Tempting Taylor. Joan Elizabeth Lloyd
of Steve’s torn jeans and stuffed them into the bag. “Bastard,” she muttered. “Smart up, Tay,” she told herself, “and get over him. You were a shmuck and he took advantage. Whose fault was that?”
She picked up her pace, rapidly slamming items into the trash bag, and when it was full, she grabbed a second one. Grab and stuff, grab and stuff. She found herself getting madder and madder. Then, when she finally deflated, she dropped onto the bed and wept. She’d loved him…or maybe she’d just loved the sex. Whatever, that phase of her life was gone, so she’d just have to get over it. Finally drained, she carted all the stuff down to the building’s Dumpster, dropped the bags inside and slammed the lid. Done! Over! Why did it still hurt? Who was she mad at?
As the late afternoon sun set, she realized that she felt better having exorcized the evil spirits, as it were. She collapsed onto the bed, eyes crispy, shirt now sweaty, and thought about Lissa. What was wrong with spending six months in swanky-ville? Lissa and her father lived in a custom-built house in the middle of Westchester. Somewhere near the Clintons, she thought. She’d been there several times and been overwhelmed by the opulence of the place. Olympicsized, heated pool, a sauna, a spa on the deck outside the master bedroom and another one in the yard by the pool. There were a zillion bedrooms and baths, framed copies of Dave Bonner’s award-winning photographs all over the walls of everything, shelves of trophies along with figurines, statuettes and plaques. The furniture always looked like no one ever sat on anything. Actually, as she thought about it, most of the time the entire house looked like nobody lived there, and the cleaning staff kept it that way. It would be like living in a museum, but maybe she could bunk in the little guesthouse for the duration.
However…It would solve lots of problems. She pulled the scrunchy off the bottom of her braid, finger-combed her hair and rubbed her scalp. She would have to leave this place anyway. It was lonely.
Living at Lissa’s would give her a whole new start and she did want to help her friend out. The commute wouldn’t be bad at all, really, and she’d have six months or more to enjoy the luxury of it all. She’d also have no rent, no health-club fees, so she could bank a good part of her salary to replace the money she’d spent on Steve. She took a deep breath and flipped her cell phone open.
When Lissa answered, Tay said, “Why the hell not?”
“Oh my God, you’ll do it?” Lissa shrieked. “Of course you will. Oh God. You’re a lifesaver. I’ll tell my dad he’s stuck with me.” She paused. “Oh, Tay, I’ll learn so much. I want this so much. I’m even going to use my mom’s maiden name so no one will think I’m just Dad’s kid.”
Lissa’s mother had died of breast cancer several years before, as had Tay’s mother, and Tay and Lissa had participated in several “walks for a cure.” As Tay listened to Lissa ramble on, she wished she could be like her friend, so dedicated, so involved, so sure of what she wanted out of life.
At twenty-nine, Tay hadn’t a clue. Sure, she liked her job, but that wasn’t life. Lissa droned on about her trip, then finally wound down. “How soon can you make it up here?”
“I need to give notice here and I’ll have to pay April’s rent since I can’t give them thirty days. It will take me a week or so to get organized, but then I’m yours. How about you come down weekend after next and we can pack up your car? I don’t have much. Just my clothes and books and a couple of things from around here.” She gazed at a small painting of a cat sunning itself in a sunny window. “I’ll spend evenings packing a few boxes, but that will be about it. And my books, of course.”
“Do you want to bring any of your furniture? We’ve got plenty of room in the garage. Or we’ll rent you one of those storage units nearby. Whatever works.”
“I might decide to rent one of those storage places.” She paused, looked around, then continued, “On second thought, no. I don’t think I want to keep anything.” Now determined to get rid of everything from this life, she said, “I’ll have an apartment sale and ditch all of it.” She was amazed at how quickly she’d jumped into the whole idea, but suddenly it seemed the absolutely right thing to do. Looking around again, she said, “With no rent to pay, by the time you guys get back I’ll have enough money saved to buy whatever I need fresh.”
“You’re my goddess, Tay, and I’ll worship at your shrine all over Asia.”
With a deep laugh from both women, they disconnected.
Chapter
3
The next two weeks were given over to moving. It took Tay a while to go through all her stuff. As she told Lissa during one of their long phone calls, she had both an apartment sale and a throwing-away party and she’d gotten rid of tons of junk. At last her hoard was whittled down to just a few things, and eventually the final boxes were stowed, filling the backseat and trunk of Lissa’s Toyota, the one that Tay would be using while she was living on Maple Court. Tay was behind the wheel so she could get her driving legs, as Lissa had put it. Living in New York City, Tay had had little need for a car, so although she’d driven in high school and early in college, she’d done little since.
As they drove up the Saw Mill River Parkway, Tay inhaled deeply. Yes, spring was imminent and she became aware of it more here than she had ever been in the city. It was the beginning of April, and although the forsythia was a little behind that in Brooklyn Heights, what bright yellow there was stood out among the still-bare trees. “I love this time of year,” Tay said, cracking open the driver’s side window so she could try to smell the country. Although she thought of herself as a city girl, having grown up in Jersey she found that she really missed the open spaces, too.
“Me too,” Lissa said. “The forsythia is almost there. Three-cythia, my dad calls it. You’ll love watching things bloom. The backyard will delight you with something different every day.”
“You can stop selling now,” Tay said with a chuckle. “I’m here, with all my stuff in the car. I’m not going to go back on you now.”
Lissa grinned. “I’m just so happy the way this has all worked out that I’m afraid something will go wrong.”
“Nothing can go wrong.”
“Can go wrong, can go wrong, can go wrong,” Lissa said, chuckling at the punch line of the old joke.
“So has your dad set the date for the embarkation?”
“Next Tuesday.”
Tay felt herself start to panic. “So soon? I have so much to learn about taking care of your house.”
“Nonsense. Marta will come in every Tuesday and clean. She’ll even change the sheets and do your laundry.”
Tay didn’t like the thought of someone going through her dirty clothes. “Not my laundry, she won’t.”
“Okay, we’ll tell her to leave your stuff alone. The pool guy comes on Wednesday and he’ll take care of both the pool and the spas. The garden guys come every Thursday to do the lawn and they know what’s to be done with the flowers and all that. Payments have already been arranged, but if you have any trouble or questions you can always e-mail.”
“Sounds like it takes an army to keep the house running.”
“I guess it does.” Lissa sat back in the passenger seat and let out a long breath. “I couldn’t have done this without you, Tay, and it means everything to me.”
Tay reached out and patted her friend’s thigh. “No sweat, hon. It will be my pleasure.”
“I know it will, but sometimes I think it’s a big imposition.”
Tay glanced over and raised an eyebrow. “Now she tells me.” Then she burst out laughing, soon joined by Lissa.
They turned off the Parkway and made the few turns onto Maple Court. The first time Tay had visited she’d been awed by the affluence of the neighborhood, and she found that now that she was going to be living there, she was even