A Step Too Far - Chapter 1

A Step Too Far

by Horuvex

Chapter 1

Teddy’s first spring break marred what was an otherwise great first year at university. It certainly hadn’t been his original plan to spend the entire spring break back at home enduring bland rain and slate grey skies. Everything up until that point in the academic year had been going so well. He’d fully embraced dorm life, joining student clubs and socializing. He’d done good in almost every class. Teddy had even made a number of cool friends.

His professors knew him as Theodore Tadman, and Teddy had enjoyed trying on this new adult-sounding name in a place where no one knew him or where he came from. It was a rare chance at a totally fresh start. Teddy had re-invented himself at university, hundreds of kilometres from his home town, and had carved out an independent life for himself. He finally felt like he’d reached adulthood and could see many new prospects on the horizon: International exchange opportunities, job opportunities, possible girlfriends, and more.

But then he’d gone home for spring break.

Most of his friends had gone to stay in hostels and party at various sunny beach destinations, but Teddy had gone home at the request of his father. His father, Reed Tadman, had sent him a brief email, asking him to return in order to share in some “really great news”.

The “news” was far from great. Teddy’s father had never been someone who was good at communicating. His skill at making money through real estate, crypto currency bets, and a host of other shrewd yet risky methods was very much offset by a limited set of social skills. That was part of why Teddy had been so shocked to discover, upon his arrival back at their large house on the edge of his home city, that his father was engaged. Not only was Reed Tadman engaged, but the photo of his fiancé depicted a stunning woman with dark red hair and smouldering dark jade eyes.

Teddy and his father lived alone together in a large rambling house situated in the middle of a big wooded acreage. Teddy’s birthmother had died when he was two, and ever since then it had just been his father and him. They’d lived materially well, but with a considerable amount of emotional distance. Teddy had attended boarding schools for some of the years between age 10 and 15, before demanding that his father let him come home and live like a normal kid again. But even then, it had often meant that Teddy was left alone in their old Victorian house, surrounded by aging stands of large oak, maple, and walnut trees. Reed would sometimes be gone for months, visiting various properties he owned scattered around the world, and generally living his own life. Teddy didn’t really have a deep animosity toward his father, but at the same time, he didn’t feel a deep bond with him either.

High school had become a lifeline, and Teddy had begun to imagine a future with more excitement and social interaction. He’d had a few parties at the house in his teen years, nothing too outrageous, but Teddy wanted to have his own life. He envied his father, and longed to travel the world, but at the same time, Teddy also dreamed about creating a different sort of life than his father. He wanted a girlfriend, a good career, lots of friends, maybe some political position. He wanted to be someone with influence, someone people noticed and respected.

One thing Teddy did resent was how tight his father was with money. Despite all his gains, Reed Tadman passed on little to his son, limiting his generosity to small gifts at Christmas or birthdays, the occasional vacation or meal out, and tuition. Teddy had long ago learned to stop asking for things or any sort of allowance.

“You have to learn the value of money, Teddy.” His father would say. “If I just throw money at you, you’ll end up like some of the spoiled kids I grew up with no sense of the value of hard work.”

It didn’t help when Teddy pointed out that his father had made much of his money through just plain lucky investments. That only resulted in a long egotistical lecture about economic theory and financial independence.

But now, after all that, Teddy had discovered his father was planning to get married. “You’re 45!” Teddy said, struggling to cope with the news.

“And? That’s still young,” his father said. “Many men don’t get married at all until their forties or fifties. You’re 19 already because I had you so young, before your mother passed away. But now you’re off at college and I am in this big house all by myself. I need someone Teddy. I’m lonely.”

Teddy nodded, but felt a mix of emotions. He could understand the desire for companionship, but was both afraid of change and worried at what kind of person his father had decided to bring into their lives.

“She is pretty,” Teddy offered. In fact, the image Reed had shown his son depicted a woman who appeared to be way out of his league.

“She’s beautiful and smart,” Reed said. “She understands me in a way no other woman I’ve ever met does. She is bold and confident too. You know how I sometimes struggle with people. Morganna will really help me with those sorts of things.”

“Where did you meet her? This is all so fast, dad. You’ve never even mentioned her to me before now.”

“Oh I met her at this resort development I’m a shareholder in, down in the Caribbean,” his father explained. “It was back in September or October, after you went off to college. She was there with her daughters and we met on the beach. She was so…gorgeous. I ended up buying her drinks and then we went up to her room and—”

“Dad! I get the picture,” Teddy interrupted.

Reed blushed. “Right…well, anyway we’ve been seeing each other since then. She lives way out on the coast though, so I’ve mostly been spending time out there. But I proposed to her last month and things are moving fast. You have to move quicker at my age. I don’t have time to wait around in some long drawn-out engagement. I wanted to tell you about it in person, which is why I asked you to come home for spring break.”

“Well, I guess that makes sense,” Teddy said. “But are you planning to move to the coast then? Most of my stuff is still here. We’ve been in this house forever.”

“No, she actually wants to move in with me, to move here,” Teddy’s father said. “We have this big house and she even has friends at the local university, so she already knows people here I think. One works at the university and another is downtown or something. I think the one friend is at that big university down the road that you couldn’t get into.”

“I like the school I picked, dad.”

“I know! Sorry. I didn’t mean to say it like that.”

“Right,” Teddy sighed. “Well, when is the wedding?”

“In a few weeks,” Reed said.

