Cursed (Book 1, The Watchers; Young Adult Paranormal Romance) (11 page)

 The next morning
we received a phone call from Utha Mae which made both Tara and I feel guilty
for not calling her our first week away from home.  Not to say Utha Mae relied
on us exclusively for company.  She was very active in her church with her
quilting club, bible study, and weekly visitation schedule.  Even though Tara
and I weren’t her biological children, she still treated us like we were her
kids. 

 She asked if we
had time to come to an early dinner the next day after her church services were
over.  Utha Mae’s church was notorious for going at least three hours with
their Sunday services.  I’d been a few times and always found them to be more
fun than the church my mother would go to when the mood struck her to get more
religious.   

 We told Utha Mae
we would be there.  Tara blurted out I had a new boyfriend and of course Utha
Mae said we better bring him along too.  I tried to tell her we’d only gone out
a few times but she said it didn’t matter.  If I was going to be spending time
with someone new, she needed to meet him.  I didn’t try to argue with her. 
Mostly because you just didn’t argue with Utha Mae.  She always got her way
eventually.

 Tara ended up
guilting me into going shopping with her that day instead of spending more time
with Brand.

 “You’ve
practically spent all week with the man.  Anyway, there’s this guy named Simon
in my college algebra class I’m interested in.  I need to go get an outfit that
screams ‘Hey fool, look at me’!”

 I called Brand
and told him I was going to spend the day with Tara but that my night was
free.  He told me Carl had looked at my car that morning and thought he could
have it fixed for me by evening.  I asked him how much it was going to cost but
he told me not to worry about.  I insisted on paying something.

 “At least let me
pay for the parts,” I said, not liking the thought of Brand paying to fix my
car.

 “Listen, if you
want to pay me back, make me supper tonight.”

 “I think money
would be better,” I tried to convince him.  “My cooking has been compared to
torture, by more than one person I might add.”

 I could hear the
laughter under his voice when he asked me what time to come over.  I told him
6pm would be fine and warned him he might want to stop by McDonald’s on the way
over just for a back up plan.

 When I told Tara
Brand requested I cook him dinner, I thought she was going to have a seizure as
hard as she laughed, but she promised to help me out.  I intended to keep her
to that promise.

 Shopping with Tara is almost always the same.  She always gravitates toward tank tops and shorts during
the summer and sweats in the winter.  So, I was completely surprised when she
wanted to pick up a couple of dresses.

 “This guy must be
something special for you to willingly wear a dress.”

 I could well
remember Utha Mae practically having to hogtie Tara just to get a dress over
her head on Sunday mornings when we were children.  Once she got older, Utha
Mae just used guilt to get her to dress properly for the Lord.

 “Simon’s real
conservative,” Tara said searching through dresses on the sales rack.  “That’s
one reason I needed your help.  You the straightest white girl I know.”

 I couldn’t argue
with her.  I
was
pretty conservative.  I think it’s because my mom was
always so liberal and wild.  I guess, if I were being honest, I didn’t want to
be anything like her.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my mother to death.  But, her
life choices were not ones I intended to make for myself.

 After about an
hour, we finally settled on a couple of dresses.  One was a cute black and
white plaid dress with one inch black straps on the shoulders and black button
closures that could be worn in the summer without a shirt and in the winter
with a shirt.  We also found a cute shirt, skirt and jacket ensemble that she
could wear in either summer or winter.

 When we were
finished with our shopping, we went to the food court and got something to
eat.  After we sat down, I looked up and saw Michelle waving to us from the
other end of the food court.  I motioned for her to come join us before I saw
she was with Nora. By then it was too late to take back the invitation.

 “Hey!”  Michelle
said enthusiastically, setting her tray of Chinese food down as she sat across
from me.

 “Hey,” Nora said
not as enthusiastically.  She evidently didn’t want to be sitting with Tara and
me.  I can’t say I blamed her.  After her little spat with Tara in class Friday,
I wouldn’t want to be around us either.  I just hoped she didn’t ask about
Brand over lunch and cause another ‘earrings’ fiasco.

 “What did y’all
buy?”  Michelle asked pointing to the dress bags lying across the back of Tara’s chair.

