Chapter 19 Bluebells and Apologies #2
"Language," Eloise warned before she softened her tone.
"Look, some people never learn this lesson which is a terrible shame, but if you do you will find more peace in your life than most: responding to unkindness and judgment with more unkindness and judgment doesn't fix anything.
It only doubles the unkindness and judgement put into the world. "
Tess's expression turned sly. "Yeah, but it can feel pretty awesome."
She laughed nodding in agreement. "Yeah, it can.
But take my advice; find other areas in your life to make you feel awesome.
A new hobby, yoga, working towards a goal like opening your own coffee shop.
And when it comes to people, treat them better than they treat you.
It can be hard and it doesn't always feel awesome at the moment," she shrugged and threw a white towel over her shoulder as she moved to clean the burr grinder.
"But it sure as hell creates a path for peace ahead of you.
And the older you get, the more you understand the value of peace.
Also," she leaned in and lowered her voice as she added, "it really pisses people off. "
Tess smiled wide as she took in her words, letting them soak into her skin as she finished up the cappuccino. "Dry Cappuccino for a Carol Iscariot!"
She bit her lip to keep from laughing as Eloise turned around giving her a flat look.
"It's Weatherby," Carol corrected as she came up to get her drink.
Tess gave her innocent, wide eyes. "Oh, right. So sorry. Enjoy your drink."
The journalist's face didn't lose the look of suspicion as she took her drink and left. Eloise and Tess watched her walk away, each woman thinking something different. Eloise wondered if Carol ever didn't have a suspicious look on her face. Tess hoped the woman found no energy in the hot drink.
"I will give you points for the biblical reference, but unfortunately the snark and unkindness earned you total bar deep clean duty," Eloise said with a dramatic sad note.
Tess groaned. "Fair." Then the girl gave Eloise a sly grin. "Totally worth it."
"Good. The deep clean should give you time to come up with more funny things to say," Eloise winked and threw her the towel that was on her shoulder, relishing in this camaraderie that she had found with Tess.
"And since you are taking on that heavy task, I am going to head out.
Thank you so much for being the child I never had that I can kind of ground when they act out," she said pinching Tess's cheek lightly.
That earned her another groan but also a hidden smile. "Fine."
"Aww, look at you learning," she said. She walked back to the office and paused, turning around with a thoughtful look on her face. "You gave her decaf, didn't you?"
Tess's face was the picture of innocence when she replied, "What?"
Eloise pointed a finger at her. "You will offer her a coffee on the house next time she comes in and apologize.
" Though she was holding Tess accountable, something inside of her smiled at this young woman going from terse and unfriendly to finding small revenge on behalf of her.
It was sweet, and frankly, exactly what she would do for a friend.
"Fine. But know that I am not fully converted to living out the golden rule. Sometimes peace isn't the answer."
"Mhmm. Don't forget to move the rubber mats and get under the machine," she called over her shoulder with a smile that Tess couldn't see.
She did work in the office, put in the order for next week, and then grabbed her things to leave.
As she was heading toward the front door, a familiar head of hair was leaving, and her heart stopped.
A hand had the door open and she had a flashback to sitting at the club bar; a gold signet ring made her stopped heart start galloping.
Without thinking, she charged forward, pushed through the thick crowd of people waiting to make their orders and then the group of people waiting to receive their orders swallowed her for a few seconds until she muttered apologies and got through.
Finally, the door was in sight and she exited into the bright day, hand over her eyes as she looked around frantically.
Nothing.
Someone called her name.
But she continued to look, afraid she would lose them. No sign of him at all.
"Eloise."
She startled when she turned around and bumped head-first into a large chest but before she could panic at it being him, sweet oranges and smoked hickory hit her senses and she looked up into imploring clear-blue eyes staring down at her.
"Hey, you okay?" Taylor asked, concern etched in the lines around his mouth.
"I think I just saw him," she said.
Concern turned to duty as he went into police mode. "Where? Did you see his face?"
"No," she said shaking her head, a pit falling in her stomach.
"No, and I can't say for certain it was him, but I feel it.
