Taylorwood (Alexandria Whitney Mystery)

by McCarthy, G. L.

  She was quite sure she would not get the response she was hoping for, considering Dez had just talked “at” her for almost two hours about things she didn’t care about in the slightest. She listened though, as Dez was her lover after all. Dez rarely gave Alex the same consideration and she knew tonight would be no exception. Plus, as for the Barney situation, Dez never thought to ask about it, so Alex decided that Cyn and Frederick were the only two people she would discuss it with. As far as the note Dez had written her, she seemed to have forgotten about it too.

  “Wow, that’s great that you met Megan. She’s a real cutie. Shy you say? She is such a chatter box around me. The three of us have become good friends this past month. Her mom is very nice. I haven’t met the dad yet. He seems to be a workaholic.” Dez was off again and continued to brief Alex on every detail until the check came. Dez paid and the two left shortly after.

  On the drive home Alex closed her eyes and continued to listen to Dez rave about the “Jennings girls” all the way home. Sally had been feeding her gourmet meals during those late night calls, and her jeans were starting to get a little snug probably from those fantastic desserts. Alex wanted to throw up, but she wasn’t sure if it was from Dez’s ramblings or the wine. Either way she made Dez stop the truck so she could relieve herself of dinner. She felt horrible and hoped it was just too much plum wine on an empty stomach, and not a twentyfour hour bug.

  Alex’s head was pounding as she crawled into bed. Dez was worried she was sick with a stomach virus. If she had been paying attention she may have come to the same conclusion as Alex she drank too much. But at least finally, for the first time tonight, she was showing some concern for her as her lover, and not just as a sounding board. Hopefully by morning she would feel better and escape without a headache.

  “Please Goddess, I will never drink like that again, just please don’t give me a killer headache tomorrow morning. Bless me.”

  Chapter 11

  When Alex finally woke up, she realized her prayers had been answered no headache and her stomach was fine. “Thank you, Goddess!” She looked over at the clock. It was eleven.

  Dez was already up and out. She had left a note on the dresser. “Hope you’re feeling better. Cyn called and left you a message. Have an easy day. I have several appointments, but should be home around five-ish. Love, Dez.” Okay, I have the rest of the day to myself again. She thought about last night’s conversation. Well, it wasn’t really a conversation. A conversation usually requires two people interacting equally. Last night was more like a lecture by a renowned expert in the field of self love. Whoa, Alex thought once again. Dez is just being Dez. You are just more aware of her shortcomings, and they are starting to irritate you more and more as time goes by. Better check the machine and get off this train of thought.

  Cyn’s message was short and sweet. “Hey, Alex, I’m home doing stuff around the place. Give me a call when you get this message. Bye.” As she was showering and getting dressed Alex wondered what kind of stuff. She liked being dressed and ready to go on Saturdays just in case Dez would surprise her with an outing. But mostly it got her out of her pj’s so she could do house work or putter in the yard.

  Alex loved her little yard and garden. Dez never had time for such things. But there was something about helping plants grow that Alex found very rewarding. She had put in a little bird bath with a statue of St. Francis on it, and had constructed a water fall out of the rocks she dug up from her flower bed and vegetable garden. She put in a rock path to her truck’s carport so she wouldn’t have to walk in mud after a rain. She liked to keep the lawn/weeds mowed in the front. Someday she would get rid of all the weeds, but right now they could live in peace.

  Alex’s weekends now were mostly filled with working in the yard. When she first moved in she spent a lot of time cleaning out the garage, where she hoped to have room for her work bench. As it turned out, just as she finished getting all the extremely valuable junk put away, Dez took over and installed all her x-ray equipment. She didn’t want to have to carry it around in her truck all the time. This should have been one of the first signs to Alex that Dez wanted things her way. But, she could understand not wanting to haul around a ten thousand dollar machine, not to mention twenty-four film cassettes with her all the time. So she let it go and instead made a little garden bench alongside the house for transplanting potted plants and fixing minor items.

