They Say Love Is Blind (24 page)

During des
s
ert, Rosalind commented that she would be willing to drive Lee and Tory home.

“We have our own car.” Lee responded.

“I’m just offering because I noticed that Tory was drinking.”

That was it! That was the last straw. “What are you trying to say?” Tory asked. “Are you suggesting that I’m not able to drive safely?”

“Not at all.”

Paulo opened his mouth to make a joke but Kaye stopped him and so the room grew quiet.

“Accidents happen,” Rosalind stated
.

“Especially when others are driving down the wrong side of the street.” Lee added.

“Yes,” Ra
phael
agreed with a chuckle. “That is usually a sure fire way to start an accident.”

The tension lifted except between Rosalind and Tory who watched each other warily from across the table.
For one split second, Tory thought about letting it get swept under the table. She thought about leading the rest of her
and
Lee’s life together with her ignoring the other woman as she took pot shots at her. And in that moment she knew that she couldn’t. She might be about to stick her foot in her mouth and mess everything up but she wouldn’t go another second pretending.

“Rosalind,” Tory said,
cutting through the chatter. “S
ay what you’ve been dying to say all evening. I know you’ve been waiting for the best opportunity, so go ahead and get it off your chest.”

“I have nothing to say. But you sound like there is some
thing that you might want to get off your chest.
”

Kaye stood and ushered the young ones remaining at their seats around the card table to the other room to play video games.

“Rosalind, what are you doing?” Lee asked.

Papa
Torres stopped Mama Torres from intervening and the older couple remained quiet along with the other members of the family.

“It’s okay.” Tory said. “I do want to talk to you all. I know that some of you have voiced a concern about what happened the night of the accident. I know some of you are worried that I might not be responsible enough to be married to a visually impaired man.”

“Tory
, you owe no one an explanation-
” Lee began but she placed her hand on his.

“No honey, this needs to be said.” She looked at everyone around the table
. Macey gave her a
look of approval
. Tory allowed her eyes to rest
on Rosalind. “I’m not going to
meet a man that is visually impaired and just because I fall head over heels in love with him immediately know everything there is to know
about his blindness. But Lee
is a great teacher. He’s taught me how to dance like I’m Portuguese, and how not to move the furniture. He’s taught me how to accept…my shortcomings. I’ve taught him things too. I’ve taught him that his inability to see does not impact the love that a woman can have for him. Somehow I don’t think he’s learned that from…past relationships.” Someone snickered and Rosalind’s eyes flitted to that person.

“On the night of the accident, after we left the restaurant we walked to our car. We even stopped and kissed right there on the sidewalk.” Lee took her hand. “I remember thinking that I was the luckiest woman in the world. We got into the car and he reached out and took my hand as I drove. I looked at him and thought, he looks the way I feel.” Tory smiled to herself. “I never thought that I’d meet a man that could feel that way about me.” Lee squeezed her hand.

“I don’t know how long I looked at him; about as long as someone looks at their radio dial when they’re changing the channel, or glances in the back seat at their sleeping child, or at their cell phone when they missed a call. And then I heard a horn blow and I looked up just in time to see that car right there in front of us. How long does it take a car driving thirty miles an hour to drive a few yards? How much time do you need to spend the wheel?
I can’t answer those questions. All I know is that I turned the wheel hard and fast…but it wasn’t fast enough.

“So…there you have it. You decide what you need to decide. Lee and I have already talked about it and
he knows how I feel. I’m going to always doubt myself because of that night. But I’m also always going to adapt and learn from my mistakes. More importantly, I’m never going to worry about how you or anyone else feels about me. Lee loves me and that is all I need to make me happy.”

Rosalind looked around the table and then looked at Tory. “I know that you will be a good wife to Lee. You don’t need to prove anything to anyone.
I just hope that you and I can be friends-”

“No we can’t. But we don’t need to be enemies.” Tory said flatly.
See bitch, I don’t trust yo
u and now everybody knows it. Game over!

“Tory,” Rosalind said quickly, “I’m not trying to interfere in your life! We all love Lee and just want the best for him-”

“Rosalind!
Cala-te praí
!
This conversation is over!
She doesn’t want to be friends with you and that is it. For the rest of you, I need to tell you, that you are driving me NUTS! I can’t freaking breathe without one of you calling or stopping by! I love you, but this has to end! Now, I know
you worry but it’s not needed.”

There was some vocal disagreement and Lee argued back. Rosalind got up and left the table
. S
he collected her boys and then left the house.

“Lee, I can’t believe that you think that we can just turn off our love for you!” Francie stated.

“STOP IT!” Mr. Torres stood and slammed his fist on the table. “You children are worse than the ones playing in the other room!” He looked at Tory. “Please forgive us. You must think we’re a crazy family.”

