Love, From A to Z
Robin Alexander
Love, From A to Z
© 2019 by Robin Alexander
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
ISBN: 1-978-950614-02-8
First Ebook Edition: 2019
This Ebook Is Published By
Robin Alexander Romance
Walker, La. USA
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
_______________________________________________
Credits
Executive Editor: Maddie Shultz
Cover Design by: Tiger Graphics
Chapter One
“Nicki seeks advice on how to save her relationship with Megan,” Alicia Seguin announced as she walked into her house with her twenty-year-old niece trailing behind her. “Watch your step Nic, we’ve got a new cat and she likes to trip her human servants. I call her Trip and she likes it.”
Nicki scooped up the white kitten rubbing against her shoe and petted it. “Another new addition to the cat and dog pack?”
“My wife is a vet, remember.” Alicia smiled and scratched Trip under the chin. “Someone had left this little baby on the doorstep at her office in a box on the day I brought lunch to Zoe. Every time I passed her cage she’d stick her little paw out at me. I’d been chosen.”
Zoe Rivers-Seguin walked into the living room. “Trouble in paradise again?” she asked Nicki with a sad smile.
Nicki set Trip down when she began to fidget. “Megan woke me up this morning at six o’clock and said I needed to start cleaning the house. It’s Saturday, the one day I get to sleep late, and she pissed me off, so we got into a fight. I’m so sick of hearing how I’m such a pig and feeling like I do everything wrong.” Nicki plopped down in a chair and raked her hand through the long locks of hair on top of her head and then began to toy with the very short hairs on one side of it. “Megan isn’t perfect either.”
“Neither is that hairstyle,” Alicia said as she and Zoe sat down on the couch. “What’s that called, half a Mohawk?”
“It’s called, what I like,” Nicki said dryly.
“I like the color,” Zoe interjected. “Alicia’s hair was platinum blond when she was in elementary school. Let’s get back to you and Megan though. Why’re y’all fighting so much lately?”
Nicki shrugged. “I can’t do anything without her bitching at me constantly. I’m getting so sick of it that I’m about to stop caring whether we stay together or not.”
“What specifically does she bitch about?” Alicia asked as she watched Trip viciously attack her toy mouse.
“She says I’m a slob. She says we never have any money, but I’m the one going to school and working two jobs. She only has one. I don’t say anything about the giant ass brown hair clogs in the shower drain, and I don’t fuss at her every time I have to take her car in for an oil change because she can’t remember to do it.” Nicki sat up straight. “She fusses at me for everything. Like last night, she bitched at me about my shoes stinking.”
Alicia gazed at the holes in Nicki’s sneakers. “I don’t know how that could happen, they’re really ventilated. Do you want some new shoes for your birthday?”
“The holes in my shoes and jeans are on purpose. I like the look, and Dad does too. He says no one will try to rob me because I look like I’m broke. So, what’s the secret? Y’all have been together forever, how does that happen?”
“Well, someone has to clean the litter boxes and scoop dog poop from the yard, so I keep Alicia around,” Zoe replied.
“And someone has to do the grocery shopping, though lately she hasn’t been doing a very good job of it,” Alicia added.
Nicki noticed that Alicia and Zoe weren’t laughing or even smiling. “But y’all are happy, right?”
“When I’m not forced to eat clean and there’s more than vegetables in the fridge,” Alicia replied, watching Zoe out of the corner of her eye.
Zoe pursed her lips. “I would be happier if there wasn’t a four-foot lava lamp in our bedroom that makes it look like movie set for a porn flick made in the seventies.”
“It is not four feet tall, and it soothes me to sleep,” Alicia argued. “If the bedroom looks like a porn set, it’s because of the giant red pillows you put on the bed. Then you covered the canopy in all of that…” She waved a hand as she thought. “Gauze.”
“Sheers,” Zoe snapped and smiled tightly at Nicki. “Yeah, we’re happy.”
Nicki stared at Alicia and Zoe for a moment. “Are y’all lying to me and yourselves?”
