Tabbs

Chapter 17

Tabbs stared vacantly out the windshield of her sister's Honda Civic. It was a nice enough car, not as sci-fi as Valentina's car of course, but it at least had a bluetooth speaker connection paired with her phone and she could blast whatever music she wanted. A nice change from her old car, where if she wanted to play anything other then the one radio station her radio got, she had to put her phone in the cup holder and play her tunes on speaker. Still, she couldn't bring herself to care much about the music, the road ahead of her, or much of anything. Valentina had been dodging her for days, and Tabbs hadn't mustered up the courage to swing by her apartment. She didn't know what to say, or even what to think.

All she knew was she had to get out of town, even if it was just for a day. With her car out of commission and rendered a rusting heap in her parking lot, she asked to borrow her sister's car. Gen was reluctant at first, but figured that since she had to work from home after the startup's office was forced to close, it wouldn't be too bad of an arrangement. Tabbs did feel bad for her sister's misfortune, and couldn't help but to think about how that inheritance money would have been a miracle for them both. But what could they do against Helen? What could they ever have done? Thoughts rolled around in Tabbs' head like tack-covered marbles, each one rolling into one another and sticking painfully at the front of her brain. She blamed the ensuing headache on her hangover and had popped enough ibuprofen to make a horse spin.

The beach was a fine enough place as any for a day trip, but it was only halfway there that Tabbs realized she hadn't brought a single thing that was beach appropriate. Then again, the spontaneous day trip wasn't just to get a new tan, it was also because she had messaged her former keyboardist, Dot, near the beginning of the this whole fiasco... and finally got a response. Dot had told Tabbs that she was indeed still living in the same town she went to college in and had a job at the marine biology institute now. As to meeting up, she was all for the idea. Perhaps even over tea and scones at a local cafe. Tabbs said it sounded good, though she wasn't entirely sure what the hell a scone was, but she trusted Dot's taste well enough.

Either way, a few hours later, there Tabbs was, pulling up to the cafe Lacroix Patissier. It appeared to be a converted beach house, stout and painted with various mixtures of pinks and light blues - a typical beach side attraction. Cars lined the tiny parking lot, a few with surfboards mounted on tall racks. A few other vehicles looked closer to motorized bikes and golf cars than cars, but she supposed it was different here on the coast. Hard pressed to find a spot, Tabbs parked on a dirt mount adjacent to another parked car, hoping the meter maids were mentally on island time as much as they were physically. She got out of the car and her face was immediately assaulted by a blazing sun and sea breeze. She could smell the turning waves of the ocean, and heard the shouts of the people on the beach only a few hundred yards away.

Tabbs shut the car door, locked it, and ascended up the stairs to the upper portion of the building where the cafe was. A line longer than Tabbs had ever seen at her work was jutting out the door, comprised entirely of half-dressed people with sun-burnt flesh. She peered past the crowd and spotted several baristas busting their asses behind a tiny counter in the even tinier kitchen area. Every which way were signs about ice cream, fancy looking little sandwiches, and even a wine menu. A significant portion of the little house was opened up to the outside via a spanning wrap-around deck where dozens of filled tables were shaded under wide, colorful umbrellas.

Tabbs glanced at her phone and saw a few missed messages from Dot. The first said she was there, another that she... saw her? Tabbs glanced in every direction and finally spotted a familiar bobbing head of copper hair waving her down from the front most part of the deck. Tabbs waved back and navigated her way through the wall of humanity. Dot met her halfway and surprised her with a big bear hug that squeezed the air out of Tabbs' lungs.