I smell it," she closed her eyes as the frustration came full force.
With him it was the smell of spicy cologne and synthetic lavender and right now it was a thin sense of the smell rather than a full cloud of it.
And she wondered if her brain was playing tricks on her.
Or if he had been there and left the scent behind.
"Okay," Taylor said, looking around and then back at Eloise. "Let me drive you home."
"Oh, I mean," she started but he cut her off with a firm shake of his head and sharp blue eyes.
"Not a suggestion, Ladyhawk. Come on." He lightly placed his hand on her waist and pushed her until she was walking next to him toward his truck.
"This could be considered kidnapping," she remarked.
When he smiled down at her, her heart tripped. It was unfair that he could call to her heart so easily. "Feel free to press charges, but I don't think you need to worry."
"Says the kidnapper."
He stopped their walking and pointed to a street lamp, one of those Victorian antiquated-looking ones with the five arms and five glowing bulbs that would glow like little moons at night.
On the very top of the middle sphere sat an austere and sharp-eyed brown and white bird; a female Cooper's hawk.
"Cleopatra," she said with a happy voice.
"You named her?"
She gave him a stern look. "You wouldn't name a hawk who acted as your personal sentry?"
"Of course, I would. Dumb question," he said as he took her hand and nodded towards his truck. She missed a step as his fingers laced with hers and laughed a little too forcefully when he stopped to make sure she was okay.
"Clumsy," she explained. But she wasn't clumsy.
She was a rather steady human, in fact. Always looking where she was going and being sure to place her steps carefully.
She was short-circuiting on the inside as this attractive, funny, interesting, attentive man was holding her hand and guiding her to his truck where he would drive her home.
A man who had silently agreed with her that their world-tilting kisses could lead down no future paths for them.
He opened the door for her and helped her up.
She was terrified for three seconds that he was going to reach in and fasten her seatbelt for her.
And not because it would be silly of him to do, as she had been buckling her own seat belt for over thirty years, but because she was afraid the simple act of taking care of her like this would push her over the edge and she would do something crazy.
Like kiss him. She'd thought about what it would be like to kiss Detective Taylor White again.
And then immediately after she thought about it she would shake her head so that the thoughts would not settle and linger.
Luckily, he did not fasten her into her seat but before he started the truck he turned to look at her, his face very serious.
"Would you mind if I took you somewhere first?"
"Where?"
His blue eyes, which looked unfairly blue in this moment with the clear sunshine and his navy blue button-up, moved over her face briefly before he replied. "I want to show you my cabin."
"Oh-" She wasn't sure what she had expected him to say, but that wasn't it. "Sure. I'm inviting Cleopatra," she said as she leaned out the window and pointed up to the hawk making eye contact.
"Don't trust me?"
"Well, you're being very mysterious, and for a man that's not good."
He began driving as he asked, "For a man?"
"Women can be mysterious and it just adds to their allure. When a woman is mysterious it's poetic and invites you into the inner sanctum once you start learning her secrets. You get a key to see behind the scenes of how she operates, how she makes life around her more beautiful."
He nodded along. "Agreed."
"But when a man is mysterious, he's hiding a wife, a pile of red flags or bodies." She tilted her head thoughtfully and added, "Possibly all three."
His deep laughter filled the cab of the truck. "Come on. That's a little sexist," he said, giving her a look.
"Mmm think of any men you've arrested in your career. And their mysterious ways."
He frowned, thinking. She could feel him logging past arrests quietly until his look of skeptical disbelief turned to frowning realization.
"I'll be damned. They were all lying criminals. But, I'm a police officer. Kind of in the job description to be dealing with those kinds of people."
"Okay then, think of any of the men you've ever known, outside of arresting them, who were mysterious."
Another round of him thinking and logging and then a slow smile took over half of his face and he cursed.
"I had a roommate in college who got super weird and mysterious, turned out he had joined a supremacist gambling ring.
And my Uncle Fred who was secretly stealing half a million dollars from the company he worked for, and also had a whole other family a few towns over. "
She was looking at him with shock. "Those are both incredibly extreme. A supremacist gambling ring? How?"