Lost In Pacific Time

I woke up, in my penthouse apartment atop of one of the most exclusive buildings in the city. I lived in the Fairmount Pacific Rim. The first half of the building was a hotel and the other half were homes for the residents of Coal Harbour. While Yaletown was known for the Yuppies in Vancouver, Coal Harbour was known as being where rich business people had second homes so most of the time the streets were pretty empty. My first day of vacation. I wondered what I should do. Maybe get some breakfast and my stomach agreed. I loved where I lived, I could order room service and have it delivered directly to my apartment.
I picked up the purple phone, “Hi, could I have scrambled egg whites, smoked salmon, green onions in cream cheese, toast, a glass of grapefruit juice, and two small portions of dog food delivered to apartment B on the 48th floor.” I said to the hotel kitchen, I’m not even sure if any of that stuff is on the menu but this is British Columbia, who doesn’t have salmon in their fridge. I mean if they didn’t I was sure they could just catch some in the harbour.

“Expect it in twenty or so minutes,”

I guess, twenty minutes was enough time for me to take a shower and change out of my pajamas. I sat out on the terrace with Dolce and Coco as I waited for my food. After the lack of maintenance, the view was one of the reasons why I chose to live in an apartment building. I am such a dreamer, I love looking out the window and seeing something other than the side of another house, like I did growing up. At my home in West Hollywood looked over the bustling Sunset Strip and here from apartment to the right I could see the tops of the evergreen trees of Stanley Park and below me were yachts docked in the marina and bobbing in the ocean.

As I was watching a particularly large yacht cross the harbour, the doorbell rang, causing both Dolce and Coco to jump in surprise and run towards the door barking.
_______

I sat in my silver Porsche Cayenne outside my gym with a piece of paper in one hand and a pen in the other.

Where to find Amber…

I still worked out at the same gym as I did when I was a teenager. It was right in the heart of Yaletown. Looking at those twentyish storey glass apartment buildings Amber could be any of those. She would’ve dragged her duvet from her bed and stood in front of the window and watching me at this instant. Probably not, she probably had tons of work to do. After visiting countless furniture boutiques in pursuit of something other than folding chairs to put in my living room, I could honestly say furniture shopping was indeed hard work. How did Amber do that for a living?

I should stick to public spaces, I thought as I stared at the blank page.

I also had better things to put my energy towards. At this rate I’d never move into my house. But I bet if I found Amber she could help me. Basically I was killing two birds with one stone right?
______

I put the dishes in the sink. Still nowhere to be. Honestly I could’ve just stayed home to have a vacation like this. Maybe a walk with the dogs would do. Yeah that should be great. Parks without any gang activities were rare in LA but Vancouver had tons of great parks. I leashed up Dolce and Coco and drove across town in my white Mercedes hard top convertible aka my Vancouver car.
______

Milan and I were walking in Hastings Park after his third game with the Giants. It was a playoff game and a playoff win so Milan was particularly happy. With the NHL lockout hockey fans were looking elsewhere for their fix. Major Junior hockey seemed like just the thing. So Milan and I were walking around the park waiting out the traffic.

I watch him looking up at the lights threaded in the trees lining the walkway and seeing the lights replicated in his deep brown eyes. “What?” he asks looking over at me.

“Nothing,” I say turning my attention to the hole in the knee of my dark blue Levis before looking back to him. “Some people think Christmas lights year round are tack” I say referring to the trees, its early April so they’re still pretty bare. “But I like these, it’s so romantic.”

“Yeah?” he says looking down at me.

“It’s so dark here that we can’t even see the tree branches, it looks like the lights are just floating. It’s like the stars in the sky” I explain turning my attention to the sky, it looks exactly like a piece of navy blue velvet with Swarovski crystals scattered on top.

“Traffic’s cleared up, do you want to turn back?” he asks sticking his hands into the pocket of the hoodie.

“Okay,” I reply turning around, our hands find each other and interlock as we walk back to the Pacific Coliseum.

When we’re both safely inside the car Milan leans over to kiss me and we kind of stay that way for a while.

“Amber?” he says pulling away from me.

“Yeah?” I ask as he fumbles with his keys.

