Page 1 of A Spot of Tea
One
Getting unstuck is no small task, and Eliza was never more aware of that fact as she unpeeled last year’s tax return from a sheet with her old SAT results.
She tugged, and the SAT paper gave way first, a hole tearing just above the spot where her score was listed:1550.
“Almost perfect,” her dad had said when he saw it.
Had that been eight years ago? Or nine? When she was still a bright-eyed high school student, her life spread out ahead of her like a web of invisible opportunities.
She dropped the tax return on top of her college transcript. Five semesters completed. Five years since she’d dropped out.
Five yearsstuck.
Her life didn’t have endless, branching possibilities anymore. With each passing year, the potential future lives fell away, their hollow tree limbs crashing to the ground and splintering to dust at her feet.
Eliza picked up the pile of papers. She wasn’t going to live in a forest of her mistakes. Her legs weren’t stuck in the ground. All she needed was initiative, and she would get herself unstuck.
Or at least she’d cause alotof trouble, which sometimes, was the same thing.
It was a blessing, really, that Eliza didn’t see any of it coming. If she had, she may never have left the house at all.
She couldn’t stand any delay. Eliza couldn’t even imagine eating breakfast, her stomach flipping as she descended the stairs, the scent of frying butter filling her nostrils.
Granny Patty didn’t notice her until she opened the front door.
“Wait!” She called out from the kitchen. “I’m making omelets!”
“Sorry, Granny. I have to run to the bank before opening the tea shop.” Eliza held onto the doorknob, her breaths hitching against the nausea building in her core. “I’ll eat when I get back.”
She slipped outside. The cool April air filled her lungs and stilled her stomach. Sunrise was well under way, and the ocean sparkled blindingly as she got into her car.
I guess it’s a nice place to run away from your problems…
Her dad’s voice kept popping into her head like a catchy song. She sighed and started the engine.
He was the spark for all this upheaval. Eliza had been happy. The work she’d put into Granny’s tea shop was paying off. They were bringing in new customers, sending out orders. Eliza had been able to save a little bit of money.
Then, it happened again, that unwanted day that marked her life for all to see.
Her birthday.
Her dad had called early that morning. “I’m glad you’re having fun, Eliza, but you’re twenty-five. You’re growing up. Are you planning to work at that tea shop forever?”
She’d laughed, as she’d learned to do whenever her heart was punctured. “Of course not.”
It wasn’t his fault for stating the obvious. If it weren’t true, it wouldn’t have hurt. She couldn’t blame him for her decision to drop out of school and lose her full-ride scholarship.
How was he supposed to know about the deep well of shame she kept locked in her soul? After all, she kept it covered with jokes and movie quotes. It was better camouflaged than a nest of baby rabbits in the spring, and far less adorable.
Eliza pulled into the parking lot of Pebble Bay Bank. She probably should have made an appointment, but the last time she’d done that, she couldn’t bring herself to go inside.
This time, she was doing it on the fly, before she could practice answering the questions the loan officer would be too polite to ask. “Why would you drop out? Do you even have a plan for your life?”
Eliza shut off her car. There was no point imagining conversations. No one cared about her personal life. This wasn’t a morality center. It was a bank. The opposite of moral, historically speaking.
She got out of the car, straightened her shoulders, and stopped. A white pickup truck stood in front of the bank, blocking the ATM, its back tire lifted onto the sidewalk.
Eliza edged toward it, following the sound of grunting until she saw a man wheeling himself in a wheelchair. He stopped at the cab of the truck, tugging at the strap of a bag.
