Part 2
Love makes us do things we never thought possible. Love clouds our judgement. Love takes us higher and lower than anything else. What won’t we do for love, for someone we love? Would we lie? Would we cheat? Would we betray ourselves, our lovers to keep love alive? How far would we go?
Todd Manning is walking along the Hawaiian beach. The sun is just beginning to set. A slight breeze is coming off the ocean, causing his silk shirt to hug his chest. As he walks, people cannot help but to stare at the tall, beautiful man. He walks along, seemingly in a trance, oblivious to what’s going on around him.
Finally, brought back to reality, he sees her. He begins to jog toward her. Her long, brown hair swept up, to reveal her swanlike neck. The wind blows her skirt upward, exposing her well-toned legs. She looked so beautiful to him.
The closer is gets to her, the farther away she seems to be. He begins to sprint toward her, and in an instant, she’s gone. He falls to his knees, burying his face in his hands. A single word escapes his mouth, “Tea.”
4 Hours Later
Todd isn’t sure how long he was wandering along the beach, or even how he made it back to his house. He is sure of one thing, he has to call Suzanne Gannon, his shrink.
After he left Llanview, he went straight to Switzerland to seek treatment from Suzanne Gannon. Next to Tea and Starr, Suzanne was the best thing to ever happen to him. Through several months of hard work, he was able to integrate the very real alters that resulted from DID. Once his treatment was finished, Suzanne encouraged him to further discover himself by spending some time alone.
He thought about going to Jamaica, Barbados and several other islands, but in the end he decided on Hawaii. It was where he had planned to take Tea for their honeymoon, before all hell broke loose. The house where he lived, was to be his wedding gift to her. It was a large house, with floor to ceiling windows overlooking the ocean. The rooms were decorated in light colors, with expensive works of art throughout. The master bedroom was truly magnificent. A large waterbed stood on a pedestal against the far wall. There was a set of double doors that opened up to a balcony. A large, flat screen television was against the wall opposite the bed, along with a stereo and a DVD player. There was a music collection with everything from jazz, to that salsa music that she loved so much. She would be surprised to know that he had learned to salsa, just for her. He hated watching Antonio Vega dancing suggestively with Tea, so he wanted to make sure that he was all the dance partner that she would ever need. The movie collection was just as diverse. Dramas for her, horror movies for him.
Todd walks in the bedroom, and stares at a picture of Tea. It was the same picture that he had taken with him from Llanview, only it was a larger version. He picks up the picture, and holds it to his chest. He picks up the telephone, and dials Suzanne’s number.
“Suzanne Gannon’s office,” the secretary answers.
“Yeah, uh, this is Todd Manning, I need to talk to Suzanne.”
“One moment please,” she places him on hold. A few seconds later, she transfers him to Suzanne.
“Hello Todd. How are you?”
“I need to talk to you.”
“About?”
“Okay, I’m at our house in Hawaii, you know, trying to find myself, like you said. Anyway, everywhere I turn I see her,” he begins to run his fingers through his hair.
“Have you spoken with her?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
He begins to pace. “I’m just scared. She was so mad at me before I left, I just don’t want to hurt her again.”
“Have you had any contact with her?”
“I sent her a key to the house, but that’s it.”
“Todd, you’re playing games with her again. We talked you having to be straight forward with her, forget the games.”
“She won’t talk to me,” he starts to toss the moon that she gave him as a wedding gift from hand to hand.
“How do you know if you don’t try? Todd, I have listened to you talk about Tea and your relationship with her, and I know that you are deeply, deeply in love with her. From what you told me, she was deeply in love with you too. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, is that love really can conquer anything. You have to believe that, believe in your love.”
“You know what I want more than anything in the world? I just want to give to her a fraction of what she’s given me. Okay, enough of this mushy stuff. What should I do?”
“I can’t tell you what to do.”
“Don’t give me psycho babble crap. Tell me what you would do.”
“Call her, tell her all the stuff you’ve told me.”
Laying back on the bed, and continuing to toss the moon. “I don’t know.”
“Listen, Todd, I have an appointment. Think about what I said, and give me a call anytime.”
“Yeah, thanks,” he hangs up the phone. He picks the phone back up and dials another number.
“Llanview florists.”
“Yeah, do you have any peach roses?”
“Yes.”
“How many?”
“All of them. Yeah, I wanna order all the peach roses you have, and I don’t care how much it costs. Is it possible to get them delivered today?”
“Let me check,” placing him on hold. A couple of minutes pass before she returns to the phone. “Yes, we can deliver those today. Would you like to enclose a card?”
“Um, yeah. Just write my heart is in your hands. I love you, Todd. That sound alright?”
“Yes, she is one lucky woman.”
“Thanks, I hope she thinks so. Send it to Tea Delgado Manning at the Palace Hotel. She will get those today right?”
“Yes,” she finishes taking the rest of his information and hangs up.
He lays in bed for a few more minutes, breathing deeply. Should I call you now, or should I wait? He picks up the phone, and starts to dial Tea’s cell phone number. One ring, two rings, he hangs up. He picks up the phone again, this time, dialing a different number. After three rings, someone picks up.
“Vicki Carpenter,” Vicki answers her cell phone.
Todd takes a deep breath before he responds. “Hey sis.”
“Todd, is that you?”
“You have some other brother that I don’t know about?”
“Where are you?”
“Listen, Vicki, I’m fine, you don’t have to worry. I met a friend of yours.”
“Who?”
“Suzanne.”
Vicki pulls into her driveway and enters Llanfair. “Gannon?”
“Yes,” he walks out to the balcony, and sits on the railing. “I know you probably don’t want to talk about what happened between us, but there’s something I have to tell you.”
“What?”
“When I left Llanview, I took a plane to New York. I didn’t know where I was going or anything, I just had to get away. Anyway, I was sitting there, and I saw Rod and Pete and Tom and Ms. Perkins. And they just kept talking, and wouldn’t shut up. Then I thought about what you said, about finding myself, so that’s what I’ve been doing. I’ve been looking for Todd.”
“And have you found him?”
“I found some of him. I was in therapy with Suzanne for a few months, integrating, or whatever. Once we finished, she thought I should go off for awhile by myself to finish finding myself.”
“And?”
“And, I part of me is still missing,” tears form in his eyes, but he blinks them back.
“Tea?”
“Yeah. How’s she doin’?”
“I don’t get to see her that much, but I assume she’s doing fine.”
“She seein’ anybody?”
“I know that she was dating someone, but it didn’t work out.”
“Who was it,” he asks, with his face turning red with jealousy.
“John Sykes, but it’s long over.”
“Vicki, I have a favor. You have every right to say no, I mean I’d understand if you said no. But, could you go and see Tea, and kinda see how she feels about me, about us?”
“Todd, I don’t think I can do that.”
“Okay,” he says disappointed.
“No, listen, it’s not that I don’t want to help you, it’s just that Tea’s a very sharp woman, and she’d know if I was picking her for information.”
“You’re right.”
“I think you should writer her a letter, or call her.”
“Yeah, I’ll write her a letter, but she might not open it if she knows it comes from me. I have an idea. Would you publish the letter on the front page of The Banner if I send it to you?”
“That is so romantic, of course I’ll publish it.”
TO BE CONTINUED
2001 COPYRIGHT BY TORRI
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