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wine & wonder

—

TEDDY CAME BY in a flash. It was almost like he didn't even have to ask, but I guess I was glad that he did. Because that gave me time to slip out of my pajamas and into some jeans and a t-shirt in order to save me from some potential embarrassment. I had already attacked my crush with a blanket because I thought he was a kidnapper and that was more than enough for one day. Embarrassing myself in front of Teddy was the last thing I needed.

So when I heard him knocking on the door, I went about opening it as casually as possible. And sure enough, he was there and he sure looked amazing. He was wearing a dark leather jacket over a black t-shirt with jeans and gym shoes, something a lot more casual than the outfits I'd usually seen him in — besides only swimming trunks or his robber clothes from when we first met. He was terribly handsome, I couldn't help but admit it to myself.

"Come on in," I said, stepping aside from the door. "Welcome to my humble abode, Mister Burke. Can I get you a water, soda, wine, anything?"

"You said you were an eight dollar wine type of girl," Teddy said with a smile, "I think a water would be just fine."

I rolled my eyes. "Maybe, but not for the good stuff. I spent nineteen dollars on a bottle and I have to say, it'll knock your socks off. They were really hiding this stuff when I went to the gas station."

It was now Teddy's turn to roll his eyes. "Okay, then I'll definitely be having that water then."

I went to the kitchen to fix his glass for him while Teddy went to have a look around. I could see him out of the corner of my eye as he walked around my apartment, nosily looking at doors that were cracked open to see what he could find. I bet he'd never seen an apartment this small.

And of course, that thought made me instantly feel a bit self-conscious. Teddy came into money as well as paved the way for his own. The man had a freaking yacht for Christ's sake. I could say my parents were middle class, but after college, I was out of the nest and they weren't really in the financial picture anymore. Or the picture in general after a big falling out between us had made everything tense and nothing was as it used to be any longer.

"Hey, Teddy," I said as I spun around with both glasses of water in my hand. "Do you want to go to my room?"

Our eyes met, his wide with confusion and maybe something else that I couldn't place. I was worried about Teddy, I seemed to be a lot now that I thought about it. But it was only natural, he was looking out for me when he offered me immunity in case I was considered to be an accomplice or anything. Not to mention he was my friend and he had gone through plenty of heartbreak in his life. I didn't need to rationalize why I felt the need to protect my friend and yet my mind kept searching for a logical explanation to all of it.

"Yeah," Teddy finally said with a nod. "Where is it?"

I pointed as best as I could at the door, hoping Teddy got the point and didn't walk into someone else's room. Because Louisa was sleeping in Delaney's room and with my kidnapping scare from earlier, the thought of it was likely on her mind and a man she's never met before would sure give her a spook. Thankfully, he did go towards my room, kicking his shoes off at the door before heading in.

I chuckled to myself before following him inside. This just seemed like it had all of the workings of a great night in.

Of course, that was until I saw him holding up one of my drawings in confusion. "Damn, girl, you drew this?"

I rolled my eyes, snatching the paper from him. "Do you even have to ask at this point? You already saw my sculpture of my ex-boyfriend." When I said those words, I realized just how little I had thought about him, even after a night like that where he was back smack dab in the middle of my life again. I had to hand it to Teddy, really, while I was nervous and confused about it at first, his plan to hack up the statue with golf clubs had actually worked. Then again, who was I to question him on heartbreak?

"I don't," he said with a shrug, "unless I want to tell someone how amazing of an artist they are without getting too cheesy about it."

I felt my cheeks heat up at his comment, not exactly sure how to deal with it. Teddy felt almost like a wildcard, like he had about a thousand different ways to let you know he cared about you — terribly volatile yet consistent. And honestly, I had never met any other guy like him, he was one of a kind.

Ignoring his statement, I handed him his water when I had set the picture down, sitting down on my bed to take a sip of my own. "What are you doing sitting on the floor anyway," I asked, pointing at him sitting criss-cross-applesauce in front of me. I patted the space beside me on my mattress, inviting him to join me on it. "Come on, there's room on the bed for two."

Teddy looked a bit surprised that I was letting him get in my bed, making me wonder what in the world was he thinking. There weren't any weird implications behind a girl inviting her guy friend into her bedroom were there? Kevin was used to coming into my room all the time.

"Well, okay then," he said, taking the spot beside me. "Although I'd rather sit on the floor because all of your drawings are under the bed. They look amazing, really. From someone who doesn't really even like art like that, I actually want to look at them."

His eyes were so warm and curious and something about them just told me he was genuine. Something about him just told me that even if things were different, he wouldn't shy away from them, he'd want to face them head-on. So I sighed, getting up from off of the bed so I could crouch down and pull out the rest of the drawings. All of them besides the one that was of him, that one could wait until I figured out what it meant.

