Hot Tea (16 page)

Wait till the rest of the family is added into the mix.  We’ll keep the child entertained for eons.

Teagan walked back in the door.

I looked down at Jordan and said, “Can I ask you a favor child?  Can you go watch TV, cause this is about to get ugly, and I don’t want it to tarnish your perfect impression of me.”

Jordan laughed and headed for the living room.

Teagan took his place at the table.

Before her buns hit the seat of the chair, I was on her.  “You wanna tell me why in the name of all that’s Holy you felt the need to share with Mom that I quit my job?  Then you can tell me what the hell gave you the right to tell anyone that AJ is my roommate?  And you can finish up with what you want done with your ashes.  You want them spread over the various eateries in town, or should I just take them to the ball field and spread them around home plate, cause Teagan, I’m gonna kill you.  You have about six seconds before the bludgeoning begins.  Talk.”

Boy was she pissed.  So pissed she was perfectly calm.  “I didn’t tell anyone that AJ lives here, Mom guessed you quit your job, she thinks you’re so flippin’ perfect that no one would have fired you, and if you honestly think you can take me, try it.  Come on Cara.  You throw the first punch.”

I was completely deflated.  I schlumped down in my chair, “Well shit.”

“Yeah, well shit.  I’ve given up most of my vacation time for you.  I’ve come over here 40 times a day to try to help you.  I’ve fed you and supported you and put my life in danger by keeping a secret from Mom, for you, and the way you repay me is to assume, without a moment for me to defend myself, that I’ve betrayed you.  You know what Cara?  I’m done.  You do whatever the hell it is that you think you need to do to recapture that tiny bit of sanity you once possessed, and when you get back to that place, if you get back to that place, you give me a call, until then, you leave me the hell alone.”  She stormed out the front door.

Liam was up and after her. 

Morgan asked if there was anything she could do, which broke my heart.  I hate it when people are kind when I’ve been a moronic fool.  It makes things worse, but how could she know that?

All I could say was “I’m sorry your announcement ended up like this.  The family is nuts, but we usually have some manners.”  The tears ran down my face unchecked.

She smiled and said, “Cara, this is only one day, I’ll be a part of the family forever.”

I let out a little laugh, “Sure you want to chance it?  Teagan and I are the normal ones.  We get along the best.  Normally.  Mostly.  Usually.”

Liam came back in the door shaking his head.  He explained that Teagan was unwilling to come back in and talk.  That she was headed home. 

The implosion kind of killed the mood and Liam and his new family left a few minutes later. 

I grabbed everything off the table, trying to keep busy, still hoping that Teagan would get a couple of blocks and turn around.  She didn’t. 

I took a shower and checked my phone.  No calls.  I tried her a couple of times, but she didn’t answer.  I didn’t even bother with a gown or lounging, I went to bed and cried myself to sleep. 

Teagan and I never fight, but when we do, it tears me apart. 

My phone rang.  I was instantly awake.  All I knew for sure was that it was a bright sunny morning after a long fitful night. 

I grabbed the phone before it made it all the way through the chimes I use as a ringtone.  “Teagan?”

“No, Love, it’s me.”

“Mom?  Everything ok?”

“I’d say you and your sister are quite the pair.  She was over here first thing this morning for a cup of tea.  She didn’t sleep at all last night.  Said the two of you had quite a row.”

I started to cry, “Not really.  We didn’t even have a chance.  I said some stupid stuff and hurt her feelings.  She walked out before I could say I was sorry.  She hasn’t picked up when I call her.”

“You need to fix this Love.  She’s in a sad state.  She wouldn’t tell me what the two of you went on about, but she did say that she felt betrayed.  Cara, Love, she’s your sister.  Don’t let this simmer between the two of you.  You and she need to set this to rights.”

“I’ll take care of it Mom.”

“See that you do.  You are the older sister Cara.  It is your place to go to her.  I don’t ask much of you girls, but I’ll not have you fighting, or worse, not talking at all.  If you girls don’t fix this soon, your father and I will become involved.”

“We don’t want that.”

“No we don’t.  Love, talk to her.  Work it out.”

“I will Mom.  I promise.  It’s just a misunderstanding.  I let my big mouth get away from me.  I’ll take care of it.”

“See that you do.  Would you like to come for dinner?  Your father has requested stew.”

“I appreciate the offer Mom.  Let me see if I can get ahold of Teagan.  Maybe I can drag her over with me.”

“That would be lovely.”

With that, she was gone.  My parents rarely say good-bye.  Something about death or superstitions, they usually just hang up the phone, or make a comment about talking to you soon, or seeing you later.  It can be annoying, but it is never going to change, so there’s no reason to harp on it.

