”
“Okay,” Zeke agreed grudgingly and thoughtfully disconnected the call.
~~~~~
“Hey, Zeke,” TJ said cheerfully.
“Okay, you sound better than Leah,” Zeke said.
“Leah? What?”
“Leah said you guys were putting having a baby on hold right now?” Zeke couldn’t hide the concern in his voice.
TJ chuckled. “Okay, I have to say I never in a million years thought you’d be concerned because someone wasn’t having a baby.”
“You’re avoiding the question,” Zeke snapped.
“Yes, we’ve decided to put things on hold for a little while. What Women Want is starting to get some really great buzz on the Internet, thanks in large part to your blog. Not to mention my company’s in the middle of negotiating a multi-million dollar project, and that’s going to take up a lot of time for the next few weeks.”
Zeke’s frown didn’t lighten. “Why do I get the impression there’s something you’re not telling me?”
“I don’t know, Zeke,” TJ said patiently, “I’m not living in your head. Thank God.”
“Hey!”
TJ chuckled. “Don’t worry. Have fun and keep writing those blogs! The traffic is increasing daily, you know.”
“I know.” Zeke paused. “You’d tell me if you and Leah were having problems, right? You wouldn’t hide anything from me just because I work for her, would you?”
TJ paused, then said, “I’m sorry if we’re worrying you, Zeke. Really. Everything between me and Leah is fine. Better than fine. We just decided that, with everything else that’s currently going on in our lives, we just don’t have the time to focus on having a baby. But we’re more solid than ever. I wouldn’t lie to you about that, Zeke.”
Zeke let out a long breath. “All right,” he said. “Sorry if I came across rather strong. It must be all this time I’ve spent with Manny.”
“She’s a worry-wart, is she?”
Zeke laughed. “Sometimes. Other times, not so much. Okay. I just wanted to make sure things were okay with you and Leah. I’d better go; I have blogs to write.”
“Sounds good,” TJ said cheerfully.
Zeke’s frown was even more thoughtful as he disconnected the call.
~~~~~
Leah walked into the house and tossed her keys on the table beside the door. She wandered into the living room.
“Hey,” she greeted TJ, who was sitting on the couch working on his laptop.
“Hey,” TJ gave her a fleeting smile before he refocused his attention on the computer.
She dropped a kiss on the top of his head, then flung herself on the couch beside him. She idly watched the screen as TJ typed rapidly.
“Zeke call you today?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
She waited, but when TJ didn’t offer anything more, she said, “You need to tell him.”
“After the surgery,” TJ said firmly. “There’s no point having him come back any sooner. Dr. Valesquez said it might be benign, so until we know for sure -”
“You’ve been using that excuse ever since we first found out there may be a problem,” Leah said sharply. “What are you worried about?”
TJ sighed, set his laptop on the coffee table and turned to Leah. He looked steadily at her.
“I’m worried about making it real,” he said softly. “Saying it’s cancer before we know for sure just feels like...we’re giving up before we’ve even begun.”
Leah threw her arms around him and hugged tightly.
“My surgery is scheduled eleven days from now,” TJ whispered into her neck. “We’ll have the results of the biopsy within two days after that. Then we’ll tell Zeke everything. Even if the news is bad. Okay?”
Leah sighed. “He’ll be pissed when he finds out we kept this from him.”
“He’ll get over it.”
“He’ll make us pay,” Leah warned.
TJ chuckled slightly. “I’d be disappointed if he didn’t.”
“I’ll remind you of that when you’re complaining to me,” Leah said drily.
“I’d be disappointed if you didn’t,” TJ grinned and kissed her soundly.
* * * * *
Day 84
Manny stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around her body then another around her hair. She opened the door and padded towards the small table where the coffee pot was located. She caught a glimpse of herself in the hotel room’s full-length mirror and grimaced at the sight.
You should stop doing that.
Doing what?
Hating what you look like.
Just in a mirror. I swear I’m prettier and skinnier than that!
Manny.
Harvey.
Harvey sighed. It’s one of those kind of days, is it?
I need coffee, okay? Let me at least have coffee in my hands before we start arguing. I mean, before I start arguing with myself.
Harvey shook his head, his arms crossed as he stood between the beds, tapping his bare foot.
Manny took a sip of the coffee and sighed gratefully. She turned and looked at him.
Okay. What’s going on?
All I wanted to say was if you don’t like how you look, there are things you can change. We are in Los Angeles.
I am not getting plastic surgery!
Harvey laughed. I was thinking more about a makeover. Nothing so drastic as plastic surgery.
A makeover?
You have heard of those things, right? You know, change your haircut, put on some makeup, buy some different clothes -
I know what they are! I just hadn’t thought about doing it before.
Manny slowly sipped her coffee, deep in thought. Her phone buzzed with Zeke’s ringtone and she started.
“Hello,” she answered cheerfully.
“Hey. What do you have planned for the day?”
“Nothing so far. Why?”
“I’ve got some work to do; an old client needs some development work done ASAP. I should be finished today, but it may take most of tomorrow, too.”
“Okay. I think I’m going to just wander around then. See what I can find.”
“Oh, God. Please don’t bring back half the city as your new
friends!”
“I was only planning on bringing back – at most – a quarter of it,” Manny replied primly, then laughed at Zeke’s dramatic groan.
She padded back into the bathroom, towel-dried her hair and began to comb out the tangles. She realized she was avoiding her reflection and forced herself to look in the mirror as she dealt with her hair. She paused in her task and frowned thoughtfully, slowly cocking her head to one side.
It’d be fun, Harvey urged.
Yeah. Yeah, I think it would.
~~~~~
Manny chatted rather nervously with the pretty young woman, Olive, who was cutting her hair. She forced herself to sit still, but she could feel herself vibrating like a taut wire. Her back was to the mirror and she hadn’t seen the results yet, although she had seen the long ponytail which had been Olive’s first cut. Manny had promised to leave everything up to Olive, but as the minutes ticked by and the scissors kept snipping, she was getting more and more nervous.
“Relax,” Olive said, “you’re going to look great!”
Manny gave her an uncertain smile.
“You know,” Olive said, “if you want...my boyfriend’s a photographer. I could give him a call, see if he could do some glamor pics for you.”
Manny’s eyes widened.
“Glamor pics?”
“Yeah. Full makeup and outfits and everything. He does head shots for aspiring actors, so he knows how to make people look really good.”
Manny hummed as she considered it. “Where’s he located?”
“Just down the block. And he’s pretty reasonable when it comes to the price.”
Manny grinned. “You know, it does sound like fun, actually. Assuming I like what you’ve done to me.”
Olive grinned back. “Trust me – you’ll love it! I’ll call once we’re done here. I know he didn’t have any appointments when he left this morning, but you never know what the day might bring.”
“Especially with his girlfriend sending him work.”
Olive shrugged sheepishly. “I don’t send everybody.”
Manny laughed. “Give him a call. I’ve never had a professional picture of me – just me, I mean.”
“Super! Now, are you ready to see the new you?”
Manny gulped, then took a deep breath and nodded.
Olive spun her chair with a flourish and Manny stared at the woman in the mirror.
A Life Less Ordinary Page 20
