Strong Tea

by Sheila Horgan

  It was the first smile I’d seen on her all day.

  “Don’t gross me out, Teagan.”

  “You know what I mean. Then all the trouble with Jessie. We almost didn’t make it through that. Then Mom. I’m still not sure I am gonna make it through that. And the baby and her crazy momma. And now all this. Cara, I don’t like chaos. Never have.”

  “Then we will just have to make it as orderly as possible. That’s my specialty, remember? Teagan, you mentioned Joynessa twice. That probably means something. You need to remember you’re grown. Your life will probably never be simple again, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be wonderful.”

  “I’m not sure I can do this. The business and the baby and all this stuff with the murder and the IRS. Out of all of it, I think the IRS scares me the most.”

  “It would me, too. Dealing with the IRS is kind of like dealing with a rumor. Doesn’t matter how many facts you throw at it, there are going to be some people that just never believe you. You gotta pray your auditor isn’t one of them.”

  I tried to dig out my best reassuring smile. “We’ll get it all straightened out. Then we’ll get you organized again. Teagan, you’ve run that office for years and years. There’s no reason to believe that you can’t run it and make more money than ever while you do it. When you stop to really think about it, the only difference between before the Fishers left and now is you’re getting paid closer to what you are worth now.”

  “I don’t think I ever realized how much Mr. Fisher was doing. It felt like everything was on me, but I’m beginning to think he had a lot of stuff going on I didn’t know about.”

  “One thing at a time. First, we go back to the office. Then we make an appointment with Mr. Fisher.”

  “An appointment?”

  “Do you want to catch him with his pants down? Literally?”

  Teagan laughed. It was good to hear. “Mom used to say that. Catch him with his pants down.”

  “About Mr. Fisher?”

  “No, but still. You’re right. I’ll make an appointment if I can. This afternoon if possible. I’ll let you know what happens.”

  “You don’t want me to come?”

  “You have a wedding to plan.”

  “True, but you could use a witness if something is kinda bad. A little sisterly support if it’s really bad.”

  “I can handle it.”

  “I know you can. But why would you want to do that alone?”

  “I don’t. Thanks.”

  “And we can talk about how we’re going to get your life in order once we figure this out.” Why I need to figure Teagan’s life out is a conversation for a different time.

  “No. First, we address Gord and the IRS, then we get you married, and then we will worry about my life.”

  “Sounds good. You know this is all going to work out, and we’re going to be laughing about it.”

  “Back to being an optimist, dingleberry. I like that. And you’re right. It will give me something to talk about at your reception.”

  “Well, I would hope you’d have something a little more, you know, personal to talk about.”

  “Okay. The fact that you won’t be wearing a thong. All discussions will be centered around that.”

  I rolled my eyes so hard they almost got stuck. But she’s right. There will be no thong under my wedding dress. Maybe tap pants.

  TEN

  THE FISHERS GOT to Teagan’s office about fourteen seconds after I did. I didn’t get to say a single word to Teagan.

  No preparation at all.

  I hate that.

  We met in the conference room. Lindsey escorted all of us in at the same time.

  Mr. Fisher looked at me curiously. “Well, Cara. I didn’t expect to see you here. Has your sister officially hired you?”

  “She can’t afford me.” I gave him a dazzling smile.

  It might have come off more like a snarl, because the look on Honey’s face was kind of horror meets funny.

  “Then to what do we owe this pleasure?” Was he talking formally to me? I hate it when Teagan fills me in on little secrets, like when Mr. Fisher is only formal when he’s feeling guilty. Now I’m going to be on hyperalert for all things formal.

  Speaking of which, I actually dressed well for all of this. Teagan told me she wanted it totally professional. I did my best Ivanka Trump business look. I love the way she holds it all together. Babies and a career and a husband who seems to adore her, and she’s totally serene through it all. That’s what I wanted to project, so that is what I framed myself in. I saw her in this beautiful fuchsia dress once. It had an asymmetrical neckline. It was modest but edgy. It looked so good on her. I was buzzing through the mall looking for something completely different — I think I was shopping for Adeline — when I saw exactly the same dress in a deep rich emerald green. I can’t wear fuchsia, but I can wear the hell out of emerald green. I bought it on the spot. I decided to buy it before I even checked the price tag. How often does that happen in life? If I’m trying for uber professional, I wear it by itself. If I’m going for a little more edgy, I wear it with a butter-soft leather jacket I’ve had since I was in high school, and I poof out my hair a little more.

  Teagan was already in the conference room. She was wearing a little black office dress. She looked like the poster child for success.

  Honey went straight to Teagan and basically pulled her into a bear hug. “Hun, you look just beautiful.”

  “Thank you.”

  Mr. Fisher wasn’t sure what to do with himself. Teagan was placed at the head of the table. Where Mr. Fisher usually sat. She wasn’t giving up that spot, either.

  After looking at each of the chairs, he took a seat about halfway down on the left side. I sat directly across from him and swiveled my chair toward Teagan. Honey sat to Mr. Fisher’s right.

  “What’s going on here, Miss O’Flynn?”

  “I think we need to talk. To determine where we are and where we are going.”

