| UNFINISHED BUSINESS BY TIMA |
CHAPTER 17 |
Tea turns onto her stomach and cries into her pillow. The pain is overwhelming. The sense of loss is worse than it's ever been before.
In his car, Todd speeds down the road, trying to escape the pain, both inside himself and inside Tea. It's too much for him to endure right now. All he can do is run from it. He knows that it will just cause more pain for both of them but he can't go back. He can't allow himself to feel this much. It's too dangerous. He needs to run.]
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chapter 17:
[Hours after Todd left her...yet again...
Tea calls her office and arranges to postpone all of her upcoming work. She knows that nothing on her schedule is too urgent so she allows herself some time to be alone and wallow in her, familiarly lonely, misery.
For several days, she doesn't go anywhere. She doesn't answer her phone. She doesn't see, or speak to, anyone. She allows herself complete solitude, as she tries, yet again, to deal the pain of losing the only man she has ever truly loved.
She spends much of her time sitting outside, staring at the ocean. She gives serious consideration to moving out of her house...the house that she shared with Todd, that he still owns. Ultimately, she decides to put off making that decision. She tries hard to convince herself that it isn't because she wants Todd to know where she is...just in case. Deep inside, though, a tiny speck of hope remains that someday, somehow, they'll find their way back to each other and finally get things right and share a future together.
As Tea avoids the rest of the world, she has no idea where Todd is or what he's doing. She doesn't know that no one else knows where he is either. She has no idea that he's disappeared without a trace, not just from her life but from everyone else's, also.
When Tea returns to work a week later, she resigns from the job that had brought Todd back into her life for that one brief day. She's not aware when the new lawyer handling the case is unable to contact Todd and negotiate the sale of the company he had been so anxious to buy.
Tea avoids calling Carlotta, not wanting to be tempted to ask about Todd. She doesn't know that Viki is worried about where Todd is since realizing that he's left Starr again.
Tea is oblivious to all things Todd Manning, except that massive emptiness inside herself that she still, despite her anger, wants him to return and fill.
It is several months before Tea hears any mention of Todd Manning again, except for the constant calling of his name deep inside her heart.
Tea is working in her office late one afternoon when her past, and her future, collide with the present she has been trying so hard to keep full, as her way of dealing with the loss of her husband and their unborn child.
When she looks through her opened office door and sees someone from her past in the reception area, any chance of using work, or anything else, to temporarily forget, is lost.
Tea stands up and cautiously walks toward her sister-in-law, not knowing what to expect but fearing that it must be something horrible for Todd's sister to track her down after all this time.]
Tea: Hello, Viki.
Viki: Tea! You look wonderful.
[Tea takes a breath, relieved. If it were truly dreadful news, Viki wouldn't be in such good spirits. Tea directs Viki into her office and closes the door.]
Tea: Have a seat, Viki. Tell me why you're here. Is Todd in trouble?
Viki: I truly do not know, but I am concerned that he may be.
Tea: In what way?
Viki: He seems to have disappeared. It took quite some time, I'm afraid, for anyone to notice. Todd does go off on his own sometimes without letting anyone know where he's going, or when he'll be back.
Tea: How long has he been gone?
Viki: Several months. From what I've been able to gather, he came into Manhattan for a business meeting and no one has seen him since. I've been trying to trace his activities that day in the hopes that I could determine what happened and where he might be now.
Tea: And, you learned that I was with him that day?
Viki: You were the lawyer representing the company he purchased that day...or would have purchased if he hadn't disappeared before the deal could be finalized. You had a meeting with him that lasted much of the day, correct?
Tea: Yes. I no longer represent that particular company, so I didn't know that the deal hadn't gone through, but I was involved in negotiating the deal with Todd.
Viki: Why did you resign as their attorney?
Tea: Don't you want to ask me about my meeting with Todd?
Viki: I will. When I finally learned that a lawyer named Tea Delgado had been the person Todd met with that day and that she then resigned her position days later, I couldn't help but wonder if your reason for resigning was the same as Todd's reason for disappearing.
Tea: So, you think he disappeared voluntarily? You don't think anything...
[Tea can't even bring herself to finish her thought. Just the thought of something horrible happening to Todd is threatening to dissolve the composure she is currently fighting hard to maintain.]
