by J. D. Mason
Instead of going home, Terri drove towards Lanette’s and continued another quarter mile past her house to the neighbor living on the other side of Lanette. She parked, walked up to the door, and knocked.
A young woman, in her twenties, maybe thirties, balancing a toddler on her hip answered.
“Hi,” Terri began. “I’m one of your neighbors. Actually, I live closer to Lanette Dole? You know her?”
The girl brushed long, dark braids off her shoulder. “Ma!” she called out. “A lady here about Lanette.”
She turned and waked away, and was eventually replaced by an older, slightly heavier version of herself. The woman glared at Terri without offering a greeting.
“I’m here about Lanette?”
The woman pursed her lips. “Next house over.” She motioned right. “That way.”
“Yeah, I know.”
She propped her hand on her hip. “Then, why you asking?”
“She’s in the hospital. I’m trying to locate her family. I heard she has sisters.”
The scent of marijuana, cigarette smoke, and maybe greens wafted through the screen door to Terri.
“Liza Cook,” the woman said.
“Liza,” Terri repeated. “Yes. Do you have a number for her or know where I can find her?”
“Over on Birch Street,” she explained. “What’s wrong with Lanette?”
“She’s in the hospital.”
It wasn’t Terri’s place to give this woman the details.
“Tried to kill herself again?” she asked, looking absolutely unmoved.
Terri cocked a brow, then turned to leave. “Thanks for your help.”
“Uh-huh,” the woman muttered, walking away, and slamming the door shut.
A quick Internet search on her phone pulled up Liza Cook’s address on Birch Street. Terri sat in the car for several minutes, considering that she might be overstepping her bounds. After all, she and Lanette weren’t friends, and the last thing she needed was to be pulled into some drama that wasn’t any of her business. Terri started the car and pulled away from the curb.
The house looked like something out of a storybook... white picket fence, perfectly manicured lawn, colorful rose bushes framing the foundation, and a porch with a charming swing set of a scene that reminded Terri of one of those old seventies shows. In the front yard was a handsome, white man with blond hair and a close cropped beard, tossing a baseball to an adorable curly haired boy.
“There you go, Taylor,” he said, grinning with pride at the boy making a diving catch for the ball. “Good job.”
He paused and looked at Terri. “Can I help you?”
Terri was starting to wonder if she had the wrong house or if there was more than one Liza Cook in this small town.
“I’m looking for Liza? Liza Cook?”
“She’s in the house,” he said, leading the way to the front door. “Honey, got a visitor.”
As if scripted, a gorgeous golden retriever bolted from inside, stopping for a quick sniff of Terri’s skirt before racing over to the boy.
Moments later, a beautiful, blue-eyed, auburn haired woman appeared, drying her hands with a towel. “Hi,” she said to Terri. “Can I help you?”
Wrong Liza Cook.
“I’m sorry,” Terri immediately said.
The husband brushed passed her and headed back to the yard.
“I was - I think I have the wrong house.”
“Oh. Okay.”
A teenage girl, looking just the woman, pushed passed the woman. “I’m going to Tasha’s, Mom.”
“You have your phone?”
“Yes,” she said without looking back.
“I’m sorry,” she said, turning her attention back to Terri, and then her eyes lit up. “Are you the actress?”
Terri blushed.
“Oh, my goodness. I saw you on the news, and I’ve seen you on television, too. I’ve never met a famous person before.”
“Yeah, um… look, I’m sorry. I have the wrong house.”
“Well, who were you looking for?”
“Liza Cook?”
She smiled. “That’s me.”
“I’m looking for the sister of a woman named, Lanette.”
Just like that, her brilliant smile faded.
“Do you know her?” Terri took a chance and asked.
“How do you know her?” All the blue seeped from that woman’s eyes. She looked absolutely miserable.
“We’re neighbors. Lanette’s in the hospital.”
This was her sister? Lanette was light skinned. She could be biracial. This woman didn’t look biracial at all, but that didn’t mean shit.
“Come in.”
Inside was as perfect as outside, gleaming hard wood floors, a show room living room, antiques, and family portraits. Terri sat next to Liza on the sofa.
“How long have you been in town?” Liza asked.
“Several months.”
She nodded.
“Lanette’s your sister.”
“Half.”
Like, that sucked. Terri never could get with that half or step bullshit. Either you had a sibling, or you didn’t.
“She’s my older sister. Our mother married my dad after Lanette’s father left. A year later, she had my other sister, Lenore, and then me.”
“She was admitted earlier today.”
Liza dropped her gaze to her hands, “Another suicide attempt?”
“How does everybody know that?” Terri blurted out without thinking.
“Because it’s what she does.” She stared hard into Terri’s eyes. “Lanette takes a handful of pills, just enough, then calls 911 telling them what she’s done and cries about killing herself. They show up, take her to the hospital, pump her stomach, start counseling, and then they send her home.” She pursed her lips, briefly, before continuing, “She goes to counseling for a while. She calls me and Lenore and tells us that she’s doing better… until she stops therapy. Then she, starts making crazy phone calls to us, stalking and scaring my kids… and when me or my husband tells her to leave us alone, it starts all over.”
