Chapter 8
Tiana awoke to the sound of her phone vibrating. She turned her head to the side, the covers rustling slightly beneath her. She felt Tabor’s arm, draped over her stomach. Looking at the clock, she saw that it was eight o’clock in the morning.
We slept in, she thought.
Usually, when she was at home, she was always up by seven.
Tabor stirred as her phone buzzed, but he didn’t wake.
She wasn’t surprised that they were sleeping in. After all, they had been up late the night before. They’d made love three more times, and each time was better than the last.
Carefully, she extracted herself from under Tabor’s arm. She found her phone, tucked inside of her purse.
It must be Jackson, she thought. Or maybe my cat sitter. She’d called both of them the night before, and told them about her delay. To Jackson, she explained that she wasn’t feeling well. She was more honest with the cat sitter, but played down the seriousness of her car troubles. ‘It’s just a little malfunction,’ she’d said lightly. ‘I’ll have it fixed up in a jiffy’.
Thankfully, the cat sitter had been able to keep caring for her little munchkin, Sugar, and Jackson had been fairly understanding. But she wondered, as she unlocked her phone, whether the call had been from one of them, informing her of a problem or asking her for more details on her return.
I don’t know, she thought. I don’t know when I’ll be home. I still don’t know where the ring is.
She saw that there was a voicemail, and she opened it, and held the phone to her ear. She wandered into the bathroom as she listened.
“Hello, this is a message for Tiana Brown,” the voice said. “This is Matthew, and I’m calling on behalf of the Lightman Hotel. I have good news for you, Miss Brown, about your ring. If you could call me at your earliest convenience, I would appreciate it. I’m at--” Tiana hung up the phone before listening to the number.
They found it! She thought happily to herself.
She had retrieved her luggage from her car the evening before, and she went to her bag now and began digging through it for some fresh clothes. She was glad that she had packed two clean outfits, even though she had only planned on staying one night in Austin.
One outfit was for cool weather, while the other was in case the day was hot and sultry. She’d worn her hot outfit yesterday evening. A quick peek out the window told her that the day was going to be grey and rainy, so she lifted out her jeans and hoodie.
She found a tee shirt and clean undergarments, and walked to the bathroom. She closed the door softly behind her so that she wouldn’t wake Tabor.
After dressing quickly, she exited the bathroom and found a key card on the table by the television. She tucked it into her purse, along with her phone and then left the room. Carefully, she closed the door softly behind her. Tabor was still sleeping as she left the room.
Once she reached the front desk, she felt so excited that she could barely stand it. Having Mammas ring back in my hands is going to feel so good! she thought excitedly. It’s my ticket to freedom. I’m not gonna be homeless!
She was beaming when she reached the front desk.
“Matthew?” she said to the first person she saw, a thin, pale young man in his twenties with a hip, gelled hairstyle.
“Yes! I’m Matthew.”
“Hi! I’m Tiana Brown. I just got your message,” she said, holding up her phone. “I’m here to pick up my diamond ring.”
“Ah! Miss Brown. My, you got here fast! I swear, I just hung up the phone!” He laughed politely. “I’m just going to need to answer a few quick questions for me so that we can properly ID you and connect you to the found item.”
Matthew shuffled through some papers, and pulled out a piece of paper.
Tiana pulled her wallet out of her purse, dug out her ID, and placed it on the counter for Matthew to see. Then she filled out the form he had placed before her, which asked her to describe the ring in detail, as well as the circumstances under which it was lost.
Tiana did her best to describe her first night with Tabor, without going into too much detail. “First, we had drinks at the bar,” she wrote. “Then, we visited the hot tub. After that, we retired to room 506”, she wrote. ‘Retired’ seemed to her to be the opposite of what they had in fact done, but she didn’t feel like putting the real deal down on paper.
That’s best left between me and Tabor, she thought to herself, smiling inwardly.
When she passed the form back to Matthew, he read over it quickly, nodding as he read. “Alrighty,” he said, reaching into a compartment under the desk. “You passed your test with flying colors,” he joked. “A plus plus,”
“I’ve never gotten an A in my life,” Tiana joked back.
“Well, then congratulations,” Matthew said, as he extended out his hand. He opened it, and there was the diamond ring, as sparkly as ever.
“Where was it?” Tiana asked excitedly. She beamed as she reached for it, and held it between her fingers. She looked at it closely, and it didn’t appear to be damaged at all. If anything, it looked cleaner than when she had last seen it.
“It was stuck in the hot tub filter,” Matthew said. “The hot tub tech found it when he was servicing the unit. He always cleans the filter. He turned it in early this morning.”
“I’m so thankful,” Tiana said. “Please, tell him thank you for me. If I had cash on me, I’d give him something, but--” I won’t have cash until I sell this ring, she thought.
