Chapter 10
10
G eena held the back door open for their mom to join them on the patio with a wineglass in each hand.
It was the twenty-ninth anniversary for Geena’s mom and dad, and they were honoring it the way they did every year: a barbecue with their immediate family. Taylor spent the last hour insisting they do something special next time. They’d planned a trip for their twenty-fifth, but the state of the world had put that on hold. Geena agreed they should cash in their rain check for their thirtieth next year.
Geena took the wineglass her mother handed to her and sniffed the crisp chardonnay. While they both had a taste for dry wines, their mother preferred reds, Shiraz in particular. But she always kept at least one bottle of white on hand for when Geena came over for dinner.
Her mother was dressed in a pale green blouse with light jeans and beige ballet flats. Her attire was a little more polished than normal, but she’d dialed up her outfit for the celebration.
Nearby, Geena’s dad monitored the barbecue pit in his red polo shirt with the local university’s logo and a pair of black cargo shorts. Taylor’s boyfriend, Austin, stood beside him while they chatted and enjoyed some local craft beers.
“Are you sure you aren’t pregnant and not telling me?”
Their mother had already asked this question an hour ago, when Taylor transferred the cans she brought into the fridge to keep them cold.
“No, I’m not pregnant,” Taylor said. “And we aren’t trying. Tink is our baby for now.”
Taylor was dressed more casually in a navy T-shirt and jeans, paired with her favorite yellow Chucks and her hair pulled back in a low ponytail. She held her own drink of choice that evening: a can of seltzer she’d brought with her. Not hard seltzer. Just raspberry-flavored seltzer.
Their mother frowned at Taylor and the mention of the twenty-pound elderly feline with a thyroid problem that Taylor’s husband inherited from his uncle. Tink was a giant of a cat, with canines as big as his purrs.
“Tink is a cat , not a baby,” their mother insisted.
Not that their mom had anything against Tink in particular. As wonderful as their parents were, they were not animal people. They were convinced their daughter’s love of all of nature’s creatures was the universe laughing at her.
“You’ll just have to wait for furless grandbabies,” Taylor said. “I promise it won’t kill you.”
“How is Tink doing?” Geena figured she’d steer the conversation in a new direction, hoping that her sister would return the favor at some point later in the evening.
“Still kicking.” Taylor waved her seltzer in the air. “He might just outlive all of us.”
Geena smiled. “Give my nephew a big hug from me when you get home.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” their mother muttered.
A staccato melody blanketed the patio roof, quickly increasing in intensity until there was no way to have a conversation any longer. The three of them moved inside to escape the noise of the sudden spring shower, while Geena’s father and Austin remained on the patio to finish up the meat.
“Enough about us.” Taylor turned to Geena with a mischievous grin. “How’s Gary?”
“Gary?” Their mother looked back and forth between the two of them. “Why don’t I know about a Gary? When did you meet him?”
Taylor giggled.
The traitor.
After Geena had saved her from baby talk, this was the thanks she got.
“About a week now, right?” Taylor winked. “Unless we’re talking about the first time you met him, which was two weekends ago.”
“When do we get to meet this Gary?”
Geena glared at her sister. “I assure you, you don’t want to meet him.”
“Well, I’m sure he’s better than that lousy ex of yours, so I’ll be the judge of whether or not I want to meet this new man. You should bring him over next weekend. We can do this again, all of us. You know your father is happy for any excuse to use that new smoker.”
“Gary is a bird, Mom.”
Their dad walked through with a tray of brisket he placed on the counter. “Who’s a bird?”
Her mother squinted. “Is that some new slang for something?”
Austin entered with a big grin, clearly having heard the conversation and having been briefed by Taylor at some earlier time. He scratched his short beard while Taylor clapped her hand over her mouth. But neither could stop their laughter from escaping.
“No, Mom,” Geena said. “He’s a literal bird. An African grey parrot, to be exact.”
“You know, honey, most people who get divorced get themselves a new wardrobe or a car or even a vacation. Why on earth would you buy a bird?”
“I didn’t buy him,” Geena said. “He just sort of… showed up.”
“Right,” Taylor said. “Gary’s the bird, and Cody’s the guy.”
Geena glared again. “He’s a guy, not the guy. The guy who Taylor told I’d be glad to take care of that obnoxious bird.”
That wasn’t exactly true. Well, the part about Cody bringing him was true, but Gary had so far been much less obnoxious than she’d expected. Although she hadn’t let him out yet today. But he’d gone in so easily yesterday, and the whole pooping on the paper trick was a nice bonus. She was almost getting used to his filthy chatter.
Her dad aimed his tongs at Geena. “So Gary is the bird you’re watching for your boyfriend, Cody?”
Geena let out a long, exasperated sigh, while she looked at the ceiling and counted backwards from five. If she continued to look at the ceiling and breathe and count, she wouldn’t murder her whole family with the lasers that were surely about to shoot from her eyes.
