"You Can't Stay a Saint in This City"

It was a lovely day and all was right in the city of Boston. My boyfriend and I were in a lovely suite at the Mandarin Oriental with amazing views of the entire city, a day of nothing to do, and bags of clothes that have never been worn. I think I need some tea.

“Mmm, good morning Milan.” I say rolling out of the nest I’ve created out of pillows and blankets.

“Morning Amber,” Milan says sitting up in the giant bed.

“You want some breakfast?” I ask him as I pick up the hotel phone.

“I have practice today.” Milan tells me as if that explains everything. “Do you want to come?”

I shrug “Sure,” I tell him as I pull a pair of gold sequined Louboutins on my feet.

“Wait you put your shoes on your shirt?” Milan asks.

“I guess I do,” I’ve never noticed it before. To me everything is a puzzle you need to decide what you want to see before you start putting together the pieces. But there’s always room for some improvisation.

_____

I rest my head in my hands as I watch the players in their practice jerseys do some drills.

“Hi Amber,” says Brittany holding a clipboard in her hand.

“Um, hi” What is she doing here? I make the logical assumption. “Do you work here?”

“I work with the Bruins. I got my degree in Kinesiology a little more than a year ago.”

“That’s great.” Last time I checked most people who majored in Kinesiology ended up being high school gym teachers “So what do you do here?”

“I’m a physical therapist.” Well that’s even better isn’t it? Her job is to basically give massages to professional hockey players. Maybe I should look into getting a degree in something.

“Well I should let you go, those strained groin muscles aren’t going to fix themselves.” I say with a slight edge.

“See you around Amber,” She says her dark brown ponytail bouncing as she walks away.

“You should give her the benefit of the doubt. She’s nice.” The words of wisdom come from a tween girl sitting behind me.

“It would be easier to hate her if she was a bitch.” I say checking my gold Rolex, I’m not exactly sure why I’m here when I should be out seeing Boston. “Shouldn’t you be in school?”

“I have a professional day but I had to come here with my dad because my mom is taking my brother to the dentist.” She explains.

“Oh, hi I’m Ambrosia Li”

“I know who you are.” Right, well doesn’t everyone these days but that doesn’t mean I should pull a Mike-Richards.

“I like your shoes” I say looking down at her sequined Chuck Taylors “I used to have a pair just like them,” actually I think I still do, I’m sure they’re in the wine cellar somewhere.

“Thanks…you’re very colorful.” I’m not sure how to take that.

“Do you have a name?” I’m not really into the whole practice thing. It seems when I’m not around Milan I start to have my doubts about what we’re doing.

“I’m Kiley, I’m sorry but is it true you’re named Ambrosia because your parents were really into Greek Mythology?”

“No,” I don’t even think I remember them reading the newspaper growing up “I’m named Ambrosia because my parents met on an apple orchard in the Okanagan.”

“Can I ask you a favor?”

“Sure, Kiley”

“Could you please take me shopping? My parents are both busy and I’m going to my first middle school dance on Friday”

I look at the players on the ice and I look back at Kiley’s eager face “Sure, I’ll just call a cab.”
______

“So then Mary told Casey that Amanda had a crush on Darren and now Amanda is mad at me because Casey won’t talk to her anymore…’cause you know Casey liked Darren first. But everyone knows that Mary is the one who really likes Darren” Kiley says when I made the mistake of asking her what was going on at school.

“It starts young and it’s always about a guy in the end,” I say staring at Boston through the cab’s windows. The city is so cute it’s ridiculous, it kind of feels like I’m on a film set. I remembered when
Elizabeth Channing started spreading rumours around school about what was going on with Milan and I. She said that the only reason he was going out with me was because I’d be getting breast augmentation, butt implants and liposuction over the summer as well as a new face later in the year.

“Did you meet Milan in middle school?”

“We don’t have middle school in Canada. But I met him when he transferred to my school in the eleventh grade.” I say as the cab stops in front of BCBG on Newbury Street.

“Really you don’t have middle school?”

“Yeah, we have a whole different set of laws going on up there. The age of consent is 14 and you can also get married at 14 as well.” I’m not sure if I should be sharing this kind of information with an impressionable young girl. “We also have a much lower teen pregnancy rate.” I offer.

“Well good for Canada I suppose.” Kiley says as we walk through the glass doors of BCBG.

“Do you know what you want?” I ask her looking at the rows upon rows of colorful dresses.

“Nope, I’m just going to try everything on.” She says with three dresses already draped over her arm.

I laugh “Sounds like a plan,”
______

“So what did you think of her?” I ask Brittany, as we leave the practice facility. Amber took Tim Thomas’ daughter shopping or something.

“She seems ... interesting”

“Really?” Amber is in fact very interesting but I don’t think that’s what Brittany means.

“She’s quite a character. Is she always so… ostentatious?” Amber does take a pretty full out if-you-got-it-flaunt-it approach with her money. Brittany is the complete opposite, it’s no secret that she comes from an old-money family that made their fortune from pharmaceuticals. But Brittany was more low key and understated than Amber. Like white tank top and cut offs while Amber was the frilliest floor length gown.

I went to the Carnegie compound in Virginia once during the offseason. It was massive with eight marble columns and I counted at least twenty windows surrounding the ten foot double front doors.
If Amber is so ostentatious I wonder what owning the largest house in possibly the entire United States was.

“Yeah, Amber’s pretty materialistic.” I admit that she’s fine with doing the Grouse Grind together for free but she’d rather go shopping. “She didn’t used to be that way.” Amber used to be more careful with budgeting and money but now I wonder what her bank balance looks like. I’m sure she has people for that to make sure she doesn’t evade her taxes.

“Yesterday at Saks she dropped like a hundred grand! A hundred grand in like half an hour. You know what they say money changes people” I refuse to believe it. It’s just Amber’s environment. If she moved out of Los Angeles I’m sure she’d turn back into the old Amber. The Amber who didn’t know how pretty she was and was convinced if she was going to get anywhere in life she’d have to rely on her brains. I’m not sure if I like this new sexy, rich Amber especially since her Maxim cover is probably under teenage boys’ beds across the continent.