Line Of Trust

Chapter 3

It had almost been a week since Desiree sold the painting and yet she had not seen Taylor. Every time she tried to call him, she would either get a busy signal or his phone on voicemail. If she didn’t know any better, she could have sworn that Taylor was avoiding her.

Anita had made good on her promise. She had found a buyer for the Mancini almost as soon as Desiree left the gallery. A collector, she said, had been looking for an authentic Mancini for a while. And when he went to Italy he had found that Mancini had taken a sabbatical; an indefinite one at that. And just like that, Mancini had become one of the most sought after artists around.

His pieces were almost as rare as finding a needle in a haystack.

Anita had sent Desiree a check just a few days after their rendezvous at the gallery. In fact, Anita had sent Desiree a whopping twenty-two thousand dollar check. She explained that she had sold the piece for twenty-seven and that the additional five was her commission. Desiree definitely didn’t mind. At last, she was rid of that Godawful piece that Leon had given her. All she wanted was to get back to her life.

When she got the check, Desiree found herself in the same predicament as Taylor had been in a short while back when he had won some money in the lottery. She had no idea what she was supposed to do with twenty-two thousand dollars.

She suddenly found herself noticing all the expensive shoes and dresses, even though she knew that would be the most irresponsible decision she could make.

Two days after she got the check, she banked it and decided to forget about it for a while. At least until she sorted things out with Taylor.

It was on a Thursday when she got off her afternoon shift. She walked down the street as she tried calling Taylor again.

“Hey this is Taylor Ericson. I can’t come to the phone right now, but if you leave me a message I will call you right back.”

Desiree sighed and then hung up. This was getting extremely irritating. Why was he acting like this? I mean, seriously? She called him again and waited for the message to play before taking a long deep breath.

“Ericson. It’s me. I just wanted you to know that I sold the painting and that we need to talk. I’m not sure what about, but we need to have a sit down.” She hung up.

Desiree hailed a cab and put on her earphones as she rode home. When she got there, Rochelle was busy buried in a book… for the first time in ages. “What’s going on?” Desiree asked as she walked towards her sister.

“Preliminary finals are on in a few weeks,” Rochelle answered as she took a long sip from the glass in front of her. Desiree smiled and walked over.

“Oh good, protein shake. I’m starving,” she said before taking a sip of Rochelle’s drink. This despite the fact that her sister was desperately trying to stop her. As soon as the drink touched Desiree’s tongue, she put the glass down and rushed to the kitchen sink to spit it out. “What the hell was that?” she asked while rinsing her mouth. Rochelle got up and walked towards her.

“It’s not your everyday protein shake,” she said.

“Tell me something I don’t know,” Desiree said as she looked at Rochelle.

“Fruit and molasses. New thing we tried out in school,” Rochelle said.

“Why?” Desiree asked as she rinsed out her mouth again. She could still taste the fishy paste at the back of her tongue.

“It’s like having coffee and food at the same time. New thing we learned from some exchange students from South America,” Rochelle said. Desiree looked at the blender and then at Rochelle.

“I hope you cleaned that thing out well.”

Rochelle smiled.

“Don’t worry. You guys can still make your cocktails.”

Desiree shook her head and opened the fridge. She got some chopped strawberry left over from Rochelle’s weird drink, a slice of pineapple and some cranberry juice. She put them all in the blender and then got a bottle of milk from the fridge again. She walked over to the blender and plugged it in before she poured some milk into the blender. “Want some molasses to go with that?” Rochelle asked. Desiree shook her head as she switched on the blender.

“Sorry sis, I like my shakes and smoothies from the good old US of A.” She switched the blender off and walked over to the dish rack for a glass.

“Well you don’t know what you are missing in nutrient value.” her sister responded.

“Well, I know exactly what I am missing in terms of bad tasting goo,” Desiree countered as she took a long sip of her smoothie. “Now that’s more like it!”

Rochelle smiled as she walked back to the table where she had been studying earlier. “How’re you doing anyway?” Desiree asked. “I hardly see you anymore with all your sleepovers at Tony’s and my work.”

“I’m good, but my sleepovers are not the only ones to blame. You’ve also been spending a lot of time at Taylor’s,” Rochelle mentioned. Desiree hesitated for a moment.

“Yeah, but not that much lately…”

“Why not? Is he out of town or something? Because I haven’t seen him here either.”

“We are going through something,” Desiree said. Rochelle slammed her book shut and crossed her arms on her chest.

“Details,” she said. Desiree laughed.

“Hold your guns. My life’s not some cheap gossip you would read on TMZ so cut out that excitement,” she said.

“What? I’m bored and I just found out that my sister’s perfect relationship is on the rocks. I have to be excited,” Rochelle exclaimed. Desiree smiled and sat down on the couch as Rochelle walked over to join her.

“Well, first off, my relationship is not on the rocks,” she said even though there was a small voice in her head whispering, “or is it?”

“We’ve just been a bit… weird lately. Since the Leon and Mark incident.”

Rochelle raised an eyebrow and shook her head.

“Wait back up, what do you mean the Leon and Mark incident? And who the fu*k is Mark anyway?”

“Mark’s the other guy I met the night I met Taylor,” Desiree clarified.

“Okay. What does he have to do with anything?” Rochelle asked. Desiree felt a hit of déjà vu explaining the story again.

“They both came to see me at work some days ago,” she patiently explained. She wondered whether she should tell Rochelle everything, especially about Mark’s proposal, but then decided not to. “Leon bought me a painting and I decided to sell it. But I talked to Taylor about the whole thing first.”

“And he was cool with it?” Rochelle asked.

“Yeah. Well he said he was, but he’s been distant since then. Cynthia said it’s a thing where he’s giving me space, but I highly doubt it.” Desiree took another sip of her smoothie.

“Come on Dee, maybe he just needed some time to process the entire thing,” Rochelle suggested. Desiree smiled and nodded, still sipping on her smoothie.

“Yeah, but how long does one man take to process info? It’s not encoded or anything,” she said as she looked at Rochelle. She shrugged and put the glass on the coffee table in front of her.

“You know what, it’s Thursday, and around this time he is usually at home. I’m going over there to find out why the hell my boyfriend is avoiding me.”

Desiree stood up double quick time and walked over to where she left her purse.

“So, you’re just going to go over there? Right now?” Rochelle asked. Desiree gave a sharp nod and then walked out. A stunned Rochelle was left looking at an open door.

As Desiree rode the cab to Taylor’s place, her head was bursting with all the things she wanted to tell him. She knew exactly what she wanted to say and how she was going to deliver the message. Her heart was beating so hard as she thought of all the abuse she wanted to yell at him for ignoring her.

When she got to his place and saw his truck in the driveway, she felt a warm tingle go down her spine. She paid the cab driver then stood out in the driveway for a while, trying to figure out exactly what to say.

Suddenly, everything she had planned on saying was gone.

She couldn’t think of a single thing to say; her mind was once again blank. She slowly began walking towards the front door as her mind raced.

“Ericson, we need to talk… about us.”

That sounded so bad, almost as if she was about to have the break up talk with him.