Lost In Pacific Time

I’m sitting in the waiting room well … waiting for Amber, the hostess keeps coming in to refill my class of water. Heads turn as Amber walks into the restaurant, including mine. It’s those shoes, the shoes that only make her slightly shorter than me. They’re made of black shiny leather and make a clicking noise as she walks on the checkered floors.

“Hi, wow it’s packed in here” Amber says taking a seat next to me on the black leather bench. Besides us the room has hoards of slightly hung over but well-dressed people.

“Hey, we should be able to get our seats in five minutes.” I reply offering her a sip of my water. Amber takes it gingerly and sips it.

“I have something to show you,” Amber says pulling me out of my seat and leading me to the eight foot wall of framed pieces of paper. Some are newspaper articles, some are pictures, some are certificates.

“Do you see that?” Amber says pointing to a plaque slightly below eye level, for me, for Amber in her stilettos it’s perfect.

“Yeah,” I read the words embossed into the silver metal: Like Every Cactus Club Café, This Restaurant’s Interiors Was Designed By Local Vancouver Talent, Ambrosia Li. Ambrosia Li Now Calls Los Angeles Home But Still Remains An Active Part Of The Cactus Club Family. Thanks To Ambrosia Our Restaurants Have Won Numerous Awards For Interior Design Including Winning Canada’s Best Bathroom. “Congrats,” I say “You designed the nicest bathroom in the entire country”

Amber laughs “Thanks Milan, it’s such a far off venture from my usual look but I love it, it’s so mysterious.”

“You’re kind of mysterious,” I tell Amber as the hostess leads us to our table.

“I’m not mysterious Milan, I’ll tell you whatever you want to know.” Amber replies shrugging her shoulders as she reads her menu.

I have a million questions I want to ask but I doubt she wants to answers them, she will but she won’t enjoy it. I need to find the fine line between curiosity and prying.

“Come on Milan,” she says raising her eyebrow and challenging me “channel your inner Oprah, Katie Couric, Barbra Walters.”

“What was your first month in LA like?” I ask Amber, looking around the room for her sake. It surprises me how open Amber is, she doesn’t care if someone is eavesdropping at whatever she has to say. She’s just living her life as she did before.

Amber scrunches up her face like she can’t remember, like she’s spent the past five years trying to forget them. “Sandalwood Heights was canceled on the third episode but we filmed the entire thirteen episode season. I was working for Sandalwood Heights for almost half a year before it was cancelled but I had a pretty nice paycheck to sustain my rent at my apartment until I could find work. I was thinking about doing more set design work but then, Marcus Yeller, the producer from Sandalwood Heights hired me to design his child’s nursery and that was really my debut into the interior design world.” Amber replies turning to the waitress to order a spinach omelet and a glass of chocolate milk.

“I’ll have the lox on a bagel and a coffee,” I order handing the waitress my menu while not-so subtly checking her out, the Cactus Club was known around Vancouver for their attractive staff.

Amber rolls her eyes and runs a manicured hand through her hair “Being a little obvious Milan?”

“I’m sorry I don’t play hard to get the way you do Amber,” I tease watching her cheeks turn a light pink.

“First you say I’m mysterious and now I’m apparently hard to get. You make me sound like such a vixen” she replies blushing deeper.

“You are a vixen,” I reply as the waitress comes back with our drinks, pretending she heard nothing of our conversation.

“You give me too much credit.” Amber replies with a smile. “How about you Milan?”

“What about me?” I ask pouring some cream into the black coffee.

“You used to be so cute before but now it’s like ‘hide the women it’s Milan fucking Lucic’” Amber says with a slight chuckle “you’re like a sex symbol”

“I had no idea,” I fail to say it with a straight face.

“Yeah, well you probably don’t see the things women post about you online, about how they want to have your children and stuff” Amber rambles, helping herself to a blueberry muffin from the bread basket in the middle of the table.

“Looks like you missed your chance” I joke even though I know I really want to know the answer. Clearly neither one of us has grown out of tackling things head on.

Amber scoffs “Such a shame, instead of being a successful interior designer like I’ve wanted for the past six years, I could’ve had a bratty five year old and half of your paycheck.” She says sarcastically before eating the rest of her muffin.

I look at her shoes, these days I probably couldn’t afford to have her quit her job. Especially if she keeps buying those boxy pursues that cost as much as some of the nicer cars in the TD Garden players’ parking lot. And we’re talking both Bruins and Celtics. Our table is silent but it isn’t awkward, I’m thinking about things I shouldn’t and Amber is looking out the window and at the motorcade of yellow taxis rounding the corner of Burrard and Dunsmir.
_______

I do a little dance as I walk into my foyer. Today was a success, being productive gives me such a natural high. I am such a geek. We found all this amazing stuff and I convinced Milan to buy a pair of navy blue chairs even though they didn’t fit in with our color scheme. Dolce and Coco are out for a walk, since I’ve been helping Milan out with his house I got the concierge to hire a dog walker who walks them three times a day 9, 12, and 5. Right now they should be on the five o’clock walk. I sigh, looking out the nine foot windows. I scan Vancouver’s grid patterned streets for a set of black and white dots to no avail.

When I was seven our second grade class went on a class trip to Vancouver Lookout in Downtown Vancouver. The Lookout was just that and basically Vancouver’s answer to the CN tower but not really comparable since the Lookout was kind of lame. But when I was seven I thought it was magical. We rode the glass elevator to the very top, which was basically just a circular room with floor to ceiling windows, and everyone would “ooh” and “aah” at the view. The view was pretty awesome and I felt like a princess in her tower looking over her kingdom. And every time I looked out and saw an amazing view I felt the same feeling as I did when I was seven. Like nothing could knock me down.