The Tea Series

by Sheila Horgan

  “That’s good to hear. So you’re in the clear.”

  “As far as I can tell. You never know what’s gonna happen. Everybody could change their minds, but for now, we’re good.”

  “And what about the bad guys?”

  “They are in jail. No bond at the moment.” A.J. seemed to rethink that statement. “Or they can’t afford the bond. Whatever, all I know is that the cops called and said they were sitting in a cell for the foreseeable future.”

  “Funny how everything just kind of fell into place.”

  “Don’t jinx it, Cara. You’re the Irish one, remember? It is you who is always telling me not to drop a fork or let a bird in the house or walk under a ladder or let something like a lamppost come between us when we’re walking or give somebody a knife or whatever.”

  “Am I that bad?”

  “Worse. And I love it. I love you.”

  “I love you too.”

  A.J. wrapped his arms around me. He seemed to have relaxed a little. His lips were right next to my ear. “You sure you’re okay with the whole Jessie thing?”

  “No, but it isn’t your problem. If I’m that un-okay with it, I need to talk to Jessie, not you.”

  “I wouldn’t do that.”

  “Why not?”

  The look on his face could be loosely translated into: Are you kidding or just dumb?

  “Really? Is it that bad? Should I tell Teagan — ”

  “You should stay out of it.”

  “Okay, I’m out of it.”

  He smiled. “But…” He let the question linger for a second. “I know you can’t let it go that fast, Cara. What?”

  “Just tell me if anyone is in physical danger. I know it’s a stupid question and that Jessie would never hurt Teagan, but with all that has happened in the last year, and Barry, and the bad guys getting you, I just have to ask.”

  “No one is in physical danger.”

  “Okay. Then I’ll let it drop. At least until Teagan tells me what’s going on. She is going to have a chat with him soon.”

  A.J. took a deep breath. “I don’t want this to come back on us.”

  “It won’t.”

  “I know how you and your sister are, and if you have to take sides, it is always going to be with your sister, and anybody else in the way is gonna get stomped on. I don’t want to be one of those people.”

  “You told me you didn’t want to be in the middle of it. You offered to fill me in, and I said no. You will not be the subject of stomping.”

  “I hope not. Now, about this loungewear…”

  ELEVEN

  TEAGAN CALLED. EARLY. Again. “Why do you keep calling so early?

  “It’s the only time I have. Jessie is in the shower, and once he’s out I need to get ready for work.”

  “Fine. What’s up?”

  “I talked to Jessie about what was said between A.J. and him while they were playing pool.”

  “And?”

  “And he isn’t going to tell me. He was so stiff. There are two things I’m sure of after that non-conversation. First, it is about me. Second, I’m not moving forward in this relationship until he is willing to talk about it.”

  “What does that mean? Not set a date?”

  “Exactly.”

  “Aren’t you the one who always tells me that you don’t have to know every single thing your partner thinks or does? That it isn’t that way when you are first dating and just because you get more involved doesn’t mean you automatically have the right to live inside his brain? And you call me dingleberry.”

  “Thanks for throwing my words in my face, but, yes, that was me, and I still feel that way.”

  “So why don’t you just back off and let him come to you with it when he is ready?”

  “Because we’re building a life together, and if we don’t both know this stuff, then how do we do that?”

  “What stuff?”

  “Exactly.”

  “You know that you are acting like a crazy person, right?”

  “You know what? If I didn’t think it was a major big deal, I’d just let it go, but I know it is. And I know it involves me, and I know this is a deal-breaker.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Just a feeling.”

  “What deal are we talking about, Teagan?”

  “You know.”

  “Teagan, it’s time to rein it back in. You’re talking about ending your relationship? How can that be?”

  “Exactly. If it’s this easy for me to talk about walking away, and I’ve only been engaged for about six and a half minutes, then what does that say about the strength of our relationship?”

  “It says you’re a commitment-phobe and that you will be fine once you stop acting like an idiot.”

  “Such loving words.”

  “You don’t need loving words. You need someone to kick you in the butt.”

  Teagan all but beat on her chest. I could picture it in my mind, even if I couldn’t see her through the phone. Like the stereotypical mob guy in a bad fifties movie. “I’m here. You know how to get here. You think you can?”

  “Wow. You haven’t done that since high school.”

  “The big fight in the living room”

  “I thought Mom’s head was going to explode.”

  “I thought you were going to kill Seamus, dingleberry. I don’t know what he ever did to deserve that kind of vengeance, but it was a beautiful thing.” Teagan chuckled.

  “If all the kids in a family got into a fight now, someone would call the cops, and the parents would go to jail. Mom and Daddy just sat there making sure nobody pulled anything sneaky. Like a weapon.”

  “You know Mom’s philosophy: if nobody’s bleeding, stay out of it.”

  “Yep. So is that your way of telling me to stay out of it, Teagan?”

  “No, probably my way of telling myself to stay out of it.”

  “You are a little over the top.”

  “I know. It’s just this feeling. I can’t explain it.”

  “You know what Mom says: feelings are like clouds. You should take note, but most of the time, they just block the brightness for a minute and then move on by.”

