“That means a lot,H-town.”
“Cool, uhm,” I stumbled, “you think we can do dinner tonight? I don’t have to get Malone until tomorrow.”
“Are you asking me on a real date?” she asked, turning to face me and setting her plate down on the blanket. I noticed her plate, and nothing touched. Her OCD was serious. It made me wonder how she would survive being around me and Malone long term. Malone wasn’t as messy as me, but he was still a kid that didn’t understand the value of much.
“This spaghetti is delicious, so that’s definitely a yes,” I laughed as she beamed with delight. Malone would be in love with her pasta. It was cooked to perfection, the sauce was perfect, had a little sweetness to it but didn’t take away from the acidic taste that I loved. The meatballs were fresh and not from a bag. She made the vinaigrette for the salad herself and the bread was still warm.
“Under one condition,” she paused.
“Shoot,” I encouraged licking my fingers and smacking on the delicious lunch she prepared. I put my plate down so I could give her my full attention. She paused and I looked at her with encouraging eyes.
“Promise not to withdraw from me. I can’t take it sometimes. I’m being patient, but you make me want to say screw you one minute then the next minute you look at me like you may be warming up to me. I don’t like being confused. If you aren’t interested, my feelings won’t be hurt. I just need to know.”
“I promise that I’m open and willing, Teaghan. I truly appreciate your patience. I haven’t meant to make it hard for you to read me, but it’s just who I am. But I’m working on it.” She didn’t hide her emotions. I knew each moment she wanted to pull back. It was in the drop of her shoulders, the twitch of her eye. Her body language always told on her. Since visiting Leslie the work had been endless. I asked for patience and I got it. That attribute had my attention.
Teaghan was winning me over slowly but surely. The promise made was real. I admit I had been withdrawing from her, but it wasn’t being done on purpose. My life had always been like this, it wasn’t personal or because I wasn’t interested. The only way to prove that was to show her. My actions had to speak the words my mouth couldn’t. Teaghan had been more than patient with me and my silly backing up. I would soon push her away for good if I didn’t get my shit together. Over the last few days, I enjoyed her friendship. I enjoyed having a conversation with an adult. I couldn’t lose her friendship.
“Good, what should I wear?
“Something nice, I’m tryna see if I still got it,” I winked, feeding her a piece of my bread. It was clear she liked to eat so I would feed her as much as she wanted.
Teaghan
“Hey, can you water my flowers? I just need to check and make sure the messages are back on,” I lied quickly because his request to actually take me out caught me off guard. I was elated but still shocked that finally he opened his damn mouth.
“Of course,” he agreed.
Stepping into the building, I needed to call Missy and tell her that he had finally come around. For the last two days, our daily conversation had consisted of me fussing and cussing at Houston’s confusing ass signals. One minute he was smiling in my face, and the next he was barely saying a word. I was pressed but today that would end. Hence our promise, I was done being caught in the middle of his shit. If he wanted to be single for the rest of his life I would let him. At this point, he could live a full life or die empty it was no longer my concern unless he wanted it to be my concern.
“Missy,” I whispered checking to make sure he hadn’t followed me inside. I needed to install a window on that back door. Leaving him to water my flowers wouldn’t take long but I couldn’t be sure how long he would be. The job was almost finished and soon we would be parting ways for our date tonight. Excitement took over my body. I knew it would be different than what I was used to.
Houston was different, and he was wise. Even though he didn’t say much I was comfortable with him. It didn’t take much for him to get my attention. Our conversations either got really serious or were superficial. Either way, we would laugh, have healthy debates and crack jokes.
“What you want now girl?”
“He did it, he finally asked me out!” I said in a hushed tone looking over my shoulder. My excitement was flowing like a river, but I couldn’t be too loud in fear that he would catch me. I was done letting him know that I liked him. It seemed as though the minute I admitted to that he would pull back.
“Baby, listen, I told you it was all about patience.”
“Fuck all that,” I laughed, patience was kicking my ass right now and so was dropping it down a notch. This wasn’t me, I wasn’t afraid of the pursuit. With Houston, it felt like I was only running in place until now. Finally, he was pursuing me, and I wondered what changed his mind.
“Teaghan, don’t do that shit, you said you would be patient. Allow him to get into position. You just be ready to go with the flow,” I was beginning to think that Missy was on his side.
Over the few days, I had shown him on more than one occasion that I didn’t require a lot. Fancy dates were nice, but it didn’t have to be all that. It was evident he was still holding on to me being some princess that I was not.
“Fine, I’ll call you later.” As soon as I hit the end of the call, I heard knocking on the front door. Making my way, I paused - concerned with who it could be. Everyone knew we were shut down. Afraid of opening the door I went and grabbed Houston.
“Hey, can you come in for a second? Someone is knocking an-,”
“And you scared?” he said, cutting me off. Grabbing my hand, he led me to the front. The knocking was getting louder and harder. I assumed they would get the hint, the more time I wasted. That wasn’t happening, peeking out the window as he opened the door, I saw a few men at the door with jackets that read Building and Codes.
“Good Afternoon, I’m Carl, and we are here for an inspection. Is Teaghan LeJune available?” A tall, bald man asked with a thick mustache. It looked like a caterpillar on his damn face. It was making my skin crawl watching it move as he spoke.
“That’s me, but I don’t understand. My inspection is up to date. What’s this about?”
“We have received reports that there is a mold problem and other issues that have now come to our attention,” Carl answered handing me a paper. I read over the contents quickly and couldn’t believe my eyes. My business was being temporarily shut down while they inspected every inch. Asbestos, mold, out of date plumbing, and a list of other things were being documented.
“This is impossible; everything is up to date. I can prove it.”
