Strawberry Wine

by Phillips, Kristy

  Alli’s mother Linda answered the door. “Jason, what a pleasant surprise.”

  He smiled warmly and forced himself to meet her gaze. Being in Linda’s presence made him feel like the slimiest of low-life’s, considering his very intimate relationship with her youngest daughter. “Mrs. Wilson, you look well.”

  “Please, call me Linda. What brings you by today? You know, it’s funny, I was just going to call your mother and invite you all to dinner next week. Margot will be visiting, and I think you two would really hit it off.”

  Jason smiled politely. “That’s very kind of you Mrs.- Linda. I’ll give my mother the message.”

  Linda waved for him to follow her back to the kitchen. “Come on in. Can I get you anything to drink?”

  Jason was relieved to note that no one was in the kitchen, particularly any heart-broken blonds that made him weak in the knees. “I’m sorry, I can’t really stay. I actually just came by to drop off Alli’s assignments. Is she expected to be out long?” Jason hoped the concerned interest in his voice sounded teacherly. He held up the manilla folder.

  “Oh, I don’t know. She’s just a little out of sorts. She’s been taking my separation from her father pretty hard. My goodness! What happened to your hand?”

  Jason blushed under her scrutiny. “Oh, it’s nothing. It looks worse than it is. I slammed it in a door...” He dismissed her concern with a shrug.

  “Well. That must have been some door.”

  Jason heard a door open upstairs and felt a touch of panic creep into his blood stream. He couldn’t bear the thought of facing Alli right now. “Ah, such are the dangers of working around heavy farm equipment.” He frowned, realizing too late that none of his father’s heavy farming equipment had any doors to speak of.

  Luckily, Linda’s knowledge of such things was very limited. She smiled, apparently accepting his excuse. He thanked her for her time and made a hasty retreat.

  Alli was in class the next day after all. Jason made note of the dark circles under her eyes, and her sullen disposition. She wouldn’t meet his gaze. He heaved a heavy sigh, and scrapped his lesson plan for the day.

  “Good afternoon, class. Please settle down.” He stood and walked around his desk, leaning against it and crossing his legs at the ankles. “Today we are going to discuss the art of the apology.”

  Alli’s head snapped up and she stared at him in disbelief.

  “Let’s say I offended one of you.” He made a point of looking slowly around the room. Finally he settled on Alli. “Miss Wilson, perhaps. Let’s say I committed an egregious offense against Miss Wilson, here.” Alli’s cheeks started to pink up, embarrassed by the attention of the other students.

  “What are some appropriate, classic examples of ways in which I might apologize?”

  Yvette raised her hand in the back of the room. “Yes, Miss Slinth?”

  “Well, it would depend on what exactly you did, wouldn’t it Mr. Taylor?”

  Jason nodded thoughtfully. “Yes, you’re quite right.” Jason frowned in thought. Glancing down at his desk he grabbed his copy of Pride and Prejudice, suddenly inspired.

  “Okay. Elizabeth Bennet overhears Mr. Darcy insulting all of the ladies at the dance, herself included.”

  The students that had completed their reading assignment nodded, while those that had not, just stared at him with confused looks on their faces.

  Jason continued. “Well, had he simply apologized, Elizabeth would have seen his better qualities sooner, rather than deducing him to be a shallow, haughty man undeserving of her time and attention.”

  Jason frowned. He wasn’t making any sense - even to himself. They were only halfway through the Jane Austen novel, and Jason wondered idly if Alli had already read it and consequently knew the outcome. He was fairly certain that she had. He didn’t want to imply that he expected them to end up together. Scrapping his Pride and Prejudice theme, he soldiered on.

  “Okay, how about this. Let’s say I insulted Miss Wilson, and was overly rude and hurtful. Maybe I said very insensitive things with the intension of purposefully causing her heartache, sprung solely from my own insecurities.” Thirty baffled students stared back at him. He cringed inwardly and tried to weave his ramblings back into relevance. “Uh... Which is exactly what Mr. Darcy does to Miss Bennet in chapter... hmmm. Anyway. Uh. Take out your journals and write an acceptable apology. Please keep them relevant to the period. Address them to Miss Elizabeth Bennet, from Mr. Darcy. You have twenty minutes. Get started.” Hmm, not bad Taylor. He congratulated himself. Mr. Darcy does end up writing Elizabeth an apology...