When I got back up, he was grinning like a fool. "Okay, Marilyn," he said, "show me what you've got here."

—

AFTER A GLASS or two of wine, Teddy's cheeks were flushed like winter had come upon us, but I could tell it was more out of excitement than embarrassment. Teddy Burke wasn't someone who got embarrassed easily, no matter what totally embarrassment-worthy thing he did. When I decided that I was going to need some liquor to get through this ordeal without embarrassing myself and that it wouldn't be fair if I didn't give Teddy any, I should've expected as much.

Teddy held up a drawing of my adopted brother way too close to his face, so much that I thought the charcoal from the pencil would rub off onto his nose if he got any closer, and I could tell that part of it was from his slight state of inebriation and the rest was from his unrivaled curiosity when it came to any or everything involving me. I had half a mind to take it from him, but I was also curious to hear his reaction.

I had went from being an artist and writer in college to a maid in Manhattan, and by not following the path of art out of the door, I had walked myself into a position where I hadn't been given much criticism of my work. So in a way, being one of the few people I had ever consulted about my secret passion, Teddy was my only critic.

"So," I said tentatively, unsure of how to properly go about this. "What do you think? Of it, I mean. Of the drawing."

Teddy lowered it onto the bed sheets before proceeding to take both of his socks off and toss them across the room. "Boom, you did that, Marilyn. You knocked my socks off with that one."

I raised an eyebrow. Technically, his socks weren't knocked off if he just pulled them off and I wasn't sure how I felt about his socks lying in the middle of my floor. But from the only art-grump I knew, I took it as a compliment. "Thank you," I said, running a hand through my hair. "I've honestly never really shown people my art work — purposefully. Not besides you and the people in my classes. I haven't even shown Delaney and Kevin yet."

Teddy frowned. "Why the hell haven't you? They're absolutely amazing, and I'm not just saying that as your friend. I think you have a true gift."

"Thanks," I sighed. "But gifts don't pay the bills. What am I going to do, sell prints for fifty bucks online and sit around here hoping to cover my share of the rent? No, I work like a Hebrew slave day in and day out because I can't get stuck, I have nothing to go back to."

"Okay, this took a turn," Teddy said, grabbing my wine glass from me and setting it down a safe distance away on the floor, his hand then reaching for my own. "Come on, talk to me."

Teddy's had felt warm around mine and I honestly felt safer with him than I had with anyone else in a long while. Maybe because he cared like no one else did, about protecting other people and about making things right. I had known it from the first day we met, really. But now was not the time for that, because I cared about him too, enough not to bother him with my past.

"Fine then," I said, my grip on his hand tightening. "But about something else."

Teddy rolled his eyes, realizing that he had been defeated and something about his reaction cheered me up, apart from the obvious reasons. "Okay, good. Because I have a friend in the force, an analyst. He got us a tip on the lead Martin gave us at the art show."

Well then, I definitely didn't expect him to jump right into talking about the case. But that was good, that was normal of us, even if this entire situation was far from normal.

"The dangerous one," I asked, sitting up straight.

"Yeah, he said that there will be some activity at the docks, picked up some chatter that George will be out around the same time as our lead will be coming in," Teddy said simply, "they're possibly making a deal with Gates. It's scheduled for this Thursday at the same time as —"

"Mrs. Gates' party," I piped up.

Teddy looked surprised for a minute but nodded in agreement. "So chances are, the party could be a distraction for something, or maybe a coincidence which isn't a very popular theory in the lawyer world."

"Do we have a plan, then?"

Teddy shook his head in thought. "Honestly, I usually discuss these types of things with Theo first because he keeps me out of trouble, but we're running pretty low on time. Today's Tuesday after all."

And there was a touchy subject on Teddy's end this time. "Speaking of which, how are you and Theo doing? You seemed to bounce back pretty quickly from finding out everything at the art show."

"Yeah," he said with a smile. "With your help I did. And honestly, it is a bit weird. I had thought my brother was some big mess who couldn't hold down a girl for the life of him, and then I just find out this whole time he didn't want to. And I've never really been against the community, but then again, I've never really been outwardly for it either so I can see why he never told me. We're Irish, so we were born and bred as Catholic, too."

I nodded, completely understanding. My adopted parents were Scottish but they weren't very religious. We went to church on Christmas and Easter, but they gave up on enforcing religion on us when we left the nest, so I didn't keep up with it either. All of my Mexican friends were devout Catholics, though, so I understood their values and why Theo wouldn't feel very trusting in his family with a secret of such gravity.

"But we're beginning to rebuild our relationship, not that it ever went away. Everything happened too fast for that," he shrugged. "Like we're just adding an extra layer to the foundation we had already built for so long as twins. In fact, I just met his and Adam's son the other day. He's so adorable."