 “Just some
dresses,” Tara told Michelle.  I could tell Tara was trying to ignore Nora’s
presence as much as she could.

 “Yeah, we’re here
to buy an outfit for my date tonight,” Nora informed us smugly.

 “Oh?”  I asked,
intrigued to know who it was with.  To be honest, I wanted to know if she had
asked Will out again.  “Anyone we know?”

 “I don’t think
so.  He’s in my chemistry class.  Elliot Manning?”

 “No, I don’t
recognize the name,” I confessed, relived she hadn’t said Will.  Though, why I
cared I don’t know.  It wasn’t any of my business who either of them dated.

 It made me think
back to the question Brand asked me concerning my feelings for Will.  If I
didn’t care at all, why did I care so much that he not date someone like Nora? 
Was it just a friend looking out for another friend’s best interest or was it
jealousy?  I couldn’t decide which side of the fence I was really on.

 “I think there’s
a guy that’s gonna ask me out soon too,” Michelle said shyly. 

 “What would make
you think
that
?”  Nora’s voice couldn’t have been filled with more
disbelief.

 I wanted to slap
Nora so hard she might have lost a tooth or two.

 “Well, he talked
to me the other day in class and was real interested in how my day was going.”

 “I’m sure he’s
just waiting to get to know you a bit better, hon,” Tara reassured Michelle as
she glared Nora down, as if challenging her to say anything different.

 “Yeah, I think
he’s shy like me.  He sort of pretends he’s interested in this other girl, but
I think he just doesn’t want to scare me off because he knows how shy I am. 
He’s super sweet.”

 “Well,” I said. 
“I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before he makes his feelings known.  Some
guys like to play it cool for a while so it doesn’t seem like their desperate.”

 “Oh, I know.  I’m
not too worried about it,” Michelle said with a confidence I hadn’t seen in her
before.

 Thankfully, Nora
didn’t want to be around us anymore than we wanted to be around her.  She drug
Michelle to a nearby dress shop, and Tara and I went grocery shopping for my
foolhardy attempt to make dinner.

 Tara and I agreed
I should keep the meal simple:  pork chops, mac and cheese, and Jiffy
cornbread.  I bought some pre-made sweet tea since I could never get my tea quite
right.  It was always either too sweet or not sweet enough.

 We got home at
around three and I decided to take a short nap before I needed to start
cooking.

 At around
four-thirty Tara barged into my room and started bouncing on the bed.

 “Get up, get up!”

 “Good grief,
woman.  Stop jumping on my bed,” I grumbled, burying my head underneath my
pillow.

 “Nope, cause I
got news that deserves a bit of jumping on the bed!”  She said making me sick
to my stomach with the bouncing and snatching the pillow I was hiding behind
from my hands.

 “Well are you
going to tell me or make me take a wild guess?”

 “Nope, I don’t
have time to play games.  Simon just asked me out!”

 “
The
Simon? 
The one from your college algebra class?”

 “Yep.  And he’s
taking me out tonight!  He’s picking me up in an hour.”

 It was then my
heart sank.  “But you were going to help me cook Brand dinner.”

 Tara just waved
her hands in the air like there was nothing to worry about.  “I’ll help you
before I go and leave you directions on what to do before he gets here. 
Anyways, y’all can have some alone time without me cramping your style,” she
said with a suggestive lift of her eyebrows. “I assume y’all didn’t kiss last
night ‘cause I didn’t get any play by play when you got home.”

 “No, we haven’t
kissed on the lips yet.”

 “What’s the hold
up, girl?  You ain’t kissed a boy since Will and if there’s anyone in this
world that needs kissin’, it’s you.”

 I shrugged. 
“Just haven’t had the right moment.  I’m not in any rush.”

 “This doesn’t
have anything to do with Will does it?”

 “No,” I said, not
completely sure that was the right answer.  “It just hasn’t been the right time
yet.  The first date ended with that plane crash and the second date ended with
my car dieing on me.  Not the most romantic of situations.”

