Green Tea Read online

I pulled back the tissue paper, and there was a beautiful brooch.

  “It’s pretty, but it isn’t very wedding-ee.”

  “So much for my psychic talents.”

  “It must be old. Maybe the 1920s? It seems kind of big, but I have to admit, it is light and airy. Kind of art deco meets Irish vintage.”

  “If you don’t want it, I have a beautiful black suit that would love to have it on the lapel.”

  “I think I’ll bring it with me to Mom’s. She may know if there is any kind of history or something. You know how old Irish are; they have a story and a reason for everything. God forbid you or I start wearing it all the time and it turns out to be some kind of fertility thing.”

  “Oh. Dear. God. Why would you even go there? You’re the one that is always saying that I put things out there in the universe and rain them down on you. Why would you do that to us?”

  “Sorry.”

  “Sorry isn’t going to cut it if I start craving weird foods. If you start craving weird foods, it simply means that it’s a day ending in ‘y’.”

  “Good point.”

  “Ready to go get Jordan?”

  “Yep.”

  “Your car or mine?”

  “Yours is fine.”

  “What Cara? Miss I-was-not-put-on-earth-to-be-a-passenger?”

  “Just in case things are still a little weird, better we pick up Jordan in a car that is a little less recognizable than mine.”

  “Agreed.”

  I texted AJ, as promised I would keep him updated as to where I was and what I was doing, even though things seemed to be okay, constant contact seems to make him feel better. A small price to pay considering everything I’ve put him through in the very short time we’ve actually been together.”

  We dropped Jordan off without incident. His vice-principal walked up to the car and gushed all over him about tomorrow being his big day as best man and how sure they were that he would be the best best man ever. It was really nice. He basically floated toward his classroom. We told the nice lady we’d be back to pick him up this afternoon; Morgan’s in serious bride mode. She laughed and waved goodbye.

  We drove over to Mom’s for a cup of tea. Stopped at on the way at Ben’s, we needed to grab some donuts. Daddy was off getting his hair cut for the big day. Mom had the house spotless, as Morgan’s family was coming over for the first time tonight, it was extra important to scrub everything within an inch of its life.

  And they make fun of me!

  Mom had the world’s biggest roast in Mrs. Laddner’s oven, slow cooking. She fell on her driveway a while back, and broke her leg, but the way my mom cooks a slow cook roast, Mrs. Laddner wouldn’t have to do a thing. The roast was seasoned well, double wrapped in aluminum foil and then set at a pretty low oven temperature to cook for hours and hours.

  There was a ham at Mrs. Ramaker’s. I’m guessing they have a predetermined time for her to put it in the oven.

  Mom has potatoes at Mrs. Sampson’s. She would call from the ballroom and Mrs. Sampson would set them to boil. I’ll bet she has a huge pot for each of her large burners.

  The veggies for dinner were already cleaned and prepared, and we could just set them to steam when we collected the roast and the potatoes.

  Mom had several huge bags of dinner rolls.

  The butter and oleo, yes we always have to have both, were on the proper dishes.

  There were two metal troughs of drinks in ice on the patio. Daddy would stop and get another round of ice before we left for the rehearsal.

  The veggie platters and dips and hors d'oeuvres were all laid out beautifully, wrapped with enough plastic wrap to ruin the ozone for centuries, and put in half the refrigerators in the neighborhood.

  The dishes were all washed and set up buffet style on the long counter in the kitchen, everything beautifully arranged, covered in dish towels.

  The dining room table was shoved up against the wall, and the food would be arranged on it. The warming trays were already there, plugged in, waiting to be turned on. The serving dishes and silver were all arranged with dishtowels over them.

  Because I am blessed to come from a very large family, there is plenty of seating, inside and out. That would not be a problem.

  If there is one thing an O’Flynn knows how to do, it’s to serve lots of food to lots of people.

  We sat down for our tea and donuts, filled Mom in on what had been going on with all things Jerkface. Teagan didn’t say a word about Jessie relocating, even when Mom asked her if there were any new adventures coming in his life. I thought that was kind of weird.

  I asked if there were any specific pictures Mom thought AJ should get for the wedding. She had a list. I took it down on my phone, then forwarded the list to AJ.

  Teagan effused about my dress.

  Mom went in the other room and came back with her dress. It is beautiful. Deep blue. I’m not good at describing this stuff, but I’ll try.