He pulled an invitation from his pocket and showed Teddy. The elegant coral-coloured paper displayed a wedding invitation inviting the recipient to “The Union of Reed Tadman and Morganna Haig in Matrimony.”

“This is just a sample one, but Morganna said the invitations should go out in a day or two,” Reed explained. He pointed to the date.

“But I have all my exams then!” Teddy exclaimed.

“You do?” Reed looked only slightly surprised. It was as if he hadn’t even thought of this potential conflict.

“You know what, it’s fine,” Teddy said, his voice taking on a curt tone. His lips became thin as he held in his frustration. His father was doing it again. It was just like when he’d sent Teddy to boarding school the first time. Teddy had only had a few days warning before he’d been sent half a day’s drive away. The experience had left a major mark on Teddy’s upbringing. His father was often aloof to the feelings of others, or so it seemed.

“I guess I’ll just meet her when I come back for the summer break,” Teddy sighed. “I mean, I’ll be back just a few weeks after your wedding. It’s really annoying that I have to miss this. It’s like you’re marrying a total stranger.”

“She’s not a stranger to me,” Reed said.

“You know what I mean!”

“I guess,” his father said, scratching his forehead.

Both men looked down at the floor for several moments, each avoiding his emotions.

“I mean, you could skip your exams and retake the classes I suppose…”

“I’m not doing that, dad,” Teddy replied. If anything, this news just put fuel to the fire of Teddy’s desire to establish a life of his own. His father was moving on to new things, why shouldn’t Teddy?

“You could ask to move the wedding date to the summer though, couldn’t you?” Teddy asked. “Why did you pick this date anyway? Most people get married in the summer, not the spring.”

“Oh I didn’t pick it,” Reed said. “I thought that too, but Morganna was insistent on a this date. Something about it being between spring equinox and summer solstice and the lunar calendar. She is into pagan history or something. She said she wants us to be married by a friend of hers, some woman she’s known for years.”

“And you went along with this? She sounds like some weird hippie or something.”

Reed laughed. “Oh, I protested a bit, but I actually like that she has some interesting hobbies. She’s different and unique. I think she’ll fit into this old house really well. She likes history and pre-Raphaelite art. I think I got that term right? She seriously lit up when she saw the photos of our house and acreage. She’s certainly not a hippie though, just…passionate and quirky.”

Teddy looked at his father, seated in a dark brown leather armchair. Reed Tadman was about 5’8”, with slightly receding salt and pepper hair. He had brown eyes and an average build - not fat but not fit either - which he kept intact by walking. Yet Reed was also a bit soft from a lack of real physical work and the occasional glass of wine. Teddy noticed the way his father was looking at the picture of his fiancé, the way his eyes had drifted off at the notion of Morganna’s passionate nature and her personality.

“Okay…” Teddy said. “Well, I still don’t know what to think, dad.”

He kept most of his thoughts to himself as he went to his bedroom that night. Teddy’s bedroom was located down the hall from his father’s, on the top floor of the house, under a gable. It was a place of comfort and familiarity, but on this night, all he could think about was how he wanted to get back to his university. His father was shaking up their comfortable yet emotionally distant household. Teddy didn’t like it. He liked knowing that home was there, stable, even if far away. Now everything would change. Teddy felt a strong urge to run, to forget about this whole marriage thing as long as he could.

Several days later, he flew back to university. He and his father avoided the subject of the upcoming wedding, and its associated emotional baggage. Both men swept the issue under the rug - both his father’s obvious excitement at having a woman in his life again, and his son’s anxiety about such a huge change, not to mention the sense of hurt and anger Teddy felt at being cut out of the wedding itself.

The only other thing Teddy did during his stay at home was to visit his high school friend, Elliot. The Morin household had always been a welcome refuge for Teddy. The day before he flew back to university, Teddy made sure to visit Elliot, who had not gone to college. Elliot lived in his parents’ basement and worked at a local supermarket as a night stocker. He was just over five-and-a-half feet tall, with a slender build. Teddy and Elliot had become friends in high school over their mutual love of video games. Elliot had held on to his gaming habit while Teddy had mostly moved on to other pursuits.

Teddy let himself slip into an escapist evening of gaming the night before he went back to university. Elliot’s parents owned a modest house built in the 1960s with a simple yard. It was nothing special, but also very comfortingly suburban. It was nothing like the oversized Victorian monstrosity the Tadmans lived in. Elliot had black hair, dark brown eyes, and caramel skin. It was only later in their friendship that Teddy had realized that his friend was of mixed European and South-Asian heritage. Teddy often mused that Elliot might have attracted a lot of attention from girls if it weren’t for his height, his glasses, and his generally shy insecure nature.

For his own part, Teddy shared Elliot’s brown eyes, but had plain dark brown hair and paler skin. He also stood closer to 5’10” and had made an effort to run and bike a lot in the last year of high school. Cardio had kept Teddy toned in a way that was different than his friend’s slender almost mousy frame. Most of Elliot’s exercise seemed to come from his job stocking grocery shelves.

Teddy didn’t share any of the news of his father’s impending wedding with Elliot. He wanted to forget all about it, and subconsciously hoped the whole thing would fall apart and become just another one of his father’s random schemes that never panned out. The two friends talked about games, movies, and Elliot’s plan to go to trade school. It was exactly what Teddy needed. The next morning, he flew back to university and tried to forget about his spring break entirely.

Teddy buried himself in college life and soon mostly forgot about events back at home.