He managed to make it all of two days before masturbating to the thought of Elena's naked body perched on the edge of his table, and five days before talking to Alice.
"Elena stopped by, you know, the other night," he mentioned casually as they were hauling tote boxes from the back loading area after a catering event the night before.
"Really?" Alice asked breathlessly as she lifted a heavy box.
"Yeah. I cooked for her, like you said."
"I'm surprised she didn't mention it," Alice remarked, setting her box on the floor.
Thad considered how to make his next move. He had to be very careful here to get what he wanted.
"Probably because I was sort of an ass."
"Regular-you-ass or pissed-you-ass?"
He scrunched his face in fake ire, making Alice smile.
"The pissed version. It was the night Gerry quit on me. And she came over really late, at like 11, with no ride home."
"She stays too late at school, I've told her. It's not fair to her driver to have such late hours. But what do I know about the life of an
artist,
" Alice laughed, flicking her hand with dainty flair.
"Yeah she mentioned that, learning to drive," Thad said, trying to muster a casual tone and quell his excitement.
"I guess I mentally erased driver's ed. She needs something wild like 50 hours with a licensed driver."
"She didn't drive in Brazil?"
"Apparently Elena drove a motorcycle, unlicensed."
"What?" Thad asked, suddenly upset. Alice looked over at him.
"You know that's possible, right? For a woman to drive a motorcycle?"
Thad pursed his lips, saying nothing, feeling how close he was to destroying his carefully spun web.
"Anyway, Mateo insisted she learn how to drive. From what the driver tells me, she's pretty aggressive."
Yeah, he didn't doubt that for a minute.
"She can't practice with a paid chauffeur," he said. "He's never going to tell her if she's breaking the laws."
"What, you offering yourself?"
Thad schooled himself to remain nonchalant, unpacking a tote and setting out its contents.
"I never said that."
"Yeah, but you taught Javi and Enzo to drive way back when."
Thad swallowed, feeling Alice fall unawares into his trap. Yes, the Honduran twin brothers who had worked for them back when the restaurant was new. He had taught them to drive, painstakingly, and had found it surprisingly rewarding. Alice had gushed over it, praising him endlessly, as if it was the first nice thing she'd ever seen him do. And maybe it had been. Thad's own memories of learning to drive with his older brother had been important to him. It wasn't a thing to be taken lightly.
"Way back when, exactly," he shrugged.
"You were so patient with them, they talked about it all the time, how great you were."
Thad said nothing, crouching and stowing pots and pans in the cabinets under the island.
"And Elena does need someone who can set her straight. If she gets in an accident, Mateo will be furious."
"At her, or at the other guy?" Thad laughed.
"Both," Alice said seriously. "He's super protective of her. I can tell she doesn't like it."
Thad stood up, interested. Alice was leaning against the island, as if she'd known he'd take this bait.
"What, she rebels?"
"Kind of. I can hear them fighting sometimes, in Portuguese. Mateo won't tell me about what, just says that Elena's still angry about how he left Brazil. But that doesn't make sense, you know, because now Elena left too. So there has to be more than that, but I can tell not to press him. Afterwards he's so broody, and he gives her a long leash for a while."
Thad shifted his stance slightly towards the table, the thought of Elena on a leash a bit too enticing for work hours.
"Don't worry about it," Thad reassured Alice, something he did often. "They've been apart a long time. They need time to figure out how to be a family again."
Alice looked at him again, her eyes lingering on his face, and Thad wondered what he'd said.
"I wish she'd confide in me a little," Alice confessed softly. "I really would try to understand. But she sees me as 'team Mateo,' you know, and keeps her distance."
"It's not like you go running to people for comfort when you're upset."
"True," she laughed.
"Things will get easier. Especially when she isn't stuck in that ridiculous mansion, talking to statues for company."
Alice laughed again. They felt the same way about Mateo's rather ostentatious displays of wealth.
"Exactly. Which is why she needs that license. And why she needs
you
to help get her there faster."
Help get her there faster
, he thought, squeezing his calves to calm his dick down. If he had a hard on in front of Alice, he'd curl up and die. God, he was going crazy.
"Well, maybe I can stop by Thursday. She said she drives then, and it'll be slow here."
He chose not to look at Alice just then, worried he'd see a sly little smirk on her face, now that he'd shown his hand.
"She'll probably tell me to fuck off, if I'm honest," he laughed to himself.
"You must have been in some mood," Alice said, and he thought he detected suspicion in her tone.
"Well, let's see," he drawled, pulling on an apron as if to signal the conversation was almost over.
"I yelled at her, and called her stupid for taking the streetcar at night, cooked her a meal she didn't particularly like, and then made her leave." The last part was a lie, but it seemed better than to admit he forced her to accept a ride home.
Alice's eyebrows rose. "Wow, you
are
a gem."
Thad laughed in earnest. Alice always knew how to make him laugh.
He turned away, slipping earbuds in as he turned to the mixer to start some dough. Alice knew the signal well, and began her own work. They said nothing more about it, and, seed planted, now all Thad had to do was wait.
***
"What is this?" Elena asked when she saw him from the top of the staircase.
Thad shifted his weight, his hands shoved in his jean pockets.
"I told Alice I'd take you for driving practice. Give your chauffeur a break."
Elena descended, her hand sliding on the bannister. Inexplicably, Thad felt again surprised by her changed appearance. She wore gray lounge pants and a baby pink hooded sweatshirt with LAX screen printed in big white letters. Her hair was up in a high ponytail, and he wished it was down. He liked it down. The outfit made her look younger than she said she was, younger than the woman's body he knew hid underneath.
She waited until she was off the last step before speaking to him. Thad resented her willpower.
"Is that right? You're here to do a little volunteer work?"
Thad stiffened, telling himself to give her the benefit of the doubt. English was her second language, after all.
"Not volunteering, helping out a friend."
"Oh, so we are friends?" No doubt about that one. Her tone was icy.
"I'd like us to be."
She said nothing to this, looking him up and down for a long while. Glancing down at himself, he half expected a mustard stain or something.
"Every time I see you, you look different," she murmured, and he felt his heart drum loudly in his chest.
