“This isn’t what you think,” I said. “Tal left a message on my machine. He sounded strange. He said something about giving me the house. Afterward. And then he quit talking. I’m afraid he might be suicidal.”
“He’s drunk,” Daniel said, throwing his keys down on the table.
“I’m telling you, something was wrong with him,” I said, dialing my own number. I punched in the activation code again and handed the phone to Daniel. “Here. You tell me what you think.”
He listened, then hung up. “He knows how to push all your buttons, doesn’t he?”
“Are you telling me that was an act?”
“What do you want to do?”
“I don’t know. He’s never been like this before. He never gets drunk. He’s always in control. But his voice…I wonder if he took something…”
“That’s ridiculous, Weezie. Think about it. The voice on the message trailed off. But you called his house, right? And you got the answering machine. Right? So it’s not like he collapsed and left the phone off the hook.”
“Right,” I said, feeling a mixture of anger and relief. “But what if he didn’t call me from his house? What if he was at the office or someplace else?”
Daniel ran his fingers through his hair, leaving it standing on end.
“I can’t believe this is happening. Are you saying you want to rush back to Savannah, to save him from himself?”
“I don’t know,” I shouted, pissed that I was on the verge of tears. “I don’t know what to do, damn it. But this isn’t some kind of popularity contest, Daniel. I’m over Tal. I’ve told you that. I don’t know how to make you believe it.”
“I’ll believe it when you believe it,” Daniel said.
I picked up the phone.
“Now what?”
“I’m calling his office,” I said, turning my back on him. “I’d do as much for a casual friend, if I thought he was in trouble. You can’t expect me to just act like Tal never happened. Not if you care about me.”
“He’s playing you,” Daniel said. He went into the kitchen and started clattering pots and pans. The phone at Tal’s office rang and rang, and then the answering machine picked up.
“Christ,” Daniel shouted. As I turned around I saw a cloud of black smoke rising from the saucepan full of green beans. He picked the pan up and threw it in the sink, drowning it under the tap.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I got distracted and I forgot. I’ll pay for the pan. I’ll buy you more beans. I don’t know what else to do.”
I dialed another number.
“BeBe?”
“What’s up, Weezie?”
“Something’s going on with Tal. He left a message on my machine. I don’t know, I think he sounded drunk or drugged or something.”
“Which is it? And why are you calling me about it?”
“I’m over in Bluffton. With Daniel. Tal doesn’t answer at the house, or at his office. I’m worried. He’s been depressed. Do you think he could have tried something stupid?”
“He did try something stupid,” BeBe drawled. “He left you for that slut Caroline. Forget about him, Weezie. He’s not worth it. Tal Evans is your past. Daniel is your future. Now hang up the phone and quit fucking up your life.”
“One thing,” I pleaded. “Just do me one thing.”
“What?”
“Drive over to the townhouse. See if his car is there. There’s a key to the back door under the planter on the back steps. Just check to see if he’s there.”
“You’re crazy, you know that?”
“Will you do it?”
“What do you want me to do after that?”
“Call me here.”
I looked over at Daniel. “What’s the number here?”
I told her the number. “Call me as soon as you know something.”
Daniel was scrubbing the layer of burned beans on the bottom of the pan with a piece of steel wool. Then he took a steak knife and started stabbing at the charred food. I watched for a minute or two, then walked over to the sink and took the pan out of his hands.
“I was working on that,” he said, his voice cold.
“You’ll never get it clean that way,” I said. “Believe me, I’ve watched my mother burn a lifetime’s worth of food. Have you got any bleach?”
He rummaged around until he found a small bottle of Clorox.
I put a couple of inches of water in the pan and added about a quarter of a cup of bleach, then I set the pan on the back burner on the lowest heat.
“Bleach fumes,” Daniel said. “You’ll kill us both. The cops will find Tal’s body at his house and ours here. They’ll say it was a lovers’ triangle.” He was trying not to smile, but it wasn’t working.
I pointed at all the open windows, and at the screened porch. “We’ve got plenty of ventilation. And I’m not planning on killing myself. Or you. Not with bleach fumes. Not just yet, anyway.”
I picked up the paper bag of condoms, looked at the box. There were twenty-four in the carton. “You had some mighty big plans for tonight, I see.”
“Not just for tonight,” he said quietly.
The phone rang again. I snatched it up.
“He’s home, and he’s alive, more’s the pity,” BeBe said.
“Thank God,” I said. “What did he say?”
“Nothing,” BeBe said. “He’s passed out on the sofa.”
“He’s not in a coma? You didn’t see any pills or anything?”
“Just a half-empty bottle of Scotch,” BeBe said. “I slapped him around, and he came to long enough to tell me to get the hell out of his house.”
“I owe you, Babe.”
“You certainly do,” she said, and then she hung up.
“He’s not dead,” I told Daniel. “Just drunk and passed out. You were right. I guess Tal was just yanking my chain. Again.”
“Imagine my relief,” he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
“What now?” I asked wearily. “Do you want to take me home?”
He had been standing at the kitchen counter, methodically cutting the pork roast into half-inch-thick slices. He put the knife down and came and sat down on the sofa beside me.
“You know what I want?” he said, taking my hand in his. “I want to know why you keep trying to run away from me. Every time we start to get close, something happens. At first I thought it was just circumstances. But now? I don’t know. Everything was going fine tonight. Then you decide to call home and wham! We’re right back where we were before.”
I looked down at the floor, then out the kitchen window. But there were no answers there.
“I want to be with you,” I whispered. “I do. But it’s no good. I’m terrible at this relationship stuff. I try, but it just doesn’t work out.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Daniel asked. He put his hand under my chin and turned my head so I was looking straight at him.
“Look at my track record,” I said. “I thought my marriage to Tal was perfect. And look what happened. Tal and I never fought. I mean never. And then one day, it was over. I had no clue he was having an affair. No clue he wasn’t happy. And now, look at you and me. It’s crazy. I am so attracted to you. Half the time I want to get naked with you and the other half I want to beat your brains in. We fight all the time. And I don’t like fighting.”
“How do you know?” he countered. “I think you never fought with Tal because he never cared enough. And you did whatever he told you to anyway. So he didn’t need to fight with you. Me? I’ve had to fight for everything I’ve ever gotten in my life. That’s OK. It makes it better. It makes it worth having.”
He kissed the back of my hand. “You are worth having, Weezie Foley. You’re worth fighting for. And fighting with. And making up with.”
“How do you know?” I demanded.
“I know,” he said. He picked up the carton of Trojans. “Do you think I would have made a major investment like this if I wasn’t positive we’d be great together?”
I sniffed a little and smiled. “What’s in the big shopping bag? If it’s more Trojans, I’m out of here.”
“It’s a gift,” he said. “I thought if this was going to be a special night, you should have something to remember it by.”
“You mean something besides splinters in my butt?”
The bag was heavy. The object inside was swaddled in thick layers of tissue, all of them taped together. I tore at the tissue until the bright green and blue glaze became visible.
“The oyster dishes,” I said, my voice catching.
“That’s what took so long,” he said. “That shopkeeper was locking up when I got there. I didn’t think she was going to sell them to me, until I whipped out the cash.”
“You paid cash?” I asked, incredulous. “But you should have tried to bargain with her. Dealers always come down at least twenty percent, especially when you pay cash.”
“Nope,” he said. “I wanted you to have them. At full price. No dickering.”
“They’re wonderful,” I said. “But you shouldn’t have spent that much money on me.”
“On us,” he said. And he took the plates and set them carefully down on the coffee table. Then he picked up the carton of Trojans and took me by the hand. And we went upstairs to discuss our investment potential.