  After she moved in with Dez, she left most of her power tools in storage. She hadn’t had room for them in the apartment she’d rented when first taking the job at Taylorwood, and not having a work space here either made it pointless to unpack them. She missed being able to build fun things like bird houses and miniature replicas of different show jumping fences that were used at English horse shows. She had built brick walls, quarter rounds, aqueducts and the usual oxers and verticals. Not having her tools forced her to put this hobby on hold. Having the house to take care of had filled some spare time, but now it was more about maintenance than construction. Alex had much more free time to kill, and often found herself with nothing to do. Dez worked most Saturdays for those clients who worked during the week, and wanted to actually see their vet, not just talk to her. Sundays were reserved for emergencies only, but Dez always seemed to find something critical to do. They rarely had a day just for the two of them to go to the movies or just stay home and cuddle. Alex was beginning to realize she had been to the denial fountain before this and had taken several long drinks.

  The phone rang six times before Cyn picked up sounding out of breath. “Hello, hello.”

  “Hey, girlfriend did I interrupt something?” Alex hoped she hadn’t called at a bad time.

  “Oh no, I was just outside washing my car. I want a lot more rain so I don’t have to water the lawn.” Cyn believed that washing your car would be sure to bring rain the next day just to mess it up.

  Alex found Cyn’s imaginative way of getting out of certain chores to be very cute. “So, you want it to rain again, but harder this time? Well then, I would love to help you out in that department. Would you like to wash my truck too? That way you can get twice as much help from mother nature.” She was kidding, but would certainly take her up on the offer if she made it. It also needed to be waxed, but she could do that herself.

  “You’ve got yourself a deal, and I’ll even wax it for you.” Making points with Alex was top priority these days.

  “What do you say if I detail the inside of your car in exchange for you waxing mine?” Alex loved doing the detail work, but waxing was a whole other story. It was a major pain, but she had to do it to keep her beautiful fire engine red paint sparkling.

  “Great, I’ll take you up on that offer. Have you had lunch yet? I can make us BLT’s. I know I have that much food in the house.” Cyn would have washed and waxed it for nothing. Just having Alex over was more than payback.

  “Well, I have turkey, pastrami, ham, roast beef and pickles. We can make our own concoctions. I can be there in about an hour. Can your stomach hold out that long?” Alex was looking into the fridge as she talked on the portable phone, and started pulling out all the lunch meats and condiments.

  “Absolutely! I can get my car waxed and she’ll be ready for you to do your thing.” Cyn could hardly contain her excitement. Today was looking better and better. She thought she was only going to talk to Alex on the phone and now she was coming over. Stay calm and maybe if you play your cards right this could turn into an all day thing.

  Alex had everything in a bag, and was on the road in record time. On the drive over Alex felt like a kid. She never thought she would be looking forward to washing her truck as much as she was. But it was the company she would have doing that little chore that was the big draw. This was the kind of thing she and Dez had done together that first year; in fact they had done almost everything together that first year. But now she was finding a new companion to have fun with and the possibilities to do so many other things. But was she using C
yn to have fun with so she could stay with Dez? Time would tell as if things didn’t change after she and Dez had their talk then she would need to make some changes.

  She pulled up to Cyn’s slowly not wanting to get dust all over the newly washed and waxed mustang. Cyn had parked it in the shade so it would be cooler for Alex while she worked on the interior.

  “Wow! It’s so shiny. You do a great wax job there, girlfriend.” Alex knew her truck was in good hands.

  Cyn was smiling and took the bag from Alex as they walked inside to make their lunch. Alex had been inside the little house before, but not in the kitchen area. It was neat not a lot of clutter on the counters. Alex liked a clear work space. Cyn had the bread and tomatoes sitting out and a skillet ready just in case.

  “So do we want bacon?” Cyn had the door to the refrigerator open ready to pull out whatever she needed.

  “Of course. We’re going to use everything. Do you know what a Dagwood is?” Alex was throwing the calorie counter out today. She figured detailing both cars should burn off some of these calorie she was about to consume, and if not  tough. After all, dinner hadn’t really stayed with her that long last night, so she had a few calorie credits coming.