"Well that's good at least," I said.

"Yeah," he said with a chuckle and it all just seemed to hang in the air there, like this moment was becoming something more right before our eyes but we were too dumb and blind to see it.

Or maybe just I was.

—

I WAS SO glad that Teddy had come over, because talking with him really helped me work through some feelings in my head, like taking a shovel to a mound of dirt and clearing it away to find what's buried beneath. But it also helped take my mind off things as well, like the fact that Caleb Anderson lived so close and yet he was so far away. Or just Caleb in general because whenever I was with Teddy, he seemed to just fade into the background.

After all, it wasn't Caleb who had me roped into this crazy espionage adventure that felt like it was ripped from the pages of a screenplay. No, this whole case was honestly one of the biggest things that had ever happened to me and I didn't expect it at all.

Nor did I expect for Teddy to spend the night at my place. It had been about an hour, yet he still felt a little woozy from that wine — such a light-weight — and decided that he'd rather crash here instead of risk a DUI. He knew Violet specialized in DUI cases and while they were in a good place, he still was so used to keeping his distance from her. So he wasn't about to have me mess that up for him.

"Good night, Marilyn," he said as he pulled his shirt over his head and I couldn't help but avert my eyes. If Teddy caught me looking at his chest, he wouldn't let me see the end of it. "I'm going to hit the couches if that's okay."

I finally decided to look up at him, trying but failing not to spare a glance every so often at his body. I had honestly thought rich people got all fat and lazy since they had nothing to prove but how much money they could throw at their love interests and problems, yet I seemed to be proved wrong by them every day.

"You're just going to sleep in that," I asked. "Just blue jeans? That looks awfully uncomfortable."

He laughed and shook his head. "No, in my underwear if that's okay with you. I know what you're thinking, that somewhere in this place there are some men's clothes that you want to give to me so I could sleep in them, but I sleep like this at home. It's perfectly fine."

Well of course, it wasn't perfectly fine. For me. I couldn't have him just walking around my place in his underwear like that. Swim trunks were one thing since we were literally at the beach, but underwear just were a different story. It just felt way more intimate and inappropriate than things should've been between us right now.

"It's perfectly fine unless," he added with a devilish grin that made me snap awake from whatever trance I had fallen into, "someone here can't stand the heat."

"Yeah, it gets hot at night here," I said coolly, brushing him off as best as I could. "And I hate to admit it, but I can't afford an air conditioner unit, what with the economy and all."

Teddy smirked, getting my dig at him, the realization that I had defeated him sinking in rather easily. It was a shame, I assumed he wouldn't go down without a fight, judging from the way he seemed to have an arsenal of funny things to say that was resting on the tips of his tongue at ready. "Okay, so I'll just sleep on the couches in the living room then. Is there like a linen closet where I could get a blanket, maybe? Should I check in the bathroom?"

And then I realized the dilemma. All of the blankets we had in storage were for autumn and winter, and since I wasn't lying about how it could get rather hot in here, it'd be inhumane to let him sleep in one of those. All of the thin, summer covers were on Laney and I's beds right now, and he couldn't exactly march into Laney's room and take one for himself with Louisa already sleeping in there. Nor could he sleep on our couch in only his underwear, for he would likely sweat and I would be forced to get it cleaned, an expense I didn't need right now. I sighed, scooting over in bed.

"Climb on in," I said with a groan. "And turn off the light while you're at it."

Teddy chuckled to himself before working at the button on his jeans and undoing the zipper. I looked away once he was finished, playing it by ear to know that he was pulling his pants off right about now. "I never thought it would happen, really. Me, you, sharing one bed. That's the last thing I bargained for when I got hit with a rock by a maid in a dark alley."

I rolled my eyes. "Well I never expected to run into a man rifling through trash cans but rich enough to own a yacht who wanted to put my boss behind bars, so consider us both surprised by all of this."

"Take it as a compliment," he said with a shrug, kicking his jeans off from where they rested around his ankles. "I had been very meticulous about this whole ordeal, making sure that every variable was accounted for and making sure every move was carefully calculated, based on the data I had been given from months ago. But you, you were a variable I had never accounted for, yet it really worked out for the best that we crashed into each others' lives. You really threw me for a loop, Marilyn, still do sometimes."

As he climbed into bed with me and turned the lights off, I turned away so that we were not facing each other, but it still felt like I couldn't escape the words that he had said to me. Even after minutes passed into hours and time blurred along with my vision, sleep couldn't take away the facts of the matter: I definitely liked Teddy, he filled a rift left behind in me from the scars of my past.

But maybe it was a bigger one than I had actually thought.