“Cody is not my boyfriend.”
Taylor squeezed Austin’s arm as he wrapped them around her from behind. Then she chimed in with, “Right. They only went on one date.”
Geena made a mental note to never do another favor for her sister ever again.
“Yes, we went on one date. Technically.”
“That’s not how technically works,” Taylor corrected. “The date was a date. There’s no technically about it.”
“Fine. We had one date two weeks ago. Then he brought me a bird. He checked on Gary last night and brought pizza. So that technically was not a date, since he was specifically there for the bird.”
“I’m confused,” their dad said, placing his tongs on the tray and swapping them out for a carving knife. “Why did he bring you a bird?”
Their mother ignored that question and asked, “How did you two meet?”
Geena cringed internally. She wasn’t embarrassed that she used a dating app. It was on a whim after James had been hounding her for weeks to try it. Cody was her one and done with that experiment.
So no, she wasn’t ashamed of trying it. She just didn’t want to justify online dating to her mother.
“It was a blind date.”
That was only a tiny lie. A fudging of the truth. A smidge off-center.
“It was not,” Taylor said. “They hooked up on an app.”
Their mother’s eyes widened, and her father screeched the carving knife across the tray.
“Could you not say hooked up?” Geena sighed. “It wasn’t one of those apps.”
“Okay, fine.” Taylor took a swig of seltzer, stalling to redraft her argument. “You picked each other on the app. Based on photos and messages. That is not a blind date.”
Technically, no. But couldn’t her sister for once let Geena off the hook?
“It doesn’t matter,” Geena said. “We weren’t a match in the real world, so that was the end of it.”
“Obviously, it wasn’t if you saw him again.” Their mother took a sip of her Shiraz. Geena and Taylor had both gotten that stalling tactic from her. “What does he do?”
“He’s a zookeeper.”
Her mother looked appalled. “You can’t be serious.”
“I’m very serious. That’s why he brought Gary.”
“I don’t think that fully explains the bird,” their dad said, returning to carving the brisket.
“They couldn’t keep it at the zoo,” Taylor said. “And since we don’t have enough fosters lined up yet and I’ve got Tink, we asked Geena to hang on to it until we can find someone else to foster or adopt him.”
“And you’re okay with this arrangement?” Their mother eyed Geena with suspicion. “There must be something with this zookeeper if you’re willing to take in a whole parrot for him.”
“There’s nothing with the zookeeper,” Geena insisted.
Was there?
There hadn’t been at first, but now she wasn’t so sure. He’d been patient while he taught her how to care for Gary. And he’d been very considerate when he brought her pizza.
Her favorite pizza.
Of course, he hadn’t known it was her favorite, but surely there was some sort of intuition involved. Geena didn’t believe in connections in the universe and any of that woo-woo stuff, but she didn’t entirely believe in coincidences either. Coincidences happened, sure, but often there was some connecting piece of data that just wasn’t visible yet.
What was that data?
Her mind went to his calves in those khaki shorts, and she smiled against her own best interest.
No. Calves weren’t a data point.
Besides, intuition or coincidence didn’t matter. Cody had made it very clear he had no interest in anything long-term. She didn’t really have any interest in jumping into another serious relationship either, but then what would be the point of dating if it wouldn’t go anywhere?
She should never have agreed to sign up on that app in the first place, much less accepted a date request.
“So this zookeeper just showed up with a bird one day?” Her mother waved her wineglass in the air in confusion. “Why couldn’t the zoo keep it?”
“His name is Cody,” Geena said.
“The bird is named Cody?” her father asked over his shoulder.
“No, the bird is named Gary. Gary the Grey. The zookeeper is Cody.”
Her mother took another sip. Stalling once again to craft her argument. “If you aren’t dating this Cody the zoo guy, why should we learn his name?”
She had a point.
Why should it matter what her family called the man she wasn’t dating?
Because it was disrespectful to call him ‘zoo guy’ when he had a perfectly good name, that’s why.
Was that why it upset her?
Geena decided this was a thought tunnel she didn’t want to enter further.
“Never mind. Can we talk about something else?”
“You still haven’t told us why the bird can’t stay at the zoo,” her mother said. “Does he bite? Because you don’t want to catch whatever birds carry if he bites you.”
“He doesn’t bite.”
At least, she didn’t think so.
Surely Cody would have told her if Gary had a habit of biting people. Especially if there was a danger of contracting something. She trusted him that much.
Oh.
She trusted him.
When did that happen?
“He has… an advanced vocabulary.”
“He swears?” Her mother looked stricken.
Austin chuckled softly while Taylor giggled.
“He has quite an extensive collection of cuss words at his disposal from what I’ve heard,” Austin said.