  The fabric has a shimmer to it. It looks like the designer took really pretty deep blue fabric and created a plain A-line dress out of it. The top straight across and strapless. Then she took a different fabric, really really sheer, but the exact same color, decorated it with beautiful flowers made of beads and arranged the flowers into diamond shapes spread sparsely at the waist, but then more and more frequently as they progressed to the bottom until the pattern was almost constant at the bottom of the dress. Then the designer went back and took the beautiful deep blue shimmery fabric, a really wide swath of it, started some ruching under the right arm and extended it down to below the hip, pulled it tight to the left side between waist and hip and anchored it with one of the flower patterned diamonds. The final touch was a bolero jacket made out of the sheer fabric that was edged in the beaded flowers.

  I’m not doing it justice. It’s one of the most beautiful dresses I’ve ever seen. My mom will look stunning.

  “What do you think girls?”

  Teagan answered before I got the chance, “It is absolutely beautiful, and it answers two very important questions.”

  “And what would they be?”

  “First, I am definitely your daughter. Second, Cara is not.”

  We all laughed.

  Mom went to put her dress back and Daddy came in the door, looking very handsome. He said he only had long enough for a cup of tea, then he had to run over and get the tuxes.

  “I thought Liam was going to do that.”

  “He was, but he needs to go pick up the rings.”

  “The day before the wedding?”

  “I’m just telling you what I’ve been told.”

  “You want Cara and I to go pick them up? We have to pick up Jordan and try his tux on him, we could make one big loop.”

  “I said I’d run over and pick them up now, and that is what I aim to do. Thank you for the offer, but your brother is likely to have a nervous breakdown if he calls and it hasn’t been done. It seems to be hitting them in waves. First he is perfectly calm, and poor little Morgan is having a moment, then tis the other way round.”

  “I saw Morgan less than serene for the first time. She’s just as cute nervous as she is tranquil.”

  “Your mother has pointed out more than once that Liam must have done something very special in a previous life, he’s not built up enough credit in this life to deserve that girl.”

  “Do you have your toast ready Daddy?”

  “I think I’ll go with an old standard.”

  “We’re going to over-Irish these people.”

  “There isn’t such a thing.”

  With a chuckle, he left without his tea or donut.

  Mom walked back in. “I’ve checked the food, thank the Good Lord for such neighbors as we have.”

  “So, what do you want us to do?”

  “Not a thing, we have everything done.”

  “But we both have the day off, we haven’t really done anything to help, you sure you don’t need anything?”

  “Not a thing.”r />
  We looked at each other. I can’t say we were incredulous, cause we’d get smacked for that, but we were something really close to that.

  “Oh crap.”

  “What?”

  “I didn’t get a gift!”

  “What?”

  “I don’t have a gift. I’ve been so out of it I never got one. I should also go check on Adeline. We could go over there, then we could swing by the big mall, grab the perfect thing, pick up Jordan and be back here to have him try on his tux before Morgan has a chance to have a breakdown.”

  “We could do that. Mom, you want to come?”

  “No, I’ll be fine here.”

  “Promise to call if you need anything? If anything comes up?”

  “That I do.”

  We chatted for a few minutes with Mrs. Laddner on our way out. Her leg is healing well. Her granddaughter has been staying with her to help out. She’s almost nine. I can’t believe we’re all getting so old.

  Watching Teagan’s face as we drove up past Jovana’s was great. She wasn’t nearly as impressed with Adeline’s house, until we got inside.

  “Adeline, I’d like you to meet my sister, Teagan.”

  “It is lovely to meet you, Dear.”

  “You have a beautiful home. It suits you.”

  “What a nice thing to say, would you like to see the rest of it?”

  “I would love to.”

  With that, Adeline set out on the tour, while I went to the kitchen to make a cup of tea for us.

  The kettle had boiled, the tea was made, and I was beginning to think it would be too dark by the time they got to the kitchen. It should be noted that they didn’t even see the private quarters or outside.

  “Cara did you see the painting of the rose?”

  “No, she has not. I’ve just finished it since the last time Cara was here.”

  “You have to see it. It’s beautiful. Gorgeous. Adeline could sell her work. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”

  “You flatter me Teagan.”

  “No, I don’t. Flattery is false praise. My admiration is genuine. I love beautiful things. I’ve loved beautiful things all my life. That painting is one of the more beautiful things I’ve ever seen. May I bring Cara to see it?”

  “Certainly.”

  When we were half way down the back hall, out of earshot, Teagan started in on me, “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about this woman. I can’t believe that you haven’t told me about her painting. My God Cara, she has a gift.”

  “Don’t snipe at me. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t know. I’ve only been over here a couple of times myself you know, and once she was really sick.”

  “You aren’t going to believe it.”

  Teagan was walking so fast I could barely keep up. She gets excited.

  “Look. Look at this!”

  Teagan was right. I’d never seen anything like it. Adeline had painted a white rose. It was huge. Took up the whole canvas. It was a play on white on white and it was lovely.

  “It is beautiful.”

