But Grace insisted on it. No talking, no nothing. Just turn off and pretend her daughter didn't exist. Alan wanted to end it with Teresa before Grace made her pleasant offer of flesh for flesh but he didn't want to make an enemy of her. He knew he could have somehow stopped the relationship with Teresa in a much nicer way.
Teresa was fuming mad as she went into the bathhouse. He hadn't even looked at her! The dirty bastard was acting like she didn't even exist! With no explanation why! She stomped in her bare feet to the sauna and jerked open the door. It was a board-lined cubbyhole with a wooden bench on one end. She stepped inside, locked the door and turned the heat up to the maximum.
She plopped down on the bench and started to cry. Why won't he say anything? she asked herself. What did I do to him? One day we're as close as any two people can get and the next day I'm not even alive! She slammed her hand down on the bench and sniffed back the tears.
There was a knock on the door. 'Teresa? Are you in there?' came a voice.
Teresa wiped her eyes. It was Eileen. She opened the door and said, 'Hi.'
'Can I join you?' asked Eileen.
Teresa stepped back. 'Sure, come on in, but lock the door so on one else comes in.'
'Sure.' Eileen locked the door and sat on the bench next to Teresa. 'I wondered where you went. You just took off out at the pool.'
Teresa nodded. 'Yeah, I'm sorry. I was upset and just wanted to get away.'
'Alan?' Eileen asked.
Teresa drew her lips together. Yeah.'
'Is he still giving you the cold shoulder?'
'More than ever. I just don't understand why!' Teresa let her fist pound down on the bench.
After a pause Eileen pushed her red hair away from her forehead and said, 'I think I do.'
'You do?'
She nodded. 'But I don't know how to tell you. It's just something I heard Johnny say. It might not mean anything… '
'What?' asked Teresa.
'I didn't think it was anything, didn't think it was possible… But yesterday I kept my eyes open and now I think it could be true… '
'For God's sake, Eileen, will you tell me what you're talking about?'
Eileen paused, inhaled, then said, 'Your mom.'
'My mom? What's she got to do with this?'
'Well… you know how we sort of suspected she and Johnny had a thing going?'
'An affair? Yes, I remember that.'
Suddenly Eileen was talking a mile a minute as the momentum of gossip took over. 'Well, the day before yesterday I was in the room near the bar and I heard him talking with some guy. The guy was asking him how things were going with Grace. Johnny didn't really answer directly, he said, just said your mom was a nice lady.'
'So?' asked Teresa.
Eileen held her hand up. 'But the guy kept asking-you know how guys talk-until Johnny said Grace was her own woman and could do what she wanted. The guy at the bar laughed and accused Johnny of trying to hide the fact that she dumped him cold.'
'Really?' asked Teresa.
Eileen nodded. 'She must have because he didn't say anything else except…'
'Except what?'
Eileen was serious. 'I don't know if you're going to like this or not but I'm just telling you because you're my good friend and I think you ought to know.'
'Will you tell me?'
'He said your mom lost her interest in the bartender and was now interested in the pool-tender.'
'Pool-tender?'
'I wondered what he meant,' continued Eileen. 'So yesterday I kept one eye open and saw Alan go to your mom's office in the afternoon. He was in there for two and a half hours!'
Teresa sat up straight until her back pressed against the hot boards of the sauna. The heat was stifling, cooking. She held her lips together tightly in an effort to keep from yelling out with fury. But the anger overpowered her lips and she shouted, 'That bitch!'
'I'm not sure now' added Eileen quickly. 'I'm just telling you what I saw…'
'That bitch!' screeched Teresa. She jumped to her feet and took the five paces to the door before collapsing against it and cursing again. 'Of course… That explains everything. She kept asking me what I saw in Alan, kept trying to tell me I could do so much better… The bitch!'
'You think she made a play for Alan to break you guys up?' asked Eileen.
'I'm sure of it! That's just the kind of filthy trick she'd pull on me! She must have told him he could fuck her anytime and any way he wanted if he dropped me! The bitch! I'll get her for this!'
'What can you do?' asked Eileen. 'He took her up on the offer, didn't he?'
'I'll fix him too!'
'How?'
Teresa sat back down. 'I don't know but I'll think of something. First, I want to get back at her. Who the hell does she think she is? Fucking around with a bartender, cheating on my father like some whore and having the gall to decide who is good enough for me?'
'That is pretty hypocritical,' said Eileen.
'Hypocritical? That bitch is just trying to manipulate me, trying to keep me pure and clean so some rich asshole son of a millionaire will marry me! That's her game. Get married to some dumbbell, then fuck the lifeguard, the bartender, the milkman!'
'Gee, you're mad,' remarked Eileen.
'You bet I am!' Teresa's eyes lit up. 'I know what I'll do! I'll really get her goat!'
'What? What'll you do?'
Teresa laughed and laid her head back against the wall. A thick coating of perspiration covered her broiling body. 'I'm gonna let her have her lifeguard… But instead of finding myself some nice, cultured young man I think I'll go for a tall, dark bartender.'
Eileen's eyes widened and she leaned forward with her mouth open. 'Johnny? You're going to go after your mother's lover?'
'Ex-lover,' Teresa calmly said.
'Wow,' said Eileen. 'She'll blow her stack.'
Teresa chuckled. 'That's what's so great about it, she can't do a damned thing. Can you imagine her admitting that she had an affair with Johnny? Can you see her trying to tell me to cool it? Ha! I'll laugh in her face!'
'You'll have an affair with Johnny just to get revenge on her?'
Teresa smirked. 'No, not just revenge. I've always wondered what it would be like to sleep with him. I bet he knows his stuff all right… '
'Yeah, he's been around I'll bet. I guess it could be fun.'
Suddenly Teresa turned to her friend and smiled. 'How would you like to help?'
'Me? What can I do?' asked Eileen.
'Just screwing around with Johnny won't be enough revenge,' said Teresa. 'I want to teach her a real good lesson.'
'What else can you do? What can I do?'
Teresa said it coldly. 'Have an affair with my father.'
Eileen's mouth fell open. 'What?'
'Make a play for my dad. You told me hundreds of times you think he's real nice, very handsome.'
'Yeah, but… but… ' Eileen stammered. 'I just can't go up to him and suggest we fuck!'
'Why not? If I know him he'll laugh it off and say something real charming. Then ten minutes later he'll suggest a time and place.'