1 0

past & present

—

ACCORDING TO TEDDY, love took a little trial and error. I was definitely no stranger to that concept, considering my troubled history with my family, but even a cynic like me enjoyed sugar coating my reality every so often. I liked to think that going to college in New York was my big escape from how bad things were in Boston, but alas, that was not the case. I found myself working for not one crazy family, but two of them. So when Violet gave me those roses that Teddy decided not to accept, I decided there was no point in avoiding them anymore.

Them as in my family.

Delaney and her boyfriend were out and about at some movie and they were using his car, so I took that as an opportunity to take her car up to Boston after my shift at work. It was dark and late outside, and I knew I would pay for being out at this time of night when I came into work the next morning, but I had to do this.

I sighed, thankful for all of the traffic on the expressway, because if it weren't for these people, I would've felt so lonely and cold. But no, their lights cut through the dark surrounding me, a sea of fluorescent reds, yellows, and oranges to compliment the night. This journey wouldn't be so bad after all.

It was way ahead of their anniversary, but there was nothing wrong with giving the two of them a few extra flowers to make up for all of the trouble.

—

I WASN'T THE only one who hated my job.

Apparently, the sisters Helga and Petra hated theirs as well. But in their case, it was for a much different reason. That reason being that I was there and not the type of person who they preferred to work with.

Helga and Petra had apparently been working for the Gates family longer than I have, securing their places here soon after importing from wherever the hell in Eastern Europe they came from. There were only three open positions for the household that didn't involve working the exterior and mainly included childcare and attending to the parents' every need. They had both worked terribly hard in their home country in order to get their jobs here. Learning English, learning American customs, applying for work visas or green cards — it made sense that they were maddened by a simple American girl who didn't suffer as much to just walk in and claim this job for their self.

But alas, that wasn't why they were mad at me, or at least not the main reason. Instead, it had more to do with the fact that there was no room here for their sister Natasha to work at. They had pleaded several times with Selena, but her stance on it was quite rigid, she was definitely not easy to bargain with when you're poor and indebted to her. She only needed three of us, because if there were more then it would cut into her meticulously micro-managed salon budget. And guess who happened to be the third one.

So when they figured that haggling Selena wouldn't gain them any favor, I easily became the next target for them. If they could get me fired, then they could get Natasha to join alongside them. I was all for reuniting families and making sure they had the happy endings I never got, but this was New York City in the twenty first century. Rent was high and the amount of jobs available were low. Too bad for them, the only way I was letting go of this job was if the boss were put in jail.

"Look who's late," Petra snickered, her accent heavy and laced with malice. Yep, it was that time of morning already, and only at eight o'clock, too. "Is little Miss American Dream enjoying her coffee?"

I glanced down at the coffee I did, admittedly, spend six dollars on this morning. I wasn't one to splurge, but I needed it to survive through the day after that late night drive to Boston. Too bad when I got there, my parents were still asleep and I had to leave the roses behind for them to get later.

"Yeah," I said sarcastically. "This is really the most productive use of my time in the morning, Petra. Let's definitely spend a good hour out of our work time discussing the fact that I got myself coffee before work today."

Being completely honest, it had already happened before. See, their tactic to flushing me out to clear the way for Natasha was to make working for the Gates family more and more stressful than it already was. Little did they know that I was currently knee-deep in a criminal investigation of them, so their shenanigans were hardly enough to make me give in. If there was a high road to be taken, then I was just the right girl for the job.

I brushed past Petra, only to find Helga in the kitchen trying to look as threatening as she could, but it was not working. If I could throw a rock at Teddy Burke and he was one of the good guys, I was in no way afraid to throw one at her.

"Mary," she said, making me raise an eyebrow at how we had been working together seven months and yet she still didn't know or care that there was an extra syllable to my name. "The Gates are throwing a party at the house in a few days. We need you to run out an order an ice sculpture and get Mrs. Gates' very particular flower order."

Said flower order was written on a piece of notepad paper, which she ripped off rather gracelessly before handing it to me. Ripped edges and everything, what an atrocity.

"Mrs. Gates said its very important," Helga said. "You really should've been there."

I turned around to roll my eyes so that she wouldn't see me upset. But then I realized Petra was standing there behind me. I guess I would have to wait until I was out of their sight. My hand reached out, taking the ragged piece of paper from her with a smile.

"Yeah, I can fetch these things for you," I said with a cruel grin. When they were learning English, they had done a very good job considering how they didn't speak it in a broken dialect like a lot of people who were still learning it. But apparently, they hadn't learned the word 'fetch' unless you count watching Mean Girls on the plane ride to New York, so they had no idea what it meant.

