The Room Where It Happened

by Jason Letts

  “I know, but you don’t have to worry. I’m traveling my path. It looks like some of the things we’ve been through might finally come in handy. I can be good for something. And besides, I don’t think I’ll be running into much trouble on the Illinois State campus,” she said.

  “I hope not,” Eliza said, beginning to move down the hall to the front door. “But I’d better get moving or I’m going to be late.”

  They exited out the front door into a warm day with a cloudless sky.

  “How long do you have until the class starts? I could give you a lift if that helps,” Tera offered, but Eliza shook her head and brushed her off as she started down the steps.

  “I’ve got a half an hour. Plenty of time to walk. Here, give me a kiss and spare a thought that I won’t make a fool of myself after staying cooped up for too long.”

  “You’ll be showing everyone how it’s done in no time. It’s in your blood,” Tera said, smiling again as she watched her Mama set off down the street after a kiss and a wave. Suddenly she had some extra time to herself, and if her mother could find some a chance for exercise so could she.

  The next thing Tera knew she had her swimsuit on and was diving into the pool at the gym. The cool, clear water felt so good. Her goggles were wedged tight against her eyes. Every breath that filled her expanding lungs as she lifted her face from below the surface was like a tangible piece of life lifting her up.

  She launched into a smooth crawl, her arms arcing above her as she reached for her next stroke. The water flowed around every inch of her, responsive and intimate. Her arms, shoulders, glutes, thighs, and feet were all working together with a singularity of purpose, to drive her forward. She felt beautiful and powerful.

  On the morning of July 4th, Tera drove her Civic into Elmwood Park and settled for a spot a few blocks away from where the parade would begin. But she didn’t mind a walk through a picturesque neighborhood on a gorgeous morning with partly cloudy skies and temperatures in the high seventies.

  It was going to be a perfect day for a parade, and she felt good walking in her police uniform even if she had dreams of growing beyond it. Sometimes it struck her that she’d miss wearing it and had cause to wonder how many more times she’d have the chance to put it on.

  Things only seemed to get better when she saw Brady getting out of his car farther up after deftly sneaking in after someone else pulled out. He drove a newish-looking Mustang, black with a red stripe, that looked like an awful lot of fun to ride in. It didn’t appear as though he was in a rush to get to the starting point, and he was holding his phone to his ear.

  Tera noticed that Olivia wasn’t with him. She was probably already at the start and may have even been the one he was talking to on the phone. When Brady saw Tera coming along the sidewalk, he quickly got off the call and moved alongside her. He was in a smart blue suit with his light-brown hair poking out around his ears. A big guy with a charming look who could attract eyes from any direction, it was a shame she was the only one who couldn’t admire him.

  They’d hardly had a chance to say anything to each other since that night at the park.

  “I’m surprised you wanted to do this,” he said. “It didn’t seem like you.”

  “It might not have, but it does now,” she said. Done playing the wallflower and keeping all of her secrets tight to her chest, she didn’t care who knew about her past, present, or future.

  When Brady didn’t follow up with anything, it seemed like they would end up walking together mostly in silence until he cast her a sidelong look with his hands tucked in his pockets.

  “So did you blow off any steam since the confrontation in the park?”

  Tera glanced at him, trying to convey that she was glad to have something to talk about even if she didn’t understand what he was getting at with this.

  “Why would I need to blow off steam?”

  “You know, that pent up energy. It makes me want to…‌maybe I shouldn’t say,” he said, turning his eyes forward. But he’d gotten Tera’s attention, and the surest way to make sure she had to know something was for someone to go on about how he couldn’t say it.

  “Go right ahead. You can say anything you want around me,” she said.

  “I…‌are you sure?”

  “Try me.”

  Brady glanced at the sky and wiped his brow before glancing over at her with a raised eyebrow. It was nice walking next to him, comfortable.

  “Alright. There’ve been a couple of times when I’ve had to really hurt someone because of what we do. I don’t know what it is, but after that happens all I can think about is how much I want to eat someone out. Like after hurting someone so badly, I just want to make someone else explode with pleasure. You’re laughing at me.”

  Tera couldn’t keep a straight face and was trying to cover her mouth with her fingers to hide a growing grin. It was cute and sweet and honestly not something that had occurred to her in the slightest, but it sounded fun.