“Would you like to be my girlfriend?” He asks, the lights from the streets are streaming in and I can tell that his face is a little flushed. He’s so adorable and I think I’m never going to forgive myself for the answer.

“Milan, you and I haven’t known each other for really that long. And I’m happy where we are now. We go out, we kiss, we go to hockey games. I don’t think being your girlfriend would change anything.” I tell him giving him a little white lie. The real reason I don’t want to date him is because I think he makes a better friend than a boyfriend. There’s a new girl almost every week and at the end of the week there’s an entirely new girl. I like him too much to be around for only a week. I like him so much I think I love him.
_______

I walked over to the park alone, it was right across the street from my house and I decided to go take a short walk there while I was having the floors in my house replaced with dark brown floors like the ones in Amber’s bedroom. When I requested it, the guy on the phone immediately said “like the ones in the Maxim article right?” As I got closer to the park I realized that a girl was sitting there and two tiny dogs were sitting on the concrete next to her. It couldn’t be could it? I studied her from a distance. Same black hair, same golden skin, and even though she was wearing sunglasses I could tell it was her because of her cute button nose and bow shaped pink lips.

“Amber!” I shouted. Amber screamed Amber screamed loud and I swore a couple people took out their cell phones to call 911. People always want to rescue Amber, they thought that girls as adorable as her couldn’t stand up for herself. I bet no one would call the police if it was the other way around, people would be all like “I’m sure he’s got this covered.”

“Well this is a pleasant surprise,” she said still shocked. She chuckled “Your hair is all one color,”

“Oh yeah,” I replied running my hand through my dark brown hair. “You look good, have you lost weight?” I say as soon as it crosses my mind.

Amber purses her lips “fifteen pounds, would you like to have a seat before you ask another one of your questions?”

I sit down on the bench it feels weird having Amber so far away back in the day she’d be pressed up against my side with her head on my shoulders. “I’m sorry, you know about before.”

Amber signs “It’s fine, that’s what we do Milan, we ask insensitive questions about each
other, there have never been any boundaries between us.”

I decide then and there that I want to make Amber laugh since it seemed like she wasn’t so happy to see me right now “I watch your show,”

Sure enough that does it and Amber laughs. Not a girly giggle like some girls but a full-fledged laugh. “Really? What is the name of my assistant?”

“Trick question, you have three: Ivy, Greg, and Jasmine.” I reply watching her dangle her flip flops off her feet.

“I’m impressed,” she says looking over at me, this time really looking, not glancing like she did the other times.
_____

“Do you want to have lunch?” he asks still sitting next to me. Not fucking likely I want to say luckily for me I have a filter in my brain, unlike Milan.

“Sure,” I reply. My heart is still racing from being scared like that and Milan is just acting like nothing’s changed like we’re seventeen again with our whole lives ahead of us. I on the other hand am acting like a bitch, exactly the way I was the first time I met him when I had all these preconceived notions about him and his reputation. It didn’t take him too long to change that. It should be different now, shouldn’t it? For once I’m more famous plus I make more money. He should be intimidated but he isn’t, and right now all I want to do is crawl into his lap and have him hold me.

His hands brush against mine and I almost flinch as we untie Dolce and Coco’s leather leashes from the railing of the bench. He hands me Coco’s leash while he takes Dolce and the two of us walk along the grassy lawn and out of the park. It's kind of weird that he and I ran into each other like this. Almost like fate says my inner romantic.

“We should bring you in there,” I say with a chuckle as we walk past the Canucks Store which wasn’t here the last time but I’m hardly ever in this neighbourhood.

“Yeah, we could buy you one of those snazzy scarves.” He says pointing to one of the ugliest things I’ve ever seen on a mannequin.

“I live in Los Angeles why would I need a scarf?” I tell him watching him shrug. “Why do they even have a year round Canuck store?”

“I don’t know, hockey’s the only big sport around here. There aren’t any NBA teams or MLB teams or NFL teams and no one cares about MLS.” He says sounding like a true Bostonian.

“Remember Vancouver Grizzlies? They were so bad people cried when they got drafted to them” I say feeling less bitchy.