Terri had nothing to say.
“I get it,” Liza went on. “Things were tough for Lanette growing up. Her dad abandoned her. Mom got a new husband and new kids and she probably felt left out, but she’s always done things to draw attention back to herself when she felt she was losing it.”
“She’s done these things with your other sister?”
“No,” she shook her head, “Lenore gave up on her a long time ago. She’s got a restraining order against her because things got way out of hand once. It got physical between them, so…”
“Is there anyone else?” Terri asked, feeling hope sink for Lanette with every passing moment.
“Lanette has made sure that there is no one else.”
The drive home was a lonely one. Lanette was a handful. Terri had experienced that firsthand, and she was no fan of the woman. She wasn’t her friend and never wanted to be, but the idea of anyone being so alone was heartbreaking. According to her sister, it was her own fault, but still…
Her phone rang as she pulled into her driveway. It was Nick.
“Hey,” he said, his voice magically bringing a smile to her lips. “Is this a bad time?”
“No,” she said, filled with introspection.
The last six months, Terri had purposefully pulled away from people who loved her, who cared for her. She’d avoided phone calls from her parents, Nona, even her agent. Shame on her.
“I miss you,” she admitted, fighting back tears.
“Why do you think I’m calling? I’ll be in town this weekend. Can I see you?”
“You’d better.”
Lean In
It was her idea to stay in for the evening.
“Dinner was delicious,” he commented.
Nick and Terri sat side by side on a loveseat inside an enclosed gazebo underneath that huge, old tree in her backyard.
“Thank you,” sh
e said with a proud smile.
Nick nodded slightly. “You made it?”
“No,” she admitted. “But I plated it.”
He raised his beer bottle to clink with her glass of wine. “Well done.”
“I’m not big on cooking.”
“Your presentation is unmatched, though.” The two of them laughed.
They’d been seeing each just over a month, now. This was the most time he’d spent inside her place. Dates like this were tricky. A brotha could jump to all kinds of assumptions. Terri was comfortable in a flowing maxi dress. She’d slipped out of her shoes and sat next to him with her knees drawn, toying with her hair. Man 101 told him that hair twirling, smiling, and fingers lighting on his arm were signs telling him that she was interested in things getting a little more personal than they had been. The intelligent side of him, the side that excelled in science and was smart enough to get his medical degree, warned him not to jump to conclusions.
Terri was flirty, but subdued. Nick wasn’t sure what to make of it. What confused him more was when she leaned over and kissed him. And not one of those friendly pecks on the lips either. She lingered, stared into his eyes the whole time, and leaned back with a coy smile.
Yep. Finally, he was getting some tonight. Nick turned on the smolder and leaned in for a tongue wrestling kiss, when he noticed tears glistening in her eyes, conceding to all kinds of warning signs he hadn’t expected.
“What’s wrong?”
Terri shook her head slightly and let that doggone tear stream down her face squashing the whole vibe.
“Terri,” Nick put down his beer and took hold of her hand, but not in that ‘I’m trying to get with you’ way. More like that, ‘I’m a doctor so tell me where it hurts’ way.
“I’m just…” she shook her head slightly and shrugged. Terri’s gaze drifted to a thread from the throw she picked at on the loveseat. “My life is so different from what it used to be.”
And that made her cry? She’d moved from Atlanta to Devastation. Of course, it was different, but different enough to cry about? Women were complicated.
Terri swallowed. “I’ve chased a dream my whole life, Nick,” she explained. “Chased it until I became it.”
Nick leaned back and listened because that’s what she seemed like she needed.
“Acting has always been more than a way to make a living,” she continued. “It’s been my obsession. I woke up thinking about it, went through the day thinking about it, and thought about it some more when I closed my eyes to sleep for as long as I can remember.”
More tears.
Should he do something? Say something? That small voice in his head, the one he’d mostly come to trust, warned him to be quiet.
“I’m a fuckin’ has been,” Terri admitted with a bitter chuckle.
“That’s not true,” he blurted out.
“It is and I know it. I’ve been knowing it.”
“You’re a celebrity, Terri.”
“I’m a celebrity living in Devastation, Louisiana, and most people I run into here remember me from a toothpaste commercial.”
Nick knew where this was going, and he sighed.
“I walk around here like I’ve won a goddamned Oscar, but I got fired from a reality television show because I wasn’t interesting enough.” Terri pursed her lips together. “And it was true. I had no real friends, no lovers or even hobbies. Because my whole life was about landing that role, the big one, the one that would finally put me at the top of the food chain and make my name a household word.”
Terri finished half a glass of wine in one gulp and then knocked him upside the head with one hell of a statement, random and out of place.
“Lanette tried to kill herself.”
Nick arched a brow. “She did?”
“And nobody gave a damn,” She went on.
“But she’s alright?”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “She’s alive, but this is what she does, apparently, and something she’ll no doubt do again, according to everybody in town, until she gets it right.”
“And that’s what’s got you upset?”
