Tear Down These Walls (18 page)

Teagan looks down, “Sorry.”

“Hey, no reason to be sorry,” Trent murmurs, coming up to her. He brings
her face up with his finger, “I was upset that he walked in here and saw you
this way. I was only trying to protect you.”

“Thanks,” she whispers. They stare into each other’s eyes for a minute,
not saying anything. A yearning starts to build in Teagan. All she wants to do
is bring his head down to hers. She closes her eyes, quickly shakes her head,
and steps away. “You should probably get going.” She nods toward the door.

“Yeah,” Trent mumbles. “I will call or text later and let you know when I
am going to be home.”

“Okay,” Teagan replies. “Have a good day.”

“You, too. I will see you later.” With that Trent turns around and walks
away. Teagan feels sad when he leaves but brushes it off and finishes making
her breakfast.

After she is finished eating and cleaning up, Teagan gets her clothes out
of the washer. She hangs her bra and shirt up and throws the rest in the dryer.
Knowing she wasn’t supposed to go upstairs, she hesitates before making the
ascent wondering what’s up there that is so secret and forbidden. Reluctantly,
she makes her way to the second floor. 

When she gets up to the top, Teagan looks down the hall. She counts six
doors. Two of them are open. She walks down to the first one. It is the office.
There is a computer on a desk and a lot of electronic devices sitting on a
table. Teagan has no idea what any of them do. She shrugs. The other open door
catches her eye. She wanders down there and looks in.  “This has to be his
bedroom,” Teagan whispers.

There is a king size bed on the far wall. All the furnishings, including
the bedspread, are black. She stands there for a second, wondering if she
should go in. Teagan looks behind her. She knows no one is in the house, but
she is still nervous. Her luck, he has the whole house bugged with cameras,
watching her every move. It wouldn’t surprise her. Turning back around, she
grins and steps into the room. Everything is neat and orderly. There aren’t any
pictures in the room, just a painting on the wall. Teagan walks over to the bed
and runs her hand against the comforter. It is really soft.

Going over to the first door, Teagan opens it and looks inside. It’s his
closet. There are three different sections. One contains all his dress clothes.
The next one holds all of his jeans and regular shirts. The third section
confuses her. She walks over to it and pulls one of the hangers off the rack.
Hanging off of it is a pair of shorts. They look a lot like shorts that boxer’s
wear. There are about twelve of them. Each one of them is a different mixture
of blue and green. Cyclone is written on each pair, plus there are patches of
different company logos. Teagan puts it back. “I didn’t know he boxed,” she
mumbles. There are also exercise shirts. A shelf sits off to the left with
rolls of white tape on it. She picks one up and looks at it. “I wonder what
this is for.” She puts it back and picks up a pair of gloves. There are four
different pairs. They are all lightly padded and fingerless. She slides one on,
and it’s way too big for her. She giggles, “He has big hands. I wonder what
that means.” That makes her laugh even more, and she puts the glove back.

With a shrug, Teagan turns around and walks out of the closet. Behind the
other door, she finds a large master bathroom. Teagan is rather tempted because
there is a whirlpool bathtub. The stand-up shower is all glass. Teagan notices
controls on the wall, and she steps in to look at them.  She instantly
realizes that it is also a steam room. “Man, I could stay in here all day,” she
whispers. “Jealous.”

Finally, it dawns on her that she has snooped enough. She quickly walks
out of the room. Before she starts working on the computer, she goes downstairs
to grab her cell phone and sees she has a missed call from Victoria. She calls
her back as she goes upstairs.

“Hello girl!” Victoria exclaims. “Please tell me you spent the night with
that delicious man!”

“No,” Teagan laughs. “Gosh, I barely know the guy.”

“I don’t care. LOOK AT HIM! I would jump on that if I had the chance.”

Teagan rolls her eyes. “No you would not. You’re not a slut.”

“For him, I might be,” Victoria laughs.

“You’re awful,” Teagan snorts, as she sits down at the desk. “I did get
drunk last night, stripped to my undergarments, hopped into the Jacuzzi, and he
was a perfect gentleman.”

“Well, first, way to throw your inhibitions to the wind,” Victoria
starts. “Second of all, that sucks. He should have been all over you. You’re
gorgeous!”

“Oh, Trent admitted to having dirty thoughts,” Teagan replies slyly. “But
we are going to stay friends. That is what was agreed upon.”

