Tales From a Broad (6 page)

“So much for playing it safe with labels,
huh?” Tess poked me in the ribs with her elbow. “You hell raiser,”
she teased.

I pulled the hat over my eyes and slumped
down in my seat.

Chapter
Three

Goodbye London, Hello Amsterdam!

Facebook Status June 6 at 10:00pm

Tess and I ran to the platform just as the
train to Brussels pulled into Victoria Station. I was pleasantly
surprised when we stepped into the car, which was in pristine
condition, both immaculate and rather luxurious.

The plush seats were also inviting with their
soft, navy blue velvet covers. After we’d settled, I immediately
reclined my chair.

“Ah,” I sighed with a smile. “I hope our
connecting train to Amsterdam is just as nice. Clean, comfortable
seats, a menu... Now
these
are the unexpected joys of
travel.” I picked up the menu and read the dinner options.

Tess gave me a sideways look. “Well, what did
you expect? You purchased first-class tickets.”

I nodded. “True. Well, I’ve had enough of
feeling like a second class citizen. All I have to say is,
Cheerio
!”

“Oh come on,” Tess admonished. “We had some
fun, no?”

“Absobloodylutely,” I said in a British
accent, mocking the guy we’d met the night before. “No seriously,
London was amazing. I loved everything we did. St. Paul’s
Cathedral, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abby.... “ I frowned and
paused. “It’s just that some of the extraneous variables threw me
off.”

Tess nodded her head knowingly.

“I vote we stay somewhere a bit nicer when we
stop back here on our way home. I need a re-do. Those living
conditions were awful.”

The train began to pull out of the station.
When I looked at Tess for a response, I noticed she was staring out
the window, looking forlorn.

“I’m sorry,” I said. The last thing I wanted
was for my niece to regret taking the trip with me. Because my
wedding day was supposed to have been the next day, I think I was a
little more down than usual. I bit my thumbnail and waited for her
to look at me.

She seemed to be lost in a world of her own
as she played with the hem of her skirt.

“Tess?”

She turned to look at me. “Hmm?” she said
with a tight-lipped smile.

“I’m sorry I complained so much.”

“Oh, please,” she said with a wave of her
hand. “We stayed in a dump. I just feel...” She paused and shifted
uncomfortably in her seat. “Kind of bummed we’re leaving. My
experience was a little different than the one you had.”

“Mark?” I wiggled my eyebrows and smiled.

Tess’s cheeks turned pinkish as she nodded.
“We had so much fun last night, Aunt Lu.” Her eyes sparkled, and a
slow smile spread across her face.

“I figured. I didn’t even hear you come in.”
I hoped that I sounded nonchalant, but all day, I’d been dying for
the details. Tess had always been honest with me, but still, I
hadn’t wanted to pry and make her uncomfortable. On this trip, I
may have been more of a friend than an aunt, but one fact still
remained. I was her mother’s sister.

“I got back late. Very. We spent the entire
night talking,” she added quickly. “We stayed in the pub for about
three hours after you left, and then we took a ride on the London
Eye.”

I sucked in my breath and placed a hand on my
chest. “Doesn’t that go like two hundred feet in the air?”

“Actually, to be exact, it went four hundred
and forty three
amazing
feet high. The view of London was
spectacular. Especially at night.”

The look on Tess’s face was really something.
She seemed to have come alive as she talked. I opened my mouth to
speak, but she cut me off at the pass.

“Hey, did you know Big Ben is really the name
of the bell in the tower? Locals just call it the clock tower.
That’s what Mark told me. By the way, he’s so smart, Aunt Lu. He
just finished his M.B.A from Boston University.”

I nodded in approval. “He sounds...”

“We have so much in common too!”

I bit the inside of my cheek to keep a
straight face. I couldn’t recall ever seeing her this excited about
any guy.

“Books, movies, TV... You name it. Anyway, he
and his brother are going to be in Paris at the same time we are.
So, maybe I’ll meet up with him. If that’s ok with you,” she
quickly added. “I don’t have to see him. We’re just friends ...
though it might be nice.”

I looked at her and rolled my eyes. “Gee, you
think?” I said pointedly. “Of course you’re going to see him!”

I rummaged through my snack bag for peanuts
and noticed a string had come loose on the hem of her skirt.