Milan laughs “Table for two.” He says as we walk into what I assume is a Japanese restaurant. That’s great since there’s nothing more that I love than a good bowl of miso soup.

We’re seated in a private room that requires us to climb over these tall wooden platforms. The platform go up to my pelvis and there is no way for me to get up like a lady since I’m wearing a short Mathew Willamson dress. Milan seems to have figured it out because he climbs over the platform and picks me up just like that.

“Is there anything you recommend?” I ask him seeing the standard fare: California rolls, Udon, Teriakki.

“Everything’s pretty good here.” He replies and I want to laugh at how daintily he sips his tea. “So what’s it like living in Southern California?” he asks looking right at me.

“It’s sunny like three hundred days of the year and in my first year I almost missed the Vancouver rain. I have to wear pretty strong sunscreen to keep myself from looking too tan.

But I know a lot more about sushi than I did before.” I reply as I order some sort of Bento box and Milan orders a different kind of Bento box.

“Tell me more,” he says as the waitress leaves with our orders.

“Well I learned a lot more about sushi because it used to be the “it” thing to eat. Now its raw food, but I think I’ll continue loving the dying fad and hope it comes back.” I explain.

“Hollywood is a lot like high school then isn’t it? The way bees move from flower to flower.” he says as the waitress comes back with our miso soups.

I laugh “Yeah.”

“You hated high school” Milan replies as I watch the miso paste settle in the water before stirring it up with my spoon.

“Yeah but high school is a lot more fun when you’re popular.”

“But when you’re popular people talk. Remember Heather Ullman?” he says as the waitress refills our glasses.
_______

Heather Ullman dropped out of high school in our junior year. She was the typical popular girl, student council president, head cheerleader, and copied Ricky Ester’s homework during lunch. Nobody knew why she dropped out and the day after everyone was saying she dropped out to marry her boyfriend William McMillian and that’s what everyone believed.

Until William McMillian cleared up the rumors by telling everyone that Heather was pregnant. The next year Heather came back and everyone was brutal to her.

“You’re just like Greg, he’s convinced that I’m a fad too.” She says delicately popping a salmon roll in her mouth and chewing it thoughtfully.

“You’re not a fad but you said it yourself, Hollywood is fickle. what are you going to do when you’re not getting work?” I ask her genuinely curious.

“I guess I’d move,” she replied “I’m just going to go to the bathroom.” She says and once again I have to help her get over the platform.

“Where will you go after Los Angeles?” I ask her silently hoping she’s going to say Boston. Amber in person is way better than Amber on TV. I think I’m addicted.

“Maybe New York,” she replies and I try not to hide my disappointment. But New York is still better than Los Angeles. “I originally wanted to go to New York from Los Angeles but finding a place was too hard and too expensive. I’m sure I could afford to work in New York now.” I nod thinking about Amber anywhere else but there in Vancouver and I can’t imagine it. I’ve seen it on her show but everything on her show seems so perfect, I’m half expecting for the back drop to fall down.

The mood in the room changes and suddenly Amber looks sad “I’m sorry I left like that.” She says after taking a breath. “You ready to leave?” she says after an awkward silence.

“Yeah, just let me pay first” I say taking my wallet out from my pocket.

“I already did,” Amber says grabbing her shiny black handbag off the seat next to her. I find Amber’s independence endearing. I haven’t met too many women like that.

“Are you busy tomorrow? My family misses you and I was wondering if you’d like to have dinner with them.” I tell her getting the door for the both of us.

“Sure” she says simply while she unties her dogs from the bike rack “At your place?”

“Yup,” I reply as she and I walk up the block back to the park.

“Is your girlfriend going to be there?” she asks innocently.

“No we broke up.”

“I’m sorry,” she says hugging me in the middle of the street. “I watched the Finals, she was pretty.” Amber says letting go and continuing to walk with her dogs leading the way.

Amber says that about all the girls I’ve dated. Maybe Amber meant pretty like she wants to date her… oh right. I finally remembered why I wasn’t openly hitting on Amber all throughout the day. Well the picture of the girl who outted Amber was pretty hot so maybe she and I had the same taste in women. I’m sure I could find some way to use that to my advantage later. Amber and I exchange numbers before she climbed into her white convertible and drove away.