When the sun finally ascended to the top of its perch, peeking through the skyscrapers that lined the New York skyline, Tea and Todd were huddled together, fully clothed in the middle of her bed. It was comfortable to them both, just the right amount of closeness. After the previous night's confessions and openness, they needed to sleep, their bodies needed to rest. They found solace in the arms of each other.
They didn't start off very close to one another in bed. Both clung to the outer edges of their sides, careful not to touch the other. Slowly, during the night, wiggled toward the middle of the bed and their bodies began to touch. Without their conscious knowledge, their bodies became entwined.
It was Tea who groggily awakened first, wrapped snuggly in his embrace. His arms were like a part of her body, hugging her so tightly, so naturally, it was as if she were holding herself. She loved that, loved that warmth that was generated between the two of them. She leaned back a little, let her head rest against his chest, and listened to his heart beating. It had been a long time since she last found herself in someone else's arms at the beginning of a new day. Normally they were history before any signs of daylight began to show, she liked it that way. A few minutes longer she wanted to lay there, without interruption, in his arms and feeling like, for once in her life, she belonged someplace with someone. She squirmed away, before getting too used to it, it would only end badly. Todd would forget the things they said the night before, she knew that, he'd proven in the past that he had a short memory. Realistically, they had been down the same bumpy, pot_holed road before and bailed before things got too rough. At least she'd always have the memory of waking up in his arms, his face being the first one she saw in the morning. That memory would be one that would help sustain her for the rest of the life she would spend without him.
It'll only end badly. It always ends badly.
"God," she muttered under her breath, "what have I done? What have I promised this man?" She looked down, realizing that she still had on her clothes from the night before. As quietly as she could, she went into her bathroom and tried to clean herself up, tried to make some sort of sense of her life.
Todd heard her gently close the door and rolled over in her direction. He remembered the previous night, remembered his intentions of saying goodbye to her but his inability to follow through on that promise. Here he was, lying in her bed wrapped in her scent, and it was like home to him. It was where he belonged; not on the outside, utilizing his voyeuristic tendencies, he belonged in her arms. "Home," he spoke aloud, "I'm home."
Starr's footsteps pattered down the hallway, stopping abruptly just outside the bedroom. With a soft knock, she asked, "Tee, can I come in?"
"Come on in, Starr," Todd yelled back at her.
She ran into the room and jumped on the bed where Todd proceeded to tickle her. "Daddy…daddy," she said, between giggles. "Daddy, stop it. Where's Tee?"
"Bathroom," he answered breathlessly.
"Are you two getting married again? Tee's so sad when you're not around and you're sad when she's not around. Why don't you just get married again so you don't have to be sad alone?"
"We'll see Starr. Hey, you hungry?"
"Yeah, Tee always makes me pancakes."
"I remember. Why don't you go and play and I'll ask Tee to make us some pancakes?"
"Okay, daddy."
*****
The three of them spent the rest of the weekend together, with Roseanne joining them once or twice. It ended too quickly for all of them, with Todd putting Starr and Tea on a plane back to Llanview where they would meet Viki. He said he couldn't bear to say goodbye to Starr; he couldn't make the trip so he left them at the airport with a kiss for Starr and the tightest of hugs for Tea. "I love you," he whispered in the ear of both of them before they boarded the plane. Starr responded with an "I love you too, daddy," and all Tea could do was hold him tighter.
He and Tea hadn't had much time to talk after that first night. There were so many things he wanted to ask her like if she was serious and if she thought they could make it past all the pain, things like that to give him even more hope. He couldn't believe that there was hope for them after all.
He could see their future so clearly, something he had not been able to do in the past. When he thought about his future, all he saw was a black hole, sucking up everything around him like a vacuum. Not anymore, not with his newfound hope for a third chance. What he saw was the two of them lying in bed after just making love, she wrapped in his embrace, practically melting into him. He could give that to her, he was sure of it. He was willing to take that risk because he had experienced life without her and it was not something he wanted to revisit.
All he could think about was pleasing her and his mind drifted back to her father. He had almost forgotten about Leon, living the high life off of his money at one of the Trump hotels. She would be so happy to see her father again, he thought. Instead of going back to his place, he decided to check on his "investment," thinking that when Tea came back, he would be waiting for her with her father.