  He caught Alli’s look as he turned back to his desk. She was smiling shyly in acknowledgment. Apology accepted.

  Alli was startled by the hissing sound the water made as it boiled over onto the stove burner. She had been preoccupied with reliving her time with Jason at the blood bank, and hadn’t been paying attention to the pasta.

  She knew she shouldn’t have sought him out. It had been selfish and foolish... and so worth it. It was risky, trying to talk with him before she had ended things with Greg. Alli knew Margot was right in that regard. Unfortunately, Alli just hadn’t been able to find the right moment to talk with Greg. It was as if he knew something was wrong, so he was avoiding her. Even now, she was making pasta for one, because Greg had called to tell her he was swamped at the office, and he wouldn’t be good company so she should stay at her place tonight.

  The coward in Alli was relieved she wouldn’t have to have the dreaded break-up talk tonight, but at the same time Alli was eager to move forward to whatever lay in store for her. Well, providing whatever lay in store for her included Jason. She wasn’t ready to face the possibility of Jason turning her away. The thought hurt too much. The reality of the situation was that he very well may deny her. He had every reason to believe her a fickle deserter. Had she been able to see into the future - to see the look of hurt and betrayal in Jason’s eyes when she had stumbled into his studio the other day, would she have still made the same decision she had made all those years ago?

  She could remember it like it was yesterday. The conversation she had had with her father was burned into her memory, having been replayed over and over countless times in her mind. Had she made the right choice?

  “Alli, I know you don’t understand right now, but it is my greatest hope that when you are older you will understand why I am doing this. I firmly believe with every fiber of my being that this is the right thing to do. The man is a predator. He cannot be allowed to continue preying on innocents. ”

  Alli was sitting at the edge of the sofa. Her arms were wrapped tightly around her, more in a show of defiance than to keep her warm. Her head was turned sharply toward the wall as she was refusing to look at her father.

  Her voice was low and angry when she spoke, still not looking at him. “You’re doing this to punish me. You hate me. You hate the shame I brought to the family name.”

  Bill pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. “God has already seen fit to punish you for your sins. This isn’t about punishing you.”

  Alli turned to look at him then, her eyes bright with outraged disbelief. “How can you say that? How can you possibly say that? I suffered a tragedy, Daddy. That wasn’t God punishing me for my sins.” Hot, angry tears pooled in her eyes and spilled over to run down her cheeks. She growled in frustration. “I can’t wait to turn eighteen and get the hell away from you! I wish Mom would leave you for good.”

  Bill looked heavenward as if asking for divine strength. He knew she was upset. He also knew she was a stubborn girl, and she would run to that bastard teacher the second the clock struck midnight on her eighteenth birthday. He couldn’t let that happen. He needed to prevent that by any means necessary.

  “You’re right, Alli. You’ll be eighteen soon. You’ll be free to do what you wish within the confines of the law. Sadly, I don’t think the reunion you are envisioning between yourself and Jason will go quite as planned.”
>
  That got her attention. She narrowed her eyes at him, but wouldn’t ask him to elaborate. He didn’t keep her waiting.

  “Your Jason will more than likely be serving jail time by then.”

  Alli pressed her lips into a flat line. He could see the doubt and worry in her eyes.

  “It doesn’t have to be this way Alli. I can make sure he doesn’t go to jail.”

  “You’ll drop the charges?” Her hopeful tone tugged at his heartstrings. First love was a powerful drug. It wasn’t going to be easy to detoxify the girl.

  “No. I can’t in good conscience drop the charges. What I can do, and will do, is make sure Jason serves no jail time, providing you and I can come to an agreement.”

  She regarded her father warily. “What sort of an agreement?” She asked.

  Bill took a deep breath. He had her right where he needed her. “You agree not to have any contact with him until you have graduated.” Alli was confused. She would graduate before her eighteenth birthday. “With your bachelors degree.” He clarified.