“If he had tried to seduce you last night, you wouldn’t have thought
about it, not for a second?” Victoria pushes her friend.

Pausing, Teagan says, “Well, I don’t know…..”

“So, you do like him!” Victoria yells. “I knew it!”

Shaking her head, Teagan says, “I never said I wasn’t attracted to him.
He has to be the most delicious man I have ever known, but it’s not like that
with us. We’re strictly friends.”

“Whatever,” Victoria groans. Teagan imagines her rolling her eyes.

“So, what are you up to today?” Teagan inquires, as she clicks on the
guest icon.

“I was going to ask you the same thing. When are you going to your
apartment?”

“Later. Trent is going to help me tackle everything,” Teagan states. She
opens the web browser and then raises an eyebrow. The home page is a little
kid’s website. “Kya must use this computer a lot.”

“Excuse me?”

“Oh!  I am on Trent’s computer. I was saying that his niece Kya must
use it a lot. It has a children’s website as its homepage.”

“Weird,” Victoria replies.

“No, it’s the guest account,” Teagan tells her. “I bet he has certain
things blocked on here. It would make more sense why there is a puppy as the
icon.”

“Trent could like puppies,” Victoria laughs.

“True,” Teagan giggles. “Ugh, I am going to spend the whole day redoing
all my research. I hope I can remember where I found everything.”

 “I have all the faith in the world in you,” Victoria assures her.

“Well, my computer was destroyed,” Teagan sighs. “Everything’s gone.”

“WHAT!?” Victoria yells. “What about your writing?”

Feeling her chest tighten at the memory of her smashed computer, all of
her work gone, Teagan whispers, “It’s all gone.”

“NO!”

“Yeah,” Teagan chokes out. “My sisters have a few of my books, but all my
new stuff is gone.”

“That’s horrible!” Victoria cries. “Maybe someone can save something off
of it.”

“It was smashed, and I mean SMASHED,” Teagan exhales. “I guess I can
rewrite it all, but it breaks my heart.”

“I bet,” Victoria sighs. “I’m so sorry sweetie.”

Exhaling, Teagan continues, “Yeah, I don’t know what to do. I’m still in
shock. Most of my furniture is destroyed. Dishes are broken. Microwave is gone.
I give up. I am going to have to live off of ramen noodles for a while.”

“We can all chip in and help. I will get money from my parents,” Victoria
declares.  “They love you and have more than enough to help.”

“I can’t ask that of them,” Teagan replies.  “I’m not their kid.”

“This isn’t your fault. Do you have renter’s insurance?”

“NOPE,” Teagan emphasizes. “I think I am going to cry a lot tonight.”

“Do you want me to come over?” Victoria asks.

Teagan runs her fingers through her hair. “Let me look at it all first,
and I will call you. Trent says we should figure out what we want to do before
everyone comes over.”

“All right, I will be ready whenever you need me.”

“Thanks,” Teagan replies softly. “Not to cut this short, but I really
need to start doing this research.”

“Okay, good luck,” Victoria says. “Call me later.”

“I will, bye.”

“Bye.”

She puts her phone down and sighs. Tapping the keys, she turns her day
over to Google and finding all of her sources again for her paper. After five hours,
Teagan has printed out a stack of excerpts that she needs. Suddenly, the
printer dings the alert that it is out of paper. Instead of riffling through
Trent’s things, she picks up her phone and calls him.

He answers right away. “Did you burn down my house?”

“Yes,” Teagan laughs. “How did you know?”

“I had a hunch. Anyway, what’s up? I’m going to be home in an hour.”

Teagan sits forward in the chair. “I need more computer paper. I didn’t
want to start going through your stuff.”

“You haven’t snooped through all my drawers yet? I am surprised.”

“Well, I found the drawer with the handcuffs and whips,” Teagan giggles.

“Really?” Trent laughs. “I would like to know where that drawer is
myself.”

Smiling, Teagan says, “Do you like to tie girls up and have your way with
them?”

“No,” Trent answers. “I’m actually a very gentle lover.”

“Seriously?” Teagan squeaks. “I wouldn’t have guessed.”

“This is an odd conversation to have, but, no I have done my fair share
of crazy things, but now, I am more about the passion than I am the other
stuff.”

Teagan bites her lip. “I’m not sure what I am. Who knows, maybe I’ll be a
dominatrix.”

There is silence and then, “Seriously?”

“No,” Teagan scoffs. “I was joking.”