She smiled. “A passionate family. A loving family…but yes, a little crazy, too.”

There was a single chuckle and then another and before they knew it they were all laughing. Tory leaned her head against Lee’s shoulders and held onto his arm. This was the crazy family that she desperately wanted to be a part of.

But if she was going to truly be a part of this family, she would need to learn to stop being so shy and to speak her mind. She smiled to herself. Somehow she thought that she would figure it out.

CHAPTER 18

When Monday rolled around Tory was happy to stretch in Lee’s bed and to snicker at the alarm clock. She should throw it out the window! She contemplated rolling over and going back to sleep but she did have some business to take care of. Tory planted a kiss on Lee’s lips, not waking him, and then she pulled on her robe and went into the other room to make a phone call.

She called her boss and told a little white lie. She said that due to her accident she would need to quit her job and that she was unable to give 2 weeks notice as she was still at home convalescing. She was surprised at the genuine sadness in her boss’ voice.

“We’ll miss you Victoria. You’re a very hard worker. Take care of yourself and I’ll be sure to have your final pay check mailed out to you.
”

“Thanks Harold. Sorry to leave you in a lurch.”
She felt bad, but not bad enough to go back to work.
She checked the time and knew that Mama would be awake so she decided to call her next.

“Hi Mom.”

“Hi, honey. How’re you feeling?”

“So much better.”

“That’s good.”

“Sorry that I’m just now getting back to you.
The family had
a going aw
ay dinner for Lee’s parents. The
y’re returning to the Azores.”

“
I like Lee’s family. They’re very
nice and they all genuinely like you.” Mama
’s words caused her to
beam. “Have you been using the spirometer?”

“Uh…” Damn she didn’t even have a lie prepared.

“Tory.” Mom said firmly. “Taking care of yourself is very important. If you don’t then you will have a set-back.” She made a face. Making love with Lee was the only lung exercise she needed, but s
he couldn’t say that to her mother
.

“I’m going to use it.”

Her mother paused. “Tory, I don’t want to upset you, but I don’t want this to turn into another situation like the last time.”

The breath caught in Tory’s throat and she was shocked into speechlessness that her mother would be bringing that up.

“You didn’t take care of yourself and then things got out of hand.”

“Mama, that’s not fair.” She whispered, squeezing her hand into a fist in her distress. “I was just 18. I was a kid-”

“Baby, I know. But you didn’t go to the hospital until it was too late
.
Honey, it could have ended up being a pregnancy or HIV. You could have lost your life instead of just an ovary to an untreated STD.
”

She didn’t want to talk about this. She desperately tried to think of a way to end this conversation. She didn’t want to go back there…

“It’s just that everything was worse because you didn’t take care of yourself and I just want to make sure that you do this time.”

She nodded quickly. “Yeah I will.”

“Tory…” her mother’s voice softened. “Does Lee know about…”

“I told him-”

“Even about
contracting
Chlamydia
and losing your fallopian tube to it
?”

“Mama, I’ll have to call you back!” Her stomach lurched and she dropped the phone and hurried to the bathroom where she became violently ill.
Why did she have to bring that up? She had spent so much time trying to put that behind her only to have it brought up while she was so vulnerable.
Thinking about that disease living in her body all of that time made her feel dirty again. She wasn’t dirty the way that disease made it seem.

After being sick
Tory turned on the shower and let the water run down her body, cleansing her, absolving her.

“Tory?” She jumped at the sound of Lee’s voice. “You’ve been in there forever. Are you okay, honey?”

She turned off the water. “Yes, I’m coming out.”

No. She was never going to tell Lee about this. Why should she?
Guilt caused her to become cold and to begin to shiver uncontrollably as she dried herself. The answer to that question was obvious; because she only had one ovary and Lee wanted a houseful of children
—and not just Lee, she wanted that too
.
But what if that
fucking disease cost her the ability to
have
babies? No, not the disease
,
but her own ignorance because she hadn’t wanted to face what had happened to her.

~***~

“Shall we go ring shopping today?” Lee asked as they sat at the table drinking coffee and eating danishes.

“What?”

Lee chuckled. “You are really out of it today. Are you feeling okay?”

“Yeah, I’m just…I quit my job this morning.”

“Did they hassle you?”

“No, it actually went pretty smooth.”

“Good. I wouldn’t want to have to pay them a visit. I can do a lot of damage with my cane.” Tory smiled and then reached for his hand and held it. “So, do you want to go ring shopping?”

She
forced herself to put her past behind her where maybe she could bury it again. She smiled at her man.
“Hell yeah!
Let’s go ring shopping!
”