  Alli’s eyes widened. Bill continued before she could say anything. “Think about it Alli. If he’s in jail you wouldn’t be seeing him before then anyway. If he is as in love with you as you seem to think, waiting for you to finish your education shouldn’t be an insurmountable obstacle.”

  “You have to let me tell him-”

  “No contact. That’s my offer.”

  And she had taken it. She couldn’t bear the thought of Jason rotting in jail because of her lies. She also fully intended to break the agreement and get a message to Jason, but in the wake of the scandal he had disappeared from all social networking sites, and the email address Alli had for him was through the school district and obviously no longer viable.

  A fresh wave of grief hit Alli as she remembered going to the Taylor’s the day after she graduated. She hadn’t expected Jason to still be there, and he wasn’t. What surprised her though was Mary Taylor’s dismissive demeanor, and her unwillingness to tell Alli where to find Jason.

  “Alli, Jason has moved on, and I wish you all the best in doing the same.”

  That hadn’t stopped Alli from looking for him. She even went so far as to hire a private investigator. How hard could it be to find a registered sex offender? Well, as it turned out, it was impossible. Especially when unbeknownst to Alli, her father sabotaged her efforts.

  The fact that Alli had found Jason again despite all of those difficulties confirmed for Alli that they were fated to be together. She just couldn’t entertain the idea that he wouldn’t take her back. He had to.

  “Mary, Jason, I’m so glad you could join us tonight.” Linda hugged Mary in welcome and gave Jason a peck on the cheek before accepting the bottle of wine he offered her.

  “Is this some of your famous strawberry wine?” Linda asked, looking over the label.

  Mary smiled and shook her head. “No, but I can bring some more by if you’d like to try it. We thought a white would go better with dinner.”

  Jason followed the women into the dining area as they chattered amiably about fermented grape juice. He was determined to put on a happy face tonight. There had been no way around Linda’s dinner invitation, and he was grateful to have his mother here with him to help run interference while he did his best to avoid both of Linda’s daughters for very different reasons.

  He smirked mentally at the irony of his mother having wanted to arrange just such a dinner a few short weeks ago.

  Alli and Margot were bustling around the kitchen, playing sous chef and kitchenhand to Gran’s executive chef. Gran had wanted to make her specialty chicken dish, but they had changed the menu to a vegetarian dish at the last minute because when Alli had opened the plastic wrap on the meat, she found it had gone bad.

  Alli could hear her mother talking to their guests in the dining room. She couldn’t help noting her heart’s pace accelerating with the knowledge that Jason was on the other side of the door. She had tried every angle possible to get her mother to abandon her match-making plans. She was horrified at the thought of having to endure an entire evening of watching her mother throw her sister at Jason. Margot felt the complete opposite. She thought it was hilarious.

  “Ooh, sounds like my hot date has arrived!” Margot chirped, taking off her apron and dramatically patting at her hair to be sure every piece was in place. Alli just rolled her eyes at her sister.

  “Please behave yourself.” Alli begged. She crossed her arms and leaned her hip against the counter. “Quack!” said her apron. Alli jumped away from the counter as if she had been electrocuted. Bernard gave the apron a suspicious growl and a half-hearted sniff before deeming it unworthy of further attention. Why anyone would make a novelty quacking duck apron was a mystery to Alli second only to the mystery of why her gran continued to buy them. She had quite the collection; There was a rooster, a frog, the duck Alli was currently wearing, and what appeared to be some kind of manatee. That was Alli’s best guess, anyway. The sound it made was more gas-like than anything she’d ever heard come out of a manatee.

  “She’s right, Margot dear. Jason is Alli’s teacher. It wouldn’t be kind to embarrass him or your sister for a cheap laugh. Isn’t that right, Bernard?” Gran made a kissy face at the dog and dropped him a piece of carrot. “Not to mention, he is a delightful young man.” Gran caught Alli’s eyes and gave her a ghost of a smile. “A girl could do a lot worse than Jason Taylor.”

  Alli’s stomach dropped out from her middle. What exactly was that secret smile supposed to mean? Did Gran know? No. She couldn’t possibly... Alli tried to catch Gran’s attention again, but the older woman was suddenly very busy bringing dishes out to the dining table.

