Tim and Tina Ch. 05

"We're taking them to Buca di Beppo's," Tina tells me.

"I didn't bring any clothes to change into, shouldn't we go home?" I ask her.

"I've got you covered," she says holding her duffle bag up. "I put your deodorant and a change of clothes in here before we left home," she informs me.

"You think of everything, don't you?" I wink at her. I don't know why I've suddenly started winking at everybody; maybe it has to do with how happy I've been lately.

"Well, go get dressed; I'm going to give Daniel the mental notes I took during rehearsal."

"Okay," I say and take the bag to the guys' restroom. Inside I find a blue plaid shirt and black slacks. Thank God she didn't put a tie in there.

Once I'm dressed I walk out to the auditorium and hand her the bag. She takes off for the restrooms to change while I take a seat on the edge of the stage.

"Tim, you are amazing," the teacher says walking up behind me on the stage. Daniel looks up at her at the same time I do. "You got them to do so much today; I don't know what we would have done without you today. Jenny won't shut up about you; I think she's got a crush," she winks at me.

I laugh. "Too bad I've got a girlfriend," I tell her. "And you're welcome. I had a blast working with them. I may not be an actor, but I certainly enjoyed building the props for the play. I think they had a good time, too, despite the hard work."

"It sure sounds like it from the way they were chattering excitedly as they left for the night," she says sitting down on the stage next to me. I won't lie, for a woman in her mid-forties, she's very attractive. Not as much as Aunt Dana, but she's definitely easy on the eyes with her long, auburn hair, sparkling green eyes, curvy body and long legs. No other teacher in our school looks like her; she's the object of fantasy for many of the guys in our school.

"Well, I'm glad I was able to help out so much," I tell her.

"Talent must run in your family," she says. "Your sister is an incredible actress and a spectacular writer. I was amazed she came up with this story and script. It's almost like she lived it herself!" she compliments Tina to me.

"Well, our mom is very creative herself, and dad is great at anything he puts his mind to. So, I guess they passed those traits down to us."

"You know, I won't lie," she says under her breath. "When I first read the script, I thought she was writing about you and her in a way. I mean, you two are so close being twins and everything. It's such a beautiful story, though. I fell in love with it right away."

I shrug. "Well, I can't say that it's about us," I laugh.

"Of course you can't say," she winks at me and then stands up. "Have a good night, Tim," she says and I watch her leave. As I do, I catch Daniel staring at me and then his eyes grow as if he's put puzzle pieces together in his head.

"Shit," I say under my breath.

"Ready to go?" Tina asks, grabbing my attention.

I stand up quickly to take the bag from her but stop immediately in my tracks. She's in a simple outfit of a flowing purple skirt that sways gently at her knees and a black blouse, but she looks absolutely gorgeous to me. I look over my shoulder at Daniel and he's definitely put the pieces together. He's pointing at both of us but is speechless. Tina hands me the bag and rushes over to him.

"Daniel, please don't say anything. Nobody can know," she begs him.

"But, you're twins," he hisses quietly.

"Daniel, please," she begs again.

He shakes his head as if to bring him back to reality. "I won't say anything, but are you two sure you know what you're doing?" he asks.

I step up to him, nodding. "It's a lot to explain, but, I love her more than I've ever loved anybody," I say, slipping my arm around her waist.

"Then, you two need to be careful around here. If the teacher can figure it out, anybody who pays any attention at all will figure it out," he warns us, and then he smiles. "You two do look cute together; of course, you're twins so you look a lot alike already, so that helps. It doesn't hurt that you're both gorgeous," he says, standing up and gathering his things. "Your secret's definitely safe with me. I know what it's like to keep a crazy secret," he tells us.

"Thanks for understanding, Daniel," I thank him.

"Don't mention it. Have fun tonight!" he says and then leaves the building; we follow suit and rush to meet our parents for dinner.

"So, Dad thinks I have a girlfriend," I tell her on the drive. "He'll wonder why she's not with us and what her name is even."

"Tell him her name is Abby. That's my character's name in the play, he'll never pick up on it."

"Mom might," I say uncomfortably.

"Mom is more forgiving than Dad. If she knows anything, she'll be more likely to forgive us than Dad."

"If you say so," I say uncertainly, but I don't have any other ideas at the moment.

We arrive at the restaurant a little bit before our parents. When they walk in it seems we have accidentally matched each other. Dad is in a dark blue shirt with a matching tie and black slacks while Mom wears a beautiful purple dress almost the same shade as Tina's skirt. I laugh to myself at the coincidence.

"So, where's your new girlfriend?" Dad asks as soon as we sit down.

"Abby?" I ask, glancing at Tina out of the corner of my eye for a fleeting moment. "She, uh, couldn't make it."

"Oh? Why not?" he asks, sipping his wine.

"She had a family thing, too," I tell him as I try to suppress a laugh. He doesn't seem to notice, though.

"That's too bad. I would have liked to have met her," he says, setting his wine glass down.

"One day," I shrug and then sip my cola.

Conversation continues as normal the rest of our night out. As normally as possible, anyway. Tina's uncharacteristically quiet, while I'm the chatty one, and, call me paranoid, but Mom is suspiciously quiet as well. Though she tries to act normal, she's apparently not a very good liar tonight, so, I swear Mom's suspicious of us. I do my best to ignore it and act normal, though. Time will only tell if she knows something or not.

To Be Continued...