  “I could stare at it for hours.”

  “I’m really not an art person, but this is calming. It’s serene. It reminds me of Morgan.”

  “Who is Morgan?”

  “Our soon to be sister-in-law. She is one of those people that never get flustered. She is beautiful from the inside out. She is marrying my brother tomorrow. We still haven’t figured out how he lucked out, but we are grateful he did.”

  “A wedding. How lovely. There is something so rejuvenating about new love.”

  “Would you like to come?”

  “I couldn’t impose.”

  “It’s no imposition. We have a big family, it’s a huge facility.”

  “I’ve never even met the happy couple. It is far from proper for you to invite me to a wedding that is not even your own.”

  “We’re Irish. It’s our tradition to invite our friends to the wedding, as well as the bride and groom to invite their friends. The more people there to celebrate in the joy of the couple being married, the better their luck.”

  “I’m just not sure.”

  “You don’t have to decide right now. You can call me. If you need a ride, we can have someone pick you up. You will know people there. Jovana and her husband will be there. Teagan and I will be there. You’ll have a great time. If you don’t want to come, I understand, but if you want to, you are more than welcome.”

  “Thank you girls. I’ll let you know.”

  We were off to find the perfect wedding gift. Teagan already had hers, but wouldn’t tell me what it was.

  We went to the big mall, I could do the traditional thing and get them Waterford crystal or Irish linen. Both good choices. I could go full-blown Irish and get them Waterford crystal salt and pepper shakers, Waterford being Irish and salt and pepper shakers being good luck. But, AJ had inspired me. He got a traditional gift, a teapot, but it wasn’t traditional O’Flynn, it was new and fresh. That’s what I wanted to do.

  We walked the whole mall and I didn’t find a single thing. I wondered out loud if Morgan and Liam would mind an IOU. Teagan smacked me.

  Disheartened, we decided to take the scenic route back to my apartment, have lunch there, then hang out and wait for Jordan to be done at school.

  It’s a brand new world when there is going to be such a huge family event, and we aren’t running around like chickens with our heads cut off.

  I was just about to point that out, when I saw something.

  “Pull over!”

  “Here?”

  “Yep.”

  “Cara, this is light industrial. What are you gonna do, get the car painted? Buy some mini blinds?”

  “I think I saw something, go up and pull around to the back, on the left.”

  “This is a waste of time.”

  “Do you have something better to do?”

  “Fine.”

  “There, pull in.”

  “What, are you gonna buy them lawn furniture?”

  “No, next to them. See, there is a sign that says they can laser engrave anything in 24 hours. They do industrial engraving, they can do silver, gold, steel, or even glass. They do etching.”

  “What are you going to get engraved?”

  “I don’t know; I just need to go in there and look around.”

  “You’re nuts.”

  “You gonna wait in the car, or do you want to come in?”

  “Oh, this I gotta see.”

  We walked into the place. I’ll admit, on first inspection, it looked more like a machine shop than a place you would find the perfect wedding gift. A biker-looking guy came out from somewhere in the back, where machines were making lots of noise.

  “Yeah?”

  “Hi, I saw your sign and thought I’d come in and get an idea of just what kind of engraving you do.”

  “Like it says on the sign. We engrave anything.”

  “Okay, here’s my problem. I can’t find a wedding gift for my brother. I want it to be special. I want it to be unique. I was driving by and saw your sign and for some reason known only to God, I just had to come in here. I don’t suppose you do anything wedding gift-ee, do you?”

  “Hang on. I gotta show you somethin’”

  We stood.

  Minutes later, after a little muffled crashing around in the back, he carried in his pride and joy.

  “I made this for my ol’ lady. We was gonna get married. She took off with my best friend, so I never got to use it, but I still like the idea. What ‘cha think?”

  He held up a shadow box.

  “See, we can put anything you want in there, then I engrave the glass that we put on the front, but I do it in reverse, so the engraving is on the inside, don’t have to worry about dust or nothin’ gettin’ on the stuff inside.”

  “It’s beautiful.”

  “Wait, I got another one.”

  He ran to the back.

  Teagan hissed, “That thing was ugly. Too bus
y. Too much crap shoved in there.”

  “But I like the idea. It has potential.”

  He came out and gave Teagan a look, maybe she was louder than we thought, he continued. “We could do something like this.” He held up a piece of glass. It was engraved with such intricacy it was amazing. The picture he had engraved was a motorcycle with a rather well endowed young woman splayed in a rather suggestive pose. Everyone has a different idea of art I guess. “We could do any picture you want. I could rough up the edges; that looks real classy. I could do it for a wall or maybe for a tabletop. I can do it on glass, or metal, or Plexiglas. Whatever you want.”