I walked off towards the stairs to get to Jack, feeling victorious. And behind me, I heard them asking each other in hushed voices if fetch had happened yet.

—

JACK WAS PLAYING with action figures when I found him, slamming them together to make them fight with each other. He seemed very invested in it to, choreographing intricate combat scenes while he made he crashing and banging noises with his mouth, between what looked to be a very strong gladiator man and a very strong lizard man. It looked like a lot of fun, in his case at least, so it was a shame that I was interrupting him to ask a question.

"Hey, Jack," I said as I ducked into his room. Taking a look around, I decided to plop myself down onto one of the beanbag chairs, making him raise a curious eyebrow at me. "I have a question for you."

"What is it, Marilyn," he said, setting his toys down. "Am I in trouble?"

"What? No," I said. "Of course not. No, I was just wondering if your mom had said anything about a party at your house coming up."

He nodded. "Yeah, mommy said she's having a work party."

I let out a sigh of relief, glad that the sisters weren't lying to me, but also glad that I came in to check with Jack and see if it were the truth or not. There were many times where the sisters thought they could get the best of me and sent me on a fake errand, but time and time again, I came out on my own two feet. They weren't worth as much as the Gates, you had to take the high road with them.

"Well then, Jack," I said with a grin, setting up for my big ask, "do you want to run these errands with me? Should be fun, and you can bring your toys in the car."

The way his eyes shone at that last addendum was all I needed for my answer.

—

WHEN I GOT home from work, Laney was out with her boyfriend, so I was all alone in the apartment. I loved Laney, to the bottom of my heart with every fiber of my being, but when I was alone at home was when I felt the most secure. Because ever since college ended, even with my new job, I had more time than ever to practice on my artwork. Painting, sketching, sculpting — I loved it all.

Of course, Laney didn't know that. As much as she knew about me — especially in the embarrassing department — my art was probably the last thing I could keep to myself and I deserved that boundary. I was completely sure that she had secrets from me of her own, and I didn't go looking for them, didn't go knocking down her walls. Privacy was a virtue, even for a woman who's willing to search through someone's private belongings for evidence of criminal behavior.

I set my stuff down beside my bed, my fingers instantly flying for the window to pry it open just enough to catch the breezes that ran off the tops of passing vehicles in the night. Then, I reached under my bed, withdrawing what I was looking for.

It was my portfolio, a bound book of all the projects I had done. Different faces and things in varying ranges of color jumped out at me as I flipped through the pages and the empty feelings in me began to subside, pulled back to sea by the tide and the shore in my mind was clear as ever. I was in the mood to draw something today, to put something on paper and make it mine until the end of time.

I took my pencil, my fingers seeming to trace out a line for the jaw when they finally made union with the paper. I didn't know where I was going with it, I was just taking it one step at a time really, finding my way to completion without a solid plan in mind. With the sisters trying to get me fired, trying to avoid Caleb as much as possible while trying to get him to fall in love with me, and basically doing espionage on the Gates, it was nice to throw myself into reckless abandon now and then.

Especially now.

Making quick marks, finding my way to shapes and figures that were all pieces to something greater, I never felt more alive in the past few days since I met Teddy. I was throwing caution to the wind here, but I still was in control, every stroke by my own doing. It was nothing coherent, based off of nothing but instinct without calculation.

I was close to finishing when I felt my phone ring in my pocket, startling me out of the groove I had dug for myself. I pulled my phone from my pocket, seeing that it was a text message — in fact, a barrage of them all coming in at once.

THEO: Mary!

THEO: can I call you Mary?

THEO: forget it, anyway there's an art show a few weeks from now that Teddy and I are  basically being forced to go to. Want to come?

TEDDY: you bastard! I was going to ask her, she's my friend!

THEO: you can't call dibs on friends, man.

THEO: that's not cool.

THEO: besides, we're all friends here.

TEDDY: whatever :-//.

TEDDY: but yeah, do you want to come to the art show with us? I hate art, but my mom always puts pieces in these things and makes us go. It's a nightmare.

THEO: they have free dinner though, or at least you won't have to pay for anything because I'll buy your ticket.

While the rest of the conversation made me roll my eyes, something about Teddy hating art made something sink into the pit of my heart. At least Theo was more reassuring, telling me about the free food and ticket.

After recovering, I shot them back a quick text message.

ME: I'd love to!

After setting my phone down, I took a deep breath and looked down at what I had created. But that was the real shocker. Because someway and somehow, the person in my drawing looked exactly like Teddy Burke.

What the hell?