Viki: I hope that he did leave voluntarily. As much as I hate the idea of him abandoning his daughter again, I don't want to believe that anything terrible has happened to him. Do you know where he is?
Tea: No. I honestly don't.
Viki: Do you know a reason why he would disappear? Things weren't perfect for him in Llanview. I'll admit that I wasn't very receptive to him at the time because of certain circumstances. I don't think that anything happening in Llanview at the time would be reason enough for disappearing again, though.
Tea: So, you think I'm the reason?
Viki: Are you? What happened that day?
Tea: A lot happened. Nothing happened.
Viki: I don't understand.
[Tea stands up and walks over to a small window and stares out as she speaks to Viki.]
Tea: I surprised him. He wasn't expecting me to be the lawyer he was meeting. If he had known, he probably wouldn't have come.
Viki: Because he was still hurt that you had left him?
Tea: Left him? Well...
[Tea pauses, uncertain how much information she should allow Viki. He clearly didn't want anyone to know the truth about their relationship.]
Viki: Allow me to take a wild guess...Todd left you, not the other way around, as he told us.
Tea: Something like that. It was important to him for people to believe what he wanted them to believe. I knew what he was telling people about our breakup. I allowed it. If it helped him in some way then I was okay with it. I don't care what anyone thinks happened between us. I just wanted Todd to have the chance that he wanted to move on to...whatever it is that he wanted.
Viki: Perhaps, for now, we should focus on the day he disappeared. Did your meeting go well?
Tea: As well as can be expected when two married people see each other again after a long, painful separation.
Viki: Married?
Tea: That's right, you didn't know.
Viki: I thought your second marriage to Todd had been annulled.
Tea: We got married again, after we left Llanview together.
Viki: Todd never mentioned it.
Tea: I know. He told me. Actually, I already knew from speaking to Carlotta and Cristian...
Viki: Why would he keep that a secret from me?
Tea: You'll have to ask Todd that.
Viki: I will as soon as I see him. He's not living with you again?
Tea: No. I wish he were.
[Viki notices as Tea's emotions finally surface on her face. Her voice and her facial expressions have been eerily calm up to this point. Viki is relieved to see that her hope had been correct...Tea is still in love with Todd.]
Viki: Tell me what happened that day.
Tea: We had our meeting. We haggled over the details. He refused initially to give in to any of the conditions the owners of the company were trying to place on the sale, but hours later we had come to enough of an agreement that I recommended to the board that they sell the company to Todd.
Viki: He must have been thrilled about that.
Tea: I didn't tell him. I didn't want to give him the satisfaction right away. Besides, I didn't know yet if the board would agree with my recommendation.
Viki: Do you have any idea where he may have gone after your meeting?
Tea: Yes.
Viki: Where?
[Tea pauses for a moment, her emotions again threatening her. Thinking about that night is still painful for her. Thinking about Todd out there alone again is more painful, though.]
Tea: We had dinner.
Viki: At a restaurant? Which one?
Tea: It was at my...our...house.
Viki: Your house? Is this where you lived when you were together, after you both left Llanview?
Tea: Yes.
Viki: Todd told us that you had lived in an apartment together while you were away.
Tea: Todd apparently had a lot of lies, or unique truths, about that time and what happened between us. Like I said, it really doesn't matter to me what fantasy he spun for everyone else. Maybe he wanted to keep the truth separate...safe.
Viki: Perhaps. I can't help but be curious about what else he lied about concerning that time.
Tea: Dealing with what happened during our more recent encounter will probably be painful enough. Could we stick to discussing that, for now?
Viki: Of course. You had dinner together, in your home?
[For the first time since her arrival, Viki notices a small smile on Tea's face.]
Tea: Todd cooked.
Viki: Really?
Tea: He's pretty good, actually. He complains about it, but I know that secretly he enjoys cooking...once in a while.
Viki: So, everything was going well?
Tea: As well as can be expected. We had a few tense moments. That's to be expected, though, given the circumstances.
Viki: Of course.
Tea: I think we both enjoyed ourselves, too...during certain moments.
Viki: Were you hoping for a reconciliation?
[Tea pauses again, uncertain how deep she should dig inside herself, how much pain she should risk unleashing.]
Tea: I... Yes. I... I've been hoping for that for years. But, every time it starts to happen...
Viki: Did it appear that it would happen that night? Did you tell him what you wanted? Did Todd seem receptive to the idea?
to be continued...
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