Chapter Text
Chapter 7
Teresa woke up stiff as a board on the couch in the top floor lounge. She hurt all over, the couch definitely wasn't made for sleeping on for long periods of time. Just then Teresa flashes back to the first time her and James made love on the very same couch. He held her close to him for a while until they had moved to her room for the night, because that couch wasn't made for 2 people or for long periods of sleeping. She also didn't want Pote to find them.
Teresa shakes her head to clear her thoughts, she blames it on the dreams she had about him. She was utterly screwed she was engaged to one man while having sexual and romantic dreams about another. She didn't know what she was going to do, but just like she told Pote Devon had to be dealt with first, than she would figure out what to do about Javier and James.
She stands up stretching, trying to work the kinks out of her neck. She shakes it off, folding the afghan and makes her way downstairs. She slowly walks to her room, and opens it to see Javier passed out on the bed with an empty bottle of whiskey on his chest. She takes and puts the Teresa closed the door sighing deeply. She walks over picking up the bottle, setting it on the end table. She sees that's it's almost 8:00 and she’s not sure she should wake him up. She quietly makes her way to her closet, changing to get ready to leave for the Winery. She wanted to go in early to catch up on some paperwork.
Teresa makes it downstairs to see Pote at the stove, he was making eggs and sausage. She sits down at the table and Pote comes over to her asking her what she would like.
“Just some toast will be fine Pote.”
He grunts in annoyance but doesn't say anything.
A few minutes later James makes his way into the kitchen. He hesitates to talk to Teresa.
“Are you going into the Winery early?”
Teresa nods her head, “Yeah I have some stuff that I need to catch up on.”
James grabs a quick cup of coffee and a toasted bagel to eat. “Do you think you can give me a ride to the dealership? I have a car waiting to be picked up. I hate rushing and you know Charger barely makes it on time.”
Teresa finishes off her morning tea and takes a couple more bites of her toast, “Sure. I am ready to leave anyways.” James tosses the rest of his bagel out and dumps his coffee following Teresa out the door.
Pote watches the exchange and he was going to offer to take James, but he decided not too. Teresa was in a pretty big hurry to leave so early in the morning. He heard Javier come in late last night and he was pretty sure Teresa didn't sleep in her room.
He watches as Teresa and James head out the door together, just like they did countless times before.
Teresa keys in the code to the garage, “So what kind of car are you getting?”
“With all the money that's been sitting in my account, I am going with a 2019 Dodge Challenger.”
Teresa gets in the car, and James follows suit. She backs out of the driveway heading for the Phoenix dealership. She passes a Hardees on the way.
“I know you didn't eat much earlier, if you stop at Hardees, I’ll buy.”
Teresa’s stomach embarrassingly rumbles at that. “I could so go for a monster biscuit...and hash rounds.”
James laughs at that, “I’m surprised Pote has figured out you hardly eat his eggs because he always over cooks them.”
Teresa laughs at that, “He can cook anything else and it's amazing, but eggs, he can't cook to save his life.”
“I thought he had us caught when you made breakfast for us for a whole week.”
“I even bought him a book all about eggs!”
James cracks up at that.
Teresa pulls into the fast food restaurant and orders 2 monster biscuits, 2 large hash rounds, and 2 coffees. James hands her over the money and they wait for their food and goes to park by the little park a few blocks down. Teresa hands James his food and she digs into hers, moaning deeply.
“Oh my god I have missed these.” She says in between bites.
They eat in comfortable silence, watching as the ducks swam in the pond.
Just then the silence is broken by a loud buzzing. She pulls her phone out and sees it's Javier calling. She sighs sending the call to voicemail.
“I’m not ready to have another fight with him.” She didn't mean to say it outloud but she did.
James isn't sure what to say, so he takes a sip of his coffee to wash down the sandwich, “I take it dinner didn't go well.”
Teresa finished off her own food and was working on the crispy hash rounds, “Understatement of the year.”
“You know before we were together, we were friends. You can talk to me.”
“Thanks but it's okay.”
“What about being friends?”
Teresa takes a sip of her own coffee cleaning up the trash in her car, “I would like that.”
James nods, “Me too.”
They sit for a few minutes letting their food digest and watch as squirrels chase each other back and forth. They were both content.
Teresa looks at the radio and sees it almost 9:00. “We should get going, the dealership opens at 9 right?”
“Yeah, I just have to sign a few things and then I will be at the Winery.”
“What color did you go with?”
“White. I’m tired of dark colored cars.”
Teresa heads back to the dealership and pulls in. She doesn't see anyone inside yet, so they wait in her Lexus. James sees the car in the first row. He points it out.
“It’s that one.”
Teresa sees it was all white with a thick black racing stripe down the middle.
“Reminds me of the one we took going to the cemetery before we were ambushed by Birdman’s men.”
“Yeah I still got the scars from those damn pellets.”
Teresa blurts out, “I remember.”
James just looks at her and they are both thinking the same thing. It was the only time they had gotten to spend a lazy day in bed, and Teresa had mapped out every tattoo, scar, or mole on his body, he got to return the favor later on.
Teresa feels the awkward silence in the car, luckily she is saved when they see the dealer unlock the doors. James gets out thanking Teresa and goes inside. Teresa shakes her head trying to clear her thoughts. It was too easy to fall back in sync with each other, it was like he never left. She drives off heading to the Winery to get the day started.
~~~~~~
Javier woke up a little before 8:30 with a raging headache. He ended up passing out with his body laying half on the bed. He barely got his boots off before crashing on the side of the bed. He knew he wasn't being fair to Teresa last night, but she can't see that James has ulterior motives. Still he shouldn’t have treated her like that last night.