  “Isn’t that the name of an old newspaper comic character?” Cyn wasn’t one hundred percent sure, but had a good idea of what it meant.

  “Exactly. Dagwood was a comic strip. The main character who was named Dagwood, would make these huge sandwiches using everything he could find in the refrigerator. We are about to attempt the same thing. So if it’s edible bring it out.” she gave Cyn a smile and saw her delight in the idea.

  “A woman after my own heart. It’s nice to know someone who isn’t always counting calories.” Cyn was lucky as she had the metabolism of a twelve year old. She pulled out several different kinds of cheese, a head of lettuce, and got busy frying up the bacon.

  “Well, sometimes you just have to say, to heck with calories. Life is too short to get paranoid about your weight. Anyway, I have a credit coming in that area, as I overdid it last night at the Tea Room in the plum wine department, and lost my dinner on the ride home. Oh, maybe I shouldn’t tell you that just before we eat.”

  “Oh wow, how did that go?” Cyn was busy cooking bacon and slicing tomatoes as Alex was putting mayonnaise and dijonaise on the wheat bread.

  “Well, Dez talked all night about cases, the cost of drugs going up, how wonderful Megan and her mother Sally are, and what a big help she was giving the pony shots. Plus she was feeding her gourmet meals and fantastic desserts. She only asked me one time what was up with me, and when I replied with a vague answer the food arrived, after which point she started off on another tangent. It took her a while to even realize I hadn’t finished what I was saying. So I just told her I had met Megan at lunch and how much I liked her, and left it at that. Okay, let’s get this baby assembled and eat. I haven’t eaten since last night and I’m really hungry.” Alex piled everything they had, which made the sandwiches nearly four inches thick.

  “Uh oh” She looked over at Cyn.

  “I have an idea, but it may get messy. So I’ll do mine first and if it doesn’t work, we can do something else to yours.”

  Alex put a little plate on top of her sandwich and pushed down, hoping to minimize the mess. Luckily nothing squirted out the sides, and she was left with a nice squished sandwich, which was now the perfect size to fit in her mouth.

  “Brilliant. Okay now you do yours.”

  Cyn took the little plate and did exactly as Alex, with the same results.

  “You truly are brilliant! I never would have thought of that.”

  With sandwiches in hand and bottles of water the pair went outside to eat on the front steps were they could enjoy the sunshine.

  “This is really good.” Both laughed. It seemed like it took them a fraction of the time to eat the sandwiches as it did to make them.

  “I’m stuffed. How about you?” Alex looked over at Cyn who was finishing off her water.

  “Totally. I hope I can get up. I need to get started on your truck before we lose the sun. Wax doesn’t dry that well on a cold surface.” Cyn groaned as she stood up and headed for the hose.

  “I’ll move it out of the shade and roll up my windows.”

  Alex made a little moaning noise herself as she rose to her feet. Boy she felt like a nap right now, but needed to get to work. She parked the truck on the gravel driveway a little way from the house. Cyn got started by opening the tailgate and began rinsing out the bed, which had leaves and the usual dirt from driving on unpaved roads.

  Alex found all the supplies waiting for her near the mustang and started to wipe down the dash with vinyl protector. Cleaning the vents and radio took the most time. Alex had brought along long cotton swabs she procured from Dez’s supply room and painstakingly cleaned every nook and cranny of the entire dash. It was mindless work that Alex loved doing as she could daydream during the process.

  She looked up from her work and watched Cyn drying every inch of her truck with great care. Had Dez ever offered to wash and wax her truck? Not that Alex could remember. Her mind continued to wander when she found herself thinking of Cyn as her lover. Alex gave her head a shake to lose the vision. She and Cyn were friends and she needed to keep it that way.

  Alex was in the back seat vacuuming when Cyn asked her if she wanted something to drink.

  “Why thank you. I’d love some water.” She climbed out and realized she was sweating quite a bit.