I tried calling Teagan again before I took my shower.  No answer.  Again after I’d blown my hair dry.  No answer.  I was becoming annoyed.  It’s one thing to fight.  It is a whole other thing to be ignored.

AJ had his head in the fridge when I walked into the kitchen.  “Hey, good morning.”

“Good morning.”  I guess I didn’t hide my woes as well as I thought I did, because his response was immediate concern.

“Ok, not such a good morning.  Are you ok?”

“I got in a fight with Teagan.  She won’t answer my calls.  She hates me.”

“She doesn’t hate you.  Maybe she went out last night to take her frustrations out on some lucky guy, and she’s busy, or not home yet.”

How could he be fishing for information about my sister’s love life at a time like this?  I was instantly pissed.  “I highly doubt that.  She isn’t involved with anyone right now.  I’ve gotta go.  Have a good day.”

Before he could respond I grabbed my purse and keys and headed out the door.

Teagan’s apartment is close.  Really close.  If you head out my apartment door, wind through the parking lot of my complex, turn right at the first available turn, and go down four blocks, you’re at her place.  She has an apartment over the garage of a private home.  It’s really cute.  Bigger than you’d think.  She can get to her place through the garage or up the outside steps. 

The outside of the building is painted a lemony yellow with white trim.  They let her have free artistic reign when decorating inside.  They even wrote it in the lease.  When she first moved in, we went hog wild.  We painted everything.  Her bedroom is a custom blended pink.  She has her bed done in white with lots of different textures and an antique quilt thrown across the foot of it.  Her one hail to femininity.  Everything else in the place is pretty much unisex.

Her living room has a huge TV against one wall.  Her couch is leather.  Her area rugs are modern-ish.  She has a bistro table of dark wood and a couple of chairs in the dining area. 

Her furniture is pretty simple.

It’s the walls that get your attention. 

We borrowed an overhead projector from the library and did our best impersonation of a home improvement show. 

We found a very art deco type picture of a man and woman, had it copied onto a transparency, and projected that on the dining room wall.  We did a silhouette, first tracing their outline, and then filling it in.  Normally people do that kind of thing very black and white.  Not Teagan.  We painted the wall a really pretty deep putty color and did the silhouette two shades lighter.  It is actually subtle, or stark, depending on the time of day and the amount of light in the room.

On the wall with the over grown TV, she went geometric.  It’s a weird shape that feeds into itself.  Can’t really put it into words.  It’s the pattern off of some famous piece of fabric that was popular years ago.  We copied the puzzle-like pieces of the shape, brought them to the copy shop.  Had them copied onto heavy card stock, and made templates out of it, or is that considered a stencil?  It was a pain, but turned out amazingly well.  Thank God she only wanted it on one wall, or we’d still be painting.

Again, it’s the color that changes everything.  Instead of using the bright colors that were used in the fabric, Teagan decided to paint the whole wall the color of the silhouette, the one two shades lighter, and then use a glaze for the pattern.  The tinted glaze made it a tiny bit darker and gave it a bit of sheen.  It came out looking really sophisticated. 

For her bathroom, she took the leftovers of all the paint, taped that thin plastic cover sheet stuff on everything she didn’t want painted, took the stir sticks from the paint store, dipped them in the paint and splashed paint on the walls.  At first, it looked kind of like an experiment in blood spatter patterns for a CSI show, with an alien as the victim, since all of the dots and splashes were in shades of beige, but we kept at it, and by the time we were done, it looked fantastic.  We, on the other hand, just looked like the victims of an explosion at a paint factory.  We’d been very careful to mask off all the stuff in the bathroom, but didn’t even bother with a painter’s cap for ourselves. 

Believe me, it takes a long time to wash dried paint out of red hair.

I was thinking about all that as I drove over.  I was ready to use shared memories as ammunition if I needed to resort to that.  Grown up memories.  This situation called for some finesse.

Teagan’s car wasn’t in the driveway.  She never parks in the garage, unless it’s raining really hard when she drives up, and it hadn’t been raining last night or this morning.  Not a good sign.

Although a garage parking place is part of her rent, the man that owns the house, an older guy, has a workshop in the back of the really oversized garage, and Teagan likes to leave him as much space as she can.

The thought crossed my mind that she might be hiding from me, so I parked, got out of the car, and headed up the side stairs. 

Her landlord called out to me before I’d made it more than a few steps.

“She’s not home.”

I tried not to let my disappointment show, no use in getting Mr. Johnstone involved in our drama.  “Thanks Mr. Johnstone.”