Page 75 of All I Ask
That’s not going to work for me. I head to the area where I think her voice came from. This store was always like a maze but it’s gotten worse. Furniture is used as a way to make aisles, and there’s no rhyme or reason to the merchandise piled all around. Lamps sit on top of the chairs and there are paintings on the floor but plates hung on the walls. I used to hate coming here to meet her. I swore there was a dead body in one of the chests that she couldn’t get open.
God help whoever bought that.
“Tea?”
“Derek?” she calls out with a hint of panic. “What are you doing here?”
I smile to myself. “Shopping.”
“Here?” A laugh fills the air. “Not likely.”
“What are you doing?”
“Just looking at something.”
I lean over but I can’t see anything but the top of her head behind a table and chairs. “Okay. I have to talk to you, could you stand up?”
“I’m good, go ahead and talk…”
It would make things a little easier if she would look at me. “I can wait.”
“Really, it’s fine. What’s up?”
“It’s more of a question…”
“Yes?”
This is ridiculous. “Teagan, I’m talking to the top of a table, please get up.”
She groans. “I’d rather not.”
“Why?”
“Because. That’s why.”
“Really, Tea?” I squat down, ready to battle her and let her know she’s out of her mind, but when I see her, I almost fall to the floor laughing. Teagan has managed to get her hair stuck to the underside of the table. “Because why again?”
“I hate you. You had to look?”
“Of course I did.”
“This is mortifying.”
“How, pray tell, did you manage to do this?”
She glares at me. “I was checking something written under here and then somehow I turned and my hair got stuck. Can you help me?”
I ponder that for a minute. Right now, she’s literally trapped. She can’t run, unless she wants to be scalped, and would need to hear me out.
“Of course.”
She releases a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”
“After we talk.”
“Derek.” Teagan’s voice is low.
“Teagan.”