Terri turned her attention back to that loose string. “Being here is as close to real life as I’ve gotten since before I moved away from home to L. A., to pursue my career.” She looked at him. “I’m surrounded by real people living real lives right in front of me, and I can’t turn away. I can’t run back into my condo and disappear behind some script or spend a weekend searching through Variety for casting calls.”
Terri took a deep breath to try and compose herself.
“For the first time in my life, I have to pay attention and I have to participate.” She pursed her lips again. “Because I don’t have a career to escape to. I don’t have an excuse to bury my head in the sand and ignore the world around me,” she sniffed. “Now, I have to pay attention, and not just to a woman so depressed that she regularly attempts suicide just get to get somebody’s attention… but to me” she—“lighted her fingers on her chest— “the most self-absorbed person I know. Who am I if not the actress? What am I supposed to do now that I know I’m never going to land the role of a lifetime?”
Terri had gone down a rabbit hole, trying to drag him with her, but Nick couldn’t wrap his mind around the gravity of what she was feeling. He wanted to, but she might as well have been speaking a foreign language. Terri Dawson was a celebrity, just not the caliber of celebrity she’d dreamed of becoming? Still, he listened. It was all he had to offer. Hopefully, it’d be enough.
“I sound crazy,” she smiled. “Right?”
Truth or dare? Tread lightly, man. You dig this woman, and you don’t want to blow this.
“You sound… lost.”
She nodded. “I have lived my whole life wanting one thing, fighting for that one thing, and now that it’s gone…”
“But is it really?” he questioned. “I mean, what’s to say the call for the role of a lifetime still can’t come, Terri? Of course, it can.”
Terri shrank a little and turned to a silent introspection before answering, “I’m tired, Nick. So tired that I don’t even know if I’d take it if was handed to me on a silver platter.” She offered a vulnerable smile. “The thing about being here and having to face myself is that, for the first time, I feel three dimensional. I feel like I’m just waking up and seeing me in a way I never have before. I am not some character on a television screen that somebody made up. I am Terri Dawson, and now, as hard as it is, as heartbreaking as it feels, I get a chance to play the real role of my lifetime. I get to be me, and I have no idea how to do it.”
“You look scared,” he said, noting the trepidation in her voice, in her eyes.
“I’m terrified,” she sniffed, wiping away tears, and took a deep breath. “But I think I’m finally ready.”
“Well, that’s a good thing, Ter—”
Before he could stop her, before Nick had a chance to prepare himself, Terri straddled him, tugging and pulling on his belt, his jeans. Terri stared wide eyed at him, pressed her mouth to his and slipped her tongue past his lips. Her fingers slipped into his underwear and grabbed hold of Nick’s dick. It was swelling by the millisecond in her palm.
Fuck! What the hell?
Terri hiked up her dress, slid her panties to one side and…
“Shiiii -”
Warm. Wet. Terri lowered herself onto him, pressed her third eye to his, stared at Nick. and stopped.
“I need you,” she whispered. “I need this.”
Nick nodded. “Yes,” he said, wrapping one hand around her waist, cupping the back of her head with his other hand, and pushing one long, slow thrust into her. “I know.”
Terri released a trembling moan and pressed her hips against him. “Slow, Nick,” she pleaded, closing her eyes. “Don’t rush.”
Fuck, he didn’t want to rush. Nick absolutely didn’t want to rush, but she felt so damn good. Yes, he wanted to rush. He wanted to tear that shit up, but… no. No, Nic
k. Slow!
Terri kissed him. She wrapped both arms over his shoulders and held on to Nick as if her life depended on him, setting a pace all her own and challenging him to match it.
Slow, goddammit, Nick!
He was not a one-minute wonder, but everything about this woman threatened to pull that orgasm from him too damn soon. Nick grabbed hold of her hips with both hands to stop her momentum and gain control.
“Wait, Terri,” he muttered in her ear. “Just… stop.”
Terri stopped. Nick shrugged to catch his breath, and then she…
“Aw, shit!” he exclaimed, squeezing her ass and pulling her closer to him.
It was too late. Nick bucked like a rookie getting laid for the first damn time until he exploded inside that woman and everything went black.
Get Used To You
“I uh,” Nick drove his hands deep inside his jean pockets and teetered back and forth a bit in front of her house.
“Enjoyed our evening together?” Terri smiled, answering for him.
He chuckled, “Absolutely.”
“You heading back to New Orleans tonight?”
He shook his head. “Nah, in the morning.”
The pause between them left plenty of room for her to invite him to spend the night, but Terri wasn’t ready for a sleepover. Sex was one thing. Spinin the night was something else, altogether.
He leaned in for one last kiss and planted pillow soft lips to hers. Nick drew back, and stared into her eyes. “I’ll see you again… soon.”
She smiled. “Counting on it.”
He waited until she was inside the house before easing his car away from the curb. Terri hadn’t planned on sexing the man, but vulnerability led her to the comforts of his lap. Terri closed the front door, leaned against it, and released an audible sigh. She’d expected to feel regret. Nick was so much younger than she was, and Terri wasn’t interested in a relationship with him, just friendship. The last thing she wanted to do was to lead him on, but is that what she’d done, or did two grown, consenting adults simply have sex because they wanted to?