  Honey started to say something, but when she glanced at her husband and saw the look on his face, she physically retreated and stopped her comment before it began. She kind of shriveled in her seat. I’ve never seen Honey back down from anything. Ever.

  Teagan had a single sheet of paper in front of her. She also had a very expensive-looking pen in her hand.

  She looked like the consummate boss.

  I’m taking credit for some of it. I bought her that pen. My counselor had a beautiful pen, and she told me where her mom got it, and I bought some of them for gifts. They are custom-made, and they add a touch of elegance and power.

  Teagan needed all the power she could muster.

  She was about to confront a man she’d always thought of as a second father, and fathers are a really big deal when you’re an O’Flynn.

  Teagan went point by point, covering everything that had happened from the moment Mr. Fisher had decided to relinquish his day-to-day control over the business until sitting down at the conference table in the place of power.

  She did a really good job.

  Her voice didn’t even shake.

  Good eye contact when appropriate.

  I was willing to bet she’d burned off about fifty thousand calories due to stress. I’d have to feed her as soon as we were done.

  Well, if we weren’t going to jail or anything.

  When Teagan was done with her timeline — that was fleshed out just enough to raise more questions than it answered — Mr. Fisher took a deep breath. “Miss O’Flynn, I can see where you’ve put some thought and effort in here, but I can’t see where you’re going with it.”

  “I need to know what you know and what you think. I need to know what it is you can add to all of this so that we can get things back on track.”

  Honey blurted, “But we already told you, hun. Those computer boys just happened to bang into something they don’t understand, but nothin’ was done illegal. We don’t know anything about anything else.”

  I
decided to fall on the sword for Teagan. I would ask the hard questions that she couldn’t bring herself to ask these people she loved. Well, she loved Mr. Fisher. I’m not exactly sure how she feels about Honey.

  As I tried to form a question, Teagan actually beat me to the punch.

  She’s good at that.

  “It has been suggested to me that there’s more going on in this company than I know. I don’t ever want to unknowingly say or do something that is going to cause problems for the two of you.”

  Mr. Fisher started to say something. Stopped himself. Started again. Stopped again.

  As we watched, the look on his face went from frustration to outrage. He started to turn red — we-might-have-to-call-911 red — and then he started to shake.

  I couldn’t tell if he was angry, hurt, or afraid. “Now you listen to me, young lady. I’ll not have you threaten me after all I’ve done for you.”

  Teagan looked more sad than anything else. “Threaten you?”

  “That’s what I said.”

  “I’m not threatening you. I’m trying to protect you.”

  Honey’s eyes were as big as saucers. She sputtered, shaking her head, but I couldn’t understand what she was sputtering.

  “Protect me? Protect me from what? Just what is it that you think you need to protect me from? Miss O’Flynn, our personal life is none of your business, and the last thing I need is a squeaky clean little girl trying to make me feel guilty for things she doesn’t understand.”

  Teagan looked a little bit like a chicken. Not because she was afraid, but because her head was doing this weird jerky thing as she looked from me to Mr. Fisher to Honey and back. “Wait, what?”

  Mr. Fisher was incensed. “I understand that my wife’s comments on the news brought a certain animus to the door of this business, and that is unfortunate, but I will not have you — or anyone else — use that as weaponry against me or my wife.”

  Teagan seemed a little stunned.

  Mr. Fisher continued. “If you are going to insist on treating us this way, in abusing us because of the knowledge you obtained from her comments on the news” — he pointed at Honey so swiftly and with such vengeance I actually thought he was going to smack her in the face — “and then your spying on us in our private moments, then I believe I have chosen the wrong person to succeed me in this business, and maybe it would be better if I simply remand all previous decisions and come back to the helm of this wayward ship.”

  I expected Teagan to burst into tears or look hurt or something along those lines, but she went straight to nuclear pissed.

  “You wait just a damn minute. I have always, always been deferential and painfully accommodating of you and both Missus Fishers, but I’ll be damned to hell if I am going to allow you to talk to me that way after all I’ve been through in the last couple of weeks. Most of which has been your damn fault.”

  Three damns in a single breath. That might be a new record for Teagan. Mr. Fisher was making movements like he was going to get up and walk away, but Teagan wasn’t done.

  “You walk away from a business and all of the people that work here, under the auspice of feigning embarrassment that your goofy new wife went fifty shades of sexual on national television, and then I find you in a freaking nudist colony? No, sir. You don’t get to play these games with me. Not with me. If you want to sit your ass down and discuss this, and if we can find out what is really going on, then I’m all about continuing this conversation and our partnership. If you’re going to treat me like a stupid child and try to intimidate me with your lousy attitude and your contemptuous and more than slightly condescending attitude, then you need to know that you are trifling with the wrong person. I’ll be out of here so fast you won’t know what hit you. And for the record, half the staff will come with me. My loyalty has always been to you, but there are people here who are loyal to me. I will use everything I’ve learned here and everything I am as a human being to become your worst nightmare of a competitor. I’ll make it my mission to see you out of business.”

  Go Teagan!