“Well, if you want to experiment, I am up for anything.”

“Shut up,” Teagan snaps playfully. “Anyway, computer paper, where can I
find it?”

“If you turn around from my desk, there is a filing cabinet. It’s in the
bottom drawer.  There’s extra ink down there, too. I don’t know how low
the ink is.”

Teagan does as he says and goes to the filing cabinet. “Found it!”

“Good,” Trent replies.

“All right, I guess I will see you in an hour,” Teagan states, as she
puts paper into the printer.

“Where do you want to go eat?” Trent asks.

“Do you want me to cook? I doubt my clothes are dry.”

“I can bring something home,” Trent says. “What do you like?”

“Chinese….chicken lo mein,” Teagan quips. “Yum.”

“All right, I will bring some home. See you in an hour.”

“Okay, bye.”

“Bye.”

Teagan hangs up the phone and goes back to the computer. Half an hour
later, she is finished. Stretching her arms up in the air, she yawns. “I had
better go check on my clothes.”

She grabs her papers and goes downstairs. While she is in the laundry
room, the house phone rings. The clothes are still wet, so Teagan wanders into
the kitchen. She wonders if she should answer it, but decides not to. The
answering machine kicks in, and a few seconds later, a woman’s voice purrs,
“Kellen, my love, you need to call me as soon as you get home. It’s important.
I miss you. Bye.”

Teagan stares at the phone. “I thought he wasn’t dating anyone,” she
mumbles. “Not that it’s any of my business I guess.” Her heart sinks a little,
and she shakes her head. “I need a drink.” With that, she wanders into the game
room. There is a refrigerator under the bar.  She opens and takes out a
beer. As Teagan takes the first drink, the front door slams shut.

Feeling a little awkward, Teagan fiddles with her bottle. Trent walks
past the door and stops. “What are you doing?”

“Drinking a beer,” Teagan holds the bottle up.

“Come on, the food is hot,” Trent says, nudging his head. Teagan
nervously follows him. He gets to the counter and sets down the bag. When Trent
turns and looks at her, he furrows his eyebrows. “What’s wrong?”

Taking a huge swig of beer, Teagan gulps, “Nothing.”

“You’re a horrible liar. What’s up?”

“Ummmm, I thought you didn’t have a girlfriend,” Teagan mumbles.

“And I don’t,” Trent’s eyes looked puzzled.  “Why?”

“Listen to your answering machine,” Teagan suggests, as she walks to open
the food bag.

Trent gives her a quizzical look. “My answering machine?” With a curt
nod, Teagan starts to pull the food out of the bag. Out of the corner of her
eye she watches Trent go to the phone. He hits play and listens to the message.
When it ends, he turns around, sighing. “That is NOT my girlfriend.”

“Hey,” Teagan says, putting up her hands. “It’s none of my business.”

“I have no feelings for that woman,” Trent mutters, the disgust in his voice
obvious. “But I sadly have to call her back. Excuse me.” He disappears out the
doorway. Teagan takes all the food out and goes to get plates. When everything
is set up, she sits down in a chair and waits. A few more minutes go by when
Trent finally walks back in. He doesn’t look very happy. His eyes have lost the
warmth they had just minutes before when he walked in the door.

Teagan says, “I wasn’t sure what you wanted, so I waited.” He pulls out a
chair and plops down, but he doesn’t say anything. “Okay,” Teagan exhales, as
she grabs the lo mein.

Suddenly, Trent rubs his face. “She only has my home number. If she wants
to call me on my cell, she calls a number at my office, and it transfers to my
phone. I don’t let her have direct access to me.”

“Why?” Teagan asks.

“Just because,” Trent grumbles. “My office sends an alert to my phone if
she calls there.”

“So, why do you talk to her?” Teagan inquires.

“I have to,” Trent sighs. “Anyway, that’s all I will say about that, but
she is
not
in my life in a romantic sense.”

“So….why have her in your life?” Teagan asks, completely confused.

Putting food on his plate, Trent doesn’t say anything. Finally he
murmurs, “Sometimes, we have no control over who is in our life. This is one of
those instances.”

“Awkward,” Teagan exhales, before she drinks her beer.

“So….” Trent starts. “Did you get all the info you needed?”

“Yeah,” Teagan sighs. “I just have to go to the computer lab and work on
it this weekend. They have stupid hours, so I am getting up at 6 a.m. Saturday
morning.  Yyyeeeaaahhhh!”