“We have our arguments like every other couple. The first time I really noticed Zoe was when she tried to yank the hair out of my head in the third grade.” Alicia laughed. “We started our life together fighting. That’s why we’re really good at it.”
“When did the fighting turn into something else?” Nicki asked.
“During the flood of 1998 when your great-grandma kidnapped me, I was forced to sleep with Alicia and she tried to kill me with her boat,” Zoe replied. “Twice.”
“I only ran into—”
“The snake.” Zoe held up a finger. “You always forget the snake, Alicia. You nearly put me eye to eye with it before the crash.”
Alicia grinned at Nicki. “I was never gonna run her up on that snake, it might’ve gotten into the boat with us. And Zoe, stop making it sound like I forced myself on you. I slept on the floor and gave you the bed.”
“You showed me your trashy underwear.” Zoe winked at Nicki. “Your aunt was a ho.”
“They were collectible undies, and they weren’t on me at the time,” Alicia said dryly.
“Nobody in the family mentions these details when they tell stories about y’all. Dad always talks about how y’all hated each other. Grandma Grace brags about how she got y’all together.” Nicki sank back into the chair. “I want y’all to tell me your story, and take your time telling it. I have no desire to go home.”
“Anything to keep me from scooping dog shit.” Alicia thought for a moment. “Grandma had been in the boat with us and when—”
“No, that’s not the beginning, the night of the flood was. We were both at Jack’s, Grace came into the bar and shut it down. Then she kidnapped me.” Zoe waved a hand. “I’ll tell it.”
“No, I’ll start at Jack’s then.” Alicia pointed to Nicki. “Your dad had just turned twenty-one…”
Nicki sat back and listened as Alicia and Zoe began telling the story of how they became a couple by finishing each other’s sentences.
*******
July 1998
“Ignore her.”
Alicia was lining up for the shot that would end the game of pool she was playing against her brother, and glanced at him. “Who?”
“Zoe Rivers, she just walked back in,” Tony replied and kept an eye on Alicia’s nemesis.
“I don’t care about her.” Alicia made the winning shot and grinned. “You owe me a drink.”
“Ladies and gents,” Jack, the owner of the bar, yelled loudly and switched off the music. “Zoe just told me Carter Bayou Bridge just washed away. Those of you who live on the other side are stuck with us because this part of town is an island now. I’m declaring myself mayor and the bar as an emergency shelter. We’ll be serving all night long, but y’all are still paying.”
The announcement was met with cheers
. Alicia laughed and turned to Tony. “I’ll take a rum and pineapple, light on the rum, heavy on the pineapple. I have to start off slow if we’re gonna be here all night.”
“I could throw a rock and hit your house from here, so this ain’t your shelter.”
“I know, but we don’t have to work tomorrow, and we’re celebrating you being legal drinking age.” Alicia patted Tony’s cheek. “So, you walk over to that bar and buy me a drink, big twenty-one.”
Alicia watched Tony go and then her gaze moved to Zoe who was drying her face with the towel Jack had given her. Water formed a puddle around Zoe’s feet as it dripped off her soaked clothing. Her normally curly, shoulder-length, brown hair was plastered to her head. Alicia knew Zoe lived on the other side of the bayou and she wondered if she should offer to loan Zoe some of her clothes until someone waved their fingers in front of her face.
“Hey Daryl,” Alicia said with a smile.
“I thought you were asleep ’cause you didn’t answer me. You done with the table?”
Alicia nodded. “Yeah, we’re done.”
“I’ll take your stick then,” Daryl said and plucked it from her hand. “It’s been raining all week. I’m ready for this shit to stop. Half the roads in town are underwater already, it’s gonna get worse when them bayous and rivers start to crest and push back. This part of town really will look like an island then.”
“It happens just about every summer. The bridge washing out sucks though.”
Daryl laughed. “Not for me. I’ve got a good excuse not to go home to the wife. Now, let me outshoot old Joe, so he’ll have to buy me another beer.”
