“Is that why Pop worries about you so much?”
“He wasn’t old enough to know anything about it.” She shook her head. “The older sisters knew that Antonio and I kept company, but I never told any of them how serious we were becoming. I think your Poppy knew, because Antonio would surely have asked permission to marry me, but we never talked about it after the accident. It was different times, dear.”
Wow. My Auntie Lil was WAY stronger than I even knew.
“Then what happened?”
“What do you mean? You know what happened. I went to secretarial school, became a secretary, and—”
“No, no, no. With his family, with you and other boyfriends.”
She tilted her head and gave me a sweet smile.
“Life happened, dear. His uncle sold the property and went back to Italy. The building was torn down. It’s actually the spot where that Discount Tire is on Fifth Street now. I suspect there aren’t too many people left who remember the fire.”
“But Auntie Lil. You? Boyfriends?”
“He was the love of my life, Annalise. Eventually I dated. There were other nice men, but no one measured up to Antonio. And after a certain age, I just decided that maybe it wasn’t for me to get married. Not all people get married, you know.”
“But ... no children ...”
“In a family as large as ours, when you’re the oldest you generally end up helping raise the younger ones, so I had my share of raising children. And I have all my wonderful nephews and nieces. At this point, I have any number of great-nephews, great-nieces. You know I love spoiling you and giving you back to your parents.”
I sighed.
“Oh, I know what you’re thinking,” she smiled. “But I haven’t missed out. This has been my life journey, and it has been a wonderful one!”
I hugged her.
“And, Annalise, don’t you worry. You’ll find a nice young man.”
“Me? How did this get to be about me?”
“I know how much time you wasted worrying about this Dylan.”
I loved the way she dismissed him as “this Dylan” as if he were a character in a bad soap. Well. Come to think of it, maybe he was.
“Oh, Auntie Lil,” I waved her off. “That chapter of my life really was over a long time ago. I really think those emotions only came to the surface last month because I was sad about losing my job, and then he was getting married, and—”
“You don’t have to explain. I can tell that you sorted that all out. You really are a lot like me, sweetheart, and I don’t just mean in looks.”
“Ha!” I said. “We have the same eyes and hair, but I would be amazingly lucky to look half as gorgeous as you did at my age.”
She smiled and took a long draw from her coffee, made a face at how cold it had become, and waved the server over.
“Yes, ma’am?” he asked. “Can I get something else for you and your daughter?”
We looked at one another and burst out laughing.
With fresh beverages in hand, we continued our review of the itinerary and guidebooks, marking the sights we most wanted to see.
“Auntie Lil, if you don’t mind, I’m going to the newsstand across the way to grab some gum. Do you want to come with me?”
“I’ll be fine here. Bring me a package of peppermints, though, if they have them.”
“You bet.”
I left my luggage with her and strolled across the corridor to the busy shop. They had a colorful display of best sellers in the front, and, seeing that the line for the cashier was not moving too quickly, I stopped to browse for a minute.
I was engrossed in the back cover of the latest spy thriller, when I nearly fell face-first into the entire display because of an NFL-worthy tackle to my shoulder.
“Hey!” I looked up, ready to lay into my assailant.
Whoa!
He caught me by the elbow so that I didn’t fall, and when he did, I looked up into the most beautiful eyes. Black? Jet? Coal? Who could describe them? They were framed with eyebrows that would have been stern if the inner corners had been tilted a fraction of an inch to the south, but as they were, they were just mysterious. Actually, his entire face looked mysterious, in that multicultural-Keanu Reeves-Henry Golding sort of way. His hair was blue-black, cut into a trendy, short style with bangs that flopped just achingly so.
Then he spoke, and his voice was low and caramel-smooth. “Oh ... I’m so sorry, Miss ... just trying to run in and grab some gum, and I can see I’m making a mess of things.”
Then the smile.
You know those smiles that go all the way to the eyes? He had one of those with beautifully straight teeth.
It was my turn to speak. I had to say something intelligent to this gorgeous person.
“I ... um ... no ... you ... book.”
Smooth Annalise. Really smooth.
He took both my arms, turned me toward him, and looked down into my eyes.
“Are you sure?”
Somehow, I pulled myself together and was certain that I could at least start a reasonable conversation when I heard a distant bell ring.
His phone. Drat.
He grabbed it to answer, asked the caller to wait, turned back to me, and said apologetically, “Great. As long as you’re not hurt here. I’ve got to take this call and run.”
And he was off, talking on his phone, striding purposefully down the corridor toward the VIP lounge ... out of my life forever. All that was left was a whiff of his delicious cologne.
I stood like a goof for a minute, then remembered to complete my original task.
As I walked back to my aunt with my sad little pack of gum and her peppermints, I suddenly remembered where I had seen his face before. He was the man who had missed the train earlier! Great. I guess I had now become the girl who LITERALLY always just misses meeting the man of my dreams.
“You know, you’re supposed to be keeping me out of trouble,” mocked Auntie Lil. “You were gone so long, I thought I needed to send out a search party.”
I shared the details of my brief encounter.
“How exciting!” she said. “You need to put that in your travel journal!”
We had agreed to each keep a journal of our trip to make it easier to recount our tales to the family when we got back home.
“Oh. Sure. That’s all I would need. I can just imagine the responses. Let’s see: Ma would ask me why I wasn’t more careful because the stranger could have been a pickpocket. Nicky would revert back to junior high and make kiss noises. Pop would ask me why I wasn’t by your side constantly.”
“Absolutely. You’ve pegged the reactions to a tee,” Auntie Lil laughed. “Now we had better move to our gate or we’ll miss our flight. Wouldn’t that be a story to tell!”
By the time we got to our gate, the first groups had boarded—premium first class, business class, and those with children and who needed assistance. We were the next group called.
“Welcome!” said the chipper flight attendant as we entered the jet and she reviewed our tickets. “Please take a right toward your seats.”
“Of course, take a right,” Auntie Lil said over her shoulder as we moved along. To the left is definitely out of our league.”
I peeked toward where she indicated.
Yikes!
I had seen seats in first class before, but those in premium first class were a whole other animal. Each seat was its own individual pod. Each pod could be stretched out into a lounge chair or even into a bed. Passengers who had already settled in were slipping off their shoes and slipping on special cozy socks provided by the airline. As a flight attendant provided champagne or other cocktails, they put their carry-on goods in one of the stowaway areas built into their pods. Large TV screens were built in at the far end of each pod and could be moved forward for the passenger’s comfort.
All I could think was “Wow!”
As we settled into our comfortable, yet definitely less posh economy seats, I commented to Auntie Lil, “Those seats aren’t even full! Why don’t we sneak into one of them?”
“One of the benefits of that seating is that you can board when you wish, dear. I’m sure they’re all spoken for. And I’m pretty sure they’d check our tickets before they’d let us up there.”
“You’re right,” I grinned. “It’s fun to dream though, right?”
“I’m happy to be right here with you,” she patted my knee.
I gave her a hug. After all, I didn’t want to seem ungrateful for the fact that she was paying my way on this journey.
“These seats are great,” I said. “I like the fact that it’s just the window and aisle and no middle, so it’s just the two of us here!”
She smiled and we buckled in for the lengthy flight.