At the hotel, Leon answered the door wearing an expensive pair of brown slacks and a cream colored button down. No one could have guessed that just a few days before he was rummaging through the garbage for his next meal. He wasn't sober, but he had become a master of pretension. Learned that art when he was still together with Tea's mother. Fooled her for many, many years. Eventually she caught on, but not before he had almost completely broken her down. Not before his drunkenness drove her away from her family. Todd would've noticed his slightly slurred speech had he not been so wrapped up in his new life with Tea.
He waltzed right past Leon, sat on the couch, put his feet on the table and leaned his head back on the couch. He didn't say anything at first; let himself focus on his third chance at life. Giving Tea her father back would be another step toward the life he wanted with her. Ordinarily he would've waited before springing Leon on her, but the childlike excitement that ran through him clouded his judgment.
"Hey, listen to me. You, me and your daughter are goin' out tonight and I don't want you giving me any lip about it. So, do whatever you gotta do to get ready and meet us downstairs at eight. Got it?" He didn't give Leon a chance to respond before saying, "good." Just as quickly as he breezed in, he was gone.
Leon had other ideas on his mind. He had been waiting for Todd to give him the sign that he was going to see his daughter again, salivating at the thought of being able to see her again. Gonna make that bitch pay. He wanted to hurt her and he knew he could not do that physically, not with Todd fawning all over her. He had to work on her mind, that was his easiest target. Break her down slowly, like he did her mother. Undermine her self_esteem, which was what he did when she was much younger. She was too much like her mother, had too much of a mouth on her. She was going to pay just for being her mother's daughter.
He would destroy her this time. She was the reason he was alone, living on the streets, eating other people's garbage. She was the reason that Del had abandoned him all those years before and she was the reason that Jose didn't bother to check on him. He laughed to himself, thinking Todd didn't know his daughter as well as he thought he did. If he knew anything at all about her, he would've known how much she hated him. Instead, he was moving forward, helping him with his plan to finish the job of breaking her down and making her pay.
*****
Todd's Apartment
Todd's feet were barely touching the ground as he prepared to meet Tea. He spent all afternoon planning for their night out; renting a stretch Navigator, having two dozen peach roses delivered to her apartment and picking up another dozen to give to her. Just because they were taking things slowly didn't mean he couldn't do things for her.
Black wasn't the color to wear if he was hoping for a new beginning, so he stopped by Armani earlier in the day and picked up a pair of cream_colored slacks with a matching silk ribbed shirt. She liked him in things like that; things that accentuated the muscles that only she seemed to see. He was uncomfortable, but for her, he would wear it. He pulled his hair back in a tight ponytail, making sure sides were slicked down. She liked that look too, said she loved to see his ears, which he usually tried to cover.
The voices had been silent all day. Strangely enough, he wasn't worried about them getting to him that night; he wasn't worried about much of anything. The evening was all under control. Sure, they would take things slowly, but that could change. If he showed her he could be different, maybe she would speed up her "self discovery mission" and let him in sooner. Then, he could get rid of the pigsty where he lived in the darkness and move into her space.
*****
Tea's Penthouse
It was too quiet again. No more laughter, no more little feet tapping around the wood floors. Nothing. Roseanne had insisted on going out alone claiming if she spent one more second cooped up in that room, she was going to lose her mind. She left too, against Tea's wishes and despite her protestations.
They'd had an interesting conversation when Tea returned from the airport. It was probably the most honest she had ever been about her feelings for Todd and her feelings for men in general. It started off as an innocent Q&A session about the history of their family. Roseanne wanted to know why Tea surrounded herself in all of these defense barriers. What was it, she wanted to know, that made her seem so cold. What she was really asking is if it was hereditary.
She tried to shuffle around the subject; it was her nature to try to protect her family. No matter what was going on, she was taught to protect the name of the family. That included her father, never mind he represented everything mean and hateful in the world. Nobody else had to know that. She didn't need their looks of pity or the unuttered "I told you so's." It wouldn't do her any good to relive the past anyway; no one had heard from her father in years.
Roseanne kept prodding, needing to know if she was destined, or doomed to repeat the mistakes that Tea seemed to be so good at making. She wanted to know if it was already in heredity that she would run back to Christian with open arms, begging for his forgiveness.
"I don't get it, Tea, why don't you want to talk about our history? Is it true what they say about you being ashamed of where you came?"
With a hint of hesitation she answered, "I'm not ashamed," her eyes focused on anything but Roseanne, "I just think that reliving the past doesn't do any good. Let it go."