“Good luck,” Alicia said with a smile until she caught a glimpse of a familiar figure in the doorway. She tried to hide behind a group of people, but she wasn’t fast enough.
Grace Seguin marched over to Alicia, heedless of the water dripping off her rain suit onto the cement floor of Jack’s Bar and Grill. “Do you have any idea about what’s going on outside?” Grace yelled.
“It’s raining,” Alicia replied as she watched water drip from Grace’s hood.
“The bridge over Carter’s Bayou just washed away and all of you numbnuts are here shooting pool and drinking. Turn off that music,” Grace shouted and walked over to the karaoke machine in the corner of the bar. She switched the machine on and grabbed the mic. “I know I said turn off that music!”
Jack switched the music off and announced, “Grace has something to say.”
“You people listen up,” Grace said and looked like a Baptist preacher at a revival meeting as she paced back and forth on the small stage making eye contact with everyone. “Obviously, y’all haven’t noticed that it has rained on and off for nearly a week before this whopper of a storm settled in on us today. This ain’t like the floods of the past, the low areas ain’t gonna be the only places affected, especially since developers have been coming here and building up land for new subdivisions. I suspect we’re gonna have to go out and rescue people before the sun even rises tomorrow and here y’all are pickling your brains. Those of you on this side of the bayou, go home and—”
“Grace, you can’t be closing down my bar,” Jack interjected.
“Leave the lights and the door open, I don’t care,” Grace retorted. “These people are going home before they get drunk and drown.” She pointed at a man. “Paul, I know you live on the other side of the bayou. You go home with the Leblancs. Troy and Shelly, y’all go on home with the Sibleys. You people get some rest tonight, because I’m telling you, you’re all gonna be out in your boats tomorrow picking people off rooftops. The Carter Bayou Bridge has never washed away, and the school has never had a foot of water in it but that’s what’s going on right now. Move, people!”
Everyone in the bar began to scatter and Alicia’s jaw sagged when she heard Grace say, “Zoe, you’re with us, no arguments.”
*******
“Grandma shut the bar down and Jack’s pissed,” Tony said when he followed Zoe, Grace, and Alicia into the home of his and Alicia’s parents. “She’s trying to make us stay here tonight too. Dad, tell her that’s not gonna happen.”
“Your dad is at the fire department where they’re organizing search-and-rescue parties. He and I both agree with Grace’s order, y’all are saying here tonight,” Elena Seguin said as she walked into her living room. “Wet shoes off at the door and if your jeans are wet, roll them up.” She smiled sadly at Zoe who was still soaked. “Oh honey, you’re gonna freeze in here, because Jim has the AC set on arctic. Tony, go get her a towel.”
“Don’t bother, I’ll show her to the bathroom.” Grace pointed to the door. “I used your big plant to pin down my rain gear in case the wind blows. I hope you don’t mind.”
Elena shook her head. “Not at all. Zoe, you go shower, and Alicia will loan you something to wear.”
Before Zoe could say anything, Grace took her by the arm and ushered her to the bathroom. Alicia waited until they were gone and whispered, “I’ll get her some clothes and then I’m going back home. I live next door and there’s no reason for me to stay here.”
“You obviously haven’t realized how fast the water’s rising. I want my family under one roof. You’re staying, so you may as well pack some things for yourself too when you go get clothes for Zoe,” Elena stated firmly.
“This is why all of our houses are built on stilts.” Tony pounded his chest. “I’m twenty-one years old as of yesterday. I’m a grown—”
“Boy! You live in a camp that looks like a strong wind would destroy,” Elena said in a tone that always made Alicia and Tony wither. “Go to my bedroom and find some of your daddy’s clothes to wear. Then march yourself into our bathroom and shower. You smell like smoke.”
Alicia watched Tony’s shoulders sag in defeat as he kicked off his sneakers and did as ordered. She knew she wasn’t going to fare any better. That didn’t stop her from trying to make her case as Grace returned to the living room. “Mom, Zoe and I can’t stay under the same roof. I know you don’t want us fighting.”
