Celebrating

Tessa was proud of herself. She had been going to Dr. Navarro for months to work on her addiction, and today was the first day that she could see progress in the real world. Sessions at Dr. Navarro’s office had been hard at first. Finding the initiative to get up and bring herself to the office was a chore worthy of godhood in her eyes. If cleanliness is next to godliness, then punctuality is second best. However, despite her slow, groggy mornings, and mental protestations, she dragged herself to Dr. Navarro’s office week after week, and today, a Monday at that, she was able to abstain.

Tessa walked through the door of her apartment on the second floor dropping her bag off to the side with a clunk on the hardwood. The smell of incense danced into her nose as she passed through the hallway and into her bedroom. She went straight to the dresser and opened the top drawer. Moving aside some of the eclectic items that littered the drawer, she pulled the shoe box she had been looking for out onto the top of the dresser. Tessa removed the top to reveal an empty box. The box had been where she kept the items of her old life, but she had removed them at the request of Dr. Navarro. Now, this empty box would be where she would keep trophies to remind her that she had conquered that past addiction. She dropped a penny she had taken at the moment a craving had taken her earlier that day into the box and shut her eyes tightly. The moment came back to her in a rush, as waves of longing crashed over her and through her psyche. Her limbs trembled and her hands clenched to fists. She did the breathing exercises Dr. Navarro had taught her. Her feet stopped tapping on the floor and she was able to unclench her jaw.

A drink, she thought to herself. Tessa walked into the kitchen and got a rocks glass down from the shelf. She poured a whiskey, three fingers to be exact, and sat down at her kitchen table. She took a cigarette from a pack by the ashtray, lit the end, and took a long drag. She let the smoke out in a spray above her head. Holding up the glass she said out loud, “here’s to personal achievements big and small. In my case pretty damn big.” Tessa downed half the glass and continued smoking. A big smile spread across her face. 

As Tessa sat enjoying her drink, a knock sounded on the door. She finished the rest of her whiskey and smashed the cigarette into the ashtray. Before answering the door, she checked her reflection in the hallway mirror. She tossed her hair, cleared her eyes, and checked her nose, then pulled open the door to reveal her neighbor. The man standing before her wouldn’t be what those in the movie business would call hot, but they might have cast him for the dorky friend of the male lead. For Tessa’s casting purposes, she decided he was just the man. She never had any sort of crush on the guy, or any feelings whatsoever for that matter, but she thought to herself what the hell, I’m celebrating.

The neighbor gave some story about a party he was having and how he wanted to warn all of the neighbors, but Tessa barely listened to him. Only enough to seem like she was interested in him and to know when she could talk and invite him in. The man seemed happy enough to accept her invitation. The two of them sat down to the kitchen table and the bottle of whiskey. Tessa sneered when he asked for ice in his glass. They talked long enough to finish half of the bottle and end up in Tessa’s bed. It didn’t take long for them to reach the conclusion of their conversation until they were talking about other things while smoking under the quilted comforter. 

“Why don’t we get something a little harder to keep the party going?” Tessa suggested.

“What do you have in mind,” the neighbor replied.

“I know a guy I go to all the time, and hey, I’m celebrating today.”

“Oh? What’s the occasion?”

“My therapist and I have recently had a breakthrough.”

“At the risk of ruining a good thing, what was this breakthrough?”

“I tend to use men to make myself feel better,” Tessa said with a devilish grin. “I’ll hit up my guy, he delivers. In the meantime, how about another drink?”

“Do you have any tea?”

Tessa laughed but replied, “I can get down with some tea.”

Her neighbor watched as she leapt from the bed and paused in the doorway. “Be right back,” she said. “Don’t stop being cuter than you are right now.” She blew a kiss and skipped to the kitchen. She set the water to boil and placed tea bags into two mugs. Once the bubbles began disturbing the surface of the water, she turned off the heat and separated the water between the cups. Tessa hummed as she set her kitchen timer to four minutes. Her foot tapped and her fists clenched. She continued to hum as she shut her eyes tightly. The waves started to lap at her knees. The waves became stronger. Tessa hummed against the rising tide. The cabinet under her sink began to hum her tune back to her. Her eyes opened as the waves rose high enough to engulf her under their undulating waters. Tessa sprang to the sink and flung open the cabinet. The rat poison stared back at her. Her hands grasped her mouth as she suppressed a scream. 

The scream was subdued, but her hands moved with intentions of their own. Her fingers wrapped around the sides of the poison, and her arms pulled her towards the steeping cups of tea. At the last moment before the angle of the container reached the point of no return, she regained control and the waves subsided. Tessa slammed the rat poison on the counter spilling grains of the poison onto the counter and began to breathe normally again. Thank you Dr. Navarro.

As Tessa worked through her breathing exercises, the man entered the kitchen and saw the poison beside the cups. “Were you going to put rat poison in my tea?!” He screamed at her.

Tessa turned around with pride beaming across her face. “No!” She exclaimed with a wide grin across her face. “I don’t do that anymore!”