Broken Seed

by R J Machado De Quevedo

  “Then, you date him,” I said sarcastically.

  “Maybe I will,” she said, sitting up and smoothing out her tight bun with an airy look of confidence.

  Before I even knew what I was feeling, I twisted upward and said sharply, “Hey, no!”

  Elisabeth slouched back down and smiled broadly at me. I returned her beaming smile with a scowl.

  “See. Just the thought of him with another woman made you jealous in a millisecond. It didn’t even matter it would be me. All it took was thinking just for a moment he might slip from your grasp and move on without you.” She was smiling playfully at me.

  “You suck,” I said. “Don’t play with me like that. I don’t need you trying to get a rise out of me. It’s an uncomfortable feeling…being jealous of you even for a moment.”

  “The truth is the truth, Melanie. If you don’t at least start dating this man soon, he might move on and try to get you out of his head. Men don’t usually wait around forever. And you’ve been working at that restaurant for a few years now. Has he even dated anyone else since he met you there?” she asked.

  I had to think about it for a second. “No. I don’t think so. I’ve seen women hit on him at work and at school. They’ve passed him their number. One lady even wrote it in ketchup on her table before she left the restaurant for him to find. He scowled at it and wiped it off with a napkin. And she was smoking hot too! I’ve watched girls in class ogle him, flirt with him, bend over right in front of him to show off their voluptuous breasts or tight booty, and he looks away and tries his best to ignore them.” I thought about it harder. “I don’t recall anyone coming into work professing to be his girlfriend either. Most girlfriends visit their boyfriends at work, don’t they?” I asked, curious. I wasn’t sure about the etiquette of dating.

  “Some do, yes. Being that he works for a restaurant, you can almost bet they would,” she answered me, still smiling.

  “All right. I get it. No. Okay, he hasn’t flirted with, dated, or to my knowledge, asked out another woman since he met me. It’s been only me on his radar,” I said, a bubble of joy at the words making me almost giddy. I quickly suppressed the joy and tried to look as normal as possible.

  “And you’re happy about that,” Elisabeth stated.

  “Yes. I feel happy about that.” I squirmed under her two watchful eyes.

  “Then, you might want to return the favor by at least hanging out with him a little more once this mess with your father and Jill gets under control. I’d even recommend telling him you’re interested but just need a little time so the two of you can work things out. I don’t mean announce to the world you’re his girlfriend. You can still admit to him you’re interested without rushing into things,” she said.

  “I know. I mean, I already admitted it to him later on that night that I did feel for him. But I didn’t clarify it. Not really.”

  “Why not?” Elisabeth asked me.

  “At that point in the evening, I needed to get away from him and come home,” I complained.

  Elisabeth settled back a little and pulled her legs up against her chest to reposition herself. She tilted her head as she observed the tension and the regret my body was nearly screaming at her.

  “My father told me a long time ago not to start playing games. Don’t let men play them with you, and don’t try to play them. If a man is sincere about wanting to be with you, he will pursue you and only you. He won’t play games with you or try to trick you and make you jealous. He’ll want to be as honest as he can with you and show the best about himself. David is that sort of man. You’re lucky, you know that, Melanie?” Elisabeth said kindly. Her face held softness at the memory of the conversation her father had had with her. I could tell it held special meaning for her.

  “Yes. I don’t deserve him. I never thought a guy like him would be interested in a girl like me, anyway. It’s always seemed like some sort of prank or joke. Like it was too good to be true. But he’s proven he’s sincere and he doesn’t play games with me. Your dad was right.” I couldn’t believe how pleased hearing myself say that made me. Wow, David really did like me.

  Or he’s falling in love with you already like Elisabeth said, I thought and then grew nervous at the potential that held.

  The Rest

  Chapter Eighteen

  S o, Melanie. Tell me about when you first got to work. You wanted me to remind you, remember? What about Frank?” Liz said conversationally as she settled into the corner and stretched out her legs.

  I knew she only brought this up now to mercifully change the subject for me. I think she didn’t want me to panic and close myself off again to the idea of David by continuing to dissect our brief moment of passion and how I was feeling about him now. She’d said what she thought I needed to hear and had helped me admit it to myself out loud. It was a big step for me. One small step at a time.

  I leapt on the chance to change the subject and began to quickly relay my conversation with Frank. I described the pictures he now had on the shelves in his office and how I resembled his wife so undeniably close. I explained that when I fished for names, he said Katherine’s younger sister was named Gloria and called her daughter Helena. And Helena had run off with some man she met at college that both of the sisters couldn’t stand. They never saw her again.

  Elisabeth physically shook herself. “Are you saying Gloria was your grandmother and Frank is your great-uncle?” she said with amazement.

  “I’m telling you what happened and what I saw. I don’t know for sure yet. I need to try to talk to him and get more details out of him when he isn’t trying to rush me off to wait on a table. I want to know if he is my great-uncle. If he is, then he might remember my mother, too. He might know some of her history… He might—” My voice broke unexpectantly and I couldn’t speak another word.

  I knew my own eyes were as wide as Elisabeth’s with the still lingering shock of the possibility of having found someone I was related to. Someone I might be able to know as family. Someone I’d known for several years now as Frank Gable, restaurant owner of Kate’s Café and my grumpy old boss.