  Alli was the last to leave the kitchen and join the rest of the party in the dining room. Linda had just introduced Margot to Jason.

  “Oh, we’ve met.” Margot was saying. “Isn’t that right, Jason?”

  Jason smiled politely and nodded his head. “Yes, briefly. At Alli’s birthday fête if I’m not mistaken.”

  Margot snorted a laugh at Jason’s tongue-in-cheek description of the diner incident and turned to Alli. “He’s funny. Your English teacher is funny, Alli.”

  Alli smiled warily. “Yeah. Mr. Taylor is a regular comedian.”

  Jason met her gaze. She was clearly on edge, and even more nervous about this forced get-together than he was. He didn’t like to see her so high-strung. “That’s a lovely apron, Ms. Wilson. I had no idea you were so fond of water fowl.” He arched a single brow and gave her a crooked smile.

  Alli quickly pulled off the offending garment and Jason immediately regretted drawing her attention to it. Underneath the apron she was wearing a scooped neck dress with small capped sleeves. It showcased a large expanse of creamy skin, broken only by the delicate silver chain that held the tiny goat charms he had given her. The light from the overhead lamp winked off the shiny silver and Jason ran his thumb over the tips of his fingers, remembering the night he had clasped it around the column of her neck.

  “So! Let’s eat.” Margot said loudly at the exact moment Mary said, “Everything looks lovely!” Both of them obviously trying to fill in the deafening silence.

  “Jason, you sit here, across from Margot.” Linda indicated which chair he should take before directing Mary and Alli where to sit as well. Linda and Gran sat at the head and foot of the table respectively, Papa and Mr. Taylor having opted to attend a poker game rather than sit through a forced dinner date. Alli wadded her apron and tossed it on to a side table. “Quack.” it said as she took her seat.

  The dinner was delicious, made all the more so for Alli by Margot, who decided to entertain herself by calling attention to how poorly matched she and Jason would be every time Linda tried to find a commonality between them.

  “Jason is a painter.” Linda announced. “Margot loves painting - don’t you Margot.”

  Margot turned toward Alli so her mother couldn’t see her face. She shot Alli a quick wink before beam
ing a sickeningly sweet smile at her mother and answering, “Not in the traditional sense. I’m more appreciative of graffiti artists in an urban landscape. You know, like Banksy, or Bab2.”

  Jason caught on to her game immediately and decided to play along. He flipped through his mental rolodex of the things he knew about Margot from Alli. She loved the city... She was saving up to buy a motorcycle... She played the saxophone - ah ha! Perfect.

  “Oh. A graffiti enthusiast, huh? I don’t understand how the defacement of property can be considered art.” Mary perked up at her son’s words. She knew for a fact that he liked Banksy. “In my opinion, graffiti is to art what jazz is to classical; An insult.”

  Alli choked on a laugh, quickly turning it into a cough. She kept her eyes downcast and tried not to giggle as Jason and Margot proceeded to argue politely about everything from politics to religion and all the topics in between. By the time dessert was brought out Linda had given up any and all hope she had harbored of ever having success as a match-maker.

  “Thank you for a lovely evening.” Jason said to Linda as he helped his mother on with her coat. “Margot, it was a pleasure getting to know you better.”

  Linda mustered up a defeated smile and Margot graced Jason with an impish smirk. “Likewise. My sister is a very lucky girl.” Linda furrowed her brow in confusion and Margot hastened to add, “A good teacher is a Godsend.”

  Jason’s eyes flashed briefly, and he turned toward Alli. “Ms. Wilson. Thank you for a delicious meal. I’ll see you on Monday.”

  Alli nodded demurely but didn’t meet his eyes as she turned away from the door. Jason couldn’t bear the thought of leaving without knowing if she was at least more relaxed than she had been at the start of the evening. “Uh, Alli?” He heard himself call out.

  She stopped and looked up at him. “Hmmm?”

  He was relieved to see the tightness around her mouth had left, and her eyes were soft, if still a bit sad. He quickly floundered for something to say. “I... ah... don’t forget your essay is due on Monday.” He narrowed his eyes, silently apologizing for how patronizing he sounded.