Iced Tea (34 page)

AJ arrived.
 
We dined after a quick shower, him, not us, and sat on the couch talking about his day.
 
I’d completely forgotten to ask Morgan about Sara, the bridal gown designer, and AJ hadn’t heard from her at all.
 

I’m beginning to worry about my memory.
 
I’m a little young to be forgetting everything all the time.

I’m putting it down to lack of ritual at the moment.
 
I never have the same day twice.
 
I don’t do anything in the same order.
 
I don’t even get up or go to bed at the same time.
 
I read somewhere once that if you have no rituals in your life, your brain has nothing to anchor your memories on and you forget everything.
 
At least that is what I think I remember.
 
Which is, after all, the whole issue.

When we ran out of chat, we decided that we would just spend the evening reading.
 
No need for the noise of a TV to intrude.
 
Each of us took one end of the sofa, my feet tucked into the crack where the cushions meet the back of the thing, cause even in Florida, my toes get cold.
 

AJ was reading a spy novel and I was reading a book I’d found on Alzheimer’s and downloaded onto my Kindle.
 
I’m bound and determined to figure out if Adeline’s problems are Alzheimer’s or something else.
 
Something just doesn’t feel right about the whole thing.

My phone rang.
 
I thought about just ignoring it, but there are two problems with that: firstly, it dawned on me that I’d give Adeline my number and maybe she needed help; secondly, I’m too nosey.
 
Within moments I would have had to check to see who called, and then, if it was a number I didn’t recognize, I’d have to get up and check online to see if it was a scam, and if it was someone I did know, I’d have to call back and see what they wanted.

When I picked up the phone and saw the little clock icon, I was really surprised to see it was so late.

“If you love me, for that matter, if you love you, you will do what I ask, and you won’t ask me a single question, and you will never tell a living soul.”

“Hello to you too Teagan.
 
What’s wrong?”

“I swear to you Cara, this is one of those times you can not be Cara.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I need you to go down to that ice place, on Bellflower and Bingum.”

“If you need some ice Teagan, why can’t you just run over to Sonic?
 
You can buy it by the bag and it’s great ice.”

“I can’t go, or I wouldn’t be calling you, Dingleberry.
 
I need you to go to the ice place because I need a bunch of ice, and I need you to just go and do it and not ask a bunch of questions because they’re going to close in about half an hour.
 
It’s only by the grace of God they were open this late in the first place, so stop screwing around and go get me a bunch of ice!”

“A bunch?
 
What’s a bunch?
 
I can buy a big bag at 7-11.
 
I can be at your house with a bag in 10 minutes, I don’t have to go all the way to the icehouse for a bag of ice.”

“Not a bag Dingleberry, I need you to fill up your whole car.
 
I need to fill up a whole bathtub.
 
I need you to do it now, and not ask a single question.”

“Can I bring AJ?”

“Yes, fill up his car too!”

“Must be a hell of a party.”

“I swear to God Cara.”

“On our way.”

AJ didn’t even ask, he heard me say that we were on our way, and he just got up and started getting dressed.
 

I ran in my room, put on yoga pants, a t-shirt and tennis shoes, grabbed my purse, a couple hundred bucks from my secret stash, mostly since I don’t know how much a bathtub full of ice costs, and headed for the door, which was being held open by AJ.

I tell you, every challenge I’ve had since AJ moved in has been so much easier.

“We need to take both cars.
 
Teagan needs us to bring her a bathtub full of ice.”

“Why?”

“She didn’t say.”

“Isn’t the ice going to drip all over the inside of the cars?”

“Crap.
 
Where can we borrow a truck this time of night?
 
Teagan said the ice people were closing-up in, like, twenty-five minutes.”

“Which ice people?”

“The ones on Bellflower and Bingum.
 
How many ice people can there be?”

“Well, we’re in luck.
 
That company provides ice for the bar’s special events; I even used them for a photo shoot once.
 
I did free maternity pictures of Bill and his wife.
 
I’m sure we can work something out.
 
You want to drive, or you want me to drive?”

“You, please.”

What the hell?
 
I hate anyone else to drive me.
 
I didn’t even want to think about what all that means.

We got to the icehouse with minutes to spare.
 
Bill was standing at the gate, about ready to lock up.
 
When he saw AJ, he smiled bright, came over and shook his hand.
 

AJ left me in the car while they walked through the gate and into the building.
 
A few minutes later, AJ came driving out in a white pickup truck, honked at me, and waved.
 
I scooted over, started the car, and followed him to Teagan’s house.

When we got to the front door, there was a note.
 
‘You know what to do.’

I walked back down the stairs, around the back of the garage, three steps from the rain gutter extension thingy, there was what appeared to be, well, actually is, a flat rock.
 
Most of the rock is buried.
 
Looks like it’s been there forever.
 
I kicked it over with my toe, found the key in a snack sized Ziploc bag, ran back up the stairs and let us in.

“We’re here.”

“Did you get it?”