  “Frank can be a tool, but he’s always treated you better than most people he has encountered, with the exception of his customers. Almost looks after you in his own way. He might already know more than he’s let on,” Elisabeth said, a glint of conspiracy in her eyes.

  “I don’t think so. He treated me like crap when he first met me. Just kept going on and on about how much I looked like his wife. I always thought he was full of it, even with Susan and Lucy telling me I looked like her. They knew her years ago, you know. Of course when they knew her she was maybe in her fifties. But after seeing those pictures…” I broke off. I didn’t even know what to say.

  “I hope he has some answers for you. I hope he can fill in some of the holes you have in your family history. Especially where your mother is concerned. Do you recall ever meeting any of her family?” Elisabeth asked me, her expression hopeful.

  “Not that I recall, no. The name Gloria sounds familiar though, but I don’t know why.” I rubbed my temples with my hands and squeezed my eyes shut, straining to remember some- thing. Anything.

  “It’s all right, Mel. Let it come on its own. If it’s there, it will surface. Just be patient,” Elisabeth said consolingly.

  “I don’t want to be patient. I want answers! I want to know if there is anyone left out there who might be family to me other than my father. I want to speak to someone who knew my mother. I want to know more about her and hear their memories of her. I don’t have very many of my own,” I said painfully.

  Elisabeth took my hands in hers. She was holding my hand a lot tonight. I suddenly felt like a lousy friend.

  “You know she loved you and she loved Vivian. That’s all that matters right now. It’s the most important information to have about your mother. And you do have a family, Melanie. You have me and my family. They pretty much adopted you as their surrogate daughter and granddaughter years
ago. Family isn’t only those who have the same genetics as you or those married into your family line. Family is who you have in your heart. Like when a man marries a woman and she him, the two become one family. Even without biological children yet, they are a family. Not related by blood. Well, not usually anyway. But connected by the heart. I am your family, Melanie. You haven’t been without a family since we’ve been friends. And we’re gonna keep on being friends.” She squeezed my hand and smiled.

  I smiled back, my eyes growing moist.

  “I know. I just…I just need to know if there is more out there to know about her.”

  “You will,” she said softly.

  I glanced at the clock and shrieked. It was nearly three in the morning. “Elisabeth, it’s almost three o’clock in the morning!” I said, astounded.

  “So what? You still have to tell me what lead up to the news report I watched on my date with Brad and the conversation you said you had with David before coming home tonight,” Elisabeth said, looking fully awake.

  “Fine. Who needs sleep anyway? I only have two classes tomorrow, and I have to go help clean up the restaurant at four o’clock. Who’d needs sleep for that?” I asked rhetorically.

  Elisabeth’s raised eyebrow said plain as day I needed to stop being childish and get on with it. So, I got on with it.

  I told her about how Frank had interrupted us in the walk-in freezer right before David had almost kissed me for real. He had come to tell me I had a customer asking for me. I had scurried out of there, desperate to get away from him and my embarrassment.

  “That man I ran into in Italy was there. Standing there looking as unrealistically breathtaking as before, talking to Lucy. I nearly had a heart attack,” I said, reliving the moment with perfect clarity.

  “He was there!” Elisabeth yelled in surprise.

  “Yes. He was there. And he is named Jared. Jared Kallis,” I said, my own voice matching her surprise but not volume.

  “Oh my. He flew here from Italy? What are the chances he’d find you in Elk Grove, California, in the entire US of A? That’s improbable,” she said. Her eyes unfocused while she did the actual mathematical calculation of probability in her head.

  “I don’t know if he flew here in the traditional way, but he came here with a purpose. It was anything but coincidental,” I said.

  I quoted nearly verbatim what he and I had said to one another. I edited out the actual words “the book” and exchanged it with “the item.”

  I told her how I had seen a phantom snake-like face beneath his skin, poised as if to strike me. It felt as though I was seeing into his real self. That part of him that was evil tried to hide from me. I told her with pride and with trepidation, how David had approached us at seeing my discomfort and alarm and how he hadn’t backed down at Jared’s threats.

  “What exactly did he say when he threatened you and David?” Liz asked with a serious face and concern coating her voice making her sound distant in thought.

  I told her everything Jared had said. I explained how I had realized what I had been feeling was a direct result of the sexual desire and lust Jared was throwing out like a web to snare me and draw me in toward him. And when I told her how he had said he was lust and all carnal desires, her eyes narrowed, and I saw her righteous indignation flare up as she sat straighter.

  Elisabeth didn’t argue or look at me like I was crazy as I spoke of lust like some tangible sticky spider web I’d been caught in or of his self-proclamations. In fact, she was taking all this far better than I could have dreamed. It was both comforting and perplexing. Comforting because my best friend believed me and was standing by me which meant I could continue to share things like this with her, and I had a feeling there would be a lot more to share as time went on.

  Perplexing because I wasn’t sure what all her years of study had taught her about this area of religion and spirituality. I knew she had one PhD in world religious studies and the other in linguistics, but how deep and how far did her knowledge go into this area? And why didn’t she ever talk about it with me before now? I was left wondering exactly what my best friend knew about these things. She was incredibly brilliant, a prodigy in fact. How much of her was I missing out on by not asking the right questions?

