Heaven Sent (29 page)

“You got it,” I responded, and rang them up.

“We’re leaving for math camp on the fifth,” said Tran. His eyes brightened. We were onto a subject more to his liking than coffee. “We’ll be back to get you in shape for the season one week later.”

“Right.” I’d almost forgotten, I promised to study with them. “Say, guess who’s coming back to G.U., and I’m sure will want to be back on the team?” Tran frowned. “No, Tran, it’s someone you like. Erin.”

Tran brightened. “Erin’s coming back?”

“I think so.”

“I don’t know about that,” said Jenny, frowning. “We’ve got two girls on the team already. I think two girls is enough, don’t you Tran?”

“Umm, Erin was pretty good.”

“But remember,” she said, and stroked his shoulder, “Boys
are
smarter. And I think you have the two smartest girls in school already.” She smiled at me when she said that. It was a calculating smile.

“You’re right,” Tran said, giving in.

“Well, why don’t we wait and see how things work out,” I said, not totally appreciating the energy Jenny was giving off.

“Absolutely,” said Tran. “Study up.”

“See you in a few weeks,” said Jenny with a big phony smile, and they moved aside to wait for their drinks.

As the next customer walked up, I took a moment to consider what had just happened. The way things looked to me, Tran was no longer in charge—he only thought he was. Next semester’s mathletes was going to be very interesting.

*

He was standing in line staring down at his cell phone.

I was coming off my break, exiting the break room when I saw him there. Curtis, Maudrina’s ex-boyfriend. I stopped and stared at him.
Should I duck back into the back before he sees me?
At that moment, he looked up and our eyes met. He quickly took his eyes off mine and glanced at his wrist. He wasn’t wearing a watch, but that didn’t stop him from turning and hustling out the door as if he were late for an appointment.

Oh, no, he didn’t!

I could have pretended I didn’t see him and gone back to work. No harm, no foul, right? But at that moment the now-familiar anger wormed its way into my belly.

Yes, he did! He just pretended he didn’t see me.

I was out the door after him like Usain Bolt out of the starting blocks. He was walking away, not too fast; he didn’t think I’d follow. He didn’t know about the anger. No way he could realize that a tiny squirt of rage had turned me into a crazy person.

“Hey, Curtis, yoohoo!”

He heard me; I know he heard me, because without looking back, he darted across the street. I
ran
across the street right after him. It was another hot day, and it wouldn’t take much activity for me to sweat up my Insomniacs’ tee shirt, but I didn’t care. First he sweet talked my friend, my
best
friend into sleeping with him; then when she wouldn’t sleep with him, he dumped her, just like that; and now he was pretending he didn’t hear me calling his name.

“HEY CURTIS!” Practically everyone on the street stopped to see who was screaming their lungs out. What they saw was the crazy coming off of me.

Curtis slowed and turned, as if he wasn’t quite sure he’d heard his name. By then, I was a few feet behind him. “Megan?” he said, and donned the phoniest smile. “I thought I heard someone calling me. How—”

“You
thought
you heard someone calling you? Did you leave your hearing aid at home along with your eyeballs?” People on the street were gaping at us. Good.

His eyes widened ever so slightly. “Huh?”

“We’re not going to play this game where you pretend you didn’t see me coming out of the back room in the Insomniacs’ Café, are we? I mean, we can play if you want, but I think it would be a waste of time. I’m here now, which means
you got some ’splainin’ to do
.” He’d never seen this side of me. Normally it was a part of myself I detested, yet today, I was enjoying it.

“Yeah,” he said, his face falling. “I umm… saw you.” We stood there for thirty seconds staring at one another. I didn’t blink once the whole time. My eyeballs were magnets stuck to his metal flake face. “Can we go somewhere and talk?” he asked after a while.

“I’d like that.” My break was over and I was going to be late—not exactly the Insomniacs’ way—but this was for Maudrina.

We moved to the sitting area in the outdoor mall down the street, and since it was already like a million degrees out, we had it all to ourselves.

“How is she?” he asked as we settled into wrought iron chairs made hot by the sun.

“What do you care? When you couldn’t get what you came for, you dumped her.”

“No, no, that’s not it,” he said quietly. He started wringing his hands together, but he kept his eyes on me as he spoke. “I didn’t mean for it to come out this way. I… love her.”