  “Yeah, listen, I gotta go. Thanks for listening. Anything new with A.J. and the studio?”

  I explained everything A.J. had told me last night. Then I told her about the journal.

  “Okay, dingleberry, I’m officially late. Gotta go.”

  “Fine, go, but we really need to talk, Teagan. You’ve lost it.”

  “My turn. You’ve lost it seven times in a row lately. I’ll call you.”

  I spent a whole bunch of time doing all the things that Adeline pays me so well to do. I feel guilty when I don’t work regular hours, although I always put in my full forty and usually a few more because I get interested in something.

  I’m supposed to help Christophe, Chris to his friends, figure out what part of Adeline’s empire he wants to work in. He’s her grandson, something’s going on, and I’m not exactly sure what it is. All of the sudden, after I don’t hear about this kid at all, now he is here, and he has broken into my apartment, and Adeline is bringing him into the fold. I don’t like it. I don’t have to like it. I’m not paid to like it. But I don’t like it. Adeline has a softer heart than people know. All I can say is that if this kid even hints that he is a little shady, I’m gonna sic my mom and Teagan on him. He’ll be sorry he was ever born.

  I decided to spend some time cooking. A few things for Ben and Joe. A few things for Teagan’s mother-in-law. Dinner for us. To tell the truth, I bought myself a meat infuser, and I wanted to try it out. I used to see them on television where people used this huge plastic needle to inject all kinds of stuff into meat and then when they would cut it you’d have all this stuff, like half a clove of garlic and whatever, in your mouthful. I’m sure some people love that, but it just didn’t work for me. One day I was at the restaurant supply place to pick up groceries for Adeline and the girls, and I saw
this thing. It basically looks like a big syringe. The needles are a lot thinner than the ones I saw on television. I figured I’d buy one and give it a shot. Bad pun. It worked so well for me that I found a better one. The one I use now has multiple little needles, and it tenderizes and infuses at the same time. It was hard to find one with the smaller needles that I like, but I love the outcome.

  I don’t do the strong flavors that they recommend. My infusion flavors are much more subtle, mostly because I just don’t like a lot of added stuff in my meat, but I really like the outcome. Warming up a little bit of butter with some seasoned salt, chicken bouillon, pepper, and poultry seasoning — sometimes I cut it with a little liquid, like broth or water — and infusing just a little makes all the difference in the world.

  I had all my little glass dishes full of different infusing solutions that I was going to use. One set for me. One set for Ben and Joe. Another for Teagan’s mother-in-law, when someone knocked on the door.

  Please, God, don’t let anyone need to come into my apartment.

  I had all the stuff from the trunk stacked up against the wall, and my kitchen was a mess, and that mess was leaking out into the rest of the apartment.

  I looked out the peephole and saw a young man I didn’t recognize. A few months back I would have opened the door anyway. A few months before that I wouldn’t even have looked out the peephole. Interesting.

  Before I could decide if I wanted to pretend I wasn’t even home, the young man shook his head and grabbed his phone out of his pocket. A moment later my phone rang. I ran for it. “Hello?”

  “Hi, Cara. It’s me.”

  “Me who?”

  “Sorry. I suck at this. I’m Christophe. Adeline’s grandson. She told me that I should get to know you and gave me your number. I was going to call, but then I was driving from the crypt to the office, and your apartment isn’t that far out of my way, because I always stop at that coffee place on Buxter. Anyway, I thought I’d introduce myself, and since I know where you live, I thought I’d do it today, if that’s okay.”

  I didn’t know if I should scream at him or laugh. I do work out of my home, after all, so this is my place of business. Adeline did tell me that she had given him my number and that we should spend some time together. But still. He didn’t even call first. And this is the guy who broke into my apartment, which is the only reason that he knows where I live. And I really didn’t appreciate him calling Adeline’s house the crypt. People would kill to live in a house like that, and he was not only not appreciating it; he was making fun of it.

  What the hell.

  “I’ll be right there.” Call me paranoid, but before I answered the door I sent a quick text to Teagan: Adeline’s grandson at door. Unannounced. If you don’t hear from me in an hour, he did it.

  I opened the door, and Christophe had the good grace to look a little embarrassed. “I’m sorry. I was gonna call, and I let it slide. I know this is gonna be an awkward meeting, me having broken into your apartment and all. That’s why I thought it would be better to do it in private. I figure with my grandmother’s lawyers and security people inspecting everything I do — not that I blame her or them for being a little skeptical — I just thought this would be easier. Now that I’m here I can understand that it is easier for me, but not for you. That’s my history. My behavioral DNA, I guess. Do what is best for me and screw what it puts everyone else through. I’m sorry. I’ll go. I’ll call for an appointment, and we can do this the right way.”

  The question I needed to answer in my own mind almost immediately was, did I think he was sincere or a really good actor? I’m trying to get back to a place where I trust my gut, so I opened the door wider and asked if he wanted a cup of tea.

  Guys his age don’t drink hot tea, mostly, but I was a little rattled.