Matthew held up his hand as if to stop her, though she’d already stopped herself. “No need for a reward,” he said. “We’re all just doing our jobs.”
“Well,” Tiana said. “I can’t tell you how grateful I am for your honesty. All of you. I mean it.”
“Glad we could help,” Matthew reiterated. “Now, if you could just sign here, verifying that the ring is indeed yours and is now in your possession, that would be just fantastic.”
“Yes, of course,” Tiana said. She placed the ring on the pointer finger on her right hand, where it fit the best. She scribbled her signature, and then thanked Matthew again before hurrying back to the hotel room.
When she unlocked the door and stepped inside, she saw Tabor.
He was in just his boxers, and the sight of him took her breath away. His sculpted abs, toned chest, and muscular arms made him look more like an athlete than a computer guy. But knowing how much brains he had made his brawn all the more sexy.
She smiled when she saw him, and held up her right hand.
“They found it!” She said happily, wiggling her index finger. “It was caught in the hot tub drain! The hot tub technician found it when he was cleaning! Can you believe it?”
Tabor didn’t look as happy as she felt. He’d been about to pour a cup of coffee, but at the sight of her and her ring, he stopped. He held the coffee pot in one hand and a mug in the other, but he didn’t move.
“Why are you wearing it on the wrong hand?” he asked.
“Oh, it fits better on this hand,” she said. “My hands are different sized I guess. My mamma was a big woman, kind of like me, but her fingers were a little bit bigger than mine, actually. I’ve always had small hands, for the size of the rest of me, I guess.” She held up her hand, admiring the ring.
“Your Mamma?” Tabor asked, shaking his head. He still didn’t pour his coffee.
“Yeah, my Mamma. I’d love a cup of coffee, if you’re offering,” Tiana said. She walked toward her suitcase, slipping the ring off of her finger as she walked. “You know what? I’m not even going to wear the damn thing. I’m going to tuck it right in here, safe and sound, until I can get some cash for it. I think Mamma would be happy about, it actually. At first I was--”
“Wait a minute,” Tabor said, cutting her off. He set the coffee pot and mug down, without pouring her any.
He began pacing. “I don’t get it. You’re wearing your mother’s ring? Didn’t Jackson want to resize it for you or something? Is he that cheap, that he would give you a ring — a hand me down, from your mother, and not even get it fixed so that it fit the right finger?”
“The right finger?” Tiana asked, raising her eyebrows. “Jackson? Tabor, what are you talking about?” She had no idea what he was getting at. “Why would my Shop and Start manager resize my mother’s engagement ring for me?”
“Your manager?” Tabor asked. “You’re marrying your manager?”
“No. Wait… what?” Tiana placed the ring into a secure inner pocket of her suitcase and zipped the pocket. She patted it twice and then zipped up the whole bag.
“You’re making my head hurt, you know that?” she said, standing up. “I need a cup of coffee.”
She crossed the room to the coffee pot.
Tabor seemed dumbfounded.
He spoke as Tiana crossed the room in front of him. “I mean, if you guys have an open relationship, or whatever — whatever you’ve decided on — if it works for you, that’s great. But Tiana, don’t you think that you deserve to have an engagement ring that fits your ring finger?” he asked. “You were wearing it on your ring finger when I met you!”
Tiana thought back to that night, as she picked up the coffee pot and began pouring a serving out into the waiting mug. “I was, wasn’t I?” she asked. “I think that was the whole problem. That’s why it fell off so easily. I never should have been wearing it like that. But….” She turned to Tabor, taking in his look of confusion.
Coffee spilled out over the mug as she turned, and felt it splash onto her hand where it cascaded over the mug. She stopped pouring abruptly. “Wait… Tabor… you didn’t think I was actually… engaged to be married, did you?” she asked.
“Of course I fucking thought you were engaged!” Tabor said, throwing his hands up into the air with exasperation. He was nearly shouting as he continued. “You were wearing a fucking engagement ring!”
“Yes, but… Tabor, that’s my mom’s ring. Not mine. I was just wearing it to impress the other women at the reunion.”
“What?!” Tabor asked.
Now Tiana felt herself angered. “You thought I was engaged, and you seduced me anyways?” she asked.
“‘Seduced’ you… wait a minute here. You’re the one who came onto me, at the bar,” Tabor said, shaking his head.
“You’re the one who invited me out to the hot tub!” Tiana countered.
“Yes, and you were the one who stripped off her clothes the minute we got out there.”
“Me?!” Tiana yelled, genuinely angry now. “Don’t act like this was all me. You were out of your pants before I was even through the door. Remember, after you nearly fell over?”