“You make it sound like we are your dealers Teagan.
 
What’s going on?”

“You can come in.
 
Both of you.”

We followed her voice toward the back of the unit.
 
I assumed she was in her bedroom.
 
Nope.

“I’m in here Dingleberry.”

I walked into the bathroom, and there was Teagan, sitting in her tub, water nearly to the top with a few ice chunks floating around like little icebergs.

“What the hell happened to you?”

AJs eyes were as huge as saucers.

Teagan was covered in tiny little pink bumps.
 
Saying it was a rash, would be like saying the sun is warm.
 
She was covered from her jawline all the way to the waterline.
 
She had on a tank top and shorts, but everything we could see was covered and looked very painful.

“Oh my God, does it hurt?”

“That’s the worst part, it doesn’t hurt, it itches.
 
Itching is worse.
 
It is driving me nuts.”

“What happened?”

“The body wrap.
 
I had a reaction.”

AJ finally spoke.
 
“Can we bring you to the hospital?”

“I’ve already been.
 
They said that there isn’t much they can do.
 
That it isn’t serious, it’s just a pain in the ass, and that I’m to take the medicine they gave me.
 
The doctor said it would probably only last a few hours, and that the best way to deal with it is ice.
 
You did bring ice, right?”

“A whole truck load.”

“Truck?
 
Where did you get a truck?”

“I know the ice guys.”

“Good, cause if this doesn’t get better, I may need more.”

“You can’t stay in ice all the time, you’ll get all hypothermia-ed”

“I’m not in the tub all the time.
 
When I can’t stand the itch anymore I get back in the tub, then when I can’t stand being in the ice I get back out.”

“I’ll go get the ice.”
 
AJ walked out of the bathroom.

I am a terrible sister.

I admit it openly.

I started to laugh, then I started to laugh harder.
 

I damn near fell in the bathtub on top of poor Teagan.

“What the hell is wrong with you Cara?”

“Teagan, I’m sorry, I know it isn’t funny, but don’t you get it?
 
Iced Tea!”

Coming soon

Green Tea

One

“You want to go on Liam’s honeymoon with me?”

“Excuse me?”

“Cara, that seemed like a perfectly clear question.”

“Teagan, you’re anything but clear these days.”

“If that is an attempt at humor because of my rash…”

“Why would Liam and Morgan want us to go on their honeymoon?
 
I’m not even sure they’re taking Jordan, and Liam adores him, and he is Morgan’s one and only, and we aren’t that high on either one’s list.”

“Not with them, with me.”

“Start at the beginning.”

“I won a cruise.”

“You did?
 
That’s amazing.
 
Congratulations.”

“Yeah, it was great till I called Jessie and found out that he can’t go.
 
Then I called Liam and Morgan and asked if they wanted to use the trip as a honeymoon, and they declined.
 
Now I’m calling you.
 
You want to go?”

“I feel so special.
 
When everyone else turned you down, you came to me.”

“I haven’t asked everyone else.
 
The advantage of coming from a large family is that I still have a long list of people I could invite, so if you don’t want to come, say so and I’ll ring the next person on my list.”

“Where?”

“Alaska.”

“When?”

“Well, that’s the thing.
 
Originally, the tickets were good for a year.”

“Well, then take Jessie when he gets back or gets
unbusy
or whatever.”

“I said, originally.
 
Turns out they’ve been sitting around for a while and we’re down to the last few weeks.
 
My boss bought them at some charity thing thinking that he would bring his new wife, but she said there’s no way that she is going toward cold.
 
She’s a Floridian for a reason.
 
If they’re going to cruise, they’re going to the islands.”

“Why didn’t he just trade them in?”

“Well, turns out that the cruise line normally lets you do that, but something about these tickets makes them not turn-in-able.”

“Then how do you know they’re transferable?”

“Okay, you know what?
 
I didn’t call so that you could beat me up about the tickets.
 
Do you want to go or not?”

“I’d love to go.
 
I’ve never seen Alaska.”

“Me either.
 
I’m not sure exactly when we’re going to go, but since you’re unemployed, I figured you would be open.”

“Not my fault that unemployment runs high in this state right now, and besides, I’m not completely unemployed, I am alternately employed.”

“You’re the one that quit your job.”

“I’ve been doing just fine thank you very much.
 
I’m making just as much money doing odd jobs here and there as I was working full time before.”

“Good.
 
I really am glad.
 
We’re gonna need long johns I bet.
 
Where do we even find those in Florida?”

“I’m sure they’re available for the snow birds if nothing else or we can always buy them online.”

“True.
 
You’re in charge of finding out what we need and finding out where we can get it.”

“Why me?”

“I have the tickets, a job, and I’m in a piss-poor mood because Jessie is off with some woman I don’t know instead of coming on the cruise with me.”

“Woman?
 
What woman?”

“I’ll tell you about it when I’m not at work.
 
I’m not sure if I’m pissed or hurt or just, I don’t know.”