“You’re right, I don’t, so don’t make that mistake,” Elena replied.
Grace nodded. “Glad that’s settled. Now, let’s go over to your house and get your stuff.”
“I’m almost thirty years old,” Alicia began to argue and was chagrinned to realize she sounded as lame as Tony did. “I pay my own bills, I own my own sturdy house and it sits as high as this one does.”
“Mind if I handle this?” Grace asked Elena. When Elena nodded, Grace set her fiery gaze on Alicia. “You can walk or I can drag you behind me like a wagon, but we’re going to your house to get your things and then we’re coming back here. Any other comments or questions?”
Alicia had many comments, and her mouth flew open to voice them just as the safety switch in her brain was flipped and she realized it was not wise to take on her mother and grandmother at the same time. “No ma’am,” she replied with a sigh.
*******
Zoe was finger-combing through her wet hair when someone knocked on the bathroom door. “Just a sec,” she said, and made sure the towel she was wrapped in covered everything. She opened the door slightly and clothes were shoved at her face. “Thanks.” She heard a grunt in response when she closed the door.
“Classy,” Zoe whispered as she held up a pair of purple, green, and gold colored bikini panties with Mardi Gras 1995 printed on the front of them. There was also a green, lacy bra with a shamrock printed on each cup. “You go to way too many parades, Alicia, and I don’t even want to know what you did to have these thrown to you.” The accompanying blue sweatpants and gray T-shirt were at least acceptable.
After Zoe dressed she collected her wet towel, washcloth, and clothes. When she stepped into the hallway she nearly ran into Elena. “I was just coming to ask for your wet clothes to put in the wash,” Elena said with a smile.
“I really appreciate y’all taking me in,” Zoe said as if she’d had a choice.
“Tony told me you
were kidnapped.” Elena smiled as she took Zoe’s wet things from her. “Grace can be forceful when she’s worried, and the rising water has us both on edge. I know you and Alicia haven’t always gotten along, but the rest of us are happy to have you. If Alicia doesn’t behave, you let me know. Oh, and Grace likes to cook midnight breakfast when we’re all together, so I hope you’re hungry because it’ll be ready soon.”
“I’ll be happy to help her.”
“I’m not even allowed in my own kitchen right now. It’s Grace’s stress relief haven. I need something to keep me occupied as well, so this is one of those rare times I enjoy doing laundry. Make yourself comfortable in the living room. Tony’s watching TV, and the bear is asleep in a chair,” Elena said before she continued down the hallway.
Zoe went into the living room where Tony was sitting on the sofa staring at the TV. Alicia was lying in a recliner with her eyes closed wearing an oversized T-shirt and a pair of pajama pants. Her long, dark blond hair was damp, and she’d removed her makeup. Zoe hadn’t seen Alicia without her face made up since they’d begun going to junior high school. She couldn’t help but stare, and almost wished Alicia’s blue eyes were open, so she could see what they looked like without eyeshadow, liner, and mascara.
“She won’t bite, she’s asleep,” Tony said softly. “Have a seat. You want something to drink?”
“No, but thanks.” Zoe sat on the sofa and noticed the large swath of green on the radar Tony had been watching. “Is the rain ever gonna stop?”
“I heard a forecast earlier, and it’s supposed to end sometime around five in the morning. I hate when this happens because it makes Mom and Grandma crazy. Do your parents talk about the flood of 1967?”
Zoe nodded. “Dad does, but not in front of my mom. The house they lived in then flooded and Mom still freaks when the water gets high.”
“Our mom is definitely freaking. That’s why she ordered me and Alicia to stay here. I’m surprised she didn’t call our brother and make him come home too, but he lives in Texas. Grandma goes nuts when there’s a flood or hurricane. She buys a bunch of food and starts cooking nonstop like any meal could be our last. I guess she thinks if we’re gonna die we should do it with full stomachs. That’s why she’s cooking—hey Dad. What’s going on?”
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