“You’ve been fiddling with this so much that
you’re coming undone.” I reached over and twirled the string around
my finger before I gave it a gentle tug. “It’s really beautiful
though.”

And that it was. The skirt fell above her
knee and was made from a thick lime green cotton fabric with pale
pink swirls cascading throughout. The hem was about two inches wide
and a darker pink textured ribbon.

“Did you get it on Portobello Road?”

“No.” Tess smiled shyly. “You’re kind. I made
it the night before we left.”

I swallowed the peanut whole. “You
made
this?
You
made this? Oh my God, Tess.”

“What? It’s not a big deal, Aunt Lu. It took
me an hour. Finding the fabric was the hardest part.”

“Oh, just shut up and say thank you. It’s
amazing. Here I thought home décor was your thing. This trip is
getting better and better. I’m travelling with a designer.”

Tess gave me a funny look as she paused to
reach into my bag for a handful of peanuts. “And
I
am
travelling with a total nut bag.”

* * * *

We arrived in Amsterdam at nine that night.
Since we had to change trains in Brussels, the trip had taken a
little more than six hours. We went straight to the hostel, which
was thankfully much nicer than the one where we’d previously
stayed.

The brick hostel was a quintessential
seventeenth century Amsterdam-style house: tall and skinny, but
thick on charm. It sat across the street from a canal and
overlooked the Jordan River through its massive windows. Wooden
flower boxes adorned the windows and overflowed with sleeping
tulips. The sweet smell from the flowers mixed with the salty scent
of the canal, resulting in a soothing aroma that wafted through the
air.

A bicycle built for two was parked in a rack
outside the hostel. The whole scene reminded me of a postcard. It
was somewhere I really wanted to be.

Tess and I were both tired and decided to go
right to bed. The lack of sleep I’d accumulated had started to take
a toll. I listened to the rhythmic sound of water lapping against
the canal as I drifted off to sleep.

We woke up the next morning feeling refreshed
and ravenous. Since we both agreed one of the first things on the
day’s agenda was to eat a hearty breakfast, we wandered next door
to a diner.

“So how are you?” Tess asked me, her eyebrows
knitted together in a concerned expression as we waited for our
waitress to bring the breakfast we’d ordered. Her head was tilted
to the side, and she looked at me expectantly.

“Good,” I shrugged. “We have our own room for
now, so let’s just hope the other two beds stay vacant.” I crossed
my fingers in the air and cleared my throat. I had a hard time
meeting her gaze.

“And hopefully we’ll get used to the timed
showers,” I continued, forcing a chuckle. “I probably could have
bucked up for the extra shower token. As you know, it is my wedding
day.” I pressed my lips together and gave Tess a half-smile,
mid-babble. “We would’ve been blowing a load at the salon anyway,
right?”

“Oh, Aunt Lu.” She looked at me with
sympathetic eyes as she reached across the table and squeezed my
hand.

“Sorry.” I cringed.

“Sorry? Are you kidding me?” Tess held my
gaze as she slipped an elastic hair band from her wrist and twisted
her honey-colored hair into a knot on top of her head. “I didn’t
want to bring it up, but I didn’t want to not bring it up either.”
With creases of worry deepening on her forehead, she sunk back into
the booth and cradled her coffee cup, resembling a therapist
waiting for her patient to speak.

I nodded and poured some sugar in my coffee,
stirring it. A lump rose in my throat and made me avoid looking her
in the eye. When I drew in a breath, I could actually taste the
sweet smell of syrup that wafted throughout the diner. I continued
to stir.

“Do you want to talk?” she asked.

I whisked the coffee fast and furiously,
making it splatter on the table. “Oh, shoot.” A few of the hot
drops soaked through my shirt to my skin. “This was my good tank.”
I blotted at my shirt with a wet napkin.

Tess grabbed a napkin and wiped up my mess
while I sat staring into my coffee cup. She reached across the
table and placed a gentle hand on my arm. Tears instantly clouded
my vision, and even though I tried not to blink, they spilled over
on their own.

“I’m sorry, I just feel so ... so ... empty,”
I admitted, surprised by how hard it was to get the words out.

“That’s normal, Aunt Lu. Today was supposed
to be a big day for you.”

“I just want it to be over,” I sighed,
pressing my fingers under my eyes. “This day has been hovering over
my head like a black cloud.”