“Lovely,” her mother said. “But that doesn’t explain why they can’t keep him out of the way. Surely there’s room for him away from guests somewhere in that zoo.”
“They did keep him in the meal prep room. Until Friday night.”
Taylor cringed at Geena once the words that flew out of her mouth hit her brain.
They exchanged a knowing look. Geena wasn’t going to slip out of this easily.
Their mother looked between them, sensing they were holding back. “What happened Friday? One of you tell me now, or I’ll find out, anyway.”
With a heavy sigh, Geena said, “Someone tried to steal him from the zoo.”
Their dad screeched the knife on the tray again. “Geena, this sounds serious. Are you sure this is a good idea?”
No. She didn’t know anything anymore. Nothing except she’d accepted this responsibility, and she wasn’t going to bail on Gary.
Her mother frowned. “What is this Cody person doing to ensure your safety?”
Taylor left Austin’s arms to put a hand on her sister. “No one knows Geena has the parrot. There isn’t a paper trail or any reason anyone would suspect he’s at her house. And it’s just temporary until we can find a foster or potential adopter. Geena’s photos of him were great, so we’re going to do social media posts next week to see if someone will step up and help.”
Their mother’s frown set in deeper. “I still don’t like this.”
“I’m sure Gary doesn’t like this situation any more than I do,” Geena said. “I’m sure he misses his owner. And I’m positive I’m a poor substitute for someone who knows what the heck to do with a parrot.”
Cody’s instructions had been thorough, but this was all way out of her wheelhouse. The care was surprisingly easier than she’d expected, but it was still a lot to manage for someone who’d never owned a cat, much less a giant parrot.
“Who was the previous owner?” her father asked while he pulled out buns and condiments for their brisket sandwiches. “Why would he give this bird to the zoo?”
“Are we sure it doesn’t bite?” her mother asked.
“I’m not sure of anything, except he hasn’t bitten me yet,” Geena said. “His owner went to jail, and there was no one to take Gary.”
“To jail?” her mother and father asked in unison.
Great. She definitely should have fudged that detail.
“It’s not like Gary’s a criminal. Just his owner,” she said. “And he’s just in jail for tax evasion or money something or other.”
“Tax evasion,” her father stopped his food prep to narrow his eyes at Geena. “Who was this owner again?”
“I don’t know,” Geena said. “Anthony something?”
“Montesano?” her father asked.
“Maybe. I don’t know for sure.”
“Because there was an Anthony Montesano who went to jail for tax evasion,” her father said. “It was a big thing all over the local news.”
The name suddenly clicked.
He’d been a client of her accounting firm. She was pretty sure James had handled the account, but she wasn’t a hundred percent positive. She’d have to ask him if he remembered the guy having a bird.
Then she remembered something else.
Just before their split, Ricky had worked for a guy who had gone to jail. He wasn’t a criminal attorney, so he didn’t have anything to do with the trial. He handled contracts and money stuff. They weren’t speaking much at that point, so she never asked about it.
But her lawyer pointed out payments to a man named Anthony Montesano.
That had to be the same guy.
Right?
Last night, during their call, Ricky asked if there was a bird in the background. He’d sounded shocked, but could there have been more to that question if he knew his client had a parrot?
And Cody had mentioned the bird’s owner was a Tony something. Could be this same Anthony guy.
She couldn’t think of any reason all of this was connected. Still… this couldn’t all be a coincidence. Right?
Geena made a mental note to ask her lawyer if they could get any more details on that payment and if he might be the Anthony Montesano her father was thinking of.
“It’s none of my concern,” Geena said. “He’s in jail. I have the parrot for safekeeping. Temporarily. End of story.”
She hoped that was the end of it. She was tired of defending her decision when she hadn’t been fully on board with the plan to begin with.
“Fine,” her mother said. “We’ll switch topics. When do we get to meet Cody, the zoo man?”
“Oh, good grief.” Geena downed the rest of her wine and counted from five again before answering. “You won’t. We aren’t dating. We had one date that went horribly, then he brought me a bird and pizza from Renaldo’s.”
“Renaldo’s?” Her father wandered away from the food to join them. “You didn’t say it was Renaldo’s pizza.”
“That’s ‘marry me’ pizza,” her mother said in a hushed tone.
Geena sighed. “It’s only ‘marry me’ pizza for you two. For everyone else, it’s just good pizza.”
“Didn’t you say you’d never eat with him again?” Taylor asked.
Geena had said that. But she’d been hungry, and he brought pizza along with the bird food. She wouldn’t turn down Renaldo’s, regardless of who brought it.
If Cody was going to bring that pizza every time he checked on Gary, then maybe this arrangement would turn out better than she’d expected.
Still, she didn’t want to admit that.
Or discuss this with her family anymore.
She looked from Taylor’s mischievous grin to her mother and father’s inquisitive expressions, then said, “Can we eat now?”