“Yeah, right! And I love toothaches.” The sarcasm spilled from my lips unexpectedly.

He looked around the mall and not at me as he launched into his tale, his eyes moving from thing to thing, never resting in one place too long. “I was embarrassed. We were sitting in the family room and I started to touch her. She moaned, and I touched her more. I was really getting into it until I realized she wasn’t moaning, she was crying.” His hands came to rest on the table in front of him, and he stared down at them, as if that’s where he’d find whatever he was looking for. “I stopped.” He immediately looked at me, as if for reassurance. “I stopped right then.”

“Okay.” I kept my face rigid as I held his gaze. He’d get no sympathy from me.

“We hung out the rest of the night, very PC. I remember us laughing a lot. I pretended to be okay, but the whole time we were hanging out, I was dying inside.”

“Why were you dying inside?” I asked, keeping an edge to my voice.

“I hurt her!” he replied. “I hurt the girl I love and made her cry. I was so embarrassed, I couldn’t face her the next day…. or the next. I kept telling myself ,‘Call her, dude.’ But I didn’t, until so much time had passed that I couldn’t. I couldn’t,” he repeated, the words dying as they fell from his lips. His eyes once again dropped to his hands.

“Look at me,” I commanded. His eyes moved to my lips. “I don’t believe a word you just said. And I surely don’t trust you. But Maudrina loves you, and she’s hurting. If you care anything for her, you’ll call her and explain yourself.”

“But—”

“She won’t turn you away,” I interrupted. “She loves you. Call her.”

Relief flooded his face. “I will, I will,” he said quickly.

“If you do call her, don’t say anything about this. Let her think you were man enough to do it on your own. And if you two should wind up getting back together, just remember; I’m watching you.”

“I’ll call her today.” He was starting to look too relieved. His relief tweaked my anger.

“Maybe you will. But one thing I can tell you is you don’t want
me
mad at you.” I shot him a piercing gaze that seared the relief off his face. “She can do better than you, but right now she doesn’t want to.” I sighed, and in that sigh I let him know I thought taking him back would be a mistake. “Now, I’ve got to get back to work before I lose my job. You’re certainly not worth that. Later.”

I got up and sashayed away, like the girl in the movie who’d just put down the bad boy. He couldn’t see my face, but if he had, he’d have known I was smiling. I was pretty pleased with the way I’d handled myself. Now that I’d gotten the dark thing living inside me under control, it seemed living with it might not be so bad after all.

On Thursday night, Aunt Jaz had us over for dinner. It was a celebration of sorts, and she insisted we all dress up. I was working the evening shift and didn’t get there until 8 p.m. I’d purchased the cutest short black pleated skirt to wear with a white top and my black flats with the bow at the toe. There goes another paycheck—or two. At the rate I was spending money, I wasn’t going to have much of my summer cash left over for the fall.

Aunt Jaz opened the door and a medley of wonderful fragrances wafted out to me.

“There you are. I was beginning to think you weren’t going to make it.”

Before I could respond, she pulled me into one of her famous hugs, but this one was a little different. She held me gently and rubbed my back and shoulders with both hands. “You’re a very brave girl, Megan Barnett,” she said into my ear.

“Why… Thank you.” I was caught off guard by her gentle greeting.

She released me, stepped back and twirled, showing off her fancy dress. “You like?”

“It’s beautiful, Aunt Jaz.” It was a champagne-colored fifties-style dress featuring an A-line skirt with waist-high pleats. It reminded me of Audrey Hepburn in
Breakfast At Tiffany’s
.

“You’re not too shabby, either,” Aunt Jaz said and burst into one of her famous boisterous laughs.

“Is the party down there, or down here?” Maudrina called from the kitchen. I could hear the sarcasm coming our way.

“She’s been here for over an hour and dyin’ to eat,” Aunt Jaz said softly. “Let’s go.” She started down the hall.

“It smells wonderful in here,” I said, following.

“You say that like you’re surprised,” she replied, and burst into another round of laughter.

Maudrina was standing by the stove. As soon as we entered, she struck a fashion model pose. I started laughing and clapping. Maudrina had taken a page out of Aunt Jaz’s fashion book. She had on a gray poodle skirt, black leotard top, and black Mary Janes with short socks. When I laughed, she twirled around, allowing the skirt to fan out.