“Actually, that’s pretty ironic. I talked to
my mom this morning and, if it makes you feel any better, New
York’s having the storm of the century. There are power outages all
over the city.”

“So, I’ve heard,” I replied dryly. Morgan had
already left me several voicemails and text messages. “But isn’t
rain on your wedding day supposed to bring you luck?”

“Oh come on. That’s total bull. Someone must
have fed that line of crap to a lunatic bride when it rained on her
wedding day. What else were they supposed to say?”

“Good point.”

“No, really. How can a torrential downpour
bring you luck? Your hair would’ve been a disaster and the
reception would’ve sucked.”

“I’d have taken that bet.” I leaned my elbows
on the table and rested my head in my hands.

The waitress appeared with a massive platter
of Dutch pancakes, causing me to sit up and collect myself.

“Eet smakelijk,”
the waitress said
with a smile before she disappeared.

Tess looked at me quizzically.

I shrugged my shoulders and shook my head. “I
have no idea. She could’ve just said ‘eat shit’ for all I care.” I
unfolded the napkin and placed it in my lap.

“Oh. My. God. These pancakes look amazing.”
Tess drooled. “Cheese, bacon, brown sugar...”

“Pretty lethal. Well, it’s not like I have a
Vera Wang tank dress to squeeze into.” I forced a smile as I helped
myself to a pancake.

“Now that’s a plus,” Tess said, her mouth
already full. “Because, let me tell you, these are to die for.”

I took a big bite and closed my eyes as the
flavors melted in my mouth. “Yum. You know what?” I paused to
swallow. “Let’s talk about something else. We need to enjoy this
breakfast.”

“Yeah, but...” Tess paused and rocked her
head from side to side, “I feel like it might be good for you
to...”

“Indulge me. Please.” I leaned on the table
and gave Tess a closed-mouth smile. “Plus, I’m dying to know. Have
you talked to Mark?”

“Yeah, he called this morning when you were
getting ready,” Tess said with a wave of her hand. “It’s no
big—”

“Hey, I’m offended.” I clicked my tongue and
frowned. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

Tess looked down and shrugged. “I don’t know.
It’s not a big deal,” she said nonchalantly. “I didn’t want to make
you feel any worse than the way I figured you were already
feeling.”

“Tess, do not, I repeat, do
not
withhold information from me. Number one, I want to live through
you, and two, I’m a big girl. I still have it in me to be happy for
others. Especially you.”

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry.” She winced. “There’s
not much to say though. Other than he’s a really great guy.” Tess
looked down and poked her fork into a pancake on her plate.

A smile spread across my face as I watched
her swish it around the syrup.

She cleared her throat. “It’s just that...”
She paused and placed her fork down.

I raised an eyebrow.

“He kind of has a girlfriend.” She wrinkled
her nose and made a face.

“What do you mean, kind of?” I demanded. “He
either has a girlfriend or he doesn’t. Is it serious?”

“I don’t know. He didn’t say, and I didn’t
ask. He just mentioned he’d been dating someone for a long time,
but it wasn’t really working out.”

“You’d make an awful detective, my dear.
Well...” I tapped my fingers on the table. ”If it was serious,
wouldn’t he be travelling with her?”

Tess shrugged. “I guess. Maybe. Oh, I don’t
know. He just finished business school and has pretty much given
himself a year to do his thing, get a job, and find himself,” she
said.

“Hmph. Aren’t we all?” I stared into my
coffee cup for a moment. “Anyway, maybe the quest to find himself
has a little something to do with his girlfriend.”

“Maybe.” Tess paused. “Whatever,” she added
with a wave of her hand. “I guess it doesn’t really matter, anyway.
I don’t think he likes me like that
.
” She shrugged and took
another bite.

I just gave her a look.

“What?” she laughed. “I told you, we’re just
friends. We had a connection and to be honest with you, it was nice
to be myself with someone other than Jack,” she said rolling her
eyes.

“Well, you guys have been together for a long
time.”

“We’ve practically grown up together, Aunt
Lu. We’ve both changed so much we’ve kind of grown apart. I’d like
to think I’ve become more insightful, and he’s become, I don’t
know...” She frowned. “Kind of self-centered. He’s been
unsupportive throughout my whole job-hunting debacle. He seems to
be more concerned with his own success and fixated on things that
don’t really matter in life.”