"I can't let it go. What happened to you? Del said you used to be so much fun. He said you used to dance around the apartment in your ballet shoes or a pair of five inch high stilettos salsa dancing. How come I've never seen that? Is it because of what happened?"
"Because of what happened? Are you referring to the miscarriage?"
"Yeah."
"No, not because of that. Look, I just grew up…end of story," she lied.
"So why all the men? Why am I like this? Why are you the way you are?"
"I don't want to commit. There's nothing wrong with that. Roseanne, the world shits on people like us and you either let it consume you or get on with it. I chose to get on with it. My career is what's important to me and I'm not about to risk it for some relationship that is guaranteed to be a failure."
"And your point is?"
"My point is that just because I haven't had a successful relationship doesn't mean you can't or won't. That's not heredity, that's a crapshoot."
"I think my luck's run out, Tea. Yours hasn't. I see the way Todd is with you; he loves you so damn much. That relationship is definitely not over and you know it."
Tea looked away from her, attempting to hide the tears that had started to form in her eyes. "We're talking about you and Christian. You need to vent to him, scream at him, yell, go ballistic but don't hold it inside and don't keep questioning yourself. That's not going to get you anywhere."
"What about Todd? Do you love him?"
"I love him more than anything," Tea said truthfully. "He's a wonderful man, no matter what anybody else says but that doesn't mean that he's the perfect man for me."
"Bullshit Tea."
Tea looked at her watch for the hundredth time, wondering when Roseanne was coming home. She had an awful feeling that something bad was going to happen but she couldn't figure out to whom. It was coming; she knew that much and she prayed that Roseanne would walk through that door.
She wore something she knew Todd would love seeing her in. It was always the bright and vivid colors that looked good on her, the colors that brought out the depth in her eyes. That's what he always said anyway, even though she couldn't see it. He must've seen something though because he always commented on how good she looked, especially in red. That was why she chose the short red after_five dress that hugged her curves and flowed with the wind at the bottom. He also liked high heels, said they showed off the muscles in her legs. So, she picked out a pair of silver, Gucci stilettos that looked especially good on her. The earrings, necklace and bracelet that she chose were gifts from him, the same jewelry that she wore in Jamaica. When she was finished, she gave herself the once over, not satisfied with the way she looked, but in the eyes of anyone else she was perfection.
She looked at her watch one more time, upset with herself because she had another hour to kill. "Damn," she muttered, realizing she started getting dressed far too early.
Just then, she heard Roseanne outside, fumbling to get her key in the hole. When she came around the corner and entered the living room, Tea knew immediately that something was wrong. She was much paler than usual; beads of sweat had begun to form on her brow.
"Roseanne, what's the matter?" Tea was by her side and holding her up before she could respond. Immediately Tea felt the heat coming from her body and knew that she had a fever. "Here, let's get you back to your room."
The two of them staggered down the hallway and Tea helped her get into bed, pulling the covers up to her neck. "I'm going to call a doctor_"
"She'll be here in a minute," Roseanne responded weakly. She had felt herself losing energy earlier in the day but she thought she could push her body a little bit further. The more she pushed, the harder her body fought against her until she could barely breathe. It took every bit of energy to propel herself into a cab and tell him where she needed to go. In the back seat, she called the hospital and requested to speak to the doctor who treated her, Dr. Saybrooke. Doctors weren't supposed to make house calls anymore, but Marty made a point of telling her to not move once she got home, that she would come to her.
Tea stayed with her, forgetting that Todd was coming. It wasn't until forty_five minutes before he was supposed to arrive that she remembered to try and call him. There was no answer at any of his numbers and she figured that he was probably already on his way.
When the doorbell rang, she went to it quickly, expecting it to be the doctor. She didn't bother to ask who it was, just swung the door open and said, "she's_." That was as far as she got, her mouth hung open from the shock.
"Hi, Tea," Marty said, still wearing her thigh length doctor's coat. "I guess your niece didn't tell you I was coming?"
"Um…no…as a matter of fact…uh…she just said that a doctor was coming over to check on her but she didn't mention any names. Look, if this makes you uncomfortable_"
"No, no, not at all. Not if it doesn't bother you."
Tea shook her head, silently cursing herself for getting stuck in the situation. She had to figure out a way to get Marty out of there before Todd arrived. There was really no way to get out of the situation gracefully, so she decided to let the cards fall where they may.
