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| NEVER AGAIN BY TIMA |
CHAPTER 28 |
NEVER AGAIN
chapter 28:
[Later, at Carlotta's diner...
Tea and Todd enter, clearly together. Tea immediately notices the disapproval as Carlotta glares at Todd.]
Tea: Would you feel more comfortable going somewhere else?
Todd: My hotel room?
Tea: Don't start.
Todd: You said we could get back to fighting about getting back together after we finished with Laurence.
Tea: My business with Mitch Laurence isn't finished. It's merely postponed.
Todd: You should look at the fact that he wasn't home as a sign to stay clear of him.
Tea: I need to confront him. You know that. I also need to speak to Carlotta for a few minutes, alone. Okay?
Todd: Make sure she doesn't spit in my food. I hate when she does that.
Tea: She would never do something like that, and you know it.
Todd: She wants to. Everybody in this town wants to do that to me.
Tea: I don't want to.
Todd: You're the only one.
[Tea is touched by the softness in Todd's voice and facial features. She's relieved to have a temporary excuse to remove herself from Todd's magnetic presence, as she moves toward the counter alone. Todd sits down in a booth by the door, facing the counter, so he can stare at his ex-wife while they're apart.
Tea and Carlotta greet each other with hugs over the counter, as Carlotta continues to glare at Todd.]
Carlotta: Is this what I think it is?
Tea: Todd went with me today.
Carlotta: How did it go?
Tea: It didn't. Mitch Laurence wasn't home.
Carlotta: Good!
Tea: As I told Todd, I still have every intention of confronting that man about what happened to my mother.
Carlotta: I really wish you would put the past behind you.
Tea: You and Todd have more in common than either of you realizes.
Carlotta: Perhaps you should listen to Todd, about this one thing.
Tea: I need to know what happened. For the rest of the day, though, I will put it aside.
Carlotta: Just tell me that you're putting Todd Manning aside as well.
Tea: No such luck. I promised him a great meal, if he came with me. I'm hoping you can arrange that.
Carlotta: I don't trust that man's intentions.
Tea: Neither do I.
Carlotta: Why are you with him?
Tea: Because, for the moment, it's what I want.
Carlotta: What if you fall for his lies again? What if you get hurt?
Tea: I've had a lifetime of experience with having my heart broken. I'll survive.
[Tea is startled as Todd suddenly appears directly behind her.]
Todd: Delgado, you're coming into the kitchen with me. I need to make sure it's clean, or we're not eating here.
Tea: Todd!
[Carlotta, having followed Todd's head gesture toward the door, notices Mitch Laurence entering her establishment.]
Carlotta: It's okay, Tea. I understand.
Tea: You do?
Carlotta: Of course. Go right in. Take as much time as you need.
Todd: You have a back door, right? In case we see something that grosses us out.
[Tea, sensing that something isn't right, turns to look in the direction Carlotta has been unsuccessfully trying to inconspicuously look. Todd tries to jump in her way.]
Todd: The kitchen's the other way.
Tea: I demand to know what you both are trying to shield me from.
[Knowing that Carlotta's obvious physical nervousness has already given away too much for Tea to let it go, he steps aside.
For the first time in almost three decades, Tea finds herself looking into the face of the man who she's now almost certain caused her mother to abandon her when she was a little girl.]
to be continued...
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