 “That’s true. 
Y’all been a bit unlucky this week.”  Tara slapped me on the arm and said,
“Maybe tonight you’ll get some lip action.”  To which Tara started making kissy
faces and mimicking me saying “Oh, Brand.”

 I just rolled my
eyes and pushed her off my bed with my feet ordering her to get her butt in the
kitchen so she could help me start supper.

  Tara gave me the basic directions and told me to read the directions on the boxes if I had
any other questions.

  While she was in
the shower, I lathered the pork chops with Lawry’s seasoning salt.  I wasn’t sure
I was putting enough on so I made sure to coat them a few times.  I put them in
the oven like she said and started to boil water for the mac and cheese.  By
the time she got out of the shower, it was a little after five and she told me
to mix up the cornbread.  I mixed it and stuck it in a pie pan.  After placing
it in the oven with the pork chops, the water was boiling for the mac and
cheese so I dumped the pasta in the water.

  Tara came out of her bedroom all gussied up in the plaid dress we had bought her.  At
exactly 5:30pm Simon knocked on the door.

  I went to open
it and invite him in so Tara could make her grand entrance from the back of the
apartment.

  Simon was tall,
like basketball player tall.  He was dressed in a white polo shirt and khaki slacks
with penny loafers on his feet.  He reminded me of someone who might belong to
the junior republican club.  I was completely at a loss why Tara was so excited
to be going out with him.  Not that Simon wasn’t cute but she tended to like
the wild boys.  Simon was a complete opposite to her usual dates.

  Before Tara left she told me to make sure I kept things in the oven until Brand came over so they
wouldn’t get cold.  I told her not to worry, I had things under control.  I
soon learned that was that a mistake.

  After they left
I went to drain the water out of the pasta and found my first mistake.  I had
dumped the pasta in without ever stirring it which had caused the pasta to cook
into one solid mass.  I tried to break it up as best I could but it just seemed
hopeless.  I finally just put the cheese in and tried to at least coat each
chunk.

  I looked at the
clock and saw I only had 20 minutes to tidy myself up before he was due to
arrive.  I touched up my makeup and ran a brush through my hair.  I changed
into a pair of khaki slacks and white tunic shirt with embroidery on the
sleeves and neckline.

  At exactly six,
Brand showed up on my doorstep.

  He gave me a
kiss on the cheek and said he was looking forward to the meal.

  I went to the
oven and pulled out the pork chops and cornbread.  It was then I noticed my
second mistake.  Tara had said to keep everything in the oven so it would be
warm when Brand got there. But, I think she meant for me to actually turn the
oven off and let things sit in a cooling oven.  The cornbread was rock hard and
the pork chops were so tough I wasn’t sure a knife was going to be enough to
cut through them.

  “It’ll be all right,”
Brand reassured me. 

  I made our
plates and brought them to the table with glasses of sweet tea.  I’ll say this
for Brand:  he truly made an attempt to eat what I had cooked.  Not only was
the cornbread like a stone cookie but the pork chops weren’t just burnt they
tasted like pure salt.  Apparently you don’t have to use a lot of Lawry’s seasoning
to get flavor.  When I saw him cut into the mac and cheese with a knife, I
completely lost it and started to laugh hysterically.  I laughed so hard I
cried.  Brand couldn’t help but join me.

  Once I calmed
down, I told him, “You can’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  “Well,” he looked
down at his plate.  “I guess I should have taken you at your word about your
cooking skills.  I just didn’t expect….”

  “A complete
disaster?”  I finished for him seeing he was having a hard time finding a word which
wouldn’t insult me.

  “How about we go
out for dinner?” he suggested.

  “Sounds like a
plan.”

  After we dumped
our unfinished meals into the trash, I grabbed my purse and we jumped into
Brand’s car.

  We ended up at a
local deli and both ordered their grilled chicken salad.

  Over dinner
Brand told me Carl was finished with the repairs to my car.

  “Have you had
car work done recently?”  He asked me with a curious look on his face.

  “No,” I said. 
“Why do you ask?”

“Well, Carl said
it almost looked like the alternator had been tampered with.  I know some
disreputable mechanics will sabotage parts to make you come back to them when
they fail.  We just wanted to know if that was the case here.”