Keeping Kama

Chapter 18

Early in the morning, Leia exited her apartment, hiking up her purse on her shoulder. Leia calculated the time difference between her and Derek. If she texted him when she arrived at school, he should be available. Leia walked past her parents’ house toward her car. Up on the lanai sat Noa in one of the wingback chairs, Leia waved, wondering if Teresa was outside or inside.

On the far side of the front yard, Leia saw Teresa pulling weeds. Leia approached her and asked, “Mom, why are you out here so early?” Leia peered from Teresa to the ocean. Slowly, the sun inched upward, warming her body.

Teresa stood with a bunch of weeds in her hands. “Noa couldn’t sleep, and I was sick of trying to sleep myself. So, we watched the sunrise together. Then I decided to get to these weeds before I head inside to make some breakfast.” Without glancing at her, Teresa took her handful over to a big pile, Teresa tossed the ones in her hands on top. Teresa brushed past Leia, returning to her original spot.

Her icy demeanor wasn’t lost on Leia. She chose to ignore it. The sunlight blinded her, Leia dug around in her purse until she found her sunglasses and put them on. “I’m off. I need to get to work a little bit earlier to run off some copies before the bell rings.”

The smell of manure tickled Leia’s nose. Back on her knees, Teresa aggressively yanked out another weed. “Mila said she and Bane had a nice time the other night …” Teresa’s voice drifted off. She tossed the weed she pulled into the pile. “But she said you told Bane there wasn’t anything left between you both.”

Leia pinched the bridge of her nose. “I can see you’ve been busy,” replied Leia.

“No, Mila texted me on her own. I think she had as high hopes for you two rekindling your old flame, as I did,” said Teresa.

“I’m sorry,” Leia fidgeted with her purse, finally pulling out her keys. She continued, “to disappoint you.”

Out popped another stalk, Teresa moved onto the next one. “I hope Derek’s worth it.” She didn’t look back at Leia, but instead kept her gaze on her flower bed.

“He’s worth it,” said Leia.

With an edge, Teresa stated, “But he lives in Los Angeles, Leia. I think Derek is a nice guy, but …” aggressively Teresa used both her hands to tackle a deep-rooted weed, “you live here. How will you ever be together?”

Defensively, Leia squared her shoulders, Leia said, “He’s going to run the Honolulu marathon with me.”

The weed in Teresa’s hands dropped back into the overturned dirt. Teresa leaned back on her heels. “Then what?” She used the back of her wrist to swipe at the sweat glistening on her brow. A pointed glance over Teresa’s shoulder made Leia cower for a second. “So, he comes for a weekend. It doesn’t change anything.”

“It could change everything,” said Leia.

Leia wanted to go on, laying out her carefully crafted reasoning, but she didn’t have anything to back up her presumption that Derek returning could fix their insurmountable distance.

Clearly exasperated, Teresa wiped her dirty hands on her jogger pants and asked, “How?”

Leia tossed up a hand, making her keys jangle. “It just will. I need to go. I don’t want to talk to you about Derek anymore, so please don’t bring it up. If I have something to share, then I will.”

“It’s your life,” muttered Teresa.

“It is,” said Leia, forcing herself to keep her voice even and undeterred. “I’ll see you later.” Leia waved at Noa then turned and walked the remaining distance to her car.

Her stomach soured as she swung open her car door. Was Leia wasting time on Derek? She climbed inside, tossing her purse on the empty seat. Maybe. Did she care? Not currently. With a swirling mess of thoughts, Leia drove to work.

Luckily, with her teaching job, Leia’s day sped by without much time to dwell on things out of her control. After locking up her classroom, Leia finally dug out her phone from her purse to call Derek. Readjusting her purse, Leia pulled up Derek’s number and hit call, placing the phone to her ear.

Derek picked up on the second ring. “Leia,” he said breathlessly.

Walking toward the school parking lot, Leia asked, “Are you okay? You sound like you’re working out.”

Laughing, Derek replied, “I am. I decided to start my marathon training. Right now, I’m running through Boston Common. With the time change, I couldn’t drag myself out of bed this morning, so I decided to run at night instead. Luckily, I have my earbuds in so we can keep talking.”

A co-worker passed. Leia waved but didn’t stop talking. She continued, “Are you sure you can run and talk?” asked Leia.

“No,” chuckled Derek. “But it’s freezing here. If I stop running, I’ll no longer be able to feel my fingers or toes. Plus, I have a long way to go with such a tight schedule I need to be running fourteen miles by next week. Then I’ll add two miles a week till I reach twenty.”

“And to think only a brief time ago you could barely run three to four miles. I’m impressed. Maybe you are more athletic than I thought,” said Leia.

“Are you complimenting me?” asked Derek.

Smiling, Leia arrived at her car. “I believe I am.” She opened her car door and climbed inside.

“I knew it,” said Derek. Leia could hear him smiling on the other end. Clearing his throat, Derek continued, “I’ll be back in Los Angeles in the next day or two. Then the time difference will be back to only three hours apart.”

Exhaling, Leia gripped the steering wheel with her free hand. “Only three hours. It still feels too far for me.” A long pause on the other side of the phone made Leia double check the connection. “Are you still there?”

“I’m here,” said Derek. “I’m trying to get closer to you, Leia. Please just hold out a little longer until I sort everything out. I’ll try to stay longer than a few days for the marathon.”

“Could you stay until Christmas? The marathon is on December 10. I know that’s two more weeks, but I’d love for you to be here. My whole big extended family gets together at Kama on Christmas Eve. My uncle and a few of my cousins play songs on their ukuleles, and we sing Christmas songs together after a big feast,” said Leia.

“I can’t remember the last time I celebrated Christmas with anyone,” replied Derek. “I’ll see what I can do. I’d love to spend Christmas with you and your family. Thank you for the invitation.”

“Kai should have the farm tours working smoothly by then, too.” Leia couldn’t hide the pleasure from her voice. “I think you’ll be pleased with what he’s done.”

“I’m sure,” said Derek. “I’m glad he’s found a way to keep the farm up and running.”

Leia bit her tongue, she wanted to tell Derek she knew about his investment in the farm. But for whatever reason, Derek didn’t want Leia to know so she chose to respect his decision instead of trying to over-analyze it.

Instead, Leia asked, “So, you’ll do it? You’ll stay for Christmas?”

“Let me check with Tyson, and I’ll let you know as soon as I can,” said Derek.

A tapping at her car window interrupted their conversation. Leia saw her co-worker on the other side of her car door. “I need to run. A co-worker needs to speak to me. I’ll talk to you soon,” said Leia.

With real hope, Leia ended the call with Derek, rolling down her window.