Glass Eels, Shattered Sea by Charlene D'Avanzo

Author:Charlene D'Avanzo [D'Avanzo, Charlene]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-04-22T22:00:00+00:00

31

After Harvey and Connor left, Angelo rinsed the dishes and I stacked them in the dishwasher—a good time to chat.

“So the trip out to Little Moose is settled,” I said.

He handed me a plate. “Yes, and I feel much better about Connor taking you out there. Speaking of settled, I assume you and Ted talked about your, um, living arrangements when you were on the ship?”

I rearranged plates in the back of the dishwater to make room for the last dirty one. “Yeah, well, actually we didn’t.”

We had started on the glasses when Angelo responded, “Is that because you were so busy or you’d already come to a conclusion?”

“To be honest, it was neither. We had a terrific time working together. With that and Alise getting shoved into the water, plus all the rest, it just didn’t seem like the right time.”

As I was leaving, Angelo handed me my jacket. “You remember my telling you that your mother was nervous about getting too serious about your father?”

“Yes, and it surprised me,” I said. “From where I stood, they were the perfect couple who worked together, played together, went everywhere together.”

He nodded. “It all worked out in the end but was touch and go for a while.”

“So what happened?”

“Your dad had an attractive lab assistant who had a crush on him. Being Carlos, he was oblivious. But Bridget certainly noticed, and I guessed she realized she couldn’t take him for granted. After all, Carlos was an attractive, smart man.”

I loved hearing vignettes like these about the parents I held dear but hardly knew. “Then what happened?”

“Whatever Bridget did, it was fast. They were married a couple of months later. Le cose che date per scontate vengono prese.”

“And that means?”

“Things you take for granted get taken.”

That night the dream that woke me up must have been a wild one, because the bedclothes were a mess when I rolled over and nearly ended up on the floor. Fully awake, I padded to the window and looked out as flashes of the dream came back to me—Ted walking hand in hand with a stunning young blond, Ted grinning as a faceless girl kissed him, Ted snorkeling in the Sargasso with a woman who wasn’t me.

I rubbed my eyes and studied the moon. Waning, it cast its mirrored light across a calm sea. Lovely and peaceful, but none of that helped.

I whispered, “For god’s sake. What is wrong with you?” But of course I knew. It was Angelo’s warning that “things you take for granted get taken.” I had been avoiding a difficult decision, and it was past time that I dealt with it.

By the time I had downed my third cup of coffee the next morning, the plan was concrete. After parking my car at MOI, I would walk right up to Ted’s office so we could talk. One foot on the back stairs of the biology building, I allowed myself a diversion. Whenever I needed to work something out, Homer was always so helpful.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.