  Is there a whole other side to her I haven’t even explored?

  “What are you thinking so hard about, Mel? You’ve grown quiet,” Elisabeth asked quietly.

  “Hmm?” I asked, shaking my head to clear away the puzzlement.

  “What were you just thinking about?” she asked me again, looking curious.

  I didn’t want to start a whole new conversation right this minute about her educational back ground and what else lay in the endless volumes of her mind. I wanted to finish my story, so I could get some sleep. But I’d have to ask her about it some- time soon. She knew more about this stuff than I thought, or she would have received my briefing of the last three days with more resistance and suspicion.

  “Well, I don’t think Jared expected me to get sidetracked on my way to the front counter by a man whom I found to be more desirable than him,” I offered up. She didn’t question if that was what I was thinking or not. Good.

  “How did you find David more desirable?” Elisabeth asked casually like she didn’t really care what the answer was.

  “David’s more desirable because he is a real man. Not some sex god fantasy. He is good through and through, and he loves the Lord. He is kind and smart and patient. He’s a gentleman. He’s never creeped me out. He’s sexy in that athletic, handsome, earthy way that is all natural and not steroids. He’s…” I stopped abruptly at the look on Elisabeth’s face.

  Elisabeth was positively beaming; her eyes were bright with held back laughter.

  “What?” I asked confused.

  “Have you been listening to yourself?” Liz said through a choked laugh.

  “All I did was explain why I was drawn to David before Jared’s web could succeed in drawing me up front to him first,” I said indignantly.

  “Yes. But why do you think that is?” Elisabeth asked me, once again in that tone that said she didn’t really care to hear the answer.

  I was beginning to suspect that tone was meant to make me feel like the answer would not matter to her one way or the other in order to trick me into saying what I really thought.

  Ah ha. I see through you, woman.

  I glared at her. “You. Are. Bad,” I accused suspiciously.

  “Melanie Olivia. You are something. I do love you.” She smiled.

  “So?” I said, trying to frown and failing.

  “The lady does protest way too much, me thinks,” she said with false dramatization.

  “You said it wrong,” I mused.

  “I know. I wanted to modernize it.”

  “You shouldn’t modernize a classic,” I grumbled.

  “So once Jared left, what happened? What caused the fights at the restaurant that the news was so worked up about?” Elisabeth asked, her expression clearly saying she didn’t want to let the topic of David die but was willing to let me think she was.

  Right. Fine, I’ll play along, I thought derisively.

  “Jared, I think. When he left, all that sexual energy turned into anger, hatred, jealousy, ego, and sexism. It unlocked the worst in everybody. I think it overwhelmed everyone with their own weaknesses, causing the massive outburst of chaos.”

  “Why were you in the bathroom? You said on the phone you weren’t involved with the fights. How did you end up locked away while all of this happened?” Liz was sitting up again anxiously.

  “Once Jared left, I had to get out of there. The only problem was the back of the restaurant had already exploded into chaos and everyone was yelling and arguing and throwing stuff. I realized then that somehow, I was responsible for it. If only I had been strong enough to resist temptation and cast Jared and his lust out of that place sooner,” I said bitterly. I took a frustrated breath and pressed on and explained what had fol
lowed. “I think I blacked out for a while there or something because I sort of became aware that I was on the floor with my head resting on the toilet seat. I didn’t know how long I had been in there. I lost time. And apparently, most of it was spent kissing the toilet.” I gave a disgusted face and stuck out my tongue.

  “Ew. That’s nasty,” Liz said, mirroring my expression.

  “Tell me about it. I took a few minutes to clean myself up the best I could. Then I heard a knock on the door, and it was David calling for me, asking me if I was okay.” I shrugged with a sigh.

  “And enough time had passed that all the fights had stopped and the police had left?” Elisabeth said, looking disturbed.

  “Yep. There was only a few of us left. Frank had been arrested, as you saw on the news. So when Susan and Lucy left, it meant David and I were left there alone.” I bit my lip and felt warmth rush up my face.

  “And how did that go?” Liz asked me. “Did he explain what had happened while you were lost to the world?” she asked, curious.

  “He was concerned about me. He even swooped me up, so I wouldn’t have to walk in all the mess on the floor right outside the bathroom door.” I blushed harder.

  “Ooh. Bet that was a treat,” Liz teased, giving me jittery eyebrows to indicate a nonverbal ooh-la-la.

  “Actually, it was nice. Well, more flattering and nerve-racking honestly. But I made him put me down,” I said, looking away from her eyes.

  “I have a feeling you haven’t told me everything about what he said to you tonight. And I don’t just mean about what happened while you were locked away,” Elisabeth said skeptically.

  “Fine,” I snarled.

  And so I told her about all of his comforting, reassuring words and confessions of how he knew he needed me, wanted to know more about me, wanted to kiss me and hold me, but only in a respectful way I deserved. Then I told her everything he said had happened while I was locked in the bathroom and even how Chief Wales had been asking around about me.