  “Whew, I didn’t realize how hot it was in there until I got out.”

  “Take a break, and let Inspector Twelve see what you’ve done. Cyn slid into the front seat smiling to herself over the fact that Alex got her sense of humor. “Wow! It has never been this clean inside, not even when I bought it.”

  “I’m glad you approve, Inspector Twelve. Although I did buy a blouse that you had inspected and it had a crooked hem, so I’m not so sure I should trust your praise.” Alex was hoping Cyn was being honest even as she was joking with her.

  “Oh well, my car inspecting ability is a lot better than my blouse work. Just ask Inspector Eight.”

  As Cyn was getting out of the car she was laughing at how she got Alex’s sense of humor too. They seemed to be perfect for each other, but Cyn needed to stop comparing and just appreciate the time they spent together. Even if Alex was single, there was no guarantee that she would ever see Cyn as a potential lover. She needed to get back to work on the truck. Alex still needed to approve her wax job and she wanted it to be perfect.

  Alex did a quick clean up of her trucks interior. She had spent far more time on the inside of the mustang wanting “little blue” to look perfect for Cyn. After all, waxing her truck was a big job, with so much metal and chrome and she wanted to reward her hard working friend. Both women finished at about the same time.

  “Perfect Inspector Twelve! You are not only a great inspector, but do a fantastic job waxing too!” The truck sparkled in the sun, just the way it looked after she had it painted. Alex looked at her watch and realized she needed to call home and leave a message for Dez, who was probably on her way there.

  Cyn saw her looking at her watch. “Do you need to leave?” She hoped not.

  “No, not really. I just need to call and tell Dez where I am. In my rush out I forgot to leave a note.” Had she really forgotten or did she just not care if Dez knew or not. Alex was tired and didn’t have the most caring attitude about their relationship right now.

  “Can you stay for dinner?” came out before Cyn realized she didn’t have anything to cook.

  “Well, since I’ve seen the inside of your refrigerator, what did you have in mind?” Alex had an idea, but wanted so see what Cyn came up with.

  “Well, ahhh, we could make another sandwich, but I’m sure you would like something different wouldn’t you?” Cyn could kick herself for not doing her shopping before the weekend.

  “I noticed you had eggs. We have enough stuff lef
t over to make an omelet. How does that sound?” Alex wanted to stay away from home as long as possible. She needed to get her attitude adjusted before she returned.

  “Fantastic. I forgot I had eggs. I hope they’re still good!” Cyn could kiss Alex for coming up with a decent meal. From now on she was going to have food in her fridge on the weekends, just in case this became a weekly event.

  Alex called home. “Hey Dez, I am over at Cyn’s. We washed and waxed our cars and now we’re going to have dinner. I’ll see you later. I hope you had a good day. Bye.” Alex felt relieved that Dez hadn’t picked up. She knew their conversation wouldn’t have been short, as Dez would have questioned her further about her activities, and would have wanted to know exactly when she was coming home.

  Suddenly it dawned on her that Dez was more than a little controlling. Why hadn’t she figured it out before? It’s not like she hadn’t read enough stories with controlling spouses. It was obviously easier to see things in other relationships than it was in your own. Alex was Dez’s first really long term relationship so there was no past history of this behavior. Maybe prospective lovers needed to fill out applications you know, listing their likes and dislikes and references from past lovers so you could check out what went wrong.

  Alex was staring off into space when Cyn walked outside to see if she was okay.

  “Were you able to get service?” Cyn had offered her home phone, but Alex wanted some privacy, in case Dez had answered.

  “Yes, I left a message. I was just thinking. I seem to be preoccupied a lot lately. It must be an old age thing.” Thinking about her relationship was occupying more and more of Alex’s thoughts.

  “Are you hungry yet? Should we start cooking?” Alex was still somewhat full from lunch.

  “Not really, how about you? We could just sit out here and enjoy the rest of the day.” What if she decided to leave? Cyn wished she had lied and said she was hungry.

  “I like that idea.” Alex sat down on the front porch swing.