Stolen Hearts (2012 Wattys Finalist)

Chapter 13 - One Step Too Far

One morning, while Robert ate his cereal and Georgie read with her coffee, he asked, “Georgie, your mum was English, yeah? But I only ever see you drink coffee. Didn’t she ever give tea to you when you were little?”

He’d grown up drinking tea. His mum had given it to him not only at the usual times, it was used to soothe him if he was ill or upset, heat him up on cold days and loads of other times.

“Oh, she did, but I never liked how it tasted,” she said, setting her book aside. He was surprised. He’d never thought tea tasted bad.

She saw his expression and said, “You know, it’s just leaves and twigs boiled in water. At least, that’s what it tastes like to me,” and she shuddered as she thought about it. He couldn’t help laughing a little and she smiled at him, her face lighting up.

“It’s like that with milk,” she continued. “I haven’t willingly drunk a glass of milk since I was six. It’s disgusting,” and she made a gagging motion. He couldn’t help laughing again, and she was practically glowing when she smiled at him, happy she’d made him laugh.

“I loved chocolate milk, so my mom would give that to me sometimes, even though she said it wasn’t good for me. I wish I could have it again once. It’s so good!” she said, with a dreamy expression on her face.

Robert knew she never had sweets. There wasn’t even any jam in the kitchen to put on toast. He wondered how long it’d been since she’d had anything like that.

“Now coffee is different from tea. Totally different taste,” she said, sounding like a typical American teenager again.

“The first time I had coffee was when I went to a Starbucks that had just come to our neighborhood with my friends. They sell coffee there, and they had this one coffee drink my friend said I had to try because it had chocolate in it.” Robert wondered if she really didn’t realize Starbucks was all over the world.

“It was called mocha – mocha – something, I can’t remember but mocha meant there was chocolate in it.”

Robert asked “Mocha cappuccino?” and she looked at him in surprise.

“Yes! Mocha cappuccino! It tasted –.” She closed her eyes as she remembered the flavor, with the dreamy look on her face again. “It was wonderful! So chocolaty!” she finished, opening her eyes, as if she couldn’t think of a better way to describe it.

“Ever since then, I’ve liked coffee. At first, I always had to have chocolate in it, but now –.” She looked at her coffee mug, saying, “Well, now I’m used to having it like I do here. I put in a little sugar to take the edge off the bitterness, and a little cream. I have to be careful not to use too much, in case it makes me gain weight, but it’s the thing I look forward to in the morning. And I’m careful the rest of the day, so I can have the calories in the morning.”

Robert was shocked to hear her talk about watching her weight like that. She was so slender, he couldn’t believe she needed to be so careful, especially since their diet was so restrictive. He didn’t know how much weight he’d lost since he’d been kidnapped, but his jeans were loose.

She interrupted his thoughts, saying, “Frankie loved tea. Sometimes I think she got the British genes from mom and I got the Italian ones from dad, even though I don’t look very Italian, except for my hair.”

Then her voice got more sad as she talked about her sister. “Frankie looked more Italian than me. She was so beautiful. She had darker skin and brown eyes like dad and mom’s light brown hair. Her hair was a lot like the color of your hair, sort of caramel colored. I always wished I was beautiful like her,” she finished in a quiet voice, then jumped up to wash her mug so he wouldn’t see she was tearing up.