  Mr. Fisher’s voice was quiet, but I couldn’t tell what he was thinking. “Are you quite finished?”

  “No, actually I’m not. I am no longer going to allow you to treat me as if I’m a little girl getting ready for prom. I have pulled my weight around here for years. More than that. I’ve not only supported you in this company, there were times that I pulled you toward success against your will. I love this company. But I am no longer going to allow you to disrespect my contributions or me. If you are unwilling or unable to treat me like an equal and speak to me honestly and openly about where we are in this company, then it is time for me to leave.”

  Teagan’s voice didn’t even shake. I couldn’t tell if the rest of her was shaking, mostly because she’s short enough that the majority of her body was hidden under the table, but I gotta say, I’m not sure I’ve ever been so impressed by my sister.

  I know how much this company means to Teagan. For her to sit there and say she is willing to walk away must be killing her on the inside, but you would never know it.

  Mr. Fisher took a deep breath. “Teagan, I’m sorry.”

  Teagan didn’t say a word. She waited.

  “I’m sorry if you feel… ”

  Bless her heart, Teagan started to stand. “I guess we’re done.”

  “What?”

  “This isn’t about how I feel, Douglas.”

  That’s the first time I’ve ever heard Teagan call Mr. Fisher by his first name.

  She continued. “If you are going to put all of this off on my feelings, then we have nothing to discuss. I’ll just go pack my office.”

  “Wait! Now just wait a damn minute. Sit down.”

  Teagan didn’t sit.

  “Please sit down and listen to me, Teagan.”

  Teagan sat.

  “I’m not exactly sure where all this anger and attitude are coming from.”

  Teagan stirred, and Mr. Fisher put up his hands in surrender.

  “Just give me a minute. You know I’m not good at this stuff.”

  Teagan took a deep breath. “You are one of the strongest negotiators I’ve ever met. I’m having a hard time believing that you find talking to me all that difficult.”

  “I don’t negotiate with people I care so deeply for. You have been like a daughter to me for a very long time. That is perhaps why I have reacted so badly to all of this.”

  Teagan didn’t say a word. She didn’t let him off the hook like that. Silence is one of the strongest weapons in any arsenal, one I can never quite bring to bear.

  Mr. Fisher continued. “You need to know a few things. We haven’t done anything wrong here. We haven’t cheated on taxes or anything else. I have always run this company completely above board. It’s true, when there was a legal alternative to paying huge taxes, I took it. But it was legal. I see how badly the government wastes my money, and I get my back up and don’t want to give them one cent more than I have to, but I’ve always followed both the letter and the intent of the law. Without exception. When I told you that at the resort, I meant it.”

  “Okay.”

  “You don’t believe me?”

  “Douglas, I’ve known you for a very long time. I know when you’re covering something, and when we were at the resort, you showed all the signs.”

  “Well, of course I did!”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Miss O’Flynn, a young woman that means the world to me had just intercepted me and my wife on our way to what we thought was a rather taboo arrangement with another couple in the middle of a resort that caters to individuals who not only prefer to walk around buck naked, but have proclivities considered — by most — to be forbidden.”

  “What?”

  “You heard me.”

  “Your personal life is none of my business, Douglas.”

  “I agree, but can you imagine how your father would feel if he were partaking in such bonne bouche
and the two of you arrived unannounced? I even made Honey here run over to Cara’s house to make sure that you hadn’t gone off the rails. I just couldn’t face you.”

  “Douglas, you and Honey are adults of sound mind, well past the age of consent. What you do in your personal life is none of my business.”

  “I agree, but that does not alter the fact that your finding us in such a condition, without notice of any kind, was difficult for me.”

  “I’m sorry. I should have called first. It is beyond the scope of our relationship for me to just drop by. I should have known better. It won’t happen again.”

  “Thank you.”

  “I’m not sure where we go from here.”

  “I think that we should start fresh in the morning. Honey and I will relocate back to the ranch. You and I will go over everything, top to bottom. I’ll do it right this time and make the transition a little smoother. Once we’re in good shape, Honey and I will be leaving for an extended cruise. We are leaving out of Miami and doing most of a world tour. We will be available by phone or email in an extreme case, but we would rather that you simply deal with whatever comes your way.”

  “That sounds great. Thank you.”

  “And, Teagan?”

  “Yes, sir?”

  “Losing you would be my biggest nightmare, and business is only a very small part of that. I hope you know that I would never do anything that would put you in danger — physical, financial, or in any other way. From the day you walked into our little office, wanting an after-school job, through all of your schooling and training, I’ve always felt as if God brought you to us. The daughter we were never able to have. You mean much more to me than you know.”

  Honey lost it.

  I blinked back tears.

  Teagan smiled. “Thank you, Mr. Fisher.”

  He laughed, gave her a quick hug, and the meeting was over.

  Teagan and I walked into the restaurant well before the lunch crowd. “Does it make me a jerk that I’m glad the Fishers said they didn’t want to come to lunch?”

  “No, dingleberry, that’s not what makes you a jerk.”

  I hip checked her. Not really bad, she didn’t go flying into a table or anything, but I did knock her off balance. Probably because my hip is pretty high compared to hers.