  He actually accepted the offer, which was good, because it gave me a minute to think while I put the kettle on, and it showed me that even if he isn’t a tea connoisseur, he is a polite guy.

  I told him he had two choices, follow me into the kitchen so I could clear a place and stick some meat in the fridge, or have a seat on the couch and give me a few minutes.

  What he did was walk into the kitchen, wash his hands, and help. That threw me for a loop. I was beginning to feel like he was keeping me off-balance on purpose.

  The meat in the fridge, the table and counters cleared off and sanitized — I love those little disposable cloths; I can’t imagine life without them anymore — I put on the kettle, and we sat at the table and waited for it to boil.

  “Now that I can look you in the face, I want to say I’m sorry.”

  I wasn’t trying to be cute; I actually didn’t know what he was talking about. Maybe he was going to whip out a knife from my really sharp collection and end it all. I shouldn’t have let him in. I was going to die with a dirty house. Wasn’t that my nightmare?

  “I’m sorry I broke into your apartment. Did my grandmother explain it all to you?”

  “She said you were trying to get a file in front of my face so that I would take action to protect her. I have a question. Why not just give me the file? Why break into my apartment and trash the place? Because you really did a good job with that.”

  “That’s my fault.”

  “Yeah, it is.”

  “I was too afraid to do it alone. So I asked some guys I know. My plan was to just break in and leave the files on your computer. I figured you’d see them and take the appropriate steps. The guys had other thoughts. At least I made sure they didn’t steal anything, and I figured that my grandmother would step in and make everything right.”

  “You can make the material stuff right, and your grandmother generously did that, but you can’t ever give someone back their sense of safety. Once you break that little thread that encircles someone or something, you can’t splice it back together. There’s always a knot. It’s never smooth again.”

  “I’m sorry. It got out of control. I was trying to save my grandmother.”

  “I get that. I just can’t imagine how you thought that breaking into my apartment and putting that file on my computer, without any indication of it even being there, would be helpful. There have to be a gazillion files on that computer. Why would I even think to look for one from a guy I never even knew existed?”

  “You didn’t know I existed? Grandmother never once mentioned me?”

  “I’m an employee. There is a line there. I don’t know a lot about her family.”

  “Bullshit. You’re closer to her than her own children. We both know that. You know what? I won’t bullshit you; you don’t bullshit me. I get it. A relationship is bidirectional, and I didn’t reach out to her, so why would she reach out to me?”

  “How did you find me? Where I live? All that stuff?”

  “I hired a couple of really bad private detectives. I just looked online and picked the person who caught my attention. Big mistake. I should have gone with one of the big companies. I thought if I kept it low profile, I was less likely to get caught.”

  “Why didn’t you just call me?”

  “You would have hung up and told my grandmother, and that would have started a chain of events that would have screwed everything up.”

  “The private detectives were better?”

  “Turns out, no. I didn’t know that at the time. I was walking a real thin line. If I got caught by my parents, I got cut off. If I got caught by my grandmother, I didn’t know what would happen. If I sat back and did nothing, my parents would win again. But this time, they would have taken everything away from my grandmother, and, worse, they would have made a mockery of everything that she has worked for. You know I didn’t even know about that until I got to know another family. You would think that my family would be proud of all that she has done, but I never heard about any of it. Not until I got out from under my own parents.”

  “I’m sorry. Adeline is a wonderful woman. Your family should be very proud of all that she has done.”


  “Yeah, well, my parents believe she wastes her money on the poor and that she is a soft touch.”

  “They couldn’t be more wrong.”

  “I’m starting to understand that.”

  I didn’t really trust him, but I didn’t really want to turn him away in case he was telling the truth. For the next hour I talked to him about Adeline and the things I did for her.

  I didn’t tell him a single thing he couldn’t easily find out for himself. No secrets were shared. No insights more profound than those in the social pages of the newspaper. But he ate it up. Said that he was going to make her proud of him. All that kind of stuff.

  Just before he left, he said two important things. Having noticed the stuff from the trunk stacked up against the wall, he mentioned that none of the stuff in the trunk was broken or stolen. He figured they were important to me and had drawn the line there. That’s when the guys went crazy in the bathroom and made that huge mess. He also said he would never again come to my apartment unless and until he was invited.

  After he left, I wasn’t in the mood to take everything back out of the fridge and infuse the meat, so I made myself another cup of tea and sat on the couch with Bernie’s journal.

  The stupid phone rang. It was Teagan. “You busy?”

  “Not really.”

  “Can I come over?”

  “Sure. When?”

  “Now.”

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yes, I just have a life-and-death situation here, and I want you to either make the decision so that I don’t have to or to tell me that the decision I make is okay with you and that the family won’t pour honey over my head and put me on top of an ant hill.”

  “I wish you would let that go. We’ve only done it to you twice.”

  “Funny. I’m on my way. I will need chocolate. Tea strong enough to dance on. Kleenex and you to be very Cara-like.”

  “I am Cara.”

  “Yes, but I need the old Cara not the new and improved version.”

  She hung up before I could go all Cara on her.