“I love your pretty shoes, Auntie Char,” Zara said, her nose near my new pedicure. “My Barbie has pretty shoes just like these.”
“Have mercy,” Manda muttered.
I spotted my red suitcase bumping down the conveyor belt and tottered forward to retrieve it, stumbling a bit to get past the wheels on Manda’s double stroller. I hefted the bag up and off the carrousel and tugged it back to Manda and her entourage, concentrating fully on walking, not shuffling.
Manda looked triumphant. “Birkenstocks before the week’s end!” she declared, and I sighed. While a pair of cork-bottomed soles did sound pretty glorious right then, I wasn’t quite ready to go all earthy just because I was on the west coast. Somebody had to wear heels, and it might as well be me and Barbie.
We made our way to the car and onto the freeway before Manda began her pointed questioning, machine-gun style.
“How did you do this so fast? Are you exhausted? Are you nervous? What is Avery saying? What is your mother saying? Is she thrilled to have you out of Godless Gotham, or is she depressed you just flew over Minnesota without stopping? Hold on.” She put a hand out to stop me before I could respond. “Zara Rose Henrick, you keep your hands to yourself. No poking your brother with colored pencils. I do not want Dane waking up yet. You know how cranky he is when he gets up before he should.”
“But I’m booooored,” Zara said in an impressively anguished voice.
“Only boring people get bored,” Manda responded cheerily. “Plus, I don’t speak Whinese, so you’ll need to choose a different tone of voice.”
Zara didn’t appear to want to dignify that statement with a reply, so Manda returned to our conversation. “Tell me everything. And maybe quickly because Polly is going to need to breast-feed soon. I’m hoping we can get to your apartment before she wigs out, but there’s no insurance policy on that idea.”
“Well,” I said, with the shrug I had employed often throughout the last week, “Avery took care of everything. He got me out of my lease, he hired a moving company, he even found me the apartment here. I’m still in shock. I’m not used to making decisions so quickly.”
Manda snorted. “Oh, really? Perhaps you are forgetting that I am the friend who waited with great patience while you deliberated for forty-seven minutes about whether to buy cherry red or cherry-berry red lip gloss for your first skating party in junior high.”
“That was so fun!” I remembered. “We should go shopping again now that we’re in the same city.”
With one eye on the traffic and one eye on the rearview mirror, she said, “Fun? You thought that was fun?” She shook her head. “I love you. But it’s never going to happen. These days, I’m lucky if I can get out of a store with only one or two of us in tears.”
Polly began fussing, and Manda raised an eyebrow at me as if to say, “See what I mean?” She groped under her seat and came up with a Mason jar packed with pacifiers. She plucked one from the top of the heap. Contorting her arm into a pose any yogi would admire, she fumbled for Polly’s mouth until she heard an appreciative suck. “Tell me about the apartment. Belltown is infinitely hipper and more chichi than I have ever been. I can’t wait to see it. How did the photos look?” She signaled to pull off the freeway, and we merged into a pretty neighborhood with mature trees showing off the tender green of new spring leaves.
“He wouldn’t send me any photos,” I said, craning my neck to find a street number on one of the buildings. “Said he wanted to surprise me.”
“Unbelievable.” Manda shook her head. “I don’t remember Avery Malachowski being such a romantic when you dated him. Or such a big spender, what with all the moving trucks and special deliveries. Jack and I drove by his new restaurant, and it looks swank-o. Very posh.” She hit the steering wheel with her fist, appearing to tumble upon a distant memory. “Wait. Wasn’t he the one who would divide the gas tab evenly down to the last cent?”
“Oh, wow. He was,” I said, remembering ranting to Manda about that very issue right before Avery and I broke up. “I guess he’s changed.”
“Um, for the better.” Manda’s voice was awe-filled as we pulled up to the address I’d given her.
The building looked like brand-new construction, though that might have been the glass talking. Twenty stories, I guessed, and all sides of the building shimmered with reflections of the clouds and blue skies above us. I pushed open the passenger door and let my gaze travel over my new home. I could glimpse the insides of a few apartments on the lower floors. Modern furnishings, lots of stainless steel, platinum finishes, colorful, abstract art against white walls.
Manda came to stand by me and handed off Zara’s tugging hand.
“Can we go in, Aunt Charlie? Please? Can we go into your new mansion?”
My laugh sounded tinny and nervous. “For sure. Avery said the concierge would have my key.”