He grabs a shower hoping to rid the hangover he was having. He quickly got dressed making his way downstairs to catch Teresa. He walks into the kitchen and sees Pote enjoying a morning cup of coffee.
“Hey Big man, you seen Teresa?”
Just then Charger came in, “Have you guys seen James? He was supposed to ride with me.”
Pote takes a sip of coffee, “Teresa took James to the dealership so he could pick up his car.”
Javier looks at his watch and tries calling her, he hears her voicemail pick up, so he just turns on his heels and makes his way to his bike. He would try and smooth things over with her when he gets to the Winery.
Javier pulls into the lot a little after 9, he sees Teresa’s car was already in the parking lot. He parks next to her, heading inside. He notices no one is there yet, so he makes his way upstairs to her office. He opens the closed office door and sees Teresa slightly jump, reaching for the gun she had hidden under her desk.
Javier smirks at that, “It's just me babe.”
Teresa sighs, “Sorry.”
Javier walks over and takes a seat in front of her. “No, I’m the one who’s sorry.”
Teresa nods her head, “There really is nothing that is going to happen with James. I just thought he could help around here since he knows about everything. He is going to be the one that can help me take down Devon for good.”
Javier pulls out a cigarette, “I will be honest, I don't like it. But I understand we need to get Devon out of our lives. It’s just you and James have this long history that I don't know how to handle. I saw the way he was around you when I first got here. You never told me what exactly happened between you two…”
“Because it's not important, he left and I moved on.”
Javier stares at her for a minute, “Okay.”
Teresa stands and makes her way over to him.
“Look James is always going to be a part of my life, before we were together, we were partners and foremost friends. So as his friend, I helped him with Devon by deciding to stay, and in return he is going to help me get rid of my Devon problem. There is nothing else to it. James had always been an asset here, and it would be stupid of me to waste it.”
Javier stands in front of her, he takes her left hand in his and kisses it softly. “You’re right.”
He moves in closer and kisses Teresa on the lips, and pulls her to him. “I love you Teresa and I couldn't bear the thought of losing you.”
Teresa nods in his chest, hugging him back.
~~~~~~
James got in his brand new Charger and saw he had about 20 minutes until he had to get to the Winery so he decided to test out the engine on the back roads behind the Winery. He rolled down the windows and just let the fresh air in. Man did he miss this. Devon never let him drive, he was always surrounded by 4-6 guys and they crammed into black panel vans. He hated not having freedom. Thanks to teresa he was slowly getting that back. He was in a really good mood today, maybe it had something to do with him finding Teresa last night, or how they had breakfast together like they used to always do. Laughing and making jokes about Pote’s cooking. It felt like the old times. He missed those times the most.
He knew her and Javier were having problems, and he knew he was probably the center of it. He hated how he treated Teresa. He never opened doors for her and he treated her more like his property than his fiancé. He was almost like another Guero. He’s not sure why Teresa was with him, maybe it was the security he offered with his last name, or that he was there was James left her. He wasn't sure, but the little bit of time he had spent with Teresa, every single feeling and emotion came back. He had never loved anyone as much as he loves Teresa. It was just going to take some time for her to realize it herself. He wasn't going to leave Teresa again, he was going to prove to her that she can trust him.
James sees her has about 10 minutes to get back to the Winery so he turns the car around burnin rubber as he goes. He loved this car and when he saw it he immediately flashed back to the times Teresa and him were in the one in Dallas. He loved that car, until they wrecked it. He smiled as he thought back to this morning, when he brought up the scars he had, and how it was Teresa that remember the exact time when she got to discover all the scars that were on his body. He knew she still cared, and the more time they spent together the more she would realize he was the only one for her.
He sped his way back to La Perla Blanca and parked a few rows down from Teresa. He gets out flipping his keys as he walks into the building He walks in and sees Charger waiting on a barstool by the bar.
“Yo James! I thought you were riding with me?”
“Sorry man, I needed my own wheels.”
He looks up as he hears Teresa’s voice, he looks up towards her office and sees her and Javier walk out together. He watches as Javier bends down and kisses her then heads down to the staircase. Teresa meets James’ eyes and just walks back into her office closing the door.
Charger picking up on the awkwardness, stands up. “C’mon I’ll introduce you to Tito and the rest of the crew. Charger leads him downstairs and he follows Charger over to a kid sitting back on the barstool playing some kind of portable game.
“Tito, meet my man James. He will be running with you on deliveries , while helping out around here.”
Tito sets down his game and stands to shake James’ hand.
“Good to meet you, I have heard a lot about you.”
“All good I hope.” James jokes.
Tito nods his head and sits back down playing his Nintendo Switch.
James and Charger walk over to the side away from everyone. “Isn't he a little young?”
“He may only be 23 but the kid has had a hard life. Teresa brought him from Mexico after Javier recommended him.”
James nods, and follows after Charger to introduce him to a few of the girls that run the production line. He saw one girl that had been there when he was there. She was a petite girl probably in her late 20’s. Shoulder length red hair.
“And you remember Annette? She is in charge of watching the production line.”
Annette looks him up and down giving him a flirty smile, “Hi James.”
“Hi.”
“If you need anything just come to me.”
James stands a little uneasy, she was always over friendly when he was there, “Thanks.”
Charger wraps his arm around his shoulder guiding him away from her.
“You should get with that, she’s pretty and she is a red head.”
James shakes his head, “I’m ok. Not good to mess with anyone you work with.”
Charger raises his eyebrow at that, when James wasn't looking.
James looks up as he hears the heavy outside door creak open, and he sees Javier making his way down the steps carrying a bunch of papers. He steps over to where Charger and James were.
“We have 200 orders we need to get out today, so let's get to work. Charger you will be working with James boxing up the product. James you will be riding with Tito making deliveries. You should know how everything works.”
James nods his head and starts to get to work.