  “No, I’m not laughing at you. I don’t think my impulses are any different than they usually are,” she said without going into detail about how those impulses were often through the roof anyway. “But even if you weren’t slugging it out in the worst moments, if you still feel like you want to eat someone out I’m sure Olivia wouldn’t mind.”

  Brady’s head hung a little bit, and Tera wondered if she’d said something wrong.

  “Actually, she might. She broke up with me last week.”

  Tera’s eyes grew so wide they could’ve fallen out of her head.

  “What? No way.” She couldn’t believe it. Brady sighed to himself as though he couldn’t believe it either. Tera didn’t know what she’d just heard that was more riveting, Brady’s inclination for using his tongue or that he was suddenly single. Putting those two things together definitely didn’t compute.

  “I thought everything was going mostly fine but then she started saying all this stuff about how she could tell when a guy wasn’t really into her and was only in it for the bedroom stuff. I mean, we’d only been together a couple of weeks. I just wasn’t there yet on the deep emotional part. On the one hand I wonder if it could’ve developed with more time, but on the other I think she was probably right. I didn’t feel the connection and it was only a matter of time. I’m not used to someone pulling the plug before I do.”

  Tera’s mouth hung open, and she started to understand a little bit more about why Olivia had acted the way that she did back at the office. A lot of women would’ve gone along with Brady for every second he’d allow it if they could, and she deserved some real respect for walking away from his face and body if she didn’t think she was getting what she needed.

  But she could only spare thinking about Olivia for a second before she turned to herself and the pang of regret she was feeling. In a way she’d been waiting for him to say this for so long, but the blonde traffic cop was the least of their obstacles. The other one between them could never be removed, and he didn’t even know about it. Couldn’t she find another guy like him who she happened not to be related to?

  She released a deep breath. Maybe she did have some steam to blow off and it would take finding a new guy to do it.

  “I’m sorry about your breakup,” she said, managing to look over at him and catch his eye. “I don’t know if this will make things better or throw salt in the wound, but I have something to tell you…”

  He looked at her curiously, and Tera turned away. They weren’t far from the parade starting point now, and she could see some of the floats and a sea of people crowded around. She opened her mouth having finally built up the guts to say it, but he beat her to it.

  “I’m your brother. You’re my sister,” he said as if he was describing the color of the sky.

  Tera flinched, shocked to hear it from him first.

  “Yes, how did you know?”

  He laughed.

  “I called my mom. As soon as you’d told me the story about your dad’s thumb, it just sou
nded straight off like something that was too much of a coincidence. I’d asked her about Nathan Hollister and then I mentioned your name, Caldera, and she had seen hints about all of it.”

  Furrowing her brow, Tera felt a deep sense of annoyance set in.

  “That’s not fair you had it so easy! I had to dig into the archives at the Streets & Sanitation department for anything. It was a real pain. That’s what I get for my mom never wanting to know what he was up to.”

  Brady laughed, coaxing another smirk out of her.

  “We’re starting to sound like siblings already.”

  “When were you going to tell me?” Tera asked. He shrugged.

  “I don’t know. I couldn’t deprive you however long it took for you to figure it out on your own. Looks like it was a tie though. And now here we are. Just half brother and half sister, both single, and our entire city waiting for us,” he said.

  He put his hand around her shoulder and pulled her in. It felt nice, relaxed. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad. She’d never had a sibling, and that could make it interesting.

  “I doubt you’ll have any trouble on that front,” Tera said, smiling openly now. She wouldn’t be surprised if he couldn’t make it through the parade without ending up in someone’s arms.

  “You either, but if you do I’m up for being your wingman at a moment’s notice.”

  Tera laughed loudly enough to distract some other people walking by.

  “And I’ll be your wing woman…‌wing girl…‌how come there isn’t really a word for that?”

  “It’s a quirk of the English language.”

  “It’s probably because most girls aren’t interested in helping their attractive male friends find other girls. Somehow it only works if you end up being related.”

  “However it works, you’ve got a deal.”

  They laughed as they slipped into the crowd at the starting point. When the parade got going, somehow Tera ended up being the one to carry the flag for the police department. Out in front with tens of thousands of people lining the streets, she carried it high and waved the stars and stripes with pride and optimism.

  This was her city, and her belief in it was bone deep.

  The End

  Strap in for the next book in the Tera Caldera Mystery series: Crisis Management, available for pre-order NOW!

  © 2020 by Jason Letts

  All rights reserved: no part of this book may be reproduced by any means without written permission from the author.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any actual person, living or dead, is purely coincidental.