“You’ve become a real fashion star,” I said.

Aunt Jaz moved to the stove and eased Maudrina aside so she could serve dinner. “I don’t know if she’s complimenting my taste or mocking me with that outfit.”

“I’m sure she’s complimenting you,” I said. Maudrina began to giggle like little girl, and I couldn’t help but join her.

“Where’s Monsieur Perez?” I asked.

“Him? I kicked him to the curb,” Aunt Jaz replied without a glance in my direction. She pulled a huge pan of lasagna from the oven. It clanged heavily as she dropped it atop the stove.

I again caught Maudrina’s eye. She was grinning like the cat who ate the canary.

“That one’s laughing, ain’t she?” Aunt Jaz asked as she began cutting the lasagna into sections.

“No, Aunt Jaz, I’m not. I’m sorry it didn’t work out,” Maudrina replied in a shamefully condescending tone.

“She never liked him,” Aunt Jaz said, still without looking at us.

“What happened?” I asked.

She stopped, set the knife down and looked at me. “You ever hear of a book called
He’s Just Not That Into You?”

“Umm, yeah.”

“Well, there you have it. I should have read it.” She stepped to the fridge and removed a large bowl of salad. “If someone would toss the dressing into this, that would be a big help.” She turned and glared at Maudrina.

“Anything for you, Aunt Jaz,” Maudrina replied in the same condescending tone.

Aunt Jaz shot me a knowing look. “A little too much sass for a teenager, don’t ya think?” Aunt Jaz moved to the stove and went back to work. Maudrina brought the salad over to the table and began tossing in the dressing.

“That sass helped get us out of Tavares Castle alive,” I said. Maudrina stopped tossing and smiled at me.

“I should have known he was only seeing me for you,” Aunt Jaz said. “Hector is an ambitious man, and you and your abilities were going to get him to the top.”

“I guess he got what he wanted because I sent those Satanists scrambling.”

“But they didn’t know it was you,” Aunt Jaz said, with a big grin of her own. “Hector tried to tell them it was his secret weapon that toppled the Satanist wedding, but no Satanist recalls seeing you there. As far as everyone in the occult community is concerned, he’s just grabbing for more power. And they don’t plan on giving it to him,” she said pointedly as she scooped heaping squares of lasagna onto three plates. “Serves him right. Let’s eat.”

She explained through dinner how Monsieur Perez had been talking about me all the time. He was obsessed with me. She felt he had manipulated me into going to the wedding. I tried to tell her I wanted to do it.

“Of course you did, after all the pressure he put on you. And it was all for power. Hmph.” She pushed food around her plate, and I realized that despite her strong showing, Monsieur Perez had hurt her. I don’t believe she’d fallen in love with him, not yet anyway. But she cared for him, and thought he cared for her.

“I’m sorry for my part in this,” she said. “I fell victim to his charms. I thought he was a good man who liked me for me.” I reached across and patted her hand.

“It’s his loss. Now he doesn’t get power
or
any more pineapple upside-down cake,” Maudrina said, trying for a save.

It seemed to work, because Aunt Jaz said “You got that right,” and her smile returned.

Dinner was delicious, and, as promised, we had bread pudding for dessert. We took our bread pudding and tea in the living room.

“From what I hear, you used a lot of your ability that day,” Aunt Jaz said as she sipped her tea. I got the feeling she was trying to keep things light, but she was worried.

“I’m fine, Aunt Jaz. Really.” They were both staring at me. “Really! Stop it.”

“You don’t feel any angrier or meaner?” asked Maudrina.

“I feel the same. In fact, I feel better now that Erin’s back home. And I promise not to push things with my abilities. I’ve used them for the only thing I felt they were good for. I realize how lucky I am that I didn’t go over the tipping point. Don’t worry, I’m never using them ever again.”

“Good, then all is right with the world,” said Maudrina, who went back to downing her bread pudding.

She was in such a good mood, I had a feeling Curtis had called and apologized. But that was a conversation for another day.

“How’s it going with Erin, anyway?” asked Aunt Jaz.

“I’ve only talked to her a few times. She’s got a lot to absorb, and she’s carrying around some guilt over not believing me when I warned her and Matt about Satan. But I think she’ll make it. Things will be a lot better when school starts in the fall.”