Tabor looked embarrassed. She saw that her words had stung, as she’d meant for them too. She couldn’t stop there. “You are such an asshole,” she said. “This whole time, you thought I was cheating on someone, and you were just fine with that.”
“I wasn’t ‘fine’ with it,” Tabor said. “But yes, it made it a little bit easier to stay… emotionally unattached.”
“Because I was going to be marrying someone else,” Tiana said, barely able to comprehend what she was hearing. “That is so fucked up!” she yelled.
He didn’t say anything back. He turned away from her, both hands up and behind his head. She watched him lift his head to the ceiling and take a few deep breaths.
When he turned to face her again, his features were steely, his expression resolved. “It may have been…” he said cooly. “It may have been fucked up… but that’s the way it is, Tiana. That’s the way I am.”
Tiana would have rather seen his anger than this cool detachment. She felt sadness settle over her.
Finding the ring had made her feel so elated, and so hopeful.
She’d hoped that whatever magical thing had happened between she and Tabor might continue, even. Though she’d barely allowed herself to think about it, she couldn’t deny that the thought had been there.
Once getting her car fixed, before saying goodbye to him, she’d planned on introducing the idea of a trip to California. She’d always wanted to see the sunny California coast, and she thought that perhaps her budding romance with Tabor might be just the right excuse.
The thought was barely formed in her mind, still only a whisper, but it had made her feel good. In brief instances, she’d even imagined that he’d offer to buy her tickets. Her pride had made her refuse his sympathy money, but a plane ticket extended as a gift — that might be something she could say yes to.
Now, she felt all of those wisps of dreams fall away from her.
It was clear to her that Tabor had not been thinking on the same terms that she had, about their fling.
In his mind, she was an engaged woman.
She felt her expression fall, and she couldn’t keep the tone of sadness from her words as she spoke again. “So, this has just been a meaningless fling to you, hm?” she asked. “You don’t see this going anywhere? You thought I was engaged to another man… and that’s why you were okay with this…” she said, pointing between them.
Tabor looked away from her, and that was all the answer she needed.
She abandoned the coffee, and walked to her suitcase. She lifted the handle and dragged the luggage behind her as she headed for the door.
“Good bye,” she said.
Tabor didn’t say anything, and she opened the door and left, not looking back.
Once outside, Tiana felt cool, fat raindrops fall on her head.
The sky gave a threatening rumble, and the sporadic drops picked up speed. By the time she reached her car, the rain was falling in a thick sheet, dumping water over her. She unlocked her car, and found a seat inside. Her sweatshirt had gotten soaked in the rain, and she pulled it off, stripping down to just her tee shirt, which had stayed somewhat protected. Her hair was dripping wet, and she squeezed it between her fingers, trying to wring the water out.
How am I going to get to a pawn shop? she wondered as she tried to dry herself off.
I probably shouldn’t drive this thing. Her hands were shaking. Her whole body was in shock from the conversation that had just occurred. Rather than process the whole argument then and there, she focused her thoughts on her problem.
She forced her fingers to work as she tapped in her search terms into her phone, and found a listing of a pawn shop in downtown Austin.
Next, she dialed a Taxi. I still have at least twenty dollars on my credit card, she thought. That should get me there.
She told the taxi where to pick her up, and was informed that it would take twenty minutes.
When she hung up the phone, she couldn’t stop the building stress and sadness that was welling up inside of her. The shaking in her hands turned into full body trembles, and as she shook, she emitted soft sobs. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back on the headrest. The rain hammered against the windshield, drowning out the sound of her sobs.
*****
An hour later, Tiana had gathered herself enough to work out a deal with the pawn shop owner. He’d offered her two thousand for the ring at first, but she was prepared with a counter offer. Though he denied her request of five thousand, they were able to settle on three thousand five hundred.
Tiana felt satisfied that the amount would get her home and then some, and she had no energy for negotiating further. She took the money and placed it safely in her purse.
Next, she found a deli and ordered herself a sandwich, before hailing a cab to take her back out to the Marriott.
Once she reached her car, she had to wait another hour for a tow truck to come and pick her up.
While she waited, she thought over everything Tabor had said. Now that the initial shock of their argument wore off, she was able to see his words with more objectivity. I did approach him at the bar that night, she thought. And I was wearing my ring. What was he supposed to think?
What would I have thought, if a married man came onto me like that?
I would have asked him about his fiancé, that’s what I would have done, thought Tiana. Maybe not right away. Maybe a little flirting is harmless. But definitely before kissing him. That’s way out of line! What was he thinking?
She remembered what he had said.
My ring made me unavailable. Not a prospect for a long term relationship. He said it, himself, that he’s not into relationships.
But I thought that I was different.
I guess not, she thought.
I guess not.